Brigada » Unreached Peoples

5) The Best YouTube/Vimeo Missions Mobilization Videos –

brigtoday — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:55:18 +0000

Let’s create a “hall of fame” list of the best YouTube or Vimeo-type videos focusing on ….

-the power of prayer

-the big picture on Unreached People Groups

-introducing Islam

-church multiplication/planting movements

We’re hoping the answers to these questions will help *all* of us as we seek to mobilize, pray, and place workers. To add your “best of the best” videos to the list, just find this item on the web (if you’re reading via email, just use the link below), then add a comment with a URL. Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up immediately. Our spam engine automatically defers comments with more than one URL included. So we’ll have to glance at them and “approve” them,… but check back and, within a day or two, you’ll see your item listed. Thanks in advance for helping us find the best of the best !!!

5) On Your Next Vision Trip or Prayer Journey: Options –

brigtoday — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:55:22 +0000

So let’s say you’re about to visit an unengaged unreached people group (UUPG). What kind of contribution could your team make, on behalf of the rest of the world full of researchers, prayer partners, and world Christians? One on-field worker recently responded, “Why not make a Gospel Recording? It takes about 5 days for an interpreter to work with a UUPG member to make a 20-minute Good News recording. Making such a recording sheds much useful insight about a UUPG. And in the process, Gospel truth is communicated and left behind for others to use.” So my question is — how would a team go about doing this? Is there a guidebook anywhere (where?)? What other opportunities and/or responsibilities should an on-site vision team try to fulfill? If you have ideas, resources, pointers, directions, instructions, please click into the “Comment” box of the online version of this item.

9) We Got Mail — about Last Week’s “BackPage” on Unreached Peoples –

brigtoday — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:51:14 +0000

You’ll recall that we posed some questions about a people group ‘count’ in a recent BackPage Editorial. Interestingly, several top-notch researchers took to heart what we said and began tracing various strains of that particular people group. We’ll leave the details secure, but suffice it to say that it turned out, for the opinion of these researchers anyway, that the unreached people group lists were correct, according to the best data we have. The bottom line is — when you see those numbers on those lists, remember that they’ve been carefully gathered by many volunteer and paid workers, all of whom care about the Great Commission (or else they’d be selling insurance instead). Frankly, I’m deeply impacted that these researchers cared enough to do the due diligence to verify and monitor. I’m grateful they’re helping us all get closer to understanding the challenge that remains. May God bless them, meet their needs, and give them a great new year in 2012!

13) The BackPage: How Do we Mobilize Nationals to Reach Their Own? —

brigtoday — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:47:50 +0000

Several of us have been wrestling with this question now for some time. How do we effectively mobilize nationals to reach their own people groups? One worker wrote, “I fear we are still mobilizing Americans to go to countries where colonialism and recent foreign policy has pretty much burned the bridges for Americans to serve there. People in the heart of the Muslim world are in their hearts resistant to Good News when delivered by Americans. How do we better utilize the money from the West but send workers from cultures closer to those where the remaining UUPGs live?” Please keep in mind — not *every* bridge has been burned. In many locations, Americans still are loved, cherished, invited, respected, and treated with dignity. But … then there are some other spots. What’s *you’re* opinion? How do *you* propose we manage things in those spots? How is your church and/or agency working with other cultures… say… someone from the Global South? Your thoughts? Just click “Comment” below to leave your opinion. And remember, you can do so totally anonymously.

11) The BackPage: Unreached Peoples – Assimilation and Estimates —

brigtoday — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:49:48 +0000

One of our friends, a worker in the Middle East, wrote this past week, “If we would really stick to the criterion of why a people group makes it onto our list of UPGs in the first place we should follow through and reduce the populations radically lower. The Qashqai for example. They made it onto the list as the NOMADS who wear colorful clothes and live isolated from their Persian conquerors. Qashqai the real Turks who prefer to marry Turks number probably 200,000, not the 1.5 million that we list them as in our database. An Iranian professor in Iran says that in 50 years most of the minority languages will die in favor of Persian and English the languages of commerce and the Internet.” Most all of us understand that these unreached people group lists exist mainly as mobilization tools. We all have a responsibility to clean them up when we see/experience errors. Some believe theologically that when we actually have a church among every people group, Jesus will finally be willing to come (Matthew 24:14). Your thoughts? Just click “Comment” below.

1) Finishing The Task List –

brigtoday — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:59:38 +0000

Have you heard about Finishing the Task? See their list of Unengaged and Unreached People Groups at…

http://www.finishingthetask.com/uupgs.php?sort=PG

You can also see their data on a map at…

http://www.finishingthetask.com/map/index.html

See the summary stats at:

http://www.finishingthetask.com/stats.html

I was able to attend the annual partnership and networking meeting again this past week. I’m always amazed at how many top leaders and researchers are in attendance there. Paul Eshleman (the guy behind the Jesus Film) is either really blessed by God or extremely savvy at how to build partnerships! Praise the Lord for the people he’s bringing to the table though.

