Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

298 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 1

with an individual, and then nurtures it, through His Church” (Keith Phillips, Out of Ashes , p. 60).

2. America is not a Christian nation (cf. Out of Ashes , p. 61).

a. Less than 20% of the population meet for worship on any given Sunday.

b. For instance, in Miami only 7.9% of the population attend church, whether Catholic or Protestant.

c. Immigration during the 80’s exploded, with 90% of the population being non-European, and 15% being Muslim.

d. One out of seven people in the US (roughly 32 million) speak a language other than English at home.

e. The diversity of America is indicative of the same kind of diversity in the most unreached places on earth, i.e., the 10/40 Window. 3. This neglect is not a conspiracy against urban America: As of 2000, 419,000 Christian workers are serving God outside of their home countries (this number includes missionaries of all traditions, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, independent, and marginal Christian). The U.S. is the largest mission sending and receiving country on earth, sending 118,200 missionaries to other countries and received 33,200.

4. Most workers go to the least needy fields, though over 60% of all people live in cities.

The real, demonstrated sending priorities apparently emphasize helping Christians become better Christians rather than helping non-Christians consider Christ–or helping Christians of one kind (essentially Catholic or Orthodox) become Christians of another kind (evangelical or Catholic or charismatic, and so on) rather than helping those who have not heard the gospel to hear it.

~ Michael Jaffarian. “The Statistical State of the Missionary Enterprise.” Missiology: An International Review . Vol. XXX. No. 1, January 2002, p. 28.