Source: Justin Long for Beyond, April 12, 2022
Since the mid-1990s, we have witnessed the remarkable and explosive of disciple-making movements globally, with much of that growth happening in the past 10 years. From a very small handful of known movements in 1995, the number has grown to over 1,850 movements globally, encompassing over 99.9 million believers in 6.8 million churches (typically small, house-church type gatherings). This means over 1% of the world’s total population are Christ-followers in rapidly growing movements!
These numbers are the tip of the iceberg—the “floor” and not the “ceiling.” Certainly, the numbers are higher than this. These movements can be found in every [region] though their largest numbers are in Africa and parts of Asia (mostly Southern Asia). Growth is especially significant in the world’s least-reached places. Movements are touching every religious block, growing markedly among Muslim and Hindu peoples, with progress also among some Buddhist peoples.
However, in many places, this remarkable growth is still a just drop in the bucket among the much larger populations. Much work still remains to be done.
The full article also summarizes several ways to look at how close we are to seeing every people group and place engaged with the gospel and points out the remaining gaps. See a data dashboard on the 24:14 Network’s website (under “Global Movement Statistics”).
See also the March/April edition of Mission Frontiers, which takes a fresh look at the essential elements of such movements, or pick up a copy of the 2021 book Motus Dei: The Movement of God to Disciple the Nations (William Carey Publishing).