MMRC: Imbalance in frontier missions

Imbalance in frontier missions
by Justin D. Long

Even within the "frontier missions movement," there is a frontier. Within the "unreached peoples" movement there is a core of neglected "hidden" peoples. Even among those calling for balance between missions in Worlds A (unevangelized), B (evangelized non-Christian) and C (Christian), there is an imbalance between missions to easier-to-reach and harder-to-reach peoples.

Of the Top 211 Least Evangelized Megapeoples:

30 have no mission agencies deployed among them
59 have one or two mission agencies deployed among them
105 have three to ten agencies working among them
17 have more than ten mission agencies among them

Case study

A few years ago the Kazakhs were an unreached people; now, with the fall of Communism, all of Central Asia has become far more open than before. The Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Turkmen have become well-known among advocates of "unreached peoples," receiving massive attention. This has been repeated with other cases, too. The Qashqa'i of Iran, for example, have received a significant amount of attention due to the fact that they are the "No. 1 Least Evangelized People." Today, they have an NRM, an Advocate, and other resources coming to bear on them. Unfortunately, at the same time, there are several peoples who are not receiving media attention from frontiers advocates, and as a result are languishing in darkness.

Questions

Are you working with an unreached people group?
Are you working with a group where very few mission agencies are at work?

Suggestions

Seek to deploy at least 10%, and preferably 33%, to World A peoples (e.g. any of those on the Top 211 Least Evangelized Megapeoples).
Seek to insure that your agency's newly selected World A targets are on the priority end of the scale: that few, or no, mission agencies are already working among your targets.