9) A Personal Appeal from Doug Lucas, Founder/Editor of Brigada –

brigtoday — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:51:05 +0000

I didn’t set about to start a weekly missions resource email and website. I set about to find answers. The sad thing was — some of the information was out there… we just weren’t getting the news out about it. I started asking evangelical missions leaders how we could fix that. We started sharing resources with one another… and by mid-January, 1995, we brought Brigada to life to solve the problem. Suddenly, here we are, nearly 17 years later, still carrying the torch. I’ll admit, sometimes the pace of life is such that I have to gut it out. I’ll also admit that it would really help to have an assistant. We also get involved in launching projects among unreached peoples and cities. In fact, we recently spun off an initiative called Unleashed for the Unreached. See the website at…

http://www.UnleashedForTheUnreached.com

to try to get the word out. The costs for creating the 140-foot exhibit that you see there exceeded $6000. But the capacity to inform, inspire, and increase the Good News getting to the least reached … well, it’s tremendous. I’m loving what I’m doing. I’m excited to get up in the morning. But it indeed does cost money. Throughout all of 2011, we haven’t asked. Our strategy was to just quietly carry on, with the hopes that someone would feel called this December to help us reach our financial budget goal of $17,120 for the year. This is the same goal we’ve had for the past few years — not a penny more. Thus far, we’ve had $5081.88 come in as checks to Team Expansion. If you or someone you know could make it happen, would you give generously this week? Maybe your church would consider an end-of-year gift from one-time funds that they’ve held in case of an emergency? Either way, it’s easy to give. Just click the “Donate” link at the top of the page at brigada.org. You won’t have to register with PayPal if you don’t want to. (Just click “make a payment without logging in” if you prefer.) Or, if you prefer, just send an old-fashioned check, payable to Team Expansion to: Team Expansion (Brigada), 11327 Jefferson Trace Blvd., Louisville, KY 40291. (Team Expansion is a 501(c)3 incorporation so for USA citizens, your checks made out to Team Expansion are tax-deductible.) Thanks to those who have suggested this cause to their local church missions teams. We appreciate you!

5) How to Link and Share Data about Unreached Peoples –

brigtoday — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 02:55:46 +0000

The best linking system I know is…

https://extranet.imb.org/sites/HIS/default.aspx

where you’ll find codes for sharing data about each unreached people group in the whole world. This registry is maintained by a consortium with none other than SIL (Wycliffe), JoshuaProject.net, IMB (Southern Baptists), and GMI (Global Mapping), among others. With that kind of group involved, you won’t go wrong. Interested in learning more? The word on the street is that this group is staging a get-together in Dallas in 2012. Stay tuned to Brigada as we learn more regarding when this meeting might occur.

8) Call2All International Congress —

brigtoday — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:52:25 +0000

Do you remember when Call2All hosted its first congress in Orlando? Now in its fourth year, the Call2All movement seems to be hitting a new stride. More people are participating from all around the world. They are seeing dramatic measurable results and their God given goals are becoming more and more clear. The Congresses provide an excellent opportunity for missions organizations, business people, prayer movements and churches to network and make commitments to fulfilling the great commission. Call2All is holding an international congress in Long Beach, CA on Nov 29 to Dec 3, 2011. To get more specific information and to register go to

http://goo.gl/7RQmc

Or you can go to their home page

http://www.call2all.org/

to find out more about the Call2All movement.

13) The BackPage: Whatever Happened to Unreached Cities? –

brigtoday — Mon, 23 May 2011 03:47:02 +0000

I’ve asked before …

http://www.brigada.org/2011/04/15_6929

but the request didn’t yield a single website or list of any kind. How is it that we invested such great energy in 1996 praying for “100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 Window,” yet today, it seems no one can direct me to *any* material following up on such a huge campaign? What’s more, some agencies and churches have been critical of people group thinking in urban areas. They have pointed out, perhaps accurately, that people groups break down in these huge “containers of people.” A leading people group researcher told me yesterday by phone that sometimes, in cities, we find people groups pocketed with their people group cluster or affinity group. So — are there lists anywhere that tell us to what extent certain people groups have moved to certain cities? For instance, see the 100 largest cities at…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_agglomerations_by_population_%28United_Nations%29

[that link will wrap; if you have trouble reassembling it, just go to this Brigada item on the web by clicking the link at the end of this item, then click on the link on the web version of this item]

Imagine the impact it would have on these areas of the world if we could just make an impact on those 100 cities.

I don’t get it.

If you could help me find data — any data — that would help us guide churches in adopting unreached cities (and the people groups that live within them), I’d be very grateful. We’re helping with a major initiative at an upcoming convention beginning July 5th and we’re really love to give them tangible data, real options, and valid prayer items. Please just click “comment” below. If your response is confidential and you’d rather it not be published, just email me at

DlucasTeamExpansionorg

but please realize I’m down to the wire — July 5th is right around the corner. Thanks.

Doug

3) Working Paper: No Christians, No Scripture, No Missionaries –

brigtoday — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:57:20 +0000

Bill and Ted have done a great job at…

http://www.ethne.net/information-strategies/no-christians-no-scripture-no-missionaries

(That URL will wrap. If you have trouble reassembling it, just log on to the web version of Brigada, find this item, and click the link)

They bring together info from all the major unreached people lists and come up with a tight list of 138 or so groups with no Christians, no scripture, and no missionaries. They explain that it’s a “work in progress,” but their approach is excellent.

4) Where Would One Get a List of “Unreached Cities?” –

brigtoday — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:56:13 +0000

Is there such a list? Back in 1995 or so, it seemed vogue. Where are those lists today? Please click “comment” below if you have info. Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

13) What Have we Learned about the Fifth World Religion? –

brigtoday — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:47:23 +0000

They’re described well in the prayer guide, available at…

http://www.cartpioneers.org/products/Sikhs-of-India-Unreached-People-Prayer-Guide-%252d-Download.html

(That URL will ‘wrap.’ If you have trouble assembling it, just click to this item on the web, using the link immediately below. Then find the above link in this item on the web.)

There are all these institutes, conferences, and training videos for those reaching out to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and more. I’m curious: What have we learned about Sikhism, the fifth largest world religion. Who is reaching them? What models exist? What are the best books about how to share Good News of hope and help with them? Who are the specific agencies about who we ought to learn.

To comment or inquire about Sikhism, just click immediately below. You’ll have a chance to do so, once the smoke settles from the weekend.