This was originally written for my Missional Formation class at Asbury Theological Seminary.
In The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, New York: 2007), Philip Jenkins persuasively and dramatically argues that in the next 50-100 years the center of global Christianity will shift from the traditional strongholds of Europe and North America to the booming regions of Africa, South America, and Asia. Using history, theology, anthropology, and sociology, especially population predictions, Jenkins shatters the typical secular Euro-American predictions of Christianity’s inevitable decline. Instead, all indications point to a growing and thriving Christianity for generations to come, albeit one that is increasing global, poor, brown or black, and Pentecostal (a problematic term that includes many denominations and “Spirit focused” movements).
