The Erskine Global Diploma in Theology and Christian Leadership Part One

Where in the World is Christianity Today: The Global Christian Movement

Martha Margaret Cotten, MTh., D.Min.

Sometimes as western Christians we forget that Christianity is truly an eastern and Global South religion. The big picture of Christianity throughout history shows that our religion didn't begin in Jerusalem, go straight to Rome and then straight to Europe. It began with Jesus in Jerusalem and quickly spread in several different directions. To the east, Christianity spread along the Silk Routes -- to Persia, into India, and then into China. It spread southward through Egypt to the Horn of Africa and west into North Africa. 300 to 500 years before Islam had any teeth, Christianity flourished in North Africa and that region gave us vital Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Tertullian, Athanasius and Cyril. Christianity would not be what it is today without these African theologians.

The Church then suffered a major setback with the rise of Islam from the 7th to 9th centuries. In the 7th century, Muslims took Damascus, Jerusalem, Antioch, Tyre, cities along the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Asia Minor. These Muslims did not immediately persecute Christians, and the Coptic Church in Egypt continues to survive today. Yet the Church in North Africa struggled greatly and continues to face oppression and persecution today.

Under that ancient Muslim rule, Christians were second-class citizens and were forbidden to evangelize. They suffered social and financial pressure. The church in the East was disunified and isolated and this made it weak and vulnerable, which led to its suppression.

Christianity continued to spread West and North with migration and persecution being two largest factors in its global spread. By 1650, Christianity was brought along with colonization across the world by European nations and made it to the New World. In 1910, 80% of all Christians were Europeans or Northern Americans.

By 1981, that changed. The southern hemisphere Christians outnumbered the northern hemisphere Christians for the first time since the 10th century. This growth has not stopped and today approximately 69% of the world’s Christians live in the Global South, with the continent of Africa having the largest Christian population.[1]

What does all of this mean? Why is it important for us today, especially those of us in theological education and missions, to know that Christianity is shrinking in the West but exploding in the Global South/Majority World?[2] This growth displays the future (and current) strength of the Church. The Church is now located in places that do not speak or read the languages that have traditionally been used in theology, doctrine, and church life for centuries: English, French, German, and Latin. The Church is now located in places that operate out of a context of poverty, corruption, low or no literacy, and many times, intense persecution. 

Poverty and low literacy mean that the Church needs substantial support. Additionally, the West has historically exported bad theology (i.e., the health and wealth/prosperity gospel) and there are not enough resources or training for reformed, orthodox Christians in these countries to combat heresies. We desire to help our Majority World brothers and sisters develop the tools they need for their own contextualization and application of the Bible and theology while staying within the boundaries of Nicene Christianity.

Global Christianity of the future will most likely look quite different than our American/Western Europe/British Isles flavor, but with the accurate biblical framework theological training provides, it will retain an orthodox, reformed, Nicene framework without losing cultural perspective and relevance.

Where does this orthodox, reformed, Nicene training come from?  How can it be given to the churches and communities who are asking for it? This was the dilemma faced by mission agencies such as World Witness. Added to this, many counties began requiring pastors and church leaders to hold formal credentials to preach in churches. Could two agencies of the ARP Church partner together to address this problem? Find the answer in part two of this series.

[1] All statistics come from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity housed at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

[2] The Majority World is a phrase describing those who live in the regions on earth that compromise more than 75% of the human population, i.e., Latin American, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.