DAWN Fridayfax 1999 #08

News from Norway, Indonesia, Denmark, Egypt, Germany

In this issue:
Norway: Church-planting as missionary strategy
Indonesia: Over 1,200 baptised during Christmas
Denmark: Pentecostals and Baptists plant church together
Egypt: Taxi driver buys video recorder because of the Jesus film
Germany: God's chilly blessing

Norway: Church planting as missionary strategy

"Jesus Revolution" reaches 20,000

According to DAWN research in Norway, 13 new Christian churches were planted there in 1998. Several years ago, Norway's state and free churches agreed on a target of planting 500 new churches by the year 2005; this aim was confirmed at another DAWN conference in November 1998. "Today, church planting is on the agenda of almost all Norwegian denominations," say Augland and Jenssen, members of the Norwegian DAWN committee. "An increasing number of churches recognise church planting as a missionary strategy."

New forms of evangelisation are also being developed: aside from a youth church in Oslo targeting punks, the "Jesus Revolution" movement has been able to reach 20,000 people wiht the gospel - no mean achievement for such a small country. The movement's vision is to start evangelistic cell- and house churches in all Norwegian schools.

Source: Oyvind Augland/Jan Inge Jenssen

Indonesia: Over 1,200 baptised during Christmas

House churches start spontaneously

Eddie Leo, a pastor in Jakarta, already reported last summer that the cell church movement which he leads grew from 5,000 to 6,000 members in the 3 weeks following the outbreak of persecution in the country. Following a visit to Jakarta, Christian Schwarz from the Institute for Natural Church Development in Germany reports that the movement baptised a total of 1,265 people during Christmas 1998. Pastor Eddie adds that this sometimes results in new house churches being started spontaneously. One new Christian returned to his home in one of the provinces and started a church only 3 days later; together with 2 other new believers, he invited friends and relatives, all from a non-Christian background. They only knew one Christian song, so they sang it 7 times - "Then the Holy Spirit came on everyone, and the visitors fell to the ground and behaved very strangely," he said. The greenhorn pastor quickly telephoned the pastor in Jakarta, who explained that it was probably demons manifesting, and that he should command them to leave the people in Jesus' name. He followed the instructions, and the people were delivered and all decided to follow Jesus.

Source: Pastor Eddie/C.A. Schwarz

Denmark: Pentecostals and Baptists plant church together in Bornholm

Even if the situation is different to that in Indonesia, church planting is an important topic in Denmark. In the last 11 years, some 150 new churches were planted, of which 90 survived, according to DAWN research. "Strategic church planting is mentioned almost every week in the Chrisitian media," says Svend Madsen, one of the leaders of the Danish DAWN movement. "The basic understanding that church planting is the most effective method of evangelisation has been accepted even by the more traditional Lutheran churches," he said at a DAWN conference near Interlaken on 9 February. "Some Lutheran pastors have already started new fellowships within the existing structures. In 1998, 7 new churches were started, with several more just starting." "On the island of Bornholm, Baptists and Pentecostals have started a joint venture church in Nexo."

Source: Svend Lobner Madsen, dawn@email.dk

Egypt: Taxi driver buys video recorder because of the Jesus film

"There were more Christian exhibitors than ever before at the Cairo Book Fair," reports one of the exhibitors. 18 different Christian stands all reported good sales. Even though the Jesus film has been available for four years, it is still the most attractive item they have to offer. "Wherever the film is shown, it attracts crowds, particularly the crucifiction scene. It is moving to see how often people from all religions have tears in their eyes when they see this scene," says the report. As the daughter of one of the exhibitors spoke with a taxi driver about the Book Fair, he told her that he had bought the video a few days before. When she mentioned that her father was one of the exhibitors selling the film, the taxi driver said "Tell your father that I will buy a video recorder to watch the Jesus Film!"

Source: Name and address withheld

Germany: God's chilly blessing

"I want to bring people to the gospel, not to wine," says the Christian vintner Manfred Weber from Alzey. "On principle, I don't work on Sundays, unlike many of my colleagues." "One year, we had a particularly strong frost. The other vintners had already harvested their grapes, but we were not yet finished because of not working on Sundays. As a result of the unexpected early frost, we harvested 1,500 liters of the very desirable ice wine, which brought us a profit of some 25,000 Deutschmarks (around $15,000). God blesses us when we follow his instructions," he says.

Source: Manfred Weber, Alzey

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