Ministry in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society

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Mi n i s t r y i n a Mu l t i -Cu l tura l and Unchur ched Soc i et y

World Christianity by the Numbers, continued

in 2100 there will be 3.8 billion Christians (36.8 percent of the population), and in 2200 there will be nearly 4.4 billion Christians (38.8 percent of the population) (p. 73). This is significant growth and increase from mid-2002, with 2.05 billion Christians (33.1 percent of population) (p. 384). Conclusion: There remains a huge unfinished task of world evangelization. Nevertheless, this reviewer opts for the outlook of Adoniram Judson: “The future is as bright as the promises of God.” Finally, it would be a great treat to spend a day with David Barrett and Todd Johnson, to express appreciation for their work, and to get answers to some of our questions. What the WCE2 Numbers Show As a percentage of the global population, Christianity declined in the twentieth century, from 34.5% of the world in 1900 to 33.0% in 2000 (p. 19). In the average year of the 1990s, the number of Christians in the world increased by 25.2 million; 22.7 million came by natural increase and 2.5 million by conversion. . . . The 2.5 million figure is a net increase. If the question is “How many people convert to Christianity every year, from other religions or not religion?” the answer (for the year 2000) is about 19.0 million. There were also 16.5 million defections from Christianity that year (p. 19). There are more Christians living in cities than in rural areas; 62.7% of the world’s Christians lived in cities in 2000 and 37.3% in rural areas (p. 20). No other religion on earth is spread as widely as Christianity. . . . Only Christianity has adherents among every one of the world’s 238 countries. There are at least some Christians in about 11,500 of the world’s 12,600 ethnolinguistic peoples, and Christians speak about 12,500 of the world’s 13,500 distinct languages (p. 22). Postdenominational churches [Independents] are the only Christian megabloc growing at a rate faster than the global population rate, and the only megabloc growing faster than Islam (p. 23).

Michael Jaffarian, Editorial Associate, WCE2 Excerpted from “The Statistical State of the Missionary Enterprise,” Missiology 30, no. 1 (January 2002): 15.32. Used by permission.