Here is the latest discussion on global statistics from Justin Long in his post COUNTING MISSIONARIES published on June 3, 2020:
Globally: 425,000 missionaries (Anglican, Independent, Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic)
Total in World A countries: 11,940 (3%) [World A: <50% evangelized)]
Total in World B countries: 87,000 (20%) [World B: >=50% evangelized, <60% Christian]
Total in World C countries: 326,060 (77%) [World C: >=60% Christian, of any tradition]
From the summary:
2,000 years after Christ, somewhere around 3% or less of all missionary workers are deployed amongst those who have very little chance to hear (a factor in why they have little chance to hear), while three-quarters of missionaries work in places that are over-saturated Christian countries (albeit perhaps of a different tradition than the missionaries in question). While I do not doubt that places like Germany and England and France likely need evangelistic effort, this “out of balance” situation seems to me to continue to be one in need of reformation.
Read the whole thing.
1 comment:
Before grappling with these statistics I find myself compelled to ask a few questions:
1) What definition of the word "missionary" is being used by Justin Long in this research.
2) Are the missionaries from third world countries being counted, including those who belong to no formal mission agency and who may or may not call themselves "missionaries"? I think here of the Filipino missionary movement, the Back to Jerusalem movement, the Nigerian missionary movement, the Malagasy missionary movement, and other such groups of missionaries. 3) How would someone even go about counting such groups missionaries?
4) What about the Indian pastor who moves from his part of India where there are many Christians, to an unreached area of Idia - for the purpose of reaching that area - he leaves his culture and language and goes to an area with a completely different culture and language, and the travel to get there cost most of what he owns - is such a man also included in these stats?
- Sammy
Post a Comment