How Will They be Engaged?
We are often asked, "How will we engage these last unengaged people groups?"
We love when people ask that question... It is the question, isn't it?
The answer is simple and it is complex. Here's the simple part: We will do what we haven't done before to engage these peoples who have never been engaged.
And, as with any people we engage with the gospel, we will do it relationally.
We know how to do it, the challenge is determining to actually do it.
We know how to do it, the challenge is determining to actually do it.
All of Us and Some of Us...
All believers have a role in obedience to the Great Commission. The command to go to all peoples and make disciples is clear. And so none of us should shrink back. But, we also believe one of the key roles in completing our assignment is held by believers located geographically and culturally near unengaged people groups. As we pray and strategize about engaging the remaining unengaged, how might we collaborate with these nearby senders and goers? We call these "proximate" to the unengaged we're intending to engage..
We think believers among people groups proximate to the unengaged hold stunning potential in our day. If they're present and open, how might we partner?
Overcoming Obstacles
Some of the obstacles to engaging new peoples...
Awareness. There are so many good things we could give our hearts and time to. The staggering needs of many unreached peoples certainly lay claim. But we believe a subset of unreached known as unengaged have greater claim still. The engaged unreached have a chance to hear, for they are engaged. The unengaged unreached have no such chance.
Current momentum. Most churches and orgs wish we were doing better where we already are, and we have plenty of needs to meet and people to serve without looking elsewhere. But until at least some of us "look elsewhere," we'll never get to the unengaged. Some of us will have to look beyond the unfinished to begin the unbegun.
Pioneering challenge. It's hard to be the first, and many aren't cut out for it. But some are, and these are those we're appealing to in this website. Not all can be first-responders, nor should they be. But some are destined to be. We need follow-up workers, yes--those who build upon the foundation laid. But some need to lay the foundation. Some need to engage so that we can then reach.
Polycentric Culturally Humble Approaches
All that means is that the range of activity towards the unengaged in our age now includes sending centers around the globe. We see this as an incredible gift to the church. This rise of the global church--and of the Global South, in particular--is a tectonic shift, and creates opportunity and challenge that did not exist before.
How might we humbly serve such a diverse group?
To do the things we have never done with them with will require... love, patience, and grace... in all directions.
It sounds simple--though it's likely not--and we certainly haven't yet done it to the point we'll need to if we're serious about these remaining unengaged.