Nathan E. Lewis

“Global Christianity in the 21st Century”
Presented by Nathan E. Lewis
Resurrection Sunday, March 27, 2005

What is your view of Christianity and the Church today? Is the Church in decline? Why hasn’t a revival come to North America in a very long time? Is the evangelical movement dead? American sociologists have assessed most Church growth in the past 20 years in America to be transfer growth, members of one church joining the membership of another. The Canadian Mennonite University at the turn of the century published the decline of Church members in Canada. In 1900, 90% of Canadians were members of a church. From 1981 to 1991, the United Church of Canada, the largest Canadian denomination, lost 650,000 members. England was the missionary force of the 19th century. In 2003 England was home to 1 million church members and 750,000 members of the mosque. As our missionaries to Berlin, Jay and Holly Eastman, have reported, Western Europe is overwhelmingly agnostic to atheist. What is the present state of Christianity and the Church?

On this Resurrection Sunday we celebrate Christ risen from the dead. Should we not expect a powerfully growing, unstoppable movement to flow from the empty tomb? Has the apostolic mission, which began in Jerusalem finally come to the ends of the earth and now is in decline? How accurate is your present picture of the global Church and the state of Christianity in the world? Newsweek Poll, this Passion Week, reports that 78% of Americans believe that Christ rose from the dead. 75% say that Christ was sent to earth to absolve mankind of its sins. 81% say that they are Christian. What is your reaction to this poll? David Aikman, former Time Magazine foreign correspondent and author of Jesus in Beijing thinks that most Americans would discount such statistics thinking that most of those people represented are not truly committed Christians, living out their faith or even understanding their faith. Aikman also notes that most Christians in other parts of the world think that American Christians are spiritually weak, spoiled, lazy, and selfish.
What is the state of the Presbyterian churches in the United States of America? In 1965, the denominations that merged to form the PCUSA were 4.2 million members. In 2003 they are 2.4 million members. Evergreen Presbyterian Church is part of the Presbyterian Church in America. Do you know how small we are? In 2003 our total membership was 320,400. We reported 5,770 professions of faith and 1,278 congregations. These statistics make us one of the fastest growing churches in America. Our strongest fraternal ties are with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In 2003 she reported 241 congregations and 28,018 members. Did Jesus rise from the dead with such a small result in mind? Has the glorious impact of the resurrection peaked sometime before our birth and we live in the declining days when apostasy rules and apathetic Christians fail to trim their lamps, dozing when the bridegroom arrives? What is your picture of the Church in these last days?
The Apostle Paul wrote to the churches at Ephesus, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations and forever and ever more! Amen.�? Resurrection Sunday is a proper time for us to adjust our view of the world, and of the Church, according to this beautiful declaration of St. Paul. God is able to do so much more than we could ever imagine. What is God doing in the world today? The Church has glorified this powerful God and she shall continue to do so through all generations! Is the Church presently glorifying God?
Dr. Philip Jenkins, Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State University has recently written The Next Christendom: The Coming Global Christianity, published by Oxford University Press. He writes, “The greatest movement of the 20th century was not communism or capitalism, but Christianity, particularly Pentecostalism….Not only has Christianity become truly global, but the center of gravity of the world church is no longer in Europe and North America but in the southern continents – Africa, Latin America and Asia.�?
Africa is the new Christian continent. Joel Carpenter of Calvin College reports the all too familiar, yet amazing statistics. In 1900 there were 9 million Christians on the continent of Africa. In 2000, the most conservative estimates were 380 million. In East Africa alone there are presently 1,000 professions of faith weekly.
With the death of the USSR, vast regions and new nations have received the gospel. In 1990 less than 10 Christians lived in Kazakhstan with no organized churches. In 2002 more than 10,000 Christians are worshipping in 120 churches.
To the east of Kazakhstan is the great nation of India. While only 2.3% of the total population are Christian, the number is impressively 24 million! In the province of Kerala, 22.6% are Christian growing in number rapidly. In the province of Meghalaya, 70.3% of the population are professing Christians. In the province of Mizoram, 87% are Christian. In the province of Nagaland, 90% of the population is active in church.
