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World Mission of the Church - Lesson 11

Windows Into the World of Missions (Part 1)

In this lesson, you will learn about the historical context and importance of the Orthodox Church, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church and its influence on Eastern Europe and Asia. You will gain an understanding of the challenges in ministry and evangelical outreach, including the mistakes made in post-Soviet Union missionary efforts and the need for sensitivity to Orthodox history and culture. Additionally, you will explore the necessity of addressing social and political justice issues within the context of preaching the gospel and promoting reconciliation and forgiveness. Finally, you will examine the pressing need for training and education for Christians in the region, as well as the importance of seminaries and education in spreading the gospel.

Timothy Tennent
World Mission of the Church
Lesson 11
Watching Now
Windows Into the World of Missions (Part 1)

I. Introduction

II. Ten Forty Window

A. North Africa and the Middle East

B. South Asia

C. East Asia

III. Post-Christian Window

p class="out-2">A. North America and Western Europe

B. Eastern Europe

IV. Orothodox Window

V. Younger Church Window

VI. Christo-pagan/Pentecostal Window

A. Christo-pagan

B. Pentecostal

VII. Summary


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Transcript
  • For people who are pastors or will serve as pastors, this course will expose you to what you need to know about missions to be effective in the local church. This is also a foundational course for people who are preparing for missionary service by considering topics dealing with practical and theological aspects of missions. For everyone, regardless of your vocation, this course will challenge you to become a world Christian. (Note: It is helpful to know that a pericope [pair – ik – o – pay] is a section of scripture containing a teaching or describing an event.) 

  • Mission is the reconciling work of God in the world. Missions is the obedient, Spirit-led strategy and implementation of plans to fulfill God's mission in the world. The basis of the Torah is not untethered from a global heart of God for the nations of the world.  Even in the Writings and the Prophets, the covenant is being celebrated in the context of the nations of the world, including ramifications of both blessing and cursing.

  • Mission is the reconciling work of God in the world. Missions is the obedient, Spirit-led strategy and implementation of plans to fulfill God's mission in the world. The basis of the Torah is not untethered from a global heart of God for the nations of the world.  Even in the Writings and the Prophets, the covenant is being celebrated in the context of the nations of the world, including ramifications of both blessing and cursing.

  • As the early Christians experience missiological breakthroughs, they will cite the Old Testament because they see these events as a fulfillment of what had already been written. The Abrahamic covenant is cited to demonstrate how God is using the Messiah to bless the nations. The theology of Great Commission found in culminating texts in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and reinforced in Acts 1:8. Jesus repeated the Great Commission to his disciples in different ways and at various times. Matthew’s account begins by saying that Jesus is giving authority by the Father for the extension of His kingdom. God has given us a mandate to present the Gospel publicly to the world, not just to separate into a cultic community. The only main verb in the passage is, “make disciples.” God’s command is to disciple all people groups, not just people in each country.

  • As the early Christians experience missiological breakthroughs, they will cite the Old Testament because they see these events as a fulfillment of what had already been written. The Abrahamic covenant is cited to demonstrate how God is using the Messiah to bless the nations. The theology of Great Commission found in culminating texts in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and reinforced in Acts 1:8. Jesus repeated the Great Commission to his disciples in different ways and at various times. Matthew’s account begins by saying that Jesus is giving authority by the Father for the extension of His kingdom. God has given us a mandate to present the Gospel publicly to the world, not just to separate into a cultic community. The only main verb in the passage is, “make disciples.” God’s command is to disciple all people groups, not just people in each country.

  • The verses that contain Mark's version of the Great Commission first appear in later copies, but there are good reasons to treat these verses as part of the inspired text of the Gospel of Mark. In Mark, the proclamation is to be made to all creation. The emphasis in Mark is preaching. The emphasis in Luke is witnessing. The emphasis in John is sending.

  • Acts 11:20 describes the first time the Gospel is intentionally preached in a cross-cultural situation. A church was planted in Antioch and Saul and Barnabas discipled believers there for a year. The Antioch church sends them out, and they come back and report to them what happened. Both local evangelism to your own people group and cross cultural evangelism are important. 

  • There have been changes in missions between 1792 and the present. Many people credit William Carey with beginning the modern missions movement. The Moravians were taking the Gospel to places all over the world, even before Carey began his ministry. The eras overlap because it takes a while for new ideas to catch on. A key figure in Beachhead Missions is William Carey. In Carey’s book, “An Inquiry,” he challenges the inaction of the church in cross-cultural missions. He says God has given to the Church, the responsibility of spreading the Gospel   to other parts of the world, summarizes missions history, gives anthropological data and discusses practical issues people give for not going. Ultimately, people need to be open to the call of the Holy Spirit and willing to respond to the challenge. Carey’s motto is, “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” He and Judson wanted to plant churches in a new country. 

  • Hudson Taylor went to China as a first era missionary. Taylor travels inland and pushes the limits of what the missions organizations were willing to do. Frontier missions focused on the interior areas of countries, used a faith missions model for organization and funding, and recruited lay people, including students and women. Contextualization is preaching the Gospel in a way that is sensitive to the recipient.

  • The close of the second era, Beachhead Missions, came in 1974 when Ralph Winter gave his address at the Lausanne Conference on world evangelism. As a result, people began looking at missions in terms of people groups rather than geographic areas. The fourth era of missions emphasizes “by whom” the Gospel is presented. Lausanne II and the Global Consultation on World Evangelization took place in 1989.

