Christianity Moves South

As part of our "homework" for our missionary training, we're reading a book by Philip Jenkins called The Next Christendom. Wait! Don't leave. It's really interesting! Jenkins says the energy and enthusiasm for Christianity has moved, especially from Europe, to the Southern Hemisphere--Africa, South America and parts of Asia. He says that far from dying, Christianity is growing and gaining momentum in the South. That's certainly true in the Church of the Nazarene. In 1984, Africans represented 6% of all Nazarenes. Today, Africans represent 20% of all Nazarenes.

Jenkins also says it's wrong to think that Europeans and Americans "imposed" Christianity on the Southern Hemisphere. He points to the Ethiopian Church which is almost as old as Christianity itself, and to the Christians in India who trace their faith to the evangelical efforts of "Doubting Thomas." When I was in India several years ago, I asked a young Christian husband and father how long his family had been Christians, thinking they might have been converted in the efforts of missionaries. He drew himself up proudly and said, "My family can trace its Christianity to the second century AD." That puts Christianity in India long before it was in either Northern Europe or America!

Jenkins visualizes a day when the Southern Hemisphere is sending missionaries to the Northern Hemisphere, and in fact that is already happening. Brazil, Korea and South Africa have each sent missionaries to Europe and America. Jenkins says that much of the commitment to faith in Europe is coming from immigrants. For example, he writes that on any given Sunday in London, half of the worshipers in Christian churches were born in the Southern Hemisphere.

Just as American Christians had to develop churches and styles of worship that fit America, churches in Africa, Asia and South America are having to develop churches and styles of worship that fit who they are. There is both opportunity and danger in this designing process. We'd ask you to be in prayer for Eugenio Duarte (Africa), Vern Ward (Asia), and Christian Sarmiento (South America) as they try to strike the balance between previous denominational practices and emerging regional needs. God is doing a great work in the Southern Hemisphere, and your prayers can help Nazarene leadership as it serves the church and the Kingdom.