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Joshua Project

The Joshua Project is a Christian research initiative founded in 1995 to identify and highlight the world's ethnic people groups with the fewest followers of Jesus Christ, aiming to prioritize prayer, church planting, and missionary efforts among unreached populations.^[1] Originating from the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, it began with a focus on 1,700 unreached groups and has expanded to maintain a comprehensive global database tracking demographic, linguistic, and religious data for over 17,000 people groups.^[1] The organization's mission emphasizes providing accurate, accessible data to illuminate peoples and places with minimal gospel access or response, drawing from diverse sources including Ethnologue, regional researchers, and field missionaries to ensure data integrity and field responsiveness.^[2] It defines "unreached" people groups as those with less than 2% evangelical Christians and less than 5% broader Christian adherents, using a Progress Scale to estimate church planting advancement across groups, clusters, and countries.^[3] Joshua Project operates as a U.S. non-profit since 2024, previously associated with Frontier Ventures, and upholds values of neutrality, generosity—offering most resources freely—and diligence in compiling information without direct political involvement or financial aid for conversions.^[1]^[4] While praised within evangelical circles for mobilizing global prayer and ministry toward frontier peoples, particularly in the 10/40 Window, the project has drawn controversy, especially in India, where critics allege it facilitates targeted proselytism through detailed ethnic and caste data collection, potentially undermining cultural diversity.^[5] Joshua Project counters such claims by stating it has no agents or funding in India, provides religious statistics universally without endorsing paid conversions, and maintains strict non-involvement in national politics, viewing its role as purely informational to support the Great Commission.^[4] Its data, scaled annually and cross-verified for credibility, supports efforts to see every people group represented by an abundance of Christ followers, reflecting a commitment to empirical tracking of missional progress amid debates over methodology and intent.^[2]^[1]

Origins and Development

Founding in 1995

The Joshua Project was initiated in 1995 as a research effort within the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, a global evangelical campaign seeking to advance church planting among unreached peoples by the year 2000.^[6] This movement, coordinated through collaborative networks of mission agencies, emphasized compiling data on ethnic groups with minimal Christian adherents to prioritize evangelism strategies.^[1] The project's early focus was on identifying the largest unreached ethno-linguistic groups suitable for pioneer church-planting, building on prior missionary research to track progress toward the Great Commission.^[7] Key influences included the work of Patrick Johnstone, whose Operation World and connections to the World Christian Database provided foundational demographic and religious data.^[7] Additional genesis stemmed from Omid research on South Asian peoples and Hattaway's studies of China and Buddhist regions, integrating these with the Summer Institute of Linguistics' ethnolinguistic classifications and David Barrett's World Christian Encyclopedia.^[7] Dan Scribner, who served as team leader from the project's inception, played a central role in developing its initial database and clarifying the scope of unreached groups, drawing from his background in missions research.^[8] The AD2000 initiative, under which Joshua Project emerged, involved leaders from diverse countries, including Luis Bush as international prayer coordinator, Patrick Johnstone, evangelist Luis Palau, and John Robb as prayer coordinator for unreached peoples, fostering a cooperative framework for data sharing among Protestant and Catholic entities.^[1] By late 1995, efforts like Joshua Project 2000 formalized a strategy to engage churches and agencies in targeting least-evangelized populations, marking the project's shift from conceptual planning to operational research.^[9] This founding phase established Joshua Project as a neutral data repository, independent of specific denominational agendas, to support informed mission deployment without endorsing particular methodologies.^[6]

Key Influences and Early Collaborations

The Joshua Project emerged in 1995 as a direct outgrowth of the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, a global evangelical initiative coordinated by Luis Bush to accelerate church planting among unreached peoples by the year 2000.^[1] Bush, an Argentine missiologist and the movement's international director, served as the primary influencer, envisioning Joshua Project 2000 as a complementary strategy to national-level evangelism efforts, prioritizing the least-evangelized ethnic groups through coordinated research and adoption by mission agencies.^[9] This approach built on Bush's earlier promotion of the 10/40 Window concept in 1989, which highlighted regions with minimal Christian presence, initially compiling a list of approximately 1,700 unreached people groups concentrated there.^[1] Intellectually, the project drew from mid-20th-century missiological frameworks emphasizing "people groups" as the primary units for evangelism, pioneered by Donald McGavran's church growth principles and Ralph D. Winter's advocacy for frontier missions. McGavran's 1955 work The Bridges of God argued for homogeneous people movements over individualistic conversions, influencing strategies to target ethnic clusters for rapid church multiplication. Winter's 1974 address at the Lausanne Congress further crystallized the unreached peoples paradigm, urging a shift from geographic nations to sociocultural ethne, which informed AD2000's—and thus Joshua Project's—focus on ethnographic profiling for strategic outreach.^[10] Early collaborations involved harmonizing disparate people group databases from global mission networks within the AD2000 framework, including Protestant and Catholic entities, to create a unified, cooperative registry for prayer, research, and agency adoption.^[1] Founding contributors hailed from diverse regions—Argentina, Malaysia, China, and India—facilitating cross-cultural input, while partnerships with organizations like the U.S. Center for World Mission (later Frontier Ventures) provided logistical support for data compilation starting in the late 1990s.^[1] These efforts mobilized hundreds of agencies to "adopt" groups, aiming to plant pioneer churches with at least 100 believers per targeted ethnos by 2000, though the project transitioned post-millennium to broader data maintenance without a fixed deadline.^[11]

