Christian coup: Africa set to take over Christianity from Europe

By Caleb Campos —

In sub-Saharan Africa, rampaging jihadists are killing thousands of Christians, burning churches, kidnapping girls, displacing entire villages — and yet Christianity is NOT EVEN CLOSE to being stamped out.

To the contrary, sub-Saharan Africa is projected to the world center of Christianity by the year 2050, dethroning Europe AND America. Pew Research predicts 1.1B Christians in the more than 45 countries south of the Sahara Desert. That’s a growth leap of 131% from 2010.

This does not mean we can be unconcerned about the ongoing mayhem being produced by Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, which almost daily are trying to institute their idealized utopia of Islamic society by killing infidels.

What it does mean:

• Christianity is not the white man’s religion.
• Africa may become the largest missionary sender region of the world.
• “The West” can stop treating African Christians patronizingly. They get out their notebooks and take notes.

The continent’s most populous nation, Nigeria, is instructive to understand what happened. Samuel Ajayi Crowther –– taken as a slave but intercepted and set free by the British Royal Navy — became Africa’s first Anglican bishop. He translated the Bible into Yoruba, which was spoken also by neighboring Benin and Togo.

The faith spread rapidly inland via recently freed and returned slaves. Contrary to atheists who say Christianity was forced on people of color, the evangelization of Africa was genuinely a case of how God turned something evil into something good.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Nigerians put their own imprint on Christianity. Dumping the staid style of the European worship, they incorporate drums, lively music and exuberant worship.

Then in 1918, Sophia Odunlami Ajayi rose from being a humble schoolteacher to national prominence when she miraculously survived the Spanish influenza and spread the message that people should rely on prayer and rain water to be be cured.

News of healings sparked a surge of pentecostalism and the Aladura (“Prayer People”) movement which spread the Gospel like wildfire.

In 1930 a former steamroller operator named Joseph Aya Babalola began preaching with nothing more than his Bible, a handbell and a bottle of water. Of the Oke-Oye revival, church histories report mass conversions, dramatic healings and deliverances and burning of idols and good-luck charms.

The native Redeemed Christian Church of God has spread from just 40 churches in 1980 to 400 countries, including some of the fastest-growing churches in the United Kingdom.

Christianity is not just surging in Nigeria; it is surging in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has well over 100 million Christians. Nigerian, Kenyan, Ugandan and Ghanaian churches are sending missionaries to Europe, North America, Latin America and the Middle East.

So while persecution is intense, particularly in the Sahel desert strip from Senegal to Sudan, the fierce opposition is doing little to slow down Christianity. High fertility, widespread religious commitment, vibrant churches and expanding indigenous missionary movements are the real story.

Related content: Revival emanating from India, unstoppable Chinese missionaries, Brazil emerges as Christian powerhouse. Sources: Off the Kirb, others.