By Rick Wood,

In 1974 at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, Dr. Ralph Winter pointed out the uncomfortable reality that we would never complete world evangelization at the rate the global church was going because the Church was sending the vast majority of its mission resources to the areas and peoples of the world where there was already an existing church, i.e. they were reached. Thanks to the efforts of Ralph Winter and many others, the missions picture today is more hopeful than it was 44 years ago. Thousands of unreached peoples have been engaged with new mission efforts for the very first time. There is much to be thankful for. But as Justin Long points out in his chapter, “The Brutal Facts,” we are facing a similarly uncomfortable reality in our day as we did in 1974—missions and church planting as usual will not get us to the goal of reaching all peoples and providing access to every person.

First, like 44 years ago, the vast majority of our mission efforts are still focused on the reached areas of the world. Certainly, we have made progress, but still only 3 percent of cross-cultural missionaries serve among the unreached. Remarkably, one of the top receiving countries for mission outreach is the United States. The sad reality is that the vast majority of funds collected by the Church stays within the Church to bless the people of the church. Only a tiny fraction of Church funds and personnel go to those peoples with the least access to the gospel.

Secondly, according to Steve Smith and Stan Parks, in most cases where we have sent out missionaries to engage unreached peoples, our efforts have not kept up with population growth. In order to provide access to the gospel to every person within each people, we need to make disciples and plant churches that multiply faster than the overall growth in population. Unfortunately, the most commonly used methods of church planting are not able to keep up with the growing population within unreached peoples.

We Need A New Paradigm— Multiplying Movements

If our current efforts are not adequate to reach all peoples in our lifetimes, then what can we do to turn things around? God has not left us without recourse and that is what this book is all about. It is all about HOPE. The hope that we can make great progress in bringing the gospel to every person, tribe and tongue because God is already doing so in hundreds of places around the world. In over 600 areas and peoples, disciples are making disciples and churches are planting churches faster than the growth in population. In chapters 14-19 you can read story after story of Disciple-Making and Church-Planting Movements that are transforming whole peoples and regions. It is a return to the simple, biblical and reproducible methods of ministry modeled by the early apostles in the book of Acts as they made disciples and planted churches throughout the Roman Empire.

Yes, it is possible to grow God’s kingdom faster than the growth in population and to expand God’s kingdom to every people group on earth. The news gets even better. Not only can disciples and churches multiply rapidly, so also can movements. The stories in chapters 25-27 demonstrate the power of these movements to spawn new movements in a viral expansion of the gospel. The leaders raised up in one movement can train leaders to start movements in peoples both near and far.

We have re-discovered the powerful, book of Acts like methods of discipleship and church planting that have proven effective in fostering movements in unreached peoples all over the world. Now it’s time to take this understanding of how to grow God’s kingdom to all peoples.

24:14, Taking Movements to Every People by 2025

This new coalition does not replace what each group is already doing. It simply adds the strengths of each organization to every other one who shares the common commitments and goals of the 24:14 coalition.

The goal of 24:14 is to foster movements of discipleship and church planting in every unreached people group by 2025. If successful, 24:14 could be the fulfillment of Ralph Winter’s vision expressed almost 44 years ago—to see every people experience a movement of discipleship and church planting where no people group is forgotten or “hidden” from the good news of the gospel.

Are You In?

This is the key question each of us must answer for ourselves. Are the goals of the 24:14 coalition worth sacrificing our time, energy, money, even our health and safety in order to see them accomplished by 2025? Each of us is given a limited amount of time here on earth to do God’s will and fulfill His purposes. 24:14 may be the last best hope any of us will have to fulfill God’s plan for all of history, that Jesus would be worshipped and given the glory He deserves from all peoples.

The goals of 24:14 are the same goals that the frontier mission movement were founded upon—reaching all peoples and doing so through movements. We finally have an effective vehicle to help carry us forward toward these goals. If these goals are yours, then I ask you, “Are you in?”