India (MNN) — Asian economies will post strong growth in 2007, achieving an economic expansion of 8.3 percent in 2006–the fastest rate in over a decade. Rapid growth in China and India accounted for some 70 percent of the region's economic expansion in 2006.
With growth rates that expansive, India now has a big economic divide. However, there is actually a middle class growing and prospering, with more cars and more consumer goods. The sheer numbers of this group makes India a major economic player in the scope of global economy.
Global Advance's Jonathon Shibley Marketplace Missions says their recent Marketplace Missions visit was aimed at preparing Christian business leaders to understand the potential, "…and letting them see the historical hour that they are in with this new rise of multinational companies coming into India. [It's] the new opportunity, the new economy, how God wants to use them as leaders in the new economy to shine His light, His glory."
As a result, people are beginning to take their own initiative to start kingdom-business associations. Shibley notes in one article he penned, "God is looking for on-fire, full of the Spirit, sold-out men and women functioning as bankers, lawyers, business owner, retailers, teachers, entrepreneurs, and homemakers to penetrate this world with His ways, His justice, and His glory."
The Church in developing nations is ready to learn skills and knowledge that will propel it out of economic-dependency living. One major way this will happen is that droves of Marketplace Missionaries from the West will invest slices of their time, talents and money towards the development of our brothers and sisters in less developed nations.
This story is about more than the bottom line. It's about pastors and Christian business leaders in developing nations are ready for a move of God in the marketplace. Click here if you want more information about Marketplace Missions Seminars.
