discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 164
164 New Contexts for Mission
As the Church seeks to fulfill its global mission, it finds itself confronting
changing contexts. Today’s contextual challenges include: a rapidly growing
world population, urbanization on a scale never before seen, other world religions
including the resurgence of animistic practices, nominalism in Christianity,
the AIDS epidemic, and postmodernity.
Burgeoning Population
On or about October 12, 1999, the earth achieved an epic milestone. On
that day earth’s population reached 6 billion people. Even more mind-boggling
than the actual number is the speed with which it went from 2 billion to 4 billion.
It took from the beginning of the human race until 1804 for the world’s
population to attain a total of 1 billion people. When global population hit
that first billion, William Carey had just arrived in India. The second billion
was added after 123 more years, coming in 1927 not too long before William
Cameron Townsend began Wycliffe Bible Translators. Reaching the next milestone,
3 billion, took only 33 more years, coming in 1960 when Loren Cunningham
founded Youth with a Mission. World population topped 4 billion
after only 14 more years, reaching that mark about the time of the 1974 Lausanne
Congress on World Evangelization. The 5 billion mark came 13 years
later in 1987, just a year before Wycliffe Bible Translators completed their
300th New Testament translation. The jump to 6 billion came in only 12 more
years. Now, 7 billion is just over the horizon. Those numbers pose challenges
for the Church as it tries to fulfill its covenant responsibilities. 1
Urbanization
The world today is more urban than ever. One hundred years ago, the
world had 300 cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants. Today there are more
than 4,000 cities of over 100,000. A century ago there were only 20 cities of
over 1 million in population. Now, with half the world’s population living in
cities, earth has more than 400 cities of 1 million or more. 2 Megacities of 10
million or more inhabitants are appearing with projections saying there will be
26 of them by 2015. Each of those cities will, by themselves, have more inhabitants
than entire European countries like Greece, Portugal, or Belgium, and
they will have twice as many people in them as live in smaller countries like
Nicaragua, Finland, and Jordan.
If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are
too small. 3 —Pat Morley, businessman and author of Man in the Mirror