Lausanne Global Analysis · May 2016
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Welcome to the May issue of Lausanne Global Analysis. We look forward to your feedback on it.
In this issue we focus on the spread of anti-conversion laws from India and the threat they pose to the religious freedom of minorities; the Paris climate change agreementand what it means for the evangelical church; Movement Day Global Cities 2016 which will take place in New York City on October 25-27; and the ageing church and its implications.
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May 2016 Issue Overview
David Taylor, Editor
David Taylor, Editor
The Spread of Anti-conversion Laws from India
Tehmina Arora
In spite of a rich tradition and legal framework supportive of freedom of conscience and the right to practise, profess, and propagate the religion of one’s choice, religious minorities in India find themselves frequent victims of religiously motivated violence.
Violence against minorities in India
Tehmina Arora
In spite of a rich tradition and legal framework supportive of freedom of conscience and the right to practise, profess, and propagate the religion of one’s choice, religious minorities in India find themselves frequent victims of religiously motivated violence.
Violence against minorities in India
In spite of a rich tradition and legal framework supportive of freedom of conscience and the right to practise, profess, and propagate the religion of one’s choice, religious minorities in India find themselves frequent victims of religiously motivated violence.
According to human rights groups, in 2015 there were over 160 incidents where Christians were targeted for their faith, with the highest number of incidents coming from Madhya Pradesh, followed by Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. The cases included physical assaults and threats and intimidation. In some instances, women reported being sexually assaulted and threatened.[1]
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there were over 630 communal incidents in January-October 2015. Communal violence in India registered a rise in incidents by 24%, and related deaths by 65%, in the first five months of 2015.[2]
In its annual report for 2015, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that since the 2014 general elections in India, religious minority communities have been subject to ‘derogatory comments by politicians linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’ and ‘numerous violent attacks and forced conversions by Hindu nationalist groups’ such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).[3]
Allegations of religious conversions
One of the primary causes of violence against the minority Christian population is the making of allegations of conversions by force and allurement. In a recent case,[4]members of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu extremist organisation, caught hold of a pastor and paraded him on a donkey in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with his head half shaven. They alleged that the pastor converted a man without his consent. Similarly, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, police arrested 13 people, including a blind couple, on January 14, 2016, for allegedly trying to convert a few residents by offering inducements or using force.[5]
While there are numerous such incidents that come to light each year, there is very little evidence to show that Christians have engaged in coercive practices to gain new converts. Asma Jahangir, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, noted in her report on India in 2011 that:
‘Even in the Indian states which have adopted laws on religious conversion there seem to be only few—if any—convictions for conversion by the use of force, inducement, or fraudulent means. In Orissa, for example, not a single infringement over the past ten years of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act 1967 could be cited or adduced by district officials and senior officials in the State Secretariat.’[6]
In spite of the absence of credible data to support laws restricting religious conversions in India, there are voices within the government which have called for a national law.[7] In April 2015, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the BJP called[8] for a national level anti-conversion law in response to reports of coercive reconversions to Hinduism and various attacks against members of religious communities.[9]
Legal restrictions
Similar laws have been enacted at the state or province level in Odisha (previously known as Orissa) in 1967, Madhya Pradesh (1968), Arunachal Pradesh (1978), Gujarat (2003), and Himachal Pradesh (2006). Euphemistically titled ‘Freedom of Religion Act’, they are commonly known as anti-conversions laws:
In 2002, the Tamil Nadu state assembly passed the Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Bill, which was repealed in 2004 after the defeat of the BJP-led coalition.
In 2006, the BJP-led government in Rajasthan passed a similar freedom of religion bill. However, assent of the President of India is still pending ten years after the bill was forwarded to him.
The BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also unsuccessfully sought to tighten existing laws the same year.
Basic features of the laws
These laws are very similar in content, and claim to prohibit conversions by force, fraud, and inducement or allurement. The Acts state that no person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means, nor shall any person abet any such conversion.
Punishments
The Acts carry penal provisions and punishments, generally ranging from up to a one-year imprisonment and a fine of up to 5,000 Indian rupees to up to three years imprisonment and a fine of up to 25,000 Indian rupees. The punishment is more stringent if there is evidence of conversion by force, fraud, or inducement among women, minors, and Dalits (formerly ‘untouchables’ as per India’s caste system), or Tribals. Failure to send notice to or seek permission from the district magistrate before converting or participating in a conversion ceremony also renders one liable for a fine under the Acts.
Effect of the laws
Reports from the various minority communities and human rights agencies reveal that these laws foster hostility against religious minority communities. In several states, prosecutions have been launched under the Freedom of Religion Acts against members of the minority Christian community. There have also been frequent attacks against the community by members of right-wing Hindu groups on the pretext of ‘forcible’ conversions.[10]
South Asia
In spite of the effect of these provisions, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar have also enacted similar laws, with Nepal going so far as to include them in the recently adopted constitution. A similar proposal was introduced in Sri Lanka, but was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2004.[11]
Nepal
Article 26 of the Constitution of Nepal, 2015 (2072), protects freedom of religion, stating: ‘(1) Each person shall be free to profess, practice, and preserve his/her religion according to his/her faith.’
However, section 26(3) of the constitution states that ‘no person shall act or make others act in a manner which is contrary to public health, decency, and morality, or behave or act or make others act to disturb public law and order situation, or convert a person of one religion to another religion, or disturb the religion of other people. Such an act shall be punishable by law.’
The General Code in Chapter 19 which deals with Decency/Etiquette (‘Adal’) states in Number 1.512:
‘No one shall propagate any religion in such manner as to undermine the religion of other nor shall cause other to convert his or her religion. If a person attempts to do such act, the person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of Three years, and if a person has already caused the conversion of other’s religion, the person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of Six years, and if such person is a foreign national, he or she shall also be deported from Nepal after the service of punishment by him or her.’
Bhutan
The Constitution of Bhutan in Article 7:4 states: ‘A Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. No person shall be compelled to belong to another faith by means of coercion or inducement.’
In furtherance to this provision, in 2011, the legislature amended the Penal Code. The newly introduced Section 463 (A) states that: ‘A defendant shall be guilty of the offense of compelling others to belong to another faith if the defendant uses coercion or other forms of inducement to cause the conversion of a person from one religion or faith to another.’
Section 5 (g) of the Religious Organizations Act of 2007 also states that ‘no Religious organizations shall compel any person to belong to another faith, by providing reward or inducement for a person to belong to another faith.’
Myanmar
The unofficial translation by the Chin Human Rights Organization of the Religious Conversion Law states:
’14. No one is allowed to apply for conversion to a new religion with the intent of insulting, degrading, destroying, or misusing any religion.
15. No one shall compel a person to change his/her religion through bonded debt, inducement, intimidation, undue influence, or pressure.’
The law also requires that the person wishing to convert should give the local authorities intimation of his/her conversion so that they can conduct an inquiry into it. The prospective converts would also be required to undertake special classes to understand the tenets of the religion.[12]
Pakistan
While Pakistan does not have anti-conversion laws, laws pertaining to blasphemy have a very similar effect on persons converting to religions other than Islam.[13]
Conclusion
A detailed analysis of these laws reveals that, far from promoting or protecting religious freedom, they have served to undermine the religious freedom guarantees under the Indian constitution and international law and the covenants to which India is a signatory.
Primarily motivated by a religious ideology, the anti-conversions laws fail to achieve the very purpose for which they have been enacted. On the contrary, they provide an opportunity for divisive forces to target the constitutionally protected rights of minority groups and pose a serious threat to the free practice and propagation of religious beliefs.
Furthermore, the laws fail to account for the agency of converts and treat them instead as passive recipients of external (and seemingly unwanted) pressures from ‘predatory’ convertors. They tend to treat all religious conversions as suspect and liable to investigation and prosecution.
The introduction of similar provisions in the other South Asian legal systems is a disturbing trend and requires the attention of the international community, as they stand in direct contrast to the rights and liberties guaranteed under international law.
This unchecked spreading of anti-conversions laws will affect the safety and security of local Christians wherever it occurs, as has been in the case in India.
Endnotes
[1] Data collated fromcowever, section 26(3) of the CC www.SpeakOutAgainstHate.Org.
