Statistics
This is just some stuff that I felt really compelled to share. I was sitting down at a computer desk at school and I was getting ready to check the blog when I randomly see the 2005 Encyclopedia Britanica sitting there beside me. I open it up and the first page that I turned to was The 2004 Annual Megacensus of Religions. It has some really interesting facts in it and the circumstances that I found them made me want to tell you what they are.
According to the Encyclopedia there are 2,106,962,000 Christians in the world which accounts for 33.0% of the entire population. 1,105,808,000 (17.3%) of those are Catholics, 416,541,000 (6.5%) of those are independents, and 369,848,000 (5.8%) are protestants.
Approximately 273,941,000 of the 328,932,000 people in North America count themselves as Christians.
According to these numbers aboout every one in three people in the world is a Christian and about every 4 out of 5 people in North America is a Christian.
I guess the thing that really stuck out when I was looking at this was that at first glance those numbers don't seem all that bad. Christianity is the most sought after religion in the world and apparently it has a strong foothold on the very continent that we live. The next two most popular religions combined (muslims and hindus) don't even equal Christianity.
Then I got what I think God really intended me to get out of this book.
No matter how well Christianity seems to be doing from a statistics standpoint, reality tells me that in actuality it's not doing that well at all. And if only 1/3 of the population is saved (and that's a very generous figure when you think of all the people who call themselves Christians but really aren't) that means that 2/3 of the population is dieing without being saved.
Then I thought of all the people who I have really made an effort to bring to Christ (not many) and I realized that although I call myself a Christian I am utterly failing in spreading God's word in the continent that should be the easiest to do it.
Reaching out to my non-Christian friends and sharing God with them has always been tough to do even though that's how I was essentially brought to be a Christian. I think that there are definitely more of you reading this who have the same problem as me in talking to non-Christians about Christ.
I'm not sure exactly how to overcome that problem to make it easier but I think that we should all pray, especially as a youth group, to really make outreach a major goal. I know it's always talked about a lot and I know that we all want it to happen but I think that we should all take a self-inspection test and ask how many people we have tried to save in the last few months. I know that I come up short of what I wish and I'm glad that God has taken the opportunity to show me that. There are so many people around me in university that I have a chance to reach out to and it has to start somewhere even if I feel uncomfortable always introducing myself to strangers.
I was talking to Dallas this week and he said that I really have to start letting what I feel God is telling me to do, to happen. If he's telling me to reach out to a friend, which I'm sure he's telling many of you to do as well, then I think that we should start to do that instead of thinking it over and coming to our own conclusions.
It's time to be bold and do what the Lord has asked and we can't be afraid anymore to make a difference in other people's lives.
According to the Encyclopedia there are 2,106,962,000 Christians in the world which accounts for 33.0% of the entire population. 1,105,808,000 (17.3%) of those are Catholics, 416,541,000 (6.5%) of those are independents, and 369,848,000 (5.8%) are protestants.
Approximately 273,941,000 of the 328,932,000 people in North America count themselves as Christians.
According to these numbers aboout every one in three people in the world is a Christian and about every 4 out of 5 people in North America is a Christian.
I guess the thing that really stuck out when I was looking at this was that at first glance those numbers don't seem all that bad. Christianity is the most sought after religion in the world and apparently it has a strong foothold on the very continent that we live. The next two most popular religions combined (muslims and hindus) don't even equal Christianity.
Then I got what I think God really intended me to get out of this book.
No matter how well Christianity seems to be doing from a statistics standpoint, reality tells me that in actuality it's not doing that well at all. And if only 1/3 of the population is saved (and that's a very generous figure when you think of all the people who call themselves Christians but really aren't) that means that 2/3 of the population is dieing without being saved.
Then I thought of all the people who I have really made an effort to bring to Christ (not many) and I realized that although I call myself a Christian I am utterly failing in spreading God's word in the continent that should be the easiest to do it.
Reaching out to my non-Christian friends and sharing God with them has always been tough to do even though that's how I was essentially brought to be a Christian. I think that there are definitely more of you reading this who have the same problem as me in talking to non-Christians about Christ.
I'm not sure exactly how to overcome that problem to make it easier but I think that we should all pray, especially as a youth group, to really make outreach a major goal. I know it's always talked about a lot and I know that we all want it to happen but I think that we should all take a self-inspection test and ask how many people we have tried to save in the last few months. I know that I come up short of what I wish and I'm glad that God has taken the opportunity to show me that. There are so many people around me in university that I have a chance to reach out to and it has to start somewhere even if I feel uncomfortable always introducing myself to strangers.
I was talking to Dallas this week and he said that I really have to start letting what I feel God is telling me to do, to happen. If he's telling me to reach out to a friend, which I'm sure he's telling many of you to do as well, then I think that we should start to do that instead of thinking it over and coming to our own conclusions.
It's time to be bold and do what the Lord has asked and we can't be afraid anymore to make a difference in other people's lives.
posted by Anonymous at 2:40 PM
3 Comments:
Yeah, thanks for that, Braden. I know it is something I have also been struggling with (talking to others about Christ). Personally, I have been kinda struggling with the idea of making desciples of all nations but not trying to play the role of God himself. I believe that God has to help us, and I know that I can't save someone from their sins. I have been learning to trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to touch someone once I tell them about what Jesus has done for me. And then sometimes I struggle with that, and it seems like a never-ending cycle of frustration. I'm not exactly sure about what I am saying here, or if any of this comment makes any sense, but I have been struggling with a few issues like these. Perhaps you guys have more knowledge about these types of things than I do, and I would appreciate it if you could help me sort out my thoughts a bit more by commenting on my comment (if you can figure out what I'm trying to say. I don't even know if I understand myself!).
I have to say that those statistics are most likely incorrect. I bet that the statistic isn't counting "Christians" it is counting "Church goers". And that would probably be counting everyone who has gone to church once in like the last 2 years. I am prety sure that it is more like 1/50 are saved or something like that. And that just makes me want to share Gods mesage that much more if 49/50 are not saved.
(I hape this makes sence)
Wow! That statistic is interesting! I know for certain that there are far too many people that call themselves Christians that really aren't. So as far as true Christians there are probably far less than 1/3. There's are tonnes and tonnes of people that are lost. Unfortunately, reaching out to them is sometimes as hard as it is for them to understand they are lost. Evangelism is not easy. There is no set formula for leading a person to Christ because everyone is different. However, two of the most important precursors to evangelism lie on our shoulders. 1. We have to be living faithfully for the Lord, and truly practicing what we believe. We need to be on fire for God, because otherwise people aren't going to take what we say seriously because they don't see it in us. 2. We need to be living by the Spirit. The Spirit quides us into all truth and gives us the words to speak to unbelievers. The Spirit also manifests His fruit in us of joy, love, peace, patience, etc... We need to make sure that we are yielding control to the Holy Spirit every day if we want the Lord to use us to reach the lost. When we come to a solid foundation in these two things God can work in us to help us overcome our fears, overcome our uneloquent speech, and overcome our disobedience by not being a witness for Him.
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