Q. About how many volunteers come to the MAC region each year?
A. Through the IMB volunteer process we get between 6,000 and 8,000 volunteers each year. We also get another 4,000 to 6,000 volunteers from Southern Baptist Convention churches who work outside the IMB process. Other denominations and churches send another 20,000 each year to the MAC region.
Q: It sounds like MAC actually wants me to take my volunteer team to some other region!
A: We do! We know we'll continue to get many thousands of volunteers each year, while missionaries in other regions would love to have a fraction of the number of teams that come to MAC. You can find out about opportunities for volunteers in other regions by contacting our MAC volunteer coordinator.
Q: Our team just wants to do some construction work. Our team could just do some building and not get in the way of missionaries who are trying to preach to the lost. Is that a problem?
A: Well, really, it could be. Sometimes the work we do with the best of intentions could actually get in the way of reaching the lost. What we would like to ask you to begin doing is to ask different questions. For example, instead of asking, "This is what we would like to do, where can you use us?" begin asking "What needs to be done so that everyone has the opportunity to hear, understand, and respond to the Gospel?" Instead of asking, "What will this trip mean for me?" begin asking "What will be the impact on Kingdom growth?" From time to time missionaries will request construction teams for very specific projects. However, our focus continues to be changing the spiritual destiny of millions of people who live in a world without hope. For information on how your church can be more strategically involved in Kingdom growth, participate in one of our Frontliners Conferences.
Q: Who can I contact to learn more about volunteering?
A: One of our regional volunteer strategists can answer your questions and help you and your team find the right assignment.
- E-mail: rvs@macregion.org
- Call: 954-495-6194 (in the U.S.)
Q: Now you've got me curious. Maybe we should think about other parts or the world. Is there a list somewhere of volunteer needs in other regions of the world?
A: Sure, you can find lots of information at the volunteer section of the IMB web site.
- Or send an e-mail to vim@imb.org
- Or call: 800-999-3113, option 3
Q: Our pastor wants our volunteers to go to the same place and do the same thing every year. How can I get him to consider other possibilities?
A: Besides praying for him, ask your pastor to go with you to a Frontliners Conference led by MAC missionaries. Frontliners is a course that takes missions-minded believers like you and your pastor - people who already get the why of missions - deeper into the how of strategic involvement. "Frontliners caused me to change my whole approach to missions," said one pastor who attended.
To learn more:
- Visit the MAC Region Frontliners page.
- E-mail: frontliners@macregion.org
Q: I've seen the MAC region's slogan, "We plant multiplying churches." What do you mean by "multiplying churches"?
A: A "multiplying church" is one that reproduces by beginning other congregations. All of our strategies are focused on planting churches that will plant other churches, accelerating the spread of the Gospel among a given people group. Our slogan reminds us not to just plant a new church, but to plant new churches that have the same heart of seeing others come to Christ and gather as maturing believers in church.
Q: What's the big deal about planting churches? I thought our main task is to share Jesus with lost people.
A: Christ's Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) calls every believer to make disciples of all nations. It also commands us to baptize new converts and teach them to obey our Lord. Global missions should result in new churches because all Christians need a body of believers to help them grow spiritually. The Bible teaches that idea in the stories of Paul's missionary journeys, recorded in Acts. On each of those journeys, Paul left behind new believers and new churches, and developing leaders.
Q: How many new churches were started last year in the MAC region?
A: 907
Q: How many new believers were baptized last year in MAC?
A: 44,125
Q: How many lost people live in the region?
A: Approximately 178,000,000
Q: How many languages are spoken in MAC?
A: 244
Q: What are the main religions of this region's people?
A: Christianity in many denominations, Roman Catholicism (often mixed with pagan and animistic religions), Hinduism, Islam, Santeria, Voodoo and many animistic tribal religions.
Q: An IMB missionary spoke at our church last year. She kept talking about "people groups" and "unreached people groups." What do those terms mean?
