The biggest cities in the world have a population over one million. Nearly half of those cities fall within the Ten Forty Window.

Sixty percent of the Earth’s humanity lives inside a rectangle between the latitude lines of ten and forty degrees. Out of the 3.4 billion people in the Ten Forty Window, one percent know Jesus. Less than one one thousandth of a percent are Seventh-­Day Adventist. In the Middle East/North Africa region, that’s one Adventist for every sixty ­five thousand people.

There is one country that was evangelized as early as the sixteenth century. Portuguese Catholics converted huge numbers of indigenous people. But then the natives grew weary of Portugal’s growing power, their intolerance for other belief systems, and their involvement in slave trade. Today, roughly one percent of this country’s populace remains Christian, making it one of the least evangelized nations on the planet.

Some suggest that consumerism and individualism are to blame. Others claim that this nation’s postmodern worldview is simply at odds with Christianity. The postmodern worldview says truth is relative. A Christian who declares one God, one Truth, and one way to heaven looks like a fool here.

Does this description sound familiar? The statistics are for Japan, but the explanation could be true for numerous countries like Turkey, Netherlands, Sweden. And the Ten Forty Window isn’t the only place with bleak statistics.

There is another country where only 7.5 percent of adults attend church. Over the past twenty years, church closures have risen to six per week. England has been called the “most Godless country” in all of Europe.

In the United States, the number of people who self identify as Christians has dropped one percent every year for the last eight years. While about seventy percent claim Christianity, only thirty seven percent report going to church. Meanwhile, non Christian religions are on the rise.

Additionally, from 1990 to the present, the number of Americans who call themselves atheist, agnostic, or of no religious affiliation soared from eight percent to almost a quarter of the nation.

In the first century church, the apostle Paul acted as a missionary to the Gentiles. A map of his travels proves that while undoubtedly very slow, Paul covered a lot of territory throughout the Mediterranean. While Italy and Greece carry lasting Christian legacies, Paul’s work was geographically centered just a bit further east.

One hundred years ago, twenty percent of Turkey’s population was Christian.

Today the twenty percent of Christians in Turkey has been reduced to two tenths of a percent. Paul had the disadvantage of traveling entirely by boat or on foot. We have no such excuse. At the end of 2013, there were only one hundred nine registered members in Turkey’s two Adventist churches. The population of Turkey is approximately seventy five million.

Even in countries where we are the strongest ­ where we brag that 1 in 10 people in that country are Adventist ­ that is not success. That means that 90% of the people in that country have not been reached with the Three Angels Message.

Perhaps it’s time to examine this challenge from a new angle.

You, the living, breathing body of the Seventh-­day Adventist Church, have in your DNA a rich heritage.

You have adapted. You have adjusted. You have carried the mission.

But our world is changing. And the majority of the world’s population has poured out of rural regions and into urban centers. This has created megacities with populations in the millions. And it’s changed the DNA of our how we fulfill our Mission.

Our traditional methods to reach the masses have lost efficacy. Like our pioneers it’s time that we adapt. We are not called to change our “Message,” but our “Method.”

Ironically, the new angle we need may be a very old truth. It’s not about countries; it’s about people. Evangelism can be the natural by­product of a loving relationship between two people. And authentic, person to person missions can happen anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re called to the Ten Forty Window or the door of your parent’s house. Even business people and social media marketers know that the most trusted form of advertisement is word of mouth. People listen to those with whom they have a relationship. So we must build relationships and community with those outside our borders and beliefs, whether those are people of other faiths, or no faith, or our very own children.

We the Church can apply this old truth in a new way. Each of the world divisions has built aggressive strategies. Strategies like — Life Hope Centers, Centers of Influence, Comprehensive Health Initiatives, and Small Groups. With God’s help, we can and will reach the masses in these large urban centers.