"Religion is what man makes out of God. The moment Christianity becomes religion, it dies." —Wolfgang Simson

Two generations ago, eminent Christian spokesman A.W. Tozer thundered, “A fact is that we are not producing saints. We are making converts to an effete type of Christianity that bears little resemblance to that of the New Testament. The average so-called Bible Christian in our times is but a wretched parody of true sainthood. Yet we put millions of dollars behind movements to perpetrate this degenerate form of religion, and attack the man who dares to challenge the wisdom of it.”

In the US, there are an estimated 23 million people who have made a conscious decision at some point to accept and follow Jesus, but seldom go to church any more. If this includes you, then rejoice. You have options, a different universe for you to inhabit. From our vantage point in North America and Europe, where church membership is going nowhere, you may not be aware of the biggest mega-shift in history.

For the last one hundred years, the percentage of the world that is “Christian” (many of those in fossilizing, tradition-bound, highly-centralized and strategically useless organizations) has held steady at about 33 to 34%....while other parts of the world are growing at warp speed.

Up until 1960, Christians in western countries outnumbered non-westerners by 2 to 1.

    By 2000, non-westerners (Africans, Asians, Latin Americans) had shot ahead by 4 to 1.

    By 2010, it will be 7 to 1!

Recall this fact the next time you hear someone bad mouth Christianity as a “Western” or “white man’s” religion.

Today, there are now more missionaries sent from non-western nations than western nations. More Muslims have turned to Christ in the last 10 years than in the previous 1,000 years. China has 115 to 120 million true Christians, who worship and operate mostly from in-house churches.

[Sources found referenced in the book, Mega Shift, by James Rutz ]

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"People who don't believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went East, West, North and South." -- J. Howard Edington

"The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed" -- Hudson Taylor

"Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist." -- Oswald J. Smith

"The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become." -- Henry Martyn, missionary to India and Iran

"Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is -- where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge." -- Robert C. Shannon