January 01, 2002 by Greg Parsons

Background

At the gathering of the Great Commission Roundtable last spring in Malaysia, those in the Unreached Peoples track called for a gathering focused on what is left to be done among those without a church movement in their culture. That call was joined by representatives from the Global Network of Centers for World Mission, Interdev, Joshua Project II, and later others.

Recognizing the need to rally energy to bring the idea to reality, discussions were begun for the meeting to be held in Singapore. Tim Lewis (Frontiers), Chong Kim (Korean American Center for World Mission) and I comprise the adminis­trative committee.

Ethos

1. The focus of the meeting will be the Unreached People groups. These are defined as people groups within which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to evangelize this people group.
2. Key to this gathering will be the presentation, discussion and out­comes that will help provide strate­gies to see these peoples reached with a church movement. The idea of closure emphasizes finishing this task among all peoples parallel with what Jesus spoke about of in Matthew16:18, reflected in Paul’s ministry in Romans 15:19b-21 and in Rev. 5:9, 7:9.
3. Representatives from three major groups will participate:

a. Mission Executives

Representatives at the leadership level from as many mission agencies around tracks and megaspheres. These are: Muslim, Hindu (non-dalit or “popular” Hindu), Buddhist, Tribal. There will be “cross” track groups as well like Nomads, Re­searchers and Global Centers.

Most of the necessary track leaders are moving forward in their areas. Some of these track leaders have met and others will be meeting as possible that are focused on one of the tracks (listed below).

b. Macro-thinking field practitioners

These are workers who are at the practical, field level and who are thinking broadly about how to see a movement happen among their whole people and beyond.

These are—in both cases—people who are willing and able to think and contribute “out-of-the-box.”

c. Representatives of Centers for World Mission or regional mobilizers

A small number of people who are directly involved in the Global Network of Centers for World Mission will also attend and have their own track. These are people who are working nationally or regionally to foster frontier missions in their area.

Purpose

The gathering will be a working consultation on advancing strategies of closure among all unreached people groups.

Foundational to the event will be pre- and post-consultation reporting on (1) where we are in this task, (2) where the peoples are that have the greatest need, (3) what’s been done to reach them as well as (4) what needs to be done. Pages 16-23 of this issue give an example of some of the in March to established both unified goals and outcomes from the meeting and their particular tracks. Also under consideration is how to best follow up the meeting and make its long-term impact as deep and wide as possible. These pre-gatherings will help to set the tone for the whole meeting as well.

The meeting venue is scheduled to be in Singapore from October 28 (evening) through October 31 (evening).

While each track will pursue their own outcomes, general initial out­comes include:

1. Advance in strategic thinking
2. Continuing track or tracks, perhaps in the megaspheres or a global UPG mission exec network
3. Revitalized Centers for World Mission network
4. Clearer understanding of the use of data in strategy
5. More to be developed…