Where is the church growing fastest today? A leading researcher crunched the numbers for Charisma–and the results may surprise you.
Christianity around the world is growing! From a handful of frightened followers hiding in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, the church has expanded to more than 2 billion people today. They are found in every country, among thousands of ethnic groups, speaking thousands of languages.

Most remarkably, Christianity is growing rapidly in places considered unreachable a few decades ago. Church-planting movements today are exploding all over Africa and Asia, and hundreds of new churches are being planted in months rather than years.

Yet much work remains. More than 6,000 distinct people groups have little or no access to the gospel. More than a quarter of the world’s population has yet to hear about Jesus Christ for the first time.

In my research I have identified 10 countries where the church is rapidly expanding. All these nations still have significant numbers of people who have yet to hear the gospel. Perhaps this report will inspire you to head to the mission field. And if you don’t feel called to go there full time, you can pray for these nations and financially support the work of indigenous churches there.

Nestled in the mountains of Tibet between China and India, this small Himalayan kingdom is a bright spot for Christianity. The church is growing faster there than in any other nation. In 1960 missiologist Patrick Johnstone reported just 25 believers. Today the number has risen to almost 1 million.

Nepali Christians have faced all kinds of abuse and isolation in recent years. Many paid the ultimate price for their faith.

The old saying, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church,” is true for Nepal. Missionary spokesman Nate Wilson tells of a 20-year veteran of ministry to Tibetans who warned new recruits in 2001, “There are more dead Tibetan [mission] workers than there are Tibetan Christians.” The same courage can be found in Nepal.

Yet great fruit has come from their sacrifice. Although Nepal is the world’s only Hindu kingdom, and Hinduism is still the state religion, political unrest in 1990 brought a wave of reform and an end to most religious persecution. In this time of openness, Christianity has had explosive growth. Today there are almost 900,000 believers in Nepal, and churches are springing up all over the country.

Hindus still make up 72 percent of the nation. Buddhists claim 9 percent, and Muslims have 4 percent. Christians trail at fourth, with 3 percent. Nevertheless, Christianity is growing twice as fast as other faiths.

Today more than half of all Christians belong to independent groups, and charismatics number some 650,000. In the next 25 years the total number of Christians is projected to double to more than 2 million.

Anybody watching trends in the church knows China’s phenomenal story. It is a mysterious country, one with the largest population, the third largest geographic area and one of the fastest growing economies.

Communists have shaped China since 1949, but after the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s Communism began to unravel. After Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, China’s policies have slowly become more open. Though still isolated, much material progress has led to improvements in literacy, education, health and the economy.

Missionaries have established the church many times in China, only to see it wiped out through revolution and war. During the late 1960s no communication from the Chinese church was received outside. But the church was very much alive.

From around 1975 the Chinese church began growing rapidly. From 1.5 million in 1970, the church grew to an estimated 64 million in 1990, then to perhaps 90 million today. It will likely be in excess of 120 million in 25 years.

Believers in independent churches make up the majority, numbering perhaps 80 million. Charismatics are estimated to number 60 million. Already the church in China is planning outreach to minority groups within China and the neighboring Muslim nations. China could potentially mobilize a huge mission force.

FASO

The number of Christians in many African nations is on the rise due to population growth as well as to aggressive Christian evangelism. Burkina Faso is an excellent example of this.

A small, landlocked country in the midst of the Sahel desert of northern Africa, Burkina Faso is prone to drought and famine. Most of its 13 million are subsistence farmers victimized by malnutrition. They have also suffered much civil unrest since their country gained independence from France in 1960.

Half the people have never heard the gospel, and half are Muslims. Yet in the midst of this bleak picture a Christian revival has swept this nation.

From 1983 to 2000 church growth has been remarkable. From 1983 to 1990 the total number of churches more than doubled. Catholics make up 1.3 million of the more than 2 million Christians. Charismatics total some 900,000. Numerous church-planting movements are active among the country’s 72 ethnic groups.

A tiny city-state on an island in the middle of Southeast Asia, this small trading center was part of the British Empire in the 1820s. It developed into a commercial powerhouse and today is one of the most important financial, manufacturing and shipping points in Southeast Asia. Green with trees through intentional planting, flush with wealth through intentional economic development, Singapore is highly modernized and in some ways more technologically sophisticated than the West.

With no natural resources to speak of (more than half its drinking water is imported from Malaysia) and lacking assets, Singapore has pushed its 4 million people to excel in business, banking, science and invention. Singapore’s drive has led to incredible competition for the best schools, housing and jobs.

