The global Church is shifting South

Today, I am thank­ful for the shift in the global Church from the Global North/West to the Global South.

As Chris­t­ian belief declines in the North, it is thriv­ing in places like Africa, Asia and Latin America. And these regions are increas­ingly sending their own mis­sion­ar­ies. Now, before you worry that I’m somehow saying I’m thank­ful for a decline in Chris­tian­ity in the West, please hear me. Rising “reli­gious nones” in the West is some­thing we should pay atten­tion to. It demands a renewed atten­tion to our min­istry methods and mission practices.

But decline in the West aside, the growth of the Church in the Global South is some­thing for which we can be thank­ful. As we in the West realize how much we need our broth­ers and sisters in the Global South, I believe we will become a more fruit­ful Church. We can grow in humil­ity by seeing what God is doing in and through His people outside the West.

1.Reading Scrip­ture Through South­ern Eyes
I’ve gotten to expe­ri­ence this as a TEAM worker in Mexico. Over the years, I’ve learned and grown through my rela­tion­ships with Mexican church leaders. I need their per­spec­tives, not just to min­is­ter in Mexico, but also to help me see what God may want to do in my home country. As I inter­act with leaders who are serving the Lord in very dif­fer­ent con­texts than my home culture, I’m learn­ing to read the Bible with dif­fer­ent ques­tions. I have friends who pray the Lord’s Prayer, trust­ing God for their next meal in a very literal sense. I have other friends who under­stand God as healer on a deeper level than I pre­vi­ously con­sid­ered — because He is the only hope of healing for them and their families.

2.The ques­tions they ask about God’s power and His faith­ful pres­ence in their lives are informed by their human expe­ri­ences.

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