Pastor’s September Message

by Reverend Don Hodson

One of the interesting lectures I heard at my pastors’ school was given by Professor Walter Sundberg. It was entitled, “God is not dead, God has moved.” Picking up on German philosopher Nietzsche’s idea, “God is dead”, Sundberg suggested that this is not the case, but perhaps God has moved.

Using statistics, Sundberg pointed out that Christianity has moved from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere and to the far east. In England, less than 1 million people worship each Sunday and in France, most babies aren’t baptized now.

Consider the following:

• More Christians went to church in China on Easter than in all of Christian Europe.
• There are now 100 million Christians in China.
• There are 375 million Christians in Africa.
• More Anglicans went to church in Africa this Easter than Anglicans in England and the U.S. combined.
• The church is growing rapidly in Korea and the Philippines.
• The Roman Catholic and Pentecostal churches in South America are experiencing phenomenal growth.

Sundberg also said that Christianity is outgrowing Islam and that by the year 2050 there will be 3 billion Christians and 2 billion Muslims.

The seed planted by Christian missionaries has indeed born fruit, but the growth is not in Europe or North America.

I recall that when Kathy and I visited our churches and schools in Zimbabwe they told us not to send preachers, they had their own. What they needed were technical people such as engineers, agriculturalists, etc.

To me the facts represent a classic good news, bad news scenario. We can rejoice that the church is gaining in many parts of the world, but it is sad that the church is declining where it once prospered.

God hasn’t moved. God is omnipresent and has disciples everywhere. It is imperative that we evangelize every corner of the world so that all people can come to know Jesus as their Lord. Perhaps one day someone will write that God has moved back to the northern hemisphere where Christianity once flourished.