Global Christianity: Shifts, Challenges, and Faithfulness

I think one of the ways that churches in the Global South can help the Western church is to remind them of the need to remain faithful to Scripture. I know there are exceptions, but as you look as a whole, it appears that the churches that are growing in the Global South have a stronger faith in the authority of Scripture, and they are willing to die for that and to live out what they believe is the Word of God. [00:00:01]

Perhaps we could remind the Western church about that, even though we’re very thankful to the Western church because our missionaries first came from there. Also, perhaps we could remind the Western church that there has been a great change in the geographical center of Christianity, a shift in the last thirty-five to forty years, when the center of Christianity—I’m speaking about number of churches, of Christians, and even financial power—has moved from the North to the South. [00:01:06]

Now, if you want to imagine what a standard Christian would look like, it would not look like a middle class white man living in the North, but probably a woman living in a village in Africa or in a slum in Brazil. So this is going to make a huge change in what Christianity looks like, in the profile of a standard Christian in the next few years. [00:01:42]

Much of this growth of Christianity in the Global South is due to the Pentecostal and charismatic movement. We do share some things with them: the classical Pentecostal church does believe in the Bible as the Word of God, and they do tell the members to love the Bible, and to read the Bible, and to seek God’s ways there. [00:02:39]

But Pentecostalism is different from the classical Protestant tradition streaming from the Reformation. They're different as to the way of worship, and they're different as to the way they live every day. So there has to be an adaptation. Many many Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal Christians have come to the Reformed churches in Brazil, or they have come to the Reformed faith. [00:03:32]

They have discovered R.C. Sproul on YouTube, they have discovered MacArthur on YouTube, they have discovered all of you who have somehow been translated into Portuguese, and they say "I want to be Reformed, but I’ve been raised in a Pentecostal church. I can’t take the service in a Presbyterian church. It’s dead, it’s cold." [00:04:15]

When Christianity came to Indonesia it started only one-thousand and five hundred years after Christ. But Muslims came at the end of the seventh century, so missionaries are too late to come to Indonesia. And then when missionaries came, they came by bringing the gospel plus cannons and warships, and they did their merchandising and their business by cheating people. [00:06:53]

But after disasters like the tsunami in Aceh—Aceh was first visited by Muslims about the end of the seventh century. Sixty years after Muhammad died, already most of them came to Indonesia to preach Islam. It was only after another eight-hundred years that Christians came. They don't believe in Christians after the Crusaders. [00:07:45]

But when the tsunami came, about thirteen years ago, only Christians went to help the people of Aceh. At first they said, "These are unclean. These are pagans." They do not even want to eat the food given by the Christians, because this is not Muslim food. This Christian food is unclean. But by and by, several months after, the good works of Christians was so obvious. [00:08:34]

So good works are very important to change their concept, their perception of Christianity, even though good works cannot bring men into the grace and salvation of Christ. But we Christians should show our good works, our mercy, and our honesty in order to regain and to change their concept. [00:09:15]

Perhaps one thing that we can share with you is the need in our generation to learn how to live with longsuffering and with patience. God's work doesn't happen overnight, and we live in a culture that expects short term results and immediate outcomes. In our part of the world, you need to learn to be a minority. [00:09:41]

You need to learn to be a long-suffering minority and to be a positive Christian minority, loving your neighbor, preaching the gospel, not having antagonistic attitudes, but trusting the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to accomplish His work. [00:10:23]