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Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)
Jan 06: World, The Church Worldwide
World
World
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Geography
Area: 134,940,000 sq kmAntarctica, with 14 million sq km, is not included.
Population: 6,908,000,000 Annual Growth: 1.20%
Urbanites: 51%
Peoples
Languages: 6,909Religion
Largest Religion: Christian| Religion | Pop % | Ann Gr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christians | 2,229,951,315 | 32.29 | 1.2 |
| Evangelicals | 545,886,818 | 7.9 | 2.6 |
Answer to Prayer
The unprecedented harvest of new believers continues across Africa, Asia and Latin America, in contrast to the relative stagnation or decline in the rest of the world. The tables below reveal a remarkable story of a growing, spreading and diversifying Church. The table of statistics shows the relative change of the world’s population for each of the MegaBlocs. Christianity has slightly declined as a percentage of the world’s population since 1900 – only the Protestant, Independent and Marginal MegaBlocs have defied this trend to gain a proportion of the world’s population.a) Christianity re-affirmed as a global religion. The concept of Christianity as a European “white-man’s religion” is demonstrably a myth. Though sometimes small in number, all but concealed, or mostly members of a minority people group, there are now Christians living and fellowshipping in every country on earth. World mission, globalization and high migration rates have dispersed the Church into every corner of the world, both to previously unevangelized areas and back to traditionally Christian regions where the Church is in sharp decline.
b) The astonishing shift of Christianity’s centre of gravity to the Majority World. The tables reveal that, though Christianity’s percentage in the world population has changed little, the proportions between the Majority World and the West/North have changed dramatically. This is praiseworthy, as hundreds of millions heard the good news for the first time in the past century. It is also an indication that the missionary efforts of the past 200 years have borne incredible fruit, though at times it was slow in coming. Years and generations of prayer and faithful service to the unevangelized world by both missionaries and indigenous Christians have not been in vain.
c) The strength and growth of the Church in lands that now have, or have had in the past, severe persecution. Some examples of places where both persecution and Church growth are prominent include China, India, Sudan, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Iran and Myanmar, to name but a few.
For an additional 7 Answers to Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.
More Information
The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of World.The Church Worldwide
World
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Challenge for Prayer
The effective functioning of local congregations. Each should be an organic entity, a community where all members participate in body life. Each believer has gifts to contribute to the up-building of the whole, yet rarely do congregations function in this way. Mobilizing the laity remains a great challenge for most churches. All kinds of new forms of church life are being attempted. For evangelicals, everything is being tried – from a return to liturgical forms to restorationist movements to trendy modernistic styles to radically new expressions. Pray that each unique congregation might serve to build up believers, draw in the unchurched and glorify Christ. Pray for wisdom for church leaders to know how to best achieve this for their congregation, whatever its context. When the Church fails in this duty, nominalism becomes widespread.For an additional 9 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.
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