Expansion and Institutionalization

Joshua Project broadened its research scope after the AD2000 and Beyond Movement concluded around 2000, shifting from an initial list of approximately 1,700 unreached people groups to a comprehensive database covering all ethnic people groups globally, with continued emphasis on those least reached by Christian evangelism.^[1] This expansion incorporated ethnic criteria beyond ethno-linguistic classifications, enhancing the utility of its data for church planting and mission strategy.^[6] From 2001 to 2005, the project operated under temporary hosting by mission organizations including World Venture, OC International, and Pioneers, as it sought sustainable administrative and financial structures amid the post-AD2000 transition.^[6] In 2006, it integrated as a ministry of the U.S. Center for World Mission (later rebranded Frontier Ventures), gaining institutional stability and resources for data maintenance and global dissemination.^[6]^[1] This affiliation endured until 2023, after which Joshua Project incorporated as an independent U.S. non-profit in 2024, formalizing its operational autonomy while preserving collaborative ties with partners like the Caleb Project and the International Communication Taskforce on Advocacy (ICTA).^[1]^[6] Institutionalization facilitated biweekly data updates and integration into broader networks such as Finishing the Task and visionSynergy, amplifying its influence on evangelical resource allocation.^[6]

Organizational Overview

Leadership and Operations

Joshua Project is led by Executive Director Chris Clayman, who assumed the role in February 2024 after prior experience in pioneer missions in West Africa and New York City.^[12]^[13] Dan Scribner serves as a foundational figure, having co-founded the initiative in 1995 and functioning as team leader and operations director for decades, with a background in missions research tied to Frontier Ventures since 1988.^[14]^[15]^[16] Other key personnel include directors such as Tom Hutton and Jan Van Der Kooij in management roles, alongside specialists like Duane Frasier as Director of People and Culture.^[17]^[18] The organization operates as a small, lean non-profit with 2-10 staff members, emphasizing resourcefulness and diligence to maintain a comprehensive database of over 17,000 people groups worldwide.^[19]^[1] Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Joshua Project Initiative Inc. was formally established as a U.S. non-profit in 2024, following prior association with Frontier Ventures from 2005 to 2023.^[1] Daily operations center on research, data verification, and content delivery to support global evangelism, with a Director of Operations overseeing internal functions including information technology, finances, and administration.^[20] Specialized roles handle people group data integrity, communications, technology infrastructure, and mobilization efforts, such as tracking adoptions of unreached groups by churches and individuals.^[21]^[22]^[23] The initiative prioritizes unreached peoples—defined as those with fewer than 2% evangelical adherents—through digital platforms, prayer resources, and strategic highlighting of the 10/40 Window regions, operating on a limited budget to facilitate prayer, advocacy, and mission prioritization without direct fieldwork.^[1]^[13]

Partnerships and Funding Sources

Joshua Project maintains formal and informal relationships with numerous ministries, organizations, and churches focused on global missions, Bible translation, and outreach to unreached peoples. These connections facilitate data sharing, prayer mobilization, and collaborative evangelism efforts, with over 25 entities listed as partners on its official resources.^[24] Key collaborations include Operation World, which aligns daily content with Joshua Project's unreached peoples data for synchronized prayer initiatives, involving regular meetings and shared datasets since at least 2022.^[25] Similarly, partnerships with Ethnologue support language and people group classifications through integrated ethnographic data, while the Jesus Film Project enables joint media distribution targeting specific ethnic groups.^[24] WorldVenture coordinates prayer events and resources for unreached groups in tandem with Joshua Project's profiles.^[26] These alliances emphasize resource efficiency and field responsiveness without centralized control.^[1] From 2005 to 2023, Joshua Project operated as a ministry under Frontier Ventures (formerly the U.S. Center for World Mission), benefiting from institutional support in research and dissemination before transitioning to independent status as a U.S. non-profit in 2024.^[1] Funding for Joshua Project derives primarily from private donations by individuals, churches, and supporters, with no disclosed reliance on government grants or corporate sponsorships. The organization solicits contributions via online platforms accepting credit cards, electronic funds transfers, and virtual checks, as well as postal mail.^[27] Legacy giving options, such as planned gifts and stock or mutual fund donations, further sustain operations, emphasizing long-term support for database maintenance and outreach tools.^[28]^[29] The Great Commission Partnership program targets churches, proposing annual allocations of $500 to $5,000 from missions budgets to fund discipleship connections to unreached groups, with goals like 500 churches at $500 each achieving full operational coverage.^[30] This model aligns with Joshua Project's values of generosity, providing most resources freely while relying on voluntary contributions to maintain neutrality and data integrity.^[1]

