Major demographic change in Christianity (Sight Magazine)

Sight Magazine has a new article about the major demographic change in Christianity. Here are some interesting observations. (I will highlight a few things in blue.)

"According to Peter Crossing of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, in 1910 about 66 per cent of the world's Christians lived in Europe; a century later it was only 26 per cent."

"He added that Christians in the northern hemisphere still dominate financially; 60 per cent of the world's Christians live in the southern hemisphere, but they generate only 17 per cent of Christian income."

"The global reconfiguration raises critical questions for all churches, said Dr Robert. "Contemporary Christians are focusing on mission for multiple purposes--both to recover tradition and to recover from tradition."

""Conversations about mission and witness have become an urgent agenda for declining mainline Christians...as they struggle to reframe their identity in a global marketplace. At the same time, adherents of new ministries often see their witness as a recovery of primitive Christianity that challenges the older denominations," he said."

A few thoughts: (1) Financial prosperity does not mean a vibrant faith. (2) Tradition has pros and cons. (3) The Christianity in the earliest church (as in the New Testament) seems to be the best frame of reference for the church today.

(Click here for the full article.)