Adventist Mission: Challenges from a Pluralistic World

Despite predictions to the contrary, worldwide interest in religion is on the increase. More and more, religion is playing a stronger and more active role in public, political, and social affairs. The leading German philosopher Jürgen Habermas¹ points out three intersecting phenomena that show an extensive revival of religion.

1. Expansion of missionary activity. Traditional world religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism) have soared in membership in recent years in Africa, Asia, and South America. The increase is largely owing to flexibility of forms, readiness to change organizational structures as needed, and adaptability of mission and witness to meet local needs. According to Habermas, for example, the transnational and multicultural Roman Catholic Church adapts more quickly than Protestant churches, and this results in an increased growth in Catholic adherents. The most dynamic structures are decentralized Islamic networks in sub-Saharan Africa and Evangelicals in Latin America.

2. Radicalization of fundamentalism. The surge toward fundamentalism is common in both Christianity and Islam. This carries a mixture of emphasis on
spirituality, mission, moral rigorism, and the literal interpretation of the Scriptures. Another characteristic of these fundamentalist movements is their deinstitutionalized form.

3. Political usage of the religion’s violence potential. The Iranian regime and Islamic terrorism are the most obvious manifestations of this trend. Most often, conflicts are secular at their roots and gain new strength after their codification in religious terms. Examples are desecularization of the Middle East conflict, strife between Pakistan and India, and mobilization of the right-wing religious forces in the United States (US) on the eve of the Iraq War. 

This general background easily harmonizes the process of reconfiguration of the religious space in today’s world. We shall review a few of these tendencies that influence this process.

Redistribution of “religious market”

The first tendency can be defined as redistribution of “religious market” shares. According to “Global Christianity,” “The number of Christians around the world has more than tripled in the last 100 years, from about 600 million in 1910 to more than 2 billion in 2010. But the world’s overall population also has risen rapidly, from
an estimated 1.8 billion in 1910 to 6.9 billion in 2010. As a result, Christians make up about the same portion of the world’s population today (32%) as they did a century ago (35%).

[See PDF for graph on regional distributions of Christians]

“This apparent stability, however, masks a momentous shift. Although Europe and the Americas still are home to a majority of the world’s Christians (63%), that share is much lower than it was in 1910 (93%). And the proportion of Europeans and Americans who are Christian has dropped from 95% in 1910 to 76% in 2010 in Europe as a whole, and from 96% to 86% in the Americas as a whole. At the same time, Christianity has grown enormously in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, where there were relatively few Christians at the beginning of the 20th century.”²

The growth rate of Christianity, currently at 1.35 percent—which still leads the world religions—is lower than the growth rate of the world population at 2.6 percent. At the same time, Islam and Buddhism, the second and the third largest world religions in terms of followers, grow more quickly and faster than the world population growth rate. Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project predicts that continuation of this trend will lead to a 35 percent increase in the Muslim population by 2030 and will comprise 26.4 percent (2.2 billion) of the forecast world population (8.3 billion).³ When Samuel Huntington predicted this tendency in the mid- 1990s, he mentioned that Christianity would grow due to conversion, while Islam would do so through conversion and reproduction.⁴ Modern statistics prove him right.

Research into the change of the world share of Christianity and Islam also shows the influence of migration from developing countries to the West. Immigrants bring with them their religion, leading to a reconfiguration of the cultural landscape of receiv­ing countries. Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project predicts the population changes shown in the following table:

Increase of Muslim share in population of Europe ⁵

Independent Christian churches

The second tendency is the forma­tion of so-called independent Christian churches.⁶

This process started in the 1980s in developing countries. By the end of the twentieth century, the number of “independent” or new Christians reached 386 million.⁷ This number is greater than the number of Protestants (342 million) and stands next to the Catholic denomination (1 billion).

David Barrett, who has studied world religions for 40 years and has closely watched the formation of independent churches, comes to two conclusions. First, these churches are completely different from their “mother” Christian church of the West. The dif­ference becomes apparent in (1) their much more conservative adherence to moral principles, church rules, and submission to the authority of priests and bishops than other Christians, and (2) their close connection to the poorest stratum of society, as the majority of new Christians are extremely poor according to Western standards.

Second, these new churches identify themselves as post-denominational and have no formal ties with any structure of Christendom. But they have adopted Western techniques of forming their net­works. This helps them to be successful in development and expansion. So it can be concluded that this new trend can be compared to the Reformation spread of Protestantism and Protestants in the sixteenth century.

Christian and Islamic population shifts

The third tendency is a shift of Christian population to the Southern Hemisphere, while Islam moves to the Northern Hemisphere.

This tendency is closely connected with demography, migration, and the new trend in Christianity. Many experts now claim that world Christianity will grow due to the developing countries. Alexey Pimenov, professor at George Washington University, summarized the data of the US research centers and concluded that in 15 years the number of Christians in the world will reach 2.5 billion and there will be three major groups: the largest will be Latin Americans (around 640 million); next will be Africans (630 million); and the next will be Europeans (555 million).⁸

Peter Berger says that “Christianity is growing faster in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else on earth . . . at 3.5 percent a year. . . . [Compare this with] 2.5 percent in Latin America and Asia and less than 1 percent in Europe and North America. The proportion of African Christians to all Christians has grown from one in ten in 1970 to one in five today. On current trends, African Christians outnumber European believers, leaving them second only to those in Latin America.”⁹ Thus, by 2050 half of the Christian population (about 50 percent) will live in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil), Africa (Nigeria, Ethiopia), and the Philippines.

