How Much Do You Know About the Global Church?
If you studied a map of Christianity in 1900, eight of 10 Christians could be found in Europe and North America. But today, the numbers in those continents are set to be dwarfed later this century by Africa and South America where there are 411 and 517 million Christians, respectively.
The Pew Research Center, a polling institute that studies religion globally and has been studying Christianity's demographic changeups, has released a short poll on its website where test-takers can see how well they have kept up with the global expansion of Christianity.
In his new book, From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, the former general secretary of the Reformed Church in America, details the scope of Christianity's new geographic look and outlines the responsibilities that now confront the Church.
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"The center of the Christian world has shifted and there are new voices. I'd like to think that those who have come for one reason or another from other countries into our midst, I'd like to think of them as God's missionaries," Granberg-Michaelson told The Christian Post last month.
"There's one point in the book where I actually quote my friend Jehu Hanciles (Emory University, associate professor of World Christianity): 'Every Christian migrant is a potential Christian missionary,'" said Grandberg-Michaelson. "I think there is a whole new wave of Christianity that is being raised up around the world."
Granburg-Michaelson also encouraged Christians to not let themselves stay so "self-absorbed" that they missed Christianity's global growth.
"The prospects of Christianity around the world actually look pretty good. The faith is growing, it's vibrant, it's actually pretty exciting," he said. "The questions is whether the established churches of the United States and of Europe are going to pay any attention and be a part of it."
