Newsletter Article May 16, 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With the Pope’s visit to Brazil, the news media have actually begun to focus on the extraordinary growth of the Christian Faith in so-called third world countries over the last decade. We are living today in the greatest time of growth of Christianity in the history of the Church. God is working mightily and is inspiring millions around the world. The main question today for Christians in the United States is: will we be a part of what God is doing in the world or will we just become irrelevant? Consider this:
· Kenyan scholar John Mbiti has observed, “the centers of the Church’s universality are no longer in Geneva, Rome, Athens, Paris, London, New York, but Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa, and Manila.”
· Today, in the Ethiopian Christian Church alone there are 25 million members – roughly the equivalent of Southern Baptists and United Methodists -- the two largest Protestant Denominations in the United States -- combined.
· A recent study by the Chinese Government estimates that there may be as many as three times the previously thought number of 70 million underground Christian worshippers.
· In South Korea, the Kwang Lim Methodist church reported 150 members in 1971 and 85,000 by the end of the century.
· By 2025, the estimated leading continents of Christianity will be Africa with 633 million Christians and Latin America with 640 million Christians.
These facts should not alarm us but make us excited to be living in a time when God is moving so purposefully in the world. We must begin to think more globally about our faith and look for ways to partner together with Christians in order to participate in God’s Kingdom building work in the world right now. Selah.

In Christ,

Steve