Multitudes of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world were gathering in worship and prayer at the very hour we met on Friday, April 23rd. Many identified with Christ at the risk of their own lives, hence the name Secret Church. We dove deep into Scripture as preached in power by David Platt, author of Radical and other books on missions. We wanted to understand and respond to what God says in His Word. We prayed for persecuted believers across the globe and for the spread of the gospel to unreached people groups (UPGs), where there is little or no access to the gospel. And we responded by giving for the sake of reaching the unreached.
The prime Scripture study involved the Great Commission from Matthew 28. Jesus commanded us to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” We learned that of the 7.75 billion people in the world, consisting of 17,000 distinct ethnic people groups, over 3 billion people and over 7,000 people groups are still unreached with the gospel. Most who live among these unreached people groups (UPGs) will be born, live, and die without ever hearing the gospel. That is a tragedy.
We were surprised to discover that only 3% of missionaries are working among the unreached and only 1% of missions giving goes to the unreached. That is the Great Imbalance.
If we are going to obey the Great Commission, we must rectify this Great Imbalance.
Using a fast-paced, Scripture-dense study, David Platt made a compelling case in the final hour of Secret Church for 3 practical action steps for serious disciples of Christ, who are sensitive to the Great Imbalance. Pray differently. Give differently. Go differently. Unfortunately, space limitations prevent me from detailing the 138 pages of printed notes. We all left with a distinct sense that a different mission strategy is needed to obey the Great Commission and make disciples of all nations, especially those that are currently unreached with the gospel.
