What is the future of Christianity?

If you look at statistical trends, the answer is mixed.

There are hopeful signs, especially for Spirit-filled believers. Gina Zurlo, co-director of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Center for the Study of Global Christianity, acknowledges the rapid advancement of Pentecostalism.

“Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity is the fastest growing segment of World Christianity today,” Zurlo writes in Global Christianity.

That segment includes classical Pentecostals (such as the Assemblies of God), charismatics within historic churches, and independent charismatics. According to Zurlo, these groups share an interest in Spirit baptism, spiritual gifts, and spiritual experiences.

During the 20th century, Spirit-filled Christianity grew by 6.3% annually. As Zurlo notes, this is four times the growth rate of both Christianity overall and the global population.

The trend has slowed since 2000. Nevertheless, Zurlo predicts that from 2020–50, Pentecostal and charismatic movements will still grow twice as fast as both the Christian and world populations.

Most of the growth over the past century took place in the global South. Africans now constitute 35.7% of all Spirit-filled Christians, Latin Americans 30.3%, and Asians 19.5%, according to Zurlo. This is cause for rejoicing.

Unfortunately, there are worrisome statistical trends, too, especially the demographic expansion of Islam and the continuing decline of Christian affiliation in the U.S.

According to the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, Muslims will comprise 29.7% of the world’s population by 2050, up from 23.2% in 2010. Meanwhile, researchers expect Christianity to remain static at 31.4%. From a demographic perspective, it is unclear which religion will claim a plurality at mid-century.

Closer to home, the number of Americans identifying as Christian continues to plummet. In 2007, 78% of Americans claimed Christian affiliation, compared to 63% in 2021, Pew Research Center reports.

These losses do not represent conversions to other religions. Increasingly, Americans are disaffiliating from religion entirely. From 2007–21, the religiously unaffiliated — or “nones” — nearly doubled their share of the U.S. population, rising from 16% to 29%.

So, what is the future of Christianity?

The answer cannot come from statistical trends, which point in contradictory directions. God’s people must look instead to scriptural truths.

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Acts 1:8 is a key verse for understanding Christianity’s future. Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Notice the future tense of the verbs. This is a promise, not just a prediction. The Holy Spirit would come, and Spirit-filled believers would go.

Acts 2 tells the story of how Jesus started fulfilling that promise. It is more than a history lesson, however. Together with the entire Book of Acts, this passage offers a paradigm for church health in any time, at any place, among any culture.

That paradigm consists of three elements: charismatic power, Christ-centered proclamation, and community practices.

Charismatic Power

My predecessor, George O. Wood, preached a memorable sermon titled “How to Be a Failure.” It was based on the feeding of the 5,000, a miracle described in all four Gospels. To be a failure, you need only look at the size of the task, focus on how little you have, and leave God out of the picture.

Imagine the Jerusalem believers prior to the Day of Pentecost. Jesus had given them the great task of world evangelism (Acts 1:8), but there were only 120 of them (1:15), many on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. Worse, their leader, Peter, had abandoned Jesus after His arrest (Luke 22:54–62), and hidden in fear with the other apostles following the Crucifixion (John 20:19).

Yet in Acts 2 we unexpectedly find Peter at the head of the Eleven boldly proclaiming the gospel to the masses. What had changed?

On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit entered the picture (2:1–13).

The Holy Spirit is the force multiplier in missions. Indeed, He is the Prime Missionary, always leading the Church onward to break ground and sow the seeds of the gospel. Notice the Spirit’s crucial role in moving the Church outward from Jerusalem into Samaria (Acts 8:14–17), Gentile Caesarea (10:44–46), and Ephesus in Asia Minor (19:1–6).

God’s Spirit ordered the steps of early missionaries. He guided Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29) and Peter to Cornelius (10:19; 11:12). The Spirit commissioned Barnabas and Paul at Antioch (13:2). And He directed Paul and his companions in their travels (13:4; 16:6–7). Finally, the Spirit compelled Paul to go to Jerusalem (20:22).

When we think about Pentecostal power, dramatic displays might come to mind. Certainly those were present on the Day of Pentecost. There was “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind,” and “tongues of fire” rested on each believer (Acts 2:2–3). Afterward, the apostles performed “many wonders and signs” (2:43).

Without the Spirit,
our task is simply
too large and our
resources too small.

But in Acts 2, speech became the primary expression of power. “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (2:4).

In addition to tongues of praise (Acts 2:4,11), Luke describes Christ-centered preaching (2:14,36) and the gift of prophecy (2:17–18) as results of Spirit baptism.

