Virtue Magazine

“While secular movements like communism, feminism, and environmentalism have gotten the lion’s share of our attention, the explosive southward expansion of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has barely registered on Western consciousness,” said Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Perhaps we like to consider ourselves the Christian West, but there is growing evidence that indicates Western Christians are not the whole show. In fact, Mr. Jenkins says that in just 20 years, two-thirds of all Christians will live elsewhere—in Africa, Latin America, or Asia.

Places considered unreachable several decades ago have now become hot spots for Christian growth, and hundreds of new churches are being planted each month in those places. Take the small country of Nepal, for example; the church there is growing faster than in any other nation. In 1960, the number of Christians totaled only twenty-five. Today, the number has risen to almost 1 million. Despite the abuse and isolation many Nepali Christians have faced in recent years, churches are springing up all over the country. And though Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims, still constitute the majority of the population, Christianity is growing twice as fast as the other faiths.

China is another example of the incredible growth of Christianity. From 1.5 million Christians in 1970, the church has grown to an estimated 64 million in 1990, then to approximately 90 million today. Estimates predict that the number will top 120 million in 25 years.

The small country of Benin in Africa is yet another case of spreading Christianity. Although Benin suffers from poor health care, lack of clean water, poor education, and a high rate of HIV/AIDS, its church growth is still explosive. Nearly 120,000 new members are joining churches each year, and by 2025, it is probable that Christianity in Benin will reach 40 percent of the total population.

Think for a moment and try to imagine Nepalis witnessing to Muslims, China sending missionaries to the Indians, and Africans evangelizing North America and Europe. It may seem impossible, but it is actually quite likely.

“As the media have striven in recent years to present Islam in a more sympathetic light, they have tended to suggest that Islam, not Christianity, is the rising faith of Africa and Asia, the authentic or default religion of the world’s huddled masses. But Christianity is not only surviving in the global South, it is enjoying a radical revival, a return to scriptural roots. We are living in revolutionary times,” Mr. Jenkins said.

No matter how bad things may seem here at home, God is at work, and in the end, it is God to whom every knee will bow, and every tongue confess.

Acknowledgment:
Philip Jenkins. “The Next Christianity.” The Atlantic. Volume 290, No. 3 (October, 2002): 53-68.