Thus, we may conclude that reconfiguration of the religious space that has been going on for the last few decades has brought a serious change in correlation of global reli­gions, including Islam-Christianity parity, and has changed the status of global Christianity itself. The Southern Hemispheric model of Christianity is becoming more and more predominant. This happens because of demographic and economic factors. As a result, the Southern Hemispheric model influ­ences the qualitative characteristics of Christianity. The European/Western model of Christianity loses its potential.

Where are Adventists in this picture?

Now, where do Adventists stand in this reconfiguring religious picture, particularly the Protestant picture? According to the Pew Research project analysis of data from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity (see the table “Denominations of Protestants”),¹⁰ Adventists occupy the eighth place on the list, with 2.7 percent of total Protestant membership. With such a ratio, obvi­ously, it is an enormous challenge to try to influence global religious trends. This picture gives a rather alarming subcon­scious feeling that Adventists are behind in fulfilling the mission they traditionally have claimed for themselves—being God’s true remnant church, which calls all people to join her. According to tradi­tional Adventist interpretation of biblical prophecies, there will be no other God’s church, after the remnant church, to proclaim the end-time message to the world. So, if Adventists fail in their mis­sion, what is next?

Denominations of Protestants:

First of all, we have to accept what Ellen White proclaimed at the dawn of the Adventist movement: “Today in every land there are those who are honest in heart, and upon these the light of heaven is shining. If they continue faithful in following that which they understand to be duty, they will be given increased light, until, like Naaman of old, they will be constrained to acknowledge that ‘there is no God in all the earth,’ save the living God, the Creator.”¹¹Let this question remain pending because answering it is not a goal of this article. Instead, after considering the global tendencies in the postmodern religious world, let us see some general perspectives that are quite realistic to cope with, even for the church with 2.7 percent of all Protestants. These may be viewed more like a program declaration.

The application of this inspired truth in the postmodern world is direct and critical. God’s light shines everywhere, and there are many who are ready to accept it. Adventists do not need to question the fullness of God’s truth given to them. Under present conditions they should accept the responsibility to share given truth with others in a dialogue. A dialogue form of communication assumes a deep respect and tolerance for the opinion of another party. To accept that opinion if it obviously contradicts biblical truth is not necessary. But misunderstanding or fla­grant delusion should not stop Adventists from communion, communication, and cooperation with other believers.

Secondly, cooperation should become a moving, integrating factor to draw Adventists closer to other Protestants. Expanding upon Ellen White’s statement in Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, we can say, there is no believer, no denomination that is perfect in every habit and thought. One must learn of another. Therefore God wants different denominations to mingle together, to be one in judgment, one in purpose. Then the union that there is in Christ will be exemplified.¹²

Being one of the youngest of Protestant churches, our mission­ary activity started much later than other churches, such as Baptists and Pentecostals. Perhaps that is why we have to cooperate with other Protestants in order to learn from them if we need to and to share our knowledge if we can.

Thirdly, we often quote inspired words about the best method of doing the mission: “Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me.’ ”¹³ How can this counsel be applied practically to meet the challenges of those global trends specified above?

Starting with Christianity’s growth in the Southern Hemisphere, we have to remember that the growth covers the poorest section of people, those who are not able to get proper (if any at all) educa­tion, medical care, social support, or welfare. Very often church communities become an alternative society for people in countries where government is not able to solve numerous problems. Jesus Christ is presented as an incarnation of divine power to overcome evil spirits; witchcraft; spells; and the demons of illness, poverty, and immorality. He gives spiritual and physical healing through the preaching of the new Christianity. That is why hundreds of thousands of people fervently believe in Jesus but understand Him according to their tradi­tion as a great healer. Not more.

Here Adventists can offer an alterna­tive perspective of Jesus Christ and life perspective in general using Adventist hospitals, Adventist educational centers, and Adventist Development and Relief Agency programs. These means of evan­gelism are long-term tools in comparison with an evangelistic series when the result is expected after nine weeks of preaching. But they become permanent sources of true light for months and years and help establish local springs of living water through those people who attend the institutions daily and become regular customers, then friends, and then independent light bearers.

As for the Muslim population, its main problem is labor migration. In Russia, Muslims comprise 20 million, or 14 percent of the total Russian popula­tion. By the year 2030, this figure will increase to 19 percent.¹⁴ The majority of these migrants are males who come to earn money and support their families back home in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, or Kyrgyzstan. Their first and utmost need is to pass a state Russian language exam in order to get proper documents. Some local authorities develop social programs (e.g., in Moscow and Saint Petersburg). Regional mosques and muftiyats¹⁵ try to support those migrants and provide some training. But the load is much heavier than one party is able to carry. This is a good opportunity for Adventist specialists to offer their qualifications and start paving a road for further coop­eration and dialogue on spiritual matters. Baptist and Pentecostal churches in Moscow have already been doing that for several years. They organize language and computer training programs and provide legal services and consultations. One Baptist church launched a whole program called Mission Is at the Door. It also educates church members about Islam and Muslims to help them get rid of innumerous superstitions widely spread among Christians that block their mission among Muslims.

Likewise, as Adventists, we face challenges in communication and reaching out in large areas of the world where Buddhism and Hinduism are the religions of the majority of people. Our pluralistic world presents many challenges to Adventists. Some of them look very serious and might require great intellectual, human, and financial resources to meet them. At the same time, the worldview of postmodernity suggests large advantages, which, if used wisely, can lead to astonishing results. The Seventh-day Adventist Church as an organization has all of the necessary resources to cope with present circumstances and fulfill its mission. “ What is impossible from a human perspective is possible with God’ ” (Luke 18:27, NLT).