Imagine a gathering so large it staggers the mind - every language, every tongue, every people group ever to have existed, standing together before the throne of God. That is the vision of what is to come and a promise in the making.
This is the story of Frontier People Groups: who they are, where they stand today, why they are not getting access to the gospel. And, most excitingly, Joshua Project is rolling out a program to facilitate global collaboration between people who want to adopt a people group and those who are directly engaging those groups.
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” (Revelation 7:9)
The Moment That Changed Missions: Lausanne 1974
Every major shift in history starts with a spark, or a pivotal moment. For global missions, one of those moments happened in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland, when missiologist Ralph D. Winter delivered an address later described as a milestone in missiology.
His argument was simple: the Church had been thinking about missions from the wrong angle. Strategy was organized around countries - go to China, go to Africa, go to India. But Winter argued that countries are arbitrary lines on a map. What actually matters for spreading the gospel are ethnolinguistic people groups; the distinct cultural and language communities through which the good news can be passed on without encountering a major barrier of culture or language.
Many voices at the time were calling for a moratorium on foreign missionaries, believing the task of the Great Commission was nearly complete. Winter pushed back with data: thousands of what he called “hidden peoples” existed within the borders of reached countries - groups with no indigenous church, no Bible in their language, and no one reaching them. These were not nations that had heard and rejected the gospel. These were nations that weren’t being offered it at all.
By the 1990s, researchers had further refined the concept. Within the broader category of unreached peoples (where the population had less than 2% Evangelical Christians and less than 5% Christian Adherents), a subcategory emerged that warranted its own name and urgency: Frontier People Groups (FPGs). These people groups have fewer than 1 in 1,000 people who are Jesus followers. There is no self-sustaining church movement. Every gospel worker who engages in ministry with an FPG is, by necessity, a pioneer.
Where We Stand Today
We’ve seen amazing progress in the last 50 years! Despite all the church planting that has gone on, there are still approximately 3,220 people groups with less than 0.1% Jesus followers among them. The geographic area where most of these people live is referred to as the 10/40 Window. This is the area that is between 10- and 40-degrees north latitude on the globe, where Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism form deep cultural walls against the gospel. India alone accounts for roughly 50% of the remaining FPGs. The global distribution of Christian resources, based on spiritual need, is imbalanced.
What Are A Few Obstacles?
Most churches prefer to send people to partner with existing Christians and existing church movements. This means FPGs are inadvertently eliminated from deployment options before a conversation about them ever begins. The explosion of short-term missions has amplified this: an increasingly large share of foreign mission funds now goes toward trips where existing relationships and churches already are.
There is also a dynamic called a diffusion of responsibility: when everyone assumes someone else will take care of a task or a responsibility. The Great Commission is a huge task given to the worldwide church- to “go into all the world and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Since it is such a big assignment, and there are so many Jesus followers in the world, many are not utilizing their time, talents, gifts, or more available seasons of life to invest toward reaching the spiritually darkest places. The false belief is that everything needing to be done is being done...by someone else.
As one researcher put it, reaching the world with the gospel is not a resource issue - it is a mobilization issue. Of all money given by Christians globally, the vast majority is given to working among people who already have the gospel and can spread the good news to friends and neighbors without outside help.
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Romans 10:14-15)
There is no condemnation here, but this does diagnose the problem. The bottleneck is not money or people, it is awareness, vision, and strategic intentionality.
“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land filled with light” – John Falconer
There is also a genuine missiological complication. Pioneer missions among Frontier peoples is not simply a scaled-up version of familiar church planting. Effective strategies require patience measured not in weeks and months, but in years - and organizations willing to invest in that long game. The spiritual warfare is intense; the social issues are complex. Not every church network or organization specializes in FPG work, but some do. None of this makes Frontier people unreachable. It makes it a different kind of challenge, calling for a different kind of commitment. It requires many more supporters than most people realize.
What It Actually Takes: Prayer, Giving, and Participants
The FPG Adoption System includes the FPG Adoption Process, FPG Adoption Manual, and an Adoption Matching Tool
Your On-Ramp: The A.D.O.P.T. Process
This Adoption System is a chance for everyone in the body of Christ to be involved!
-Through Prayer This is the non-negotiable primary need. It is the foundation of any and every spiritual work. Missiologist Dan Baetz captured the gap plainly: “It appears that there are few working models which involve strategic intercessory prayer as a primary tool for seeing the gospel penetrate an unreached people group.” What Frontier peoples need is sustained, informed, specific intercession - for a named people group, their known spiritual strongholds, and the workers in their midst. Pray by name. Pray for specific workers. Create a visible display that keeps the group’s name and face before you week after week. Pray as you love them the way Jesus loves them.
-Through Giving There is not a set amount of money that is required to donate. It may simply mean giving differently than you are already giving. Redirecting even ten to twenty percent of a mission’s budget toward frontier-focused agencies or workers is a strategic and achievable shift. If you are matched with an organization or a team, you know the name of the group you are supporting and can picture the landscape and grasp the barriers workers face.
