Statistical puzzles

Some people live on a diet of statistics, others just choke on them - I quite enjoy them as an occasional 'meal out' when I want to think a few different thoughts. Thanks to a friend who eats only trends, varriables and mediums, I recently came across quite an interesting set of numbers. (Thanks Peter - after all someone has to digest those numbers!)

Apparently there are only two religious groups in the world projected to grow in the next 40 years - Evangelical Christians and Muslims. The figures are:

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 7% to 15% of world population

1970 to 2050 Muslims From 15% to 25% of world population

As a total Christians are currently the largest religious group in the world, at 33%, and if all Christians groups were to grow at the same rate as Evangelicals then this would remain the case - but the fact is that non-Evangelical Christian communities are just not growing (with a few notable exceptions such as certain Orthodox groups). You see this more starkly when you view Evangelicals as a proportin of the Christian community. The figures are:

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 14% to 46% of Christians in Developing World

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 25% to 47% of Christians in Developed World

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 21% to 46% of World Christians

So? Well perhaps Evangelicals need to help their non-Evangelical sisters and brothers to grow. Not to become Evangelicals, but to be confident in their own faith and to GROW.

Anglican Evangelism?

Put three bishops in a room - one Nigerian, one Canadan and one from Peru - add the Director of Alpha International, the Mission Director of the Anglican Church in Kenya, and season with a sprinkling of Liverpudlians, South Africans, and a canny guy from Zambia, and what do you get?

Answer - the crazy idea that Anglicans could do something positive about evangelism and growing the church, especially in places where there are almost no Christians at all.

Well that's what happened last week. I spent the week with the, wait for it, 'Core Group of the Anglican Communion Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative'. Guess what, we are looking for a better name! Sadly the British goverment ensured that our colleagues from DR Congo and Pakistan could not join us (visa restrictions!) but the nine of us who did make it through the snow to Woking had a great week together.

Of course the idea that Anglicans could be good at, and even enjoy, sharing the good news about Jesus, is not really so crazy - it just feels that way sometimes when all we seem to care about is church bells, lesbian bishops, and who stole the ladies fellowship teapot. After all much of Africa was evangelised by Anglicans, not to mention Malaysia, China, India, and more. In fact we used to be very good at it. Now the leadership of the church (the bishops when then met at the Lambeth Conference) have said, "let's have another go". I feel very privileged to be at the heart of this. It might be a challenging task to excite Anglican about Jesus, but it will be great fun. Watch this space.