The Mission
You will be utterly shocked and moved to action after reading the information in this section.
Our hope at Firestarter Ministries International is that you will partner with us and together we can make an eternal change in this world!
The Mission of Firestarter Ministries International is to help every person come to know Jesus personally, to know their identity in Christ, to belong to the family of believers, to become discipled, and to build God’s kingdom. Firestarter Ministries International exists to support and extend the evangelistic calling and ministries of the Church through prophetic ministry and proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all we can by every effective means available to us and by equipping the Church and others to do the same.
MISSION STATISTICS
- 7,174,611,584 (July 2014 est.)
- Median age – total: 29.7 years
- Life expectancy – total population: 68 years
TOP TEN MOST POPULOUS COUNTRIES (IN MILLIONS)
- China: 1,355
- India: 1,236
- United States: 318
- Indonesia: 253
- Brazil: 202
- Pakistan: 196
- Nigeria: 177
- Bangladesh: 166
- Russia: 142
- Japan: 127
WORLDWIDE
- Total People Groups: 16,591
UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUPS – (UPG)
- Less than 2% Evangelical Christian.
- Total Unreached People Groups: 6,741
- Total Population of UPGs: 3.11 billion people
- Total Percentage of world: UPG’s make up 42.2% of world population
UNEVANGELIZED PEOPLES
- Greater than 2% Evangelical Christian but still great numbers of unsaved.
- Total Unevangelized People Groups: 2,792
- Total Population: 764 million
- Total Percentage of world: the unevangelized make up 11% of world population
REACHED PEOPLES
- Greater than 2% Evangelical Christian or majority Christian Population
- Total Reached People Groups: 7,058
- Total Population: 3.5 billion
- Total Percentage of world: the reached population makes up 42% of world population
WHAT IS THE 10/40 WINDOW?
Most of the unreached people groups are located geographically in what some scholars call The 10/40 Window from West Africa across Asia between 10 degrees latitude north of the equator to 40 degrees north.
Total Population in 10/40: 4.89 billion people
Total People Groups in 10/40: 8,213 people groups
Total UPG’s in 10/40: 5,626 Unreached People Groups totaling 3.02 billion people. 40% of all individuals
60% of unreached people groups live in countries closed to missionaries from North America.
Over 1,000 unreached people groups are NOT in the 10/40 Window, these total over 80 million individuals.
ANIMISM
- 206 Million worldwide
- 2,800 People Groups
- 1,004 UPGs
- 2.9% of the world population
HINDUISM
- 1.028 Billion worldwide
- 2,595 People Groups
- 2,314 UPG’s
- 14.7% of the world population
CHINA
- 1.291 Billion individuals
- 519 people groups
- 428 Unreached People Groups
- 18.6% of the world population
ISLAM
- 1.537 Billion worldwide
- 3,431 Total People Groups
- 2,854 UPG’s
- 22% of the world population
BUDDHISM
- 621 Million worldwide
- 581 People Groups
- 449 UPGs
- 8.9% of world population
CHRISTIAN
- 2 Billion worldwide (all Catholic, Protestant, etc.)
- 6,876 Total People Groups
- 28.6% of the world population
ALL CHRISTIANS
Christians number 2.2 Billion worldwide (all Catholic, Protestant, etc.,) within 6,876 total people groups compromising 28.6% of the world population.
EVANGELICALS
Evangelical Christians total 550 million (Operation World 2015).
Evangelicals have grown from only 3 million in AD 1500, to 550 million worldwide, with 54% being Non-Whites.
In ministries, there are 4.19 million full-time Christian workers and 95% are working within the Christian world. [original source, Frontier Harvest Ministries, 2007]
There are 900 churches for every one unreached people group.
There are 78,000 Evangelical Christians for every one unreached people group
TOTAL LANGUAGES:
There are estimated 6,909 Languages worldwide.
THREE LARGEST LANGUAGES:
Mandarin Chinese 12.44%
Spanish 4.85%
English 4.83%, (first language speakers)
BIBLE TRANSLATION:
4,400 languages are without Scripture portions available, with some 634,000,000 speakers. Translation projects are in progress in an estimated 1,600 languages that currently are without adequate Scriptures. There are about 2,500 languages needing Bible translation work to begin. (joshuaproject.net)
Of the world’s approximately 6,900 languages, 4,765 have at least one of the following: Bible portions, the Jesus Film, Christian radio, or Gospel recordings. Total speakers of these languages is 6.2 billion which represents over 95% of the world’s population. 2,135 languages have none of these resources available, with about 195,000,000 speakers.
