May 16 2014
I just read the most interesting verse. In john 12 Jesus reenters Jerusalem. There is of course the hubbub of his triumphal entry. The account of John gives it less treatment than other Gospel accounts, but the end of Johns account, at least as the NASB writers edit, has this line; "So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look the world has gone after Him."
When I read blog materials about the movment of the Gospel in the world I see two views at odds with each other. There are the champions of the American church who talk about its decline and the loss of younger people. They talk about the focus of the church on right belief over right practice as a turn off. There is merit to this if you are in a European mainline denomination. The numbers are not great. But even in the United States the statistics are not universally applied. There are main line church plants and independants that are growing through converstion.
If we get outside the United States the growth is even more significant. Asia and South America seem to be great bastions of Christian growth. Interestingly enough they do not seem to share the view the lower views of right belief are nessicary for greater expansion of the Gospel globally. I have one friend who I would often spar with (me a conservative Calvinist, he a progressive emergent,) when he returned from Uganda he was frustrated on two fronts. Like most progressives he thought the traditional church view on marraige was outdated, and was surpriesed that the churches on africa for the most part held the line on the ancient definition of marriage. The other thing he found frustrating was that most Christians he interacted with where tea todlers.
There are a lot of writers who have been writing about the decline of the the church. What they mean is the western church. Soon commeth the day that the minority of believers in the world are western. Christian thought will be driven by people who speak asian languages or South American spanish. Yes the church in America shrinks, loosing mostly nominal believers while those commited to the cuase of Christ seem to grow and get more innovative in reaching the unchurched or de-churched. This happens at a rate where we will soon see a minority of the population of the US claim faith in Christ. But the church is not thwarted. The Holy Sirit is not wandering around heaven wishing we would find new strategies to making Jesus famous.
God in Christ reigns supremem over his created order. All creation remains a stage to the discplay of his goodness. The only people who need worry are those who would complain with the pharisees, "look the world has gone after him."
Sola Christus