Core Mission and Objectives

Defining Unreached and Least-Reached Peoples

The Joshua Project defines an unreached people group as a socio-cultural group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to evangelize the group without external assistance.^[3] This definition emphasizes the absence of self-sustaining Christian witness within the group, distinguishing it from populations with nominal or institutional Christianity that may not effectively propagate the faith.^[31] Quantitatively, the project operationalizes this through thresholds of less than 2% evangelical Christians and less than 5% professing Christian adherents, ensuring the focus remains on groups with minimal access to the gospel message.^[32] ^[7] The term least-reached peoples is used interchangeably by the Joshua Project with unreached peoples, highlighting groups at the earliest stages of church-planting progress on their 1-10 Progress Scale (specifically levels 1 and 2), where evangelization requires substantial cross-cultural effort.^[3] ^[33] This scale assesses not just raw percentages but the functional capacity for indigenous growth, excluding groups with higher adherent rates that might still lack evangelical vitality.^[31] The inclusion of the 5% adherent threshold addresses scenarios where nominal Christianity exists but does not translate to active evangelism, as seen in comparisons between groups like those in Afghanistan (0% evangelicals, minimal adherents) and others with fragmented church presence.^[31] These definitions prioritize empirical metrics over self-reported beliefs, drawing from ethnographic data to identify barriers such as language, culture, and geography that impede gospel access.^[34] As of recent updates, approximately 7,188 such groups exist globally, comprising over 42% of all identified people groups and representing billions without viable Christian communities.^[35] The framework avoids conflating individual unbelief with group-level access, focusing instead on communal dynamics for strategic missionary prioritization.^[32]

Strategic Goals for Evangelism Support

The Joshua Project's strategic goals for evangelism support center on equipping the global Christian community to prioritize outreach to peoples with the least access to the gospel, thereby facilitating obedience to the Great Commission as outlined in Matthew 28:19-20.^[1] By maintaining a comprehensive database of over 17,000 people groups, the initiative identifies and highlights those classified as unreached—defined as having fewer than 2% evangelical adherents and less than 5% professing Christians—encompassing approximately 7,400 such groups as of recent assessments.^[6] This prioritization aims to direct prayer, personnel, and resources toward the most spiritually needy ethnic segments, reducing duplication in missionary efforts and maximizing Kingdom impact.^[6] A core objective is to inspire and mobilize pioneer church-planting movements within every identified people group, supporting the vision of establishing "a church for every people and the gospel for every person."^[1] To this end, the project provides free tools such as progress scales, statistical profiles, and daily highlights of unreached groups to aid mission strategists in assessing needs and coordinating activities among agencies, churches, and individuals.^[6] These resources emphasize sequential evangelism phases: initial penetration of unengaged groups (those without active church-planting efforts, numbering over 3,000), consolidation through baptisms and church formation among unreached peoples, and subsequent discipleship for maturity.^[36] The focus remains on least-reached contexts, particularly within the 10/40 Window, where over 8,500 such groups reside, to accelerate gospel advance.^[6] Evangelism support extends to fostering connections between Christians burdened for specific unreached groups and potential partners, while serving the broader missions community through accurate demographic data and verification processes.^[37] This includes catalyzing grassroots initiatives, such as adoption programs for unreached peoples, and integrating local researcher inputs to ensure data relevance for on-the-ground evangelism.^[6] Ultimately, these goals seek to glorify God by cultivating abundant Christ followers across all ethnicities, tracking progress to refine strategies without assuming completeness in any group's evangelization.^[1]

Data Methodology and Definitions

People Group Classification

Joshua Project classifies people groups primarily for evangelization purposes, defining a people group as the largest grouping of individuals within which the gospel can spread as a church planting movement without significant barriers of understanding or acceptance.^[3] This definition, originating from the 1982 Lausanne Committee, emphasizes sociological affinity over purely linguistic or national boundaries, focusing on self-perceived commonalities that facilitate natural gospel dissemination.^[34] Classification prioritizes strategic utility for missionary efforts rather than academic anthropology, resulting in approximately 17,400 distinct people groups tracked globally as of recent updates.^[38] Key factors in classification include language, culture, religion, and geography, which may combine in various ways to delineate groups, with typically one or two factors predominating.^[34] Barriers of understanding—often linguistic—define ethno-linguistic groups, while barriers of acceptance—rooted in ethnicity, caste, religion, or cultural norms—shape ethno-cultural distinctions; the highest barrier determines the boundary.^[3] Groups are not segmented by occupation, social status, or economic class, as these do not typically impede church planting movements.^[38] Examples include the Akan in Ghana, unified by language, or the Lodha in India, separated by caste, culture, and Hindu religious practices.^[38] Classification varies regionally to reflect local realities. Outside South Asia, ethno-linguistic criteria prevail, drawing from sources like Ethnologue to identify language groups and dialects requiring separate church planting projects.^[39] In South Asia—encompassing India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka—jati or community-based definitions incorporate caste, religion, location, and historical factors, as acceptance barriers often supersede language; this avoids fragmenting into over 15,000 potential subgroups by deferring linguistic subdivisions.^[39] Religion serves as a distinguisher, such as separating Hindu from Muslim subsets within castes.^[39] The classification employs a hierarchical structure: 16 affinity blocs as broad cultural spheres, subdivided into people clusters, then core people groups, and finally people-group-in-country variants to account for national contexts.^[3] People group lists integrate data from global researchers, missionaries, Ethnologue, and publications like Operation World, with biweekly updates and integrity checks to eliminate duplicates and ensure comprehensive coverage.^[39] Subgroups or clusters emerge when dialects or societal differences necessitate distinct evangelistic approaches, though simplification is applied in complex regions to maintain practicality for field workers.^[39]

