We are learning the demographic facts about the shift of world Christianity to the global South. But what does this mean? What is God doing? And what are we called to do?
On the third and final day of the Jeju Forum in South Korea, these issues seemed to capture the focus of our attention and fueled a dialogue rich with probing questions and promising stories.
The story of world Christianity’s recent pilgrimage is dramatic and historically unprecedented. The “center of gravity” of Christianity’s presence in the world rested comfortably in Europe for centuries. In 1500, 95 percent of all Christians were in that region, and four centuries later, in 1910, 80 percent of all Christians were in Europe or North America.
But then, world Christianity began the most dramatic geographical shift in its history, moving rapidly toward the global South, and then also toward the East. By 1980, for the first time in 1,000 years, more Christians were found in the global South than the North. Growth in Africa was and remains incredible, with one of our four Christians now an African, and moving toward 40 percent of world Christianity by 2025. Asia’s Christian population, now at 350 million, will grow to 460 million by that same time. Even today, it’s estimated that more Christians worship on any given Sunday in churches in China than in the U.S.
And with this has come a surge in Pentecostalism. Beginning only a century ago — and accounting for only 5 percent of Christians in 1970 — today one out of four Christians is estimated to be a Pentecostal or charismatic. Eighty percent of conversions in Asia are to Pentecostal forms of Christianity, which is growing at about four times the overall growth rate of the world’s Christian population. So today one out of 12 persons alive is Pentecostal or charismatic.
But what does all this mean? For one thing, those of us in the non-Pentecostal world need to look carefully at emerging Pentecostalism, not through the lens of television preachers in North America, but through indigenous Pentecostal ministries emerging in global South. Wonsuk Ma, a Korean Pentecostal who directs the Oxford Mission Study Center in England helped us do so.
Wonsuk shared the story of Burkina Faso pastor Philipe Ouedraogo, a Pentecostal pastor who has established an intensive program of education in the northern part of the country, reaching those from 9-12 who had dropped out of the formal educational system. About two-thirds are girls, and the successful program is now influencing the whole country’s educational system.
Bishop Joshua Banda is the pastor of a large Pentecostal congregation in Lusaka. His comprehensive ministry to those with HIV/AIDS grew to include many other congregations providing care for 30,000 people, and is part of the Health Care Association of Zambia, which provides an estimated 50 percent of healthcare in that country. Wonsuk Ma shared both of these stories as examples of countless Pentecostal ministries found in the global South engaged in the local work of social transformation.
Both Phillippe Ouedraogo and Joshua Banda were with us at the Jeju Forum, and they each have done doctoral work with Wonsuk Ma at the Oxford Mission Study Center. So we were not just talking about Pentecostalism in the global South. We were having rich dialogue on Jeju Island with those representing the changing face of global Pentecostalism.
As evangelicalism has also shifted radically to the global South, its stance toward social and economic issues reflects more the context of the majority world, instead of the outlook of North American evangelicals, who now are in the minority of their global community Seventy-five percent of evangelicals are now found in the global South. Thomas Schirrmacher, who chairs the World Evangelical Alliance’s Theological Commission, explained how, as a result, avenues of cooperation have now opened with the World Council of Churches on various issues.
But the rapid shift of world Christianity to the global South and East, along with the explosion of Pentecostalism, has created huge and formidable new obstacles to work for Christian unity. Newly emerging churches are often highly sectarian, cut off from historic churches faithfully carrying the tradition of Christian faith. The confession of the “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” seems more like a dream than a reality in the face of the 43,800 separate denominations now estimated to exist in the world. When Christians differ, they don’t dialogue; they divide.
Larry Miller, secretary of the Global Christian Forum described the hopes of this new and fragile initiative, which has been successfully drawing together official representatives of the primary Christian families — Catholic, historic Protestant, Evangelical/Pentecostal, and Orthodox. Similar in spirit to the Jeju Forum, for more than a decade the Global Christian Forum has been creating new ecumenical spaces drawing together those who have for long been distant and separated from one another.
My own assignment on the last day was to underscore the continuing contribution of the World Council of Churches within this changing global landscape. Despite serious challenges it faces today, the WCC’s ability to hold together Protestant and Orthodox Churches, along with many others, and move together on a pilgrimage of justice and peace remains as a testimony to its nearly seven decades of faithfulness in the search for Christian unity.
However, we did little more during these three days than identify the questions presented by the theme of the Jeju Forum, “Christian Witness in Changing Global Landscapes.” Yet, perhaps that was enough. At least it was an important start. Perhaps the most memorable moment came when participants were asked to simply share the questions raised in their hearts and minds. Some were these:
“What is God saying to us through the shift in the center of gravity of world Christianity?
“Is this shift about more than demography?”
“What is the real urgency of unity? Does it serve the church or the world?”
“Can we distinguish between the ‘prosperity gospel’ and the church of the poor?”
“How can our efforts toward unity be used by God as an instrument for transforming the world?”
The Jeju Forum ended with directions for beginning a global dialogue among a breath of Christian voices. And this process will continue.
At the airport upon returning to Seoul from Jeju Island, I sat at lunch with three new Pentecostal friends: Phillippe Ouedraogo, Bishop Joshua Banda, and Dr. Corneliu Constantineanu. We reflected on the days spent together and where things might go from here. The Jeju Forum had provided a bridge for those from the global North to be in dialogue with those from the global South in a fresh and open space. And this dialogue was beginning to focus on the implications of the dramatic changes in the global landscape of world Christianity.
Moreover, the Jeju Forum has opened up a partnership with megachurches in Korea; they were the ones actually issuing the invitation, and this in itself was unique. Those from the Korean churches, including Rev. Kim Samwhan, pastor of the Myungsong Presbyterian Church and chair of the Jeju Forum committee, spoke of how Korea had received much from other churches in the world in its history. Now the Korean churches want to give back something to the world church.
Perhaps they have found a way. They have opened a fresh, safe space to reflect together on the new questions raised by the pilgrimage of world Christianity. It’s free for any institutional agendas and open to the future. While simply one initiative among others, it’s a model of what the global church needs as we try to find our way forward in a world where the Spirit is so obviously ahead of us all.
Wes Granberg-Michaelson is the author of From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church. For 17 years he served as General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America, and has long been active in ecumenical initiatives such as the Global Christian Forum and Christian Churches Together. He’s been associated with the ministry of Sojourners for 40 years.
Image: Demographic illustration, i3alda / Shutterstock.com
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