From Every Nation, Tribe, and Tongue: The Growth of Christ’s Church Worldwide
God is doing amazing things all over the world—and most Christians in the West are unaware of this good news! God is faithfully building his church globally.
Did you know that, on average, 77,000 people are coming to faith in Christ every day around the world? 7,000 are in the global North—primarily Europe and North America. But 70,000 are coming to faith daily in the global South—primarily Asia, Africa, and South America. (1) Christianity began as a small, Jewish sect in the first century and has now grown to the largest global religion. Rebecca McLaughlin wrote about Christianity’s small beginnings and how it has now gone global:
“When Mary Magdalene first made her claim [that she had seen the risen Christ], the followers of Jesus were a tiny Jewish sect. Today, they represent the largest global religion.... Far from being a white Western religion, Christianity was multiethnic from the first, and today Christians are by far the world’s most racially and culturally diverse religious group. By 2060, 40% of the world’s Christians could live in sub-Saharan Africa. Though China is today the global center of atheism, there will soon be more Christians in China than in the U.S.” (2)
I recently read the book, From the Rising of the Sun: A Journey of Worship around the World, by Tim Challies and Tim Keesee (released August 19, 2025).
In this encouraging book, Challies and Keesee recount their experiences of worshiping with fellow Christians from about a dozen countries all around the world. In the concluding chapter of the book, Keesee writes,
“We rejoice in the diversity of the Church— a people ransomed from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation (Revelation 5:9). During our global trek, we were able to open only a few, tiny windows to this marvelous gospel, but we still could see how beautifully diverse the Church is. Diversity is such a popular word these days, and it has become a cultural and political label, but the diversity of the Church is stunning because of what fundamentally unites its people. The wonder in Revelation 5 is not over how many people groups are present. That kind of diversity may impress us in the here and now, but not so much then. For there, we will sing a new song with saints across the centuries and from every race and place in numbers beyond reckoning. And all of us will be echoing John the Baptist saying, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" as we sing:
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12)
One Scripture passage that God used to draw me to transition from 25 years as a church planter and pastor in the United States to giving the second half of my life on behalf of indigenous pastors and Christian leaders in the global South, was the vision of Revelation 7:9-12, where the Apostle John writes,
“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
This vision of people worshiping our Lord and Savior from ‘every nation, tribe, people and language’ is an assured reality that will come to pass one day. And God has given us the opportunity to be involved in helping to bring that vision about globally. He has chosen to use ‘jars of clay’ (2 Corinthians 4:7-9) to carry out his divine work in this broken world.
The privilege of being involved in something so transcendent when we are nothing more than ‘clay pots’ is profoundly humbling.
Challies and Keesee go on to write,
“As we worshipped with diverse gatherings of believers on six continents for more than a year, we so enjoyed the differences as we listened to the cadences of Fijian and Hindi, of Korean and Khmer, and of Bemba, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Ukrainian, and Aussie English! We loved seeing the different styles of worship—sometimes quiet, sometimes a little raucous—and the ways the saints greeted each other, prayed, baptized, and served the Lord's Supper.
But as much as Challies and I enjoyed the kaleidoscope of cultures in the Church, what amazed us—and still amazes us—is what we had in common. Each of our Sundays-from the rising of the sun to its setting-repeated the wonder of what the old hymn says:
‘Elect from every nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued?’
The reflections of Revelation 5:9 we have witnessed this past year aren't just differences in language and race—that's only a small part of it. The real taste of heaven we experienced is that all the varied expressions of worship pointed us to Jesus, who set his love on us and made us his people. Maybe that's why in every church they made much of the cross—in the preaching, in the singing, and in the remembrance of it by the broken bread and the cup poured out. And it is at the foot of the cross that we stand as one people gathered, forgiven, and forever bound to Jesus and to each other.”
I was particularly interested in one of the churches they visited in suburban Sydney, Australia, because it is the place where CityAlight worship music began (and continues). The church is St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Castle Hill. One of the songs CityAlight wrote and published, Yet Not I, But Through Christ In Me, is at the top of my current worship playlist (and has been for a year). CityAlight’s worship music is sound theologically and melodically beautiful. The Rev. Dr. Michael Jensen, a pastor and leading figure in the Sydney diocese, wrote,
“Scripture is also at the center of our worship. The Book of Common Prayer, which is the book that Anglicans worship by, gets you reading Scripture over and over and over again. It’s soaked in Scripture and is thoroughly scriptural. But its dynamic is that it reminds you that you are a sinner in need of salvation, that your only hope is the mercy of God by the blood of Jesus Christ, and that you need to receive it by faith.”
Churches all around the world are singing ‘psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs’ (Ephesians 5:19) every Lord’s Day to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. The church is much bigger than what we see and experience in the Western world. Only 16% of the world’s population lives in the United States and Europe. Which means that the majority of all Christians on planet Earth live outside of the Western world. Be encouraged today. God is building his Church all over the world. And we have the privilege of participating through prayer, giving, and going.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of From the Rising of the Sun today. I think you will find your faith encouraged and uplifted.
Notes
(1) Gordon Conwell Center for Global Christianity
(2) Rebecca McLaughlin, "When Mary Met the Angel," The Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-mary-met-the-angel-11671810935/.
