Thursday, July 21, 2011

What God is doing in the world

First a few facts:

  1. Jesus said, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come," in Matthew 24:24. When he said all nations, he didn't mean countries. He used the word ethos which means ethnic or people groups. 
  2. The current world population is almost 7 billion.
  3. 67% of the world is covered in water. 
  4. Over 40% of the world's people live near coastlands. 
  5. The global church has changed. A couple of centuries ago, the church was concentrated in the West (N. America and Europe). Now it has changed to the global South: South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia are now largely evangelical. 
  6. Europe is currently the darkest continent with the smallest percentage of evangelical believers and churches. 
  7. Latin America: though only has had the Gospel for 150 years, they have sent out over 8,000 missionaries. The church in Brazil and other parts of South America is growing exponentially. 
  8. Africa: the Anglican church in Nigeria is growing by leaps and bounds, sending missionaries to the rest of the continent and Europe amid heavy persecution. 
  9. Asia:
    1. Mongolia: In 1989, there were 4 Mongolian believers recorded. Today, there are over 40,000 believers. 
    2. South Korea is the 2nd biggest missionary sending country in the world. Of the 10 biggest churches in the world, 6 are in Seoul one having over 200,000 members. 
    3. China: there are somewhere between 75-120 million believers in China amid heavy persecution. Chinese believers have begun a missionary expedition to get back to Jerusalem evangelizing everyone they encounter on their way. One house church leader was quoted saying, "We are not ready to die for the Gospel, we are expecting it."
    4. India is close to overtaking China in population. In fact it increases by a million people every 3 weeks. The Dalit, the lowest class in India, over 250 million people are open to the Gospel and have seen large numbers come to faith in Jesus.
    5. Nepal: in 1950, there was only a handful of believers. Today there are over 1 million Nepali believers.
    6. Turkey: 3% of Turkey is in Europe, while the other 97% is in Asia. At the moment Turkey is experiencing an identity crises deciding whether to join the European Union or the Islamic world. If it joins European Union, there would be laws enacted for religious freedom and therefore end persecution of believers. Currently there are around 3,500 believers in Turkey, which is an immense blessing from God in this dark and heavily persecuted country. However, it is still one of the least reached countries in the world.
    7. God is also on the move in the Islamic world. In Algeria, there was recently a futbol match, where a baptist team wanted to make a stand for Jesus. At half time instead of drinking water and eating oranges, they all read their New Testaments in front of the onlooking crowd. This sparked an interest that has led to 130,000 believers in this Muslim country. 
God is on the move in the world. His kingdom is close at hand. He extends this kingdom through the church. So the question is not where is God in the world, but more where on earth does God need you to be? 


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