This connection between Spirit and speech continues throughout Acts. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said … ” (4:8) summarizes the pattern that follows (4:31; 6:10; 7:55; 11:28; 13:9).

No wonder our Statement of Fundamental Truths links Spirit baptism to “the enduement of power for life and service, the bestowment of the gifts and their uses in the work of the ministry” (Article 7). And the recurrence of tongues at crucial moments in Luke’s narrative, whether explicit or implicit (Acts 2:4; 8:17; 10:44–46; 19:6), is the reason we say tongues is “the initial physical sign” of baptism in the Holy Spirit (Article 8).

Have you ever wondered why God chose tongues as evidence of Spirit baptism? Acts 2:11 supplies the answer. When Jewish pilgrims from around the world heard the believers speaking in tongues, they said, “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.” As a sign, tongues point to “the ends of the earth” (1:8), to the nations Christ commands us to disciple (Matthew 28:19).

The larger question is why Acts 2 links the Spirit and speech (including preaching and prophecy) so closely. The answer seems to be that God appeals to us on the basis of love and persuasion rather than authority and force. Verse 40 describes the conclusion of Peter’s sermon this way: “He pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’” God wants us to receive Jesus Christ willingly.

God invites people into relationship with Him; He doesn’t impose a relationship on them.

If the Spirit is the force multiplier in missions, how do we receive Him? Jesus told His disciples, “Wait for the gift my Father promised” (Acts 1:4). The disciples didn’t interpret this as an excuse for passivity, however, but as an occasion for prayer. “They all joined together constantly in prayer” (1:14).

We must pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our ministries, and for people in our churches to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Even Jesus, the Word of God Incarnate (John 1:14), relied on the Holy Spirit as the driving force of His ministry.

The Spirit descended upon Jesus during His baptism in the Jordan (Luke 3:22), drove Him into the wilderness to confront the devil (4:1–2), anointed Him to proclaim the gospel to the poor (4:18), and inspired His joyful praise (10:21).

If Jesus needed the Spirit to accomplish the mission the Father gave Him, how much more do we need the Spirit to accomplish the mission Christ has given us? Without the Spirit, our task is simply too large and our resources too small.

Christ-Centered Proclamation

In Acts 2, charismatic power (verses 1–13) results immediately in Christ-centered proclamation (verses 14–40). This is the purpose of Spirit baptism in Acts. Spiritual immersion empowers ordinary believers to serve as Christ’s witnesses “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

What should we say? Acts 2:14–40 records Peter’s speech to his Jerusalem audience. This sermon provides a pattern for sharing the gospel. Spirit-empowered gospel proclamation should consider context and content, and call for a response.

No sermon takes place in a vacuum. Each message is for a particular people at a particular time and place. This context does not change the gospel, but it does influence the presentation.

Take the context of Peter’s sermon. The Holy Spirit fell on believers, a crowd gathered, and people asked, “What does this mean?” (verse 12). A few even accused the disciples of drunkenness (verse 13).

Peter started his sermon by answering the question and rebutting the accusation (verses 14–16). At the end of his sermon, Peter addressed another question: “What shall we do?” (verse 37).

Attentiveness to context — including honest questions and hostile accusations — keeps gospel proclamation grounded in the real world of listeners. It establishes a point of contact — a shared agreement with which we can start — even when the message ends with a challenge.

Appropriate contextualization is a hallmark of the speeches in Acts. When Peter or Paul spoke to fellow Jews, they started with Scripture. Compare Acts 2:16–43 and 13:13–52, for example. Both sermons are rich with Old Testament citations.

Yet when he preached to the Athenians (Acts 17:22–31), Paul used a different starting point. Because these people did not acknowledge biblical authority and truth, Paul started with their religiosity, which included worship of an unknown god. Paul even cited Greek poets to make his points.

Wherever we start our gospel proclamation, we must lead hearers to Christ. He is the content of our message.

In Acts 2, Peter pointed to Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Through His death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven, Christ inaugurated the kingdom of God and poured out the Holy Spirit. Peter said, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (verse 36).

Although Paul started with the Athenians’ spiritual experience in Acts 17, he still made Jesus the center of his message. Paul said God “has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead” (verse 31).

Whether we are proclaiming the gospel to the biblical literate or functionally pagan, our job is pointing them to Jesus. He is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and human desire. Wherever people start their spiritual journey, Christ is the destination.

