The Global Megashift

I’m just reviewing an amazing and enlightening book by James Rutz entitle MEGASHIFT.

Most people, even most Christians, believe that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. But the evidence points to evangelical Christianity as the fastest growing faith as it sweeps China, Africa and Southeast Asia.

As I’ve long suspected, much of the church growth in the world falls between the cracks of most church surveys. Most surveys include mainline denominations and Roman Catholic churches, but miss the 707 Million “switched-on disciples” of the new church that is exploding around the world.

Hundreds of millions don’t show up on the surveys because they meet underground, or in homes, or on ski slopes. The surveys probably don’t capture, for example:

The very active Latino church meeting in a storefront in I walk past each Sunday on my way to my “mainline” church. Or the group my friend is pastoring at Copper Mountain ski resort with 20-40 attendees each Sunday, plus another 15-30 skiers who gather in a small chapel at the top of the mountain. Or they probably missed the house church of about 15-20 people I attended last month in Quito Ecuador.

Rutz states this group of 707 Million “core apostolics” are growing at 8% per year. Until 1960, Western evangelicals outnumbered non-Western evangelicals 2 to 1. By 2000, non-Western evangelicals outnumbered Westerners 4 to 1. Today that moved to 7 to 1. There are now more missionaries sent from non-Western nations than Western nations.

And this growth is fueled by some very non-Western occurrences: healings, answers to prayer, visions, and actual resurrections.

True, 3000 people were saved at Pentecost. But today, 3000 people come to Jesus every 25 minutes! There’ll be 175,000 more new believers tomorrow than there are today.

The U.S. church is no longer the parent, servicing the needs of the infant church world-wide. Today, the U.S. church must see itself as a small part of what God is doing globally. We are actually observers to what God is doing around the world. As U.S. Christian media must move on from their position as experts in communicating the Gospel to being partners with the innovation and boldness of brothers and sisters around the world using media (radio, TV, Internet, SMS, social networking, YouTube) to reach their countrymen with the Good News.

(Figures courtesy of MEGASHIFT AND World Net Daily)