With its prosperity also comes an element of control. There are stringent government policies on everything from car ownership to speech. Gum-chewing was legalized only in the last year, and gum-chewers still must register with the government.

In the midst of Singapore’s drive for growth, it is not surprising that the church is growing as well. Singapore has about 500,000 believers (12 percent of the country), organized in everything from small house churches to megachurches. There is religious freedom, but in its struggle for stability Singapore does not allow missionaries to go from there to other countries.

India is projected to surpass China in total population by 2050. Its current population of more than 1 billion gives India an enormous diversity and complexity. Thousands of languages and cultures are represented, as well as every world religion. Many Indians are locked into a caste system that has ingrained cruel prejudice into society.

Some 80 percent of India’s population, or 800 million people, practice Hinduism. The next largest group is Muslims, who number more than 123 million. Christianity is embraced by only 6 percent, or 60 million people, and Pentecostals and charismatics number more than 30 million. Two percent of the people practice other religions.

Although nearly half of India has yet to hear the gospel, the church in India is making enormous strides. Some of the largest mission agencies are based there. With hundreds of thousands of local workers, and thousands of Indian missionaries sent to other nations, the church is growing at nearly double the rate of the overall population.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle is governmental restrictions, particularly on the Dalits, or the “untouchable” class. When Dalits convert to Christianity they face the threat of persecution. This is a sensitive political issue that, if changed, could result in many millions of Dalits professing faith in Christ.

Though Vietnam remains under communist rule, it is rapidly changing as it–like China–implements economic reforms.

Most of its 78 million people live in rural areas and are part of an agricultural economy. Nearly half the country’s population practice Buddhism or a variety of it. Christians make up about 9 percent of Vietnam, or some 6.7 million people, of whom about 5 million are Catholics. Charismatics number some 800,000.

Most Protestants are from tribal minorities, more than half of which have been reached with the gospel. The government has permitted Christian ministries to work in the country, especially in the area of community development and compassionate relief programs.

The church is growing at roughly 1.2 percent per year, slightly ahead of the population rate. There are thousands of church workers, and Vietnamese missionaries are sent abroad. In principle there is religious freedom but the church is restricted.

A 1999 religion decree enshrined religious rights and allowed people to choose to follow, not follow, or change their religion, but warned of punishments for those who used religion to harm the state. The current trend appears to be one of a gradual improvement in relations between the church and the state, coupled with continued attempts at state control. Under these conditions the church will likely triple in size by 2050.

Located in western Africa next door to Nigeria, Benin represents the massive church growth occurring in Africa. Its population of 7 million is mostly young–more than half are under the age of 15. The population could triple to 21 million by 2050.

Like many African nations, Benin suffers from deep ethnic division, poor health care, lack of clean water, poor education and a high rate of HIV/AIDS. Yet despite its limited resources, Benin’s present rate of church growth is explosive: 3.1 percent annually, with nearly 120,000 new members joining churches every year. By 2050, it is probable that Christianity in Benin will reach 40 percent of the total population.

As with most countries in western Africa, Benin is split between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north, with a large minority still practicing animistic tribal faiths. Benin is home to about 2 million Christians, 1.2 million Muslims and 3 million ethnoreligionists. About half the Christians are Catholics; charismatics number 650,000.

As the church continues to grow, this could lead to new clashes between Islam and Christianity. The church may pay an increasing price in martyrs.

With the most land of any nation, Russia is home to 147 million people, most of whom live in the cities west of the Ural Mountains. But the population is in decline, many families are poor, and fewer families are having children.

This country has known tyranny since it became a nation in the eighth century. Beginning with the Marxist Revolution of 1922, communism systematically ravaged the economy despite Russia’s literate, educated workers and abundance of natural resources. Further, the Communist Party attempted to eliminate all religious affiliation in the name of eradicating superstition. With the demise of communism in the early 1990s, however, interest in religion exploded.

A third of all Russians still consider themselves nonreligious or atheist, and 7 percent are Muslims (mainly concentrated on the border with central Asia). Slightly more than half–84 million, or 57 percent–profess Christianity. Most of these are part of the Russian Orthodox Church, though some 1.5 million each belong to the Protestant and Catholic traditions, both of which are growing at a rate far exceeding the Orthodox Church. Charismatics number nearly 4 million.

Believers in Russia experienced one of the most severe and sustained periods of religious persecution in recent history. Martyrs numbered in the millions. The possibility of persecution is still real because the government and the tradition-bound Orthodox Church look with suspicion on the unorganized influx of emerging new ministries. In the midst of this turmoil, however, a window for significant church growth has opened.

