Growing faith

SIR - David Baldock in his ‘Religion’ column has every right to be optimistic about the Christian religion - it is growing faster than ever.

For instance, in 1900, there were approximately 10 million Christians in Africa. By 2000, there were 360 million. By 2025, conservative estimates see that number rising to 633 million. Those same estimates put the number of Christians in South America in 2025 at 640 million, and in Asia at 460 million.

By the middle of this century, there will be three billion Christians in the world. About one third of the world’s population! Christianity is growing by more than 25 million per year - more than the population of Australia!

Some are big churches, for example Yonggi Cho’s church in Seoul (Korea) has a membership of 773,000, with an average Sunday attendance of 253,000; and some have only a handful. One of the smaller (!) house church networks in southern China has an attendance of 400,000, larger networks number several million!

So, why not in Britain at present? Maybe, like the rest of the world where it is growing fast, we need to use the original principles and methods.

Jesus was aged 30 and his disciples in their 20s. His example and teaching attracted that generation age group. He taught that God seeks those who worship in ‘spirit and truth’; those who realise that life needs more than just materialistic things - those who want reality!; that God is like a good father, and wants to have a real relationship with every one of us - whoever we are!

Jesus told his followers to ‘GO’ (not sit around wishing), and he would be with and work alongside them, wherever they went!

It works in modern Africa, South America and Asia - so why not in modern Britain?

Paul Prosser

Woolbrook Rise, Sidmouth