Future trends in world Christianity that should guide Christians’ participation in God’s global mission were outlined in a talk by Dr. Todd Johnson, co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.
He spoke on April 15 at Missio, the global mission conference in San Francisco cosponsored by the Global Episcopal Mission Network and the Diocese of California. In GEMN’s distinctive “popcorn” style of presentation, in which a speaker talks for 5-7 minutes, followed by table discussions, then resumes the presentation, Johnson was able to cover most of what he called nine paths of the future:
1. The Future belongs to the Global South
The most significant trend today and into the foreseeable future is the ongoing shift of Christianity from the Global North to the Global South. In 1900, 18% of all Christians were in the Global South, by 2025 it had risen to 69%, and by 2075 it will be 83%.
2. The Future recovers the Past
For at least the first 900 years (until about 923 CE), Christians in the Global South (Africa and Asia) outnumbered those in the Global North (Europe). Then Christianity in the Global South gradually declined until 1500 when fully 92% of all Christians were Northerners.
3. The Future is Post-Western and all cultures are equal
Belonging to a worldwide Christian family requires decentering Western perspectives (long considered as the standard) while giving equal status to viewpoints from all cultures, peoples and languages.
4. The Future is Female
Throughout Christian history women have always been a majority of Christians and the most active members in churches and missions. Today women are thought leaders in global Christianity and will be the major producers of missiological reflection in the future.
5. The Future is Indigenous
Kaitlin B. Curtice, an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, encourages readers to think more critically about the core Christian value of recognizing the humanity of all people, created in the image of God, and to dream and fight together for a more just way forward.
6. The Future is Integral
Latin American theologian Rene Padilla argued that social action and evangelism were essential, indivisible components of God’s mission, like “two wings of a plane.” This is misión integral or integral mission, which affirms that there is no biblical dichotomy between evangelistic and social responsibility in bringing Christ’s peace to the poor and oppressed.
7. The Future is Hospitable
The world is becoming more religiously diverse, especially when measured at the national level. Where do we find biblical principles of robust interaction between people of different faiths? Christian hospitality is a good place to start.
8. The Future is Prophetic and Just
New Testament professor Esau McCaulley writes, “What do Abraham and David together mean for the Black and Brown bodies spread throughout the globe? It means that the vision of the Hebrew scriptures is one in which the worldwide rule of the Davidic king brings longed-for justice and righteousness to all people groups.”
9. The Future is For and From All Peoples
How has the shift of Christianity to the Global South impacted missiology? What started as a movement TO all peoples (from the Global North) has become a movement FOR all peoples and ultimately, FROM all peoples.
The Center for the Study of Global Christianity is located at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminaary in Hamilton, Mass., and is widely recognized as the foremost center for world religious demography. For a more detailed version of Johnson’s presentation, see his “The Future of Missiology is Global” in New Frontiers in Missiology: Exploring Innovation, Global Shifts, and the Future of Mission (William Carey Library, 2025, pp.3-18). Johnson is co-editor of The World Christian Encyclopedia and the author and/or editor of many other publications related to religious demography.