Frequently Asked Questions about Five Loaves
Who is sponsoring this Five Loaves initiative
Five Loaves is an initiative being launched and promoted by Team Expansion.
Is there any cost involved?
No — although we hope participants will choose to get involved personally in the Resources area through giving, advocating, and raising funds for new harvesters, global outreach, and, in particular, Team Expansion and its efforts at doubling ministry among unreached peoples.
What is an unreached people group?
“For evangelization purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance” (Source: 1982 Lausanne Committee Chicago meeting.) In most parts of the world lack of understandability acts as the main barrier and it is appropriate to define people group primarily by language, with the possibility of sub-divisions based on dialect or cultural variations. Such a list may be referred to as an ethno-linguistic list of peoples. In other parts of the world, most notably in portions of South Asia, acceptance is a greater barrier than understandability. In these regions, caste, religious tradition, location, and common histories and legends may be used to identify the primary boundary of each people group. Language can be a secondary boundary. (Source: Joshua Project, http://legacy.joshuaproject.net/assets/articles/what-is-a-people-group.pdf )
How many people groups are there?
Some say 27,000. Others say 16,000. Some suggest 13,000. Still others say 10,500. Which numbers are correct? Could they all be correct? The many different answers to this question often cause confusion. Different sources quote significantly different numbers. If we are commanded to make disciples of all people groups, just how many are there? But before trying to answer that, an example might help illustrate why the confusion exists. Suppose someone innocently asked … What is the largest country? What is the answer? It all depends on what is meant by “largest.” The answer is Russia if largest refers to geographic land area. The answer is China if largest refers to population. The answer is the United States if largest means financially. All are different, yet are correct answers to the same simple question. The underlying issue is definitions … what is meant by” largest?” So the core question is what is meant by the term “people group?” (See definition above.) (Source: http://legacy.joshuaproject.net/assets/articles/how-many-people-groups-are-there.pdf )
How many unreached people groups are there?
Joshua Project has collected data on 6900+ unreached people groups currently. There might be more — and perhaps there are less — but that number represents the best data we have on the situation today. (Source: http://legacy.joshuaproject.net/people-selector.php?RegionCode=All&PeopleID1=All&lr=Y&bible=0&rog3=All&PeopleID2=All&unengaged=All&NTOnline=All&window=All&indigenous=All&relgn=All&adherentsop=%3D&adherents=All&jfilm=All&popop=%3D&popl=All&jppscale=0&evangop=%3D&evang=All&audio=0&respp=25&btnSubmit=Listing )
How can we fix this situation?
We need more than a slight bump in the number of missionaries, along with the churches willing to partner to send them. We need a radical transformation in the way we do business as mission agencies and globally-minded churches. There is a huge imbalance of laborers working among peoples and in cities where the gospel is already available. We need a huge force to focus on the rest of the world — the unreached world.