December 15, 2014 - Arriving at the Gerald R. Ford airport in my hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., from a recent trip, I struck up a conversation with my taxi driver.

I asked him what country he was from. "Ethiopia," he said. Then I asked if he happened to be part of a church. He immediately replied that he was part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. From my ecumenical experience, I've known that this is one of the larger churches in the world with an amazing history in the country of Ethiopia. But I was puzzled by its presence in Grand Rapids, so I asked my driver where he worshiped.

"We built a church on 28th Street," he replied. "And we have a priest from Ethiopia who serves us. His job is to constantly pray. We-the other Ethiopian Orthodox parishioners in Grand Rapids-support him. In fact," my driver continued, "today it is my turn to bring him his breakfast, lunch, and dinner."

A few months ago I attended a conference in Quito, Ecuador, for North American and Latin American church leaders on the theme "Faith, Economy, and Migration." I gave a presentation on my recent book, From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church. This was followed by a paper given by an official of the Ecuadorian government, Julian Guaman Gualli, on immigration trends in his country.

Mr. Guaman Gualli was intent on talking with me after the session. He is from the indigenous population of Ecuador-groups that traditionally have been located in the Andes and also in the remote Amazonian regions of the country. In a famous story of martyrdom known throughout the evangelical world and beyond, five U.S. missionaries who attempted to establish relationships with one of these tribes in the Amazon were killed in 1956. Subsequently others, including the widow of one of those killed, continued their efforts, resulting eventually in many of those tribal groups converting to Christianity.

Mr. Guaman Gualli was fascinated and excited by the picture of the religious impact of immigration to North America I had presented. He told me that he was a member of the Evangelical Church in Ecuador and that there were at least six congregations, including his own indigenous tribal group and others-metizos-who had established "intercultural" congregations worshiping in New York and Chicago.

At the Pentecostal World Conference held last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I was part of a delegation from Global Christian Forum joining about 3,700 Pentecostals from around the world. We heard some of the world's best-known Pentecostal preachers, including some unknown in North America.

We listened, for instance, to Rev. Enoch Adeboye, head of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Founded in Nigeria in 1952, this church is representative of "African Instituted Churches"-denominations begun not by Western missionaries but by indigenous African leadership, often stressing uniquely African cultural characteristics.

The Redeemed Christian Church of God now has an estimated 5 million members in 147 countries, including 720 congregations in the U.S. Its U.S. headquarters is in Floyd, Texas, a town north of Dallas that is home to about 220 people. The Redeemed Christian Church of God has built a worship pavilion to hold the 10,000 people who come for revival meetings and other services. Its U.S. director, Pastor James Fadele, says, "Because heaven is real, God is real. And that is why we want to plant churches like Starbucks."

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