The world is changing. It always has and I guess always will. But every now and then it changes eras. We give them names: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Dark Age, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Industrial, Information Age and so on. I wonder if we’re not in or on the cusp of one of those shifts that will gain itself a new name.

There are several huge global forces at work that no individual or local church can do very much about. They are waves that are going to affect you whether you like it or not. Churches with good people in it doing all the right things will close and there was probably nothing you could have done about it. Maybe.

One of those waves of change is demographics. There is currently a ‘Jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born meaning that although currently we are seeing the global population grow it will not be long before that peaks and then begins to drop. Globally. It’s dropping in plenty of countries already. Those countries (almost all of them wealthy ones) will get older and if they do not get more workers in will get poorer. And no one likes a future in which they get poorer.

That is going to create a pull factor for migration. We’re seeing it already in Europe. Germany, for example, is desperate for migrants. Others are going to try to boost the fertility rate without resorting to immigration (Hungary, Russia for example) but right now they are not successful.

If you’re in North America that will mean migrants from South America and if you’re in Europe that will likely mean migrants from Africa and the Middle East. Africa’s population will grow while everyone else’s shrinks. Africa will continue to be a net exporter of its greatest natural asset: its people.

But there are push factors to go with the pull. Poor people in poor countries will always want to live in richer countries. Poverty always pushes people out. It sent a million Swedes to America in the 19th century and it’s sending driving people northwards now. But poverty is not the only push factor. A changing climate is pushing people out. A trend that is only likely to accelerate in coming years.

This is going to create significant societal change and if current behaviour is any indication create conditions for upheaval, unhappiness and in some places extreme reactionary behaviour.

It’s also likely to change the religious outlook for the planet. Secular elites are going to find their narrative of an increasingly secular world upended. It is well documented that poorer nations are more religious or rather rich countries lose religion as they gain wealth. But not overnight. The poorer countries will likely remain more religious and more fertile sending millions of people to the secular richer nations. Meaning Philip Jenkins is entirely right when he writes that The Future of World Christianity Is African. Jenkins predicts that Africa will become the centre for world Christianity but I think wealth and migration will mean that the centres will remain in the places with the institutions and the wealth but they will nonetheless become more African. Christianity in Europe is already not simply European.

As Christendom in America continues its ugly car-crash trajectory across the globe there is significant renewal and reinvention taking place. Slowly western Christians are rediscovering & drawing on the depths Christianity has as a global faith. It has deeper roots in more places than you might think and now is the time to learn about and from the global church. I’ve done a couple of things to help me be aware of this. Firstly on social media, I’ve created lists and previously I just had a list called ‘Christianity’. Now I’ve created a list called ‘American Christianity’ to remind myself that for many of those whom I read the first word is as important, if not more so than the second.

Then, and on a more positive note, I’ve gone out looking for authors, leaders, voices from other parts of the world to help me keep developing a more global perspective. Listen to this impassioned plea from Linda Geevanathan: “The church is not just one demographic…”

We will need to embrace the nations not just over there or on a map on a board at the back of the church but in our neighbourhoods, churches and homes. Learning to appreciate all they have to offer now, will only make that transition easier.