A hollow shell of Christianity:
Europe may be the missions target for 2025
by Justin D. Long
In the past, I've noted that there are 1.9 billion Christians in our world, and that the "World C" countries include North America, Latin America, Europe and subsaharan Africa. There are always those who disagree with this perspective, insisting that Europe and Latin America are "unreached" nations full of sin and superstition.
As usual, this perspective is both right and wrong. For the past year we've written our Reality Check's chiefly about World A, "glossing over" the complexities. The reason is simple: there's only so much one can cover in a single essay, and the forthcoming World Christian Encyclopedia will deal with these many complexities better than I can here. However, I think it's important for us to bear in mind some of these trends and where they are leading us. So this week, I am devoting the Reality Check to the World C nations, and most specifically to their future. Ignoring the modern World A countries could lead to much more and much harder work in today's World C countries by future generations of missionaries:
COUNTRIES APPROACHING THE WORLD B LINE
1. FRANCE. In 1990's "Our globe and how to reach it," we listed France as a World C nation--81% Christian and 97% evangelized. This snapshot represents the country as a whole: but France is far more complex than a single snapshot. When we examine the nation in more detail for purposes of strategically targeting our efforts, we see that many of the cities in France are not World C cities--they are World B cities (evangelized, but the majority non-Christian) due to the huge influx of non-Christians, particularly Muslims and Buddhists.
2. BRITAIN. In 1990, it was a World C country, just like France. However, it is actually LESS Christian than France--74% to France's 81%. More, current trends indicate many cities in Britain, if not majority non-Christian now, will be so before another generation has passed. A recent report, for example, noted that Britain may very well have more Muslims than Anglicans by 2025. [And that means there are more non-Christians than Christians, making it World B].
3. UNITED STATES. In 1990, the USA was 71% Christian, making it less than either Britain or France (although in pure numbers it has far more Christians than the other two nations combined). Still, it is falling closer to the World B line of 60% Christian. Islam is on the rise in the USA, now forming about enough of a minority percentage to make people sit up and take notice.
WHY DOES A NATION MOVE FROM WORLD C TO WORLD B?
The movement of a nation from World C to World B means we are not exerting sufficient or quality evangelistic influence, because we are losing individuals. It's a safe assumption that an evangelized non-Christian is =not= going to pass the Gospel on to their children: so unless =we= reach the kids, they will grow up unevangelized. Lose a World C nation to World B today, and unless you make a radical change, you will lose it to World A tomorrow.
However, it also means that there is quite a bit of evangelistic energy coming from elsewhere, particularly if religions like Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are on the rise. People don't just BECOME Muslims, anymore than they convert to Christianity without an outside influence. They must be offered a chance to join the faith. That means Muslim missionaries are coming to these World C nations, and we are not doing enough to counteract that influence and defend our beliefs through apologetics and evangelism.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
So do we need to send more cross-cultural missionaries to Europe? This declining movement of World C toward World B is just another example of what happens when 70% of our energy is devoted to ourselves--to Christians--and only 30% is devoted to non-Christians, with just 2% going to the unevangelized. We need a balance. We need to restrict ourselves to spending just a third of our efforts on ourselves, and openly direct one-third to the evangelized non-Christian world (in the form of evangelists, city-wide crusades, etc) and one third to the unevangelized in World A, in the form of cross-cultural missionaries and partnership with indigenous mission workers.
Britain, for example, already has large Muslim communities that ought to be targeted for mission efforts. The same can be found in France, and even right here in the United States. There is a difference between evangelists and cross-cultural missionaries--one for World B and the other for World A--but both are desperately needed. Get those tent revivals out of the church and into the non-Christian world!
Reality Check
We are not sending anything like enough missionaries to Muslim and Hindu lands, yet those religions have active strategies of penetrating the Christian society with missionaries of their own. Those strategies are already showing much fruit. Unless we develop a correct, loving, Christ-like response of evangelism, apologetics and
mission, we run the risk of not evangelizing today's World A, but of losing tomorrow's World C.
The Future
There is potential for Europe to become split between Muslims and Christians, for America to become nominalized with a significant Muslim and Hindu minority, and for Africa to become marginalized by a loss of financial support for its missionaries. In this potential world, the traditional sources of missionaries fall by the wayside,
and the prime mission thrust of tomorrow comes from China's wealth and her exuberant church, and from Latin missionaries penetrating the 10/40 Window. Africa will be the third major power with a significant role to play, dampened somewhat by civil war and massive martyrs.
Suggestions
- WE MUST SEND MISSIONARIES TO WORLD A. They are sending missionaries to us. We must penetrate the homeland of non-Christian religions with the light of the Gospel.
- WE MUST SEND EVANGELISTS TO WORLD B. We must answer the trends away from Christianity with a clear, clarion call to return to the Kingdom and become servants of the one true God.
- WE MUST DEVELOP BETTER SYSTEMS FOR DISCIPLING OUR OWN. Are you prepared for Muslim and Hindu prayer groups in our schools? How will your children respond when Muslims present their "gospel"? Are you and your children ready to explain, present, and defend your faith from critique?
- WE MUST DEVELOP BETTER SYSTEMS FOR CRITIQUING AND REFINING OUR OWN. The church suffers from internal bickering and arguing. While there are many things that need to be reformed, this ought to be done through ongoing dialogue and witness rather than through backbiting and harsh public criticism.
