Two years ago, Nigerian pastor Jerry Eze arrived at Twickenham Stadium in London — the world’s largest rugby venue, capable of seating 82,000 people — and for a moment, he wondered whether he had made a mistake. The arena seemed impossibly vast, the rows of seats stretching away from him nearly empty.

But as the start time approached, worshippers began to arrive. They filled the seats one by one. Soon, the stadium was packed — not with rugby fans or concertgoers, but with thousands who had come to pray with an African preacher. (source)

That moment, Eze told CNN, showed him something about how Christianity is changing around the world. He describes himself simply as “a missionary to the West.”

A New Direction on the Missionary Map

For generations, Christian mission flowed primarily from Europe and North America to Africa. Missionaries often arrived alongside colonial forces, and that history still shapes how the word “missionary” is heard in many African communities.

That pattern has not disappeared. The United States remains the world’s largest missionary-sending country by far. Only last month, American missionary Kevin Rideout was released after nine months in captivity in Niger, where he served with an organization that has operated in the country for more than a century. (source)

But the traffic is now moving in two directions. A new generation of African Christians is carrying the gospel into Europe, North America, Asia, and beyond.

“When I was growing up, the common picture of a missionary was a Westerner coming to Africa,” Tshepang Basupi, the Southern Africa director of Africa Inland Mission, told CNN. “Today, we have Africans going to other parts of Africa, to Asia, to Europe and to North America.” Basupi, who is from Botswana, leads more than 100 missionaries and helps recruit Africans for cross-cultural mission work. (source)

The Scale of the Shift

The numbers tell part of the story. In 2008, approximately 18,400 African missionaries were serving outside the continent. While direct comparisons are difficult with more recent data, a 2024 Lausanne Movement report found that Nigeria alone sent an estimated 20,000 missionaries abroad in 2020. (source)

CAPRO, a Nigerian mission organization, now has over 800 missionaries from more than 27 countries working in 46 nations worldwide — including Canada, where its teams evangelize among indigenous communities. Dondo Iorlamen, CAPRO’s international director, puts the reason plainly: “Africa and Asia are the leading mission-sending regions in the world.” (source)

The demographic reality behind this is clear. A Pew Research Center study found that while Christianity declined across Europe (from 75% to 67% of the population between 2010 and 2020) and North America (from 77% to 63%), the number of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa grew by 31% over the same period — reaching 697 million. Sub-Saharan Africa is now home to the world’s largest Christian population. (source)

What African Missionaries Bring

Eze believes the influence of African missions comes partly from how Christianity is practiced at home.

“For us here in Africa, it is the fervency and the zeal with which we do it. There’s an African passion and stamina,” he said, adding, “the fire is leaving the West.” (source)

Nigerian pastor William Kumuyi, whose Global Crusades have taken his ministry across continents, describes African Christianity as “characterized by unreserved faith, fervent prayer, and reliance on God’s supernatural intervention.” He believes African churches can offer Western societies “a rekindled passion for the authority of Scripture, holiness of life, and expectancy for miracles.” (source)

Harvey Kwiyani, a Malawian theologian based in England who studies African Christianity in the West, notes that the mission includes restoring Christian values that some believe the West has moved away from. “The Africans are coming in to re-evangelize Westerners so they can go back to what they consider Christian values,” he told CNN. (source)

At the same time, Kwiyani is cautious about how far the movement can reach. The West has, to a great extent, “moved on from Christianity,” he observes, and many Westerners no longer consider themselves religious. “Christianity itself is a very demanding religion. It requires you to sort of shift your culture so you can be shaped by this golden spirit that most Westerners don’t really want to deal with at the moment.” (source)

A Complicated Reality

The movement is not without complexity. African churches in the West often serve migrant communities first. CAPRO acknowledges that their churches are growing fastest among Africans abroad, not among native-born Western populations. Kumuyi insists, however, that the goal is not to build ethnic enclaves. In Canada, his congregations operate in Granby, Toronto, and Hamilton — and the focus, he says, is the broader host population. (source)

The growing movement is sometimes called “reverse mission,” but that label carries assumptions not everyone accepts. Basupi rejects the term outright: “‘Reverse mission’ assumes that mission belongs to the West and that Africa is simply reversing the direction of Western missionary movement. Mission is not for the West only; it is for every believer.” (source)

What This Means for the Church

For Christians in the United States — and for organizations like Bethel that support educational and missionary work — the flip in the missionary map is an invitation to see the global church differently.

First, the center of Christian gravity has shifted. The fastest-growing Christian populations are in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Nearly 69% of Christians now live in the Global South. The church in the West is not the sending center it once was, and that is not necessarily a loss — it is an opportunity for genuine partnership.

Second, the word “missionary” itself needs rethinking. If the future of mission includes Africans preaching in London stadiums and serving in Canadian indigenous communities, then the mental image of a missionary needs to expand. Mission is not a one-way street. It is a global movement in which every believer participates.

Third, partnership is the right posture. African church leaders do not say Western missionaries are no longer needed in Africa. As Basupi put it, “There is room for everyone. We should come as equal partners and fellow servants, learning from one another and contributing where we are needed.” (source)

Eze is preparing to return to Britain soon — this time for a conference at Manchester’s Old Trafford stadium, with nearly 100,000 people already registered. Two years after Twickenham, the movement is still growing. As he describes it: “They preached God to us. We accepted Him and wanted to know Him. Now, we’re going back to show them what He can do.” (source)

Sources

• CNN, Nimi Princewill — Missionaries Are Still Going to Africa. But for African Christian Leaders, It Is the West That Needs Help. Published September 4, 2026. edition.cnn.com/2026/09/04/africa/africa-changing-missionary-map-intl
• Mezha — African Churches Are Sending Missionaries to the West as Christianity Shifts South. Published September 4, 2026. mezha.net/eng/news/aaba2f03_african_churches_are