100 UPG Cooperative

Catalyzing church planting movements among 100 unreached people groups.

Cooperative Partners

  • Redeemer
  • The Austin Stone
  • The Village
  • Frontiers
  • Launch Global
  • Reliant

Our Story

Mission Work

In 2014, The Austin Stone Community Church began asking God for a greater vision for the unreached. At the same time, God was also giving Redeemer Church in Lubbock and The Village Church in Dallas/Ft. Worth an even deeper desire to see Jesus known among unreached people groups.

Three different churches. Three different cities. One vision. One desire.

Through much prayer and discernment, these churches linked arms with Frontiers, Launch Global, and Reliant Mission to form the 100 UPG Cooperative. Together, our vision is to catalyze church planting movements among 100 unreached people groups.

FAQs

What is the 100 UPG Cooperative?
The 100 UPG Cooperative is a partnership of churches, ministries, and leaders that aims to accelerate the fulfillment of the Great Commission by catalyzing church planting movements in 100 unreached people groups (UPGs).
What’s an unreached people group (UPG)?

Members of a people group share a common history, language, cultural identity, and worldview. It’s the largest ethnic grouping of people within which the Gospel can flow without barriers to understanding.

A people group is unreached if it has no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to engage its people with the Gospel. Unreached people groups have less than 2% evangelical Christians and less than 5% professing Christians.

What’s a church planting movement?

A church planting movement is the multiplication of churches planting churches—and disciples making disciples—within a given people group or population.

What do you think about Church Planting Movements?

Please see this paper for our perspective on Church Planting Movements.

How do you define a church?

A group becomes a church when they meet the following requirements:

  • They gather as baptized believers in Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).
  • They gather in submission to the teaching of the Bible. (Acts 6:4; Hebrews 4:12-13).
  • For the worship of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 14:26).
  • For the service of each other and others outside the church (Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25).
  • They administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper (Matthew 28:17-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
How will the 100 UPG Cooperative keep attrition rates low?

The 100 UPG Cooperative fosters a culture of perseverance through suffering and overcoming obstacles together. Through extensive training and coaching, goers are equipped for faithfulness and fruitfulness for the long term.

The 100 UPG Cooperative also ensures that goers engage in ongoing peer and mentor coaching to help them persevere in ministry. Care and coaching are provided by fellow goers in locations that are geographically close to unreached regions. Some goers are members of missions organizations that offer additional pastoral coaching.

I’ve heard that the Cooperative partners with hubs. What are the purposes of these hubs?

The 100 UPG Cooperative model partners with three different types of hubs:

  • Phase 1 Hubs equip the local church for the Great Commission by building networks of goers, senders, and mobilizers. These hubs train goers in church planting principles and send them to unreached people groups.
  • Phase 2 Hubs are located in unreached contexts where goers are coached for 1–3 years as they adapt and refine their strategies to the local context. Phase 2 Hubs also mobilize and train national believers for church planting movements.
  • Care Hubs are places where care coaches and other support specialists gather to serve goers. Care Hubs are regionally based, providing goers with easy access to critical support that sustains their health, holiness, and happiness as they serve among the unreached.
Do goers have to raise their own support?

Most goers raise their own financial support. For this reason, Phase 1 Hubs are designed to foster a culture of sending within the church. This culture of sending infuses local churches with networks of support that will help fund and sustain goers for the long term. In this way, the entire body of believers is engaged in the task of the Great Commission.

Where is the 100 UPG Cooperative headquartered?

The 100 UPG Cooperative is a global ecosystem of ministries, leaders, teams, and churches. There is no one centralized headquarters for the Cooperative. The sending churches are located in the USA and the International Field Offices are located in Western Europe and Southeast Asia.

Why not keep the traditional model of missions, in which a single church partners with a single mission agency to send their missionary?

The 100 UPG Cooperative pursues greater cooperation between churches and ministries to leverage each other’s strengths in working toward the Great Commission. Instead of having churches navigate the complex world of missions on their own, the 100 UPG Cooperative helps by actively and strategically placing goers on church planting teams among unreached people groups.

By revising the traditional model of missions, the 100 UPG Cooperative seeks greater efficiency, less overlap, and stronger synchronization between necessary mission services, systems, and entities.

How can my ministry join the 100 UPG Cooperative?

The 100 UPG Cooperative works with carefully selected sending agencies. The partnership between the 100 UPG Cooperative and these preferred agencies is nurtured through relationships between individuals and the organizations themselves. To learn more, please contact Trevor Joy at trevor@100UPG.org.

What Can I Do?

Mission Work

Whether you feel called to be a goer or a sender, you have a part in the 100 UPG Cooperative. The whole body of Christ is needed in the work of the Great Commission. Launching and sustaining long-term goers and teams requires a broad network of senders, including financial donors and people committed to praying for and serving goers.

To inquire about your role—either financially, in prayer, or in another capacity—please contact Trevor Joy at trevor@100UPG.org.