DAWN Fridayfax 1995 #45

News from USA, Greenland, Iceland, Germany

800 New Churches: the Foursquare Church's church-planting plans

Jim Hayford, Jack Hayford's brother, reports that the Foursquare Church, an American free church, has set clear church-planting targets. There are currently around 1,000 Foursquare churches in America; the denomination plans to plant 800 more in the 5 years before the millennium. Hayford, the church's director of church-growth, reckons that 175 churches will be planted each year, and that some of these will in turn plant other new churches. He says that the young churches are generally able to support themselves within 4-5 years.

Source: Jim Hayford, Fax +1-213-413-3824

1955-1995: 40 years of the church-growth movement

In honour of the 40th anniversary of the church-growth movement founded by the legendary Donald McGavran, the "American Society for Church Growth" invited 3 of the movement's critics (among others) to a seminar which took place from 16-18th November 1995 in Chicago. One of them, Dr. Walter Russel, Professor at the Talbot School of Theology, declared that the movement had mobilised many leaders and created the understanding that growth does not happen coincidentally, but that it can and should be a set target. The organisers reported that 20% of the 360,000 American churches already have a clear mission strategy which is supported by the church members.

Source: Wolfgang Simson

Prayer for Greenland: fewer alcohol-related crimes

Kjell Sjoberg, travelling intercessor from Bro near Stockholm (Sweden), makes it his business to discover the history of the church in a country, because, as he says, "It is the story of God's love for the country." His aim during his prayer-trips is "to analyse the errors made during the church history in a country, which have potentially become demonic habits." The first missionaries in Greenland, for example, were Danish Lutherans and German Herrnhuter missionaries. There was an immediate theological debate; Greenland's first church conflict in the middle of the 18th century. Open debates about differences between churches are one of Greenland's churches' main problems - in a country 6 times the size of Sweden, but with only 60,000 inhabitants.

Sjoberg mentions clear results of prayer when Christians intercede for forgiveness for historical sins. For example, Danish, Dutch and Scottish seamen brought alcohol to the early Greenlanders. In Nuuk, Greenland's capital, the police have their busiest night on Fridays, when around 1,000 of its 13,000 inhabitants get drunk. The fruit of prayer against alcoholism by an international group led by Sjoberg was immediately visible: the Greenland missionary John Ostergard Nielsen contacted the police the following morning "to ask how the night had been", and was told "unusually peaceful". The police had only had to deal with 4 alcohol-related incidents, in contrast with 23 the previous Friday.

Source: Kjell Sjoberg, Fax 46-8-582-46643

Iceland: reconciliation and spiritist scandal

Another report from Kjell Sjoberg:

When the reformation came to Iceland in the 16th century, it was bloodier than in the other Scandinavian countries. Two Catholic bishops were murdered by Lutherans. This blood-guilt was brought up in a prayer seminar, and two Catholics present spoke out forgiveness as representatives of their church. That evening, there was a report on TV about the Icelandic Catholics, who had made a procession that day in memory of the two murdered bishops. Two days previously, a journalist asked the Lutheran bishop: "Has not the time come to ask for forgiveness for the murder of the two bishops?" The Lutheran bishop could not understand why this would be necessary.
We also prayed that the Lord would show the Icelanders what powers are behind the spiritists which they frequently consult. Shortly after the prayer, Fridrik Schram, YWAM's leader in Iceland, reported that a woman had sued a well-known medium for making sexual approaches during a spiritist session. Other women also came forward and reported receiving similar abuse, and the man admitted his wrong behaviour. This was the first public report of a scandal among the spiritists in twenty years, and had obviously made people think.

Source: Kjell Sjoberg, Fax 46-8-582-46643

Ex-GDR: Angels guard church in a barn

In Zockau in the old East Germany in 1983, a small free church was founded. Gerhard Lohnert, an engineer, was at the time leader of the choir in the local evangelical church. His family was looking for deeper experience with God, "as we read in the Acts of the Apostles".

In 1984, they started a free church in a barn, where many miracles occurred. Lohnert says that in 1986, a child was healed of cancer. The doctors had given the child only 14 days to live, and they confirmed that a miracle had happened. The church was closed by the Stasi in 1986. During interrogation, the pastor was asked on which occasions the men wore white cloaks.

"I laughed until it hurt, because we never did anything like that", Lohnert remembers. The interrogator replied "We have seen men in white cloaks on your premises." Lohnert says that they reported this in the church later, and suddenly realised that they had often prayed "Lord, put angels around this house and grounds." He has no other explanation for the "men in white cloaks".

Source: H.Roder/G.Lohnert, Josua-Bote, Fax +49-30-672-1415

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