Signs of Hope<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I heard John Allen, Jr. speak in Denver a couple of years ago. He was great (also had a chance to talk shop with him later that evening, which was cool).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/03\/signs-of-hope.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Signs of Hope\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I heard John Allen, Jr. speak in Denver a couple of years ago. 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{"id":51478,"date":"2014-03-13T00:25:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T07:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=51478"},"modified":"2014-12-29T02:10:36","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T09:10:36","slug":"signs-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2014\/03\/signs-of-hope.html","title":{"rendered":"Signs of Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In the past century, said Allen, the Church globally has grown 7000%. You read that right. 7000%. And despite the bedwetting narratives of doom from people panicking about Islam taking over the world, one of the places the Church is experiencing a population boom is in the heart of the Islamosphere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The more I look at the election of Francis, who is all about shepherding the Church of the poor and about evangelism, the more convinced I am that this was a stunning providential move by the Spirit. Praised be Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"