It is difficult for someone to have the opportunity to hear the gospel when no one knows they exist. Southern Baptists have been successful in efforts to comb abroad for unreached people groups. The International Mission Board has made tremendous strides in identifying people groups, training missionaries, and sending them to countries around the world to share the gospel and help start indigenous churches. There is a stark difference in the data available for those same people groups that are living in America.

The United States is a nation of immigrants. With a reported 60 million Americans being first- or second-generation citizens themselves, the “melting pot” of cultures and ethnicities continues to explode with growth. At best, U.S. Census data can reflect only basic ethnic information about who is living here. In response to this need, IMB and the North American Mission Board have partnered to create the PeopleGroups.info Initiative, which exists to identify people groups living in the United States with the goal of multiplying churches among unreached people groups.

Jeff Dunson is a former IMB missionary to Brazil and currently serves on IMB’s American people’s affinity group. He uses the online resources of PeopleGroups.info in his ongoing work to map indigenous tribes from Mexico and leads workshops to educate individuals and churches on the need to identify people groups and how to report their findings.

“The number of people groups that have come to us is astounding, and many of them are unreached with the gospel,” Dunson said. “We are working to discover unreached people groups living in the United States, create an awareness of the need and spread that awareness to others, and then mobilize Christians to plant churches among unreached and unengaged people groups here.”

PeopleGroups.info represents a sort of grassroots effort for Christian detective work to uncover specifics about different ethnic communities that exist primarily in metropolitan areas of the country, but it wants to know about rural areas, too. Its website serves as a collection port for reported data on who is living in the United States, where they live, basic information about the people group, and if evangelistic efforts are already underway to reach them.

PeopleGroups.info reports that 86 percent of the foreign-born population living in the United States resides in 100 metropolitan statistical areas. South Carolina has three of these top-100 cities (Columbia, Greenville and Charleston), along with two areas that border neighboring states in the cities of Charlotte/Rock Hill and Augusta/North Augusta.

“We must open our eyes to the fact that people groups are unreached, because in 2,000 years we have not gone to them,” Dunson said. “God is now orchestrating and allowing circumstances which are causing them to come to us, where there is a strong and vibrant church. Unfortunately, the church is frequently not recognizing the amazing opportunity to impact the world that has now come to our very doorstep.”

Bob Burton is a national mobilizer with NAMB and collaborates with IMB to support the PeopleGroups.info initiative. He said this work would not happen without the financial support of the Cooperative Program and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. “We work to help people live loud and minister to people’s needs. As people do local missions engagement, they begin to see the need to do things globally as well. The impact continues,” Burton said.

The initiative is ultimately missions-based but involves action on the part of Southern Baptists across the country. It requires participation by actively moving among the community, seeking out people groups and then reporting back to PeopleGroups.info.

“It grieves me to explain to my children that those who have never heard are lost and headed for an eternity without Christ,” said Dunson. “We need to send missionaries to where they are, but when they also come to us, we have a God-given responsibility to proclaim the gospel to them right here at home in a way that they can understand and be able to respond.”

There’s no special training or requirements to participate in PeopleGroups.info, and you don’t have to have a passion for certain people groups to join the initiative. The first step is through prayer. Dunson recommends that individuals pray for God to open their eyes to the people around them, pray for the people groups living in the community and for ways to interact with them. Individuals should carefully examine their surroundings, naturally encounter those from other people groups and then intentionally engage.

For example, visit an ethnic market to interact with other people groups. Notice native symbols or artwork that are displayed and then inquire about their meanings. To further engage someone, Dunson suggests asking basic questions about the country they are originally from, what languages they speak, how long they have been in America, or about certain foods found in the store or on the menu. In one afternoon at a recent workshop Dunson led in Columbia, participants encountered 28 different people groups at ethnic markets and other similar scenarios.

The reactions to these types of conversations with individuals may vary, but most are willing to engage, especially when the conversation is nonthreatening and culturally sensitive. The process of asking questions can lead to opportunities for more conversation or to building a relationship with the individual over time. Dunson encourages evangelism if it happens naturally but says the purpose of the people group initiative is to seek information.

“Great Commission living calls us to reach people of all nations, whether they live near us or far away. Our next step in South Carolina is to build teams in various parts of the state who will look for and engage people groups where they live,” said Tim Rice, director of missions mobilization with the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

For more information about engaging people groups in South Carolina, contact Rice by email at timrice@scbaptist.org. Visit www.peoplegroups.info for more information about the initiative or to access specific census data, points of interest, and people-group locations around the country.