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Brian Hogan, originally from California, has served unreached people groups including in Mongolia for over 30 years. Hogan is one of the keynote speakers at this year's Missionfest Manitoba.
Hogan is the president of Disciple-Making Mentors, as well as a church planting coach and Frontier Mission leader with Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
"Through a course called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, got our attention for unreached people groups," Hogan said. "We realized that the Indigenous people that we were working with were already reached. They were sending their own missionaries already so at that point, we wanted to be available to God to go to completely unreached people groups with no church."
Hogan said that leading his family to Mongolia in the 90s was chaotic. "It was chaotic, it was like the old west. There were no rules, no laws, there was no food in the stores. We began work on a multi-national church planting team. We started with 14 teenage girls who got baptized in January of 1993, and in three and a half years, we had finished. We raised up leaders and they were planting daughter churches, and already planted a granddaughter church, so we passed the baton onto them. It's still going strong, we just celebrated 30 years with them last year."
Hogan said that going into an unreached area had several barriers that had to be overcome. "Nobody there had ever heard of Jesus, or met an American before because it had been completely closed until just before we went. There were so many closed doors, but God had told us so clearly, there had been so many clear words that we kept pushing forward and God did miracles. As we discipled the believers, He continued to do actual miracles, we had someone raised from the dead, sick people healed, lame people walk, lots of demons cast out."
Hogan said for those interested in mission work, it's for everyone. "I share pretty extensively in this class, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, that people are inspired because they see someone totally normal. They see that and go, 'I can do that.' We get the same reaction from Western believers thinking this was impossible and that it was these missionary heroes that were so unattainable when all I could do was pray and send money. Now I'm feeling like, 'I could go and see the world changed.' God is willing to do that through me and isn't looking for anyone great and fantastic, He's looking for someone obedient and says, 'Yes Dad.'"
He will be leading a breakout session at Missionfest about unengaged people groups. "At this point, 2000 plus years after Jesus gave us the great commission, there are still people groups with no boots on the ground and are completely left out. Not resistant, not missionaries labouring away, just nothing. We've taken that list and along with others have divided it up and Disciple-Making Mentors is responsible for seven people groups in China that are completely unreached and unengaged. We're mobilizing Mongolian believers to go to them because they're closer and there's a cultural connection."
Hogan will be speaking at Missionfest at Church of the Rock on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 10 a.m. as well as at 7 p.m.