This is an article from the January-February 1993 issue: Adopt-A-People

Christianity: Waning or Growing?

Christianity: Waning or Growing?

Have we entered the post-Christian age? Is the Christian church on the decline? Much is said in the news and on TV today about the decline of moral values and the decline of the church's influence in the world. The question then arises: Is it true that Christians are losing the battle to other faiths and other forces in the world?

The charts here show that just the opposite is true. Instead of declining, the number of evangelical Christians has been growing rapidly. The number of Christians has been growing at more than three times the rate of world population growth. Between 1950 and 1992, Bible believing Christians went from just 3% of the world population to 10% of the population. This is a jump from 80 million to 540 million.

While the West was busy fighting the Cold War, Bible believing Christians were quietly but dramatically winning the battle of ideology all over the world. Today in the Russian Republic, biblical Christianity is being taught openly in every school of the land.

Many other areas of the world have seen spectacular growth of the Christian church. The number of African Christians has grown from just 3% of all Africans in 1900 to 46% today. Asian Christianity has grown from 16 million to 75 million in just the last nine years. The evangelical movement in Latin America is currently growing at three times the general rate of population. When the Communists took over in 1949 there were only around 1 million Christians in the China. While under intense and severe persecution, the number of Christians in China has grown to over 60 million believers today.

This growth trend, while accelerating dramatically in recent years, has been continuing relentlessly for almost 2,000 years. In 100 AD there were an estimated 360 non-Christians for every Christian. Today there are only 6.8 non-Christians (Those who do not claim to be Christian) for every evangelical Christian.

God's initiative since AD 100 displays determined and increasing activity to build His Church. Note: It took 18 centuries for evangelicals to go from 0% of the world population to 2.5% in 1900, only 70 years to go from 2.5% to 5% in 1970, and just the last 22 years to go from 5% to 10% of the world population. What this means is that now, for the first time in history, there is one evangelical for every 9 non-evangelicals world-wide.

According to Dr. Ralph Winter of the US Center for World Mission, "Despite the rapid increase in world population, the number of faithful Bible-believing Christians is increasing faster than any other large movement or religion. It is doubling every ten and a half years."

This does not mean, however, that the missionary task of Christianity is over. The U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, CA estimates that there are still 11,000 ethnic groups (people groups), such as the Kurds, that are largely untouched by the Gospel.

In order to bring the Gospel to all 11,000 ethnic groups, 75 major mission agencies have endorsed the concept of churches adopting each group for prayer and sending of missionaries. The Adopt-A-People Clearinghouse in Colorado Springs Colorado has been established as a cooperative organization to help coordinate the activities of these agencies and the churches that adopt-a-people.

Thousands of Christian mission organizations have set aggressive goals to present the Christian message to every person on earth by the year 2000. Hundreds of these groups from all over the world have united under the banner of "A Church for Every People and The Gospel for Every Person By The Year 2000." These mission organizations have begun networking together as a part of what is called the AD2000 Movement. This movement was born out of Billy Graham's Lausanne Congress On World Evangelization. The AD2000 Movement includes a new element--the emergence of third world leadership. Thomas Wang, the International Chairman, is from China and Luis Bush, the International Director, is from Brazil.

Momentum is building behind this movement. Already, the prayer track of the AD2000 Movement has enlisted the cooperation of many world- wide prayer networks, including: - Campus Crusade's World Prayer Crusade - Concerts of Prayer - Discipling A Whole Nation - Every Home for Christ - Generals of Intercession - Lausanne Global Prayer Strategy - March for Jesus - Southern Baptist Bold Mission Thrust - Women's Aglow and a number of others.

The latest trend in missions is for new Christians from the mission fields of the world to go as missionaries themselves to the remaining unreached people groups. According to Larry Pate, formerly with OC Ministries, the number of career missionaries from the third world has grown from 39,000 to 49,000 in just the last two years. The estimate is that there will be 160,000 by the year 2000.

Can The Job Be Finished By The Year 2000?
There is great excitement in the Christian community concerning what can be done by the year 2000. But what is realistic? If we look at the mass of humanity inhabiting our globe and the size of the task it can give us ample opportunity for discouragement. The number of kids to be put to bed tonight in your city is enough to make you tired, let alone all the needs of five and a half billion people. Yet understanding doesn't come merely from stretching our minds to comprehend mega-numbers. The kids needing attention are only a problem if they grow out of proportion to the number of families equipped to care for them.

So it is with all world problems. Billions need to be evangelized, and they are growing at a tremendous rate, but two additional facts are essential in understanding the full picture:

1) How big is the work force relative to the harvest field? and 2) How fast is the work force growing relative to the harvest field? The previous two charts show us that the potential work force has grown to 10% of world population and it is growing at over 3 times the rate of world population growth. This means that it is continually getting easier to evangelize the world and complete the Great Commission.

We also know from God's Word that there will be people in Heaven from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation standing before the throne of God as seen in Revelation 7:9. This is a certainty. The only doubt is how long it will take.

The statistics presented here dramatically demonstrate the truth that the evangelical faith has the unique power of God behind its multiplication to make it the most vital force on earth since its appearance 2000 years ago.

Only time will tell whether or not we will reach the goal of bringing the Gospel to every people by the year 2000, but these recent trends bode well for our success.

This article first appeared in the November 11, 1992 edition of Alliance Life Magazine, the magazine of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.

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