The Christian Influence

We can be thankful that in America, there is a sizable Christian influence.  And, we should recognize that with this visibility for Christianity, that we can leverage that influence so that people might come to know Jesus personally and so that culture at large can be positively influenced.  Most countries in the world have a majority-Christian presence. We can seek to spread God's truth.   In 1st Peter 2 (ESV), we see these words:
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,
14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

The Pew Research Center has released a study of the overall Christian influence in countries throughout the world, stating: "we estimate that 120 out of the 201 countries and territories we studied had Christian majorities in 2020 – four fewer than in 2010. Meanwhile, 10 countries had religiously unaffiliated majorities in 2020 – three more than in 2010."  The survey summary goes on to say: "This means that Christian-majority countries made up 60% of all the world’s countries and territories in 2020, down from 62% a decade earlier. And places with unaffiliated majorities made up 5% of all countries, up from 3%."  Pew noted the following:

The results, according to Pew, included these findings:

Christians remained the world’s biggest religious group. But Christians (of all denominations, counted as one group) did not keep pace with global population growth from 2010 to 2020.

• The number of Christians rose by 122 million, reaching 2.3 billion.
• Yet, as a share of the world’s population, Christians fell 1.8 percentage points, to 28.8%.

Muslims were the fastest-growing religious group over the decade.

• The number of Muslims increased by 347 million – more than all other religions combined.
• The share of the world’s population that is Muslim rose by 1.8 points, to 25.6%.

There are now 2.38 billion Christians and 2 billion Muslims in the world, with 1.9 billion indicating they are "religiously unaffiliated."

This can indicate to us that Christianity possess the largest share of population among world religions - potentially the most-practiced and most influential religion in the world.  But, we must consider what type of influence we are actually having.  Christianity, in order to be effective, has to be practiced - it's not just a label we wear, it should be a lifestyle that we display.  This provides us a great worldwide challenge.

Because, as Jesus taught, the fields are white for harvest.  There are almost two billion people that don't identify with any particular religion.  We have to consider what it takes to bring those into the fold.  There are another 2 billion who are Muslim.  And, we know that God is working powerfully among some majority-Muslim regions...the contrast is great, and through the love and faithfulness of God's people, those who belong to Christ, there is likewise great potential.

But, we can adopt the mindset that we don't keep our faith to ourselves and we don't keep our faith inside our church buildings.  We can strive to grow in the Lord and to go into the world as good representatives who love Jesus and love people enough to show them the way to salvation.