What is the Ethne vision?
The Ethne vision is: "peoples joining together to glorify God among
all peoples." The purpose of Ethne is to energize continuing initiatives
among the "one-fourth world" or 27% of the world which has
almost no access to the Gospel, by: (1) celebrating Great Commission
progress amongst the least-reached peoples, (2) assessing current opportunities
and resources, and (3) accelerating movements to Christ amongst all peoples.
Ethne is the Greek word Jesus used for "nation" - a
word which means tribe, ethnic group or people. Our world today has
about
6.69 billion
individuals living in over 230 geo-political nations but divided into
16,309 ethne, or people
groups by country. Of those ethne, approximately
6,631 people groups
remain least-reached.
What is the Ethne Global Least-Reached Prayer Initiative?
In order for the Global Body of Christ to reach the 6,631 Least-Reached
Peoples (LRPs), the Ethne movement is facilitating a global, 12-month
prayer initiative beginning June 2007 and ending May 2008, focusing
on a different set of the Least Reached Peoples each month. During the 12 months all 6,631 Least-Reached Peoples will be prayed for. This initiative, expecting to involve hundreds of thousands
of people from around the globe praying simultaneously for the Least-Reached,
is called HeLPS for Harvest Linked Prayer Strategies.
The Ethne initiative is also encouraging believers simultaneously to reach
out to these Least-Reached Peoples in each area of focus during the month of prayer
and the two months following, 90 days total, while the prayer is lifted up, in
order to conserve the harvest we believe that God is pouring out.
What does "Least-Reached" mean?
By "least-reached" Ethne and Joshua Project mean "a
people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians
with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group." The
original Joshua Project editorial committee selected the critieria of less
than 2% Evangelical Christian and less than 5% Christian Adherents. The terms
Unreached People Group (UPG) and Least-Reached People Group are used interchangably.
What is the relationship between Ethne and Joshua Project?
Joshua Project is pleased to provide the least-reached peoples data
for the Ethne HeLPS prayer initiative. This Ethne section of the Joshua
Project website displays only a portion of the available people group
data. Please visit the rest of the Joshua Project
website for more information. |
