How to Reach Billions For Jesus

Steven Morales:
If you want to make Jesus known everywhere, it’s going to take more than just one approach.
Everywhere is a big place.
Put on a blindfold, throw a dart at a map, and you’ll hit a bullseye. That place meets Jesus, but the map is full of bullseyes. And some places already have churches, ministries, Christians, Bibles in their own language, but others have never even heard of Jesus. A dart has never been thrown.
Imagine 8 billion people on the planet. Over 2 billion of them are Christians, but over 3 billion have never heard the gospel. That means that for every person who claims to follow Jesus, there’s another one and another one who doesn’t even know someone who does.
Two thousand years ago, if you wanted to reach a new people group with the gospel, you didn’t know much about where you were going. Maps weren’t as accurate. No language apps, just the horizon and the hope that someone out there would listen. Even just a few hundred years ago, missionary movements were slow and fragile, and dangerous.
Now, fast-forward to now, and the opportunities are staggering. A village once buried in the Himalayas now has 4G. We can watch what’s happening in the Middle East in real time. We have seminaries, mission agencies, training centers. We have tools, funds, resources. We know more than any generation in history and are more resourced than ever, but somehow the number of people who haven’t heard the gospel is still over 3 billion.

News Anchor 1:
The world’s population has doubled in less than 50 years, and is set to keep rising.

News Anchor 2:
More than half the projected population increase to 2050 will be in just eight countries. Half of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

David Platt:
What that word “unreached” means, you’d be born and you live and you die, and the likelihood is you’d never hear the gospel.

Steven Morales:
Yeah, there are over 3 billion people who don’t know Jesus, and for some strange reason, I think there’s this feeling among Christians that we know we should take the gospel to the nations, and that somehow that knowledge is enough. But how much do you know really? Most of us don’t know what it’s like to grow up where no one’s ever read the Bible out loud, or what it’s like to kneel before idols. We don’t know what it’s like when the church has to go underground or where it doesn’t even exist at all. We don’t know what God is doing right now in places that we’ve already called too hard to reach. We don’t know enough.
This is what we want to do. It’s pretty simple, really. There are two answers. First, we want to create content with a global vision to make Jesus known. Our team here at Radical cares deeply about people who don’t have much hope to hear the gospel, and it starts with listening, listening to their stories, and creating content that inspires and equips. So we’re looking out for people, places where God is working. These stories awaken something in us. We want to capture a deeper sense of what it means to follow Jesus and equip you to take that path.
But knowledge it’s not enough. Knowing we need to do something it’s not enough. We actually have to do it. You aren’t meant to just know about the mission of God. You were made to join it. And that’s why we don’t stop at resources or telling stories from around the world. We actually move toward the people in them. So here’s the second thing we do: invest resources to make Jesus known where he’s least known.
Listen, here’s the deal. That map may be full of bullseyes, but we don’t have to wear a blindfold. We actually know where the most urgent spiritual and physical needs are. We know where there are real people doing the work to follow Jesus and make him known in hard places, local believers risking everything to plant churches in hostile villages, frontline workers, translating the Bible in languages no one’s ever read, pastors discipling new believers in war zones, prison cells, refugee camps.
We can and are seeking them out, sitting with them, listening, and asking, “What will it take to keep this going?” This isn’t just money thrown at problems. These are brothers and sisters we’re joining. It’s a glorious investment, and when the generosity of some believers fuels the grinding work of others, some of the most beautiful things come out of it.
It won’t make headlines, but it will shake eternity. God’s mission, not going to be finished by a few famous names, but it will be carried out by a thousand faithful.
So stop doing what you’re doing and get in on what God’s doing.