Strategy, intelligence, and theology for reaching the world's least-reached peoples. The harvest is plentiful — and the workers are rising.
Core articles on the global harvest
A seven-paper working series on the Harvest Fields framework — biblical rationale, strategic implications, and the practical shape of the Core Missionary Task.
Short-form explainers — one concept, a couple of minutes. Play here or download for later.
Longer-form conversations on missions strategy, field intelligence, and technology advancing the Great Commission
A shared scale from no activity to sustained gospel presence — so the whole Great Commission community speaks the same language
Cumulative groupings that serve different audiences — from sending churches casting vision to field teams needing tactical clarity on exactly what the work ahead requires
"The peoples and places of a given region with a shared identity in need of the core missionary task."
— IMB Harvest Fields DefinitionEthno-linguistic peoples — the ethne — held together with the sub-divisions and urban concentrations where they live. Our aim is gospel progress for all peoples; the arena of the mission is places.
Rooted in the biblical regions where early missionary teams worked — Judea, Samaria, Galatia, Macedonia. Locally-recognized areas that may or may not follow modern geo-political lines.
The outer boundary of a harvest field — what gives multiple peoples and places a sense of togetherness, whether cultural, linguistic, ethnic, geographic, or some combination of all of those.
Prioritizing contexts where Christ is largely unknown and the local church is insufficient to make Him known without outside help. We assess the state of the church and align deployment and strategy accordingly.
Entry, Gospel, Discipleship, Church Formation, Leadership Development, and Exit — each permeated by Abiding and Prayer. Outside workers cross boundaries to engage a Harvest Field with the CMT, equipping the emerging local harvest force toward ownership.
Biblical mission has long prioritized peoples — the ethno-linguistic ethne of Matthew 28. Harvest Fields adds "places" to that frame. The forces of globalization, urbanization, migration, and digitization have reshaped how the gospel flows and how people self-identify. Mission strategy has to reflect that.
The aim is gospel progress for all peoples — but the arena of the mission is peoples and places together. Both must be understood for the Core Missionary Task to take root.
"After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb."— Revelation 7:9
"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."— Matthew 9:37–38