[2] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Communal-violence-shows-24-jump-in-first-five-months-of-2015-shows-govt-data/articleshow/48167102.cms
[3] http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/India%202015.pdf
[4] http://www.christiantoday.co.in/article/pastor.humiliated.paraded.head.half.shaven.on.donkey.on.false.conversion.charges.in.u.p/17834.htm
[5] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/blind-couple-among-13-in-madhya-pradesh-held-for-conversion/
[6] UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir : addendum : mission to India, 26 January 2009, A/HRC/10/8/Add.3, http://www.refworld.org/docid/498ae8032.html, accessed 12 April 2016.
[7] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/forcible-conversions-religion-narendra-modi-ghar-wapsi/1/407628.html
[8] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/states-should-act-against-communal-incidents-rajnath/article7150757.ece
[9] https://www.sikh24.com/2015/11/05/indian-parliament-will-consider-criminalizing-religious-liberty/#.VrHoUk3UiUk
[10] Taking note of this trend, in its 2011 report, the USCIRF noted that: ‘The harassment and violence against religious minorities appears to be more pronounced in states that have adopted “Freedom of Religion” Acts or are considering such laws.’ The report further stated that: ‘These laws have led to few arrests and reportedly no convictions.’ According to the US State Department, between June 2009 and December 2010, approximately 27 arrests were made in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, but resulted in no convictions.
[11] http://www.csw.org.uk/2004/08/23/press/366/article.htm
[12] https://www.mnnonline.org/news/anti-conversion-laws-in-burma-a-nail-in-religious-freedoms-coffin/
[13] http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165485239/blasphemy-charges-on-the-rise-in-pakistan
Tehmina Arora is an advocate practicing in Delhi and serves as Senior Counsel, South Asia, for ADF International. This article is a revised version of her article that appeared in International Institute of Religious Freedom Report (Vol 1, no 2).
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According to human rights groups, in 2015 there were over 160 incidents where Christians were targeted for their faith, with the highest number of incidents coming from Madhya Pradesh, followed by Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. The cases included physical assaults and threats and intimidation. In some instances, women reported being sexually assaulted and threatened.[1]
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there were over 630 communal incidents in January-October 2015. Communal violence in India registered a rise in incidents by 24%, and related deaths by 65%, in the first five months of 2015.[2]
In its annual report for 2015, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that since the 2014 general elections in India, religious minority communities have been subject to ‘derogatory comments by politicians linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’ and ‘numerous violent attacks and forced conversions by Hindu nationalist groups’ such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).[3]
Allegations of religious conversions
One of the primary causes of violence against the minority Christian population is the making of allegations of conversions by force and allurement. In a recent case,[4]members of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu extremist organisation, caught hold of a pastor and paraded him on a donkey in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with his head half shaven. They alleged that the pastor converted a man without his consent. Similarly, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, police arrested 13 people, including a blind couple, on January 14, 2016, for allegedly trying to convert a few residents by offering inducements or using force.[5]
While there are numerous such incidents that come to light each year, there is very little evidence to show that Christians have engaged in coercive practices to gain new converts. Asma Jahangir, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, noted in her report on India in 2011 that:
‘Even in the Indian states which have adopted laws on religious conversion there seem to be only few—if any—convictions for conversion by the use of force, inducement, or fraudulent means. In Orissa, for example, not a single infringement over the past ten years of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act 1967 could be cited or adduced by district officials and senior officials in the State Secretariat.’[6]
In spite of the absence of credible data to support laws restricting religious conversions in India, there are voices within the government which have called for a national law.[7] In April 2015, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the BJP called[8] for a national level anti-conversion law in response to reports of coercive reconversions to Hinduism and various attacks against members of religious communities.[9]
Legal restrictions
Similar laws have been enacted at the state or province level in Odisha (previously known as Orissa) in 1967, Madhya Pradesh (1968), Arunachal Pradesh (1978), Gujarat (2003), and Himachal Pradesh (2006). Euphemistically titled ‘Freedom of Religion Act’, they are commonly known as anti-conversions laws:
In 2002, the Tamil Nadu state assembly passed the Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Bill, which was repealed in 2004 after the defeat of the BJP-led coalition.
In 2006, the BJP-led government in Rajasthan passed a similar freedom of religion bill. However, assent of the President of India is still pending ten years after the bill was forwarded to him.
The BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also unsuccessfully sought to tighten existing laws the same year.
Basic features of the laws
These laws are very similar in content, and claim to prohibit conversions by force, fraud, and inducement or allurement. The Acts state that no person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means, nor shall any person abet any such conversion.
Punishments
The Acts carry penal provisions and punishments, generally ranging from up to a one-year imprisonment and a fine of up to 5,000 Indian rupees to up to three years imprisonment and a fine of up to 25,000 Indian rupees. The punishment is more stringent if there is evidence of conversion by force, fraud, or inducement among women, minors, and Dalits (formerly ‘untouchables’ as per India’s caste system), or Tribals. Failure to send notice to or seek permission from the district magistrate before converting or participating in a conversion ceremony also renders one liable for a fine under the Acts.
Effect of the laws
Reports from the various minority communities and human rights agencies reveal that these laws foster hostility against religious minority communities. In several states, prosecutions have been launched under the Freedom of Religion Acts against members of the minority Christian community. There have also been frequent attacks against the community by members of right-wing Hindu groups on the pretext of ‘forcible’ conversions.[10]
South Asia
In spite of the effect of these provisions, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar have also enacted similar laws, with Nepal going so far as to include them in the recently adopted constitution. A similar proposal was introduced in Sri Lanka, but was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2004.[11]
Nepal
Article 26 of the Constitution of Nepal, 2015 (2072), protects freedom of religion, stating: ‘(1) Each person shall be free to profess, practice, and preserve his/her religion according to his/her faith.’
However, section 26(3) of the constitution states that ‘no person shall act or make others act in a manner which is contrary to public health, decency, and morality, or behave or act or make others act to disturb public law and order situation, or convert a person of one religion to another religion, or disturb the religion of other people. Such an act shall be punishable by law.’
The General Code in Chapter 19 which deals with Decency/Etiquette (‘Adal’) states in Number 1.512:
‘No one shall propagate any religion in such manner as to undermine the religion of other nor shall cause other to convert his or her religion. If a person attempts to do such act, the person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of Three years, and if a person has already caused the conversion of other’s religion, the person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of Six years, and if such person is a foreign national, he or she shall also be deported from Nepal after the service of punishment by him or her.’
Bhutan
The Constitution of Bhutan in Article 7:4 states: ‘A Bhutanese citizen shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. No person shall be compelled to belong to another faith by means of coercion or inducement.’
In furtherance to this provision, in 2011, the legislature amended the Penal Code. The newly introduced Section 463 (A) states that: ‘A defendant shall be guilty of the offense of compelling others to belong to another faith if the defendant uses coercion or other forms of inducement to cause the conversion of a person from one religion or faith to another.’
Section 5 (g) of the Religious Organizations Act of 2007 also states that ‘no Religious organizations shall compel any person to belong to another faith, by providing reward or inducement for a person to belong to another faith.’
Myanmar
The unofficial translation by the Chin Human Rights Organization of the Religious Conversion Law states:
’14. No one is allowed to apply for conversion to a new religion with the intent of insulting, degrading, destroying, or misusing any religion.
15. No one shall compel a person to change his/her religion through bonded debt, inducement, intimidation, undue influence, or pressure.’
The law also requires that the person wishing to convert should give the local authorities intimation of his/her conversion so that they can conduct an inquiry into it. The prospective converts would also be required to undertake special classes to understand the tenets of the religion.[12]
Pakistan
While Pakistan does not have anti-conversion laws, laws pertaining to blasphemy have a very similar effect on persons converting to religions other than Islam.[13]
Conclusion
A detailed analysis of these laws reveals that, far from promoting or protecting religious freedom, they have served to undermine the religious freedom guarantees under the Indian constitution and international law and the covenants to which India is a signatory.
Primarily motivated by a religious ideology, the anti-conversions laws fail to achieve the very purpose for which they have been enacted. On the contrary, they provide an opportunity for divisive forces to target the constitutionally protected rights of minority groups and pose a serious threat to the free practice and propagation of religious beliefs.
Furthermore, the laws fail to account for the agency of converts and treat them instead as passive recipients of external (and seemingly unwanted) pressures from ‘predatory’ convertors. They tend to treat all religious conversions as suspect and liable to investigation and prosecution.
