New Voices Swell Chorus Calling for American Churches to Focus More on World’s Unreached

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The chorus of urgent voices calling for North American Christians to lift their eyes to the horizons and help further world evangelization is ringing more loudly with the addition of new members to a coalition of like-minded ministries.

Three more well-respected missions agencies have joined the Alliance for the Unreached, which celebrates its second annual International Day for the Unreached (www.dayfortheunreached.org) on June 4 – Pentecost Sunday – marking the day when the Holy Spirit fell upon the early church, empowering it to respond to Jesus’ great commission to “go into all the world and preach the gospel.”

Joining the initiative are GMI, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., which leverages research and technology to create, cultivate and communicate mission information leading to insight that inspires Kingdom service; Partners International, based in Spokane, Wash., which supports and partners with indigenous ministries in parts of the world where the gospel is little known; and World Mission, based in Comstock Park, Mich., which distributes audio Scriptures among unreached tribal groups.

The three organizations are helping to champion the International Day of the Unreached as an occasion to stir churches and their members to greater involvement in efforts to take the message of the good news to the more than 2 billion people who have yet to hear about Jesus. Currently less than .5 percent of American evangelicals’ giving goes to ministry among the world’s least evangelized, where only 5 percent of missionaries are serving.

As part of the International Day for the Unreached, churches are being encouraged to focus their sermons and programs for the day on the challenge and opportunity to get more involved in efforts to take the gospel to those who have not heard it yet. Members are being urged to pledge to and share the “Manifesto for the Unreached” (http://dayfortheunreached.org/unreachedmanifesto), committing to making support for world missions a higher priority, and to participate in a special 30-day prayer focus on unreached peoples and missions activity.

“We’re very pleased to have GMI, Partners and World Mission join the alliance and add their voices to this call for the American church to look further afield, to what God is doing and longs to do in other parts of the world,” said Wayne Pederson, chairman of the International Day for the Unreached Alliance and former president of Reach Beyond, a media- and medical-based outreach ministry and alliance member. “The more loudly we can proclaim the message of the International Day for the Unreached, the more people, the more quickly, will hear the gospel.”

GMI, Partners and World Mission join Reach Beyond and three other members of the alliance that launched the International Day of the Unreached in 2016 – Scripture distributor Bibles For The World, missions network Missio Nexus, and missionary organization Operation Mobilization.

“It is encouraging to see the Church on mission, but many times that service lacks insight and information that would help guide it to greater impact,” said Jon Hirst, president and CEO of GMI. “Unless we harness information as we make decisions, we won’t see the gospel go where the unreached live. GMI is proud to join the International Day for the Unreached initiative to challenge the church to steward knowledge as they reach out.” 

At Partners International, President and CEO Larry Andrews said, “We look forward to joining with other organizations to promote the International Day for the Unreached. The American church is asleep when it comes to the unreached people of the world. It’s time we raise one voice to educate and motivate towards the Great Commission.”

Greg Kelley, CEO of World Mission, said: “Our generation is currently on watch, stewards of the Great Commission.  We have the amazing opportunity to be sure that 2 billion people currently without a gospel witness experience the life-changing message of hope and salvation. It is a privilege to join the like-minded agencies that form the International Day for the Unreached. Together we can see Jesus’ final words become reality.”   

For more information, go to DayForTheUnreached.org.

The International Day for the Unreached (www.dayfortheunreached.org) is an initiative of the Alliance for the Unreached, a group of evangelistic ministries including Bibles For The World (www.biblesfortheworld.org), GMI (http://www.gmi.org), Missio Nexus (www.missionexus.org), Operation Mobilization (www.omusa.org), Partners International (https://www.partnersintl.org), Reach Beyond (www.reachbeyond.org), and World Mission (http://www.worldmission.cc).