The Russian church is growing at about 0.1 percent per year. With the population in decline this is significant. By 2050, the church in Russia will likely have about the same numbers it does today, or perhaps less. However, a higher percentage of the population will be Christian, rising from about 57 percent to possibly 75 percent. The makeup of the church will likely also shift, with Protestants and Catholics gaining significant shares of the total Christian population.

More than 130 million people live in Bangladesh, making it the sixth most populous nation. It is also one of the poorest nations, and it suffers from overpopulation and frequent natural disasters, particularly flooding.

Once known as East Bengal, this predominantly Muslim region of India was renamed East Pakistan in 1947 when Pakistan became an independent nation. In 1971 a bitter civil war of independence was fought, ending in the defeat of the resident Pakistani administration. Corruption, instability, assassinations and 18 coups have marred the years since Bangladesh became a nation, although some sense of democracy was established in 1991.

Islam is the state religion and Muslims now make up about 85 percent of the population. Hindus comprise most of the remainder, but there are small numbers of Buddhists, animists and Christians. Hindus suffered severe losses because of deaths and refugee movements in the 1971 civil war, but they remain a vocal and influential minority to this day.

There are about 1 million Christians in Bangladesh, making up less than 1 percent of the population. More than half are part of independent groups. Charismatics number about 450,000. Converts from Islam are nearly all secret believers, although there are a few isolated instances of whole villages turning to Christ.

Most public Christians are low-caste Hindu converts and members of minority tribes. The church is likely to double in size by 2050. Still, it will form just slightly more than 1 percent.

Bangladeshi church leaders say the greatest obstacle to the growth of Christianity is fundamentalist Islam. One leader attending the Lausanne 2004 Forum for World Evangelization told me: “Many Muslims, when they think of Christians, think of the Crusades. And this has sometimes been made worse by what has happened since 9/11. We have to struggle with this.”

KOREA

South Korea was created in 1948 when the United States and the Soviet Union partitioned the Korean peninsula. From the ashes of the Korean War, South Korea has become one of the largest economies. Yet this massive economic infrastructure is always under the threat of war with North Korea. The border between these two countries is believed to have the greatest density of landmines.

Korea is a good example of how the gospel can rapidly spread in a single people group. The people of North and South Korea are mostly Koreans, sharing a common culture and language. More than 95 percent of people in South Korea are Korean. Japanese make up another million people. Other than these two, there are only four other minority groups in the country, together making up about 100,000 people.

Christians make up the largest religious block in South Korea: 18 million profess to follow Christ (39 percent of the nation). There are about 7 million Buddhists, 7 million ethnoreligionists, 7 million nonreligious and 5 million Confucianists. The reality, however, is that many Koreans practice multiple faiths. Some Christians might still adhere to certain Buddhist practices, for example.

Christianity is growing in South Korea, and many Koreans are active in missions around the world. They also look forward eagerly to the day when they can openly share the gospel with the people of North Korea, which is one of the most restricted areas.

As we look at the growth of Christianity in South Korea, and in all these other “hot spots” of revival, we see that a remarkable shift has occurred. No longer is Christianity contained or headquartered in Europe or the United States, as it was in past centuries. The gospel is rapidly becoming a dominant force in Africa and Asia.

Already, these nations are sending missionaries to our country. We can pray that the same white-hot fervor that burns in the heart of the church in places such as China and Benin will be ignited in the American church once again.

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Justin Long served as an associate editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia and presently serves as a mission researcher with the Network for Strategic Missions in Southeast Asia.

The prophets of old knew the meaning and power of godly grieving. It still has a place in the lives of God’s people.
While indexing some articles recently, I ran across an unusual story, “The Lament of an Indonesian Rape Victim,” which told of a woman’s struggle to come to terms with her assault and mutilation by a mob. Furious with God, this woman had stopped praying, but she later found comfort in the Bible when she read about the trials of the Israelites in the book of Lamentations.

The article concluded in this way: “She still does not go to church, for one very simple reason: churchgoers cannot handle a lament. This struck me when I went to a famous central London church the following Sunday. All the songs were of victory and triumph, militaristic, confident, loud.

“I saw for the first time how hard it would be for someone like her to come into church and simply lament. Everyone would crowd around trying to perk her up or tire of her gloom and mutter about her ‘negative spirit.'”

Most Christians think that being spiritual means always being “up.” We assume that if we are upset with God, angry at injustice or grieving over a loss, we somehow have lost the faith.

