DAWN Fridayfax 1995 #49

News from Canada, Mongolia, Zimbabwe

John Wimber and the Toronto Airport Vineyard separate

In a meeting on 6. December 1995, John Wimber ended his association with John Arnott and the Toronto Airport Vineyard. John Wimber went personally to Toronto to inform the leadership of the Toronto Airport Vineyard of the decision made by the governing body of the American Vineyard Churches. John Wimber emphasised that "the Toronto church is now working outside the mandate which God gave [him] for the Vineyard churches, and that in addition, [he] does not wish to permanently have to answer questions about the 'Toronto-blessing'." John Arnott, head pastor of the Toronto Airport church and his staff agree with the step, because they are "no longer restricted by denominational boundaries." According to the report, the separation was amicable, without anger or tension.

Source: John Arnott, Richard Riss

The post-Toronto phenomenon - when have we laughed enough and can go back to work? Most of the churches worldwide which have been affected by the Toronto-phenomenon are going through a phase of reorientation. The attitude of most pastors we meet is "We tried it, it didn't hurt, but it didn't help much either." Beside the many positive reports in the areas of counselling, self-discovery and honesty, and the extremely few reports in the areas of evangelisation and mission, there is now a fear growing in many churches that "the Toronto phenomenon" could become institutionalised. Many blessings have died as people tried to control it, organise it or to manipulate it to fit their personal beliefs. The Bible has no problems with people falling over, but it values more what they do when they stand up again. Whether we rest in the spirit or our flesh, there are still three billion completely unreached people in the world, of which the majority is under 15, people under the poverty line and in slums waiting to hear the gospel. In the new year, let's go together - as blessed as possible - to bring them this blessing! (Personal comments from Wolfgang Simson, Fridayfax Editor)

Mongolia: large missionary vision - "half" of the Mongolian pastors are missionaries

A few weeks ago, Ajurzanii Baatar told his life story to the Japan missionaries Rob and Jean Gill. Here's an extract from his report:

Bataar was brough up an atheist. His father was the Chief of Police in the Mongolian Communist party. In 1991, Bataar began to be interested in Christianity. His wife had been healed of her heart problems after receiving prayer from some Christians. He found his interest embarassing, so started to read the Bible on the toilet - the only private place in a Mongolian one-room apartment. Overcome by the love, truth and power of God, he gave his life to Jesus and three months later decided to devote his life to full-time ministry. At his first evangelistic meeting in 1992, 6 people accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour; after 3 months, he led a church of 60 and in the three years since then, the church has grown to 250. The people come from a radius of 200 miles. Pastor Bataar's vision is to plant a church in each town and village in Mongolia in the next 10 years. In 1990, there were less than 10 known Christians in Mongolia. According to Bataar, there are today over 5,000, and their number grows daily. There are still only 21 churches in the nation, which has 2.5 million inhabitants. Only two of them have Mongolian pastors; the others are led by foreign missionaries. Bataar is one of the two Mongolian pastors. He sent the other pastor as a missionary church-planter to the moslem Kazachs in the West of the country.

Source: Rob Gill, 102247.2527@compuserve.com

Please note: In a Fridayfax a few months ago, we reported that the number of churches in Mongolia had reached 2000. We have since heard that this is only partly true: the great majority of these are - according to informed circles - tiny groups of Mongolian Christians which have formed around foreign missionaries. Fridayfax Ed.

Zimbabwe: Church-planting through fire

Pastor Richmond Chiundiza felt the call to plant a large church in the centre of Harare after a DAWN seminar in 1987. He rented a cinema, and the services were soon filled with 700 people. The city's fire chief feared a catastrophe should a fire break out in the over-filled room and promptly threatened to close the church if only a single person too many visited the service. Chiundiza's solution: he sent 100 people away to start a new church. They were soon replaced by another 100, so Chiundiza had to send another 100 away to plant another church. In this way, the main church has planted 11 daughter churches.

Source: Ted Olson, DAWN Africa

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