The introduction of similar provisions in the other South Asian legal systems is a disturbing trend and requires the attention of the international community, as they stand in direct contrast to the rights and liberties guaranteed under international law.
This unchecked spreading of anti-conversions laws will affect the safety and security of local Christians wherever it occurs, as has been in the case in India.
Endnotes
[1] Data collated fromcowever, section 26(3) of the CC www.SpeakOutAgainstHate.Org.
[2] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Communal-violence-shows-24-jump-in-first-five-months-of-2015-shows-govt-data/articleshow/48167102.cms
[3] http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/India%202015.pdf
[4] http://www.christiantoday.co.in/article/pastor.humiliated.paraded.head.half.shaven.on.donkey.on.false.conversion.charges.in.u.p/17834.htm
[5] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/blind-couple-among-13-in-madhya-pradesh-held-for-conversion/
[6] UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir : addendum : mission to India, 26 January 2009, A/HRC/10/8/Add.3, http://www.refworld.org/docid/498ae8032.html, accessed 12 April 2016.
[7] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/forcible-conversions-religion-narendra-modi-ghar-wapsi/1/407628.html
[8] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/states-should-act-against-communal-incidents-rajnath/article7150757.ece
[9] https://www.sikh24.com/2015/11/05/indian-parliament-will-consider-criminalizing-religious-liberty/#.VrHoUk3UiUk
[10] Taking note of this trend, in its 2011 report, the USCIRF noted that: ‘The harassment and violence against religious minorities appears to be more pronounced in states that have adopted “Freedom of Religion” Acts or are considering such laws.’ The report further stated that: ‘These laws have led to few arrests and reportedly no convictions.’ According to the US State Department, between June 2009 and December 2010, approximately 27 arrests were made in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, but resulted in no convictions.
[11] http://www.csw.org.uk/2004/08/23/press/366/article.htm
[12] https://www.mnnonline.org/news/anti-conversion-laws-in-burma-a-nail-in-religious-freedoms-coffin/
[13] http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165485239/blasphemy-charges-on-the-rise-in-pakistan
Tehmina Arora is an advocate practicing in Delhi and serves as Senior Counsel, South Asia, for ADF International. This article is a revised version of her article that appeared in International Institute of Religious Freedom Report (Vol 1, no 2).
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Climate Change after Paris
Ed Brown
Unprecedented achievements
Ed Brown
Unprecedented achievements
The unanimous adoption of what has become known as the Paris Agreement[1] was almost miraculous. Such a thing has never happened before. However, there is more: diplomatic negotiations always achieve less in the end than was hoped for at the beginning. Not this time. The COP 21 final agreement was stronger than the original goal. Having planned to call for policies and plans that would limit future temperature increases to 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, delegates instead opted for a target limiting future temperature rises to ‘well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels’.[2]
Most surprising of all, the final Paris Agreement is based not on economics or business concerns or political realities, but rather on a genuine concern for the poor of the world who are most at risk. In a world marked by partisan rancor and often greedy self-interest, COP 21 produced the opposite—a document that expresses an almost biblical call for righteousness, compassion, and justice.
Evangelical presence
How did this happen? One of the major factors was that faith communities generally and evangelical Christians in particular made their presence known and their voices heard at COP 21. As a senior representative of the United States delegation said, ‘The faith community has been essential in making the case that confronting climate change is our moral responsibility. The Christian community has led that effort, helping to push for a strong agreement that protects vulnerable and threatened communities.’[3]
The global church speaks out—and people listen
The Lausanne Creation Care Network (LCCN) is one of Lausanne’s newest issue networks and is a primary umbrella for evangelicals around the world working in the area of environment or creation care. LCCN played a crucial organizing role to bring a broad evangelical partnership to COP 21. Hosted by A Rocha France, the partnership included A Rocha International, the World Evangelical Alliance, Tearfund, World Vision, Climate Caretakers, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, two US grassroots organizations, and others.[4]
Bishop Efraim Tendero, Secretary General of the WEA, was the public face of this coalition and worked tirelessly both within the official arena and outside it to communicate the moral and spiritual aspects of climate change. Coming from the Philippines, one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, he was an accredited member of the Filipino delegation. Speaking in Paris, Tendero said:
There is a moral component to the whole discussion of climate change. The decision to reduce our carbon footprint is rooted in the ethical foundation that human life needs to be protected and nurtured. Shifting to renewable sources of energy over against the harmful fossil-based energy is not only a scientific endeavor, but an ethical action that seeks the long-term survival and well-being of humanity.[5]
The historical parallel that comes to mind here is the decades-long struggle to end slavery in the British Empire two hundred years ago, an effort led by a passionate evangelical Christian, William Wilberforce. Perhaps we are witnessing a ‘Wilberforce moment’, when the church discovers that it can have a powerful voice in world affairs. There is no question that the global evangelical community spoke with a strong voice at COP 21, and that the governments of the world listened. Because of this, the climate conversation has permanently shifted from merely economics and politics to include morality and concern for those Jesus called the least of these.
So what is in the Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement lays the groundwork for a climate response in two important areas: Mitigation and Adaptation.
Mitigation. This is the process of reducing emissions in order to stop climate change from getting worse, and to try ultimately to reverse the process. The Paris Agreement calls for voluntary but transparent commitments by nations to drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change in order to keep future temperature rises below 2 or perhaps even 1.5 degrees Celsius. These commitments, known as INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions), outline what each nation is willing to do on its own to address this problem. While there was earlier concern that nations would not respond, and while it remains true that the reductions contained in the INDCs taken together do not go nearly far enough (see below), the commitments that have been made exceed what most people expected.
Adaptation. Mitigation is not enough. A great deal of damage has already been done to the climate system and much more will occur before any reduction in emissions begins to take effect. Mitigation therefore has to be accompanied by adaptation—addressing the problems caused by climate change such as weather extremes, sea level rise, shrinking food supplies, political instabilities, and climate refugees.
Adaptation costs money. One of the tragic ironies of climate change is that those nations most likely to be harmed by this problem, and therefore facing the highest costs to adapt to it, have done least to cause it. The Paris Agreement provides for a funding mechanism through the Green Climate Fund by which means developing nations which will bear the greatest burden of adaptation will be able to receive assistance from developed nations to the tune of at least US$100 billion per year beginning in 2020. While it is a long road from creating a mechanism to actually providing funds to those who need it, the Paris Agreement is a start.
A ‘runaway train’
Paris is not the end, but one stop on a long journey. Even as I write these words, reports are coming in from Fiji about a typhoon with 177 mile per hour winds—the strongest storm ever recorded in the southern hemisphere. This closely follows Hurricane Patricia that struck Mexico last October, the strongest storm ever recorded in the northern hemisphere. The effects of climate change are already all around us, and are increasing year by year.
Imagine a train running at top speed through the countryside. Somewhere ahead of it is a curve that must be taken slowly; otherwise the train will leave the tracks. It will take many miles to slow this train down, and it should be decelerating now, rather than continuing to increase speed.
Climate change is like that train. The curve is a point in time by which we must reduce global emissions to a safe level if we are to avoid catastrophe. The Paris Agreement’s goal of ‘less than 2 degrees’ is the maximum speed at which it is hoped that the climate train can negotiate the curve without going off the tracks completely. However, others believe that number is still far too high—that even 1.5 degrees may be too fast for a safe passage. The fear among many is that even if all of the provisions of the Paris Agreement are implemented, we might not be able to slow the climate train enough to safely round that curve.
Paul Cook, Tearfund’s Advocacy Director, sums it up this way:
This is a good step forward, but let’s not be complacent. [The Paris Agreement] doesn’t give us everything we need [and] Christians around the world will be praying that governments will accept their responsibilities, challenging them to do so, and celebrating with them when they do take the bold action required.[6]
What should we do?
Most surprising of all, the final Paris Agreement is based not on economics or business concerns or political realities, but rather on a genuine concern for the poor of the world who are most at risk. In a world marked by partisan rancor and often greedy self-interest, COP 21 produced the opposite—a document that expresses an almost biblical call for righteousness, compassion, and justice.
