I’m currently writing a talk on “Hope for the Next Generation in World Evangelization” for over 700 U.S. leaders at a Lausanne Consultation in Orlando. There’s much that gives me hope, but let me start by some encouraging things we’re seeing in just a small slice of the U.S. Church — InterVarsity. We’ve had an explosion in evangelism over the last 5 years, so we just launched a new follow-up curriculum called “Launch”. And here are some encouraging statistics:
- More students have become Christians than during any 5-year period in our 70-year history
- There are 11,767 non-Christians participating in our IV chapters, which a 133% increase in 10 years
- The number of students checking out Christianity in our “Groups Investigating God” grew 27% last year
- The number of students participating in cross-cultural missions projects (e.g. Katrina Relief, Inner-City Chicago, Cairo Urban Trek, East Asia lingua-cultural projects, etc.) each year is more than double the number in the 1990s
And I haven’t even mentioned Urbana ‘09, and the tens of thousands of students who have caught a vision to serve God in impacting this world. There’s a lot to be hopeful about!
Lastly, without going into too much detail about my talk, there are 3 significant contributions (there’s actually more, but I’m going to limit myself to be brief here) that I believe the next generation can make in global missions — Global Engagement, Communal Collaboration, and Entrpreneurial Action. I’ll leave it to your imagination to discern where I’m going to head with each of those topics!
C
Here are a few encouraging statistics:
1. More students have become Christians in the last five years than during any 5 year period in our 70 year history
2. Conversions have grown – 18% for one year; 23% for two; 68% for 5 years
3. 11,767 non-christians are participating in our chapters – 133% growth in 10 years
4. 2,642 new believers last year – 1390 new believers fall semester this year
5. Number of non-Christians in GIGs grew 27% last year
