It was one meal out in Baltimore, not too different from what a lot of Alabamians do for dinner. Who could’ve known their conversation with a waitress would start a church planting movement in Asia?
Samuel and Young Cho didn’t know that going in — but they were open.
“When they met their server, a young girl from Nepal, they built rapport with her and shared the gospel. And then they met her friends,” said J.D. Payne, pastor for church multiplication at The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham.
The couple planted a Nepali church in Baltimore, reaching people the young waitress knew.
They didn’t stop there.
“They found out that she still had tight connections with people in Nepal, so they traveled to visit her friends there,” Payne said. “They took gifts from the Nepalis of Baltimore back to their families in Nepal, and they stayed in their houses while they were there.”
And they planted a church in Nepal — with 200 people. It has only spread from there, Payne said.
“That one Nepali server in Baltimore was just the first domino to fall in a huge chain of people coming to know Christ in Asia,” he said.
It’s a new door divinely opened to believers in the last few years — the chance to meet immigrants in the West and reach their home countries by using their existing social networks, Payne said. “What is the potential for what God can do with the movement of unreached people groups into our neighborhood? It only takes one Ethiopian eunuch to take the gospel back to Ethiopia.”
And from the looks of it, there’s a lot more than one in our vicinity, he said.
Payne, who wrote the book “Strangers Next Door: Immigration, Migration and Mission,” said the United States is near the top of the list for the number of unreached people groups (UPGs) inside its borders.
With 361 UPGs, the U.S. narrowly misses the No. 2 spot, taken by China with 368. India tops the list with 941.
“Very few of us know that the U.S. is in the top three for unreached people groups, and that Canada is No. 5,” Payne said.
And not only that — the numbers are huge, he said.
If the migrant population of the world were a country unto itself, it would be the fifth largest country in the world, Payne said. The U.S. easily has the biggest slice of that within its borders — 20 percent, or 42.8 million.
“In the top spot, the U.S. has 20 percent, but to be No. 2, Russia only had to have 5.7 percent,” Payne said. “Twenty percent — that’s amazing.”
And it’s a group that looks different than it used to, he said. “Something happened after 1945 that ushered in a new global migration era. Our primary immigrants into the U.S. are no longer European but Asian, African and Hispanic, so they bring with them a range of different backgrounds that aren’t Judeo-Christian.”
Also, between 2000 and 2007, the number of international students worldwide doubled to more than 2 million, and schools in the West are their main destinations, Payne said. “Many of the home countries of migrants and students are places we spend so much time trying to figure out how to get into, and here they are in our backyard.”
Nearby places like Atlanta have a “global footprint” that’s “enormous,” said Troy Bush, minister of evangelism and missions at Cross Point Church, Duluth, Ga. “We’re talking about the heart of the Bible Belt and the radical changes that have taken place right here. We literally have people from all over the world.”
Payne said it’s not just immigrants to the U.S. who are ripe for the harvest. People aren’t just coming and starting a life in the U.S. with a blank slate — they’re keeping strong ties to their home country.
About $500 billion in earnings was sent from migrants in the West back to their home countries in 2012. India and China — the two countries with the most UPGs — receive by far the biggest slices of that money. And 23 percent of the gross domestic product of Nepal comes from money sent in from Nepalis living in other countries, Payne said.
“What this tells us is that people are keeping strong connections with their people back home, sending money often and into the countries with the most unreached people groups,” he said.
‘Bridges of God’
And where the money flows along social lines, the gospel can too, he said. The “bridges of God” are in place.
“The opportunities are huge. This is where we find ourselves in the present day,” Payne said. “So the question is — how do we respond?”
The first response, he said, is to realize that God has used migration for His purposes since the creation of the world, and it’s something He still does today.
“In Genesis 1:28, before the fall of man had happened, God told Adam and Eve to multiply and fill the earth. This could only involve migration,” Payne said. “Later, the Tower of Babel was the people’s rebellion against being dispersed, something they knew God wanted them to do.”
Through Old Testament history, God continued to move His people to accomplish His will, Payne said. He moved Joseph into Egypt, the people of Israel into the Promised Land and even Naomi’s family into Moab so that one of her sons could marry Ruth the Moabite.
“Ruth became part of the line of David and the line of Christ, and that happened due to a famine that moved people around. After Christ, when believers were persecuted and they migrated, it caused the Church to spread,” Payne said. “There are so many examples of how God moved people across the centuries to work out His purposes.”
It’s evidence that God is “the divine Maestro,” he said.
Payne said the apostle Paul talks about this characteristic of God when he explains God to the Areopagus: “And He (God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him” (Acts 17:26–27a).
It’s clear from this that God is making this massive migration happen today so that people may find Him, Payne said. “And if you believe that, it makes you ask the question, ‘What is our response?’”
What happens, he asked, when people get on a plane and land in Alabama? Believers should begin to intentionally build relationships with them, Payne said.
“You’ll be surprised how easy it is to get into a faith conversation with someone who is not a natural-born citizen of the U.S.,” he said. “Faith is an important topic to a lot of people in the rest of the world.”
The Church should be awake to the doors God is opening, because “we don’t know how long they’ll be open,” Payne said.
Leaders from the International Mission Board (IMB) and North American Mission Board have partnered in the past couple of years with the intent of reaching UPGs in North America. This focus has trickled down into state conventions, associations and seminaries. “It’s a new day in partnership and collaboration,” said Ken Winter, IMB vice president for church and partner services.
Payne said that’s exactly the kind of solidarity needed to make the most of God’s work of migration. “We live in a new world. Never in the history of the Church have we had an opportunity like this. Will we be good stewards of this ripe opportunity?”
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