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Some nations are in a "mature marriage" phase. In the United States, nearly half of us attend church on a given Sunday, and Christians have a visible presence on university campuses and in every major profession. Politicians running for office compete with each other in appealing to the religious constituency. Both church and parachurch, though, sometimes seem to operate more like an industry than a living organism. We hire others to take care of the orphans and visit the prisoners; we pay professionals to lead the worship. To return from a church in Brazil to one in the U.S. is like moving from a down-home county fair, where everyone gets to pet the cows and chase the pigs, to Disney World's Animal Kingdom, where you pay a fee mostly to watch beasts (some of which are mechanical) from behind a barrier.

At last year's Billy Graham conference in Amsterdam, a speaker announced that Christians in developed Western countries now represent only 37 percent of believers worldwide. As I travel, I have observed a pattern, a strange historical phenomenon of God "moving" geographically from the Middle East to Europe to North America to the developing world. My theory is this: God goes where he's wanted. That's a scary thought in a country like the United States, home to a robust economy and 500 satellite TV channels for diversion and entertainment, not to mention Disney World.

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We also offer articles on the burgeoning spirituality of Brazil and the Philippines:

For a celebration of God's grand designs around the globe read Timothy George's "Big Picture Faith" and CT's "Faith Without Borders | How the developing world is changing the face of Christianity."

Yancey's columns for Christianity Today include:

Humility's Many Faces (Dec. 4, 2000)

Getting a Life (Oct. 16, 2000)

To Rise, It Stoops (Aug. 29, 2000)

Chess Master (May 15, 2000)

Would Jesus Worship Here? (Feb.7, 2000)

Doctor's Orders (Dec. 2, 1999)

Getting to Know Me (Oct. 25,1999)

The Encyclopedia of Theological Ignorance (Sept. 6, 1999)

Writing the Trinity (July 12, 1999)

Can Good Come Out of This Evil? (June 14, 1999)

The Last Deist (Apr. 5, 1999)

Why I Can Feel Your Pain (Feb. 8, 1999)

What The Prince of Egypt Won't Tell You (Dec. 7, 1998)

What's a Heaven For? (Oct. 26,1998)

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February 5 2001, Vol. 45, No. 2