Within Our Reach is not just an adoption promo-house. It is to be a vital research assistant to our missionaries, adn an important tool in the decision making process.

Most of our fields do not have the time, or the resources, and in some cases, the expertise or interest to thoroughly research the Unreached Peoples within their reach.

Within Our Reach will provide "field study" research on UPGs that are within our reach. All Unreached Peoples need the Lord whether or not they are conveniently in our reach or not. All are lost and bound for an eternal hell, and all are part of the "every creature" Jesus sends us to. For this reason this office will be responsible to provide research profiles on all UPGs with that will enable us to make clear strategic decisions on future deployment.

We will enlist the army of lay volunteeres to assist us in compliling information on each UPG. We will produce research assistance in the form of "profile templates, library tools, World Wide Web and Internet Guides, and searching tools for reaching university archives. We will enlist our colleges and seminaries in and out of the C&MA for encouraging UPGs studies as field studies. We will enlist our national church leaders and laypeople through Internet connections for sharing materials and research. Those who live among and near UPG sites can provide invaluable literature and and cultural insights that are important to the investigative process. We will promote Research Tours to areas where UPG information is scarce or lacking. These research teams will be both for prayer and gathering of data to be compiled, sorted, and final report written on all aspects of the UPG's life, religion, and possible strategies to reach them.

Researching Unreached Peoples

An Unreached People Group is any ethno-linguistic group or culture that has no adequate witness for Christ within their culture. Usually this means they have no known Christians or so few that there is not adequate evangelization for that culture to have a viable church to carry on reaching its own people without outside (foreign) help. For our Alliance definition this means that they have less than .5% evangelical Christians. In some cases this means they have no Christians, no church, or no scripture in their language.

Very little has been done until recent years to study and identify all the Unreached Peoples of the world. In that last few years studies have shown that of the 12,000 people groups of earth about 3,000 are still Unreached. Jesus promised that before the end, "This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:14

Researching Unreached People Groups is an important first step in the task of evangelization. The US Center for World Missions, and the AD2000 Movement through the Joshua Project have provided us with 1685 targeted UPGs of populations numbering over 10,000 that have yet to be evangelized. This Joshua List is available from the Office of Unreached Peoples, and by e-mail from the Christian and Missionary Alliance information network called, "Parousia."

For purposes of evangelization and strategy development the C&MA has identified about 200 people groups that are Within Our Reach that need to be evangelized. Of these about 1/3 are socio-economic groups such as the Middle Class of Mexico City, who have been largely neglected in evangelical church planting. Though these people have the Scriptures, have churches in their vicinities, they are loosely called an UPG because they are still virtually untouched, and unresponsive to the Gospel.

This leaves us with about 130 culturally identifiable ethnic and language groups that that need to be reached. Many of these groups have yet to have a profile written identifying their lifestyle, religion, etc. Our missionaries are already over taxed in their present ministries to drop everything and do research. They also are not usually in places where research material is easily attainable. Therefore we need to mobilize a vast army of laymen and professional men and women who will volunteer their tim e to research these Unreached Peoples. These profiles will be used in the development of mission strategies and prayer strategies and will be made available to the Alliance constituency for prayer and consideration of adoption and advocacy programs. This research can be done in three ways

1) Through the local public and university libraries

2) Through the Internet

3) Through On-Site Research Teams on the field.

Each of these means of research will be discussed in separate "Guides to Researching Unreached Peoples."