Moffett stressed that he did not ridicule this more liberal view of missions, as he too wants to feed the hungry and heal the sick. But it also fueled a massive decline in both membership and missionary zeal for mainline Protestants, who ceded the missions field to more zealous evangelicals. Asia is today the world s greatest missions field, Moffett said. Although it is the continent with the fewest number of Christians as a percentage of its overall population, it has some of the fastest growing churches. The decline of communist ideology in China and the failure of centralized social planning have created the possibility of a revolution of hopeful reassessment in Asia, Moffett said.
Christians now have a profound opportunity to reach Asia with the Gospel.
Moffett lamented that secular historians have consistently understated the positive role of Christianity in the Third World. But they were not alone in underestimating the power of religion, he said. The Chinese communists thought they could eradicate religion. But 50 years after their revolution the Christian church has increased from several million to 30 to 60 million or more believers in China. He noted that Christian business people in relatively open Asian countries are now employing their business contacts to carry the Gospel into more closed Asian societies still under the grip of communism.