(from the July-August IYW UPDATE)
1. Pray for God’s Guidance – As in any spiritual endeavor, your search for an unreached people group for adoption must begin with prayer.
2. Discover Your Church’s Natural Affinity (DNA) – As you pray for God to show you the unreached people group He has for your church, be alert to what He may already be showing you:
- Have you sent out a missionary from your church?
- Do you have a parent or children of missionaries who are members?
- Has a team been on a mission trip and connected with a people group?
- What are the skills and spiritual gifts of your church members?
- What people groups live near your church or its members or work in local businesses? What about the physicians of your members?
- Check the Web site www.peoplegroups.info to find people groups in your area.
- Is there a place in the world that just keeps coming to mind?
3. Determine the Church’s Expectations for an Adoption
- If you are looking for a prayer connection to a people group, contact the prayer office at IMB 888) 462-7729 , prayerplus@imb.org or go to CompassionNet at imb.org/compassionnet/ and sign up for Prayerplus and Prayerthreads.
- If your church is ready to pray AND to connect with a missionary on the field and join their strategy for reaching a people group, contact the Church Services Group.
- If your church is ready to pray AND to “become” the virtual missionary to an unreached people group that has no missionary assigned to them, to study the people, to develop strategy and to take ownership of an unreached people group that may never hear unless you go, call the Church Services Group.
4. Work with Church Leaders and Identify a Mission “Champion” – Someone who will become the “point person” to communicate with the field, coordinate training and logistics, influence the congregation to focused prayer and actions for your UPG, lead teams and train other team leaders.
5. Investigate Opportunities - To what kind of people group are you drawn?
- One that lives in a megacity, a rural area or something in between?
- One with a population under 100,000 or over a million or something in between?
- One with relative religious freedom or one that is restricted?
- One with the Bible and other resources in their language or one that still needs that – maybe oral learners?
If you feel led to a specific area of the world, but have not yet discovered your UPG, contact the Church Services Group at (877) 462-4721 to speak with your IMB mobilization specialist or missional church strategist who will help put you in touch with someone in that area of the world.