We forget that lamenting is part of the Bible. It is part of our faith, and it is part of the persecuted church. So why do we tend to ignore our suffering brothers and sisters or shy away from sharing their testimonies of courage? Isn’t it because their stories don’t always end in triumph?

I often have felt badly about weeping over the world’s weighty issues. One shouldn’t live in doom and gloom, and I acknowledge my pessimism can be taken to an extreme. Nevertheless, I think the Western church’s penchant for sunny optimism can be extreme as well.

Consider the fact that:

* More than 70 million Christians the world over have been martyred in the last 20 centuries.

* Trusted church workers steal some $16 billion annually from church funds.

* Christians spend more on annual audits ($810 million) than on all workers in the non-Christian world.

* There are 500 million orphans in the world and 70 million abandoned children and infants.

* Worldwide, 200 million children are exploited for labor.

* Even in the year 2002, 35 million people are still slaves.

* As many as 120,000 prisoners are being tortured.

* Pedophile racketeers victimize some 5.8 million children.

* There are 24 million prostitutes.

* Every year, about $47 billion worth of cocaine is sold in the world.

**Approximately 250 million women are battered in their homes each year.

What is your reaction to these horrible statistics? What is the reaction of people around you? Do you say, “Oh, yes, it’s horrible, but there’s nothing I can really do about it”?

I agree that it is difficult for one person to solve these problems. But let me suggest a first step that anyone can do: Lament it.

What is a lamentation? It is not necessarily a declaration of personal responsibility, although in some cases it may include that.

To lament is to express sorrow, mourning or regret, often demonstratively. It also means “to mourn or wail.” Another definition is “to deplore.”

We don’t use these words often in the church today. For example, what does it mean to mourn?

My dictionary says it means: (1) to feel or express grief or sorrow; (2) to show the customary signs of grief for a death, such as wearing mourning clothes; (3) to murmur mournfully; (4) to feel or express grief or sorrow for.

To wail means: (1) to express sorrow audibly; (2) to make a sound suggestive of a mournful cry; (3) to express dissatisfaction plaintively, or to complain. (Have you expressed audible sorrow to God lately?)

To deplore means: (1) to feel or express grief for; (2) to regret strongly; (3) to consider unfortunate or deserving of deprecation.

To lament, then, is first to feel God’s heart of sorrow for something that is terrible–to weep with His tears, to wail with His cries, to put one’s arms around someone else, even if only spiritually, and cry with them. To lament is to stand in the gap and say: “Yes, I agree, this is terrible. Let me comfort you.”

Are we unwilling to lament something for fear we will be called to do something about it?

Further, to lament is to express dissatisfaction, to complain and to deplore. To deplore something is an especially loaded word. It carries with it an extreme regret that leads to action. It means that we must complain.

Christians often are told that complaining is unbiblical. For example, Philippians 2:14 tells us to do things “without complaining or grumbling.” But this is not the kind of complaint I am speaking of. The apostle Paul is referring to a spirit that complains about something God wants us to do in a grumbling sort of way.

Yet the complaint that comes from regret is a charge or accusation leveled at sin. It is the same term that is used when we take a complaint before a judge.

Guess what? I am complaining a lot to God these days.

I am complaining that 500 million orphans must go without families because no one cares. I am complaining that 200 million children are exploited for labor because the West is willing to buy the goods they produce. I am complaining that we must spend more on audits than on Christian work because some of our trusted workers are not discipled and should not be trusted.

When such a complaint is leveled, then the next step is action to redress the complaint. Such action must be taken by us.

The church is God’s tool to destroy the works of the devil. The structures of sin created by the enemy have bound up people in slavery, in oppression, in hunger and disease. Surely it is our responsibility to take action that redresses these problems.

Lamentations are the first step in making a change. Without them, anything we do is just a program or a change in procedure. With them, actions are undertaken on the basis of repentance and moral strength.

Lamentations are biblical and needed. What have you lamented lately?

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Justin Long is a writer and missionary researcher based in Chesapeake, Virginia. He is co-editor of the newly updated World Christian Encyclopedia.

Eastern Christianity beats Western Christianity hands down. For the last century, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, Christianity in the West has grown mainly through births to Christian households–not through conversions.

During the same period of time, Africa and Asia added new members through both conversions and births. The result: Though Christianity’s share of the Western population has declined–from 88 percent to 78 percent of the population–its share of Africa and Asia has increased dramatically, from 3 percent to 14 percent.

