Throughout mission history, missiologists have used various paradigms to identify and evaluate the progress of the gospel among different people groups. A new shift is in progress from the UPG/UUPG terms to the Seven Phases of Progress among a People Group. The purpose of this blog post is to introduce this shift to prepare the way for subsequent blog posts that will discuss suggested action steps for engaging South Asian Muslim people groups at different phases along this spectrum.
A Biblical Look at People Groups
Before diving into the practicals, let’s examine eight verses of Scripture that are foundational to the concept of People Groups and bringing the gospel to them.
• Genesis 12:3. “and all the peoples (Heb. Mispaphah. Clan, family, people) on earth will be blessed through you.” See Galatians 3:8 for a New Testament interpretation of this promise.
• Psalm 67:1-2, “May God be gracious to us and bless us; may he make his face shine upon us so that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.”
• Matthew 24:14, “This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
• Matthew 28:29, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.”
• Luke 24:27, “repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
• Acts 1:8, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
• Revelation 5:9, “you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
• Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
Throughout history, verses like these (and many more!) have propelled missionaries to proclaim Christ where He has not been named. Some of these verses focus on geography (such as Acts 1:8), but many more focus on the people of the earth. The most explicit two verses are Revelation 5:9 and 7:9. These specifically list out four categories and say that Jesus purchased people from each of these four categories for God (Rev 5:9) and that some from each of these categories would stand in worship before God in heaven (Rev 7:9). Scripture, therefore, promises that some from every tongue and tribe and people and nation will repent and enter the kingdom of God.
Here are the four categories:
- “Every nation” (Gr. ethnos). Historically, “every nation” was understood by missionaries to mean every geopolitical nation on the planet. However, the Greek term ethnos appears to be more closely related to the modern concept of ethnicity, which originates from the same root. Most geopolitical nations have multiple ethnicities, and some have thousands of ethnicities!
- “Every tribe” (Gr. phyle). In the New Testament, the term “tribe” typically refers to the twelve tribes of Israel. Now, all of Israel was one ethnic group, so each tribe was a smaller division of that people group. Within a particular ethnicity, there may be multiple tribes or families. This seems to go back to Genesis 12:3 when God promises to bless every people of the earth through the lineage of Abraham, which was fulfilled in Jesus (Gal. 3:8).
- “Every people” (Gr. laos). In contrast to ethnic groups, a people carries the idea of a community that is bound together in the same identity. At the time of the New Testament, the Jewish people were a distinct ethnicity comprising twelve tribes. Still, they were also a unified people bound together by a shared religious identity. Today, various people groups are sometimes bound together by a shared identity. For example, the United States has historically been a melting pot of diverse ethnicities that have blended together into a single people. Many urban areas around the world are also composed of people who have multiple ethnic identities.
- “Every language” (Gr. glossa). The concept of language is much more concrete. There are a little over 7,000 spoken languages on earth.
To encompass the diversity of Revelation 5:9 and 7:9, missiologists have coined the term “people groups” and have defined different lists of these groups. The two major lists are Joshua Project, which shows about 17,700 people groups, and peoplegroups.org, which has a list of 12,371. The differences in these lists often stem from nuances regarding which groups should or should not be combined into a single people group.
History of the Terms UPG and UUPG
In 1974, Ralph Winter pioneered the term “Unreached People Group” (UPG), primarily in his paper, “The Highest Priority: Cross-Cultural Evangelism.” A UPG was a people group that had little to no access to the gospel. Winter called for cross-cultural evangelism to fill this need. From that point, organizations began to develop people group lists and create strategies to focus on specific people groups.
The term Unengaged, Unreached People Group (UUPG) followed shortly after. A UUPG was defined as a people group with no access to the gospel, and a UPG became a people group that was 2% or less evangelical Christian. As the gospel has spread around the world, thousands of UUPGs have become UPGs, resulting in new believers and churches among these people groups, following the proclamation of the gospel.
Time for a New Paradigm: The 7 Phases of Progress
For a time, the distinctions of UUPGs and UPGs helped create clarity on the people groups that needed the gospel. However, most on the front lines now find the UUPG versus UPG distinction to be too broad and have longed for a better paradigm. For example, imagine the 150+ million Sheikh of Bangladesh. When the gospel first reached the Sheikh, the entire people group went from UUPG to UPG. The reality is that this switch from UUPG to UPG was not a good description of the gospel need. Simply toggling between UUPG and UPG is insufficient for a people group as large as the Sheikh. Furthermore, some people groups were moved from UUPG to UPG simply because someone declared their intention to bring the gospel to that particular people group. Often, years later, a UPG would be reclassified as a UUPG because it was discovered that there was no gospel access.
In many places, the gospel reached a people group, but no church ever emerged among them. However, since they were a UPG, sometimes they received less focus in gospel resources than the many remaining UUPGs. Simply put, a new categorization has been required to describe lostness.
Currently, a new pattern, known as the Seven Phases of Progress among a People Group, is emerging to address this need. To be clear, I am not the one who made this paradigm; I am simply sharing it because I want to write further about South Asian Muslims through the lens of this paradigm. And until I had something to point to about this pattern, it wasn’t easy to take the next step. Therefore, I am writing my brief thoughts about it. However, multiple groups around the world are adopting this in such a way that it could become the new global paradigm for missions in the years to come.
Defining the 7 Phases of Progress
Here are the seven phases with some basic definitions.
Phase 0 – Unengaged. No workers are seeking to bring the gospel to this people group.
Phase 1 – Adoption. Identification of workers who take ownership of implementing a church planting strategy among this people group. These workers have legitimate access to the target people group.
Phase 2 – Gospel. Workers are consistently sharing the gospel with the target people group with the intention of planting churches.
Phase 3 – Disciples. Multiple people from the target people group are responding to the gospel with repentance and faith. Evidenced. By obedience to Christ through baptism.
Phase 4 – Local Church. Indigenous churches gather regularly for worship and to study God’s word.
Phase 5 – Churches Reproducing. Indigenous churches are sending indigenous church planters out to plant churches among the target people group. Observing second-generation groups and churches beginning to form.
Phase 6 – Churches Multiplying. Indigenous churches and leaders are multiplying to the fourth generation. Authority is freely passed down from generation to generation.
Phase 7 – Cross-Cultural Sending. Emergence of several indigenous, multiplying church-planting networks. Cross-cultural sending to people and places outside of one’s own culture.
So, the goal here is to identify the phase of gospel progress among a particular people group. The aim is then to help that people group move to the next phase. For example, imagine again the Sheikh of Bangladesh. There are many indications that the Sheikh are at Phase 5, meaning that churches have been planted among the Sheikh who are raising up other Sheikh workers and sending them to plant more churches among the Sheikh. However, it is less clear that the work among the Sheikh has reached Phase 6. Therefore, missionaries among the Sheikh need to wrestle with questions about how to help this work grow to the next phase.
As I write this blog post, I am also reviewing a database of research and gospel progress among approximately 500 Muslim people groups of South Asia. At present, many of these people groups are at Phase 0. However, by God’s grace, there is an increasing number who have reached Phase 4 or 5. God is moving among the Muslims of South Asia! And as God moves among the Muslims of South Asia, we must adjust our methods to partner with Him in what He is doing.
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