Evangelical presence
How did this happen? One of the major factors was that faith communities generally and evangelical Christians in particular made their presence known and their voices heard at COP 21. As a senior representative of the United States delegation said, ‘The faith community has been essential in making the case that confronting climate change is our moral responsibility. The Christian community has led that effort, helping to push for a strong agreement that protects vulnerable and threatened communities.’[3]
The global church speaks out—and people listen
The Lausanne Creation Care Network (LCCN) is one of Lausanne’s newest issue networks and is a primary umbrella for evangelicals around the world working in the area of environment or creation care. LCCN played a crucial organizing role to bring a broad evangelical partnership to COP 21. Hosted by A Rocha France, the partnership included A Rocha International, the World Evangelical Alliance, Tearfund, World Vision, Climate Caretakers, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, two US grassroots organizations, and others.[4]
Bishop Efraim Tendero, Secretary General of the WEA, was the public face of this coalition and worked tirelessly both within the official arena and outside it to communicate the moral and spiritual aspects of climate change. Coming from the Philippines, one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, he was an accredited member of the Filipino delegation. Speaking in Paris, Tendero said:
There is a moral component to the whole discussion of climate change. The decision to reduce our carbon footprint is rooted in the ethical foundation that human life needs to be protected and nurtured. Shifting to renewable sources of energy over against the harmful fossil-based energy is not only a scientific endeavor, but an ethical action that seeks the long-term survival and well-being of humanity.[5]
The historical parallel that comes to mind here is the decades-long struggle to end slavery in the British Empire two hundred years ago, an effort led by a passionate evangelical Christian, William Wilberforce. Perhaps we are witnessing a ‘Wilberforce moment’, when the church discovers that it can have a powerful voice in world affairs. There is no question that the global evangelical community spoke with a strong voice at COP 21, and that the governments of the world listened. Because of this, the climate conversation has permanently shifted from merely economics and politics to include morality and concern for those Jesus called the least of these.
So what is in the Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement lays the groundwork for a climate response in two important areas: Mitigation and Adaptation.
Mitigation. This is the process of reducing emissions in order to stop climate change from getting worse, and to try ultimately to reverse the process. The Paris Agreement calls for voluntary but transparent commitments by nations to drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change in order to keep future temperature rises below 2 or perhaps even 1.5 degrees Celsius. These commitments, known as INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions), outline what each nation is willing to do on its own to address this problem. While there was earlier concern that nations would not respond, and while it remains true that the reductions contained in the INDCs taken together do not go nearly far enough (see below), the commitments that have been made exceed what most people expected.
Adaptation. Mitigation is not enough. A great deal of damage has already been done to the climate system and much more will occur before any reduction in emissions begins to take effect. Mitigation therefore has to be accompanied by adaptation—addressing the problems caused by climate change such as weather extremes, sea level rise, shrinking food supplies, political instabilities, and climate refugees.
Adaptation costs money. One of the tragic ironies of climate change is that those nations most likely to be harmed by this problem, and therefore facing the highest costs to adapt to it, have done least to cause it. The Paris Agreement provides for a funding mechanism through the Green Climate Fund by which means developing nations which will bear the greatest burden of adaptation will be able to receive assistance from developed nations to the tune of at least US$100 billion per year beginning in 2020. While it is a long road from creating a mechanism to actually providing funds to those who need it, the Paris Agreement is a start.
A ‘runaway train’
Paris is not the end, but one stop on a long journey. Even as I write these words, reports are coming in from Fiji about a typhoon with 177 mile per hour winds—the strongest storm ever recorded in the southern hemisphere. This closely follows Hurricane Patricia that struck Mexico last October, the strongest storm ever recorded in the northern hemisphere. The effects of climate change are already all around us, and are increasing year by year.
Imagine a train running at top speed through the countryside. Somewhere ahead of it is a curve that must be taken slowly; otherwise the train will leave the tracks. It will take many miles to slow this train down, and it should be decelerating now, rather than continuing to increase speed.
Climate change is like that train. The curve is a point in time by which we must reduce global emissions to a safe level if we are to avoid catastrophe. The Paris Agreement’s goal of ‘less than 2 degrees’ is the maximum speed at which it is hoped that the climate train can negotiate the curve without going off the tracks completely. However, others believe that number is still far too high—that even 1.5 degrees may be too fast for a safe passage. The fear among many is that even if all of the provisions of the Paris Agreement are implemented, we might not be able to slow the climate train enough to safely round that curve.
Paul Cook, Tearfund’s Advocacy Director, sums it up this way:
This is a good step forward, but let’s not be complacent. [The Paris Agreement] doesn’t give us everything we need [and] Christians around the world will be praying that governments will accept their responsibilities, challenging them to do so, and celebrating with them when they do take the bold action required.[6]
What should we do?
To put it simply, a world devastated by climate change will be a world wracked by unimaginable human suffering, such as we can see in Syria, a man-made humanitarian crisis that has spilled beyond the Middle East, even affecting politics and policies in the European Union, the US, and Canada. Crucially for those of us involved in the broader ministries of the church, Syria has become a place where most of the normal functions of the church (worship, evangelism, children’s ministries, etc) have become difficult or even sometimes impossible.
What is not commonly understood is that Syria is a man-made disaster in which climate change is very likely a significant causal factor. According to a study published by the US National Academy of Sciences in March 2015,[7] extreme drought for four years (2006 to 2009) was made more likely and more severe by climate change, and led to mass migrations into cities, and stress on an already weak and corrupt political system. Much of the world will look like Syria in 20 or 30 years without a massive effort to slow down the climate change train.
So how should we respond? The Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network website[8]has a good list of resources and a schedule of future events in the Lausanne Global Campaign for Creation Care and the Gospel, as well as the Jamaica Call to Action,[9] a document we urge every evangelical to read, sign, and share.
More specifically, we would urge all to do the following:
Understand that climate change and other threats to God’s creation are real and serious problems, and that it is appropriate and necessary for Christians—individuals, congregations, ministries—to engage.
Live and work according to the principles of good and godly stewardship and simple lifestyle (a concept that was endorsed in Lausanne Occasional Paper 20 (LOP20)[10] 36 years ago).
Hold our governments and political leaders accountable for each of our countries’ commitments to the Paris Agreement in whatever ways are possible in our various political contexts.
Connect with and support the Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network by writing to us at creationcare@lausanne.org.
Climate change is without question one of the biggest challenges the human race has ever faced. However, let us not forget that we, as God’s people, can face this as we face every other challenge, with confidence in the One to whom ‘all authority in heaven and on earth’ has been given, and who has promised that He will be with us ‘to the very end of the age’.
Endnotes
[1] https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf
[2] Ibid.
[3] From Global Evangelical Leaders Welcome Paris Climate Agreement as Historical Accomplishment, a joint statement issued after the Paris Agreement. View online at http://lwccn.com/joint-statement-evangelical-leaders-praise-the-paris-climate-agreement/.
[4] Earlier this year, the World Evangelical Alliance’s Creation Care Task Force joined the Lausanne Creation Care Network, creating the Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network as a single global resource for the evangelical church around the world.
[5] From Global Evangelical Leaders Welcome Paris Climate Agreement as Historical Accomplishment, a joint statement issued after the Paris Agreement. View online at http://lwccn.com/joint-statement-evangelical-leaders-praise-the-paris-climate-agreement/.
[6] Ibid.
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html?_r=0
[8] http://lwccn.com/[9] https://www.lausanne.org/content/statement/creation-care-call-to-action
[10] https://www.lausanne.org/content/lop/lop-20
Ed Brown is the Lausanne Catalyst for Creation Care, and director of the Lausanne/WEA Global Campaign for Creation Care and the Gospel. He serves as Executive Director of Care of Creation, Inc, and is the author of two books, Our Father's World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation (IVP), and When Heaven and Nature Sing: Exploring God's Goals for His People and His World (Doorlight).
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What is not commonly understood is that Syria is a man-made disaster in which climate change is very likely a significant causal factor. According to a study published by the US National Academy of Sciences in March 2015,[7] extreme drought for four years (2006 to 2009) was made more likely and more severe by climate change, and led to mass migrations into cities, and stress on an already weak and corrupt political system. Much of the world will look like Syria in 20 or 30 years without a massive effort to slow down the climate change train.
So how should we respond? The Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network website[8]has a good list of resources and a schedule of future events in the Lausanne Global Campaign for Creation Care and the Gospel, as well as the Jamaica Call to Action,[9] a document we urge every evangelical to read, sign, and share.
More specifically, we would urge all to do the following:
Understand that climate change and other threats to God’s creation are real and serious problems, and that it is appropriate and necessary for Christians—individuals, congregations, ministries—to engage.
