Unreachable
Synonyms for unreachable include unattainable, unobtainable, inaccessible, unavailable, inapproachable, untouchable, unfeasible, unachievable, unrealizable. Icmp’s unreachable packets are used when a destination to a specific network, host, protocol, or port is unreachable. The router or host may send a destination unreachable packet to inform its source of the ip packets destinations unavailability. I'm your casual 21 year old weeb that likes to sing in her freetime. Welcome to the buttsquad ♥ Stuff that I use: - Magix Music Maker 2015 for mixing - Audacity for recording. “Rather than labeling our destination as unreachable and fretting about it from a distance, we need to calm down and slow down to preserve our energy so that we can eventually reach it.” “I gaze out, to the stars. I remember the first time I saw real stars, through the hatch window. In the We Connectivity Hub, three global classrooms fitted with Skype technology from Microsoft will bring workshops, leadership training and mentorship to the most remote and unreachable rural communities in Canada - especially Indigenous communities - without having to fly thousands of kilometres to an urban centre.
The group known as the 'nones' have fairly quickly become the predominant religious story in America. Nones—not to be confused with nuns—are the fastest growing religious group in America. The term refers to people who select 'none of the above' when they're asking a question on a religious questionnaire, they're not necessarily atheists; in fact, most aren't. They're not necessarily anti-religious; some of them believe in God.
A more precise term would be the 'religiously unaffiliated.' Depending upon which study you look at, as many as one-third of the nones plan to go back to church one day. They're generally not all anti-God, though some are.
To summarize:
- Nones are people who identify as religiously unaffiliated
- They represent a rapidly growing section of the U.S. population:
- They are the fastest-growing religious category in the U.S.
- They are the second-largest religious category in U.S.
Unreachable Definition
As the charts below demonstrate, a smaller share of adults identify as Christian over the past several years, while the nones have grown.
The Pew Research Center also notes:
The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip. In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.
That's a pretty staggering uptick in the numbers of religiously unaffiliated people. What do we make of this? I observed three takeaways in 2015 from the Pew report that brought significant attention to the nones. In this article I want to make three points about understanding and reaching the nones.
1. The United States is not the whole world; the gospel is thriving globally
Unreachable On Facebook Means
It's important we not jump on the 'woe is me' wagon when looking at this phenomenon. Christianity is thriving globally in unprecedented ways. Here are important factors to observe:[1]
- The growth of the nones is an American phenomenon
- Globally, religious affiliation is increasing not declining
- China and Africa show the most dramatic increase in religiosity
- In 1920 → 80% of all Christians were in the Global North (primarily North American and Western Europe)
- Today → <40% of all Christians are in the Global North
Stated another way:
In the year 1900, Europe and North America comprised 82 percent of the world's Christian population. In 2005, European and North American comprised 39 percent of the world's Christian population with African, Asian and Latin American Christians making up 60 percent of the world's Christian population. By 2050, African, Asian and Latin American Christians will constitute 71 percent of the world's Christian population.[2]
In other words, the rise of the numbers of nones is an American phenomenon currently. We can be encouraged that across the globe, the gospel is going forth with strong impact.
2. Many of the nones are open to the gospel and Christian friendships; this offers the church an opportunity
The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) noted how the religiously unaffiliated rose from 6 percent of the U.S. population in 1991 to 25 percent by 2016. The 2016 PRRI survey also identifies 3 subgroups of nones:
Rejectionists
- Makes up 58% of the unaffiliated
- “Religion is not personally important in their lives and believe religion as a whole does more harm than good in society”
- 74% of rejectionists are white
- 60% men
- 64% say they sometimes have doubts about whether God exists
- More highly educated than the other two groups
- Apatheists
- 22% of the unaffiliated
- “Religion is not personally important to them, but believe it generally is more socially helpful than harmful”
- 56% men
- Unattached believers
- 18% of the unaffiliated
- “Religion is important to them personally”
- More likely to live in the South
- 58% women
In other words, we need not write off the nones as unreachable. Creating spaces where the unaffiliated can express their doubts without judgment, demonstrating genuine care for people, and focusing on the gospel over current issues can help to build pathways to reach them. 'The real mark of a none is not the rejection of God but the rejection of any specific religion,' James White notes in his book The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated.
