Can you remember back long enough to recall Detroit being king of industry, or Pittsburgh being the home of steel? Things change, don’t they? A year or so ago Dr. Gary Maxey, a member of Mount Pisgah UMC here in Atlanta, shared with me a study he was working on in terms of the impending global shift of Christianity.
Dr. Maxey, founder and then President of West Africa Theological Seminary, shared telling research that revealed that the migration of the heart of Christianity was en route to new central hubs, China and West Africa.
Christian Europe, once the bastion of the faith, was becoming increasingly more secular and North America was beginning to show signs along the same trend. According to a study just released referenced by Dr. Bill Bouknight in the latest Confessing Movement Happenings epage, (Research Corporation for Science Advancement shared at the American Physical Society Meeting in Dallas), this global shift in Christianity is gaining momentum and making Dr. Maxey an excellent prophet.
According to Bouknight’s article Christianity is dying in Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland. This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda than did Anglicans in all of Canada, Britain, and and Episcopalians in the United States combined. More Christians church attended worship in China (who had no churches in 1970) than in all of Christian Europe combined. And there were more Roman Catholics in worship in the Philippines that in any single Roman Catholic country in Europe including Italy or Spain. Wow!
So where is America in all this? Better yet where are we in all this? The move of God cannot be stopped and I praise God for His move in Africa and China, but at the same time I beseech God for a wake up call for America and Europe.
What can we do? Praise God that at Mount Pisgah we are on the upswing with God and are seeing great and marvelous transformation by the Holy Spirit. We can also simply live the Christian faith out in the family, workplace, and community we are in and be disciples of Jesus who are making disciples of Jesus. Bottom line, Christianity has always been a generational model and we need to live in that responsibility. God bless you today with joy in living out your faith in Christ in service and generosity!
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