{"id":13329,"date":"2017-06-09T07:43:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T14:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=13329"},"modified":"2017-06-09T07:43:09","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T14:43:09","slug":"the-christian-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-christian-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Christian World"},"content":{"rendered":"

In studying Christianity worldwide, Phillip Jenkins states in his book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity:<\/em><\/p>\n

Assuming no great gains or losses through conversion, then there would be around 2.6 billion Christians, of whom 695 million would live in Africa, 610 million in Latin America, and 480 million in Asia.\u00a0 Europe, with 574 million, would have slipped into third place.\u00a0 Africa and Latin America would thus be in competition for the title of most Christian continent\u2026By 2050 only one-fifth of the world\u2019s 3.2 billion Christians will be non-Hispanic whites.\u00a0 Soon, the phrase \u201ca white Christian\u201d may sound like a curious oxymoron, as mildly surprising as a \u201cSwedish Buddhist.\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

ANALYSIS<\/p>\n

When I think about what Jenkins is stating in light of our most recent reading, Christian Theology and African Traditions<\/em>, I cannot help but to ponder our missiology in these newly formed centers of Christianity.\u00a0 In other words, Matthew Michael\u2019s book points out ideas about theology, bibliology, Christology and many more, that are shaping what was once known as the Dark Continent, and how these ideas are fitting into a specific African context.\u00a0 In his introduction, he states:<\/p>\n

The failure of Christianity to have a formidable impact on the continent is because the failure of Christianity to engage the worldview of the African people.\u00a0 These African worldviews are daily encouraged and practiced on the continent despite the increasing Westernization of Africa in terms of clothing, housing, language, occupation, and lifestyle.\u00a0 It is the basic level that Christianity must engage\u2026this Christianizing agenda has unfortunately taken place without adequate understanding of the African worldview.\u00a0 The church has merely taken interest in the external issues surrounding the African people, however, it has not adequately engaged the African worldview in terms of close dialogue (p. 13).\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

While Michael does not specifically state this, our missiology within this continent has often looked more like colonization.\u00a0 Despite our best intentions, we have done our best to make African church look like the Western church and have not addressed the need for a change in worldview.<\/p>\n

REFLECTION<\/p>\n

If what Michael\u2019s says is true, then there is a great deal of work left to be done around the globe.\u00a0 If one-fourth of Christianity is found in Africa, then we certainly in the West have a vested interest in seeing sound theology flowing both in and out of Africa.\u00a0 It is for this reason that a great deal of our (Abundant Life Church in Grapevine) resources that go around the world are focused on training and developing indigenous pastors.\u00a0 Over the next five years, our goal is to pour about $500,000 into places like Cuba, Liberia, North Africa, and Sri Lanka in order to train local pastors that understand both their context and proper theology.<\/p>\n

Now, the purpose behind this is two-fold.\u00a0 First, I believe that the world is effectively reached by the indigenous population.\u00a0 While Christian missionaries have been effective with crusades, medical projects, revivals and many more ideas, these are merely tools and not the end game.\u00a0 The effective missionary trains, educates, and resources the local population to reach the lost.\u00a0 The same strategy that works for the Christian church (see Ephesians 4) should work in missions.\u00a0 We should be equipping the local population to do the work of the ministry.\u00a0 Secondly, how we train the indigenous pastor will have a reciprocal effect.\u00a0 If Christianity is growing around the world, but shrinking in the West, then what we leave the indigenous population may have a profound effect upon generations of Western people.\u00a0 Simply stated, the theology, bibliology, and Christology that we teach around the globe will be the same that our grandchildren and great grandchildren will hear when Christian missionaries from Africa, Cuba, and other regions come to the West to reignite the spark of Christianity that has been lost.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul\u2019s second letter to Timothy was his last letter he would write.\u00a0 Paul could have focused on a number of issues.\u00a0 He could have talked about the Holy Spirit, he could have talked about the future hope that we have, but Paul did not do that.\u00a0 Instead, he wanted to remind Timothy of the importance of doctrine.\u00a0 Paul tells Timothy:<\/p>\n

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:14-17, ESV).<\/em><\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s is attempting to do the same as Paul within an African context.\u00a0 He is trying to connect the doctrine of the church in light of an African understanding in order to equip the men and women of God more thoroughly within this post-western Christianity context.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Phillip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, <\/em>(Oxford University Press: New York, 2011), 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In studying Christianity worldwide, Phillip Jenkins states in his book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity: Assuming no great gains or losses through conversion, then there would be around 2.6 billion Christians, of whom 695 million would live in Africa, 610 million in Latin America, and 480 million in Asia.\u00a0 Europe, with 574 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[991],"class_list":["post-13329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-michael","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13330,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13329\/revisions\/13330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}