BackgroundFacts - CORNERSTONE CONFERENCE WORLD MISSIONS MINISTRIES

The rapidity of Africa’s twentieth-century “baptism” was stunning. There’s no better place to see the future of the global church.

Christianity did not suddenly arrive in Africa with the pith-helmented missionaries. It had been present in Ethiopia, for example, since the fourth century. Today rock-hewn churches dating from the twelfth century still stand in various places in Ethiopia.

As of 1980, the vast majority of Africa remained mysterious, elusive, and untouched by the West. But by the turn of the century, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy had carved up nearly every one of Africa’s 10 million square miles and divided a population of 110 million Africans, many of whom had no idea whey were now “ruled” by ambassadors from another continent.

In 1900, there were 8 to 10 million Christians in Africa, which amounted to 8 to 10 percent of the total population. Today there are 360 million – nearly 50 percent of the continent.

Philip Jenkins, in his book The Next Christendom, said that the heart of global Christianity will be Africa, not Europe or North America. What this means, says Jenkins, is that “in 50 or 100 years Christianity will be defined according to its relationship with that [African] culture.”

Here are some of the countries most radically changed during the period 1900 to 2000. These statistics (derived from David Barrett) represent professing Christians:

% of Christians in 1900
% of Christians in 2000
Congo-Zaire
1.4%
95.4%
Angola
0.6%
94.1%
Swaziland
1.0%
86.9%
Zambia
0.3%
83.4%
Kenya
0.2%
79.3%
Malawi
1.8%
76.8%

In the twentieth century, there have been some 1.8 million Christian martyrs in Africa.

Christian History, Vol 79, p. 2.

Mission Heroes

William Borden: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets

William Borden was already a millionaire when he graduated from a Chicago high school in 1904. As heir to the Borden Dairy estate, he could have anything he wanted and as a graduation present his parents gave him a trip around the world. During Borden's travels through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, he found a burden growing in him for the world's hurting people. Finally, he wrote home to say, "I'm going to give my life to prepare for the mission field." After making this decision, William Borden wrote two words in the back of his Bible: "No Reserves."

Borden arrived at Yale University (Connecticut) in 1905 as just one more freshman, but during his first semester, Borden started a movement that transformed the campus. A friend of described how it happened: " Bill and I began to pray together in the morning before breakfast. We had been meeting only a short time when a third student joined us and soon after a fourth. The time was spent in prayer after a brief reading of Scripture. Bill's handling of Scripture was helpful...he would read to us from the Bible, show us something that God had promised and then proceed to claim the promise with assurance."

Borden's group was the beginning of the daily groups of prayer that spread to every one of the college classes. By the end of his first year, 150 freshmen were meeting for weekly Bible studies. By the time he was a senior, 1,000 out of Yale's 1,300 students were meeting in such groups. Upon graduation from Yale, Borden turned down some high paying job offers. He also wrote two more words in his Bible: "No Retreats."

He went on to graduate work at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. While there, he signed the "Princeton Pledge," stating that " We, the undersigned, declare ourselves willing and desirous, God permitting, to go to the unevangelized portions of the world.'' Borden's missionary call came to focus on Muslims in China and from that goal he never wavered. When he finished his studies at Princeton, Borden sailed directly for China, stopping first in Egypt to study Arabic. While in Egypt, however, he came down with spinal meningitis. Within a month 25-year-old William Borden was dead.

"When the death of William Whiting Borden was cabled from Egypt, it seemed as though a wave of sorrow went round the world...Borden not only gave his wealth, but himself, in a way so joyous and natural that it was manifestly a privilege rather than a sacrifice."

A waste, you say? Not according to William Borden. Prior to his death Borden had written two more words in his Bible. Underneath the words "No Reserves" and "No Retreats," he had written: "No Regrets."

Portions reprinted from Daily Bread, December 31, 1988, and The Yale Standard, Fall 1970 edition.

Quotations taken from Borden of Yale, by Mrs. Howard Taylor, Moody Press, Chicago

Princeton Pledge quoted from "We Can Do It, If We Will," The SVM and Robert Wilder by Dr. Dan Pierce, Princeton UBF http://www.dayofdiscovery.org/article-SVM.htm