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One of our recent publications states thefollowing for the general public:

Were glad youre here! Our purpose in meeting

each Thursday night is to celebrate what God isdoing around the world and to learn how we canbetter participate in His purposes for the nations. Inparticular, we come to give special attention to fron-tier mission among 10,000 unreached peoples with-out strong, culturally relevant church movements intheir midst. Lets seek God together for how weshould respond to what we hear. (underlining alreadypresent)

Note the fact that the phrase by itself,Unreached Peoples, could easily be misunder-stood by visitors apart from the additional

defining phrase, without strong, culturallyrelevant church movements in their midst. Itis very good for that to be added. The needfor that additional phrase, incidentally,explains why, as an institution, we had ear-lier objected to the phrase, Unreached Peo-ples, preferring our own phrase, Hidden Peo-

ples,as well as a different definition.Thus, I approve of the helpful apposi-

tional phrase that explains to the general

public very accurately what Unreached Peoplesmeans to us.Here is a statement from another docu-

ment that attempts to state what we are allabout:

The over-arching vision within the Frontier MissionFellowship group of projects is to see all unreachedpeoples reached with the gospel and the kingdom tocome among them. In evangelical terms we wouldknow when a group was reached when there was anindigenous church planting movement among them.

I would like to see if we can go beyondthese statements to something more.

If we think of the remaining unreachedpeoples as enemy occupied territories, ratherthan merely unenlightened areas, reachingthem with a viable, evangelizing, indige-nous church movement could seem toassume the possibility that the problem ofunreached peoples is merely the absence ofgood news.

I continue to believe that reachingunreached peoples with a viable, evangeliz-ing, indigenous church movement is a mostworthy and important thing to do. However,it may involve unexpected, perplexing oppo-sition and danger. In that case is it fair toprospective missionaries to talk as though itis merely a communication problem? And, isit fair to the people within the group we aretrying to reach, for them to think that we seeno use for the significant knowledge we infact possess that could enable many of themnot to be become victims of disease?

Otherwise it would seem to be sort of liketelling willing recruits that they need merelyto walk into Falouja thinking that the onlything they need to do is inform the peoplethat democracy is the answer to all theirproblems. In other words after we make themissiological breakthrough and see a peoplemovement to Christ, what do we do with thefact that most of the new believers will dievery, very prematurely because of pathogensabout which neither Jesus or Calvin said aword, but pathogens about which we nowknow a great deal?

Jesus extensively demonstrated God's con-cern for the sick. Are we today under anyobligation to demonstrate even more cogentways of fighting off illness, due to the addi-tional insight God has allowed us to gain? Oris it no longer important for people to knowthat sickness is very definitely a concern ofGod? Are those who hear our words and wit-

ness our work and our concerns supposed tothink that our God is just the God of the nextworld?

This morning Gordon Kirk at LakeAvenue delivered a powerful sermon ineffect galvanizing believers to shape up, quitquibbling over peripherals, regain their faithand joy and demonstrate unity. It was all tothe good.

However, it was somewhat like giving a

Beyond Unreached PeoplesRalph D. Winter

Sunday, November 7, 2004W1310E

Chapter 40

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Beyond Unreached Peoples, page 2 Chapter 40

rousing charge during wartime to the indi-viduals in an army to stop quarrelling, vyingfor leadership, grumbling, living with disu-nity in the ranks, etc. without mentioning thecrucial additional truth that there is a war tofight. What unifies disparate, normally quar-relsome men is precisely the unity of fighting

the same war. No wonder so many veteransgroups emerge from a war, groups of menwho are astounding disparate otherwise.

Churches that are riven by internal disu-nity may often be plagued in part by the lackthe unifying power of a significant externalgoal. Even if that goal is merely gettingpamphlets to Iraq it will certainly help unifythe church. However, if the goal is to con-front a hideous, invisible enemy that has

infiltrated the bloodstream of every memberof the church and will be causing pain andsuffering and premature death, that unitymight come much more quickly and solidly.

I had similar concerns recently as I listenedto Greg Livingstone share his experienceswith several key Muslims who were appar-ently glad to talk to him but did not appearto be seeking God. They are Muslims, per-haps, only in the sense that they may becaught up in a cultural tradition they felt they

could not abandon. I wonder what wouldhave happened if he had shared with themhis awe for the glory of God? How would hehave done that and how would these menhave reacted? Maybe their disinterest wouldhave turned them away and he would thenhave had to spend time with others whosehearts toward God were more tender?

The average missionary in a Muslim vil-lage does not share with the people many

similar goals. The one common denominatorwhich might possibly draw both missionaryand Muslim together could be to share, posi-tively and humbly, genuine awe for the gloryof God as seen in a microscope, and nega-tively, to share genuine awe and fear for theadditional evidence in that same microscopeof an intelligent, malicious enemy of them

both. The missionary and the Muslim canboth be awed (and worship) as they contem-plate God's glory together, and they can

together be gripped by the urgent, crucialtask of fighting a common enemy that is con-stantly tearing down that glory. Isnt thatwhat Jesus' extensive healing ministry wouldteach us to do?

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