God promised Abraham (Abram) that through Abraham’s descendants, He would bless all the families of the earth. Today, God’s word strengthens and heals entire families in many parts of the world. Yet, vast regions remain marked by division, conflict, poverty, and suffering where the gospel of Jesus Christ is still unknown.

Unreached People Groups in General
Almost forty years ago, the categorization of reached and unreached people groups was introduced to prioritize the unreached groups. A people group is considered “unreached” if it has less than 2% (one in 50) Christian-believing families. As a result, they lack the capacity to spread the gospel sufficiently within their own people group. Thus, pioneering missionary efforts are needed to spark a multiplying movement through God’s Spirit in these communities.

Today, researchers estimate the number of unreached groups at around 7,400. Through persistent efforts, the number of unreached people groups that are yet to be engaged is steadily decreasing.

Frontier People Groups as a Subset of Unreached People Groups
There are more than 4,000 so-called Frontier People Groups (Frontier meaning groups at the edge, where strong spiritual battles are taking place). These are the people groups in which almost no family (one in 1,000 or fewer) follows Christ or recognizes the Bible as God’s word. Frontier People Groups are deeply suspicious of church-planting models that draw individuals away from their families into gatherings of strangers and often misunderstand missionary efforts as an imperialistic Western agenda to create pro-Western allies. Regular evangelism of individuals (at the expense of family relationships) is therefore counterproductive, reinforcing the community’s fear that the “foreign Christians” aim to destroy their families and communities.

In these highly community-oriented people groups, the evangelistic approach should focus on reaching small groups/families rather than individuals, which can then multiply.