  • In this lesson, you will learn that the “ten forty window” is one of the places where there is a concentration of unreached people groups. A window is a way to recognize the big picture while realizing that every local context is unique. The main focus is to look at each of the five mega-spheres and identify what is unique about each one.
  • The “ten forty window” is one of the places where there is a concentration of unreached people groups. A window is a way to recognize the big picture while realizing that every local context is unique. The main focus is to look at each of the five mega-spheres and identify what is unique about each one.

  • It’s helpful to summarize what you need to know as a pastor to communicate to people about missions and what the pathway is to getting prepared to serve as a missionary. Every continent should be a sending and receiving continent. Short term missions is the best thing and worse thing that has happened to the local church.

    Previous to the beginning of the audio, there was a video shown that is not available to us. It was an account of the breakthrough of the gospel into a culture.

  • By studying this lesson, you'll gain insights into the top ten key aspects of 21st-century missions, including their holistic approach, indigenous leadership, partnerships, technology, urbanization, short-term missions, Global South's influence, contextualization, business as mission, and diaspora focus.
  • Some mission boards are associated with a denomination and some are independent. Most missions organizations belong either to the IFMA (Interdenominational Faith Missions Association) or EFMA (Evangelical Foreign Missions Agency). Fundamentalist missions organizations each have a specific focus. The steps you go through before you go to the mission field are designed to help you get good training and build a team that will support you. Churches are tending to provide a larger percentage of support for fewer missionaries. Terms are usually 3-4 years at a time. Your first term is usually spent just learning the language and culture. Missionaries spend time between terms connecting with people and preparing to return. People often are more receptive to the Gospel when they are living in a culture other than their native culture. Air travel and email have made asynchronous relationships possible. People with professional training have access to some countries that won't allow people to come in as missionaries.

  • As you consider becoming a missionary, it is helpful to recognize areas in the world where the population predominantly identifies with another religion. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism are popular with large population groups in the 10-40 window. There are also large immigrant populations in locations throughout the US.

    The map referred to in the lecture with the world religions color coded is not available to us.

  • Hinduism is practiced by a large percentage of the people in India. It also has an impact on the culture and politics of India. Buddhism teaches that there is one path to spiritual enlightenment, as opposed to Hinduism that teaches that there are many. 

  • Understanding world religions affects our strategy and the way we do our ministry around the world. 

    Most people who need a gospel presentation are members of another world religion (e.g., Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism). We study other religions so we know the context of belief of that people group. Identification vs. extractionist model. By understanding the teachings of different religions, you can explain the gospel in terms they can understand. Muslims agree on many parts of the Old Testament but don't believe in the Trinity or that Jesus is God. Religions in China and Japan emphasize sincerity, orderliness and personal and public conduct based on precedent. 

     

Recognizing the responsibility of all Christians to complete Christ’s commission, this course gives an overview of the strategic and historical progress of worldwide missions today. The ways in which a local congregation can fulfill its worldwide biblical mandate are also considered.

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Windows Into the World of Missions (Part 1/2)
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:01] The third is the Orthodox window, which is a rough reference to the power of the state Orthodox churches in Eastern Europe and across Asia, like the Russian Orthodox Church, for example. Russian orthodoxy is a very powerful historic movement which shaped the formation of modern day Russia. 70 years of communism did not affect that basic fact, and every body in Russia is well aware of that fact. So because of that, one of the mistakes that was made when Christians, when the Soviet Union was dismantled in the post 89 period, 1989, there was this huge influx of mission organizations into the former Soviet Union. Now, what happened was it was largely a, well, I should say, a disaster. That puts it probably to heart. It was a very difficult example of modern day mis theology because it was as if someone like opened the corral doors and everybody goes running in. So there wasn't good communication. There was no strategy, appropriate strategy being done. It was as if someone said, Come over. We now have 300 million atheist who never heard of Christianity, who want to hear the gospel. So they go in completely unaware of the Orthodox Church, its history, its connection, its perceptions. And it it takes a long time to kind of work that through. It's still a process, but you simply cannot do ministry in this part of the world without responding to however you respond to orthodoxy. It's often been said that, for example, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, all of these Orthodox churches, it's almost intentionally laid out in that order that we're first, we're Greek, then we're Orthodox, then were the church. So you come in there with a church like an evangelical movement, and they ignore the overlay of orthodoxy and the overlay of the Greek.

[00:02:23] Being Greek to be Greek is to be orthodox. And then you come to Christianity, then that's a very important consideration. When I was in Greece, we had a period of going around talking to evangelical pastors that were working in Greece. And I just this is a straw poll. This is like Iowa. This is not New Hampshire. This is an Iowa thing. But I went around and just asked people as pastors that I met, what is your attitude toward Eastern orthodoxy and toward the Greek Orthodox Church, specifically if someone comes to Christ out of Greek Orthodox and you tell them, stay where you are, you stay in that church and work for change and preach the gospel in that context and be a good orthodox. Or do you tell them to come out and join that or the Jellicoe churches? Well, of the and I only talked about five, four, five, six pastors but the answers a number it was exactly divided half of them said oh no I'm just so happy. If an Orthodox person comes to faith in Christ, I count as a great blessing and they can be a wonderful salt and light within that community because it's a very tight knit community and they can share the gospel better there than outsiders use as a foreigner. Other said, Get the Out of Babylon. You know, the church is the great anti-Christ. I mean, very, very divergent attitudes about it. So that reinforces not in my experience in Eastern Europe where Dr. Koosman has been, this is reinforced as you cannot go into Romania as an evangelical, for example, without being very, very sensitive to this particular issue. And one of the ways it's it's really hit Peter Cosmic has been and where you plant churches because they hate plants, essentially Pentecostal churches.

