Joshua Project 2000 Data Background

Joshua Project 2000 is an evangelism plan that came out of the process of the AD2000 and Beyond Movement focusing on a list of approximately 2000 people groups that most need a church planting movement. The peoples listed are ethno-linguistically distinct, over 10,000 in population, less than 2% Evangelical and less than 5% Christian. Data has been compiled from many sources including: Wycliffe Bible Translators, Southern Baptist Convention, Operation World, Adopt-A-People Clearinghouse, U.S. Center for World Mission and the AD2000 and Beyond Movement. Errors may exist in the data and the numeral 0 may at times mean unknown. This information may be used to promote prayer and church planting efforts.

Please submit any corrections or updates to Dan Scribner at: dan@ad2000.org. Dan will review all changes with the PIN editorial review board. The review board of Ron Rowland, John Gilbert, Keith Butler, and Patrick Johnstone will evaluate all submitted information for inclusion in future revisions of the list.

Field Descriptions

People Information Network Fields

The following fields are supplied by PIN, the People Information Network. PIN is a network of some 140 Mission Agencies in 40 Countries who are committed to networking together in the sharing of information about peoples and languages.

People Name (shown at the top of the page): Name of the specific unreached ethno-linguistic people to which the data refers. (Source: P.I.N.)
Country:: Country where this people is located. The same people may live in more that one country. (Source: P.I.N.)
Language Spoken:: The primary language spoken by this people.
Population of People in this Country:: Number of this people within this country. (Source: P.I.N.)
Population of People in the World: Number of this people group in the whole world.
Percent Christians of People in this Country:: Percentage of this people within this country who are identified as being Christian adherents. Blanks indicate data is unknown at this time. Christian is defined as one who claims to be an adherent to the Christian religion. This includes professing and affiliated adults and also their children (practicing and non-practicing). This is the broadest possible classification of Christian and includes the six ecclesiological types of Christians: Protestant, Roman Catholic, Other Catholic, Orthodox, Foreign marginal and Indigenous marginal as defined in Operation World. This is a definition based on the self-confession of the individual, not his or her ecclesiology, theology or religious commitment and experience. (Source: P.I.N.) [1].
Number of Evangelicals of People in this Country:: Percentage of this people, within this country, who are identified as Evangelicals. Blanks indicate data is unknown at this time. [2].
Percent Evangelicals of People in this Country:: Percentage of this people group, within this country, who are identified as Evangelicals [2].
Latitude, Longitude:: The approximate latitude and longitude for this people group.
GMI Map Code:: A code for use with Global Mapping International's software mapping programs. The first triad is the language code from the Ethnologue data base, the second is the ISO3166 country code, and the third is a code indicating if the map software should identify a point or a polygon.
ROPAL Code:: This is the unique code assigned to each ethno-linguistic group represented in the Registry of Peoples and Languages. It does not change if the language is spoken in different countries. The ROPAL code normally begins with the three letters of the Ethnologue code, from which the ROPAL code has been developed. The two numbers which follow the letters represent distinct dialects of the language.
Affinity BLOC:: All the peoples in the list, who either live in the 10/40 Window or have cultural roots in the area, are broadly grouped into 12 blocs with affinities based on language, culture, religion, politics. In nearly every Bloc there are widely dissimilar and unrelated linguistic minorities, but often there is one particular culture that is dominant.
People Cluster:: Within each Affinity Bloc are a number of more closely related peoples which, for strategic purposes, may be clustered together. These relationships are often based on a common identity of language and name but sometimes on the basis of culture, religion, economy, or dominance of one group over another. Most peoples in the List may be grouped in this way in People "Clusters" and almost all have total populations of over one million. In each Affinity Bloc are a number of, usually, smaller peoples which do not easily fit into the 140 or so Gateway Peoples listed here; these are grouped in the category "Other". It is likely that each People Cluster will need an international partnership of Christian churches and agencies for the effective evangelization of each constituent people.
Race Code:
Church Planting Status: 0 = Nothing happening, no known believers
1 = No known churches, individual believers
2 = One known church of believers
3 = A group of churches, no missiological breakthrough
4 = Missiological breakthrough, ready for DAWN-type program
5 = A discipled church, churches widely spread through the people
Summary of Mission Agencies Work Among: 0 = Nothing happening, no agency or group targeting
1 = At least one mission agency, called and committed evangelizers
2 = At least one agency with evangelizers on site
3 = Multiple agencies committed and involved in outreach
4 = A functioning partnership of committed agencies
5 = People with missions sending vision

Additional People Group Information

Many of these fields are supplied by the Foreign Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Complete Bible:

The year a complete Bible translation was available in this language, or "No" if still not available.

