Church growth

"Christian expansion is serial not progressive."  KS Tan said these words were said at a recent CMS Conference and set me thinking.

What Dr Tan said is not unique.  He either quoted Andrew Walls or Sam George.  The notion is that Christianity has expanded to be one of the global faiths.  But unlike Islam and many others, Christianity did not preserve its geographical core.  Jerusalem was its original base.  Then Antioch.  Then Rome.  Then elsewhere.  In a recent era, most missionaries were from the "Western countries".  Now, it seems that the Christian faith is declining in those countries, while blooming in some African and Asian nations.

There is overall growth, but the center changes.  We should not think of Christianity as a Western religion anymore.  It was not, in the start, and it seems to be shifting again.

Do you think so?

Along with the geographic shift comes a culture shift.  Another angle that set me thinking came from viralchrist.com.  David Ryser wrote:

I came across a quote attributed most often to Rev. Sam Pascoe. It is a short version of the history of Christianity, and it goes like this: Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise.

Some of the students were only 18 or 19 years old--barely out of diapers--and I wanted them to understand and appreciate the import of the last line, so I clarified it by adding, “An enterprise. That’s a business.” After a few moments Martha, the youngest student in the class, raised her hand. I could not imagine what her question might be. I thought the little vignette was self-explanatory, and that I had performed it brilliantly. Nevertheless, I acknowledged Martha’s raised hand, “Yes, Martha.” She asked such a simple question, “A business? But isn’t it supposed to be a body?” I could not envision where this line of questioning was going, and the only response I could think of was, “Yes.” She continued, “But when a body becomes a business, isn’t that a prostitute?

So, what do you think?  Has the church become like a prostitute as it becomes more business-minded in the way it behaves?  How?  How has it not?

How do you think the church behaves?  How should she behave?  What did Jesus mean for the church to be?

How can the church correct its course if it is not on it?

Does the change in the serial nature of the way the church progresses affect its behaviour?  Should it?