-Through Cooperation The word adoption is intentional. It implies a long-term commitment that does not end when circumstances change or when it becomes inconvenient. Individuals, small groups, churches, or networks can be a part of the adoption process. You might be able to connect with others who have also adopted the same FPG. The Holy Spirit will lead in all kinds of ways in this process; be prayerful about the people group choice! The goal is to match Adopters and their specific chosen FPG with the missions organizationsthat work with that FPG (if that is happening and the communication is possible). This is teamwork in the Great Commission.
Would you financially partner with us to equip the global church with tools to prioritize prayer and mission work among the least-reached?
Every gift helps. Your generosity fuels the mission of advancing the gospel.
The Parties involved in this FPG Adoption Program:
Those adopting Frontier People Group(s).
The adopter will fill out a form and indicate their chosen Frontier People Group and desired involvement (prayer, financial giving, personal connections). That will be registered in the Joshua Project database. If a Christian organization is engaged with the adopted group, they will have access to the Adopters’ information and can reach out to explore further partnership.
People Group Adoption | Joshua Project
Those organizations that are working with Frontier People Group(s).
They will fill out a form indicating what FPGs they are working with and provide prayer requests for the adopters of that FPG every 3 months. Further partnering can occur based on the indicated interests and the available opportunities.
Adoption Facilitation | Joshua Project
The Adoption Process is summarized with the acrostic ADOPT.
Awaken. Awaken to the reality of your FPG and why they are the highest priority in missions.
Decide. Decide on a single FPG or several to adopt as an individual, small group, church, or network.
Orient. Orient yourself to the world of your FPG. To understand who they are, what they believe, and what their lives are like.
Pray. Pray consistently and strategically for open doors, gospel laborers, and spiritual breakthroughs among your adopted group.
Team up and take action. Team up with those who will help fill the gaps for effective evangelism and church planting to take place among this FPG. Take action by clarifying your role and specific action steps.
This Adoption Program for Frontier People Groups may not only impact the world but could also transform your prayer life, ignite the spiritual growth of your faith community, and change how you participate in the Great Commission.
The task is strategic; the moment is now, and remarkably, you get to be part of it!
Works Cited
Baetz, Dan. “Towards an Understanding of Strategic Intercessory Prayer.” Paper presented at the Lausanne International Research Conference, 2006.
Barrett, David B., and Todd M. Johnson. World Christian Trends. William Carey Library, 2001.
Bush, Luis. “The 10/40 Window: Getting to the Core of the Core.” Lausanne Movement, 1990, lausanne.org.
“Frontier Peoples Introduction.” Joshua Project, joshuaproject.net/resources/articles/frontier_peoples_intro. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
“The Hidden Quarter: Frontier People Groups.” Joshua Project, joshuaproject.net/frontier. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
Global Frontier Missions. “Unreached People Groups.” globalfrontiermissions.org. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
Joannes, David. “Shocking Stats on Missions Giving.” davidjoannes.com, 11 Feb. 2019.
Joshua Project. “People Group Adoption.” joshuaproject.net/peoplegroupadoption. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
Joshua Project. “Reaching the Unreached.” joshuaproject.net. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
“Least Reached Peoples.” Lausanne Movement, lausanne.org/network/least-reached-peoples. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
Lewis, R.W. “Losing Sight of the Frontier Mission Task: What’s Gone Wrong with the Demographics?” International Journal of Frontier Missiology.
Lewis, R.W. “Needed: A Strategy for the 300 Largest Frontier People Groups.” Mission Frontiers, Mar./Apr. 2024, missionfrontiers.org.
Lewis, Rebecca, and Tim Lewis. “Fifty Unbelievable Years.” 14 Sept. 2024.
Mission Frontiers. “Adopt-A-People.” missionfrontiers.org. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
Muller, George. Quoted in Baetz, Dan. “Towards an Understanding of Strategic Intercessory Prayer.” Lausanne International Research Conference, 2006.
Murray, Andrew. Quoted in Baetz, Dan. “Towards an Understanding of Strategic Intercessory Prayer.” Lausanne International Research Conference, 2006, p. 5.
“OVERSEAS MISSIONS: 7 Steps Churches Can Follow to Adopt a People Group.” Baptist Press, 30 Jan. 2009, baptistpress.com.
“Ralph Winter and the ‘People Group’ Missiology.” Lausanne Movement, 8 June 2024, lausanne.org.
The Traveling Team. “Missions Statistics.” thetravelingteam.org/stats. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
Wheaton College Archives. “For the Evangelization of the Whole World: Looking Back at the 1974 Lausanne Congress.” From the Vault, 3 July 2024, fromthevault.wheaton.edu.
Winter, Ralph D. Address at the International Congress on World Evangelization. Lausanne, Switzerland, July 1974.
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