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April 1, 2008

“I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God moving geographically from the Middle East, to Europe, to North America to the developing world.  My theory is this: God goes where He’s wanted.”  Philip Yancey, Christianity Today, February 5, 2001

The world is experiencing a major shift of seismic proportions, and it’s not melting glaciers or global warming.  Many social, economic, and political issues have shaped the past few centuries, but I agree with Philip Jenkins’ fascinating book, The New Christendom, in which he wrote that it is “religious changes that are the most significant and even the most revolutionary in the contemporary world.”1 We already see evidence of it, as we watch the global conflict stirred up by Islamic Jihad.  But there is another, even more significant, transforming movement reshaping our planet.

Christianity, long considered a Western religion, is experiencing a massive surge around the globe, but the center of gravity has shifted from Europe, America and Western civilization to the south, to Asia, Africa, and Latin America.  African scholar and minister Kwame Bediako describes this phenomenon as “the renewal of a non-Western religion.”2

Today, the largest Christian communities on the planet are in Africa and Latin America. Jenkins suggests that, “If we want to visualize a ‘typical’ contemporary Christian, we should think of a woman living in a village in Nigeria or in a Brazilian favela.” Kenyan scholar John Mbiti states that the centers of the Church’s influence are “no longer in Geneva, Rome, Athens, Paris, London, New York, but Kinashasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa, and Manila.”3

The stereotypes we have grown accustomed to for centuries, of white, Euro-centric Christians are changing dramatically—and will change the world.  How?  For starters, Christianity will no longer be seen as the religion of “rich” nations.  At least, in the immediate future, members of a globally southern church will be among the poorer people on the planet, which caused a lot of sociologists to assume that more liberal, activist religion, such as liberation theology, would be the focus.  But in fact, the opposite has happened!  In the spirit of true revival, globally “Southern Christians retain a very strong supernatural orientation, and are by and large far more interested in personal salvation than in radical politics.”4

In the poverty-stricken areas of the world where the poor are responding to the Gospel, Isaiah 61 is being realized: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”

A Holy Spirit brush fire is sweeping areas of the globe, defying the Western thinkers and sociologists who once predicted the decline or outright death of Christianity.  While notable “religious” leaders railed against the contemporary church, making statements like, “traditional religious worship is dying out,” and forecasting Christianity’s collapse,  other parts of the globe happily ignored such pessimism.5  Places like Seoul, Korea and Nairobi concern themselves more with how to build a church large enough for their 10,000 or 20,000 worshipers. According to Jenkins, “these new converts are mostly teenagers and young adults, very few with white hair.”  And they are not concerned with trying to mimic western communication styles and methods.  The Gospel is effectively spread through their own culture and means—and is moving like a wildfire! No longer should we look at third world countries as the spiritually ignorant, fortunate enough to have western missionaries share the true faith. Rather, many foresee these new population centers of Christianity moving to evangelize a spiritually waning West.

With this global revival, comes opposition—often in the form of another religion.  By the middle of the twenty-first century, twenty of the twenty-five largest nations in the world will be predominantly or entirely either Christian or Muslim.6 By 2050, no less than ten of those nations will be profoundly divided between Islam and Christianity.  However, according to Joel Rosenberg, “Despite unprecedented press coverage of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East since September 11, 2001, one big story is generally not being told by the mainstream media. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are converting to evangelical Christianity … even amidst widespread persecution and the very real threat of death.”7  You can read his entire report here.

The dividing line of the near future is a spiritual line, growing more pronounced as Muslim and Christian nations continue to grow within the same continents. We’ve already seen the tumultuous results in places like Nigeria, Indonesia, the Sudan, and the Philippines—and we can expect even more conflict brought about by intensified rivalry for converts and attempts to enforce a moral code with secular law.  “Whether Muslim or Christian, religious zeal can turn into fanaticism…we have a volatile mixture that could well provoke horrific wars and confrontations.” 8

That may sound really pessimistic.  I don’t mean it to.  We know that according to the Bible, the world is heading toward an ultimate spiritual conflict.  But remember—this Gospel that is moving around the planet earth began in a small corner of the world, called Jerusalem, and spread to all corners of the world, settling in certain places at different times in history.  Yes, God goes where He’s wanted, where the greatest needs are, where the greatest spiritual hunger longs for Him.  It is a Gospel of good news, of hope and salvation.  And it is the promise that Jesus will return to end all conflicts and finally bring peace to a torn and spiritually hungry world. And now, via the third world and Southern nations, the Gospel is coming home, back to Jerusalem, where God will pour His Spirit out upon His people and the face of Christianity will begin to look more and more Jewish and Mid Eastern… as well as African, Latin, Asian, European…like the faces of all of God’s children.

your comments:  media@maranathachapel.org

1. Jenkins, Philip, The New Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity, (Oxford University Press, 2002).
2. Kwame Bediako, Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion (Edinburgh University Press/Orbis, 1995).
3. John Mbiti, quoted in Kwame Bediako, Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of a Non-Western Religion (Edinburgh University Press/Orbis, 1995).
4. Jenkins, Philip, The New Christendom, p. 7
5. John Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die (HarperSanFrancisco, 1998), quoted by Philip Jenkins.
6. Jenkins, Philip, The New Christendom, p. 166
7. Rosenberg, Joel, //joelrosenberg.blogspot.com/2008/03/big-untold-story-in-middle-east-muslims.html
8. Jenkins, Philip, The New Christendom, p. 13