Bogota, Colombia
November 1-4, 2009

“The government can’t stop us if we are not afraid to  die.”
A Christ follower from a sensitive Central Asian nation

For four days this November, over 400 leaders from nearly   60 countries came together for Ethnê09 in Bogota, Colombia, for one purpose – to energize the Body of Christ to multiply ministry among the “forgotten fourth” of the world who still lack access to the Gospel.

What happened in Bogota during the movement’s triennial gathering for UPG-focused individuals, churches and ministries?

The Church Planting Strategy Group said “Yes” to helping mobilize and cross-train workers for catalyzing church planting movements among unengaged unreached people groups. They’ll be working together with the Prayer and Information Strategy Groups to see this happen.

The Prayer Strategy Group said “Yes” to strengthening the hands of church planters through prayer. They will create a strategic prayer coaching team to mobilize, train and send prayer journey teams focused on specific unreached people groups, in concert with onsite church planters.

The Member Care Strategy Group said “Yes” to promoting better care for missionaries, especially after hearing one sad story after another of missionary difficulties and failures. COMIBAM agreed to facilitate the work of church representatives from different regions across Latin America to develop, communicate, and implement member care strategies over the next three years.

The Latinos in the EthnoArts Strategy Group said “Yes” to championing this key communication strategy for reaching unreached people groups, organizing themselves into Asociación Latinoamericano De EtnoArtes (ALDEA, meaning “village” in Spanish).

This Ethnê09 gathering was led by an international steering committee, and hosted by COMIBAM, the Iberoamerican Missions Network  (www.comibam.org ) so sessions were conducted in Spanish and English (and occasionally in French, Arabic, Malay, and Korean.).   Each day’s multi-cultural expressions of worship, led by a team from Malaysia, Philippines, Syria, Colombia, and the USA, included songs in English, Spanish, Arabic, Malay, Swahili, Turkish, Russian, Tagalog, French, and more.

Participants heard reports of what God is doing all over the world, and then prayed together for each region.  Here are some highlights and prayer challenges:

• There are more missionaries in Turkey than there are Turkish believers.
• The majority of unreached people groups in Latin America are in Brazil (348).
• The North Caucasus region of Russia has a seemingly infinite number of language groups – “a new language at every bend in the river”.
• India has 310 unreached people groups of over 1 million people, and only 63 of its 500 languages have complete translations of the Bible.
• Sudan has more UPGs than the 22 other African countries combined.
• Japan has never had more than 1% of its population as Christians.
• There are twice as many Lebanese in Brazil alone (8 million) than in Lebanon itself.
• In one sensitive nation of 6 million people in N. Africa, there are only 20 known believers among 40 unreached people groups.
• And finally, something to rejoice over. 20 years ago in Mongolia, 3 evangelical churches existed with about 40 Christians. Today there are over 400 churches with over 50,000 Christians.

This was NOT simply a conference, but a working consultation focused on confirming Ethnê’s vision – peoples joining together to glorify God among all peoples – and fulfilling its three priorities:

• CELEBRATING Great Commission progress among the least reached peoples
• ASSESSING current opportunities and resources
• ACCELERATING movements to Christ among every people

To enable this to happen, an on-site team of intercessors supported the event in prayer, manning an interactive prayer room, and reporting each evening what they were hearing from the Lord to the gathered assembly.

And everyone participated in one of eight ongoing strategy groups, where true multi-national collaboration is at the heart, with all nationalities serving as equal decision makers and implementers:

1. Prayer – tying prayer efforts together to give focus and create synergy around specific needs at specific times www.ethne.net/prayer ; regular e-mails available via subscribed group at  prayer@ethne.net
2. Ethno Arts – promoting appropriate indigenous artistic expressions (either originating from within or adopted) by each ethnê to know, worship, and testify about the True God www.ethne.net/ethnoarts
3. Church Planting Movements (Holistic Gospel Movements) – collaborating to stimulate training and call out workers to peoples where little is happening www.ethne.net/cpm
4. Frontier Crisis Response Network —connects workers and networks into effective efforts which continue to leave long term workers in place long after the initial crisis is past www.ethne.net/fcrn
5. Member/Pastoral Care—committed to provide quality member care resources to support the mission community as it works among least-reached people groups www.ethne.net/membercare
6. Information/Research—working together internationally to collect, coordinate, and disseminate accurate, up-to-date information about least reached peoples, hard-to-reach populations, and the needs of the church
7. Young Leaders —mobilizing, equipping, encouraging and enabling new generations to engage with least-reached peoples and to help shape emerging strategies
8. Training Interest Group—a new initiative focused on collaborating in missionary candidate training

Each strategy groups has follow-up plans for their area of focus, including some of the highlights listed above: establishing a new EthnoArts organization in Latin America, and beginning work among a number of previously unengaged unreached people groups.

In addition, significant conversations took place among regional networks like COMIBAM and the African Movement of National Initiatives (MANI) to facilitate cooperation in sending, training, and placing workers.

And some are now considering vision trips related to disaster prone regions (i.e. Southeast Asia), refugees, nomads, business as mission, human trafficking, and urban and rural unreached people groups.  

Looking ahead

The next Ethnê family gathering in three year’s time will be hosted by the India Mission Association (IMA) in Hyderabad November 28 to December 2^nd, 2012.

The steering committee and convening group for the Ethnê movement are truly global. In addition to IMA, they include leaders from mission organizations and facilitators of partnerships such as the Philippines Mission Association, Malaysian Centre for Global  Missions, Nigerian Evangelical Missions Association, Indonesian Evangelical Alliance, Buddhist World Network, COMIBAM, US Center for World Mission, Central Asia Consultation, Francophone Africa Partnership, Arabian Peninsula Partnership, Southeast Asia Unreached peoples Network (SEALINK), YWAM, Mission to Unreached Peoples, and International Partnership Associates.

Ethnê www.ethne.net is the official unreached people group (UPG) network for two global Christian movements, The Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization, and The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Mission Commission.