Spirit-filled believers speak wherever there are people who need
to hear the gospel, not just in church settings.

Finally, gospel proclamation should include a call for response. Upon hearing Peter’s Pentecost sermon, people asked, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). Peter had a response ready: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (2:38).

Like Peter, we should provide a clear next step. We want people to draw closer to God, and our speech should shine a light on the path.

Of course, a sanctuary isn’t the only place proclamation can happen, and credentialed ministers aren’t the only ones who can spread the good news of Jesus. Preaching weekly to a gathering of congregants is important, but it’s not the only form of Christ-centered proclamation.

In fact, Acts often portrays Spirit-filled believers proclaiming the gospel in non-church settings, both public and private.

Peter addressed a crowd of non-Christians on the Day of Pentecost, in the vicinity of the temple. He did so again sometime later at Solomon’s Colonnade (3:11). Following his arrest, Peter proclaimed Christ before the Sanhedrin (4:5–12; 5:27–32), as did Stephen (6:15–7:53). Furthermore, Peter evangelized the household of Cornelius (10:25–43).

Philip spoke publicly to Samaritan crowds (Acts 8:5,12) and privately to the Ethiopian eunuch (8:30–39).

Paul preached Christ in the synagogues of Damascus (Acts 9:20) after his conversion, establishing a pattern for the remainder of his ministry (13:5,13–41; 14:1; 17:2–3,10; 18:4,19; 19:8).

However, Paul also spoke in a variety of other forums, such as the city gates (Acts 14:13–17), the open air by a river (16:13–15), a jailer’s home (16:30–34), in the marketplace (17:17), at a meeting of the Areopagus (17:19–31), before the Sanhedrin (23:1–6), to political leaders in Caesarea (24:1–26), and from his home while under house arrest (28:30–31).

I cite these examples to make a simple point: Spirit-filled believers speak wherever there are people who need to hear the gospel, not just in church settings.

Christ-centered proclamation doesn’t have to be a monologue in which a speaker actively talks and an audience passively listens. When believers speak in Acts, it is often in dialogue with nonbelievers.

For example, Peter’s Pentecost sermon is a response to questions or challenges from the audience (Acts 2:12,37), as is his reply to the Sanhedrin (4:7; 5:28). The same is true of Stephen’s speech (7:1).

Paul’s ministry often involved dialogue — literally. Acts repeatedly portrays Paul reasoning with people about the gospel (17:2,17; 18:4,19; 19:8). The Greek word in these passages is dialegomai, from which we get the English word dialogue.

Just as Spirit-filled believers speak wherever there are people who need to hear the gospel, they also speak in ways that are most useful to persuading others to believe. A sermon can be an effective way to share the gospel, but so can an earnest conversation. Christ-centered proclamation is any form of speaking, in any venue, to any person, where Christ is the content of the conversation.

Community Practices

In Acts 2, charismatic power (verses 1–13) translates into Christ-centered proclamation (verses 14–40). These lead to community practices (verses 41–47) — that is, the Church.

Today, many people like Jesus but dislike the Church. Given the failures of some high-profile church leaders, this sentiment isn’t surprising. The Church needs to do a better job of representing Christ to the world.

What we cannot do is give up on the community of believers. Jesus is not only saving individuals, but He is also forming a community. He is the Head, and individual believers are members of the Body (1 Corinthians 12:12–31). We really do need one another.

Certainly the new believers on the Day of Pentecost felt they needed community. The response to Peter’s sermon was astounding: “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41).

According to our most recent statistics, 86.3% of U.S. Assemblies of God churches report fewer than 200 people in weekly major worship service attendance. Only 1.6% of U.S. AG churches have more than 1,000.

Can you imagine your church growing from 120 (Acts 1:15) to 3,000 in one day? Although most pastors would likely be thrilled, assimilating so many newcomers at once would be challenging.

How did the Jerusalem church manage this rapid growth?

Acts 2:42 says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

The Church instituted four common practices that shaped the authenticity of each member’s faith, as well as the solidarity everyone felt for one another:

1. Learning. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.”

When I became Assemblies of God general superintendent, I wanted our Fellowship to excel in Bible engagement. One fruit of that desire is the Bible Engagement Project. This free curriculum is designed to help congregants of all ages interact with Scripture and apply it to their lives.

There are other ways of learning about the Bible, of course, including personal study, Sunday School, and expository sermons. We should prioritize all these things, understanding the importance of allowing the Word of God to form every aspect of our lives.

