America… the land of the free and the home of the most wealthiest people on the planet. Even amongst the Christian population, there is more wealth here than in the entire under developed countries in the rest of the world combined. What feeds a family of four for one dinner in the typical American household is more food than an impoverished village family sees in more than a week.
And when it comes to the knowledge of Jesus and the Gospel, we are filled to the brim. We have access to Jesus 24/7 via the internet, podcasts, church services, and Christian radio… But is it making a difference?
I am currently reading the book “Revolution In World Missions” written by K.P. Yohannan. Today I want to share just a snippet from this amazing perspective of world evangelism from a man who understands poverty and the transforming power of the Gospel.
He writes,
If the affluence of America impressed me, the affluence of
Christians impressed me even more. The United States has
about 5,000 Christian book and gift stores, carrying varieties
of products beyond my ability to imagine—and many secular
stores also carry religious books. All this while 4,845 of the
world’s 6,912 languages are still without a single portion of the
Bible published in their own language! In his book My Billion
Bible Dream, Rochunga Pudaite says, “Eighty-five percent of all
Bibles printed today are in English for the nine percent of the
world who read English. Eighty percent of the world’s people
have never owned a Bible while Americans have an average of
four in every household.”
Besides books, 8,000 Christian magazines and newspapers
flourish. More than 1,600 Christian radio stations broadcast
the Gospel full-time,5 while many countries don’t even have
their first Christian radio station. A tiny 0.1 percent of all
Christian radio and television programming is directed toward
the unevangelized world.
The saddest observation I can make about most of the religious
communication activity of the Western world is this: Little,
if any, of this media is designed to reach unbelievers. Almost all
is entertainment for the saints.
The United States, with its 600,000 congregations or groups,
is blessed with 1.5 million full-time Christian workers, or one
full-time religious leader for every 182 people in the nation.
What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where more
than 2 billion people are still unreached with the Gospel. The
unreached or “hidden peoples” have only one missionary working
for every 78,000 people, and there are still 1,240 distinct
cultural groups in the world without a single church among
them to preach the Gospel. These are the masses for whom
Christ wept and died.
I encourage you read this book. Audio (MP3) and print (pdf) versions of this book are available for free @ http://www.gfa.org/resource/books/revolution/
I believe that when we come to the realization that our wealth in the western world could and should be used for proclaiming the Gospel message to the world, then and only then will we experience true and lasting change. Not only in our own lives but in the lives of every person that walks this planet.
May you be blessed today as you proclaim His name.
Keith
