DAWN Fridayfax 2001 #19

Great Commission Roundtable

Network of networks forming

275 leaders of Evangelical missions organisations and networks from around the world met from 28. April to 1 May 2001 in Port Dickson, Malaysia for a strategic conference titled "Great Commission Roundtable", to coordinate the future strategies of evangelical churches and missions agencies, and encourage strategic partnerships. Recent research shows that over 1.6 billion people have not yet had the chance to hear of Christ, and only 2.5% of all missionaries work in outreach to unreached peoples. At the same time, new missions initiatives are permanently forming around the world - particularly in the non-Western nations - which seek to be globally active. The GCR aims to be a 'network of networks' encouraging all of Christianity to take the whole Gospel to the whole world, to function as a global forum for existing and emerging networks, to welcome fresh missionary initiatives, to win Christians all over the world for mission to unreached people groups, and to prepare the next generation of leaders for their task. Among other things, the conference defined a "Code of Best Practice for Network Relationships" to assist in the development of strategic relationships. The GCR was formed by leaders of the Lausanne Movement, the World Evangelical Fellowship, the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, which has now officially closed its offices, and other global networks.
Source and information: www.gcroundtable.net , e-mail info@gcroundtable.net

USA

"Search for the right church ends at home"

That was the title of a New York Times article on 29. April 2001. Laurie Goodstein interviewed David Ketchum, from Ilbraham, Massachusetts: "For the last 12 years, I dragged my wife and four children from church to church in a fruitless search for the ideal fellowship. I checked the Yellow Pages for churches which I had not yet visited," he says. His search has found an end, in Wayne and Charlene Wilder's house church, almost on his doorstep. They have no pews, no choir and no pastor, only armchairs and other people seeking deeper Christian fellowship than they found in institutionalised churches. "A growing number of Christians are simply no longer willing to support expensive marketing campaigns, multimedia Bible studies and Sunday services with the choreographic demands of a Broadway musical," says Goodstein. Prof. Nancy T. Ammerman, sociologist at Hartford Seminary, Connecticut, comments "This development shows people looking for faith's essence. They are no longer willing to finance huge buildings, a large staff, insurance policies, advertising campaigns and the leaking church roof, because it all seems simply irrelevant." "The challenge for many large churches today is how to be large and small at the same time," says Carol S. Childress, Information Director at the Dallas-based "Leadership Network", a consultancy group with contact to 5,000 large churches. "Anyone who fails to find at least two friends and be integrated into a home group within six months of joining a church, will leave," she says. According to the New York Times' report, an increasing number of Christians in the USA think like the Ketchums, and are setting to work themselves. The result are 'do-it-yourself' churches in people's homes. Over 1,600 such house churches can be found on web pages in the USA alone.
Source: New York Times

Mozambique

"You should all be dead - but you're alive!"

In 1995, Heidi and Rolland Baker travelled to Mozambique as missionaries, to work with street children in the world's poorest nation. Heidi became seriously ill in 1997, but was completely healed through prayer during a visit to the Toronto Airport Fellowship. Following their return to Mozambique, they now not only care for over 1,000 orphans, but also train pastors, who have planted over 500 new churches. In February 2001, they experienced Cholera epidemic in their missions center in Zimpeto. Many of their staff had to be taken to the primitive 'Cholera clinic' - a large tent with wooden bunks - in Maputo, the nation's capital. Maputo's health minister repeatedly shouted at Heidi, saying "You're to blame when half of Maputo dies!" Officials tried a number of times to determine the cause of the epidemic and close the missions center. Heidi spent hours with the sick children, holding them in her arms and praying for them. The doctors were shocked that permanent contact with diarrhoea and vomit did not seem to bother her, and that she was apparently not concerned for her own life. As many Christians around the world began to intercede, the children's condition started to improve, and there were no new cases. To the doctors' and nurses' astonishment, the children were soon back home. Maputo's health minister: "Hey, you! That is God! God is the only reason you survived! You should all be dead!" Eight of the Cholera Clinic's staff now want to work at the missions center. "That's a miracle. You know God! We've never seen such love before!", they said.
Source: Heidi and Rolland Baker, Mozambique, www.savemozambique.com

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