November 01, 1990 by

"In what some call the Post-Denominational Era, an Unreached Peoples Emphasis Puts You on the Cutting Edge."

An interview with Bob Ricker, President of the Baptist General Conference denomination.

MF: How was the idea of publishing a brochure on the unreached peoples significant in your denomination?

Ricker: Our To Reach the Unreached brochure was the most difficult single document I have ever worked with! We really wordsmithed on that project. We compiled input from our World Mission and Home Mission departments as well as from missionaries on the field and a number of other leadership people in the Baptist General Conference.

We launched To Reach the Unreached at our annual conference in Cincinnati this last summer and the concept immediately clicked. We've seen an exciting surge of promotion, which the brochure of course facilitates.

MF: Why launch such a program at this point in the history of the BGC?

Ricker: It's really quite simple. Our motivation is simply one of obedience to biblical passages such as Matthew 24:14 or Acts 1:8. I don't know how a pastor can take Scripture as authoritative and acknowledge Christ's way of salvation and not take seriously the thrust that every ethne is to be reached.

I know some exegetical technicalities can come into play here, but basically reaching the world's homogeneous units is strategic, and it makes sense to our people.

In what some call a post-denominational era, an unreached peoples emphasis puts you on the cutting edge.

I just mailed a letter to our pastors saying there are a number of reasons each of them might take the lead in giving just 25¢ a day in our effort to reach the unreached. The first reason, again, is obedience. Another is that targeting unreached people groups is a real rallying point for a church. To Reach the Unreached also provides "reference points" for sermon illustrations, prayer sessions, education in the church and so on.

I also pointed out that an unreached peoples emphasis helps prove the relevance of the local church's vision. That is, the people in our pews are already reading about 12,000 remaining unreached groups; they hear about what's happening worldwide as breakthroughs to unreached peoples are reported. Then if they come to church and never hear word one about unreached peoples, we lose our credibility as a relevant mission effort.

MF: What does this new BGC emphasis mean?

Ricker: It dawned on me as I was preaching on Revelation 5:9 and 7:9 that John had already seen this event; he was an eyewitness to this future scene. It is going to happen! Are we going to do our part? I want the Baptist General Conference to do what we are supposed to do in order to see the currently unreached peoples "standing before the throne."

We know Americans are not the only ones working on mission strategies, but we want to be sure and do our share. With what we are already doing among responsive peoples, such as certain people groups in the Philippines, and strategic peoples, such as the Japanese, we are also going to work among unreached peoples.

Working among "unreached peoples" is not new to us. However, with the present emphasis we have expanded our efforts at penetrating unreached people groups.

Presently we do not have the funds or the people to underwrite this new effort. We believe the Lord will raise up the people. and we are looking for 25,000 BGC people to give a quarter a day toward reaching the unreached. That will be more than $2 million per year for this expanded effort. Added to present income, the $2 million will put us on a whole new track of evangelism and church planting with our share of the 12,000 unreached people groups.

We have designed this part of our budget to have no overhead taken from the contributions to unreached peoples. We have provided labels and lids for soup cans that make an attractive bank. My wife Dee and I each have our own bank. Our daughter Kristen has hers. We believe rich and poor, children and adults can all be involved.

When I asked my friend Harold Ockenga, "How did you get your church so involved in mission?" he simply answered, "Obedience!"

If the Baptist General Conference--or any other denomination--is going to have a vital part in reaching the unreached in the 90s, it's going to be a matter of simple obedience.