Live and work according to the principles of good and godly stewardship and simple lifestyle (a concept that was endorsed in Lausanne Occasional Paper 20 (LOP20)[10] 36 years ago).
Hold our governments and political leaders accountable for each of our countries’ commitments to the Paris Agreement in whatever ways are possible in our various political contexts.
Connect with and support the Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network by writing to us at creationcare@lausanne.org.
Climate change is without question one of the biggest challenges the human race has ever faced. However, let us not forget that we, as God’s people, can face this as we face every other challenge, with confidence in the One to whom ‘all authority in heaven and on earth’ has been given, and who has promised that He will be with us ‘to the very end of the age’.
Endnotes
[1] https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf
[2] Ibid.
[3] From Global Evangelical Leaders Welcome Paris Climate Agreement as Historical Accomplishment, a joint statement issued after the Paris Agreement. View online at http://lwccn.com/joint-statement-evangelical-leaders-praise-the-paris-climate-agreement/.
[4] Earlier this year, the World Evangelical Alliance’s Creation Care Task Force joined the Lausanne Creation Care Network, creating the Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network as a single global resource for the evangelical church around the world.
[5] From Global Evangelical Leaders Welcome Paris Climate Agreement as Historical Accomplishment, a joint statement issued after the Paris Agreement. View online at http://lwccn.com/joint-statement-evangelical-leaders-praise-the-paris-climate-agreement/.
[6] Ibid.
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html?_r=0
[8] http://lwccn.com/[9] https://www.lausanne.org/content/statement/creation-care-call-to-action
[10] https://www.lausanne.org/content/lop/lop-20
Ed Brown is the Lausanne Catalyst for Creation Care, and director of the Lausanne/WEA Global Campaign for Creation Care and the Gospel. He serves as Executive Director of Care of Creation, Inc, and is the author of two books, Our Father's World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation (IVP), and When Heaven and Nature Sing: Exploring God's Goals for His People and His World (Doorlight).
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Movement Day and Lausanne
Mac Pier
The research indicated that Christianity had grown from 1% to 3% of the population in Manhattan during the years 1989-2009. Of the churches surveyed, 39% had been started within the past decade.[2] God was moving sovereignly to bring church planters to New York City. Our collaboration with Redeemer City to City provided assessment, training, and start-up grants for new church plants affiliated through our joint initiative, the Church Multiplication Alliance (CMA), established in 2003.
The decision was made as the result of that research to launch the issues-focusedMovement Day conference in September 2010. We had our first gathering for 800 city leaders from 34 states and 14 countries. God was stirring in the hearts of leaders to learn from one another and to share best practices.
The gospel grows in Manhattan
Mac Pier
The research indicated that Christianity had grown from 1% to 3% of the population in Manhattan during the years 1989-2009. Of the churches surveyed, 39% had been started within the past decade.[2] God was moving sovereignly to bring church planters to New York City. Our collaboration with Redeemer City to City provided assessment, training, and start-up grants for new church plants affiliated through our joint initiative, the Church Multiplication Alliance (CMA), established in 2003.
The decision was made as the result of that research to launch the issues-focusedMovement Day conference in September 2010. We had our first gathering for 800 city leaders from 34 states and 14 countries. God was stirring in the hearts of leaders to learn from one another and to share best practices.
The gospel grows in Manhattan
Manhattan is arguably the most influential island in human history. Modern-day Manhattan is a hub of global influence for media, politics, art, fashion, and finance. During the 1970s and 1980s, Manhattan (along with all of New York City) journeyed through a series of crises. When my wife Marya and I arrived in 1984, the city was broke, violent, and severely under-churched.
Six months after we arrived in New York City, Bernard Goetz, a Caucasian, shot five unarmed African-Americans on a subway. That unleashed a decade of violence that culminated in 1994 with 2,400 murders in New York City. We experienced eight murders a day in what became known as the murder capital of America. Yet God was on the move …
Two spiritual movements began simultaneously in the late 1980s in New York City:
I became involved in the incubation of a prayer movement, which brought thousands of leaders and hundreds of churches together in united prayer. We experienced the incredible panorama of the international church of New York City coming together in Pastors’ Prayer Summits, National Days of Prayer, and a daily prayer vigil.
The second movement was a church planting movement that began with Dr Tim Keller establishing Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Within a few years Redeemer was planting daughter churches. By 2003, Keller and I had begun to collaborate on the CMA with ten denominations involved. The CMA provided prayer support, coaching, and shared resources to affiliated church planters.
The 2009 research gave evidence to what was happening, with new churches attracting new people across Manhattan and the other boroughs.
Five years later in 2014, the research was updated to assess the progress and—to our surprise and delight—Christianity had grown to 5%.[3] The presence of the church was becoming palpable in Manhattan. Our prayer is that the church will reach 10% in the coming years—representing a ‘tipping point’ for the acceptance of gospel in the city.
Why this is important
The greatest demographic reality in human history is happening right now. Every hour there are 7,000 people moving into sizeable cities. A new San Francisco or Singapore is being birthed every month.[4]
One forecast predicts that the global population will grow by 20% in 20 years, to reach 8.3 billion people by 2030.[5] The majority of the people in the world today are urban, poor (living on less than $2 a day), and young (under 25 years of age).[6] Globally, 65% of the population lives in Asia, and Africa has the fastest growing population.[7]In Latin America, 50% of the population lives in Mexico and Brazil.[8] Sao Paulo, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro are three of the greatest cities on the planet.
Movement Day 2010-2015
Six months after we arrived in New York City, Bernard Goetz, a Caucasian, shot five unarmed African-Americans on a subway. That unleashed a decade of violence that culminated in 1994 with 2,400 murders in New York City. We experienced eight murders a day in what became known as the murder capital of America. Yet God was on the move …
Two spiritual movements began simultaneously in the late 1980s in New York City:
I became involved in the incubation of a prayer movement, which brought thousands of leaders and hundreds of churches together in united prayer. We experienced the incredible panorama of the international church of New York City coming together in Pastors’ Prayer Summits, National Days of Prayer, and a daily prayer vigil.
The second movement was a church planting movement that began with Dr Tim Keller establishing Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Within a few years Redeemer was planting daughter churches. By 2003, Keller and I had begun to collaborate on the CMA with ten denominations involved. The CMA provided prayer support, coaching, and shared resources to affiliated church planters.
The 2009 research gave evidence to what was happening, with new churches attracting new people across Manhattan and the other boroughs.
Five years later in 2014, the research was updated to assess the progress and—to our surprise and delight—Christianity had grown to 5%.[3] The presence of the church was becoming palpable in Manhattan. Our prayer is that the church will reach 10% in the coming years—representing a ‘tipping point’ for the acceptance of gospel in the city.
Why this is important
The greatest demographic reality in human history is happening right now. Every hour there are 7,000 people moving into sizeable cities. A new San Francisco or Singapore is being birthed every month.[4]
One forecast predicts that the global population will grow by 20% in 20 years, to reach 8.3 billion people by 2030.[5] The majority of the people in the world today are urban, poor (living on less than $2 a day), and young (under 25 years of age).[6] Globally, 65% of the population lives in Asia, and Africa has the fastest growing population.[7]In Latin America, 50% of the population lives in Mexico and Brazil.[8] Sao Paulo, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro are three of the greatest cities on the planet.
Movement Day 2010-2015
Movement Day began as a one-day gathering to focus on three themes—the gospel, cities, and movement acceleration. Our convictions are simply:cities shape culture, gospel movements shape cities, and leaders catalyze movements.
What is a gospel movement? A gospel movement is taking place when Christianity is growing faster than the general population, measurable progress is being made against social issues (eg educational performance, foster care), and Christians are increasingly finding themselves in places of cultural influence.
Eight Movement Day gatherings have happened in the past five years including two gatherings in Dallas. More than 11,000 leaders have participated from 360 cities worldwide. The structure of Movement Day is simple:
The morning and closing plenaries focus on worship, prayer, and vision casting to engage the city. In our New York City flagship event last year, our themes were crossing the spiritual, racial, economic, and generational divides in cities.
The afternoon learning tracks are organized around specific needs of cities—church planting, prayer, marketplace engagement, urban universities, the poor—and many other topics. We want each track to answer three questions regarding these great needs: Where are we today (research)? Where do we want to be in ten years (vision)? How do we get there (strategy)?
