Joshua Project

Our Purpose ...
to spread a passion for the supremacy of God among all unreached peoples.

Our Mission ...
to highlight the people groups of the world that have the least Christian presence in their midst and to encourage pioneer church-planting movements among every ethnic people group.

Our Rationale ...
"This gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come."
Matt 24:14

Overview of Joshua Project

Mission

The mission and passion of Joshua Project is to identify and highlight the people groups of the world that have the least exposure to the Gospel and the least Christian presence in their midst. Joshua Project shares this information to encourage pioneer church-planting movements among every ethnic people group.

Joshua Project has compiled the work of numerous missions researchers to develop a complete list of all ethnic peoples. Many errors, duplicates, overlaps still exist and the data is continually being updated.

From this overall ethnic peoples list, Joshua Project has identified a list of unreached / least-reached peoples. This list helps bring definition to the unfinished task of the Great Commission. We desire that this list be used to accelerate the Gospel’s impact into each of the least-reached people groups.

Joshua Project seeks to answer the questions that result from the Great Commission’s call to make disciples among every people:

Who are the ethnic people groups of the world?
Which people groups still need an initial church-planting movement in their midst?

Accurate, regularly updated ethnic people group information is critical for understanding and completing the Great Commission and for effective coordination of mission agency efforts.


Track Record

Joshua Project was originally birthed within the former AD2000 and Beyond Movement. 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. Click here for definitions.

Distinctives

• Strategic - We help mission strategists who ask, "Where is the greatest need?" Our desire is to help focus the Church on the most spiritually needy ethnic people groups.
• Effective - We seek to leve21-Dec-2004rces by helping identify and reduce duplication of effort between ministries through information sharing.
• Comprehensive - Our emphasis is on comprehensiveness, to see that the Church is initially established in all the world's ethnic people groups. Our methodology has been “when in doubt include a people group on the list” to insure that no groups are overlooked.
• Neutral - We are a neutral, low profile ministry, serving the global missions community.
• Grassroots - We support grass-roots initiatives, seeking involvement with those laborers actually doing the work. Continual updating is most accurately done by local and national researchers.
• Openhanded - We provide all data and services at no charge, making it possible for individuals and agencies in all parts of the world to have access.

Constituency

We serve missions agencies, denominations, churches, and individuals around the world that have a heart for pioneer church-planting among the world’s least-reached people groups. Data is gathered from a worldwide constituency of field workers and their agencies, brought together into a common database, and within security guidelines, provided free of charge to the global Church.

Regular users and providers of Joshua Project data include: international researchers and church-planters, local churches and individuals, denominations and mission agencies. Field workers utilize the information for building prayer and project support for their ministries and discovering what ministry tools may be available. Local churches see value for missions mobilization, and for finding agencies with whom they can partner to see pioneer churches established among unreached / least-reached people groups. Mission agencies use the data to strategically determine where to send new church-planting teams and for partnership development to avoid duplication and waste of kingdom resources.


Deliverables

• A complete list of the world’s ethnic people groups with basic status indicators.
• From this overall list is generated a list of all unreached / least-reached ethnic people groups regardless of size with a set of strategic church-planting status indicators and ministry tool availability data.
• Profiles of all ethnic people groups
• A user-friendly software program for viewing, querying and reporting of available Joshua Project data.
• Country specific data related to Christian status, persecution rankings, human development index, economic levels and religious makeup.
• Viewable and downloadable lists of ministry resources available, including the Jesus Film, Gospel recordings, Bible translations, and Christian radio broadcast access.