Is Lesotho a Christian nation? Why 50 villages is important
The mountain kingdom of Lesotho, according to most sources, is up to 90 percent Christian. The first question any potential donor should therefore ask, is why. Why send missionaries to a Christian country when there are millions who have never heard the Gospel elsewhere?
As a researcher I know how easily statistics mislead, and how 90 percent can sound like a majority, when in fact the 90 percent itself is a minority. Let me explain. I’ve been in fulltime missions for over 13 years, serving as a researcher to those who work on the frontline. My travels have taken me all over the unreached world, and I’ve seen firsthand how statistics mislead, and ultimately cost the lives of millions who die without knowing Christ. The wording we use in missions circles are partially to blame. Take the word reached for example. To a Christian outside the circle the word implies that the Gospel has been preached and people have accepted Christs. The truth, however, is far from the assumption. The Joshua project, that lists the different people groups of the world according to their gospel status, have 5 different types of reached. Unreached, minimally reached, superficially reached, partially reached, and significantly reached. Unreached means that a people group has less than 5 percent Christians, and significantly reached more than 50 percent. These categories are further divided into those who have a less than 2 percent evangelical following, considered unreached, and those larger than 10 percent, the significantly reached. So, even if a country is listed as significantly reached, the reality is that there might only be as little as 10 percent Christians throughout the entire population (evangelical that is). Another way in which percentages, and the words we use to describe those percentage, mislead, is when evangelical crusaders give report on their activities. They claim that millions have been reached through their preaching and that hundreds of thousands made decisions for Christ. But have they really? Even the great evangelist Billy Graham said that of all the millions he preached to over the years, he would be surprised if 10 percent of those who accepted Christ at his crusades actually made it to heaven.
As a researcher I know how easily statistics mislead, and how 90 percent can sound like a majority, when in fact the 90 percent itself is a minority. Let me explain. I’ve been in fulltime missions for over 13 years, serving as a researcher to those who work on the frontline. My travels have taken me all over the unreached world, and I’ve seen firsthand how statistics mislead, and ultimately cost the lives of millions who die without knowing Christ. The wording we use in missions circles are partially to blame. Take the word reached for example. To a Christian outside the circle the word implies that the Gospel has been preached and people have accepted Christs. The truth, however, is far from the assumption. The Joshua project, that lists the different people groups of the world according to their gospel status, have 5 different types of reached. Unreached, minimally reached, superficially reached, partially reached, and significantly reached. Unreached means that a people group has less than 5 percent Christians, and significantly reached more than 50 percent. These categories are further divided into those who have a less than 2 percent evangelical following, considered unreached, and those larger than 10 percent, the significantly reached. So, even if a country is listed as significantly reached, the reality is that there might only be as little as 10 percent Christians throughout the entire population (evangelical that is). Another way in which percentages, and the words we use to describe those percentage, mislead, is when evangelical crusaders give report on their activities. They claim that millions have been reached through their preaching and that hundreds of thousands made decisions for Christ. But have they really? Even the great evangelist Billy Graham said that of all the millions he preached to over the years, he would be surprised if 10 percent of those who accepted Christ at his crusades actually made it to heaven.