Christianity Heads South
December 10, 2003
If scholar and author Phillip Jenkins is right, global Christianity is about to change dramatically. Jenkins has identified trends that suggest Christianity is moving South, into the Southern hemisphere that is (i.e. South America and Africa). The Southern continents will soon be home to the "center of gravity" for the Christian world. Within a few decades Kinshasa, Buenos Aires, Addis Ababa, and Manila will replace Rome, Athens, Paris, London, and New York as the new focal points in the Church's universality.
Many people believe that during the 20th century, the spread of Christianity was primarily a North American endeavor. That is no longer the case. The Western, Europeanized Christianity of the past is already giving way to something far more cosmopolitan.
Jenkins, the Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State University, has pointed out that while secular movements like communism, feminism, and environmentalism have gotten most of our attention, the explosive southward expansion of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has barely registered on the Western consciousness. Here is the startling news: by the year 2050, only 20% of the then 3 billion Christians will be non-Hispanic Whites. Further, the believers of coming decades will be "far more traditional, morally conservative, evangelical, and apocalyptic than their northern counterparts."
"Mysticism, puritanism, belief in prophecy, faith-healing, exorcism, and dream-visions... are basic to the newer churches in the South. And the effects of such beliefs on global politics...will be enormous, as religious identification begins to take precedence over allegiance to secular nation-states." All this and more are revealed in Jenkins' book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity.
Wow! What do you think about that? Is Jenkins right? Have the majority of North Americans been blinded to, or even ignored this emerging trend? And if we accept the data and projections as true, how should that affect, say -- our ministry training efforts right now?
What are the implications for the millennial/mosaic generation as they continue to come of age and move into the mainstream of Church leadership? And what will eventually become of the North American Church? Will we slip into a season of spiritual apathy like we saw take place in Europe? Is our attraction to an Ancient-Future faith a sovereign work of God's Spirit, re-anchoring us for what lies ahead?
What do you think?
What do you think?
Well in terms of South America, Argentina to be exact. My best friend reports that he found them to be more divisive/sectarian than Americans.
i.e. members of similar denominations look down at own another (like my friend saw Argentine Assembly of God, looking down at the Foursaquare church etc. The only thing they have in common is not liking the Catholics. Besdies that point, Stan found that the Assembly of God he attended he attended (where his girl friend at the time was a member of) was really "stuck in the 1950s". Quite literally they were living the "big Band era as far as their worship. Lots of brass and orchestra music. A few solos, and little (maybe none actually) congreagational singing. In general Stan found them in all their social trends (i.e.- like the pop music playing on the radio). To actually be about two decades behing the US. So anyway, I wouldnt see them as leading the cause of pomo Christianity.
Actually I think in the days ahead China and Korea may play a greater role. But part of that is largely due to Europe which for the most part is sliding into apostasy (by all surveys of church attendance and what people actually believe. Which is often a form of humanism with a Christian veneer).
Posted by: Pavel (addai) | December 09, 2003 at 11:26 PM
My experience and study concur with these trends...but as far as implications are concerned, I need to think about it a little. I will tell you this: in the little corner of Europe where I live, South American missionaries, who make up over 80% of the Protestant leadership here, are being increasingly viewed with suspicion and even disdain by the churched and unchurched alike.
Posted by: Daniel | December 10, 2003 at 01:17 AM
Yeah, all of this sounds right. I went to a youth pastor's network meeting yesterday for the southern california area. It was an amazing group of racially diverse people. I think globalization will have a greater affect on our faith than many christians now realize.
Posted by: Benjy (groovythpstr) | December 10, 2003 at 08:43 AM
Here's what I think it really means:
The peculiar mixture of faith, philosophy and culture known as a charasmatic protestant church is quite popular with people in South America and Africa.
Any deeper conclusion than that would be very dangerous, because there are so many factors, and some of those factors are hidden in mystery.
I can't say for sure what will happen in North America -- i'm guessing that the culture will become gradually more and more anti-christian. I'm not alarmed at that, the living and active Word of God is not something which can be extinguished by political, religious or cultural oppresion. We are facing a challenge in figuring out what it means to be a Christian when you have to fight more for the space for worship, but I think that fight can only strengthen the Church in North America.
The Kingdom of God was never a numbers game, but when you are winning the numbers game, it is hard to remember that. As the North American church sinks slowly into the west, the parts of scripture which speak about the place reserved for the least will suddenly come alive in ways that it never has.
Does this mean that God has given up on North America, or is somehow now hindered in "reaching the lost" -- I think that there are plenty of stories in both testaments of what God can do with a few faithful people.
Posted by: Michael Toy | December 10, 2003 at 09:28 AM
Great comments, Michael, particularly about how "the parts of scripture which speak about the place reserved for the least will suddenly come alive in ways that it never has." Perhaps those of us who lead churches would do well to begin emphasizing those passages in preparation for what's coming.
Of course, the result could be that the decline of the North American church becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy...
Posted by: Daniel | December 10, 2003 at 11:14 PM