Progress Scale and Metrics

The Joshua Project Progress Scale categorizes the status of church planting among people groups, clusters, countries, or languages on a spectrum from 0 to 7, estimating the maturity and multiplication of evangelical church movements.^[3] This scale emphasizes generational church growth, indigenous leadership, and self-sustaining multiplication rather than mere nominal Christian affiliation, drawing from criteria developed in collaboration with church planting experts.^[3] Level 0 denotes no intentional church planting engagement, while Level 1 represents initial purposeful evangelism with varying sub-stages (1.1 to 1.9) progressing from pioneer outreach to the emergence of near-second-generation churches.^[3] Higher levels indicate increasing generational depth: Level 2 features some second-generation churches, Level 3 consistent second- and limited third-generation churches, Level 4 consistent third- and some fourth-generation churches, Level 5 widespread fourth-generation-plus churches across multiple streams indicative of a church planting movement (CPM), Level 6 sustained CPMs with indigenous leadership yielding hundreds of churches, and Level 7 CPMs that catalyze similar movements in adjacent groups or regions.^[3] Metrics underlying the scale prioritize empirical indicators of church vitality, such as the number of church generations (defined by disciple-led reproduction), leadership localization, and multiplication rates, rather than static percentages of adherents.^[3] For instance, unreached people groups—classified under early progress levels (primarily 1)—are those with fewer than 2% evangelical adherents and 5% professing Christians, encompassing 7,626 groups (43.1% of global people groups) and 3.57 billion people (43.7% of world population) as of recent data.^[40] Progress assessments integrate field reports from missionaries and local partners, cross-referenced with sources like church planting movement studies, though Joshua Project acknowledges variability in data completeness due to restricted access in sensitive regions.^[3] The scale's application facilitates prioritization in global evangelism, with lower levels (0-1) signaling unreached or minimally engaged groups requiring pioneer efforts, while levels 5-7 highlight established movements for replication support.^[3] Estimates are not exhaustive audits but informed approximations, updated periodically via ongoing data collection from over 200 partnering organizations, emphasizing causal factors like accessibility to Scripture and evangelistic activity over self-reported affiliation.^[3] This methodology aligns with first-generation church planting frameworks but has been critiqued for potential over-reliance on anecdotal field inputs in data-scarce areas.^[3]

Data Sources and Verification Processes

Joshua Project aggregates data on ethnic people groups from a wide array of sources, including global, regional, and national researchers; on-site field workers; mission organizations; denominations; census reports; web-based research; and crowd-sourced inputs.^[2] Specific regional contributors include Asia Harvest for China, Omid for caste communities in India, and national teams in countries such as Ethiopia and Ghana, while global editorial input is provided by experts like Patrick Johnstone of Operation World.^[2] Additional key partners encompass the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (IMB-SBC), the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, the Bethany World Prayer Center, and the Harvest Information Standards consortium.^[2] Primary linguistic data draws from the Ethnologue database, which supplies ISO 639-3 codes and serves as a foundational reference for identifying language-based groups.^[41] Methodological approaches vary by region to align with church-planting objectives: outside South Asia, the focus is ethno-linguistic grouping where language forms the primary barrier to gospel understanding, whereas in South Asia (encompassing India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka), caste-based communities are emphasized due to acceptance barriers.^[41] Supplementary sources include the World Christian Database for religious demographics, the IMB's Church Planting Progress Index (CPPI) for evangelical metrics, national censuses for population baselines, and field reports from missionaries and secular researchers.^[41] Populations are annually scaled to current estimates but capped to align within 1-2% of United Nations country totals to maintain aggregate consistency.^[42]^[41] Verification emphasizes source credibility, assessed through factors such as the type, number, and agreement level across multiple inputs, alongside correlation with established datasets.^[42] Additions to the people group list occur readily upon identification of viable language splits via Ethnologue or Omid data for groups exceeding 100 individuals in South Asia, or when field workers document cultural, religious, or linguistic barriers, but removals demand conclusive evidence like source retractions, proven mergers, or corroborated field confirmations of assimilation.^[42] Data integrity checks enforce a "100% rule" ensuring segmental totals sum accurately, with expert reviews by figures like Johnstone addressing discrepancies; however, overall accuracy is described as approximate or "ballpark," varying by source quality and subject to editorial judgments.^[2]^[41] The database undergoes updates every 10-14 days based on researcher submissions, prioritizing inputs that support church-planting movements without claiming anthropological exhaustiveness.^[2]^[41]

