I ran across this post from John Piper today: How Much Is Left to Do in the Great Commission? This is a challenging reminder of (1) how large the remaining task of missions is, but also (2) how great our resources are for the task. From Piper’s post:
We should be dumbfounded at how doable the remaining task of world missions is.
The IMB estimates that there are 3,100 “unengaged” people groups (no evangelical mission effort to reach them is underway).
Does that number sound large to you? 3,100? These are the people groups yet to be pursued and penetrated with a missions effort. The number is, in fact, amazingly small compared to the resources available to us:
- There are 44,000 Christian denominations in the world – 14 for every unengaged people group.
- There are 4.5 million Christian congregations in the world – 1,451 congregations for every unengaged people group.
- There are 4,900 Christian foreign mission sending agencies in the world – 1.5 agencies for every unengaged people group.
So I am not saying it will be easy to reach them. It will be very costly. But if God would grant the passion and courage and wisdom, the remaining task is neither vague, nor enormous, nor unattainable.
