{"id":4544,"date":"2025-04-10T09:55:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T13:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4544"},"modified":"2025-04-10T09:55:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T13:55:47","slug":"a-whole-new-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/10\/a-whole-new-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A Whole New World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important and often unexpected turn. \u00a0<\/em>

The best trivia questions are ones in which you don\u2019t see the answer coming.

For instance, which states lie at the farthermost points of the compass \u2013 north, south, east, and west?

North is easy. That would be Alaska. South might require a quick glance at the globe. It\u2019s not Texas or Florida, but Hawaii. For the westernmost state, the answer is not California or Oregon, but Alaska once again, and by a long shot. The Aleutian Islands stretch far across the Pacific.

That leaves the easternmost state in the union. Maine seems like a slam dunk. But the correct answer, yet again, is Alaska, since the Aleutians actually cross the International Date Line.

Who would have thought that a single state represents America\u2019s farthest extent in three different directions?

Here\u2019s a bit of church history trivia: What\u2019s the fastest-growing subgroup in all of Christianity?

You might not see the answer coming. It\u2019s Pentecostalism, and by a mile. In the year 1900 there were only a few hundred people on the planet who subscribed to the teaching that every follower of Jesus needs a \u201csecond blessing\u201d after conversion \u2013 the baptism of the Holy Spirit, usually accompanied by speaking in tongues.

According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, there are currently 279 million Pentecostals scattered around the world. In addition, there are some 305 million charismatics \u2013 Christian believers who belong to non-Pentecostal churches (such as Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants of every stripe) but who share many of the same convictions about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Analysts at the Pew Forum have calculated that 27% of the world\u2019s Christians fall into this combined Spirit-focused category \u2013 a number which also represents 8% of the world\u2019s total population.

The most remarkable aspect of this reality is how quickly it happened.

The origins of Pentecostalism are usually traced to what the Los Angeles Times<\/em> described as a major eruption of \u201cstrange utterances\u201d in a \u201ctumbledown shack\u201d on LA\u2019s Azusa Street over a period of three days in April 1906.

A black Baptist holiness pastor named William J. Seymour had recently been invited to help lead a Nazarene congregation in the city. Seymour taught that Christians needed to actively seek a dynamic encounter with the Spirit. The irony is that his new church concluded it wanted nothing to do with what they perceived as spiritual chaos.

Seymour therefore invited interested individuals to gather at the humble building on Azusa Street. As word spread about the outbreak of \u201cglossolalia,\u201d it became Ground Zero for visitors from around the world.\u00a0

Pentecostalism has always had an anti-denominational strain, and its early leaders quarreled vigorously about the best way to go forward. The Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal body, was actually launched as an attempt to bring some cohesion to the surging movement.\u00a0

The modern charismatic renewal, meanwhile, suddenly came into view in the spring of 1960 at St. Mark\u2019s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, California. Several members revealed that they had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Dennis Bennett, the rector, was as surprised as anyone when he began speaking in tongues, too. Suddenly he was plunged into the national spotlight. Charismatic activity quickly spread from coast to coast.

If Pentecostalism has been especially attractive to members of the working classes, the charismatic movement began as a middle and upper class phenomenon.

Today it\u2019s almost a given that every congregation (including yours) has at least a few adherents who, whether openly or privately, are speaking in tongues, teaching prophetically, or offering healing in Jesus\u2019 name.

Just 125 years ago, that would have seemed incredible.

Another unexpected development is happening right now, even as you read this reflection. The global center of Christianity is heading in a new direction.\u00a0

The historian Andrew Walls has pointed out that every major religion except Christianity has an enduring geographical center. Hinduism began in south Asia and it is still primarily at home on the Indian subcontinent. Buddhism remains centered in eastern and southeastern Asia. Confucianism is thoroughly Chinese. Shinto is centered in Japan. Islam, the world\u2019s second largest faith, has an inviolable middle eastern pedigree, which is why Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca five times daily.\u00a0

The Jesus movement is different.

It was originally centered in Israel, where Christ lived and died and rose from the dead. After Rome obliterated Jerusalem in A.D. 70, Christians migrated eastward throughout the Mediterranean world. As the empire imploded, Christianity\u2019s center gradually moved north into Europe. Then it hopped the Atlantic Ocean and spread throughout the New World. While Catholics remind us that Rome has always been their spiritual center, one can make a strong case that the throbbing heart of Christianity has been located in Britain and America during the past two centuries.\u00a0

But all that has changed during our lifetimes.

The faith that honors Jesus has stagnated \u2013 first in Europe and now in North America. But it is exploding in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, even in the face of fierce persecution. Christianity\u2019s \u201ccenter of gravity\u201d has gradually migrated south of the equator \u2013 something that missiologists could hardly have imagined in 1900.

It\u2019s quite possible that Billy Graham was the last Anglo to be regarded as the most recognized Christian leader on earth. The next such person will probably be a person of color from the Global South.

If current trends continue, the nations with the largest Christian populations in the year 2050 will be Brazil, India, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Uganda. And the largest Christian population of all? That will be found in China, where demographers are currently reporting a 7-8% growth rate in the Christian community.

The evangelistic explosion in China has been likened to a second book of Acts.

It\u2019s possible that within 10 years there will be more Christians in the People\u2019s Republic of China than there are citizens in the United States \u2013 some 350 million believers, most of them first generation followers of Jesus, hungry to be taught and ready to discover how to live and work as the Body of Christ.

It\u2019s a whole new world.\u00a0

Why isn\u2019t such miraculous growth happening where we live?

Andrew Walls shrugs his shoulders. \u201cGod goes where he is wanted.\u201d

Until revival or reformation grips our nation \u2013 until we truly want <\/u><\/em>God to be God, and not just a religious hobby, or a political bumper sticker, or a heavenly therapist whose only job is to make us feel happy \u2013 God\u2019s reign will be growing and thriving somewhere else.

Remember Jesus\u2019 assurance that \u201cmany will come from the east and the west,\u00a0and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven\u201d (Matthew 8:11).\u00a0

That prediction no doubt takes into account every point on the compass.

And there\u2019s nothing trivial about that.<\/em>
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important and often unexpected turn. \u00a0 The best trivia questions are ones in which you don\u2019t see the answer coming. For instance, which states lie… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[907,467,884,908],"class_list":["post-4544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charismatics","tag-china","tag-church-history","tag-pentecostals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4546,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4544\/revisions\/4546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}