Eastern Christianity also reigns supreme in the spiritual character of
the church. The people are radical in their commitment to Christ. Though there are numerous traditional mainline churches (Catholic, Protestant and so on), much of Christianity in the 10/40 Window is found in independent churches–tightly knit, committed communities of believers who are aggressively evangelistic.

“Song” (not her real name) is an example of one such believer. She spends every day sharing the gospel in the streets of China. At the start of the day, she prays to meet someone who will supply her financial needs by that evening. She has no home, no money and no consistent support except Christ.

“Timothy” is another. He took the New Testament into a nation where evangelism is punishable by death. Not knowing whom he should give the books to, he prayed until the Holy Spirit led him to a village where the residents had been waiting for someone to bring them the “Holy Book.” They threw a party, and everyone came to Christ.

In spite of its lack of growth and vitality, however, Western Christianity does have some things to offer the rest of the world, and I believe God is calling us to expand our borders.

What Can We Give?

Most of what the West has that the 10/40 Window lacks are tools that have been developed and improved through the years. These can readily be put to spiritual use.

One is the capability to print Bibles–a result of the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg about 1444. Today, more than 53 million Bibles, 120 million New Testaments, 323 million Gospels and 4 billion Scripture selections are distributed annually by organizations such as the Gideons, Open Doors with Brother Andrew, The Bible League and the United Bible Societies. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these are distributed in areas where there is already a strong Christian presence.

Of the 53 million Bibles, for example, only 11 million are distributed among non-Christians–and of these, fewer than 1 million are given to people with very little access to the gospel. Scripture distribution needs to take on the radically evangelistic character of Africa and Asia and shift its distribution emphasis to those who need Bibles desperately–new Christians and non-Christians in the 10/40 Window, many of whom have never held a whole Bible before.

Another tool is the ability to produce films. Thomas Edison invented the motion picture camera in 1888, and the first theaters opened in 1905. Films were rapidly put to evangelistic use.

Jesus, one of the best known evangelistic films, opened in 2,000 theaters in the United States in 1979. Since then, it has been shown in virtually every country to more than 3.3 billion people, with 108 million new converts as a result.

Other films have been similarly used. Unfortunately many of them are now dated and less appealing to the next generation. New writers and directors, radically committed to Christ, need to begin reclaiming media to use for redemptive storytelling.

Radio is another means we have to reach people. Radio waves were discovered in 1887, and the world’s first radio factory was opened on Hall Street in England in 1898.

The first continuous wave voice transmitter was invented in 1905. On Christmas Eve 1906, wireless operators on banana boats owned by the United Fruit Company heard the very first voice broadcast over the North Atlantic.

Today there are more than 2.5 billion radios and 1.3 billion televisions in the world, mostly in the West. Television and radio broadcasts carry the gospel across Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

In fact, some 20 million hours of programming were broadcast yearly this decade. Christian programs were aired in more than 300 languages, with responses from 200 countries. As a result, there were an estimated 150,000 isolated radio churches with 4.7 million believers.

But in spite of our track record, we are falling short in our ability to reach people through this medium. We need to produce radio broadcasts in more languages and develop ways to use the Internet to carry these broadcasts.

Since 1961 the Internet has grown to its current global status: 327 million users who send 3.4 trillion e-mails yearly, visit more than 1 billion Web sites and trade millions of files. Much of the Internet is dominated by sin, yet there are Christians at work in the domain, developing new methods of evangelizing its users. We need even more of these radical “virtual evangelists” who can create new methods for reaching the lost.

If we want the Holy Spirit to move around the world, the key is in the biblical principles of gospel, community and service.

We are commissioned to preach the gospel, make disciples, love one another and serve the world. Our community of faith must be a global one in which Americans, Europeans, Middle Easterners, Africans, Asians and Latins offer one another mutual edification, correction, teaching, protection, encouragement and life.

Each of us must make a conscious attempt to connect with the body of Christ globally. One way to do this is to share in the labors of the global church by supporting a ministry in another part of the world. Together, we continue to seek a radical devotion to the one who died for us. As we draw close to Him, we draw close to those He has redeemed and receive His heart for the lost.

Christians everywhere are frail and broken. Yet when we humble ourselves before God and give our frailties to Him, He becomes strong in our weakness, perfecting us through His mercy.

It is in this way that the Holy Spirit moves in each of us. And as He moves in us, so He moves in the world. If we make ourselves available, He will increase our vitality and show us how to use our resources to further His kingdom. *

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Justin Long is an associate editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia and serves the Network for Strategic Missions as editor of its Web site, .