2. Sharing. “They devoted themselves … to fellowship.”

We tend to think of fellowship as time together before or after a worship service, enjoying coffee and donuts in the foyer or a meal in the fellowship hall. We assume fellowship simply means being with people.

In the Jerusalem church, fellowship included extending generosity to the poor. The Greek word for fellowship in Acts 2:42 is koinonia. Two verses later, Luke uses the adjective koinos (translated “in common”). “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” (verses 44–45).

The whole Church must wholeheartedly take the whole gospel to
the whole world.

Acts 5:4 indicates this was a voluntary choice made by individual believers. It’s not clear whether other New Testament congregations followed this example. What is clear is sacrificial generosity toward those in need is a gospel virtue.

3. Remembering. “They devoted themselves … to the breaking of bread.”

Breaking bread can refer to ordinary meals (Luke 9:16; 24:30,35; Acts 2:46; 27:35) or the Lord’s Supper, which believers celebrated when they gathered for worship (Luke 22:19–20; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:23–26).

First Corinthians 11:17–34 seems to indicate the Lord’s Supper was part of an ordinary meal believers shared when they worshipped together. This may be what Jude 12 meant by “love feasts.”

As an ordinance, breaking bread involves remembering and proclaiming the gospel (1 Corinthians 11:23–26).

By breaking bread, we remind ourselves Christ is our foundation. And this takes place in a community that shares its resources with one another.

In the Church, we feed both body and soul.

4. Worshipping. “They devoted themselves … to prayer,” or more literally in Greek, “the prayers.”

During Jesus’ day, Jews observed set times of prayer throughout the day, a practice the Jerusalem church continued. These were corporate times of prayer. Christians should worship individually, but we must also worship together.

Notice all the plural pronouns throughout this passage: “they” (Acts 2:42,45,46), “everyone” (verse 43), and “all” (verse 44). Although we come to faith in Christ individually, we live out our Christian faith communally. Each of us is a part of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27).

The pandemic taught us the incalculable value of community. Isolated from human contact, watching the world through a screen, many rediscovered the need for face-to-face relationships.

You probably remember the joy of reuniting with friends the first Sunday your church reopened. We should seek to live our lives as Christians in healthy communities that continually produce that kind of joy.

All In

Loren Triplett, executive director of AG World Missions from 1989–97, often said, “You don’t measure yourself by your success, but you measure yourself against the unfinished task.”

As Pentecostals, we celebrate the phenomenal growth of the Church over the past 123 years, especially in the global South. Luke wrote, “The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). Likewise, we give God the glory for the hundreds of millions who have come to faith through the ministries of Spirit-filled believers.

But we must also commit anew to doing “the greatest evangelism that the world has ever seen,” as delegates to the Second General Council put it in 1914.

The unfinished task is huge. If 31.4% of the world’s population is Christian, that means 68.6% is not. Islam is growing quickly. And in North America, Christianity is declining rapidly.

We have our work cut out for us.

To accomplish what God is calling us to do, we must go all in. The whole Church must wholeheartedly take the whole gospel to the whole world.

Whole Church. Pastors, evangelists and missionaries play important roles in the spread of the gospel, but all Christians should do their part. The Pareto Principle must give way to the Pentecost Principle. We don’t need 20% of workers doing 80% of the work. We need 100% of Spirit-filled believers — regardless of sex, age, social status, and race or ethnicity (Acts 2:17–18) — doing the work.

Wholeheartedly. I love this verse from William Pierson Merrill’s hymn, “Rise Up, O Church of God”:

Rise up, O Church of God!
Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of kings.

The Acts 2 Church remained devoted to the things of God. Are we all in?

Whole gospel. Jesus is “Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36). He commands our obedience in all areas of life. Beyond that, He fulfills the promises of God and deepest desires of the human heart. When proclaiming the good news, we should make sure the message touches on every aspect of our hearers’ existence.

Whole world. Finally, we must remember those who have yet to hear. We are witnesses of Christ “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). He has poured out the Spirit on “all people” (2:17). The promise of the Father is “for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call” (2:39). Our urgent, unfinished task is to reach them.

I end where I began, with a question: What is the future of Christianity?

Our answer should focus on inputs, rather than outputs — on faithful service, not numerical growth. As Paul put it, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6).

If we receive the Spirit’s power, proclaim Christ’s message, and practice authentic Christian community, we have done all we can. The rest is in God’s hands.

The future, then, is Pentecostal. All we have to do is keep in step with the Holy Spirit, who is leading us there.

This article appears in the Summer 2023 issue of Influence magazine.