How Big is the Church?
by Paul GrantIn an letter to the American Church, Ajith Fernando talks about the gap between American Christians and Christians in the "poor countries", as he calls them. Who is he talking about?
First of all, there have been followers of Jesus in Africa, Arabia, and today's Iran and Iraq since Pentecost. Many of these congregations have weathered 1400 years of Muslim rule. Secondly, there are many Christians in places like China and Russia, that have more than a thousand years' heritage, including most violent suppression during the Communist era. These people are not Christians because it's in fashion; many, like Nobel-Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn, spent hard time for their faith in the Siberia and Mongolia.
China (below)
Korea
India
Middle East
East Africa
West Africa
Latin America
China
Estimates of Chinese Christians' numbers range from 30 million to 150 million, the the most likely range between 69 and 91 million (Operation World). Attendance is nearly impossible to calculate, but it will not be too many years in the future before more Christians go to church in China than in the United States. Two years ago, an Urbana writer spent two weeks in China, and wrote about his experiences. Click here to see his feature.
Chinese Christianity has a very old history, which can, to over-simplify, be divided into four periods: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Communist. The first Christians were Turks from Central Asia, arriving over the Silk road sometime between 300 and 600. By 700, a Nestorian (sect of the Eastern Orthodox churches) body of believers was thriving in the foreigners' quarters in major Chinese cities. Their success in converting Chinese was very limited, and they eventually died out.
In the 1500s, Jesuit missionaries arrived, and focused their efforts on the ruling elites, a strategy that never was as successful as intended. However, the Catholic toe-hold was sustained to this day, and there are currently over 5 million Catholics in China.
Protestants started arriving in the early 1800s, and had constant difficulties and slow progress. The Chinese rulers regarded Missionaries as the cultural wing of European imperialism. There was much violence and persecution, and eventually, all foreign missionaries were expelled, when Mao came to power in 1949. At that point there were around 11/2 million Protesant Christians in China. Nearly all of today's dozens of millions of believers grew out of this small seed, mostly in the last 25 years.
The survival and explosive growth of the Church in China has rightly been called one of the most sociologically significant developments of the twentieth century. Much of this growth took place underground, in illegal house churches. At the same time, however, there was an above ground and legal church, the "Three Self Patriotic Movement," founded in 1950. Click Here to read part one of a four part series of articles on the background of this denomination. This was an acceptibly "Chinese" church to satisfy the communists, although the activities of the TSPM were closely monitored and censored. Many TSPM leaders abused their power to subvert the House Church movement, and much bitterness and mutual suspicion remains between the two. In recent years, there is increasing rapprochement between the Three-Self Church and the House Churches, with many Christians attending both churches.
One Hundred years ago, some western Missionaries declared Korea "impenetrable" to the gospel. Today the Korean Church is one of the most important bodies of believers anywhere, a prayer and missionary capital of the world. Ten of the eleven largest churches in the world are in Seoul. Praise God for the perseverence and love of the Korean church!
In India, where the church was founded in the first generation of Christianity by the Apostle Thomas, there are today anywhere between 20 and 50 million believers. These sisters and brothers in Christ are a well-established body, But their biggest growth is yet ahead of them. At the same time, persecution at the hands of a rapidly radicalizing Hinduism is increasing; and it is likely to get worse in the near future. At Urbana 2000, Vinoth Ramachandra told the story of a martyred Australian missionary, and the outcome of his death.
In 1947, British India was granted independence and was partitioned into a secular state (India) and a Muslim state (Pakistan). Currently, Christians in Pakistan are undergoing heavy persecution from neighbors. Please pray for the Church in Pakistan.
There are many Christians in the East, including hundreds of Orthodox churches that predate the Muslim period, and are not connected to Western Christianity. These include churches in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and all across North Africa. Notably, the Egyptian church has survived and at times thrived despite sporadic waves of violence at the hands of the Muslim rulers. This summer, several InterVarsity students met a group of Egyptian Christian students, and ministered together in the slums of Cairo. Here is an article about these Christians: My Encounter with Osama.
Shortly after the birth of the Church, Ethiopians were there. From the 300s onward, Ethiopian Orthodoxy extended a regional influence on the faith.
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi are today one of the heartlands of global Christianity - in some countries more broadly Christian than the United States. Christian Leaders from these countries have spoken at almost every Urbana since 51 (William Nagenda).
Nigeria is the home of the world's largest IFES movement, the umbrella organization of which InterVarsity USA and Canada are two members. This group, called NIFES, is a major contributor to world and regional evangelization. To find a prayer guide for the movement, click here and select Nigeria from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page. Nigerian missionaries are active in 50 nations worldwide, and are by far a bigger source than destination of mission work.
West Africa is another heartland of global Christianity, but conflict with Muslims is becoming an increasing threat. Civil war-like conditions have emerged in several Nigerian states in the north of the country, where Muslim governments have declared Islamic law over the state, and have instituted several measures, such as forcing all single women to marry, regardless of whether or not they were Muslim. Please pray for the Nigerian church, for the wisdom and grace to respond to the violence, in such a way that their families are safe, and many more people come to know Jesus.
Once a staunchly Catholic region, nominalism has set in over the course of the last century. At the same time, evangelical and pentacostal churches - some catholic, but mostly protestant - have mushroomed to include in the neighborhood of fifty million believers.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register