DAWN Fridayfax 2003 #45

Central Asia

Dream with consequences

"A friend recently told me of a friend of hers who had a strange dream. My friend asked me to visit her friend (let's call him Joseph) and speak with him, so I set off on my way. Joseph had a dream about Jesus. His job is cleaning a foreigner's small apartment; there is a picture of Jesus on the wall. Joseph once forgot to wipe the dust off the picture; the following night, he had a dream in which he saw the person in the picture (Joseph had no idea who it was). The person was surrounded by a broad flowing river in the middle of a religious building, and was being worshipped by a huge crowd. Joseph was surprised, because it is forbidden to worship people in Islam. The next day, Joseph went to his foreign boss to ask who the person in the picture was, and what the dream meant. His boss told him that the picture was of Jesus, who was also the central figure in Joseph's dream. Joseph then went to the local religious leaders, describing the dream, looking for answers and an explanation. They were worried, and sent him away, telling him that he was no longer a good Muslim. After speaking with him for several hours, it became clear to me that the dream had made a great impression on him, and that his heart had been changed. Since then, he has read a lot, and started on the Way of Life."
Source: www.frontiers.de

World

Digital overview: the World Christian Database

In order to provide an overview of the development of Christianity around the world, Prof. David Barrett published the World Christian Encyclopedia, a monumental work of 2,600 pages. This tome now has a digital successor: the World Christian Database, published by the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The following are two samples of the information, which is not yet always up-to-date:

The fastest-growing denominations

Nation	Denomination	Christian group	Growth % pa 1970-2000	Founded	Membership
Nepal	Baptist Church Council	Protestants	34.80%	1994	12,000
Nepal	Believers Church	Independents	34.80%	1994	18,000
Bangladesh	New Covenant Church	Independents	34.08%	1995	13,000
Albania	Christ Groups	Independents	33.35%	1992	2,000
Slovenia	Mormons	Christian sect	31.95%	1995	200
Kirgizstan	Mormons	Christian sect	29.17%	1993	9,000
Albania	Pentecostal	Independents	29.15%	1991	1,000
Mongolia	Mormons	Christian sect	29.15%	1991	2,000
Albania	Cornerstone Church	Independents	29.15%	1991	3,000
Armenia	Assembly Hall Churches	Independents	28.73%	1990	250
Benin	Eglise Pentecotiste Unie	Protestants	28.56%	1985	1,300
Britain	New Frontiers International	Independents	28.47%	1980	150,000
Bulgaria	Church of Varna	Independents	28.36%	1988	2,000
India	Prince of Peace Church	Independents	28.26%	1970	17,500
Albania	Broadsheet Readers' Clubs	Independents	28.21%	1990	1,200
Malawi	New Life Churches	Independents	28.21%	1990	12,000
Britain	Bridge Ministries	Independents	28.03%	1980	1,400
Ivory Coast	Eglise Quadrangular	Protestants	27.94%	1975	4,730
Belgium	Independent Charismatic Churches	Independents	27.88%	1985	20,000
Sierra Leone	New Apostolic Church	Independents	27.88%	1960	80,000

The most new believers each year

Nation	Religion	Sub-group	Members 2000	Conversions/year
China	Christians	Independents	85,535,627	2,149,145
China	Chinese Universalists	-	365,596,838	583,999
Philippines	Christians	Independents	17,602,820	375,867
USA	Christians	Independents	78,129,874	375,826
China	Buddhists	-	107,393,511	359,778
India	Christians	Independents	30,465,609	335,795
Russia	Christians	Orthodox	75,610,000	333,143
India	Ethnic religions	-	38,522,155	293,589
Kenya	Christians	Protestants	8,809,000	285,713
India	Moslems	-	123,390,137	277,899
Ethiopia	Christians	Protestants	10,383,080	213,379
USA	Non-religious	-	25,853,288	204,770
Nigeria	Christians	Catholics	15,424,007	204,456
Kazakhstan	Moslems	-	7,865,254	189,017
India	Christians	Protestants	18,061,870	182,116
Nigeria	Christians	Protestants	15,877,860	170,359
Angola	Christians	Protestants	3,092,950	130,875
Ghana	Christians	Protestants	4,566,432	125,063
Congo-Zaire	Christians	Catholics	27,066,941	124,788
Uzbekistan	Moslems	-	18,985,944	119,073


Source: www.worldchristiandatabase.org

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