English
Korean
Spanish
Someone has observed, “Why should some hear the gospel twice when others haven’t heard once?”
That sentiment motivated Hillcrest Baptist Church in Cedar Hill and First Baptist Church of Keller to each adopt an unreached people group (UPG).
FBC Keller adopted the Yalunka people of West Africa; the name of the UPG Hillcrest adopted in East Asia is withheld for security reasons.
“The work is difficult,” said Jay Goolsby, Hillcrest’s minister for missions. “Most of the work is accomplished by our young people who use a GPS to trek into the boondocks and find the villages where the people live. I’m amazed at how they can find such remote areas.”
Less than two-tenths of a percent of the people in the region are Christians, Goolsby added.
“The results are slow, but we are building effective relationships,” he said. “And we’re working with new believers, training them to be church planters.”
This practice dovetails into the International Mission Board’s strategy of fostering indigenous church planting movements across the globe.
“We work in concert with the IMB and their missionaries where we can,” said Goolsby, who noted that Hillcrest has an on-site strategy team. “We have a team of four college students on the field right now working with IMB missionaries.”
Other missions entities also welcome Hillcrest’s efforts, as Wycliffe translators have provided translations of the Bible in each of the UPG’s heart languages.
Lawrence Duhon, missions coordinator for FBC Keller, notes that the church’s effort in Mali among the Yalunka people also fills a niche regarding the IMB’s global strategy in that the Yalunka’s population is 100,000, thus not garnering the attention of full-time, career missionaries. So, First’s volunteer trips to Mali, which so far number 12, are allowing career IMB personnel to concentrate on larger people groups.
“Our church became the mission organization to reach the Yalunka,” Duhon said. “If churches like ours didn’t reach out to such people, they may never hear the gospel. How can they hear without someone preaching to them? We all have the obligation to reach those who’ve never heard about Jesus.”
“The people we are working with never heard the gospel before. But we now have more than 100 believers in two embryonic churches,” said Duhon, who noted that “exciting things have happened this year. For the first time, one of the church leaders conducted the baptism of some new believers.” Hoping this is a trend, Duhon said, “We want to see the multiplication of indigenous churches by indigenous churches.”
Getting started
Both Goolsby and Duhon say that any church can adopt a UPG. It starts by contacting the IMB. But the motivation for that?
“The key is for God to implant in every member’s heart a love for the nations,” Goolsby said.
“And if the pastor isn’t behind it, then it won’t fly,” Duhon warned. “Otherwise, the urgency for missions becomes like little trickles of water that finally evaporate. It’s a big deal to have the pastor pushing this thing. Then soon it becomes a core value to the whole congregation.”
“Our pastor loves the lost no matter where they are,” Goolsby said.
Goolsby said contact with the IMB led Hillcrest to their UPG, and the rest of the process included commitments to pray for the UPG and ultimately to travel to their locale and share the gospel.
When Hillcrest adopted its UPG, the church set five goals:
?provide ministries to reach people with the gospel where they are;
?provide focused, specific, and timely prayer support;
?provide strategic financial support;
?provide volunteer mission teams as needed; and
?provide opportunities for personal witness.
Duhon said the IMB provided “personalizers”?a stateside role now called affinity connection strategists, and filled by career missionaries?who provide information, advice and inspiration regarding UPGs, and in some cases travel with the church for a vision trip and its first ministry trip.
The IMB has affinity group strategists for every region of the world.
A strategist speaks
Sandi (not her real name) is the affinity group strategist for the region of the world where Hillcrest ministers, which is also where she served as an IMB missionary for about 20 years.
Historically, not all IMB missionaries have welcomed U.S. volunteers, “and many times for good reason,” said a former IMB employee who requested anonymity. “Some volunteers are missionary tourists, who are more interested in getting stamps in their passports than helping to get names written in Heaven.” Others “simply aren’t committed to missions, or aren’t willing to accept cultural differences, or are often shocked into ineffectiveness or negative criticism by them,” the former employee added.
That’s where an affinity connection strategist can help a church interested in adopting an unreached people group. In fact, Sandi believes that properly educated, sensitive volunteers are a boon to missionaries on the field, and to their work as well.
“Laypeople help to refresh the missionaries’ viewpoint