In the past five years, six significant stories have emerged in NYC and Dallas:
The growth of Christianity in Manhattan from 3% to 5% in five years.
The launch of the City Serve event, led by the Luis Palau Association, after Movement Day 2012, which linked 1,700 churches in acts of community service.
Pastoral partnerships in Dallas that have linked churches across racial lines.
INITIATIVE: A millennial leader network of 2,000 young leaders in Dallas reaching out to their peers and investing in the church.
Explore God: A campaign involving 400 Dallas churches completing a shared sermon series, billboards, community discussion groups, and social media to impact thousands of people.
Re-entry: Marketplace leaders are providing life skills to persons re-entering Dallas from prison, providing them a chance of gaining employment.
Movement Day Global Cities 2016 (MDGC)
MDGC will take place in New York City on October 25-27, 2016, at the Jacob Javits Center, in collaboration with the Lausanne Movement. The vision for MDGC is to convene leaders from 100 cities globally to:
see what God is doing in cities globally;
connect the body of Christ in cities;
change cities by applying best practices of urban mission; and commission each other in our respective callings.
Lausanne Regional Directors and representatives in attendance during Movement Day 2015
At MDGC we will have world-class faculty from five continents speaking on the centrality and impact of cities. The morning sessions will be organized around these themes:
The glory and challenges of cities
Millennials: The future of city movements
Partnership: The strategy to impact cities
The afternoons will be divided into a range of conversations such as: the arts in cities, the role of marketplace leaders, church planting, prayer and spiritual warfare, and the role of catalytic events in city movements.
On the final night there will be a commissioning service with leaders celebrating the globally diverse church in cities.
Conclusion
This past year I have been privileged to travel to London, Pretoria, Port au Prince, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Dubai, and Singapore. Though the contexts are very diverse, I am seeing some common themes in cities that we need to address together:
Millennials are leaving the church everywhere: This is quite significant given that most spiritual movements are started by leaders under 28. Movement Day and urban mission are ways to meaningfully engage younger leaders.
Social challenges are escalating rapidly: Whether it be the refugee crisis, human trafficking, or the global moral crises, cities are the places where this is all concentrated.
City centers are radically under-churched: There is a huge need to pray for the identification and planting of effective churches in the great global cities.
The body of Christ is divided: If division breeds atheism in the world, the unity of the church is a critical element in fostering the aroma of belief in cities globally.
Movement Day Global Cities is an opportunity to gather to worship, learn, strategize, and collaborate for the increased impact of the gospel in cities globally. We want to accelerate the impact of leaders in cities around today’s great challenges. We hope you will join us on October 25-27, 2016. Visit our website for all the latest details at www.MovementDay.com.
Endnotes
[1] The New York City Leadership Center (NYCLC) was founded by Dr Mac Pier, CEO, and is led by Dr Craig Sider, President, and Rev Ebony Small, Director of Movement Day & Events. The vision of NYCLC is to become a model of Christian leaders impacting the spiritual and social climate of an urban center. Our mission is to exponentially increase the leadership effectiveness of ministry and marketplace leaders. Visit our website atwww.NYCLeadership.com.
[2] Tony Carnes, Manhattan Center City Evangelical Churches 2009, Values Research Institute 2009.
[3] Tony Carnes, Manhattan Center City 2014, Values Research Institute, 2014.[4] Editor’s Note: See article entitled ‘Commitment to the Cities: Responding to The Cape Town Commitment on cities’ by Paul Hildreth in the March 2014 issue of Lausanne Global Analysis.
[5] Jason Mandryk, Operation World (Colorado Springs: Biblica Publishing, 2010), 1.
[6] Mac Pier, Consequential Leadership (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 18.
[7] Mandryk, Operation World, 29, 57.
[8] Ibid, 46.
Mac Pier, Founder and President of the New York City Leadership Center, serves as Lausanne Catalyst for Cities. He is the coauthor of The Power of a City at Prayer (InterVarsity Press, 2002), and author of Spiritual Leadership in the Global City (New Hope Publishers, 2008), and Consequential Leadership (InterVarsity Press, 2012).
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What is a gospel movement? A gospel movement is taking place when Christianity is growing faster than the general population, measurable progress is being made against social issues (eg educational performance, foster care), and Christians are increasingly finding themselves in places of cultural influence.
Eight Movement Day gatherings have happened in the past five years including two gatherings in Dallas. More than 11,000 leaders have participated from 360 cities worldwide. The structure of Movement Day is simple:
The morning and closing plenaries focus on worship, prayer, and vision casting to engage the city. In our New York City flagship event last year, our themes were crossing the spiritual, racial, economic, and generational divides in cities.
The afternoon learning tracks are organized around specific needs of cities—church planting, prayer, marketplace engagement, urban universities, the poor—and many other topics. We want each track to answer three questions regarding these great needs: Where are we today (research)? Where do we want to be in ten years (vision)? How do we get there (strategy)?
In the past five years, six significant stories have emerged in NYC and Dallas:
The growth of Christianity in Manhattan from 3% to 5% in five years.
The launch of the City Serve event, led by the Luis Palau Association, after Movement Day 2012, which linked 1,700 churches in acts of community service.
Pastoral partnerships in Dallas that have linked churches across racial lines.
INITIATIVE: A millennial leader network of 2,000 young leaders in Dallas reaching out to their peers and investing in the church.
Explore God: A campaign involving 400 Dallas churches completing a shared sermon series, billboards, community discussion groups, and social media to impact thousands of people.
Re-entry: Marketplace leaders are providing life skills to persons re-entering Dallas from prison, providing them a chance of gaining employment.
Movement Day Global Cities 2016 (MDGC)
MDGC will take place in New York City on October 25-27, 2016, at the Jacob Javits Center, in collaboration with the Lausanne Movement. The vision for MDGC is to convene leaders from 100 cities globally to:
see what God is doing in cities globally;
connect the body of Christ in cities;
change cities by applying best practices of urban mission; and commission each other in our respective callings.
Lausanne Regional Directors and representatives in attendance during Movement Day 2015
At MDGC we will have world-class faculty from five continents speaking on the centrality and impact of cities. The morning sessions will be organized around these themes:
The glory and challenges of cities
Millennials: The future of city movements
Partnership: The strategy to impact cities
The afternoons will be divided into a range of conversations such as: the arts in cities, the role of marketplace leaders, church planting, prayer and spiritual warfare, and the role of catalytic events in city movements.
On the final night there will be a commissioning service with leaders celebrating the globally diverse church in cities.
Conclusion
This past year I have been privileged to travel to London, Pretoria, Port au Prince, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Dubai, and Singapore. Though the contexts are very diverse, I am seeing some common themes in cities that we need to address together:
Millennials are leaving the church everywhere: This is quite significant given that most spiritual movements are started by leaders under 28. Movement Day and urban mission are ways to meaningfully engage younger leaders.
Social challenges are escalating rapidly: Whether it be the refugee crisis, human trafficking, or the global moral crises, cities are the places where this is all concentrated.
City centers are radically under-churched: There is a huge need to pray for the identification and planting of effective churches in the great global cities.
The body of Christ is divided: If division breeds atheism in the world, the unity of the church is a critical element in fostering the aroma of belief in cities globally.
Movement Day Global Cities is an opportunity to gather to worship, learn, strategize, and collaborate for the increased impact of the gospel in cities globally. We want to accelerate the impact of leaders in cities around today’s great challenges. We hope you will join us on October 25-27, 2016. Visit our website for all the latest details at www.MovementDay.com.
Endnotes
[1] The New York City Leadership Center (NYCLC) was founded by Dr Mac Pier, CEO, and is led by Dr Craig Sider, President, and Rev Ebony Small, Director of Movement Day & Events. The vision of NYCLC is to become a model of Christian leaders impacting the spiritual and social climate of an urban center. Our mission is to exponentially increase the leadership effectiveness of ministry and marketplace leaders. Visit our website atwww.NYCLeadership.com.
[2] Tony Carnes, Manhattan Center City Evangelical Churches 2009, Values Research Institute 2009.
[3] Tony Carnes, Manhattan Center City 2014, Values Research Institute, 2014.[4] Editor’s Note: See article entitled ‘Commitment to the Cities: Responding to The Cape Town Commitment on cities’ by Paul Hildreth in the March 2014 issue of Lausanne Global Analysis.
