What is the Great Imbalance?

So when we use the phrase, The Great Imbalance, what are we talking about? Let’s start with the basics. The Great Commission, when the resurrected Christ stood on the side of a mountain in Galilee and said, “Go make disciples of all nations.” It wasn’t a suggestion; it was a commandment. Jesus even promised that before he comes back, we will accomplish his commission. So we’re talking about the most important mission in the world.

Reaching The Unreached

Now, today, on planet Earth, there are 7.75 billion people, and of those 7.75 billion people, over 3 billion of those people are unreached, meaning they have zero access to the gospel. Most of them will be born, live and die without ever hearing about Jesus. That’s around 40% of the world’s population. We break the whole population down into people groups. These are groups that share language, culture, tribe, et cetera. Every single people group can be put in one of two categories, reached or unreached. And The Great Commission involves taking the number of unreached people groups to zero.

Now, in order to accomplish any task, it takes determination, a plan and resources. But this is where you’ll find The Great Imbalance. Today, there are hundreds of millions of Christ followers in the world. These are people who understand and want The Great Commission to be accomplished. That’s you, me. Every Bible believing church you’ve ever heard of these believers donate hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to their churches around the world. This money goes to pay for things like electricity, food, water, staff, missions, even things like hand bells. Everything.

And of the hundreds of billions of dollars given to the church, roughly $47 billion is already allocated to Missions to the Nations. But we don’t just give money. Around 400,000 people are working as missionaries to the nations. But here’s where it all starts to fall apart. Remember our two groups, reached and unreached of these missions, resources, people, money already specifically set aside for Missions to the Nations.

Defining The Great Imbalance

Only 1% of the money and 3% of the missionaries go to take the gospel to unreached people in the world. That means 99% of our mission’s money and 97% of our missionaries are going to people that already have the gospel. This is The Great Imbalance. And with the world’s population growing at the rate, it is now, every day, we’re losing more ground than we gain. This is why the global church needs a new perspective on how and where we spend our resources if we want to truly obey The Great Commission.