• For every million Christians, 186 missionaries.
• For every million Tribal peoples, 51 missionaries.
• For every million Non-religious people, 11 missionaries.
• For every million Muslims, three missionaries.
• For every million Jewish people, 59 missionaries.
• For every million Hindus, six missionaries
• For every million Chinese, six missionaries.
• For every million Buddhists six missionaries.
• For every million other people, ten missionaries

Most missionaries are helping Christians. Yet we have the scriptures to guide us: “I will sing your praise among the Gentiles” (Psalm 108:3) This scripture guided Paul; he quotes it in his letter to the Romans (chapter 15, verse 10). It guided Paul to go to the regions beyond. How does the reader feel about this?

William Carey prepared a long, impressive chart full thousands of mission facts when he proposed that his Bible study companions form themselves into a mission agency to send him to non-Christians in the regions beyond. You can see Carey’s chart here. [1] It was very important to Carey that his Bible study companions had the facts. Christians have always studied the Bible and the facts to understand the mission priorities. The highest priority is the hundreds of unengaged peoples, mainly Muslim and Hindu peoples, among whom there are no missionaries and no Christians. Read more about this highest mission priority here.

I am thinking of the Bible study on mission that Paul wrote to the Romans:

Christ confirmed the promises made to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name.”Again, it says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles with his people.”And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, sing praises to him, all you peoples.” And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the Gentiles, and the Gentiles will hope in him” (Romans 15:8-12).

Dear reader, we study the Bible to understand the highest mission priority. This means we must turn from some of lower mission interests. We must redirect. We examine the charts and statistics to be certain of where the mission priority is the greatest. We proceed accordingly. That is how William Carey lived; that is the guidance he gave at the start of the modern missionary era. In our day we can complete the task of sending missionaries to the hundreds of unengaged Muslim and Hindu peoples.

[1] . Scroll to page 39 to see Carey’s detailed presentation on the populations of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.