Reaching People Groups in the US

By Chad Vandiver

Do you have a strategy for reaching people groups in your local community?  Below you will find a great opportunity for local outreach through the People Group Champions Project.  If you already have a strategy in place, look for ways to improve your strategy through the model below.

The People Group Champions Project is for college students in churches called to embrace an ethnolinguistic people group in their city and reach them for Christ.  Training and coaching is provided for the church to serve in the role of a missionary to reach that people group both locally and globally.  The project’s emphasis is on people groups of Eastern cultures and religions. 

Involvement is possible on four levels:

•       Level 1: Awareness

•        Teaches students how to prayer walk in a people group’s community

•        Provides instruction on how to embrace and identify a people group

•        Gives helpful hints on how to research and begin to understand a people group by asking strategic questions

•        Helps students develop a prayer strategy for a people group’s community

•       Level 2: Engagement

•        Introduces students to a people group’s worldview

•        Teaches students how to begin developing long term relationships within a people group’s community

•        Helps students to discover and develop ministry opportunities amongst a people group

•        Provides students with Biblical methods for implementing contextualized evangelism amongst a people group

•       Level 3: Transformation

•       Gives students Biblical passages that can be used for leading a member of a people group to faith in Jesus Christ

•       Helps students understand how to develop genuine relationships within a people group that facilitate conversion to Christianity

•       Provides students with an introduction to the people group’s history and culture

•       Level 4: Modeling

•       Developing a church planting strategy amongst a people group

•       Expanding a local network of Christians within a people group

•       Expanding an international network of Christians within a people group

•       Teaching other churches and Christians how to practice Biblical outreach amongst a people group

Once a level is implemented and some positive experiences have been gained, the church can decide to move to the next level.  If interested please contact Chad Vandiver at cvandiver@sbtexas.com or 817.552.2500.