God’s Unreached

When Mao Tse-tung united China in 1949, there were fewer believers than 1 million Protestant believers in all of China.

The atheistic communists began campaigns against these Christians, churches and missionaries. Many believers suffered dearly for their faith, even martyrdom. Still, the gospel spread across much of China, and today the Joshua Project estimates that 7.9% of China’s 1.4 billion people are professing Christians—well over 100 million.

Most of this Christian growth was among the Han people, China’s majority ethnic group. Until now most evangelism, including those exciting stories you hear about brave men and women risking their lives for the cause of Christ, has been among the Han. Most believers are Han believers; most churches are Han churches.

But what about the other people groups? The Joshua Project counts about 546 separate people groups within China, and 443 of those are considered unreached. “People groups” are ethnic groups within a society that share a common language, custom, and values. “Unreached” means that less than 2% of the group are believers, and they are not capable of evangelizing the rest of their own people.

These UPGs have a combined population of almost 200 million people! Who will reach them?

Historically, the gospel is most effectively and efficiently shared by people from within the same or similar culture. But with some exceptions, reaching these nearby related peoples has not been a focus of the national church in China.

That is changing! One of our dear partners has a vision to train Han and minority groups in cross-cultural ministry to evangelize these 443 unreached groups in China—and then to the ends of the earth. It is a bold vision, but one which is now underway.

Some 180 of these unreached groups live in Yunnan Province, Southwest China. The area is extremely mountainous and difficult to navigate. For that reason, the isolated tribes there have little interaction with each other, much less the outside world. They hold to superstitions, idols and demonic bondage of their forefathers. Some have no written language.

This is not to say that none of the tribal groups are evangelized, or that there has been no work done among any of them. In the early 1900s, a brilliant young British engineer and concert pianist named James O. Frasier answered the call to China’s minority Lisu people. Persevering through rejection, danger, betrayal, discouragement, loneliness and disease, the Spirit finally broke through and he baptized tens of thousands!

This is the growing heart-cry among many Chinese churches today—that one day every people, tribe and language will have some who know and worship the Lamb forever and ever! Much work is already going on today—translation and several dozen missionaries, some Han but many from Yunnan tribes, are being equipped and sent to villages that had never before heard the gospel. Praise God!

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Revelation 7:9-10

*Adapted with permission from ANM magazine, spring 2017