Dr Paul Allen

In the mid-20th century, some evangelical Christians believed we were on the cusp of fulfilling the Great Commission because there were Christians located in almost every country in the world.  But at the First International Congress on World Evangelisation in July 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Ralph Winter warned triumphant Christians about “people-blindness” and “hidden peoples.” He recognised that some geographic countries simultaneously contain both very evangelised and completely unevangelised groups of people (e.g., China). Winter’s recognition prompted a significant paradigm shift in missions strategy that placed the focus on so-called “unreached people groups” (UPGs) around the world. More than 40 years after his strategy-altering address at Lausanne, the conversation continues today. I want to provide some historical context, express some caution, and highlight a corrective to the unreached-people-group strategy that dictates so much global-mission strategy today. Contex...

In 2021, 360 million Christians lived in places where they experienced high levels of persecution and discrimination. Of that number, 6,175 believers were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned, 3,829 were abducted, and 5,898 were killed for their faith. For the past 30 years, the Open Doors World Watch List has tracked such persecution, offered a global indicator of countries where human and religious rights are being violated, and highlighted those countries most vulnerable to societal unrest and destabilization. “The World Watch List is always sobering to read, just because the problem is so big,” says David Curry, president, and CEO of Open Doors. “But it’s not new; Satan has targeted God’s people since the beginning. It’s just gotten worse, and more sophisticated.” Persecution is extremely high in Afghanistan, which for the first time has supplanted North Korea as the most dangerous country to be a Christian.  The 2022 World Watch List reveals that persecut...