It would be a mistake to dismiss 25% of the population as unreachable or act as though they were all atheists. It would also be a mistake to think church as usual will appeal to the nones.
3. Biblical Christianity remains strong in the United States; the sky is not falling
Since about the mid -90s we've seen about 1% of people a year identify as religiously unaffiliated. As churches are slowly moving back to gathering in services from the pandemic, many of the people who were loosely connected are nowhere to be found. I think we're going to see that reality lurch forward.
That said, I am not an alarmist on the changing demographics. I have been waving the flag that Christianity in general, and evangelicals in particular, are not collapsing. Mainlines denominations tell another story, however.
The scholarly consensus now is that for the last 20 years that Christianity is not collapsing. I've sounded that truth in a number of places including the Washington Post and CNN. As Conrad Hackett of the Pew Forum observed regarding the rise of the unaffiliated,
To some extent, this seems to be a phenomenon in which people with low levels of religious commitment are now more likely to identify as religiously unaffiliated, whereas in earlier decades such people would have identified as Christian, Jewish, or as part of some other religious group.
For believers who stand with conviction on the Word, believe the gospel, and love God and people, we have this hope: the same God who redeemed each of us from the pit can do the same in others, regardless of where they are in their individual journey of faith.
[1] White, James Emery. 2014. The Rise of the Nones : Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated. Grand Rapids:
[2] Soong-Chan Rah. The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (Kindle Locations 68-70). Kindle Edition.
Current Issue
adjective
Unable to be reached or contacted.
- ‘the doctor had left the hospital and was unreachable’
- ‘To reach the unreachable star, it is my quest to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far.’
- ‘Acquire take-off speed and you can take to the air in a burst of flight to reach previously unreachable areas.’
- ‘Who better suited to reach for the unreachable than a man with a grappling hook?’
- ‘Murray was unreachable despite repeated attempts to contact him directly and through his close friends.’
- ‘The idea of the body as a barrier to the unreachable outside world is an interesting one, but we learn so little about Esther that sympathy turns finally to revulsion.’
- ‘He could not confirm the decision by BT to reprieve 100 phone boxes from closure because the relevant manager was unreachable.’
- ‘While information is available from 122 of the 200 islands, 78 islands are still unreachable.’
- ‘Also like Hillman, Clear Channel has a lot of money tied up and unreachable in property, and is bumping along atop a pile of almost overwhelming debt.’
- ‘The boy is mute and ferocious, seemingly unreachable - and possibly history's first documented autistic child.’
- ‘As I said sorry to bother you but the call centre guy refused to write down the information when I gave it to him, and Rob Connell seems to be unreachable.’
- ‘The problem is that United's players, fans and staff like to think of themselves as being unreachable, if not untouchable.’
- ‘Without a healthier subvention, this goal will be unreachable.’
- ‘I love her, but at the moment she's moody, distant and unreachable.’
- ‘The unreachable archive part of my brain must be huge by now.’
- ‘The way is hard and long, but I feel that we have been set upon the right road towards that hitherto unreachable Nirvana.’
- ‘Already a not insignificant number of tribes have become unreachable.’
- ‘The pain associated with depression is gross, undifferentiated and seemingly unreachable.’
- ‘Lessing is at her best when describing the glow of unreachable wealth.’
- ‘What's wrong with unreachable fairways, rock-hard greens and holes cut on the side of hills?’
- ‘When I fired up the computer it was to find the world of the Internet strangely quiet and largely unreachable.’
isolated, remote, out of the way, outlying, off the beaten track, in the depths of …, hard to find, lonely, in the back of beyond, in the hinterlands, off the map, in the middle of nowhere, godforsaken, obscure, inaccessible, cut-off, tucked away, unreachable