I recently came across some statistics from the PrayerNet Newsletter that help to visualize the world in which we live. SPEP has two services—let’s say that each has 300 people. If the global population were shrunk to the size of one of our worship services, but the same ratios prevailed, here’s what the world would look like if it sat in our sanctuary:
- 171 from Asia
- 63 from Europe
- 42 from North and South America
- 24 from Africa
- 90 whites and 210 nonwhite
- 33 homosexuals
- 18 people would possess 59% of all the wealth and all 18 would be from the United States
- 240 would be living in substandard housing
- 210 would be illiterate
- 150 would be malnourished
- 3 would be near death
- 3 would be college-educated
- 3 would own a computer
I cannot vouch for the precise accuracy of these statistics, but if they are in the ballpark, they make me think as I imagine the world sitting in our sanctuary.
I am used to swapping computer stories with folks, but find that only two others own them. I feel humbled to be sitting in one of the two pews who own most of the money. I look around at the half of the room who are ill fed, and realize that 8 out of 10 will go home to a hovel. I also cannot help but notice that most of the people don’t look like me in surface ways—they have different racial characteristics.
What if the whole Church were “shrunk” to fit into our sanctuary—I wonder if would it look the same, or look different? As God looks down at this small planet, does He see a Church with the same proportion of the world’s needs? If not, I wonder why?
Moving closer to home, our Presbytery recently published a study reminding us that whites are a minority in America’s one hundred largest cities, and the Baltimore-Washington area is becoming one of the most culturally diverse areas in the nation. Even so, the PCA is predominantly a white church. Of the 3,000 pastors in the PCA, only about 7% are Korean and less than 1% are African American. Other nationalities don’t even show up in the statistics. The first item on our new Presbytery’s agenda will be to discuss the implications of this imbalance. Why does our own branch of the church look so different from our own corner of the world?
What about other local ratios? Are singles and single parents finding Christ in our churches? How about those who are HIV positive or who are struggling with homosexuality? What about folks aching to flee chemical dependency or teens whose parents don’t find church a priority?
What if the gospel reached people in the same proportions as there is need? I wonder what a full sanctuary would look like?
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