A reality check
January 13, 2026 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Brad Mills, Adventist Review
A Tale of Two Cities
Depending on where you grow up in the world, your view and understanding of Christianity will be very different. For example, if you grow up in a bustling city in Brazil, you can hardly leave your house and arrive at work without seeing several Protestant churches along the way. For a typical Brazilian in metropolitan São Paulo—with more than 20 million people—a normal day might look like this: You walk out your front door, and on your brisk walk to the subway you pass a billboard advertising the neighborhood Seventh-day Adventist elementary school. When you squeeze into the crowded subway, you bump into someone wearing a T-shirt that says Impact Hope, with a message proclaiming that Jesus is coming again and the Adventist Church logo stamped on the sleeve. When you get off the metro and stop by the grocery store for a snack, the health food section has several items produced by Superbom, the Adventist food company. And finally, after a long day of work, you head to the doctor for a quick checkup. While waiting, the TV in the reception area plays a healthy cooking program from Novo Tempo, Hope Channel in Brazil. All in a day’s work, you’ve brushed up against the Seventh-day Adventist Church several times. In some areas of Brazil, like Manaus, the capital of Amazonas State, one in every 34 people is a Seventh-day Adventist.
Of course, your city may not look like that. If you drive through many American cities, you may not find as many Adventist churches scattered around, but you will certainly find other Christian churches. On some streets you can see multiple churches within a stone’s throw of one another. So when your pastor talks about witnessing and sharing Jesus, you might be tempted to think the job is finished. Are there really still people who have never heard about Him?
Imagine visiting one of the wonders of the world—the mysterious pyramids of ancient Egypt. While you might picture them standing alone in the desert, the truth is they sit on the edge of a rapidly growing metropolis. Greater Cairo has more than 20 million residents, close in size to São Paulo. During the workday an additional 10 to 15 million people commute into the city, meaning that on any given weekday you could be moving through a city of 30 million people. The streets overflow with honking cars, shouting drivers, and people everywhere. Cairo never sleeps.
But as we explore the city, we notice something very different from São Paulo. One huge difference grabs our attention: Where are all the churches? Yes, there is a recognized Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cairo. But with only about 300 members, that means instead of one Adventist for every 34 people (as in Manaus), there is only roughly one for every 100,000 residents. There are no Adventist hospitals and no Hope Channel broadcasting the message of Jesus. The chances of casually meeting a Seventh-day Adventist are very slim.
So what is the real situation of our world? Have we really reached it yet?
Mission agencies studying this question divide the world into what they call “people groups”—groups often defined by common language, culture, and identity. Estimates vary depending on the database, but most agree that there are around 17,000 distinct people groups worldwide.[1]
Of these, between 7,200 and 7,500 are considered “unreached.” Unreached people groups usually have fewer than 5 percent Christian adherents and fewer than 2 percent evangelical believers.[2] Some mission agencies add that if a group lacks a strong national church capable of reaching the rest of its own people without outside help, it is considered unreached as well.
When we include those definitions, the shocking conclusion is this: nearly 3.5 billion people—more than 40 percent of the world’s population—are still unreached. Let that sink in. Almost all mission agencies agree that more than 40 percent of the world remains completely unreached.[3] That means in their people group, fewer than 5 percent are Christian.
How can this be possible, when in some countries you can hardly drive to the grocery store without passing several churches?
The bulk of the unreached live in the 10/40 window—a geographical belt stretching from North Africa through the Middle East into Asia.[4] Many of these people groups, often numbering in the millions, live in countries in which missionary work is restricted or prohibited. To make matters worse, only a small fraction of all foreign missionaries serve among the hardest-to-reach groups. For many complex reasons, most mission sending agencies still concentrate their workers among already-reached peoples.
So how should we respond to these facts? What can you and I personally do?
It’s like going to the doctor and being told you have a serious disease. Would you want him to hide the truth from you? Of course not—especially if something could be done about it.
What We Can Do
Every reader of this article can become an active prayer warrior. Open an online map, zoom in until you see the names of streets, hospitals, and universities in countries within the 10/40 window, and pray for them. Adopt a specific city and pray for it daily. Remember that Gabriel came to Daniel only after 21 days of prayer, delayed because of spiritual conflict with the prince of Persia. We are in a real spiritual war. Pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on these cities. Ask God directly for places and people by name.
You can also join the Mission Refocus movement.[5] The Seventh-day Adventist Church is reshaping its mission strategy, placing new emphasis on reaching the unreached. Funds and calls are being redirected to church planting among unreached groups. Supporting ministries such as Adventist Frontier Missions (AFM)[6] are also sending workers into unreached communities. Consider whether God may be calling you to go. Prayerfully ask if He has prepared you “for such a time as this”—to leave home and country to serve elsewhere. If not going yourself, you can still give, helping support missionaries who are preparing to go.
The facts are clear: the work is not finished. God Himself is responsible for saving humanity, but He has commissioned us to take part. Jesus told His disciples—and us:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19, 20).
This is a call to action. It is a call for you and me to get on our knees and ask God, What is my part in reaching the unreached?[7]
Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming soon. May we be found active, sharing the joy we have in Him!
[1] “The Traveling Team,” Missions Statistics. Accessed Sept. 21, 2025. https://www.thetravelingteam.org/stats.
[2] “International Mission Board,” Global Research Department (GRD). Accessed Sept. 21, 2025. https://grd.imb.org.
[3] “Joshua Project,” Unreached People Groups. Accessed Sept. 21, 2025. https://joshuaproject.net.
[4] “Project 42 Partners,” Statistics. Accessed Sept. 21, 2025. https://www.project42partners.org/stats.
[5] Adventist Mission. Mission 360, vol. 12, no. 4-10. Accessed Sept. 21, 2025. https://am.adventistmission.org/m360v12n4-10.
[6] Adventist Frontier Missions (AFM). Adventist Frontier Missions Online. Accessed Sept. 21, 2025. http://www.afmonline.org.
[7] “What is a UPG?” Global Frontier Missions. Accessed Sept. 21, 2025. https://www.globalfrontiermissions.org/missions-101/the-unreached-peoples-and-their-role-in-the-great-commission.