The emerging world is uncertain, chaotic and characterised by a major crisis of confidence.

But how do Christian leaders in different parts of the world see it? One answer is provided by the recently published Global Voices Report, which seeks to be a “window into the state of the church and its readiness to respond to the calling of Jesus in our time”, says Lausanne Movement global research director Matthew Niermann.

1,030 Christian leaders from 119 countries in the world have answered to questions in June and July 2025.

Building on the vast network of evangelical leaders who attended the Fourth Lausanne congress in Seoul in 2024, this new annual survey, based on the testimony of influential people at the grassroots level, will measure the action of churches each year.

5 major challenges identified

The first barrier to the gospel identified is the cultural influence of secularism, a growing trend worldwide but dominant in Europe and North America, where it has “reshaped public life, relegating faith to the margins and eroding Christianity's influence in culture”.

This external factor is closely followed by an internal enemy: the scandals of corruption, abuse, and moral compromise that “have damaged trust both inside and outside the church”, says the report. Leaders who responded to the survey “recognised that no strategy can overcome the loss of credibility that results when integrity is compromised”. The lack of integrity of a leader who claims to follow Jesus Christ is devastating to the confidence of believers and the witness to society as a whole.

This collapse of confidence can also be clearly seen in the rest of society, which adds the challenge that “the church must now earn relational credibility in contexts of suspicion and doubt”.

The political radicalisation observed in many regions of the world and polarisation are also in the top five of the main challenges identified (“ideological division has seeped into churches and distracted from mission”), joined by a final internal factor: theological divisions within Christianity, which “cloud the clarity of the gospel”.

The new world to come

The report, which can be downloaded in full here, also asked a thousand church leaders around the world about the realities for which churches are unprepared. These are areas where “the churches lag behind the cultural moment”.

Radical politics are the clearest example, according to those surveyed. Churches also struggle to offer gospel perspectives on questions of human identity and the rise of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. The general crisis of confidence and climate change round out the top five.

The 39-page report, which also addresses opportunities and strengths for the Church, concludes that “the opportunity is urgent: to raise up a globally-minded, culturally aware, and theologically grounded church, one ready not only to survive these global shifts, but to prophetically lead within them”.