3.5 billion people.
When I started it was 3.4 billion. I don’t think those things are related.
3.5 billion people will be born, live their entire lives, and die and likely never hear the name of Jesus. Never know freedom from their sins. Never experience the love and grace that Jesus wants to offer them.
It is that fact that drives me.
I am not called to go. But through the story that the Lord wrote in my life I have been positioned to do something unique.
I have shared a lot about our model of call, connect, and care. While that remains our foundation, I am learning the best ways to communicate what it is that I do. In the past I have been communicating what I am doing by speaking of my vision for the ministry… what we are going to be doing 5 years down the road.
Because what we are doing is so unique, there is not much of a point of reference for it. There are not many people working as early in the missionary journey as I am, helping people discern their call and connect with sending organizations. And because there is not a clear category for this kind of work, I realize there has still been confusion about exactly how Generation Echo operates.
So rather than communicating the vision, I would like to attempt to communicate what we do with more clarity.
The mission God gave us is simple, but vague:
We exist to call, connect, and care for missionaries, mobilizing them to unreached people groups, ensuring that in this generation, the name of Jesus will echo into all nations.
That has not, and will never change.
The methods we employ to call missionaries to the field, connect those missionaries to mission organizations working in unreached areas, and care for missionaries we help mobilize will always be in flux. We will become all things to all people and we will adapt our methods based on what is happening in culture and technology. We will utilize the best possible tools available to most effectively accomplish the mission that God has called us to.
Call, connect, and care came to me the night that I first began dreaming about this work. I was at a Youth Pastor conference and one of the speakers got up and shared about unreached people groups. The entire session was fantastic. Aside from the 3.4 billion unreached people, there were two numbers the speaker shared that inspired me to drop my nets and pursue this life.
- First, he shared a Barna study that said that 52% of Gen Z claimed they would be willing to move overseas for cross cultural missions work.
- Second, he claimed that if we are able to mobilize 100,000 people into those unreached people groups, then everyone would have a chance to hear the gospel.
The two numbers the speaker shared told me that the reason why we have 3.4 billion (at the time) unreached people in the world is NOT because of a lack of desire to go. And it told me that the Great Commission was not just something that we should shoot for, but that it was realistically attainable.
But then I began wondering if 52% of Gen Z is interested in going, why do we not see 52% of Gen Z going…
As I looked back on my time in student ministry I was able to put my finger on two possible reasons why we aren’t seeing the mission field flooded with workers.
- Lack of awareness. I had been working with students for the past 20 years, and I only just heard about unreached people groups for the first time in 2024.
- Lack of a trusted guide. People who are discerning their call often do not have someone who is able to sit with them and pray with them and walk with them through the journey of discernment. They also did not know how to connect with a mission organization that could help them take the next step toward the field.
So I figured, let’s raise awareness and let’s be that trusted guide.
And that is what I do. Through speaking engagements and magic shows and really any other way I can get in front of a crowd, I raise awareness of unreached people groups.
And most importantly, I help walk with people to make sure that the people who are called to go into the field, actually get there. From calling to conviction.
In some ways, I am like a real estate agent for missionaries. When someone senses God may be calling them, I help them discern the right fit, navigate the process, and connect with the mission organization that can help them get where God is leading them. And any good real estate agent knows the job is not done when the papers are signed. They stay available to their clients long after the move. In much the same way, we do not simply help people get to the field and disappear. We stay in relationship. We care for the missionaries we help mobilize.
For all of this, I quit my job. Moved out of our house and into our RV. Gave up the stability that we had so that Jesus’ name would be heard in the places that it has never been heard.
Matthew 9:37-38
“Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Jesus tells us what to do: pray earnestly. And perhaps from that place of prayer, ask what obedience looks like for each of us today.
For some, that may mean praying. For some, giving. For some, going.
For all of us, it means not looking away.
Until the whole world knows.