Resources and Tools Provided

Digital Platforms and Databases

The Joshua Project maintains its primary digital platform through the official website at joshuaproject.net, which serves as a comprehensive online hub for accessing research on ethnic people groups worldwide.^[43] This platform includes searchable databases of people groups, countries, and languages, enabling users to query data by criteria such as unreached status, population size, and geographic location.^[44] Features encompass interactive maps, sortable statistics, and profiles detailing demographics, religions, and evangelism progress for individual groups.^[33] For programmatic and bulk data access, the Joshua Project offers downloadable datasets in formats like Excel and Microsoft Access, available as premade compilations (e.g., all unreached people groups) or on-the-fly exports from listings on the site.^[45] Users can also request an API key to obtain live access via a REST-based API, facilitating retrieval of structured data on people groups, countries, and languages for integration into external applications or analyses.^[46] ^[47] The API documentation includes sample code for developers, emphasizing real-time queries over static downloads.^[48] Additional digital tools include the Interactive Data Explorer, which allows users to build custom visualizations and filters for patterns in unreached peoples data.^[43] The Global Dashboard provides aggregated missions statistics, while the Global Interactive tool supports deeper engagement with global datasets.^[44] Mobile applications extend accessibility, such as the Unreached of the Day app for daily prayer resources in multiple languages.^[49] These platforms collectively support missionary planning, research, and advocacy by prioritizing verifiable, integrated data from diverse sources.^[2]

Prayer and Advocacy Materials

Joshua Project provides a range of digital and printable resources designed to facilitate prayer for unreached people groups, including prayer cards, guides, videos, and creative ideas for individual or group use.^[50] Prayer cards are offered as downloadable PDFs formatted for printing eight per page on heavy stock paper, featuring profiles of specific unreached groups with details such as population, location, and suggested prayer points to raise awareness and encourage focused intercession.^[51] These materials emphasize strategic prayer for gospel access among groups classified as having the least Christian presence.^[52] Prayer guides and the Unreached of the Day initiative deliver daily or periodic content through formats like email subscriptions, a mobile app, podcasts, calendars, and online posts, providing profiles, strategic prayer points, and updates on missionary efforts or security issues for targeted peoples.^[49] The Global Prayer Digest has been integrated into this system to streamline daily prayer materials focused on unreached groups.^[53] Additionally, prayer videos target affinity blocs such as Tribal, Hindu, Unreligious, Muslim, and Buddhist (THUMB) peoples, offering visual and narrative aids to inform and inspire prayer for evangelism breakthroughs.^[50] For advocacy, Joshua Project promotes people group adoption programs, where individuals, churches, or organizations commit to ongoing prayer, financial support, and partnership advocacy for specific unreached groups, aiming to bridge informational gaps and mobilize action.^[54] This includes weekly email updates with people group profiles, testimonies, and region-specific prayer points to sustain long-term engagement.^[43] Advocacy extends to facilitating speakers for churches and events, either in-person or virtual, to share data-driven strategies and stories highlighting the needs of frontier peoples—defined as 5,055 groups comprising nearly 2 billion individuals with minimal gospel exposure.^[55] Prayer ideas for advocacy incorporate interactive elements like card games, prayer walls, maps with overlaid cards, intercession halls, seasonal decorations, and banners to foster communal involvement and visibility for unreached groups.^[56] These tools collectively support a data-informed approach to intercession and mobilization without direct fieldwork involvement by Joshua Project.^[50]

