What classifies an unreached nation? This is something I think I am learning. It's not a clear cut issue and while we have measuring blocks for this it appears to be a constantly changing issue. This is one of those things where the failure to advance is the same as retreat. In preperation for our next outreach to Switzerland and France we have spent some time researching the Joshua Project. The Joshua Project is dedicated to quantifying the task of reaching the unreached.
The biggest challenge I have personally is that I have linked closely the need for the Gospel in the world and its economic global status. My brain has it that First world = reached, Third world = unreached. What I have found is that isn't the case at all. The truth is that Jesus wanted us to reach Every Nation, Every Tribe, Every Tongue. So, my way of looking at this was very wrong. So France, here is the website in case you want to dive deeper. In France there are 37 unreached people groups and while Christianity is professed in 62.3% of the total population only 1.23% are evangelical christian. Here is what I know from our experience in the philippines. When someone says they are a christian sometimes that only means that they have gone to church with their grandparents. The statistics on the Philippines are much much better than France and while we were there a year ago there was no shortage of people who we talked to that said they were christian because of a parent or grandparents belief.
Slowly, I am beginning to believe that we need to stop paying attention to the economic classification of a nation and simply only to the advance of the kingdom of God and the impact of the gospel in each and every people group.