The question of why so much of the world remains unevangelized is a difficult one that does not have a simple answer. According to estimates, there are still over 2 billion people in the world today who have little to no access to the gospel message. Why is this still the case when Christians have had over 2,000 years to spread the good news globally? Here is an in-depth look at some of the complex factors involved.
The Explosive Growth of the Global Population
One significant challenge is simply the massive growth of the world’s population over the last few centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, there were only around 1 billion people on earth. Today, there are over 7.7 billion. The global population has grown faster than the church’s ability to reach every people group, especially in an age before modern transportation and communication tools. Many people groups remain isolated and difficult to access.
Rapid urbanization in the developing world has also contributed to the challenge. Huge megacities have emerged with millions living in slums and shantytowns cut off from the gospel. As people move to cities looking for jobs and opportunity, traditional ways of life are disrupted, including religious beliefs and practices. This fluidity presents new difficulties in reaching people in urban environments.
The Resistance and Receptivity of Certain Cultures
Reaching people groups requires not just proximity and logistics but also understanding cultural barriers and local worldviews. Certain cultures have been more resistant to outside religious influences historically while others have been more open. Receptivity varies due to many complex factors.
For example, Muslim cultures have proven highly resistant to Christian missionary efforts over the centuries. Leaders often prohibit evangelism and conversion attempts are met with strong opposition. However, at other times, Muslim people groups like those in Indonesia and parts of Africa have been receptive to the gospel.
Hindu and Buddhist cultures have also tended to resist outside religious influences. Evangelism efforts require sensitively avoiding offense while presenting the good news. Where Christianity is introduced through schools, hospitals, and social work, resistance may lessen over time.
The Legacy of European Colonialism
In many places, the spread of Christianity became associated with European colonialism and imperialism in past centuries. Missionary efforts were sometimes tied up with racist attitudes, cultural insensitivity, and foreign political control. As a result, indigenous peoples associated Christianity with their oppressors, which bred distrust and rejection of the gospel.
Overcoming this legacy has been difficult in some regions. Well-intentioned modern missionary efforts are still viewed with suspicion. Building trust takes time and careful demonstration of godly motives and behavior that rejects colonial abuses. Without sensitivity to the history, efforts may be rejected out of hand.
Insufficient Long-Term Investment in New Believers and Churches
Effective evangelism requires more than just an initial presentation of the gospel followed by a decision to convert. True discipleship requires patient, long-term investment to see new believers firm up their faith, grow in spiritual maturity, and learn to lead others. Unfortunately, evangelistic efforts are sometimes extractive, moving on once a few converts are made without equipping local leaders to carry on the work.
Sustained focus on discipleship helps plants roots. As new Christians grow in their walk and share their faith with family and neighbors, the gospel spreads through natural networks. Providing mentoring, leadership training, and resources to take ownership keeps gospel growth multiplying from the inside.
Insufficient Prayer and Spiritual Warfare
Behind human resistance to the gospel are unseen spiritual forces opposed to the advancement of God’s Kingdom (Ephesians 6:12). Effective evangelism requires prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit to open doors and soften hearts. Where the gospel is expanding despite resistance, focused intercession exposes and breaks spiritual strongholds.
William Carey, known as the father of modern missions, emphasized prayer as the primary work of missions. He said, “Prayer – secret, fervent, believing prayer – lies at the root of all personal godliness.” Prayer movements focused on unreached people groups prepare the way for breakthroughs. Fasting and prayer can accelerate what human missionary efforts alone cannot.
The Lack of Laborers for the Harvest
In Luke 10:2, Jesus told his disciples “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” While the world’s population has exploded, the number of cross-cultural missionaries has not kept pace in proportion. Many willing laborers lack the financial support they need to sustain long-term efforts abroad. interest in missionary work has also declined in traditionally sending countries.
At the same time, emerging sending nations like South Korea, Brazil, and Nigeria are raising up more missionaries among their booming Christian populations. But globally, there are still not enough laborers focused on frontier mission work to unreached groups. Mobilizing more workers for strategic areas could significantly advance completion of the Great Commission.
Wrong Priorities Among Churches and Christians
Reaching those who have little access to the gospel requires sacrificial commitment, often to the hardest places on earth. But many Christians today gravitate toward comfort and self-interest rather than radical obedience to Christ’s global call. Churches concentrate resources on facilities, ministries, and programs for those already reached.
Changing these priorities requires revived passion for the biblical mandate to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). As go-ers and send-ers, every believer has a role to play in finishing the task. When the church awakens to its call to reach the unreached at any cost, massive momentum is possible.
Persecution and Restricted Access to Gospel Witness
In many countries, it is illegal or extremely dangerous to share the gospel or distribute Christian literature. Believers in restricted nations face imprisonment, violence, or death for their witness. Hostility and war between people groups also hinders access.
Creative strategies are required to circulate gospel witness and disciple new believers in persecution hot spots. Christians must pray fervently for their persecuted family members around the world. And those in free societies should never take access to the gospel for granted.
Wrong Ideas About the Task Remaining
Some cite statistics that most people groups now have access to Christian witness and downplay the remaining task. But having witness available is not the same as having thriving, reproducing churches embedded. Engaging all people groups means more than just initial contact.
With population growth, the number still lacking any gospel access remains staggering. Creative access strategies that employ all types of cross-cultural workers are needed to reach those who have none. And engagement must continue until viable churches are established everywhere.
Lack of Vision, Passion and Sacrifice
At its root, finishing the task of global evangelization requires sacrifice. It means giving up comfortable lives to take the gospel to dangerous, hard-to-reach places. It means investing time and resources to reach minority people groups hidden amid larger populations.
Cultural gaps and language barriers require deep understanding developed over years. Breaking new ground demands vision, passion, and persistence through setbacks and slow progress. Without a fresh outpouring of sacrificial zeal, the unfinished task will remain neglected.
Dependence on Human Strategies Rather than Prayer and the Spirit
In the effort to reach the unreached, we can slip into reliance on statistics, technology, programs, and money rather than desperate dependence on God. Wise strategies have their place but the advance of the gospel finally comes “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).
Finishing the Great Commission will only come about through prayer movements and fresh wind of the Spirit propelling laborers to the hardest harvest fields. We must seek the Lord’s direction, strength and miraculous intervention to open closed doors and hearts.
Lack of Unity and Cooperation Among Churches and Mission Agencies
The monumental task of taking the gospel to every tribe and tongue requires unprecedented unity among Christians.Division and lack of collaboration waste resources and duplicate efforts. Competition for converts, infighting over methods, and theological disputes distract from reaching the unreached.
Finishing the task calls for collaborative efforts that transcend denominations, agencies, and networks. Pooled information, strategic coordination, resource sharing, and mutual support could energize global mission efforts. We must strive for unity and a Kingdom mentality for the sake of the Gospel.
Conclusion
Reaching the billions who remain unevangelized is one of the most significant causes facing the global church today. By God’s grace and empowerment, the daunting obstacles and challenges highlighted here can be overcome. As individual believers and churches respond to the call, pray fervently, give sacrificially, and take action in the power of the Holy Spirit, the tide can turn.
May new vision and renewed passion ignite this generation to complete the task of taking the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to every people and place. All of heaven watches expectantly at what God will do through surrendered lives, for His glory among all nations.