DAWN Fridayfax 1998 #45

Colombia: national churches growing quickly

The country is in a continued state of change, and the Evangelical churches are benefitting. One year ago, a new religious law declared that Colombia is no longer a Roman Catholic nation. The shattering of the religious monopoly had immediate effect: schools have already asked Evangelical Christians for help in teaching the basics of the Bible. In 1992, most of the nation's Evangelicals joined in the DAWN-based movement "Colombia Today and Tomorrow" with the aim of planting 18,000 new churches by the year 2002, which would result in some 15% of the population being members of Evangelical churches.
Missionaries leave - the churches grow
As a result of the civil war between the Drug Mafia, nationalistic rebels and the government, many Western missionaries have left the country, with positive effect on church growth: many missionary initiatives have been taken over by Colombians. The Colombian Bible League, for example, has held church planting schools resulting in 350 new churches in places which previously had no church.
City projects: church growth over 500%
The development is particularly obvious in some cities. In Cartagena, the number of Evangelical churches grew from 67 in 1990, with an attendance of 8,550, to 95 in 1995, with an attendance of 25,582, and to 140 in 1998 with an attendance of 31,448. 1.5% of the city's population was Christian in 1990, according to Christ for the City's Oscar Vero; today, the figure is 3.1%. Medellin had only 4 churches in 1964, 75 in 1985 and 111 in 1990, with an attendance of 12,041. Today, the city has 259 churches with 67,918 visitors. The development in Cali, the drug capital and center of the Roman Catholic church in Latin America, is also interesting: in 1992, there were 105 churches with 15,750 visitors, and 220 churches with 105,675 visitors in 1998.
'Garage church' with 50,000 visitors
The growth is also continuing in other towns and cities, such as Bogota, the capital. Ricardo Rodriguez started with a small congregation in a garage. Today, the house church-style movement has grown to 50,000 members which meet for 7 celebration services each Sunday. Rodriguez says that the success is based on two dynamic principles: first, that the pastor steps down from his accustomed throne, and secondly, the return to the New Testament house churches, where Christians met in their houses and extended family groups.
Source: Josu