To the east of India is the great nation of China, home to 80 million Christians. David Aikman lived in China for three months in 2002 to research the church in China. He focused upon answering two questions: 1) What is the state of the Christians in China? 2) What is happening to China because of Christians? The result of his research is his book Jesus in Beijing, which boldly claims that within 20 years 25-30% of China may be Christian. In 20 years China will have emerged as the second world superpower. While many Christians in America have been taught to think of China as the great eastern threat to peace in Israel, one of the great and final evil powers that show at Armageddon, Aikman asks us to think about China quite differently. When 30% of a nation’s people are Christian, committed followers of Christ, even in the face of persecution, their impact upon their nation and the entire world is significant. Aikman predicts China to be the global missionary force of the 21st century, much like England in the 19th century.
Dick Staub of Christianity Today interviewed Aikman on February 18, 2004. Here is Aikman’s response to one of the questions: “It is possible that within 20 to 30 years, 20-30% the Chinese will be Christian, which would take place about the same time China is emerging as a #2 superpower in the world. When you have 20-30% of any country that are Christian believers, and not just nominal Christians, but quite serious committed Christians, you find them showing up throughout society in places of influence, including eventually politics. And if that happened, then, China would as a major power have the same kind of view of itself and its global responsibility that say, Great Britain had in the 19th century, and the U.S. – although it certainly made a few mistakes – has honestly tried to pursue in the 20th century.�?
In 2002 Aikman discovered for the first time Church leaders eager to be publicly interviewed by him, freely supplying their names and locations of their home churches. In one upscale neighborhood in Beijing he discovered 20,000 home churches! He writes, “Christianity used to exist in the Chinese countryside, now there are huge numbers of cell groups in Beijing and Shanghi.�? Since 1939, China’s population has doubled. Since 1939 Chinese Christians have increased 20 times! OMF International reports that in 1949 there were 6,000 missionaries in China building 20,000 Protestant Churches with a collective membership of one million. In the 1960’s all of this work was closed and persecuted under Mao. In 1979, Deng Xiaoping re-opened the church under the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). 20 years later, 10 million church members had registered with TSPM, while most Chinese Christians and churches have refused to register with good reason. Under Deng Xiaoping, the persecution of the church had continued. In recent years, this persecution has waned and most journalists and missionary agencies believe that it has decreased for economic reasons. The Chinese government views Christianity to be a key catalyst in capitalistic ventures in China.
To the north of China, South Korea is home to the largest congregation in every mainline Protestant denomination. In 2000 14 million Koreans were members of a church. In 2005 the number has grown to 18 million. David Cho is founding pastor of The Central Full Gospel Church of 700,000 members. The sanctuary holds 25,000 while adjoining chapel rooms with closed circuit screens hold an additional 15,000. The church holds seven worship meetings on Sunday, two on Saturdays, and an all-night prayer meeting each Friday. Members are required to be members of cell groups and they must pledge to pray daily for every member of their cell group. Of the 18 million Korean Christians, half are Presbyterian. (Presently in the U.S., less than 2.4 million are Presbyterian, while 9 million Koreans are actively participating in Presbyterian churches!) The gospel embraced among Koreans is widely attributed to a global movement of prayer founded by Presbyterian missionaries who never dreamed that the Koreans would teach the whole world how to pray.
To the southeast of Korea is Japan where only 1% are Christian. In sharp contrast, the continent of South America is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, most nations reporting over 90% of populations to be Christian. The breaking story is not about Roman Catholicism, but about Pentecostalism. Brazil is the largest Roman Catholic nation in the world, and is now home to 25 million Pentecostal Christians, 1.1 million Baptists and 800,000 Lutherans. 40 new churches per week are planted by Protestant Christians. In 2000 130 million Roman Catholics were members of 25,000 parishes and 25 million Protestants were members of 160,000 congregations. The Atlas of World Christianity claims that Pentecostalism in South America has grown by 500% between 1960 and 1980. (In Canada, Pentecostals’ growth rate between 1981-1991 was 1.4% and from 1991-2001, 1.6%.) Dr. Philip Jenkins informs us that there are far more Pentecostals than Buddhists on earth. The Pentecostals are growing at phenomenal rates while the Buddhists have mustered a trendy floury among upper middle class Americans.
