In keeping with their shift of focus from traditional political boundaries to people groups of the world, last year the IMB made a major structure change (IMB Structure Change Mobilizes More Churches). Eight primary global affinity groups were identified by IMB to encompass the 11,000 plus known people groups worldwide. A ninth affinity group targets the world’s deaf population.
To help Southern Baptists better understand these groups, the IMB has added a new section to their website called, “Peopls Around the World” (click to go there). This section helps to better visualize the concept of the affinity groups and understand where each are located.
When you open the webpage there is a world map with numbers 1-9 above it. As you run the cursor over the numbers, a watermark image appears which identifies the name of that affinity group and highlights the map to indicate where members of this group can be found. Click on the number to open the page for that affinity group. There you will find a brief description of the group and pictures of people representative of the group. On their respective page, each group is divided into equal halves to show where the largest concentration exists. The world map reflects these two halves in two different colors. Under each half the countries within these areas are listed. You can click on that country to be taken to an IMB missionary website in that area to find out more information about a specific group in which you are interested.