[5] Jason Mandryk, Operation World (Colorado Springs: Biblica Publishing, 2010), 1.
[6] Mac Pier, Consequential Leadership (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 18.
[7] Mandryk, Operation World, 29, 57.
[8] Ibid, 46.
Mac Pier, Founder and President of the New York City Leadership Center, serves as Lausanne Catalyst for Cities. He is the coauthor of The Power of a City at Prayer (InterVarsity Press, 2002), and author of Spiritual Leadership in the Global City (New Hope Publishers, 2008), and Consequential Leadership (InterVarsity Press, 2012).
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The Ageing Church and Its Implications
Peter Brierley
Fewer children: a much wider problem
This ageing problem is spread not just across the UK but is similar in most of the world, and for mostly the same reasons: people are living longer and the numbers born are too few to keep the balance level. When the United States Population Bureau or the United Nations (UN) provide forecasts about the world’s population they take into account three key criteria, all worth mentioning, and the first worth looking at in more detail:
1. The average fertility rate per woman[1]
The UN experts reckon that the Total Fertility Rate (TFR, the number of children an average woman may expect to have in a lifetime) will continue to fall in the majority of countries in the Majority World.[2] Details are summarised in Table 1,[3] the year 2010 being the latest year in the UN published tables. The sensitivity of these figures may be seen in the fact that, should their figure for the Majority World in 2050 be wrong, and the average fertility then was 2.50 instead of the expected 2.05, the world population would rise to 10.5 billion instead of the projected 9.2 billion! They also expect, in contrast, that the average fertility will rise slightly in the Western world, despite the projected population decline in 45 countries.
Table 1: Changing fertility rates
Why should the fertility rate in the Western world be rising when it is declining elsewhere? There are two trends which help account for this:
One is the number of immigrants coming into Western countries, which causes the number of children born to rise as women take advantage of the better maternity conditions in the Western world.
Secondly there is the increase in some countries of the numbers of national children being born to older women. In the UK, for example, the percentage of births to women 40 or over has increased from 1.7% of all births in 1995 to 4.4% in 2015, an increase in the actual number of such births to women in this age bracket of 170%! (This obviously has an impact on congregational life as well.)
Women in the Majority World are wanting fewer children; so more are using contraceptives, which are becoming more widely available and more affordable. One-sixth (18%) of women in sub-Saharan Africa now use these, and the fertility rate in Kenya, for example, has fallen from 8.0 in 1993 to 3.5 in 2014,[4] a very rapid decline.
Also more women are now receiving education and wanting a career rather than raising a family; so again the fertility rate drops. Another reason for falling fertility is better infant mortality rates through generally improved health provision. If there is less chance that half their children will die before they are five years old, women will have fewer children. Mortality rates are given in Table 2,[5] but they still show a big difference between the Majority and Western worlds.
Table 2: Changing infant mortality rates
2. The number of people with AIDS
It is both the number of people with HIV/AIDS in different countries that is important and the proportion of them receiving anti-retroviral treatment. Both are increasing, with between at least 40% and 50% of all sufferers expected to benefit from this treatment (and many more in some countries) in the decades ahead, thereby increasing the average life expectancy for a person contracting the disease from 12 years to 28 years.
The number of people living with AIDS worldwide in 2012 was estimated as 35.3 million,[6] of whom 9.7 million were receiving treatment—27%. Some 2.1 million of these were teenagers. Some 2.3 million people were newly affected in 2012, down from 2.7 million in 2008, and 1.6 million people died, down from 2.0 million in 2008. The number represents 0.5% of the world’s population, but includes 2.6% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (24 million of the total). Figure 1 shows the general trend.[7]
Figure 1: Numbers of people worldwide with HIV/AIDS
3. Immigration
This is not strictly a demographic feature in the sense that immigrants do not increase the world’s population, just the population of different countries—that is, a redistribution of population. It is, however, of immense importance globally and demographically as a continuing trend, with many implications for the church.[8]
All these three worldwide trends are relevant for the church. The fertility rate is important since if fewer children are being born, that means fewer children present who could join the church; so to maintain numbers we would need an above-average proportion joining, which is not happening. The number with AIDS in the Western world is small and usually does not affect church numbers. Immigration on the other hand has a huge impact, especially as so many come from a Christian background and either join existing churches or start new ones.
The numbers of older people worldwide are increasing
One consequence of smaller numbers of children being born is that the proportion of older people increases, helped by the better standard and wider availability of improved health resources in many countries. Table 3 shows the increasing proportion of older people, which is likely to rise in both the Majority and Western worlds. Across the world the percentage of those over 60 is set almost to double, increasing in numerical terms from 880 million in 2014 to 2 billion by 2050.
Table 3: Increasing numbers of elderly people
Implications for leaders
Age of retirement
One obvious implication of the above is the age of retirement for ministers, elders, trustees, and others. Should leaders continue to retire at, say, 65, or as in a number of denominations, 70? Roman Catholic priests are not expected to retire until they are 75. Should the age be extended to be more in line with the age of congregations?
Embracing older people
The impact of many older people will affect the church in a variety of ways. Their physical ability is usually less, often finding stairs difficult (for example). Not all older people enjoy modern, especially loud, worship. Some churches are already appointing a Minister for Older People. Are ministers in training being prepared to serve the needs of congregations where older people dominate? The increased life expectancy, especially among men, will, however, mean that there are more married people at older ages, something that will certainly be a feature of church life.
Helping grandparents
Many Third Agers[9] are grandparents, with an average of 4.4 grandchildren in the UK. Many will spend part of their time looking after their grandchildren two or more days a week when they are in pre-school. In what practical ways can Christian grandparents be more than just child-minders or child-entertainers in order to share Christian truth and values? Should the churches provide facilities especially for grandparents?
This current generation in the Western world (whose parents often married in their mid-20s and started a family in their 20s) will not only see many grandparents, but also many great-grandparents. Since the next generation is marrying later and starting a family later, it may well be that fewer of them will be great-grandparents themselves. So how can the church celebrate great-grandparenthood and best encourage Christian great-grandparents in their living, loving, and legacy to their extended family?
Finance
Third Agers may be very committed to their church, but may become less able to give as much support as perhaps they used to. How can churches cope with dwindling financial resources?
Transport
The older people get, the less easy it is for them to travel to church, the doctor, or hospital. Can churches help by providing some kind of transport rota, even ‘bussing’ people to church? Public transport is frequently simply not convenient for many older people, and often infrequent even where available. Road crossings in the Western world do not always give older people time to cross safely as crossings assume a pedestrian walking speed faster than 76% of men and 85% of women over 65 can walk. Those living in rural areas find transport especially difficult.
Over the next ten years, driverless cars are very likely to be on the roads in the Western world, which will probably include the transporting of elderly people. Some car companies, like Ford, are also deliberately designing cars particularly suitable for older people (wider front door, higher seats, larger dashboard, and so on).[10] Numbers using Mobility Scooters may also increase; so churches will need space for access.
Elderly evangelism
Proportionately more elderly go to church than other age groups, but there are yet many who do not go to church at all, and still need to be reached with the gospel. However, like any group of churchgoers, they need to be befriended and enabled to join in suitable church activities. When Jesus said, ‘The fields are white, ready to harvest’, that included those 65 and over!
Endnotes
[1]The fertility rate is the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime. It is measured by taking the number of births and dividing by the number of women aged 15 to 45, roughly their childbearing age.
[2] Majority World here means essentially the continents of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Western world means essentially the continents of Europe, North America, and Oceania (now sometimes called the Pacific).
[3] Population Estimates and Projections, United Nations Population Division, Press Release, March 2009.
[4] From www.indexmundi.com, accessed 28 July 2015.
[5] Population Estimates and Projections, United Nations Population Division.
[6] From www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan, accessed 28 July 2015.
[7] World Health Organisation HIV Operational Plan 2014/2015.
[8] Editor’s Note: See article entitled ‘Diasporas from Cape Town 2010 to Manila 2015 and Beyond: The Lausanne Movement and scattered peoples’ by Sadiri Joy Tira in the March 2015 issue of Lausanne Global Analysis.
[9] Editor’s Note: ‘Third Age’ refers to the period in life of active retirement, following middle age. Seehttp://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/third-age?q=third+age.