[00:04:12] So what he's found is you go on to have a town that does not have an Orthodox church, you can fairly successfully plant a church there. But if you go into a town that already has an Orthodox church, they are very offended. Why would you come here when the church is already here? You know, that whole issue is there. So this is a huge part of how we have to engage the discourse. There are some wonderful articles and something written on this. Peter Denker, Peter and Anita Denker, I think have written some of the best stuff on this. There's a lot of really good literature on this particular topic. If you're interested in this part of the world. Other classes advance the church modern world. We go into more details on all this, but it's a very important part of the world. You go into places like Ukraine just to highlight one. Part of this orthodox window. The Ukraine has, in their case, both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, two competing Orthodox churches in Ukraine, both very vibrant by their own definition of the word. Very much a part of Ukrainian life. This is also the kind of the Bible belt of the former Soviet Union. This is where most of the evangelical leaders are coming from. This is a very important part of producing indigenous leadership for the larger orthodox Russian world, Russian speaking world. So you can't go into Ukraine as if it's this big atheistic bloc that just got over the last gasp of communism. That factor is there. But you're also finding tremendous, tremendous realities of the church there from the past. It's been it's reasserted itself. And then a lot of great indigenous leadership that's coming up and wonderful seminaries and various groups that are coming up and in the Ukraine.

[00:06:01] So we have to be much more sensitive, the partnership with national believers in this part of the world. Questions or comments? Yes. Can you give like a brief description of what the Russian Orthodox Church? Well, Christianity in a nutshell, is, well, at least historically has been dividing the three major blocs Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. Today we might add Pentecostal or indigenous or other groups that never have heard of Protestantism. But the Orthodox Church has certain distinctive about their worship forms, how they worship, and particularly the use of icons in the worship. I can ology is very important to orthodox worship. The use of certain Greek liturgies, particularly from the Byzantium period, are very important to orthodoxy. It's governance under patriarchs rather than the Pope. Though you do have a group of orthodox churches that have allegiance to the pope that follow an Eastern rite called unit churches. But most of the Orthodox churches under patriarchs who govern the churches the way that the Catholic Church has bishops and they follow a very ancient rite of the church. And so it's very strong on liturgy. The role of Mary is very strong, though a bit different than Catholic in many ways. So because of that, it's a varied and they have different theological conceptions about certain aspects of Christology as well. There are some theological differences, but it's a very it's a very important segment of Christianity that's well worth more reflection in your church history classes. Just to summarize this whole area, this whole bloc, Eastern Europe, former USSR, mainly, that's the block we're talking about. You have a tradition of Eastern orthodoxy and the state with a long history together. And the Soviet Union kind of atheism is a blip in a larger story.

[00:08:06] You have to remember that you have the emergence of an independent evangelical movement in these countries that is led by the indigenous people in this area. And that's largely because missionaries were not permitted into this region for 70 years and that because of that, it has helped stimulate the indigenous movement. As a rule, especially I've noticed this in Eastern Europe, you cannot entertain the gospel apart from social and political justice issues. That's not meant to say any more than what that just says, that we have to be extra careful. I think we have to do that here as well, but extra careful not to dichotomies. Any so-called personal salvation message with the larger social implications of Christianity to disciple nations. Because in a place like Bosnia, for example, I preached one night in the capital of Bosnia, and at the end of the service, a woman came forward with a message of forgiveness. And she told me at the altar of the church, she will she first she ask, How can I forgive the Serbs? This was her opening line to me. She began to cry. We sat down with her. She told us a story, which basically is she's a place from a place called Vukovar, which is actually in Croatia, where she had to flee Vukovar. And she now is in Bosnia. But she was crying because the Serbs took her husband and her two boys who were grown, but they took both her boys and her husband and killed them in front of her. And she said, How can I forgive them? And that's something that is very, very powerful. Moment because you cannot divorce the preaching to the gospel and forgiveness and reconciliation with God apart from this larger context of tremendous pain, because the Serb that killed her husband and children was a member of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

[00:10:18] So that's a very powerful reality to everybody living in Bosnia, the old rump of Yugoslavia, including Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. These are all places, you know, those parts of the world are quite aware of the fact that the Serbs that are attacking them and trying to disenfranchize them are the questions. So you have Catholics in Croatia, you've got Muslims in Bosnia, and you have all this evangelical movement going on, and that reality is there. So we have to address issues of justice. And Dr. Koopmans has done tremendous work on this, linking the gospel, preaching with practical ways of helping people. He has food kitchens over there. He's got a ministry called a Gapay. And this has been a bridge. And there are gaps, a ministry which at one time they gave out right after the war, I think something like 20,000 pairs of shoes in just a short period of time, and they gave out to everybody alike. If you came Serb, Croat, Bosnian, it doesn't matter. They gave shoes to you if you needed shoes. They had a huge impact on the people. That's Christianity. We hadn't we had never seen it before because they only saw it as sectarian, kind of, you know, cultural imperialism of the Serbs. You cannot preach the gospel in isolation in that kind of context. Many of the Christians in this area have little access to training, and therefore it's a huge challenge for how the gospel spreads because there's such a need for training. We have heresies and other problems that spring up because there has not been good schools. Again, not two coups, which has founded the only evangelical seminary in Eastern Europe, the only accredited seminary in Eastern Europe. It's a very important strategic thing there in Croatia.

