Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. ~E.M. Bounds The Joshua Project is one of those “behind the scenes” ministries that you don’t hear a lot about. They don’t need to spend a lot of time on self-promotion because they are more focused on promoting the needs of the Kingdom. Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the least followers of Christ.
I was introduced to the Joshua project a little over a year ago, through Operation:World and Pastor/Author David Platt after reading the book Radical. Until then I had never thought about the fact that in 2011 there are people who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Living the “American dream” in the American Church, the idea that there are groups of people who have never heard the name Jesus seemed absurd to me. After digging through the Joshua Project website and their “Unreached People of the Day” initiative I was completely overwhelmed. For a lot of reasons, but mostly because of my own ignorance of the situation.
Belorusian of Kazakhstan
Weeks went by and I intentionally tried to “ignore” what God revealed to me through this ministry. Weeks turned into months, and soon I began to realize how burdened I was for these people. It seemed as through every sermon and message I would listen to was about proclaiming and taking the Gospel to the lost.
God was calling me to get involved and I could not ignore His call any longer.
Joshua Project seeks to answer the questions that result from the Great Commission’s call to make disciples among every nation or people group:
- Who are the ethnic people groups of the world?
- Which people groups still need an initial church-planting movement in their midst?
- What ministry resources are available to help outreach among the least-reached?
Be the domino God uses to touch the lives of others. Whenever I think of that phrase Joshua Project is the first ministry that comes to mind. They are taking an active role in a battle that has seemingly impossible odds. They are taking on this responsibility using the greatest weapon we have as believers…. prayer.
Interview with Duane Frasier – Joshua Project
Tell us a little about the Joshua Project. How did it get started?
Joshua Project was originally birthed in 1995 within the former AD2000 and Beyond Movement. From 2001 through 2005 Joshua Project was at different times informally connected with Caleb Project, ICTA and World Help. In 2006 Joshua Project officially became a ministry of the U.S. Center for World Mission. The original Joshua Project list was a cooperative and globally accepted list of the largest unreached ethno-linguistic people groups and related ministry activity data. The Joshua Project list attempted to provide a clear goal of pioneer church-planting among the largest unreached peoples. Joshua Project has since expanded this list to all unreached / least-reached peoples regardless of size and moved from a purely ethno-linguistic to an ethnic people focus.
How do you collect the data for the unreached people groups?
Data is gathered from a worldwide constituency of field workers and their agencies, brought together into a database, and within security guidelines, provided free of charge to the global Church.
Were you ever overwhelmed by the scope of this project?
Daily. There are over 16,000 people groups when you take into consideration the distinctions created by the countries they live in. We have an extremely small staff. However, we also have a rich network of contacts who actively edit and update our people group information. Besides this, we have the capability to receive input from any visitor on our website regarding the information as well as the ability to upload photos, maps and descriptions of the people groups. So we aren’t alone in our task.
How did you connect with Operation:World?
Patrick Johnstone, the editor of the first 6 editions of Operation World is also a major contributor and editor for Joshua Project’s information. Joshua Project provided most all the people group data in the current edition. We also provide the unreached prayer cards and people group links for the Operation World website. And each of us on staff were readers of Operation World before we joined Joshua Project. Reading OW isn’t an official requirement for joining JP staff, but it might as well be.
What are some of the challenges your ministry faces?
There are a total of 3 staff members at Joshua Project. We could really use some help in a number of areas such as web development and creation and maintenance of mobile device apps.
What are some things that you plan on doing in the future?
We want to see the information available to non-English speakers. The missions force is increasingly from the Global South and they will need resources such as Joshua Project in their languages. We also want the information to be available on mobile devices. We can imagine the scenario where a person might be able to access people group information or even Scripture resources in the local language in a remote region where the gospel has yet to take root.
What can others do to support your ministry and spread the word?
People can join us in the task by praying, making a financial donation or volunteering in an area of expertise. We have need for volunteer translators, people group profile writers and certainly for volunteers with technical skills who would be willing to help us with one-time or ongoing projects.
Be the domino that God uses to touch the lives of others. What does it mean for you personally to be the domino?
The thing about a domino is that if it falls over and yet doesn’t contact another domino, the fall is wasted. But if I can pass the vision, especially of reaching the people groups still in need of the gospel, to someone who won’t keep that to themselves, I’ll consider myself highly successful. We get to impact others with that vision every day through Joshua Project and it motivates each one of to continue doing what we are doing.
Thank you Duane for taking time to answer some of our questions about Joshua Project. Be sure to visit their website for Joshua Project and Unreached People of the Day to see how you can support this ministry.
