The Basics of Adopting an Unreached People Group and Carrying the Gospel to Them | pt. 3
“Pre-Entry, Entry, and Sowing the Gospel“
Focus group: church members and pastors
This is the third in a series of articles which are being written to show you how to effectively engage an unreached people.
By Clint B.
Pre-Entry preparation
This phase is not normally covered in a lot of training, but if you have never engaged with a people group before, it is helpful to know a few key things before arriving in the area where you’ll be working. I call this the Pre-Entry phase of the work. During this time, you should consider the following:
1) What Gospel resources are already available in this language?
2) How much of the language do I need to learn?
3) What cultural issues are present which MUST be considered as we engage this people?
4) Have we adequately trained our team and volunteers?
5) How many entry points can we target as we begin this work?
6) Have we done our “What ifs” and are we prepared with a second and third game plan if the first immediately fails?
7) Do we have our prayer warriors onboard and praying for us through this?
You may not have all the answers to these questions, and that’s okay. This is where our Global Gates team can help guide you as you prepare. Once all of this is prayed through and thoughtfully considered, we begin the Entry phase.
Entry Phase and Seed Sowing
The entry phase is the quick, initial step of actually getting on the ground to begin sowing the Gospel among your chosen people. It is where we begin our quest to find “people of peace” (Luke 10:1-12). If you’re working here in the U.S., the process is relatively simple. But if you’re going overseas, things become a bit more complicated. Sometimes in an overseas environment, you may be asked directly about your reasons for being there. Your missionary “coach” should have prepared you to respond in a way that is natural and truthful. Many people feel intimidated at this point and say things that sound like promises to build something or provide some type of help, all of which they are not prepared to do. Whatever you say, do not lie. If you are not truly there to study their language then do not say you are. Work closely with your missionary “coach” to ensure your team is well-prepared to respond authentically.
It is usually best to try to engage a people group using multiple entry points. By that, I mean plan to visit different locations within the community and use a variety of methods to saturate the area with the Gospel. This can include websites, media outlets, face-to-face conversations, and distributing Bibles and literature. Whatever you do, make sure your new converts are equipped to reproduce these efforts themselves as they share Christ with their own people. Be sure to develop and implement feedback loops for all your materials. After you’ve left, someone may have questions or want to continue the discussion, and they’ll need a way to get in touch. This could be a phone number, email address, or website.
When it comes to sowing the Gospel, there are many tools available, such as the Three Circles presentation, storying sets, various quick videos from the Jesus Film folks, as well as many other types of tools. Your missionary “coach” should be familiar with which tools would be the best choice to use in working among your people to share a Gospel witness which they can understand and respond to. (A great location for language resources is Global Recordings)
Many of our Global Gates catalytic missionaries use Sifting Weeks as entry points into neighborhoods where their people groups live. These weeks offer an opportunity for volunteers to come alongside them and help with the work. The missionaries also provide training for that experience. Sifting Weeks are a fantastic way to “get your feet wet” in this type of ministry. If you’re interested in learning more or participating in a Sifting Week, reach out to Mike Sowers (Global Gates’ Senior Director of Great Commission Partnerships) at msowers@globalgates.info or visit the following link: https://globalgates.info/short-term-mission-trips/
Finally, this is a great training resource for churches to use in evangelism training: Any 3 by Mike Shipman
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