Looking To 2011
Don Sweeting, President of RTS, writes of things to look for in the new year. Among them the following points caught my attention:
- Urbanization In 2010 our world became officially more urban than rural. Just over half of the world now lives in cities. This trend will continue with the growth of mega cities and an expected 70% of the world being urban in 2050. Urban ministry is more important than ever.
- Christianophobia in Europe This is how the growing hostility and prejudice against Christianity in Western Europe is being described. This trend is starting to be seen in the US.
- Persecution of Christians around the world The top ten persecuting nations (in no particular order) are Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, India, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, China, Vietnam, Eritrea.
- The withering of discipleship in the American church Many note that whole life discipleship appears to be in decline. Barna reported in his year-end report that the Christian church in America is becoming less theologically literate, more ingrown, less outreach-oriented, and more pragmatic. While he noted that Christians are more interested in participating in community social action, he also said that the “postmodern insistence on tolerance is winning over the Christian church.”
Sweetings article lists 18 points in all. He ends with this:
- Anniversaries and special events this year Wikipedia celebrates its 10th anniversary in January, Twitter is five years old in March, and there is a royal wedding in April. May 2 marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. June marks the 100th birthday of IBM and people will be talking about resilient, agile companies that reinvent themselves. July is when Obama said America would start bringing home troops from Afghanistan. September 9 marks the last Oprah show, while two days later mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11. In November the world’s population is supposed to officially hit the seven billion mark, and that is also when the largest statue of Jesus in the world is supposed to be completed in Poland—a statue of the crowned Christ. What else the year holds, I do not know. What does it hold for you? The truth is, we really can only guess at all these things. For we do not know what the new year holds, but we do know who holds the new year. And perhaps that is why ending with a note about the crowned Christ is appropriate. For whatever else might change, the Scriptures give us ample grounds for moving into this new year with confidence. Hebrews 13 puts it this way: God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” Then it adds that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Read the whole piece here.
