Behold, the Global ChurchIt's time we figured out how to talk—and listen—to one another.Brenda Salter McNeil
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What are the decisive signs of the times for us as North American Christians? Is it possible that we are at a kairos moment, a time when God is moving, and we must choose how to respond? There are signs that we are. Like the signs that accompany a birth, they can prompt anxiety or nurture anticipation. But what cannot be doubted is that a time of radical change is approaching.
The population of our nation is changing. Ethnic minorities have doubled their share of the U.S. population since 1950, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau's latest projections, almost all the growth in U.S. population over the next 50 years—from 282 million in 2000 to 420 million in 2050—will come from ethnic minorities, primarily Asians and Hispanics. On those projections, sometime shortly after 2050 non-Hispanic whites will become a minority in the United States.
This unprecedented shift in the demographics of the United States will be a serious challenge—and not just for whites, who will have to reassess their assumption of what counts as an ethnic "minority." African Americans, who had been the largest minority group since the nation's founding, saw that role pass to Hispanics in 2003. We already have evidence that this shift is producing birth pangs, from the streets of South Central Los Angeles to the poultry farms of the southeastern United States. Not long ago, British television presenter David Frost asked Billy Graham what he saw as the most important issue facing the church in the 21st century. Graham answered, "Racial and ethnic hostility is the foremost social problem facing our world today."
Our economy is changing. For many decades middle-class, majority-culture Americans assumed that graduating from college would secure them a good job, a decent house, and a safe place to live. Yet not long ago I was in an Enterprise Rent-A-Car office on my way to a speaking engagement with college students. The young man waiting on me asked what I was planning to speak about. "Make sure you tell them that when they graduate they're not going to a get a job," he said. The cynicism in his voice was plain. "What was your major?" I asked. He had majored in computer science—a field he had thought would surely secure his future. Instead, he was renting cars.
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