[00:12:10] And that is important because we need a lot. We need 100 more like it to properly train the growing evangelical movement in this part of the world. And there is, as I mentioned, a huge spiritual vacuum in the wake of communism, which is going to be filled by something. It could be secularism. It could be what's called in arms new religious movements. We centers in China and other places where the latest kind of faddish religious movement comes in it. We can't at all assume that this is a battle between Islam and Buddhists and Christians or whatever. This is a very dynamic thing that could turn to all kinds of ways. And so we have to take advantage of that opportunity and really preach the true and powerful gospel in this context. If you have an interest in Eastern Europe, I would really encourage you to or the former USSR to connect with my colleague Peter Kuznick. He is of course my senior colleague here, is a distinguished professor of missions here and is an expert on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union context and has innumerable contacts. This is the part of the world he really knows very, very well, and I would highly encourage you to connect with him because he would be able to help you in many, many ways if you have an interest in an area. And he would love for you to come and visit a seminary. I've taught there a couple of times and been there with him several times. We brought groups of students from here over there and it's been a great experience learning from him, so please take advantage of that If you have a chance, take a class with him or see him in the hallway.

[00:13:56] You can start and have a chat with other questions or comments about Eastern Europe or the former USSR. Okay, let's go to the next window, which we call the younger church window. And this is a reference to sub-Saharan Africa. You remember in North Africa, up there in the lighter Sahara Desert there, that refers to as part of the 1040 window. But when you get down below the Sahara Desert, then you go into what we call the younger church window. The phrase younger church is a reference to the exploding church in Africa. I'm going to be giving you some some numbers in a minute. But we're looking at a very, very fast growing church. It's growing as an average of around 24,000 people per day. Now, there was a while where it was running around 16 to 18000 per day, and now it's up to 24 to 24500 per day. That is a tremendous, tremendous movement to Christ in Africa now. The population is also exploding. Africans have to kind of take it in and balance that out. But the sheer numbers are overwhelming. So that has implications, as we'll see, for missionary work in sub-Saharan Africa. All of the countries of Africa are in themselves. Great case studies for the whole people. Group emphasis, even much more so in a place like China. It's in places like India and Indonesia and the Balkans and southern Africa, where you really see the importance of the people group emphasis because take for example, a place like Ghana. Ghana is a physical country in Africa filled with a wide range of people groups, as you can see on this chart here of Ghana. And this particular one is highlighting biblical language progress in Ghana. This kind of work, by the way, has been done for every country in the world by the work of Bible translators.

[00:16:18] So there has been careful analysis. Even in India, it's been highlighted how many people groups in the Bible. This is really good empirical data. This is to serve the church. So if you had a heart for Bible translation, you could focus in on one of the groups there that needs translation, which in this case is the reddish color is where there are Bibles needed in those languages. So you can imagine because of the tribal background of Africa, how this has created a context where you cannot think about geographic boundaries when you think about Africa. You've got to think beyond geography or political geography and think about the ethnic boundaries, because many of the people, groups like the Fulani or other well-known Maasai, these big people groups in Africa, they span over many countries. And so we have to think about that. Another part of looking at Africa is realizing the role of Islam and how it juxtaposes the Christianity in Africa. Essentially, what you have is a very, very dominant presence of Islam in North Africa. You have a really powerful, growing church in the southern part of Africa, and you have a real kind of standoff in this middle belt between Islam and Christianity, which is why, for example, in northern Nigeria, we're having so many difficulties now with Muslims trying to impose Sharia law on northern Nigeria, on the House of Peoples. Nigeria is made up of various people groups, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and they in the south we have mostly Christians, the Igbo, mostly Catholic and the Yoruba, a lot of evangelical Christian growth. You've got a huge standoff there between Christianity and Islam, and that's played out in the political reality of Nigeria today. So that's kind of a reality throughout much of that part of Africa.

[00:18:20] So what's happening in sub-Saharan Africa? What is the story of that? Let me give you some of the highlights. You have the emergence of what is called the A. I see. This is one example of what I told you earlier in the fourth era of missions. We called the Indigenous Initiated Church. This is an example of it and we'll give you a little feel for it. The AIC is often referred to as the African Independent Church. They themselves, though, prefer the term Africa initiated church or sometimes Africa indigenous church. All of this. Is found in the AC. Happily, they may still have AIS Indigenous initiated independent. So there are different ways is described how what I say means. But the basic definition is that it's a broad term describing a largely non institutionalized non confessional Christian movement in sub-Saharan Africa. So this is that part of what I mentioned, that church that had not yet heard of communion. This is a large gathering of churches across Africa that are largely non institutionalized, that is non denominational structures. They are not part of what in the Western world would be called the confessional movement around certain creedal formulations like the Westminster Confession or whatever. These are churches that are emerging unaware of that. And why is that important? That's important because for many, many years, people assume that wherever evangelical Christianity was exploding and growing, that this was adding to the great strength of global Protestantism. Increasingly, this is becoming more and more difficult to sustain because what is it that defines a group as Protestant? This is a very important ecclesiastical issue, which we don't have time to fully explore. But just to point out some of the challenges. If you say that Protestant is whatever is not Catholic or Orthodox, then Protestant can be anything.

