Being a Global Christian: The 10/40 Window

Did you know that for the first few centuries, Christianity was not primarily a “Western religion”? A strong case could be made that Christianity actually started off as an Eastern faith.

However today the places where Christianity actually began are now overwhelmingly non-Christian.

Today 90% of Christians live in a country where they are the majority religion. But 10% of the world’s Christians live as a minority, often an extreme minority.

Today if you look at a map of the world to see where Christianity is present, you will see a gap spanning from North Africa all the way over to Southeast Asia. Missiologists talk about the 10/40 window, referring to the global window  between 40 degrees latitude to 10 degrees longitude.

The countries in this window have Christianity have very little Christian influence and presence, in fact, in a research project done by Gordon-Conwell University they discovered that of the Non-Christians living within this window, only 19% of them actually knew a Christian, and in Asia that number drops to 13%

But there’s also some really good news that is coming out of this window. 5% of China identifies as Christian, that may sound small, but out of a billion people that adds up to 5 million Chinese Christians! And the Chinese churches are sending missionaries back to the Middle East, to the very place that the Christian faith began!

God is moving in the 10/40 window. But unfortunately, a lot of Western Christians are not aware and even less are participating and praying for their brothers and sisters in the faith there.

So, like I said yesterday, this is a blog series introducing some of what we are doing at the church I serve in Global ministry, because I’m so impressed by the dreams that our church has come up with, and think it might inspire other churches to consider a new approach to missions, I wanted to share the teaching videos we did for our church about Global Christianity, and some of our initiatives to engage what God is doing in the world.

One of our initiatives is to partner with the local churches and ministries that are in this 10/40 window and be a long term presence and partner with them. Helping with on the ground problems like human trafficking with wholistic Gospel approaches that involve both engaging in social justice/mercy ministries and evangelism.

On a personal level, I’ve been to the 10/40 window several times. I’ve visited the churches that were started by women who were rescued from being sexually trafficked. I’ve seen the villages that they returned to and the wholistic change that the gospel brought not just to the individual but to their entire community.

I’ve heard stories from them about how the way of Jesus gave them the resources to forgive their trafficker and not live in bitterness as well as regain their dignity as a child of God.

I wear around my wrist a red bracelet made by a Christian sister who happens to be the one who told me that story as a way of reminding me God’s not just working in my zip code, He’s up to all kinds of good news all over the world, and even as I type these words God is working in the 10/40 window. And we want to join Him.

Next up: Initiative #3 Peace-making in the Muslim Majority world.