DAWN Fridayfax 1996 #5

DAWN News from Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Switzerland, England, Spain

Malaysia: 600 new churches since 1992 - Christianity is the country's fastest-growing religion

"It is becoming known that Christian churches, in contrast to the other religious groups in the country, are places where lives are changed" - a remark made by Daniel Ho, director of the National Evangelical Fellowship, following the 1995 2nd DAWN Congress in Malaysia, a 40% Islamic country in south-east Asia.

Ho, who has in the meantime been elected chairman of the Malaysian DAWN Committee, continues: "Christianity is the fastest-growing religion in our country. Our progress since our first DAWN Congress in 1992 makes it clear that we can reach our aim of planting 4,000 new churches before the year 2000. At the 2nd Congress, 72 representatives of 22 churches and organisations reported that they had planted 308 churches since 1992."

He is convinced that the total number is around twice that - around 600 new churches since 1992, and says that above all, the Anglican church has caught the DAWN vision: "The Anglican bishop experienced personal renewal in 1989 and 1990, and was radically changed. Since that time, his denomination has grown more than in the preceding years of his period in office. The Anglican church intends to plant 200 new churches before 2000, which is 5% of the national aim."

He continues: "It is not unusual to hear of churches which pray all night and hold regular days of prayer and fasting."

Source: Daniel Ho

China: officials provoke church-planting

The mission agency Open Doors reports that between 40 and 60 new house churches have been planted in Peking since November 1994 by Christians from a single church. The Chinese government originally intended to "tame" a church which had become uncomfortable for them by replacing Yang Yudong, head pastor of the state-registered "Three Self Church Gangwashi" with one more loyal to the system. Many Christians left the church in protest - and planted up to 60 new, officially unregistered and unwanted, churches.

Source: Open Doors

Vietnam: 12,000 new believers in one year

According to Johan Companjen, Open Doors International's new president, the movement around Pastor Tu in Vietnam gained 12,000 new believers in 1995, making the movement the fastest-growing in the country.

Source: Open Doors

Germany, Austria, Switzerland (= D A CH, the German for roof): "Coming wave of church-planting"

According to the Swiss Basileia Vineyard Bern, over 100 people took part in two Vineyard seminars in Hamburg and Munich in November 1995. The Vineyard coordinators and pastors Bob Fulton, Martin Buhlmann, John Mumford and Peter Eirich encouraged the participants to plant churches. The Vineyard movement will probably plant 5 new churches by May 1996 and adopt another 2. The participants' main interest, according to the organisers, seemed to be "to start a wave of church-planting in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is not only the Vineyard movement which has noticed this trend."

Source: Basileia Vineyard Bern

England: most churches are growing

A study recently published to mark the 150th year of the Evangelical Alliance UK's existence shows that more than half of the local churches associated with the organisation have grown in the last 12 months. Of the approximately 1,100 churches in 12 denominations which returned the questionnaire, 53% are growing, according to Keith Ewing, the EA's head of public relations. The membership has remained steady in one third of the churches, and only 14% have shrunk in the last year. Half of the churches report that the number of children attending the services has also grown in the last year. John Earwicker, the EA's Church Life director, says "the results of the study are encouraging, and show that the churches are more active than we previously realised."

Source: EA, Keith Ewing, Tel (44) 0171-2072116

Tenerife: tourists also have time for God

The English-speaking evangelical church in Los Christianos' Apolo Center in the south of the Spanish island of Tenerife continues to attract people. The church, called the "South Tenerife Christian Fellowship", led by a team of elders and pastor Tom R., has a highly visible office directly above a large shopping centre and evangelises among the hundreds of thousands of tourists every day. Both Sunday services are well attended, and alone on Sunday 28 January 1996, 5 new converts were baptised in the sea in front of a large crowd. The church now needs to find larger premises with room for more than 300 people.

Source: STCF, Apolo Center, Los Christianos

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