The 1 percent

Maybe there's a group of people in your town protesting the 1 percent. The event has been huge in Seattle. For America, the issues at hand are pretty important, and I can appreciate some of what the movement stands for.

But the figure 1 percent has meant something entirely different to me since God called us to serve Him in Spain. Our colleagues said it well:

When I think about missions in Spain, I am struck with the numbers. 46.5 million people live in Spain. Just over 77% claim to be Christian, but only 1% of that group claim evangelical beliefs. By my calculations, that would mean that out of 46.5 million people, fewer than 400,000 are evangelical believers.

I believe that is why Jesus says, "The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields."(Matthew 9.37-38 NLT) .

There is not a church on every corner here, in one of the least churched states in the nation, but I can think of five  within five minutes of my house. Two or three of them are Biblical and I would recommend to a friend (and, no, I wasn't counting the Mormon church, either). I am acquainted with a girl who lives in the South who attended a missions conference where they featured the Pacific Northwest as a place in need of the Gospel. And yet, everywhere I go, even in spiritually-dry Seattle, I meet believers. At the very least, I meet people who have heard the Gospel not just once, but hundreds of times.

But in Spain, everywhere I go, I will meet people who do not believe in salvation and justification by faith in Jesus Christ. Because only 1 percent knows this truth.