DAWN Fridayfax 1995 #43

News from USA (California), Middle East, Cyprus, Switzerland, Vietnam

The Modesto Wonder

Most pastors would like to have Glen Berteau's problems. He is the pastor of the Calvary Assembly of God church in Modesto, California. 80,000 of Modesto's 176,000 inhabitants have attended the 28 performances of "Heaven's Gates and Hell's flames", a Christian drama about normal people who meet their creator.

According to reports, around 33,000 have declared interest in Christianity following the performances, and another 25,000 have filled out so-called "decision cards" which are distributed among 250 other churches. Many Modesto churches have added services to accommodate the growing attendance.

The Calvary Temple church has gained around 600 members since the performances started. This didn't all happen by accident, though. Pastor Berteau: "God showed me that the Holy Spirit would move when he met purified hearts. It was our responsibility to throw out all the dust, old ashes, doubt, self-satisfaction and compromise. Many church members prayed for months for unsaved friends, and some took part in a 40-day fast. For over a year, 50 pastors met every week for prayer."

The performances have now stopped because the performers are exhausted. According to Pastor Huffmann, 15 of the church staff have been working full-time since January to contact the people who have shown interest in Christianity. Most of these people had previously been 'unchurched'.

In Santa Maria, also in California, another church has started performances of the drama, with the result that over 200 people declare interest in Christianity each evening. The organiser, pastor Ben Ellswort: "I have never experienced anything like it. The drama has become the talk of the town."

Source: Charisma (USA), November 1995

Growing house-church movement in the Middle East

In the Middle East, new evangelistic models are constantly being developed which are not directly inspired by the Western churches and mission organisations, but which come from national leaders' own evangelistic vision. As a result of growing dissatisfaction with frequent failures resulting from attempts to copy Western models, Arab Christian leaders are seeking their own new ways.

One of these new ways is the growing house-church movement. In one Middle Eastern country, a Christian movement has been able to plant 86 new house churches in the last 5 years, as well as a number of others in other countries. This number is growing at the rate of about one per week.

One of the lessons has been to teach believers how to behave and meet in private houses so that neither the neighbours nor the Islamic religious police notice them. The movement's vision is to at least double its membership each year.

Source: name and address withheld.

Common vision in Cyprus

The Protestant churches on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus are ready for new cooperation. At a seminar from 20-21 October 1995 with pastors from 19 of the less than 26 evangelical churches in the Greek part of the island, a committee for Cooperative Evangelisation and Church Multiplication was founded under the leadership of Pastor Lakis Georgiou (Church of God). The main themes of the committee will be evangelistic research, prayer and mission strategy for planting new churches.

Source: R. Chritchlow, Fax +357-2-467178

Vineyard: from renewal to church-planting

10 years ago, John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard movement, called mainly for renewal within existing local churches. In the meantime, Wimber has changed his stance and now believes church planting to be the most effective form of evangelisation. This is also reflected by the Vineyard movement in the German-speaking world, as represented by Bern's Martin Buhlmann, who says that the aim of the Vineyard movement is not to build mega-churches, but 'regionalisation' and church-planting. By the end of 1996, there should be at least 20 Vineyard churches in the German-speaking countries.

Source: Martin Buhlmann, Basileia Vineyard, Bern (CH) Fax +41-31-3331519 Tel +41-31-3330430

Vietnam: pillar of fire in the sky introduces new evangelisation thrust

Eight percent of the 74 million Vietnamese are members of a tribe. In 1988, following terrible persecution of Christians, it was possible for the tribes to re-open some of their churches for the first time in 13 years.

"One night, seven of us met for prayer. Then we suddenly saw a pillar of fire outside the village... we now believe that we were visited by the Holy Spirit" says a pastor of the S'tieng tribe.

It was the start of re-evangelisation for this tribe; the number of S'tieng Christians in Song Be province has risen from a few hundred in 1988 to over 20,000 today. In addition to that, around 50,000 members of the Hmong tribe have been saved since 1989, and each of the 3,000 inhabitants of a Koho village have also become Christians.

Source: CSI - Christian Solidarity International Fax +41-1-9804715

This Web version of the DAWN Fridayfax is maintained by the Jesus Fellowship Church (Jesus Army) as a service to the Christian church. Please visit our web pages which feature the e-zine Streetpaper and its special Revival section.