[00:20:48] But if you define Protestantism according to the outgrowth of certain movements from Europe that challenged the Catholic Church on certain areas and resulted in the historic emergence of initially three bodies the Anglican churches, the reformed churches and the Lutheran churches, and then how other ones treat all the so-called Protestant churches trace themselves back to either the Anglican Reformed or Lutheran Churches, the so-called Magisterial Reformation. So if you define the Reformation and Protestantism in terms of that, because the word Protestant means protesters, those who protested. So you have an historical context for it. Then what do you do with these movements that are not connected at all with that struggle? They're not a part of that struggle. They don't know about that struggle. Do you say, Well, they are theologically connected to Protestantism, therefore we count them as Protestant? Or are we experiencing a fourth major movement of Christianity that could be viewed as a separate arm like Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and indigenous? That is a very important discussion today in mission circles and in theological circles that you should be aware of. So this is part of that. I personally am convinced that is becoming increasingly difficult to call Chinese house churches part of the Protestant movement. But the good news is that it doesn't really matter because our goal as Protestants is not to promote Protestantism, even though we praise God for what a gift that has been to us historically, for resurrecting the gospel for our forbearers. The real point, it seems to me, is, is the gospel being proclaimed. And if someone doesn't have that historical connection, why do we need to bring them into that connection? Is that important? But the implications of it are really, really significant. I mean, there's all kinds of implications of pro and con to this.

[00:23:01] So I don't suggest that this is how you should feel about it, but it is a very important discussion. So this is largely non confessional movement, which is largely independent from the traditional missions, churches and or external mission church structures. So Africa is probably the best case study of this movement that's out there. How big is it? Look at the size of this is actually the larger picture of Christianity in Africa. And we'll mention the indigenous side of that in a minute. In 1900, there are 8.7 million Christians on the entire continent of Africa. 8.7 million Christians. That's a half a percent of world population. In the year 2000 that had grown from 8 million to 375 million Christians. So you can do the math and you can look at the daily the average daily growth that represents from 8 million to 325 million and going from a half a percent of world population to 5.88% of world population. That is a huge growth. That means that the African Christians are becoming a huge segment of global Christianity so far from Africa being the mission field slash the graveyard of missionaries, it is now the locus of a very large and growing dynamic Christian movement. Yes, many, many problems. Yes, It's been called a mile wide and steep. Yes. Filled with a whole array of heresies. But you look at our history in the West. Look at the heresies that we gave to the world for 400 years and still give to the world. We have to recognize this is part of the nature of church growth heresies you will always have with you. So the real question is whether or not biblical Christianity can push those errors to the margins. And biblical Christianity can be preserved.

[00:25:17] This is why theological training in sub-Saharan Africa is so important, which is why we have an MP directly geared toward this ministry in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, because we want students to have experience of teaching in sub-Saharan Africa because it's an opportunity there. And I myself taught in Nigeria and it's a really great need. 34% of the world roughly, are Christians, slightly less than that. Nearly 6% of those are African Christians. So this is a huge shift from what it look like with David Livingstone or even 100 years later in our own time. So in the last, especially since the late sixties, we're seeing such dramatic changes that the face of Christianity has been dramatically altered. And this is what takes away the teeth of those who claim that Christianity is a, quote, white man's religion because now it's predominant nonwhite non-male non-Western. You know, it's not from countries that are predominantly politically powerful in the world superpowers. It's from largely moving to the southern continents and largely more disenfranchized peoples, traditionally nonwhite people from poor backgrounds. I mean, the whole look of Christianity is dramatically changing. Questions, Comments about the younger church. When do you start hearing the voting? We're not trying to emphasize the story. Protestants and Catholics are. And given to you. Please. To. What do you make of the basis for that? Yeah, it's a great question. And this is one of the one of the problems. On one hand, I think we have to emphasize in every context universality. So therefore, it would be stupid to pretend like Charsadda never existed. But Charsadda on is something that has to be mediated and communicated. So I really appreciate. When I was at Trinity a while back, I was giving some lectures out there and T.A., the well-known African scholar there, spoke to the group after the presentation and said in a powerful way that only an African could really say it.

[00:27:49] He said, Charsadda belongs to me as much as any other Christian. So what he was saying was, even though I don't have any cultural link, which also, Don, I feel like I'm a recipient of those struggles and we should deny that to an African or indeed anybody else. It isn't not part of that struggle. So in that sense, I think that the struggles of Charsadda in Christology or the fight with Arianism or any of that has to be made real to an African believer at some point, not as an historical point, but as a clarifying their own Christology. The problem comes when you're communicating the language of Chaucer, Don, and you begin using words like preceding and substance. It becomes exceedingly difficult because those words do not have corresponding parallels often in that discourse, especially when you have a people group that does not have a philosophical discourse at all, or even in India, where you have a lot discourse, but it would go bring you in the wrong directions. So what you have to do is find a way to make a dynamic equivalent of Charles Anon. So communicate the truth of Charsadda that maybe use language is different and that's where the whole indigenous side of this comes in. So African teachers have got to find a way to communicate the truth of Charsadda and without necessarily emphasizing that we have to show that they are historically part of that struggle. So my point would be that Protestantism has to deal with and communicate to its followers good, solid, historic Christology. Well, so does any other group. And so why would being a Protestant help or hurt that particular struggle that has to happen? So in that sense, your question obviously is a very important one, because that has been the main objection to this, that if we don't tie them in to the Reformation, they may not be as strong on fighting certain heretical tendencies like or upholding just my faith or Salafi de sola christou, Sola scriptura and all that.

