Lausanne World Pulse – The Global Status of Evangelical Christianity: A Model for Identifying Priority People Groups

By Scott Holste and Jim Haney

Over the past two decades we have witnessed significant advances of the kingdom. Churches have mobilized their memberships, sending out thousands of new missionaries who have shared the gospel, baptized and discipled believers, established indigenous churches and trained leaders. 

The Ultimate Priority—All People Groups
Today, God continues to draw us to those people groups who have not yet had an adequate opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel;  however, with so many around the world who have not yet had this opportunity, how do we decide where to focus our efforts? 

We certainly recognize that the idea of prioritizing people groups is controversial. Prioritization does imply emphasis, and no one wants to see his or her people group de-emphasized. Yet, with other Evangelicals around the world, we affirm that there are bountiful resources available for the whole harvest of the nations. We believe that God has provided all of the resources necessary for the body of Christ to accomplish his mission in the world.

The challenge, however, is the mobilization and appropriate deployment of these resources to ensure that all of the world’s people groups have adequate opportunities to hear and respond to the good news. To address that challenge, it is helpful to identify those people groups requiring additional attention. Thus, our motivation for prioritization is one of focus not limitation. Our ultimate goal remains that all God’s people will multiply churches among all peoples.

Criteria for Prioritization: State of the Gospel
Two questions seem of particular importance: (1) What is the state of the gospel among each of the world’s people groups? and (2) Which people groups have no evangelical church planting efforts directed toward them?

To answer the first question we utilize the Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC) Model as illustrated in Table 1. It considers the extent to which a people group is evangelical Christian,¹ a people group’s access to the gospel and the scope of evangelical church² planting within the past two years.

Table 1: Global Status of Evangelical Christianity Model

Dr. Scott Holste (left) is a former missionary to unreached people groups in Southeast Asia and in northern Africa. He serves as associate vice president for Research and Strategic Services in the International Mission Board’s Office of Overseas Operations. He can be contacted at [email protected]. Dr. Jim Haney (right) is a former missionary to the people groups of West Africa. He currently serves as director of the International Mission Board’s Global Research Department. He can be contacted at [email protected].