His Heart & His Command is Our Priority
About P [15]
Leadership
Priority [15] is stewarded by a team with input from field workers. The leaders have a variety of experiences including long-term overseas, intercession, mobilization, vision trips, and using workplace careers as a platform. These are part of several missions-minded groups in cities including Wichita, Tulsa, Birmingham, Memphis, Houston.
For the 2027 Gathering, P15 is partnering with mobilizers from Frontiers, Operation Mobilization, and Pioneers. In addition, P15 will invite some field workers (but not sending agency mobilizers) from non-partners to the Gathering to share in a breakout about their Frontier People Group (FPG).
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Our Mission
“Priority [15] is a collaborative effort of missional professionals in healthcare and other careers. Our goal: to engage highly strategic, restricted access areas with the gospel of Jesus Christ for the purpose of making disciples and planting churches.”
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Priority 15 is our attempt to focus people's attention, resources, and evangelistic efforts on highly strategic areas for mission service.
Our Strategy
We engage 15 unreached places with evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Our objective is to mobilize three resources: prayer, money, and people to form church planting teams. We are not a sending agency. We are a committed group of disciples who want to partner together to complete the great commission in these [15] strategic places.
Why We Gather
The primary purpose of the annual Gathering is prayer and mobilizing goers from North America to 15 clusters of FPG. P15 connects field workers desiring more full-time teammates and prayer partners with:
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Gearing-up Goers - Preparing to go within a year or two and ready to connect with a team
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Someday Goers - Committed to going to unreached peoples in hard places but three or more years from going
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Intercessors
In addition, as the Gathering highlights 15 FPGs, this has been helpful in challenging and encouraging others who are:
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Committed to different unreached people groups
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Exploring full-time missions but not yet committed to that
Why These 15?
The great missionary Paul summed up his ministry with these words, "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known" (Romans 15:20). Paul’s ambition reveals the true heart of our missionary God, to advance the knowledge of His glory and the story of His grace to every dark corner of the earth. The mission of the church will not be complete until all peoples have access to the gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:14).
We chose the Priority [15] with this strategic understanding in mind. After much prayer, research, and dialogue with existing missionaries, the places we chose are not only unreached with the gospel, they are unlikely to be reached in the near future. Most are located in politically unstable areas with religious barriers including active persecution of Christians and harsh physical living conditions. We need humility and faith, trusting that God will use us in our weakness to break through the spiritual darkness, for His great glory.
Measurements Defined
Unreached Status
Unreached Status is an index created by the Joshua Project to measure the growth of Christianity among countries and ethnic groups throughout the world. Scores range from 0 to 100. A score of 99.6 indicates that only 0.4% of the entire population of the country identifies themselves with any branch or denomination of Christianity. Unreached Status can be used to measure the need for gospel witness in a country or ethnic group. Higher scores indicate a greater need for gospel resources and evangelism.
Human Development Index (HDI)
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic measuring life expectancy, educational opportunity, and gross national income. It is used by the United Nations to track human development in 187 of 193 countries and territories in the world. The highest possible score for the index is 1.0 and the lowest is theoretically zero. Currently Norway has the highest HDI in the world (0.955) and Niger the lowest (0.337). The index provides a way to quickly identify countries of high need relative to one another. The lower the score, the greater the physical need.
Physical Exertion
Physical Exertion was developed by the International Mission Board. It measures the relative difficulty of living in a country. For instance, Eastern Chad has one of the highest Physical Exertion rates, due to its location in the Sahara desert. Teams engaging this area will need to import their own electricity and cooler systems in addition to withstanding difficulties of desert life. Routine maintenance for daily living is much higher in areas with a high score for Physical Exertion. These factors must be taken into consideration when developing engagement strategies.
Persecution
The Persecution Index measures the number of violent acts committed against Christians due to their faith as well as the cultural and government pressure to limit freedom of Christian expression. The Persecution Index is a rank list, developed and monitored by a group called Open Doors, of the 50 countries that most persecute Christians. The country of North Korea is given the worst Persecution Index rank of 100.
Discover More
For more information about P15 read the article in Mission Frontiers magazine.