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Institute of Tribal Studies |
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The Institute of Tribal Studies (ITS) was originally founded by Don Richardson in the late 1980's and was located at the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, California. I became director of the ITS in 1992 when we lived in Pasadena. We relocated our ministry base to South Texas in 1994 and Don Richardson allowed us to bring the ITS files with us at that time.
The Institute of Tribal Studies is
primarily tribal research and data. We have files on every country
in the world. What we want to do is gather accurate information on
unreached tribes and then formulate the data into PEOPLE PROFILES.
These people profiles will then be used by prospective tribal
missionaries as they seek direction for where to target their
evangelistic and church planting ministries. Our desire is to help
direct new missionaries to tribes who are most in need of the gospel
and to avoid over exposure in places where the gospel has already
gained a foot hold. All unreached tribes are not equally unreached. I use a one to ten scale to determine what extent a tribe is still unreached. A one or two on the scale denotes a tribe who has never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Unbelievably, there are still places where the name of Christ has never penetrated. A three or four on the scale represents a tribe where there has been some evangelistic activity and possibly a few believers are scattered throughout the tribe. Five or six indicates a small church has been established and is functioning with national leadership, perhaps still under the oversight of the church planter. Seven on the scale depicts a tribe with a strong fellowship of believers operating under national leadership. However, tribes are still considered unreached until they are significant enough in number and maturity to complete the task of evangelizing their own tribe without external assistance. A tribe ceases to be considered "unreached" when it becomes fully functional without foreign support or oversight.
As we get tribal data condensed into people profiles they will be listed here as links. |