Impact and Achievements

Role in Global Missionary Efforts

The Joshua Project serves as a central data repository for global missionary organizations, supplying detailed profiles on over 17,000 ethnic people groups to prioritize evangelism among those classified as unreached, defined as having fewer than 2% evangelical adherents and limited access to the Gospel.^[43] This data enables mission agencies to allocate resources strategically, focusing on the estimated 7,400 unreached groups comprising about 42% of the world's population, thereby directing efforts toward areas with minimal Christian presence.^[35] By integrating ethnographic, linguistic, and demographic information, the project facilitates targeted church planting initiatives, as missionaries use these profiles to identify barriers such as language or cultural resistance before deploying teams.^[45] Missionaries and agencies leverage Joshua Project's tools, including searchable databases and APIs, to coordinate fieldwork; for instance, field workers consult country-specific lists to select unreached groups for engagement, often integrating the data into prayer networks and mobilization campaigns.^[46] The project's Progress Scale, which categorizes groups from 1 (minimal church planting activity) to 7 (significant movements), provides a metric for evaluating evangelism outcomes, allowing organizations to track advancements and adjust strategies based on verified reports from on-the-ground sources.^[57] This scale has been adopted by entities like the International Mission Board and Pioneers, informing decisions on pioneer missions in resistant regions such as the 10/40 Window, where over 6,000 unreached groups reside.^[5] Through partnerships with over 200 mission groups and denominations, Joshua Project contributes to the Great Commission by fostering collaborative efforts, such as adopting unreached groups for prayer or advocacy, which has mobilized thousands of intercessors and short-term teams since the initiative's expansion in the early 2000s.^[43] Its emphasis on church-planting movements—aiming for self-sustaining fellowships within ethnic groups—aligns with historical precedents like Joshua Project 2000, which sought to establish pioneer churches in every ethno-linguistic segment by the millennium's end, influencing subsequent global strategies.^[9] Empirical tracking via the project has documented shifts, such as reductions in unreached classifications in regions like South Asia, attributable to data-driven targeting.^[57]

Empirical Contributions to Church Planting

The Joshua Project's database has empirically supported church planting by enabling precise targeting of unreached ethnic groups, where missionary efforts can yield measurable advancements in Christian adherence and church formation. As of 2024, it lists 7,626 unreached people groups encompassing 3.57 billion individuals, defined as having fewer than 2% evangelical Christians and limited gospel access, allowing agencies to direct resources toward pioneer church planting rather than saturated regions.^[43] This prioritization aligns with observed global patterns, where focused interventions in such groups have correlated with reported church planting movements (CPMs), including over 1,960 such movements documented worldwide by 2022.^[58] Central to these contributions is the Joshua Project Progress Scale, a standardized metric assessing church planting efficacy across seven levels, from Level 1 (no indigenous church planting, <2% evangelicals) to Level 7 (widespread transformational movements). Derived from field reports, census data, and mission agency inputs, the scale tracks transitions, such as groups advancing from unreached to minimally reached status through documented increases in believers and congregations. For example, mission entities like the International Mission Board have applied this framework to evaluate CPM outcomes, reporting exponential growth in disciple-making and church starts among targeted peoples, with progress updates reflecting empirical shifts in adherence rates.^[59]^[36] While direct causal attribution requires further independent longitudinal studies, the project's data integration into strategies has facilitated verifiable engagements, such as adopting frontier groups for prayer and fieldwork, leading to reported church establishments in previously unengaged clusters.^[60] Mission reports indicate that this data-informed targeting enhances efficiency, reducing duplication and amplifying outcomes in high-need areas, though outcomes vary by local factors like persecution and cultural barriers.^[39]

Quantifiable Outcomes and Case Studies

The Joshua Project's Progress Scale serves as a primary quantifiable metric for tracking church planting advancement, dividing people groups into five levels based on the percentage of evangelical Christians and presence of indigenous churches: Level 1 (<2% evangelical, unreached), Level 2 (some progress but insufficient for self-sustaining growth), Level 3 (widespread but not fully sustainable churches), Level 4 (significant movement toward multiplication), and Level 5 (>10% evangelical with established fellowships).^[40] As of October 2024, out of 17,704 total people groups, 7,626 (43.1%) remain at Level 1, encompassing 3.57 billion individuals or 43.7% of the global population.^[43] Shifts in these levels reflect aggregated field reports on gospel penetration, though causation from data usage alone is not isolated in official tracking. A 2024 user survey of 3,013 respondents, including 457 field missionaries and 395 mobilizers, highlighted the project's indirect outcomes through data-driven strategy: mission leaders cited Joshua Project resources as foundational to prioritization, with one stating successes in church establishment were "built on your resources," and field workers confirming data alignment with on-ground realities to focus efforts on high-need groups.^[61] The survey noted broader contextual progress, with the proportion of the world's population in people groups lacking breakthrough churches dropping from up to 60% fifty years prior to under 25% today, attributing part of this to improved targeting tools like Joshua Project's lists, though crediting multi-faceted missionary collaboration rather than the project singularly.^[61] Case studies of data application include efforts among affinity clusters such as the Fulani peoples, where Joshua Project profiles informed relational evangelism strategies, contributing to reported church planting movements within larger Hausa-Fulani networks by leveraging shared linguistic and cultural barriers for scaled gospel dissemination.^[62] Similarly, in the Zeme Naga group of Northeast India, project data on unreached status supported church-based Bible translation initiatives that facilitated initial church plants and discipleship, transitioning the group toward higher progress levels through indigenous-led multiplication.^[63] These examples illustrate how the project's ethnic profiling enables missions to bypass generic approaches, fostering movements, but outcomes depend on field execution and local receptivity, with no centralized tally of baptisms or congregations directly linked.^[39]

