I’m not sure I can claim to have read this book because I skimmed a lot of it. Published in 2009, The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith is already a bit behind the curve. It’s still a good book filled with excellent scholarship. But the shape of the Church is changing so fast that a 3-year old book will already have outdated statistics.

The value of this book is seeing the change that is sweeping the Christian landscape and tracing that change back to American outreach efforts. I didn’t learn anything new here — but then I’m familiar with the changes and see them more often than most. What I read in the book simply restated what was right before us. Perhaps that’s amazing to people who haven’t been in Latin America, Africa or Asia in the past 10-years or so, but for the rest of us the message is both familiar and obvious.

I can recommend it to those who want to catch up with the trends. If you are already familiar with the changes, then the book may not offer much.

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