A: Missions experts define a people group as "the largest group through which the Gospel can flow without encountering significant barriers of understanding and acceptance." Each of the world's people groups has its own language, culture and understanding of the spiritual world. You can think of a people group as sort of the lowest common denominator of culture and language, how people identify themselves. You may hear an IMB missionary refer to a UPG, that's just short for Unreached People Group. To be categorized as "unreached" a people group must have at least 98% of their members lost without Christ."
Q: How many people groups are in the MAC region?
A: 530 distinct people groups. We have divided some of these further for strategy purposes, giving us a total of 719 groups.
Q: How many unreached people groups live in MAC?
A: 257 unreached people groups.
Q: So, how many people are we talking about in all the MAC unreached groups?
A: There are about 6.4 million unreached in MAC.
Q: How can our church and our volunteers help to share Jesus with them?
A: Glad you asked. MAC's Strategy Coordinator (SC) Church program may be just the challenge your church needs. An SC Church accepts full responsibility for reaching an unreached people group that no missionaries are working with. In fact, an SC Church does the same work and gets the same training as an IMB strategy coordinator, a missionary who creates and implements a strategy for starting churches among an unreached group.
To find out more:
- Visit the MAC Region SC Church page.
- E-mail: scchurch@macregion.org
Q: I don't think our congregation is ready to be the only missionaries among an unreached group. But we want to make a difference. What else could we do to help reach one of these groups?
A: The IMB has several programs that link stateside churches to unreached people groups all over the world. PeopleLink can connect your church with an IMB missionary team already working with an unreached group. You'll get training and a "coach" to help you through the process. Or, through a program called PrayerPlus, you can adopt an unreached people group no missionaries are working with.
Q: Since so many people in the MAC region have at least heard about Jesus, why do we have so many missionaries there?
A: Good question. It's one our regional leadership often asks our own MAC missionaries. Of course, hearing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Him as Savior. And clearly our work is not done in MAC! But there is a great need for more workers in the "10/40 Window," the wide geographical band from North Africa to Southeast Asia containing most of the people who have yet to hear the Gospel. Some MAC missionaries have sensed God's call to that part of the world. But they're not the only workers God is leading from MAC to the "10/40 Window." Across the MAC region, God's Spirit is calling hundreds of national Christians to take the gospel to "the ends of the earth." As national believers move from being a "mission field" to a "mission force," MAC missionaries are training many of them for that task. MAC missionaries also mobilize other national Christians for global missions praying and giving.
Q: Where in MAC do most of the unreached people groups live?
A: Mexico. There are 114 unreached people groups in Mexico.
Q: Across the MAC region, what's the largest unreached people group that no missionaries are working with?
A: The largest UPG that is not engaged by our missionaries is the Deaf of Mexico, of which there are 525,000. The next largest group after that are the 64,000 Totonaca-Yecuatla of Mexico.
Q: What's the largest unreached people group that MAC missionaries are working with?
A: The Pokomam of Guatemala, 696,272 people
Q: How can I find out more about the MAC region?
A: Visit us often here at macregion.org. You can read or download our weekly prayer guide, learn about MAC's people groups and countries and find links to the web sites of some of our region's missionaries. You can even get tracts and other resources to use on future mission trips.
Q: If MAC missionaries don't really need more volunteer help, what do they need from us?
A: Please do not hear us say that we do not need more volunteers to assist us with the task in the MAC Region. It is true that most of our missionaries are saturated with teams, but there are other options available. For example, our Gospel Saturation project, Operation GO, missionaries are always looking for more teams. Or, with the appropriate training we can show you how to be strategically involved in the task without MAC missionary presence.
Pray. As always, we never feel that we have enough prayer support. Any missionary will tell you that prayer is the most important work of global missions.
To learn how you can pray for missionaries in the MAC Region:
- E-mail: pray@macregion.org.
- Download this week's MAC prayer guide from macregion.org.