Controversies and Criticisms

Allegations of Covert Missionary Targeting

Critics, particularly from Hindu advocacy organizations and Indian media outlets, have accused the Joshua Project of facilitating covert missionary targeting by compiling and disseminating granular data on ethnic subgroups—such as castes and tribes—enabling evangelists to approach communities under the guise of humanitarian aid without explicit religious intent.^[64]^[65] These allegations center on the project's databases, which detail over 17,000 people groups worldwide, including demographics, locations, and cultural barriers in India, purportedly used to identify "unreached" Hindu and tribal populations for strategic infiltration.^[66] In Indian states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Odisha, reports claim missionaries leverage Joshua Project profiles to conduct prayer meetings employing "black magic-type occult practices" to heal illnesses, distributing substances like "Amrit Jal" (holy water) as conversion lures, while offering financial incentives such as Rs 1,500 for interfaith marriages and Rs 2,000 for baptisms.^[65] A 2024 investigation cited over 50,000 conversions in Chhattisgarh over the past decade, with villages like Meral in Jharkhand's Gumla district seeing 150 of 250 households converted through promises of free education, health camps, housing under government schemes, and employment.^[65] In Bihar's Rohtas and Gaya districts, groups like the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society (GEMS), drawing on Joshua Project data for the Nat community, allegedly use free schools to indoctrinate children via forced Christian prayers, beatings for temple visits, and expulsions for resisting conversion, framing Hinduism as false while providing meat-based meals and hygiene kits as bait.^[64] Such tactics are described as deceptive by detractors, who argue they exploit socio-economic vulnerabilities among low-caste and tribal groups without disclosing evangelical goals upfront, potentially violating anti-conversion laws in states like Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.^[67] These claims, often amplified by outlets with a pro-Hindu perspective like OpIndia and Manushi, stem from field investigations and ex-missionary testimonies, though they lack independent verification from neutral anthropological studies and reflect broader tensions over foreign-funded evangelism in India.^[65]^[64]

Responses and Denials from Joshua Project

In response to an article published by Dainik Bhaskar on August 25, 2024, alleging affiliations with entities such as the CIA, Vatican, and George Soros, as well as covert operations and funding of conversions in India, Joshua Project issued a public statement on September 9, 2024, denying these claims as factual inaccuracies.^[4] The organization emphasized that it receives no financial or other backing from political entities and operates with a small staff funded solely by modest personal donations, explicitly stating, "We do not have any agents operating in India."^[4] Joshua Project reiterated its mission as a research initiative to provide comprehensive, publicly available data on ethnic people groups worldwide, particularly those with the fewest followers of Jesus, to facilitate prayer, awareness, and ethical church planting efforts by the global Christian community.^[4] It denied any involvement in or endorsement of paid religious conversions, affirming a commitment to integrity, transparency, and voluntary response to the gospel, with the stated goal: "Our sincere desire is to see the blessing of Christ extended to every people group."^[4] The organization clarified that its data compilation draws from open sources like censuses, academic studies, and field reports, without targeting individuals or engaging in surveillance, and is intended to highlight unreached groups rather than enable covert activities.^[4] No evidence of agents, financial inducements, or unethical data practices was acknowledged or substantiated in their denial, positioning the project as a neutral informational resource rather than an operational entity.^[4]

Broader Debates on Evangelism Data Ethics

Critics of databases like the Joshua Project argue that compiling detailed profiles of ethnic groups, including population sizes, locations, and religious affiliations, facilitates targeted evangelism without the consent of profiled communities, potentially infringing on collective privacy and cultural autonomy.^[67] In contexts such as India, where the project identifies over 2,200 unreached people groups comprising nearly 95% of the population, such data collection has been portrayed as enabling systematic proselytism aimed at demographic shifts, particularly among tribal populations vulnerable to external influences.^[67]^[68] These concerns extend to broader ethical questions about whether aggregating ethnographic data for religious outreach respects indigenous self-determination or instead treats communities as strategic objectives, echoing debates in missionary anthropology over power imbalances in cross-cultural engagement. Methodological critiques further highlight ethical risks in evangelism data, such as the Joshua Project's reliance on varying sources for "unreached" classifications—defined as groups with less than 2% evangelical adherents and inadequate self-sustaining churches—which may oversimplify fluid identities or inflate the scope of mission needs.^[2] Scholars have questioned the biblical and sociocultural validity of prioritizing ethnic "people groups" over individual agency, arguing that this paradigm can lead to essentialized views of cultures, potentially justifying interventions that disrupt social fabrics under the guise of gospel access.^[69] In regions like tribal India or Brazil's indigenous areas, such categorizations have drawn accusations of fostering separatism or ignoring local resistance to external mapping efforts, even during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.^[70]^[71] Proponents counter that these databases adhere to ethical standards by drawing from public censuses, anthropological studies, and global researchers without collecting personal identifiers or funding coercive activities, framing the data as tools for prayer mobilization and strategic church planting rather than surveillance.^[2]^[4] The Joshua Project explicitly denies involvement in political conspiracies or paid conversions, emphasizing transparency in its methodology and rejection of inaccuracies in media portrayals, such as unsubstantiated claims of foreign intelligence ties.^[4] This defense aligns with missiological ethics prioritizing voluntary response to religious information, positing that withholding data on underserved groups perpetuates informational inequities akin to other global development disparities. Nonetheless, the tension persists between evangelism's imperative to reach isolated populations—evidenced by over 17,000 tracked groups worldwide—and evolving data protection norms that demand explicit community input, underscoring a need for missions to integrate accountability measures like periodic audits and stakeholder consultations.^[43]^[68]

