Southern Baptists Unveil People Groups Data

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Southern Baptist Convention's two prominent mission groups launched a joint website offering a detailed breakdown of people groups all across North America.

In a joint ceremony on Wednesday, the North American and International Mission Boards introduced www.peoplegroups.info, a critical element for mission groups designed to identify "segments of lostness" among all people groups, according to NAMB President Roy Fish, the Baptist Press reported.

Less than one year in the making, the People Groups database breaks down each state, city or zip code by nationality, language spoken at home and ancestry. The website also gives caution that the gathered data comes from census data and reports from volunteers and has not been completely verified.

Presented data is mainly offered to indicate the presence of people groups and current ministry among them in an effort to help make churches more effective in evangelism, church planting and dispatching missionaries.

“The face of North America is changing," said Ed Stetzer, director for NAMB’s Center for Missional Research, according to Baptist Press. According to Stetzer, the foreign-born population in the United States increased from 4.7 to almost 13 percent since 1970.

"By 2050, it’s predicted that half of the U.S. population will be of a different race than non-Hispanic white," he further noted. "North America is becoming a mosaic of people groups representing hundreds of languages, nationalities and religions.”

Recognizing the increasing diversity on the continent, evangelism and church planting have been geared toward reaching the different people groups.

In 2005, 59 percent of the 1,725 churches Southern Baptists started were either African American or ethnic congregations, said Fish.

"We are a denomination committed to reaching across racial, ethnic and cultural lines with the Gospel," Fish added.

The missions focus overseas is becoming more the same with the missions focus in the states.

"More and more, we are finding that the people groups of the world, which are the focus of our international mission efforts, are also represented among our own population in the United States," said IMB's president, Jerry Rankin.

The People Groups website is available to the public.