New Testament:

The year the entire New Testament translation was available in this language, or "No" if still not available.

Bible Portions:

The year in which portions of the Bible were translated into this language, or "No" if still not available.

Jesus Film Complete:

Yes, if the Jesus Film is available for this people group, otherwise No.

Jesus Film In-Process:

Yes, if the Jesus Film is currently in-process for this people group, otherwise No.

Christian Radio Broadcast:

Yes, if Christian Radio Broadcasting is currently available for this people, otherwise No. Further explanation of the "Yes" will be added in the coming weeks.

Audio Recording of Gospel

Yes, if audio Gospel recordings are available for this people group, otherwise No.

Priority Ranking:

The Priority field is an attempt to rank these peoples according to ministry need. The scale is from 1 (highest priority) to 9 (lowest priority). This ranking was generated by a weighted factoring of the following five items in the Joshua Project data:

Percent Evangelical - 30%
Church Planting Status - 25%
Ministry tools (availability of Bible, Radio, Audio and Jesus Film) - 20%
Agency Involvement - 15%
Population Size - 10%

For example, a group with no known evangelicals, no known churches, no ministry tools, no agency involvement and a large population received a priority of 1. This is admittedly an imperfect ranking methodology because a zero or a blank in the data can actually mean zero or can simply mean unknown. Thus unknown data tends to skew the ranking toward a higher priority than may be actually true.

Bethany Profile Production Project:

The Bethany World Prayer Center is producing official, up-to-date profiles for the Joshua Project 2000 people groups.

If the phrase Official Electronic Joshua Project Profile is hilighted next to the Bethany Profile Production Project heading, you may click there to go directly to a World Wide Web copy of the Bethany profile for this people group.

Research Complete:: A Yes indicates Bethany has research information for the people, but may not have a completed profile. Several stages are involved in completing a profile -- researching, writing, editing and acquiring a photo and location map of the people. Bethany is in need of more research information for any of the peoples that do NOT have a Yes.
Picture on File:: A Yes indicates a photo has been acquired: Bethany has a photograph of this people. Bethany is in need of clear photos of each of the peoples that do NOT have an Yes.
Map on File:: A Yes indicates Bethany has a map completed: Bethany has completed a location map of this people. Bethany is in need of mapping information of the peoples that do NOT have an Yes.
Profile Complete:: A Yes indicates this profile is complete.

Links to more Information, Profiles or Photos:

These are World Wide Web links to more information relating to this people group. The information may be prayer profiles, reports from on-site teams, photos, or even secular information.

URL: This is the World Wide Web URL (Universal Resource Locator). It is a clickable field which will take you to the source of information listed there.
Type: This indicates the type of information to be found at that location. The types supported today are: Profile (a prayer profile or research team report), Photo (online photographs of the people or region), Secular (non-Christian missions information), or Other.
Source: This indicates the source of the information. Typically a missions agency.

Others Involved with this Group:

This section lists those organizations which are known to be working with this people group.

For some people groups (those marked with an asterisk (*) after this heading) only summary information is provided to protect the individuals and organizations working with that people.

Organization: Organization names who are involved with working with or being an advocate or information clearing house for this people group.
Contact Type: What type of involvement this organization has with this people group.

Notes:

Christian is defined as:
One who claims to be an adherent of the Christian religion. This includes professing and affiliated adults and also their children (practising and non-practising) who reside in a given area or country, or who are of a particular ethno-linguistic or ethno-cultural people in the listing below. This is the broadest possible classification of Christian and includes the six ecclesiological types of Christians: Protestant, Roman Catholic, Other Catholic, Orthodox, Foreign marginal, Indigenous marginal as defined in Operation World. This is a definition based on the self-confession of the individual, not his or her ecclesiology, theology or religious commitment and experience. The major emphasis in this listing is Protestant Evangelicalism.
Evangelical Christian is defined as:
The subdivision of Protestantism (including Anglicans and non-Western evangelical groups) which generally emphasizes:
1. The Lord Jesus Christ as the sole source of salvation through faith in Him.
2. Personal faith and conversion with regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
3. A recognition of the inspired Word of God as the only basis for faith and Christian living.
4. Commitment to biblical preaching and evangelism that brings others to faith in Christ.
These definitions come from "Operation World" by Patrick Johnstone

11/10/98