Clear, source-linked answers to the language shaping global Christian mission—built for curious people, churches, search engines, and AI answer systems.
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Also: make disciples of all nations · Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus’ commission to his followers to go, make disciples of all nations, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything he commanded.
Why it mattersIt frames Christian mission as a whole-life invitation to follow Jesus and help others follow him—not simply a campaign, trip, or statistic.
Also: follower of Jesus · apprentice of Jesus
A person who follows Jesus, learns his way of life, becomes more like him, and joins his work in the world.
Why it mattersMission is not complete when someone merely hears information; the aim is a growing life of trust, obedience, love, community, and multiplication.
Also: discipleship · multiplying disciples
Helping people begin and continue a life of following Jesus, growing in his character, obeying his teaching, belonging to his people, and helping others do the same.
Why it mattersDisciple-making turns faith into a reproducible way of life that can move through households, communities, and generations.
Also: share the Gospel · proclaim good news
Making the good news of Jesus Christ known through truthful proclamation, loving presence, sensitive listening, and an invitation to trust and follow him.
Why it mattersThe word describes more than promotion: it combines a clear message about Jesus with humility, relationship, and responsible service.
Also: ethnolinguistic group · people cluster
A community with a shared identity shaped by factors such as ethnicity, language, culture, religion, caste, history, or geography.
Why it mattersCountry borders do not always describe how trust, identity, language, and the Gospel move. People-group thinking helps prayer and partnership become more culturally attentive.
Also: UPG · least-reached people
A people group without an indigenous Christian community with sufficient numbers and resources to make the Gospel known throughout the group without outside assistance.
Why it mattersUnreached describes access within a community, not the value or spiritual condition of every individual. It helps identify where long-term, cross-cultural partnership may still be needed.
Also: FPG · frontier people
An unreached people group with virtually no Christian presence and no confirmed, sustained movement to Jesus; Joshua Project approximates this as 0.1% or fewer Christian adherents.
Why it mattersFrontier communities are the places where local access is thinnest, so pioneer prayer, cross-cultural friendship, translation, and church-planting partnership may be especially important.
Also: ten forty window · 10-40 window
A mission-planning term for the region of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia located roughly between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude, where many communities have historically had limited Gospel access.
Why it mattersIt is a useful prayer lens, but not a boundary around God’s mission. Need, migration, and opportunity exist both inside and outside the window.
Also: access to the Gospel · Gospel availability
The realistic opportunity people have to encounter and understand the message of Jesus through Scripture, local believers, churches, media, or trusted relationships in a language and form they can receive.
Why it mattersAffiliation percentages alone cannot show whether a person can actually hear, understand, and respond. Access keeps attention on opportunity and relationship.
Also: Majority World · world Christianity
A broad term commonly used for Africa, Latin America, much of Asia, and Oceania; in Christianity it also points to the church’s major demographic centre of gravity beyond Europe and North America.
Why it mattersThe global church is not a one-way story of the West sending to the rest. Mission now moves from everywhere to everywhere, with diverse local leadership and theology shaping the whole body.
Also: household · relational network · circle of influence
A Greek word for household that, in mission practice, often describes the web of family, friends, neighbours, and coworkers already connected through everyday trust.
Why it mattersMost people encounter faith through relationships. An oikos lens helps mission begin with faithful presence among people you already know.
Also: migration · scattered peoples
People living outside an ancestral homeland through migration, displacement, study, work, or resettlement while often maintaining connections across countries and cultures.
Why it mattersMigration brings nations into neighbourhoods and creates new opportunities for hospitality, mutual learning, church renewal, and mission in both directions.
Also: local leadership · locally led mission
Christian leadership rooted in the language, culture, relationships, and lived reality of the local community it serves.
Why it mattersHealthy mission strengthens local agency and avoids treating outside partners as the centre. Durable movements are contextual, accountable, and led close to the people affected.
Also: Scripture access · heart language Scripture
The collaborative work of making Scripture understandable and usable in the languages people know best, together with the community engagement needed for people to encounter it meaningfully.
Why it mattersLanguage is tied to identity, understanding, and trust. Translation helps people engage the Bible without depending on a language that is distant from daily life.
Also: new church · church multiplication
Cultivating a new local community of Jesus followers who worship, learn Scripture, care for one another, serve their neighbours, develop leaders, and participate in God’s mission.
Why it mattersA healthy local church makes discipleship communal and durable. The goal is not simply an event or brand extension, but a locally rooted body that can mature and multiply.
Also: persistent prayer · prayer covering
A sustained rhythm of informed, Scripture-shaped prayer for people, places, leaders, churches, and mission opportunities over time.
Why it mattersPrayer saturation resists one-time attention. It forms patient love, sharper listening, spiritual dependence, and readiness for practical action.
Also: Gospel movement · multiplying movement
A growing, locally owned pattern of prayer, discipleship, churches, leaders, and mission that multiplies through relationships and communities beyond one organization or event.
Why it mattersMovements shift the question from what one ministry can control to what the whole body can catalyze, serve, and release together.
Mission vocabulary can clarify prayer and action, but no research category can capture the dignity, story, or faith of a person. Keep definitions transparent, listen to local believers, and let data lead to relationship—not distance.
See our data and source standardsChristian mission is the whole church participating in God's work by bearing witness to Jesus, making disciples, serving neighbours, strengthening local churches, and carrying the good news across cultures and generations.
No. In mission research, unreached describes the level of Gospel access within a people group, not the faith, worth, or spiritual condition of each individual person.
Sources use different definitions, datasets, dates, and research methods. Mission estimates are best used as orientation tools for prayer and partnership, with their source and methodology kept visible.