- That’s also how much we spend in America on Christmas.
Given to Missions: $45 billion
- That’s only 6.4% of the money given to Christian causes of any kind (2015). [1] *5.6% reported in 2010, GAC [2]
- That’s also how much we spend in America on dieting programs.
- Embezzled: If you are doing the math and realize there is $50 billion missing, this is where it went. [1]
HOW CHRISTIAN GIVING IS USED
Pastoral ministries of local churches (mostly in Christian nations): $677 billion (96.8%) [2]
“Home Missions” in same Christian nations: $20.3 billion (2.9%) [2]
Going to Unevangelized Non-Christian world: $2.1 billion (.3%) [2] *This is different than “Unreached”
Money that goes toward Unreached Peoples: *Estimated $450 million [3]
- [3] *In 2001 only 1% of giving to “Missions” went to unreached – if that trend holds true today it would be $450 million.
- The $450 million going toward UPG’s is only .001% of the $42 trillion Income of Christians. For every $100,000 that Christians make, they give $1 to the unreached.
HYPOTHETICAL OBSERVATIONS
Evangelical Christians could provide all of the funds needed to plant a church in each of the 6,900 unreached people groups with only 0.03% of their income.
The Church has roughly 3,000 times the financial resources and 9,000 times the manpower needed to finish the Great Commission.
If every evangelical gave 10% of their income to missions we could easily support 2 million new missionaries.
Sources: Download “Status of Global Christianity below. [1] International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 39, No. 1, also World Christian Database, 2015,*Barrett and Johnson. 2001. World Christian Trends, pg 656, [2] Todd Johnson, Global Atlas of Christianity, pg 296, [3]. Baxter, Mark R. 2007. The Coming Revolution: Because Status Quo Missions Won’t Finish the Job, pg 12. Halloween Costumes
ALL MISSIONARIES
- All Missionaries in the World: 400,000 foreign missionaries [1]
- Missionaries in the Reached World : 309,315 foreign missionaries (77.3%) [2]
- Missionaries in the Unevangelized : 77,610 foreign missionaries (19.4%) [2]
- Missionaries in the Unreached : 13,315 foreign missionaries (3.3%) [2]
CHRISTIAN WORKERS
- Full time Christian Workers in the World : 5.5 million workers
- Christian workers in the Reached World : 4.19 million local workers (75.9%)
- Christian workers in the Unevangelized : 1.3 million local workers (23.7%)
- Christian workers in the Unreached : 20,500 local workers (0.37%)
MISSIONARIES PER RELIGION:
- Tribals – 714,108,000 population with 11,900 Missionaries: 1 for every 60,000
- Hindus – 984,532,000 population with 5,500 Missionaries: 1 for every 179,000
- Unreligious – 831,267,000 population with 11,700 Missionaries: 1 for every 71,000
- Muslims – 1,703,146,000 population with 4,200 Missionaries: 1 for every 405,500
- Buddhists – 520,002,000 population with 2,000 Missionaries: 1 for every 260,000
ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS
- The ratio of UPG workers the total unreached world is: 1 missionary for every 216,300 people.
- There are 78,000 Evangelical Christians for every one unreached people group.
- Young people have traditionally led the way in going and there are roughly 21 million university students (2014).
SO WHAT DOES ALL THAT MEAN TO ME?!!
Let me ask you this, “Is God to blame for not “Calling” People to Missions?”
If everyone is obeying God’s “calling” to be a missionary wherever they are then God is calling 99.9995% of people to work among the 44.3% of the world population that already has the Gospel, and calling virtually no one (.0005%) to relocate among the other 53.7% of the world population that are not Christian. You have a better chance of being in a plane crash than being one of the few missionaries to the unreached out of the total 2 billion Christians in the world.
In light of God’s Word, this seems unfathomable and it appears to be almost complete disobedience on the part of the Church worldwide to go make disciples of all the nations. Financially we are hoarding 99.99% of our income to ourselves and what little is given is mostly directed toward reached people groups.
The current status quo is to do virtually nothing to reach the UPG’s of the world. The percentages of man-power and money focused on UPG’s are almost undetectable they are so small. The amount of resources that fall off the Christian table for unreached peoples is more comparable (I Googled it…) with the number of skin cells you lose over a month’s time: something hardly worth calling a sacrifice of the body.