“GO therefore and MAKE disciples of all the nations, BAPTIZING them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, TEACHING them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19–20 (NKJV)

The Great Commission which is the final earthly words of Jesus Christ to His Church, remains in full effect today, just as binding and just as urgent as when He spoke them on a hillside in Galilee.

And yet the world tells a very different story.

We live in an era where Christianity is described as a global religion. Where billions identify as Christians. Where Churches exist on nearly every continent, in nearly every country, and in most major cities. Where the Bible has been translated into thousands of languages and the Gospel can be streamed to a smartphone anywhere on earth. By all outward appearances, it looks like the mission is nearly done.

But it is not. Not even close.

According to Joshua Project, there are currently 7,188 UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS in the world, communities where less than 2% of the population are evangelical Christians, and where no indigenous Church exists that is capable of reaching the rest of the people without external help.

These groups represent over 3.42 billion men, women and children which is actually nearly half the entire population of the earth. Imagine this massive number of people having little or no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are not people who heard the Gospel and rejected it but people who have never truly heard it at all.

Think about that. Nearly half the world. Still waiting to just hear.

And here is what makes that number even more disheartening:

Of the approximately 420,000 foreign missionaries serving around the world today, only about 13,860, which is roughly 3%, work among these unreached peoples, the remaining 97% are deployed in places that already have a significant Christian witness, established Churches, and access to the Scriptures. The majority of missionary manpower and financial resources keeps going to where the Gospel has already gone as taken significant root.

Meanwhile, there are 189 people groups on this earth of over 5.7 million souls that are described as UNENGAGED and UNREACHED. That means no Church has adopted them. No missionary is among them. No mission agency has taken responsibility for them. No one has gone. They remain entirely outside the reach of any known Gospel labour.

Not one person has gone to them. Not one.

And I want you to be aware that this is not a resource problem because with real statistics, it is obvious that the Church of Jesus Christ in our days has more wealth, more technology, more trained personnel, and more platforms than any other point in history.

We have almost 60,000 evangelical Christians for every single Unreached People Group and 1,000 Churches for every group that has never heard the Gospel.

We actually have the capacity to finish the task. What is missing is the WILL, the OBEDIENCE, and the FIRE.

I have been in rural Ivory Coast for some months, walking through villages, engaging rural communities, sitting with people who have lived their whole lives within driving distance of a Church building, yet they have never once truly encountered the living Christ. You look around and see Church signposts everywhere – some of these people even have the crucifix sign on either thir necks or on their doorposts. Gatherings happen every Sunday. Christian vocabulary fills the air. But scratch the surface, and you will get to find that what many people have is mere religion without regeneration, Church attendance without conversion, and familiarity with Christian language without any understanding of salvation through the blood of Jesus.

It is one of the most astonishing realities you can witness as a missionary: a place can perceive to be reached and meanwhile is desperately lost.

And if that is true in Ivory Coast which is a country with decades of missionary activity and visible Church growth, just imagine what it looks like in the villages of the Sahel, in the remote islands of Southeast Asia, in the hidden communities of Central Asia and North Africa where the name of Jesus has never once been preached with clarity and power.

Unfortunately, we are comfortable as the Church, celebrating the statistics we like such as the number of Christians worldwide, the Churches planted, the Bible translations completed but we somehow don’t sit long enough with the statistics that should keep us awake at night:

3.42 BILLION PEOPLE WITHOUT THE GOSPEL.

7,188 UNREACHED GROUPS.

189 WITH NOBODY GOING AT ALL.

These numbers are not abstract at all because the truth is that behind every single digit up there is a human being made in the image of God, born into darkness, and going to eternity without ever having had a real chance to say yes or no to Christ.

Jesus did not look at the world and say, “Enough has been done.” He looked at the lost and said, “Go.” He did not reserve that command for a special category of professional missionaries or a gifted elite. He gave it to a company of ordinary, trembling, uncertain disciples and He attached to it the most extraordinary promise ever spoken: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

That promise has not expired and neither has the command.

This is an invitation to see what God sees, to feel what He feels, and ask honestly where you stand in relation to the greatest unfinished task in human history.

But I want to ask you this one question:

The Great Commission is still in effect. What are you doing about it?

Grace to you!