Poverty and World Christianity
This week I have been reading a pair of books that complemented each other perfectly, both providing an enhanced picture of the current state of our planet, in contrast to our sheltered Western (or ‘Northern’) perspective. One is Ronald Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, a book which was first published in the 1970s and is now in it’s 5th edition. Sider gives a pointed challenge to Christians in rich nations - he details the incredible inequalities in our world in terms of wealth, food, education, health care and exposes the sin of Western Christians in not taking the biblical imperatives to redress this imbalance seriously. We could provide basic health care, education, and clean water to the developing world for less than the amount the rich of this world spend on golf each year! (p17) This powerful book is full of detailed statistics and scripture quotations, adding up to a shameful indictment of the rich churches and Christians in the developed world. We need to do much more - this needs to be the highest priority!
One thing that Sider’s book mentions is that a large proportion of those starving and dying are our fellow Christians. 
We are failing dismally at the Biblical command to care for our brothers and sisters in Christ. This principle is further illustrated by the other, and perhaps even more shocking, book I’ve just read - Philip Jenkin’s The Next Christendom : The Coming of Global Christanity. This book discusses the trends that are shaping the future of the church across the globe. To put it briefly, as our churches in the Western, EuroAmerican (or “northern”), world are in many ways dwindling and becoming stagnant, there is a massive upsurge in Christian belief in the “global south” of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. In fact on average today,
“the typical Christian is not a White fat cat in the United States or Western Europe, but rather a poor person, often unimaginably poor by Western standards…. The great majority of Southern Christians (and increasingly, of all Christians) really are the poor, the hungry, the persecuted, even the dehumanized.” (p216)
According to Jenkins (and once again he is backed up by an impressive array of statistics) Christians in the developing world already are beginning to outnumber those in the traditonally “Christian” countries of the West, and in the future African, Latin American, and Asian christians will far outnumber their European and American counterparts. In the future it may be the third world that is sending missionaries to Europe and America - indeed this is already beginning to happen. Jenkins details the unique characteristics of the Christian movements in these countries, which are often more biblically literal, morally conservative, and supernaturally oriented. This is what the true “emerging church” looks like worldwide, rather than the very different way the term is usually used. He explores potential conflicts with Islam, which is similarly expanding, often in the same places as Christianity. He also looks at the relationship between poverty and urbanization and church growth, remarking on the remarkable opportunities for Christians to not only spread the gospel, but also to lay the groundwork for vital social services in the megalopolises of the future, such as Lagos and Kampala :
“The faith or denomination that builds there today is very likely to be profiting richly in a decade or two. Generally though, they are not doing this building, or not to anything like the degree we might expect. Why would anyone fail to respond to such obvious future trends” (p212)
This is one of the most fascinating and illuminating books I’ve read in a while. Jenkins presents a very convincing and detailed case, yet one which would be foreign to the majority of western Christians.
Reading the two books together is an eye opening experience. Exactly how we as rich Western Christians should respond to these things is not always clear, but we cannot afford to continue to ignore what is happening in the wider world. Christians should be at the forefront of global efforts to fight poverty, hunger, disease, injustice, and environmental degradation. And we in the Western church should be making an effort to connect with and help our brethren in the emerging “Southern churches,” lest we find ourselves to be a in minority, marginalized position in the future of world Christianity. On an individual level, we need to sit down and think and pray seriously about these issues, and the way in which God wants each one of us to respond….
and the next book I’m reading… Jesus Says Go! by missionary Robin Wells….
Categories : Christianity, Missions, Personal, books | 1 Comment