Planet Earth is home to 2 billion Christians making Christianity the world’s largest faith, 33% of the world population. U.S. Center for World Missions does not want any of us to think that we have arrived and that the work is mostly done. From 1970 to 1996 the worldwide growth rate of Christianity has been 2.3%. In these same years, the worldwide growth rate of Islam has been 2.9%. There is still much work for us to do. But how should we view the present state of the Church in the world? Does not this global view of the Church match the resurrection of Jesus better than some provincial views?
Our father David, King of Israel, reflected often upon God’s promise to Abraham, “You will be the father of many nations.�? (Genesis 17: 4) and “All nations on earth will be blessed through you.�? (Genesis 18:18). In his prayers and songs David becomes a prophet of this global promise. “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for all dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.�? (Psalm 22). “I will be exalted among the nations!�? (Psalm 46). “God reigns over the nations.�? (Psalm 47). “His eyes watch the nations.�? (Psalm 66).
“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among the nations.�? (Psalm 67). David connects God blessing his chosen people with saving the world! What is the purpose of God blessing us? According to David the purpose is that the promise to Abraham might be fulfilled. “May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth…God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.�? (Psalm 67).
These are but a few citations from the Psalter of David declaring that God is exalted among the nations, that his glory is declared and expanded throughout the world. The prophet Isaiah lends his voice to this glorious theme as well. His imagery is the great highway leading to the temple of God. On that great highway, the Root of Jesse stands as a banner for all the peoples of the world, so that they might stream to the temple. Those of us who are traveling this highway are commanded to declare to the world the glorious things God has done, to declare to the nations, even to the remotest islands, that the Servant of the Lord has come to bring justice to the world. This Servant will be the light to the nations and with his blood he will sprinkle many nations. The temple will be a house of prayer into which foreigners are welcomed. This is Isaiah’s view of the Church in the last days.
The Gospels record Jesus claiming to be this Servant, the light to the nations. Jesus and his Apostles even present Jesus as the true temple. The Apostle Paul quotes one of the church’s early, credal hymns in his first letter to Timothy (3:16): “He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.�? The first century church considered Christ preached through the world worthy of this short list of important events in redemptive history.
In John’s Apocalypse (chapter 15), the overcomers standing on the shores of the crystal sea sing two songs: The Song of Moses memorializing that great redemption of Israel on the shores of the Red Sea; and The Song of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.�? When we overcome and are ushered into the heavenly Jerusalem, we shall sing about the history of this present world. That history is rehearsed in The Song of the Lamb. God has done marvelous deeds in this world, all just and true, throughout all epochs. So clearly and powerfully has he revealed himself, that it seems preposterous that some would not fear God and glorify him in this world. In the end, all nations have come and worshipped before the one, true God who has revealed his righteousness globally.
What prevents us from singing The Song of the Lamb today? It is for us to sing. Our perspective, especially this side of the resurrection, should be informed by these two songs of the church. Our view of the Church today should be informed by the prophets David and Isaiah. Even the present statistics available to us today indicate that God is at work globally in ways greater than we could ever imagine. While mission agencies and magazines try to count Christendom, we learn from God’s holy word that the number of his Church cannot be counted. In his promise to Abraham he described the number to be like the grains of sand on the seashore and the stars in the heavens. Some of those grains of sand are in the church on the islands of Tonga, Truk, and Palau. Some of the stars are in the church in Morocco, Egypt, and even Iraq. Stars are scattered from Portland, Oregon all the way to Portland, Maine. Here is a new song the overcomers sing in heaven:
You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
Because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God,
From every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
And they will reign on the earth!
(Revelation 5: 9-10)