The Future of the Global ChurchPowerPoint slides with notes from Patrick Johnstone6 (of 30) slide sample: Ch 2) The Church in 1900-1975 ADwww.thefutureoftheglobalchurch.org

The Church in 19001975 ADPoliticized ChristendomSevere Christian declineChristian declineStagnating ChristianityChristian majority/stateActive Christian witness/renewalReformation & state involvementCoercive conversionsThe major revivals of the 20th CenturyChina 1930s, 1940s, 1980E Africa 19271960sKorea 19071980sUSA1906,NE India 1905,Wales1904Charismatic renewal of 1956 onwardsIndonesia 19651990sPentecostal renewal after Azuza St Revivalin 1906

The Church in 19001975 ADPoliticized ChristendomSevere Christian declineChristian declineStagnating ChristianityChristian majority/stateActive Christian witness/renewalLiberal theology based on humanism corrupted theological seminaries and churches especially in N Europe and Eastern USAReformation & state involvementCoercive conversionsThe Rise and Decline of Liberal TheologyEastern USAN Europe

The Church in 19001975 ADPoliticized ChristendomSevere Christian declineChristian declineStagnating ChristianityChristian majority/stateActive Christian witness/renewalLiberal theology contributed to the decline of Christianity in EuropeThe growth of Evangelicals in Catholic Latin America since the 1970s has been dramaticReformation + state involvementCoercive conversionsThe growth of Christianity in Africa, Asia and Latin AmericaThe growth in Asia has largely been in Korea, Indonesia, China and India especially since the beginning of the 1980sThe growth of the Church in Africa since 1960 has been spectacular

The Church in 19001975 ADThe Growth of Global Missions

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**History: Twentieth Century (part of Chapter 2)

[also see FGC pp.60-64]

*The Church in 1900-1975 AD -- Progress(Slide 1 of 4)

Significant Dates ProgressRevivals that renewed the Church and transformed the world included: The 1904 Welsh Revival opened the century and contributed to far bigger revivals in northeast India (1905), the US (1906), Korea (19071980s), E Africa (19271960s), China (1930s, 1940s, 1980) and Indonesia (19651990s), as well as the Charismatic renewal of 1956 (or, among Catholics, 1967) onwards.

See Chapter 5 in FGC, pp. 136-138.

*The Church in 1900-1975 AD Progress(Slide 2 of 4)

Significant Dates - ProgressThe rise and decline of liberal ChristianityThe strength and optimism of the Evangelicals before the First World War turned to defensiveness as they were marginalized by an ascendant theological liberalism. This daughter of the Enlightenment, with its deification of human reason, dominated much of the Protestant Church for half a century. Its denial of the uniqueness of Christ and the divine inspiration of the Scriptures and its neglect of the core message of the Gospel while focusing on organic church unity and social justice led to a massive decline in the Wests major denominations. At the end of the century, mainline Christianity had waned to the point where it was globally marginalized.See FGC, page 122.

The marginalization and ultimate resurgence of evangelicalismEvangelicalisms 50 years in the wilderness ended in the 1960s with a multiplication of international conferences and movements, visions and strategies, and a growing global missions force. Christianity will become increasingly evangelical in theology and charismatic in expression and decreasingly Western in culture in the 21st Century. See FGC, Chapter 6.*The Church in 1900-1975 AD Progress(Slide 3 of 4)

Significant Dates - ProgressThe astonishing harvest gathered into the Church outside the West, and the declines in the WestA comparison of the map for the 20th century with the maps for the 18th and 19th centuries illustrates this. In the future, we will probably look back at the last decade of the 20th Century as the most fruitful ever for conversions to Christin absolute numbers, Evangelicals increased by over 100 million.See FGC, Chapter 6.

The increasing focus on evangelizing and discipling the least reached peoples on earthAs the century progressed, there was more effective outreach to the adherents of the major missionary religions.This is treated in Chapters 7 and 3 in the FGC book.

The astonishing levels of persecution endured by the Church around the WorldCompare the pie chart (Persecution in the Twentieth Century The Persecutors and The Persecuted, see slide 15 in this powerpoint) and and bar chart on persecution (The Twentieth Century: A Century of Martyrs, see slide 13 in this powerpoint) with the summary on democide (see slide 8 in this powerpoint). Christian martyrs in the 20th Century numbered almost 50 million65% of all Christian martyrs over the last two millennia.

*The Church in 1900-1975 AD Progress(Slide 4 of 4)

Significant Dates ProgressThe massive growth in missionsThis included a huge growth in the number of missionaries and the ultimate globalization of the missions force after the demise of the colonial empires in the 1960s.See FGC, Chapter 8.

Food for ThoughtMany churches still regard the Great Commission as an optional extra, a fad, an inconvenient relic of the colonial era and not as their core reason for existence.**End of History: Twentieth Century (part of Chapter 2)

[also see FGC pp.60-64]