[00:30:03] And if that's the case, that would be a problem. But we have to talk about that. It's difficult. Yes. We are discussing now with all these different groups like and Europe and all that kind of stuff. The percentages, as you put up that 34% worldwide, is that increasing over the years or decreasing about the same number of Christians in the world? Right. The overall number of Christian in the world, which is just counting baptized Christians globally. If you look at the workers like a PTA, it started out in 1900 at about 34% and it's dropped to about 33.5%, slightly less. And that represents a massive growth of Christianity numerically, but a slight drop is overall percent of the world because the population growth of the world. So Christianity in the 20th century did not grow as a percent of the world. It actually declined. Islam went from 12.5% of the world in 1900 to 17% at the end of the 20th century to grow almost 6% faster than what population is a tremendous growth. Hinduism also grows slightly as a percent of the world because of the incredible population growth in India in the last hundred years. Buddhism has actually dropped precipitously in the last 100 years. So those statistics are all available in every January issue of IBM. R It's on the shelf right now as well as on the World Christian Database website. You can go and look at that. And some in the Islamic world include people that are just culturally Islam. It's mostly including that. That's mostly what it includes, not conversions. The vast majority, people who are born because of sheer demographics, of people being born in the Muslim world as opposed to the Western world, which is traditionally been Christian.

[00:32:03] But that's going to be dramatically change in the 21st. And. Because now Christianity is growing most rapidly in areas with high demographic growth, like in sub-Saharan Africa. So therefore, that's going to change where traditionally Asia is the great field of numerical growth. You saw that already in the class. So therefore, since Asia is the place where Christian is embedded, the least is knowing natural to realize that the growth of Hinduism and Islam is going to be fueled by that demographic growth primarily. Other questions. Eastern Europe. The linkage between the gospel and social and political work that was being done is that same thing happening in sub-Saharan Africa, where the needs are so politically and socially are so great? Very challenging. Yes, definitely. I think that's a good fair point. I should probably include that in the list, because that's so true because of AIDS and governmental corruption in many of the countries and problems, it's so hard to create an isolated pocket of Christian that doesn't actually address those issues. That's a good point. Yes. Okay. I think that's the basic point on Africa. Let's now move to the last window, which is the Christo pagan slash Pentecostal window. This creates a little bit of a dissonance, to use this phrase, Christo Pagan. And then why do we have Pentecostal? Let's first unpack the word Christo Pagan. I don't mean to be pejorative on Catholicism when I say what I'm about to say. Okay. This is trying to put it in its context. Let me first say quite happily that there are many, many devout, committed Catholics all across Latin America that are true to the greatest ideals of the Catholic faith. And that I've said that. Now, let me say what I want to say.

[00:34:05] It's also true that there are vast, vast millions of Catholics in Latin America for whom Catholicism is a thin veneer over many other religious practices. That is also true. Now, I would go on to say that that category far outstrips the other category. But let's just let's not go there. Let's just say fair enough. In any given moment, you can meet a very good, devout Catholic who is true to the highest ideals of Catholicism. But you have to also make room. And you're looking at statistics at this other reality that Catholicism has become a thin veneer. Now, this is not, again, to say that Catholicism is particularly vulnerable to this, because I found in my own research that this is not true. I have found that old indigenous religions can oftentimes very effectively hide themselves inside all religions. My master's thesis was on this phenomena in Islam, in Africa, particularly Nigeria. And I documented how African tribal religions hid themselves within Islam. So this is not something that is just peculiar to Catholicism. This is a factor in India, even in Christianity, in India, non-Catholic, but in Latin America. What happened is in 1493, the pope divided the world between Spain and Portugal, the so-called Pedro Otto. And with the Pedro Otto, he gave the rights of the Spanish crown to colonize the Western world for the glory of the Gospel and the Spanish crown. And it gave the Portuguese the right to propagate Christianity in the eastern world for the glory of the Gospel and the crown. But the pope, you see, is is giving authority to these political powers. So what happens is the Spanish Spaniards go out into the New world and propagate Christianity into Latin America. So you have a period of time where you had to belong to the Catholic faith or you lose your citizenship.

[00:36:36] So therefore you have what has been true for all of this Christendom model mentality. You have the ability of Christendom to produce great numbers of nominal Christians. If if Constantine says in the fourth century, Christianity is now the official religion of the Roman Empire. Okay, now we have to hear that story on two sides. Part of it says hallelujah, You know, the persecution is over. You know, we finally won. Part of you has to say, Oh, no, look what's coming. As long as Christianity is a persecuted minority, then you can have like we have there, the Chinese context where those who believe believe at the risk of their life. And therefore, you know, you keep the group committed. If you have a situation where someone says Christianity is the official religion of this kingdom, either believe it be baptized or have your head cut off, then you're going to have a huge influx of nominal Christians. That's a fact of history. That's not a that's not something I'm just suggesting that is provable has happened all through history. So in Latin America, that happened all across Latin America. So even the modern period where they had the dismantling of the Jesuits in Latin America, and you had the institution of national governments when the Catholic Church agreed to disenfranchize the Jesuits. And as you probably know, there's a 40 year career where the Jesuits were disbanded because they were running the whole country. I mean, they ran Paraguay. They ran Uruguay. It wasn't just church planning. They are running mines and fields and farms and markets, and the whole economy is being run by Jesuits. So the Catholic Church feels like the judge and more power than they have. So eventually the indigenous people say, say the Catholics, listen, let's get rid of them and we'll help you do it.

