People Group Theory

Clarity

Sue Patt

Clarity is a beautiful thing. Humans love order, some more than others. We like to identify one thing as something specific and another thing as something else. Black and white is simple, clean, and easy to read. I notice my appreciation for sight when looking at the footage on my outdoor trail camera. At night I can’t see colors, but in the absence of light, it’s remarkable just how much activity I am able to see. Shades of grey are enough at night to see an amazing array of animals in my suburban yard, even though I can’t see very far.

Response to Urbanization and Measuring the Remaining Task

DAVE EARL DATEMA

Justin Long, in his article, “Urbanization and Measuring the Remaining Task” (Mission Frontiers, Sept/Oct 2021) has put his finger on what I believe is the number one problem related to current people group thinking. For decades, numerous voices have cast doubt on whether the people group paradigm can adequately describe human grouping in urban contexts. As centers of amalgamation, assimilation, and integration of ethnicities, languages, and cultures, cities create hybrid or hyphenated identities over time.

Should We Prioritize Work among UPGs?

ELLIOT CLARK

For multiple decades, evangelical missiologists have emphasized the need to focus the church’s missionary efforts on unreached people groups (UPGs). Ever since Lausanne ’74 when Ralph Winter exposed the “hidden peoples” of the world and redefined the nations (panta ta ethne) along ethnolinguistic lines, missionaries and mission agencies have increasingly prioritized work among UPGs. This tectonic shift in global missiology, now 50 years on, has subsequently reshaped the landscape of evangelical missions.

The End Has Come: Why an Ethnolinguistic Reading of Matthew 24:14 is Extrabiblical

BRAD VAUGHN

Matthew 24:14 states, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (NRSV). This verse is often read as a directive for modern Christian missions to evangelize all ethnolinguistic groups with the purpose of hastening Christ’s second coming. (This view is integrally linked with popular understandings of “people group theory.”) However, an exegetical and contextual analysis of Matthew 24 within the framework of first-century events offers a different perspective, indicating that this prophecy was fulfilled within the lifetime of the early church.

Complex Homogeneity among Urbanized UPGs: A Challenge and an Opportunity

CHRIS CLAYMAN

From birth, Kadijata breached cultural norms in her country. Her mother, a Fulbe Futa, a subset of the larger Fulani people cluster, married one of the “forest peoples” of Guinea, West Africa. The Fulbe Futa people looked down on the forest people, and her mother’s family begrudged her divergence from endogamy. Shortly after Kadijata was born in Guinea’s forest region, her family moved to Conakry, the country’s capital.

Crossing New Boundaries: Questions for Unreached People Groups Strategy

PETER T. LEE

When I first heard someone explain UPG, I was awakened to the reality that billions of people for many generations had not only been excluded from gospel witness but billions more could continue to be excluded if no one went across the cultural boundaries to enter their communities and share the gospel with them. The incredible need for cross-cultural evangelism globally was shocking but also inspiring to me. I quickly signed up for this training.

Ancient Monastic Advice for Modern Cross- Cultural Workers

ANDREW RICHEY

The monastic impulse first expressed itself within Christianity around the third century, as intrepid characters such as Paul of Thebes and Antony the Great shifted to the Egyptian desert in pursuit of the ascetic life. These “desert fathers” inspired thousands, both men and women, to follow suit, leading to the establishment of numerous spiritual communities that became the model and inspiration for virtually all forms of Christian monasticism that were to come.