How To Write A People Profile
Welcome to the exciting world of reaching 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 will
be discussed in separate "Guides to Researching Unreached Peoples."
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How to Write a People Profile?
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Writing a profile takes time. It may take you a year or two to gather
all the information you will need in order to adequately "know" your
people. As you go write short articles on each category of research.
If you can, please record your findings on a computer disk (or have a
friend do it for you) and send it to the office of Within Our Reach so
that others can benefit from your research, and not have to duplicate
your efforts. Keep in mind that there are many word processing
formats that may not be ac cessible to this office. Send all computer
information as TEXT FILE, also known as ASCII FILES. Most word
processors allow you to save any document as a text file by going to
the FILE MENU and selecting SAVE AS... then select the TEXT or ASCII
option. This will save hours of trying to convert your files to a
readable format. If you have questions about how to do this please
call the office of Within Our Reach. We will try to help you.
You may also send your text files through e-mail. This is the fastest
and cheapest way to share your materials with others. SEND e-mail
files to: RLAFOUNTAIN@XC.ORG. This is the best way to insure that your
files are centrally stored and shared with all.
If you do not have a computer or a friend or church member that is
willing to type your research for you then type it on a typewriter.
Please do not send this office any hand written copies. There is much
work to typing it all in and we cannot always read your writing. Ask
your pastor if he would make an announcement for volunteers to type
the document into their computer. Many Christians would be excited to
help in this way.
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A PEOPLE PROFILE
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The purpose of a People Profile is to give the researcher and prayer
warrior a thumbnail sketch of the people, their life, language and
lifestyles. Our desire is to become Unreached People "Advocates." To
do that means to become one with your adopted people. Paul said, To
the Jew I became a Jew that I might win the Jew. We need to identify
with our adopted people. We need to learn their dress, language,
customs, games, and religious practices.
A profile is a word picture of a people you have never met. it is a
way of communicating who they are, what they are like, and how they
live. A profile is a finger print, or an image of a people for whom
Christ died.
A profile is important in the Adopt-a-People process. how can you
adopt a people if you know nothing about them? Once adopted, how can
you support a people group if you know nothing of their needs?
A people profile is a guide to learning about the people you love.
Much research needs to be done of every one of the groups here
identified. Learn about them, love them, and live to reach them.
THE ___________ PEOPLE of _____________
01. Introduction to the People
02. Geographical Setting
03. History
04. Language / Alphabet/ Phrases
05. Towns and Villages
06. Festivals/ Folklore and Traditions
07. Sports and Recreation
08. Gastronomy/ Foods/ Dishes
09. Dress / Costumes
10. Religious Life/ Customes/ Beliefs
11. Literature and Art
12. Economy and Commerce
13. Evangelization and Missions
As you gather information deposit your findings in with this Web Page
so that others can learn from, and build on your knowledge base.
There is available at good computers stores an Atlas of the world that
allows you to point and shoot, on any country of the world. Over 100
major languages are represented with 10 phrases that are spoken when
you click on the language button. It is a wonderful tool for
researching and learning elements of the language of you adopted
people. (Small Blue Planet Series on CD ROM, works of Windows or MAC.
(Real World Atlas, 1995 Now What Software, San Francisco)
Those phrases are...
1. Good Morning
2. Good Afternoon
3. Good Evening
4. Good Bye
5. What is this in ___________(your language)
6. Please
7. Thank you
8. You are welcome
9. I'm fine, how are you
10. I love you.
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