[00:38:32] But what happened was the Catholics said, okay, we will boot out the Jesuits if you agree to institutionalize Catholicism in your national governments. So, I mean, every story in Latin is different. This is a general is general has come in here. But basically throughout Latin America, you have constitutions established that made Catholicism either the official religion or the first very, very first among equals. So the result is you have this historic Catholicism propagated in Latin America so that countries were in the upper 90 percentile Catholic. Now, what happened because of that is and even later when the as today, Mexico went to the same thing, for example, and you have a period where Mexico enfranchised Catholicism today, it's not enfranchised in Mexico in the Constitution in the same way as it was. But you have still such strong cultural ties to Catholicism that it becomes part of what it means to be a Latin American for many Latin Americans. All right. So when that happen is affects what happened when the gospel came out. You'll notice when you study these eras of missions, the first era, all this work in Africa and Asia. If you think about if I were to say, okay, name the top ten missionaries come to your mind in 19th century and you start with it with William Carey and Adam Judson and Lady Moon and Gladys Aylward and all the people, you know, Amy Carmichael, you name it, David Livingston. Go on and on, on through the list. Where are they all going? Asia. Africa. Why? Because. Put yourself in that shoes. 19th century. Why would you form a mission to send missionaries to a country that's 97% Christian or 95% Christian in their own self understanding? And so naturally go to the wide open fields of Asia and Africa Far East.

[00:40:39] So it wasn't until the 20th century, late 19th, actually, but really the 20th century, that you see the emergence of missions being founded to directly target Latin America as an evangelical movement. It was only then that was politically possible. So the Reformation happens in 16th century missions. In 19th century. It isn't really until the late 20th 21st century that Protestantism actually begins to bubble up in Latin America. So maybe you're a church historian, but then you love the Reformation and you say, Oh, if I could just go back and see Martin Luther, you know, nailing the 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Chapel, I could just see, you know, this or that. Let me tell you how you can do that. Move to Latin America. The Reformation has just hit Latin America. You can go back in time this go south of the border, because everything that was true, the Reformation is now true of Latin America. All the debates about the pope and about the role of scripture and tradition, all of that is now being lived out and fought out with all of the accompanying problems, challenges, great movements as you find information, reformation. So because of that, we have two very different things happening in Latin America on one hand. You have what's called crystal paganism, that is to say, addressing the gospel to people who may be nominally Catholic, but really follow folk religion. They have folk religion just as much as any trouble part of the world. And that's the reality to them, though they call themselves Catholic. They're not aware of any Catholic doctrines that they particularly love or connected to. And then you have the emergence of this dynamic new you could call it Protestant movement, you could call it Pentecostal movements, predominantly Pentecostal, which is sweeping across Latin America.

[00:42:45] And this is so profound that it actually hit the radar of the secular media, where if you saw the Newsweek about a couple of years ago, the front cover of Newsweek was the picture of these masses in a mass meeting. And part of it was called the Protestant Ization of Latin America. Front page, Newsweek article. So it's starting to hit the radar of even the national media. The biggest thing that precipitated it was when the pope went down to Rio for a big meeting. It was a huge event. And, of course, naturally, millions came out to see the pope. But on the day the pope spoke, there was an evangelical gathering in the same city in a big stadium that drew more people than the pope. And that blew people away. Who are these people, these evangelicals? So today, evangelicalism is a huge factor in Latin America that is really, really facing off on both of these fronts, challenging Catholicism as a kind of traditional theological entity that we would think of, and then challenging this crystal paganism that is also there. And the Pentecostals have been the most effective of this. There's reasons for it. But the mainline nominations were not that successful historically in penetrating this group. This is a large group, and the Pentecostals have been extremely effective in targeting this group. So this part of the world is largely dominated by these themes. That's why we call it by this term. And so you have historic and quote, cultural Catholicism dating back to the 16th century. The edict was in 1493, but the Spaniards got to Brazil very early. By the way, the pope later moved the line. It used to go right down the Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese really were miffed.

[00:44:53] They had no foothold in the new world. So the pope agreed to move the line slightly further to the west. And it gave that part of new world to the Portuguese, which is why in Latin America, if you're in Brazil, they speak Portuguese, and the rest of Latin America is predominantly Spanish. That's part of the cultural it's all part of this history. But both, of course, are Catholic powers, the explosion of the evangelical slash Pentecostal movement, again, you could call this as part of the Protestant movement or not, but growing from 60 million to 490 million. This is very rapid growth this century. Yes, that's an I'm sorry, it's in the 20th century and the 20th century from 60 million to 490 million. Again, if we had time, we down. But if you looked at country by country, this is a very different story. There are some countries in Latin America that have not experienced as dramatic growth from Catholicism as others. But a place like Brazil, it is really dramatic. It is staggering. So, you know, it's a matter of, you know, yet again, this is giving the broad picture only. You have economic instability and political injustice, which are a factor in Latin America. Of life there. And the Pentecostals have mainly come from that group. I mean, that is to say, the disenfranchized disenfranchized peoples of Latin America. The Roman Catholics traditionally came from the leadership. They had the highest hierarchy of the church, the most educated people, the church, I mean, of the culture. Therefore, when the Pentecostals broke into this Disenfranchized group, it has made a huge difference in how the gospel is perceived as being from top down or grassroots up. And this has made a huge impact on Latin America.

