Friday, November 12, 2010

"Exploding" Christianity in Africa -- What Will We Do?

Regina mundi church, sowetoImage via Wikipedia
CBN reports on the growing number of churches and Christians in Sub-saharan Africa.  Christianity is "exploding."
In 1900 there were 7 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. That number is up 70 times today to a staggering 470 million. Christians now account for 60 percent of the population.
That growth by any global comparison or historical comparison has to be one of the most rapid religious transformations in the history of Christianity in the last 2,000 years.
I know the United Methodist Church is growing by leaps and bounds there.  The question is what the Western Church will do when denominations and para-church organizations take on a particular African feel -- socially conservative, emphasis on liberation and health issues, different styles of worship, etc.
Researchers have discovered the most religious place on earth: The area between the Sahara Desert and the southern tip of Africa.
Here Christianity, and to a lesser extent Islam, are attracting followers in numbers not seen in more than 100 years.
Soweto. Most people will remember this place for the role it played in the struggle against racial segregation. Twenty years after the end of apartheid, inside South Africa's biggest black township, another image is emerging.
Soweto is on fire for God.
"People come here and they really sense that they've had an encounter with God," said Pastor Mosa Sono of Grace Bible Church in Soweto.
So...what do we do?  How we we respond?  How do we embrace this growth, encourage it, and learn from it?
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