There are a couple of churches you can find in Madison that have been converted from their original purpose and are now a restaurant or have been remodeled into apartments. In Andrew Walls’ hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, church after church is now a store, a night club or a drinking hall. "No one needs them anymore as churches," he says.
One church, converted to a night club called "Soul," has just been given a license as a casino. "It’s too late for revival," he says. "The culture is now non-Christian and their god is now mammon."
Walls is more interested in the trend than many, he is the founder and director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World at the University of Edinburgh, and one of the world’s leading missiologists. He was the plenary speaker for last night’s third evening session of the What Next conference, marking the bicentennial of the Haystack Prayer meeting, which launched the modern missions movement in North America. Last night’s sessions and today’s activity have moved to High Point Church at 7702 Old Sauk Road.
Walls discussed the 1910 Edinburgh Conference that brought together missions leaders from around the world, and ended with an ambitious commitment by the European and American delegates to see the rest of the world evangelized. The plans got sidetracked by World War I. Missionary efforts started to build again after World War II. But God himself was bringing about unexpected changes in remote locations. Korea has become an extraordinary source of churches and missionaries. Northeast India is now about 90 percent Christian. The rapid growth of the Christian church in China is a remarkable story and totally unexpected. Africa’s Christian population started out around 10 million a century ago and was estimated at around 350 million by the end of the 20th century.
"Non-western Christian may have a special role in the re-evangelization of the west," Walls says. He observed that for all but the last part of the last five centuries Europeans set out for other parts of the world by the millions. Some were spreading the Gospel but most were looking for a better life. They had an enormous impact as they created new nations for themselves in the western and southern hemispheres. But their hegemony over the rest of the world peaked in the 20th century.
The great European out-migration ended as the European empires were dismantled. And then it went into reverse. People from the non-western world have been migrating in increasing numbers to the west. The west may not want them but it needs them to maintain its standard of living. Many of those who are coming to the west are bringing their vibrant Christianity with them.
While Christianity seems to be fading fast in Scotland and the rest of Europe, it’s thriving in Africa, Asia, and especially the Hispanic world. "Christianity is already predominantly a non-western religion and seems ready to become more so," he says. "The lands that were once at the center are now at the margins. The lands that were at the margins are now at the heart of the faith."
The new Christian world has no single center, Wells says. It has many. Missionaries will be from everywhere and they will be called to go anywhere. As for western Christians, he says, "We must still be able to give but we also must be ready to receive."