As I saw the video "Muslim Demographics" last week it reminds me once again about the incredible shift we are having in global evangelization. While the European and North American Continents are distancing more and more from Christianity, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and even Australia and New Zealand are in the beginning or in a middle of a revival. I think that what we are seen in Euroamerica is the result of a church that got comfortable, speaking and remembering past glories since the late 1970's. Well, that church is no longer what once upon a time was.
The message I got from this Youtube presentation is not one of fear to middle eastern terrorists that wants to conquer the world by the sword and rather I see a challenge to the Christian church to rise up to the occasion and begin a campaign of evangelization toward the Muslim community. See, the result of growing numbers of the Muslim population in Europe and North America is not just an immigration issue. I believe this is the result of a weak Christian church that moves only in the tradition realm, leaving behind the experiential faith in Jesus Christ. Consequently, we have over 300 Methodist churches closed and over 100 Anglican congregations in England according to the Christian Research Group. This organization affirm the real possibility of the disappearance of all Christian churches in the United Kingdom by the year 2040. Furthermore, in America between 3,500 and 4,000 churches are closing every year. Half of the churches in this nation did not added a single member last year and to the contrary, American Christian churches are loosing an average of 2,765,000 individuals to secularism and other religions.
With only 9% of the American population with a biblical world view, no wonder we cannot match with this growing avalanche of Muslim immigrants with a deep rooted faith in Islam. As the Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum On Religion and Public Life shows, for the first time in its History, the United States of America is at the verge of becoming a minority Protestant nation. It is at this historical cross roads the church of Jesus Christ in North America and Europe have the challenge to stand up for the cause of the gospel. Stand up in prayer and spiritual warfare. Stand up with a evangelistic zeal to reach out anyone that needs Christ regardless of their ethnicity or past. Stand up for the defense of the Christian orthodoxia against the false teachings from within the church. It is my prayer, that we can stand together for the cause of the gospel in the same way the Apostles and the Fathers of the church did 2000 years ago.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Urgency For Missions In Growing Cities
If you have an opportunity to speak with any follower of the missiological patterns or any scholar in missiology about the five most urgent focus on missions worldwide, I guarantee you he or she will include in that category the major cities of our planet. Places like Mumbai, Shanghai, Karachi, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, and New York City, among others, are the most populated urban areas in the planet. Furthermore, there is another cities that are expanding and growing in a fast pace. Cities like Lima, Bogotá, Hong Kong, Cairo, Ho Chi Minh City, London, Nairobi, or Buenos Aires, with a incredible potencial of duplicating their current population in the next ten to fifteen years. Adding to that reality, we have a realm of local cities that are also growing do to the fact of inmigration or better employment opportunities. Places like Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Minneapolis, Portland, Sacramento, the District of Columbia, and Phoenix, are becoming as well mission fields.
Personally, I believe the most critical missionary outreach are now in this fast growing cities around the world. This are places in which many people relocate in a desperate desire to overcome poverty and with a desire to have an educational or vocational opportunity. Most mission agencies and major denominations are planning and pouring financial resources in those locations as we speak. Nonetheless, there is a need of people willing to take the Great Commission to all of those urban enclaves. From big congregations to small house churches; from the most beautiful places of those cities to the most horrible slums; the word of God must be taken to million of individuals, most of them marginalized, in need of a meaningful change in their lives.
It is critical that we as the church of Jesus Christ have the urgency to make certain people are accepting Christ as their Savior and the new converts are in a pathway of nurturing and learning in order for them to duplicate the same thing in smaller cities. Hence, there is a need not just of nurses, dentists, and doctors; but also teachers of the word of God working with the indigenous pastors through the ministry of the church in Schools of Ministry, Bible Institutes or Bible Colleges. I am convinced if we train and equipped the people that are coming to Jesus, they will be able to do the same in other people's lives. Consequently, if we as the church make an strategically plan to reach out the world, we must have somewhere in our list a major city.
Personally, I believe the most critical missionary outreach are now in this fast growing cities around the world. This are places in which many people relocate in a desperate desire to overcome poverty and with a desire to have an educational or vocational opportunity. Most mission agencies and major denominations are planning and pouring financial resources in those locations as we speak. Nonetheless, there is a need of people willing to take the Great Commission to all of those urban enclaves. From big congregations to small house churches; from the most beautiful places of those cities to the most horrible slums; the word of God must be taken to million of individuals, most of them marginalized, in need of a meaningful change in their lives.
It is critical that we as the church of Jesus Christ have the urgency to make certain people are accepting Christ as their Savior and the new converts are in a pathway of nurturing and learning in order for them to duplicate the same thing in smaller cities. Hence, there is a need not just of nurses, dentists, and doctors; but also teachers of the word of God working with the indigenous pastors through the ministry of the church in Schools of Ministry, Bible Institutes or Bible Colleges. I am convinced if we train and equipped the people that are coming to Jesus, they will be able to do the same in other people's lives. Consequently, if we as the church make an strategically plan to reach out the world, we must have somewhere in our list a major city.
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