In our lifetime, we are witnessing a shift in Christianity’s center of gravity. This faith tradition, once anchored in the nations of the West, is shifting to the Global South—a region generally including Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania. Today, 67 percent of all Christians live in the Global South.
For those of us living in the West, we must understand this means that the faith we hold dear is largely being practiced by people who don’t look like us, expressed in languages we do not speak. It is flourishing without the constraints of our leadership and spreading beyond the reach of our control. Christianity is taking on new life in other cultures, being expressed in new words, maturing in different contexts. This is good and beautiful.
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I believe this global shift in Christianity is a welcome invitation: an invitation to humility. Ours is not a faith to manipulate or control. It is an unpredictable, unstoppable move of God across the earth, and all we can do is open our hearts to it. We bear witness to the Spirit in our world, and we listen for the invitation to join what’s already happening.
This is also a reminder that we need each other. The global body of Christ is incomplete without every tribe and tongue. We are invited to listen to one another, to empathize, and to see Jesus in the eyes of everyone.
This month, we’re giving you a peek into the Love Your Neighbor kit, one of the ways we’re coming alongside our brothers and sisters around the world in fresh, creative ways.