[10] ‘Europe needs Jesus!’, Sword, vol 4, no 6, November-December 2009, 14.
Dr Peter Brierley is a statistician who formerly directed the UK organisations MARC Europe and Christian Research. He has been collecting and analysing church statistics for 50 years, serving now as a church consultant. He has been the Lausanne Senior Associate (now called Catalyst) for Research/Church Research since 1984.
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Peter Brierley
Fewer children: a much wider problem
This ageing problem is spread not just across the UK but is similar in most of the world, and for mostly the same reasons: people are living longer and the numbers born are too few to keep the balance level. When the United States Population Bureau or the United Nations (UN) provide forecasts about the world’s population they take into account three key criteria, all worth mentioning, and the first worth looking at in more detail:
1. The average fertility rate per woman[1]
The UN experts reckon that the Total Fertility Rate (TFR, the number of children an average woman may expect to have in a lifetime) will continue to fall in the majority of countries in the Majority World.[2] Details are summarised in Table 1,[3] the year 2010 being the latest year in the UN published tables. The sensitivity of these figures may be seen in the fact that, should their figure for the Majority World in 2050 be wrong, and the average fertility then was 2.50 instead of the expected 2.05, the world population would rise to 10.5 billion instead of the projected 9.2 billion! They also expect, in contrast, that the average fertility will rise slightly in the Western world, despite the projected population decline in 45 countries.
Table 1: Changing fertility rates
Why should the fertility rate in the Western world be rising when it is declining elsewhere? There are two trends which help account for this:
One is the number of immigrants coming into Western countries, which causes the number of children born to rise as women take advantage of the better maternity conditions in the Western world.
Secondly there is the increase in some countries of the numbers of national children being born to older women. In the UK, for example, the percentage of births to women 40 or over has increased from 1.7% of all births in 1995 to 4.4% in 2015, an increase in the actual number of such births to women in this age bracket of 170%! (This obviously has an impact on congregational life as well.)
Women in the Majority World are wanting fewer children; so more are using contraceptives, which are becoming more widely available and more affordable. One-sixth (18%) of women in sub-Saharan Africa now use these, and the fertility rate in Kenya, for example, has fallen from 8.0 in 1993 to 3.5 in 2014,[4] a very rapid decline.
Also more women are now receiving education and wanting a career rather than raising a family; so again the fertility rate drops. Another reason for falling fertility is better infant mortality rates through generally improved health provision. If there is less chance that half their children will die before they are five years old, women will have fewer children. Mortality rates are given in Table 2,[5] but they still show a big difference between the Majority and Western worlds.
Table 2: Changing infant mortality rates
2. The number of people with AIDS
It is both the number of people with HIV/AIDS in different countries that is important and the proportion of them receiving anti-retroviral treatment. Both are increasing, with between at least 40% and 50% of all sufferers expected to benefit from this treatment (and many more in some countries) in the decades ahead, thereby increasing the average life expectancy for a person contracting the disease from 12 years to 28 years.
The number of people living with AIDS worldwide in 2012 was estimated as 35.3 million,[6] of whom 9.7 million were receiving treatment—27%. Some 2.1 million of these were teenagers. Some 2.3 million people were newly affected in 2012, down from 2.7 million in 2008, and 1.6 million people died, down from 2.0 million in 2008. The number represents 0.5% of the world’s population, but includes 2.6% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (24 million of the total). Figure 1 shows the general trend.[7]
Figure 1: Numbers of people worldwide with HIV/AIDS
3. Immigration
This is not strictly a demographic feature in the sense that immigrants do not increase the world’s population, just the population of different countries—that is, a redistribution of population. It is, however, of immense importance globally and demographically as a continuing trend, with many implications for the church.[8]
All these three worldwide trends are relevant for the church. The fertility rate is important since if fewer children are being born, that means fewer children present who could join the church; so to maintain numbers we would need an above-average proportion joining, which is not happening. The number with AIDS in the Western world is small and usually does not affect church numbers. Immigration on the other hand has a huge impact, especially as so many come from a Christian background and either join existing churches or start new ones.
The numbers of older people worldwide are increasing
One consequence of smaller numbers of children being born is that the proportion of older people increases, helped by the better standard and wider availability of improved health resources in many countries. Table 3 shows the increasing proportion of older people, which is likely to rise in both the Majority and Western worlds. Across the world the percentage of those over 60 is set almost to double, increasing in numerical terms from 880 million in 2014 to 2 billion by 2050.
Table 3: Increasing numbers of elderly people
Implications for leaders
Age of retirement
One obvious implication of the above is the age of retirement for ministers, elders, trustees, and others. Should leaders continue to retire at, say, 65, or as in a number of denominations, 70? Roman Catholic priests are not expected to retire until they are 75. Should the age be extended to be more in line with the age of congregations?
Embracing older people
The impact of many older people will affect the church in a variety of ways. Their physical ability is usually less, often finding stairs difficult (for example). Not all older people enjoy modern, especially loud, worship. Some churches are already appointing a Minister for Older People. Are ministers in training being prepared to serve the needs of congregations where older people dominate? The increased life expectancy, especially among men, will, however, mean that there are more married people at older ages, something that will certainly be a feature of church life.
Helping grandparents
Many Third Agers[9] are grandparents, with an average of 4.4 grandchildren in the UK. Many will spend part of their time looking after their grandchildren two or more days a week when they are in pre-school. In what practical ways can Christian grandparents be more than just child-minders or child-entertainers in order to share Christian truth and values? Should the churches provide facilities especially for grandparents?
This current generation in the Western world (whose parents often married in their mid-20s and started a family in their 20s) will not only see many grandparents, but also many great-grandparents. Since the next generation is marrying later and starting a family later, it may well be that fewer of them will be great-grandparents themselves. So how can the church celebrate great-grandparenthood and best encourage Christian great-grandparents in their living, loving, and legacy to their extended family?
Finance
Third Agers may be very committed to their church, but may become less able to give as much support as perhaps they used to. How can churches cope with dwindling financial resources?
Transport
The older people get, the less easy it is for them to travel to church, the doctor, or hospital. Can churches help by providing some kind of transport rota, even ‘bussing’ people to church? Public transport is frequently simply not convenient for many older people, and often infrequent even where available. Road crossings in the Western world do not always give older people time to cross safely as crossings assume a pedestrian walking speed faster than 76% of men and 85% of women over 65 can walk. Those living in rural areas find transport especially difficult.
Over the next ten years, driverless cars are very likely to be on the roads in the Western world, which will probably include the transporting of elderly people. Some car companies, like Ford, are also deliberately designing cars particularly suitable for older people (wider front door, higher seats, larger dashboard, and so on).[10] Numbers using Mobility Scooters may also increase; so churches will need space for access.
Elderly evangelism
Proportionately more elderly go to church than other age groups, but there are yet many who do not go to church at all, and still need to be reached with the gospel. However, like any group of churchgoers, they need to be befriended and enabled to join in suitable church activities. When Jesus said, ‘The fields are white, ready to harvest’, that included those 65 and over!
Endnotes
[1]The fertility rate is the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime. It is measured by taking the number of births and dividing by the number of women aged 15 to 45, roughly their childbearing age.
[2] Majority World here means essentially the continents of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Western world means essentially the continents of Europe, North America, and Oceania (now sometimes called the Pacific).
[3] Population Estimates and Projections, United Nations Population Division, Press Release, March 2009.
[4] From www.indexmundi.com, accessed 28 July 2015.
[5] Population Estimates and Projections, United Nations Population Division.
[6] From www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan, accessed 28 July 2015.
[7] World Health Organisation HIV Operational Plan 2014/2015.
[8] Editor’s Note: See article entitled ‘Diasporas from Cape Town 2010 to Manila 2015 and Beyond: The Lausanne Movement and scattered peoples’ by Sadiri Joy Tira in the March 2015 issue of Lausanne Global Analysis.
[9] Editor’s Note: ‘Third Age’ refers to the period in life of active retirement, following middle age. Seehttp://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/third-age?q=third+age.
[10] ‘Europe needs Jesus!’, Sword, vol 4, no 6, November-December 2009, 14.
Dr Peter Brierley is a statistician who formerly directed the UK organisations MARC Europe and Christian Research. He has been collecting and analysing church statistics for 50 years, serving now as a church consultant. He has been the Lausanne Senior Associate (now called Catalyst) for Research/Church Research since 1984.
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