Jenkins on Why?
Historian, Philip Jenkins on Why don’t we see dynamic church planting movements in the West of the same magnitude that we are see in many parts of the developing world?
Christianity is flourishing wonderfully among the poor and persecuted, while it atrophies among the rich and secure…. The distribution of modern Christians might well show that the religion does succeed best when it takes very seriously the profound pessimism about the secular world that characterizes the New Testament. If it is not exactly a faith based on the experience of poverty and persecution, then at least it regards these things as normal and expected elements of life. That view is not derived from complex theological reasoning, but is rather a lesson drawn from lived experience. Christianity certainly can succeed in other settings, even amid peace and prosperity, but perhaps it does become harder, as hard as passing through the eye of a needle.“The Next Christendom : The Coming of Global Christianity ” (Philip Jenkins), 220.
Is that a Mac in the background?
