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Do you want your life to make an impact on where people spend eternity?

Is it your desire to obey Jesus’ command to go and make disciples of all nations?

Or are you thinking about pursuing missions, but not sure how you can make a difference, or if the sacrifice is worth it?

The following missions statistics will shed light on where the church’s current status is in fulfilling the Great Commission. Hopefully, this will motivate you to go to the hardest and darkest places in the earth to reach those who are currently perishing with no hope of hearing the Gospel because no one is going to them.

As you read, prayerfully consider where and how God is calling you to reach those trapped in spiritual darkness who have never even heard the Name of Jesus.

Imagine that you are born into one of the thousands of unreached people groups in India.

Throughout your life, you are defined by the caste system that not only dictates your social class but also your identity and worth. You have been born as a Dalit—untouchable—and live a life filled with abuse, ostricization, and oppression, in an atmosphere saturated with the spiritual darkness and hopelessness of Hinduism. Your only hope is to do enough good works to attract good karma and be reborn into a better life. Death, which will either be the gateway to a new life in a higher caste or an even more lowly existence as a rat or cockroach, is something you both fear and long for.

This is how you live your life until you finally pass into eternity, not to be reborn, but to face judgment.

No one ever told you that there was a better way.

You died without ever hearing the Name of your Savior Who died for you.

You lived and died in darkness without hope.

This is just a small glimpse into the lives of the unreached who are never presented with the chance to hear and believe the Gospel because no one ever comes to them.

Missions Statistics

1. Global Unreached Population

It may be hard to imagine, but there are billions of people in the world today who have never heard the Name of Jesus. They have no idea that He loves them, died for them, and paid the price to redeem them from sin and death.

The only way that they can be saved from eternity in hell is to believe in Christ as their Savior, but how can they believe if no one ever tells them who He is and what He has done for them?

Prayerfully consider how God would have you get involved in reaching them with the Gospel.

2. Missionaries Going to the Unreached

Less than half of 1% of all missionaries go to the unreached. Meanwhile, the majority of evangelism efforts are spent among those who have already been exposed to the Gospel.

No one has the right to hear the Gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once.

― Oswald J. Smith

Jesus commissioned us to go and make disciples of all nations, which includes all people groups. The Great Commission will not be completed until people are willing to go to the unreached and unevangelized.

3. Evangelical Christians Unaware of the Unreached

Part of the reason why there are so few Christians going to the unreached is that they simply do not know that there are billions of people living on earth today who have no access to the Gospel.

Now that you have been informed, you can play a significant role in fulfilling the Great Commission simply by telling others about those who have never even heard the name of Jesus and inspiring them to join you in taking action.

4. Unreached in the 10/40 Window

The majority of the unreached are located in some of the hardest and darkest places of the earth, including nations that are closed to the Gospel.

To go to these places will require great sacrifice and radical devotion to Jesus. He is so worthy, and He has already paid the price for their redemption with His blood. Now He is calling you to go and tell them about the redeeming love of the King.

5. Missionaries Per Religion

There is such desperate need for people trapped in false religions to hear the Gospel and be set free through the love of Christ. There are billions of people in spiritual bondage and not enough missionaries being sent to reach them.

Without the Gospel, they have no hope for this life or eternity. They need people willing to go and tell them about Jesus.

Will you be one of them?

6. Unreached Dying Without the Gospel

Today, tens of thousands of people will enter eternity who never had the chance to hear the Gospel and be saved. Let this statistic both break your heart for the lost and motivate you to go and share with them the only hope of eternal life.

I believe that in each generation God has called enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth. It is not God who does not call. It is man who will not respond!

― Isobel Kuhn

7. The Unreached Are in Need of the Gospel

The Bible is clear that Jesus is the only way to salvation. It has been said that Christians have something better than the cure for cancer ― we have the cure for sin and death! If we would take desperate measures to ensure that as many people as possible would find out the cure for cancer, how much more should we be willing to do whatever it takes, no matter the cost, to reach people with the Gospel? When Jesus gave us the Great Commission, He did not say that it would be easy, but He is worthy of any sacrifice, and either our willingness to go or our disobedience has an impact on where people spend eternity.

If your heart has been stirred by these statistics, know that God has a place for you in fulfilling the Great Commission! At Bethany Global University, students are trained to become full-time missionaries to some of the darkest and hardest places in the earth, while earning their degree in the process.

Whether God calls you here to Bethany or leads you somewhere else, know that as you surrender to Him, He will equip you with everything needed to follow His call to share the Gospel with the unreached. All you need to do is say yes.

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