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India: at least 400 new fellowships started in the last two years in Madras
alone
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On 4th October 1996, around 500 pastors attended a conference hosted by pastor
D. Mohan of the Little Mount Assemblies of God fellowship, Sam Sundaram, Henry
Joseph and others to continue work on a common strategy for saturating Madras, a
city of 7 million, with the gospel. On 1st August 1994, 150 pastors met for the
first time to plan their response to the evangelistic challenge of planting one
church for every 1,000 inhabitants. In 1989, the city had around 700 churches, a
number which had doubled to 1,400 by the time of the 1994 conference; recent
surveys by Madras' church-growth researcher Subramaniam Pillai and Albert
Vasantaraj of the Church Growth Association of India show that there are now
between 1,800 and 2,000 churches in the city. That is a growth of between 400
and 600 in the last two years. The Apostolic Christian Assembly in the
Purasawalkam district, led by Sam Sundaram, is currently experiencing
significant growth - up to 10,000 people meet there for the Sunday service at
7a.m.
Source: Wolfgang Simson, DAWN International Network, fax (+44)-118-9412953
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Brazil: The Methodists are growing
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"We have been experiencing 33% annual growth since 1992," says the Brazilian
Methodist bishop Adriel. "Most of the churches are planted by laypeople, and I
can't find time to personally consecrate them all!" Reiner Dauner, the German
Methodist church's Representative for Church Growth, flew to Rio for the 17th
Methodist World Conference. The Conference is held every 5 years and attended by
visitors from 71 Methodist Associations from 107 nations, who represent a total
of 65 million people in the Methodist World Council. There, Dauner met Paulo
Lockmann, Rio de Janeiro's Methodist bishop, who told him that of the 180
churches for which he is responsible, 173 are "Charismatically-oriented" and
that one fellowship gained 530 members and planted three other fellowships in
1995. The fellowship bought a house to care for 28 of the street children, and
one of the teachers from the church has become their "new mother". Dauner was
able to visit the church and reports "The church, which seats 400, was
overfilled. I was told that the evening services are the same, and that a weekly
healing service on Monday afternoons - which is advertised on the radio - is
also always oversubscribed."
Source: Reiner Dauner, fax (+49)-7129-60288
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Albania: to counter the spiritual 'infant death' - care by discipleship
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Horrified by the fact repeatedly revealed by studies that only between 0.1% and
4% of so-called 'new converts' from large evangelistic crusades remain committed
Christians and join churches, Berlin mission-leader Eckhard Neumann seized the
initiative and searched for ways to improve the situation. To start with, he
listened to what he heard from others and asked several mission agencies what
they considered to be the reasons for the high "spiritual infant death". The
most important result: "The 24-48 hours following conversion are decisive.
Immediate spiritual care is the most important factor." In August 1996, Neumann
and "Missionswerk Josua" which he leads went to Elbasan, Albania for a 4-day
evangelistic event with the German evangelist Walter Heidenreich. Johannes
Klatte, leader of a Bible school in Elbasan, had trained Christians in the local
churches for 3-6 months how to make disciples. "Every Christian must know how to
look after their own disciples for around 6 months," he says. The result: the
gospel was presented to around 12,500 people, of which 500 decided to start a
new life with Christ. They were immediately given into the care and discipleship
of Albanian Christians. First results show that between 12% and 15% of the
converts have already become committed members of local churches - a rate of 3
to 4 times the maximum predicted by the statistics of global evangelistic
crusades.
Source: Eckhard Neumann, fax (+49)-30-6721415
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Baptism survived!
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Pastor M. Lander of the Christlichen Zentrum in Saalfeld, Germany, took Paul's
words that we are "baptised into death" quite literally. An ex-sportsman asked
to be baptised at minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit). Neither the pastor nor the
person being baptised became ill.
Source: Josua Bote, fax (+49)-30-6721415
