Hindsight

This past Sunday we took a look at the church.  Jesus Christ founded it, the Apostles guided it, Paul expanded it and we inherited it!  When we analyze the New Testament we find numerous statements concerning what human relationships in the Church are supposed to embody.  Paul lists five attitudes that are essential for a church health in Ephesians 4:2-3: humility, gentleness, patience, love and peace.  I wish I could say that all churches everywhere have always reflected these values. 

Consider the scope of getting everyone on the same page.  Of the 6.9 billion people worldwide 2.2 billion people say they belong to the church.  That’s one third of all the people who exist on this planet today!  There are Christians in churches in every one of the 223 countries of the world. Christianity is the major religion of the world.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prevailing_world_religions_map.png) 

According to the Pew Forum the church of Jesus has quadrupled in the last one hundred years, but the percentage of Christians has stayed at about one third of the worldwide population.  
Yet there has been an amazing shift. 

In 1900 two thirds of all Christians lived in Europe, now only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe.  Because of missionaries sub-Sahara Africa now makes up about a quarter of all Christians.  Of all current Christians one third are in the Americas and one eighth are found in Asia.  Asian Christians are also a result of sacrificial missionaries who went there 150 years ago.

If we look back in history we’ll see that these numbers represent healthy progress for the church.  It’s estimated that in 500 AD twenty two percent of the world was Christian. It’s also been estimated that by 1500 AD there had been a decrease in the worldwide church to nineteen percent.  However, today it’s above thirty percent!  God is at work in His world.

Yet our world is still broken.  When we hear of tragedies like the shootings in Aurora Colorado.  It proves to us that Satan is alive and well on planet Earth.  Jesus said that Satan has come to, “…steal and kill and destroy…” (John 10:10) and that certainly was the horrific result in Colorado.  But Jesus continues and says, “…I have come that they may have life and it to the full!” 

So when Paul writes to the Ephesians urging them to aggressively, “…live a life worthy of the calling you have received” he is praying that we will be militant representatives of the church with these five attitudes: humility, gentleness, patience, love and peace. The only hope for the world is the church of Jesus Christ.  The only hope for your world is you! 

(All the above numbers were taken from The Pew Forum, in consultation with demographers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg Austria, acquired and analyzed about 2,400 data sources, including censuses and general population surveys to arrive at Christian populations.  Http://pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-exec.aspx?print=true)