DAWN Fridayfax 1996 #6

DAWN News from Philippines, India, Switzerland, Hong Kong

Philippines: TV as the church bell

A few missionaries were extremely surprised when watching the Philippine National Television on 27 January 1996: the newsreader closed the Saturday evening news broadcast with the following words: "Dear viewers, tomorrow is the Lord's day. Don't forget to go to church."

Source: Wolfgang Fernandez, DAWN Europa, FAX (44) 1734 - 412953

Tamil Nadu/India: Christians in every Taluk

Around 1,200 pastors, missionaries and church-planters attended a conference organised by CONS (Consultation on National Service) in Madras from 22-26 January 1996. The topic of the conference was how to reach all 60 million of Tamil Nadu's population with the gospel through church planting. Bobby Gupta, director of Madras' HBI Bible Institute and director of the national CONS movement stated that as a result of evangelistic work, there are now lively churches in every taluk (mini district) in Tamil Nadu.

In addition, there are regional evangelistic strategies in many parts of the state. Pastors present from the Nilgiris area close to the city of Coimbatore decided to co-operate to plant another 159 new churches, 79 of them before the year 2000, and to reach 40 as-yet-unreached people groups including the Vodaiyar, Thoriyas, Thodas, Kurumbar and Irullars. In the districts Changai MGR, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Pudukkotai, Dindugul Anna, Trichy, Tanjore, South Arcot, Nagapattinam, Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai and Periyar, the pastors agreed to mobilise another 343 pastors with the aim of planting 1,089 new churches.

Source: Bobby Gupta, CONS, Madras FAX/TEL (91) 44-6423664

Switzerland: new openness for church planting in the State churches

Almost 200 people attended a seminar with the theme "Church growth and church planting in the State church" organised by AGGA (Working group for church growth) in Basel, Switzerland. Georg Vischer, president of Basel's Church Council, had declared that church growth and church planting should also be central themes in the State church. Many church people, he says, "express themselved indecipherably for non-Christians".

Heinz Ruegger, the Swiss Evangelical Church Association's ecumenical representative, said that large churches should take new movements seriously and make room for them, and that it is a disaster that the State church is not driven by the desire to find new ways to communicate the gospel. He continued by saying that the Reformed church, which bears the flag of the "semper reformanda" principle, has also avoided any discussion about renewal and church planting as much as possible until now, and is intimidated by anyone who wants more than simply the "minimum religious diet" for the population.

Bob Hopkins, one of the initiators of the Anglican church-planting network in England indicated that successful church-planting and growth in the Anglican church is based partly in the rediscovery of basic articles of faith, in which the theologian John Stott has played an important role. According to Hopkins, additional services and new churches have complemented rather than replaced the traditional elements and services. Because of this, the more traditional members of the church have not been antagonised by the new movement.

Source: Pastor Roger Rohner, Basel, FAX (41)-61-3129888

Hong Kong fashion queen is saved

The trend continues: an increasing number of secular magazines are reporting regularly about Christianity. In its "Review" section, ASIAWEEK published a report titled "The day the sinning stopped" about the conversion of one of Asia's best-known fashion designers, Jenny Lewis. Lewis, who founded her fashion house in 1975, sold her company, which had a turnover of $6.5 million and today looks after the needy. It all started at her daughter Deborah's wedding in London in 1985, at which a Bible verse which the pastor read grabbed her attention: "And if I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3).

Back in Hong Kong, she visited one of Jackie Pullinger's meetings in the Walled City of Kowloon. "I could hardly keep the tears back. Everything I had worked for seemed suddenly so meaningless," Lewis said later. She converted to Christ from her "ultimate desire trip", as she describes it, and has become deeply involved in the Christian social area. One of Jenny Lewis' next aims, beside writing her memoirs, is to collect more than $6 million for the Children's' Foundation of Asia in order to help abandoned and mistreated street children.

Source: ASIAWEEK 19 January 1996

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.