It came and went quietly, but the human race just passed a significant milestone:
It came and went quietly, but the human race just passed a significant milestone:
On Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the world’s population
reached 6.5 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
It happened less than seven years after the number of people worldwide
reached 6 billion. That total, in turn, was reached only 12 years after
the 5-billion mark was surpassed. The new count of 6.5 billion is more
than twice the size of the population in 1960 — and four times the
number of humans alive at the beginning of the 20th century.
Global population is not speeding toward the huge, unsustainable masses
some demographic doomsayers have long predicted. But it continues to
grow. The 7-billion mark will be reached in 2012, according to
forecasters. More than 9 billion people will walk the earth by 2050,
they estimate, before the global total begins to level off.
A few trends and specifics:
— On average, 4.4 babies are born each second.
— Most population growth continues in the nations of the global South and East.
“Virtually all of world population growth now takes place in developing
countries,” reports Carl Haub, senior demographer at the Population
Reference Bureau. “Europe now has more deaths than births each year….
The few developed countries that still have more births than deaths —
such as the United States –- owe much of their growth to immigration
from developing countries.”
— The poorest countries continue to have the highest birthrates. Women
average five or more children in countries where per capita annual
income is $1,000. In contrast, mothers bear an average of two or fewer
children in nations where per capita income tops $12,000.
These numbers have many social and political implications. In the
spiritual realm, however, the most urgent message for Great
Commission-minded Christians is this: Our evangelization task is
unfinished. Mission researchers tell us that, at most, one in every 10
people on earth is a born-again follower of Christ.
The regions of greatest population growth — and, often, greatest
physical poverty -– also tend to be the regions with the greatest
concentrations of spiritual lostness. Case study: West Africa, a major
focus of Southern Baptist missions this year. Malaria, AIDS and other
diseases are widespread there. Life expectancy is under 50 years.
Malnutrition is high; literacy is low. Half of West Africans live on
less than a dollar a day.
More than 350 of West Africa’s 1,612 people groups have no access to
the Gospel. Half of the region’s entire population of 287 million is
unreached (less than 2 percent evangelical). The Wolof people of
Senegal and Gambia, for example, number nearly 4.7 million — with
fewer than 100 evangelical believers. The 30.3 million Hausa people,
the region’s largest unreached group, are less than 1 percent
Christian. International Mission Board missionaries currently work
among only 52 West African people groups.
South Asia is home to 1.45 billion people. That includes the more than
1 billion people of India, a nation that will overtake China as the
world’s most populous if growth trends continue. In all of South Asia,
evangelical Christian believers comprise less than 2 percent of the
population.
In recent years Southern Baptists and other Great Commission groups
have made enormous progress in engaging (assigning missionaries, plans
and resources to reach) all the world’s unreached megapeoples –- those
with more than 1 million members. Now they are focusing on engaging the
hundreds of untouched groups with populations between 100,000 and 1
million.
“But ‘engaged’ doesn’t mean ‘evangelized,’” stresses International
Mission Board President Jerry Rankin. “Our goal is for every person to
hear the Gospel. How can they respond unless they have heard?”
The church has many God-given ministries, but giving the lost the
opportunity to hear the Good News of Jesus remains our top priority.
According to Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, the way to
accomplish it is very specific: “Go therefore and make disciples of all
the nations (peoples), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
the Son and the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that I
commanded you….”
“We have had a tendency to dilute the Great Commission to mean whatever
we do in missions, evangelism and ministry,” Rankin observes. “(But) in
the Greek language, ‘make disciples’ is one word; it is an imperative
verb and the object is ‘all peoples.’
“God’s heart and mission is that all peoples know Him. Our mission can be no less.”
In a lost and chaotic world of 6.5 billion, we need the clarity of God’s mission more than ever.
Erich Bridges is a senior staff writer for the SBC’s International Mission Board.
For more on the Lottie Moon Week of
Prayer for International Missions, go to www.imb.org or to
www.goWestAfrica.com. West Africa is the region receiving focus during
2006. Volunteers are needed to help missionaries.