[00:47:00] They've done a lot to address it. In fact. I mean, this is. One of the pros and cons of this war. The Pentecostals have led the way in the formation of new political parties in Latin America. So this is not just dabbling in justice issues like opening a food kitchen. This is dealing with structural issues challenging the governments willing to come into power. All of that is part of what we find in this broad Pentecostal movement and this massive struggle to break free from this Christendom model of Christianity, of the old state church Catholicism being enshrined. This is the Reformation all over again happening in Latin America. Latin America didn't have the Reformation. They didn't have the Council of Trent. Even so, to have this encounter is really major. This is one of the great historic shifts in Christian demographics in the world. And yet it goes underneath the radar of the general statistics. Because if you ask what percentage of Latin America is Christian, that hasn't changed. 1900 or 2000. It hasn't changed percentage wise. But what it doesn't reveal is this huge struggle going on between Catholicism and Protestantism in Latin America. Huge struggle. And this is something that's happening in our lifetime, largely in our lifetime. And the way this will develop in terms of historic Christianity within the larger expression of global Christianity remains to be seen. But certainly this is a very important movement to be aware of. Okay, thoughts, questions about this last window. We've made a quick trip to the world. Questions, Comments. Yes. So. Well. So well. Matches so well. The spirit. Just trains follow up Very well. It did. That's so true. Not to say that as a description of all of Catholicism, like I said, but certainly you're right.

[00:49:16] That dynamic is definitely present in Latin America. And any missionary that's worked there will tell you that. But you have to, you know, look at it on both sides. Other comments, questions. In summary, looking at the world as a whole, what it boils down to, essentially we have 29% of the people in unreached groups in all of these parts of the world that have no access to the gospel. 39% that do have access to the gospel. 20% which are in this and using the word nominal here in a kind of larger sense, not necessary meaning unchristian, but not worldly world Christians not able to share their faith. And about 12% that are dedicated likely to share their faith with someone else in this class. We're basically acknowledging the distinction between the green ish part of the pie chart and the blue as the difference between the mission mandate and the evangelistic mandate. The lower mandate is still very vitally important. In fact, what we want to do is see the whole grain become blue so we can see where ultimately all we become like the great 12%. But we want people to hear the gospel from their own people. But despite the dynamic growth of evangelism in the blue, it won't affect green because you have to target those areas. So all of these parts of the world we looked at, we're looking back at it from pure geographic blocs, but within those blocs represent people groups within those people groups or people that have varying levels of access to the gospel. And that needs to be talked about throughout the whole window. Feel what is the access of a sub-Saharan African in this particular place to Christianity? How does that compare to someone in Latin America? If a person grows up Catholic in Latin America, what is their exposure to the fundamentals of the Christian gospel? That's a very important question.

[00:51:30] Someone in Western Europe or Eastern Europe. Those are all very vitally important questions from our own statistical study. This is a rough estimate that in 74, when Ralph went or first articulated this whole Hidden people groups concept, approximately 50% of the world population was beyond the reach of the gospel. Was today, as you saw on the chart, it's approximately 29% of the world's population live in a place where they either there are no known Christians or the church is not yet fully viable. So we're seeing progress because of the emphasis on frontiers, on unreached peoples and the sheer activity of the non-Western church that's mostly located in Asia that's now getting active. One of the most exciting things to maybe conclude by going back to Brother Jung of China, he's the one that's organized this Back to Jerusalem movement. I alluded this probably really briefly, but as you recall in the X-1 eight discussion, you had the Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and West parts of the Earth and Christianity flows out from Jerusalem. And in the case of China, the gospel spread very quickly to China along the Silk Route, or I should say technically the Silk Route. There are several routes, all of which we have Christian presence along the route. Old archeological finds of ancient Christian libraries. There is no serious historical doubt that the Gospel spread right along the Silk Route very early, and we now have a very famous stele that was found in China that tells about the early spread of Christianity in China and even gives the name of the person and person alo pin who brought the gospel to China. And amazingly, the gospel is encountering China about the same time that Augustine of Canterbury is bringing the Gospel into England.

[00:53:40] So the Gospel is spreading much quicker eastward than we have often thought and is in China by by the sixth century. So what happened is that these mostly nestorian missionaries brought the gospel to China. These are nestorian in name, not in theology, but the historians who brought the gospel to China. And then these Chinese today are saying, let's bring the gospel back along the Silk Road back to Jerusalem. That's why I said that the Muslims are all geared up for opposing Western expansion of Christianity. They don't realize it's coming in their back door through these Chinese Christians. The same happened in Eastern Europe with the Russians going into Eastern Europe with the Gospel and Russians portions of. Or USSR. And then you also have now the Brazilians having this great impact in the Muslim world. The Brazilians have proved to be very effective in the Muslim world, and the Muslims are not expecting to meet a Brazilian Christian who's an evangelical. So this is happening all over. This is a very dynamic period we're living in and it's very exciting. And I think we can rejoice in what God is doing today. But this has been a very broad overview of the whole world to give you a feel for the major blocks of the world, kind of what's happening in these mega spheres or windows, to give you some general feel for it. And hopefully today, as you fill out your countries, you'll be thinking about all of this.