By 1970, churches in these regions represented 42 percent of the global church. And today, Christians outside North America and Europe account for 58 percent of the world's total believers in Jesus Christ. Mission has changed the church, and mission itself is changing. A new generation in North America North American Christians also have changed. They are not completely satisfied with giving only financial support to mission agencies that carry out international evangelism on their behalf.
Baby boomers have a fundamentally different kind of mission commitment than did their parents.
Agencies that shun these alliances and cooperative ventures will increasingly do so at their own peril. Mennonites in North America and around the world are not immune from such forces. The North American Mennonite Church and its mission agencies must learn to listen and respond to such changes in the world and in the church. The world is being made new. We must respond to that new world as partners in God's new creation.