Recent Developments

2024 User Survey and Strategic Adjustments

In mid-2024, Joshua Project launched an online survey via Microsoft Forms, running from mid-March to mid-August, to assess user impact, future priorities, strategic direction, and resource needs among its global audience of missionaries, researchers, mission leaders, donors, and others.^[72]^[61] After excluding 50 anomalous responses, the survey garnered 3,013 valid replies, primarily from English-speaking users with over-representation from the United States, though promoted internationally via email lists like Unreached of the Day subscribers, social media, and mission networks.^[61]^[73] Respondents overwhelmingly affirmed Joshua Project's value, with 100% across roles identifying it as a key resource for missions, including high confirmation from field missionaries that data aligns with on-ground realities despite rapid changes due to urbanization and migration.^[61] Mission organization leaders reported significant benefits for strategic planning, rated on a 1-7 scale. Top priorities highlighted included identifying unreached people groups, mapping least-access areas, and providing tools for prayer and mobilization. Users requested enhancements such as greater accuracy in evangelical population estimates and people group identities, addition of city-level data, and implementation of crowdsourced features akin to a wiki for collaborative updates.^[72]^[61] Among missiologists, 46% emphasized focusing on larger affinity or language-based groupings over smaller segments.^[61] In response, Joshua Project announced strategic adjustments to address feedback and evolving global dynamics, including adoption of a "People Group Across Country" (PGAC) framework to consolidate data from approximately 17,000 to around 10,000 groups for efficiency.^[73] Plans encompass a full website and app redesign starting in 2025, tailored for younger users and those in the Majority World, alongside hiring a communications and marketing director by late 2024 to expand outreach.^[72]^[73] Staff expansion targets tripling by year-end 2024 and increasing tenfold by 2025, with emphasis on global field teams for improved data collection via software and networks to handle exponential data growth.^[61] These shifts aim to sustain relevance amid demographic shifts, while integrating user-suggested features like enhanced urban mapping.^[73] Concurrently, Joshua Project formalized as a U.S. non-profit organization in 2024 to support these operational expansions.^[1]

Ongoing Data Updates and Expansions

Joshua Project updates its website data approximately every two weeks, integrating inputs from global researchers, regional and national sources, on-site field workers, mission organizations, denominations, census records, web-based research, and crowd-sourced contributions to maintain a consistent global overview of people groups.^[2] Populations within the database are scaled annually to the current year, adjusting for estimated growth based on underlying source data while acknowledging varying accuracy levels dependent on editorial decisions and source quality.^[46]^[2] The project's people group list undergoes ongoing maintenance via a policy prioritizing additions over removals to support church-planting focus rather than static anthropological catalogs.^[42] New groups are routinely added upon identification by credible entities, such as SIL Ethnologue for language-based splits, Omid for South Asian populations exceeding 100 individuals, or field reports highlighting distinct language, religion, or cultural barriers; this "easy to add" criterion ensures expansions capture emerging ethnic distinctions without requiring exhaustive proof.^[42] Removals, conversely, demand conclusive evidence—like proven mergers, duplicates, or non-viable language use—and involve case-by-case review with input from partners, with affected groups archived (including PeopleID, name, removal date, and rationale) for possible reinstatement upon new evidence.^[42] These processes facilitate database expansions, as total people group counts reflect cumulative integrations from sources like the World Christian Database and IMB's CPPI, with totals aligned to stay within 1-2% of United Nations country population figures.^[42] Contributors, including users, are prompted to submit targeted refinements such as statistical corrections, photographs, or maps, enabling iterative improvements in data granularity and coverage.^[74] This crowdsourced and policy-driven approach underscores Joshua Project's commitment to actionable, evolving datasets amid dynamic ethnographic realities.^[2]

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Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the fewest followers of Christ.
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The Director of Communications develops and oversees the sharing of Joshua Project's vision, data, people profiles, news and opportunities to a global audience.
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Donate Online. Secure donations can be made by credit card, virtual check or EFT. · Donate by Postal Mail. Checks payable to: "Joshua Project" · More Ways to Give.
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As a legacy donor, you'll have the confidence of knowing your are catalyzing ministry among unreached people groups, now and in the future. Some types of Legacy ...
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Donation Assistance. To discuss giving options or for help regarding donations, please email [email protected] or call (877) 678-7323.
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None
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### Summary of Joshua Project 2024 Survey Results
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