If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing...(1 Cor. 13:2b)

TEN GLOBAL CHALLENGES

Challenge #1

• Secularism/Consumerism in the West: our addiction to "stuff" in the West, especially in North America, is accepted as normative in our baptized version of the "American Dream."
• The result is spiritual desensitization, apathy towards issues of justice and the poor, and lifestyle which reflects a "this life is all there is" worldview.

Challenge #2

• Widening gaps of rich & poor. While many surf the Internet on global information highways, 43% of the world does not have access to a telephone.
• World Christian Encyclopedia (2000 edition) cites other data which vividly portray global inequity:
• - 2.2 billion do not have access to safe water to drink
• - 2.0 billion live in poverty (under $2/day)
• - 700 million are shanty-town or slum dwellers
• - 1.1 billion live in extreme poverty (under $1/day)
• - 120 million are street children
• - 700 million children are sick
• - 30 million die annually from hunger (18 million of these are children under age 5)

Challenge #3

• Pluralism: the philosophical departure from Absolute Truth has diminished the missionary zeal of many and lays the foundation for global anarchy in the future.

Challenge #4

• Religious extremism and the intensification of other world religions
• Islam, Hinduism, and, to a lesser extent, Buddhism, all express extremism.
• Sometimes this is in reaction to the success of Christian missions.
• Other times it is religion attached to a new nationalism.

Challenge #5

• The Church under Persecution: although there is "good news about injustice", the fact millions of Christians suffer for their faith is never good news.

Challenge #6

• Sacrifice: "To live more simply that others may simply live"
• The lifestyle comfort level of most of the most educated and affluent Christians makes the sacrifice necessary to take the Gospel to unreached people virtually impossible for them.

Challenge #7

• Converts, Not Disciples: "The Church is miles wide & inches deep"
• The tremendous numerical growth of the Church belies the fact that many are converts, not disciples.
• Millions make the evangelical profession of faith, but few grow into the ongoing life-change as a daily follower of Christ.

Challenge #8

• Deployment: in spite of the increases of non-Western missionaries, the statistical evidence cites that 98% of all foreign missionaries are working among existing churches, with 2% working where no church exists.

The rest work where the Church already has been planted.

Challenge #9

• A younger world: almost half of the world is under the age of 25
• The challenge of ministry to youth will become increasingly significant, especially given the aging of the Western cultures and countries, and the disregard for youth amongst the non-Western cultures and countries.

Challenge #10

• Globalization: in spite of the positive potential of a global culture, the "Coca-colanization" of the world means many harmful exports as well...
• - from the world's most popular TV show - "Baywatch"
• - to the materialistic world view of those doing the exportation.