Global Christianity in Perspective
We all enjoy lists from time to time. It helps put things in perspective as we make comparisons and quantify different things of interest. The results can be very revealing.
I found the list below in a Christian publication and it gave me a fresh perspective of global Christianity. For the purposes of the list, they basically scaled everything to 100. In other words, if there were only 100 Christians in the world, these are the demographics of what they would be comprised of:
67 would live in Asia, Africa, Latin America or Oceania - 33 would live in Europe or Northern America (only 10 of these would speak English as their first language)
65 would live in urban areas - 35 would live in rural areas
64 would be between the ages of 15–64, 26 would be under 15
11 would be illiterate
35 would have little to no access to secondary education
53 would have access to the internet
14 would have no access to safe water
5 would have malaria
79 would live in countries with moderate to high corruption
35 would live in countries with low development
34 would have inadequate access to doctors
“According to these statistics, the typical Christian today is a non-white woman living in the global southern hemispheres with lower-than-average levels of societal safety and proper health care. This represents a vastly different typical Christian than that of 100 years ago, who was likely a white, affluent European.”
The demographics of Christianity have certainly changed. Collectively, we have gotten darker, (more hispanic, Asian and African) poorer and more dangerous. This probably is quite different that what we perceive it to be because of the “bubble” that we all live in.
340 million Christians live in places where they experience high levels of persecution and/or discrimination This represents about 15% of the total global Christian population. Additionally, close to 5000 Christians were killed for their faith in the past year. 4500 church facilities came under attack and 4300 Christians were arrested and detained.
The “persecuted church” is growing, in part, because the gospel is going to more and more places that are traditionally hostile to our faith. Persecution is also growing in places where secularism is on the rise - like the US. We may be the last to really feel it living the Bible Belt, but our own country is clearly growing more and more hostile to Christianity.
What does this all mean to us living comfortably in our Christian bubble? At a minimum, we should be praying for our brothers and sisters around the world that are suffering persecution. 10-15 will die every day for their faith and another 10-12 will be placed under arrest. Make it a point to pray for these people each week. Add them to your prayer list.
Additionally, we should be emboldened to publicly live out our faith here in the US. When we think about those risking their lives every day, it makes it a lot easier to ignore any minor persecution that we might face here. Those in our spheres of influence should know where we stand with our faith. That looks different for each of us in our respective walks of life but Christ is our common denominator.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek
In an age where people so easily want to proclaim their identity with their favorite sports team, political beliefs and all sorts of other affiliations, does our allegiance to Christ shine through the brightest of all?
Stay hungry,
Big E
Matt. 5:6