DAWN Fridayfax 2003 #49

USA

Exact to the day - prophetic pregnancy

Conrad Lampan is an Argentinian evangelist now living in Wales, from where he regularly visits other nations to evangelise. On his web site, an American pastor wrote the following testimony: "When you were here on 3rd February 2002, I introduced you to a woman who was unable to become pregnant, as you may remember. She and her husband had been wrestling with this infertility for three years. When you prayed for her, you turned to me to say that all you heard from God was '10 months'. 'God says she will have her own baby in her arms in 10 months.' I replied 'Don't just tell me, tell her too,' which you did. You may also remember that I wrote to you when she became pregnant; the expected date of birth was within the 10 month period. We were all encouraged. The baby has now been born, a girl called Faith Elizabeth. She weighs 8 pounds (around 3.6 kg), and is healthy. The most interesting part of the story is perhaps that she was born on 3rd December 2002, 10 months to the day after the prophetic word you spoke. Isn't it astonishing: God knows every detail of our lives, including the day on which we will be born - Psalm 139:13-15."
Source: www.thesecondcall.org/news/tenmonths.htm

Germany

74% of German children believe in God

"Religion and faith again play a significant role in German children's lives. That is the result of a study performed by the Allensbach Institute for Demoscopy," reported the newspaper 'Die Welt' on 21st November 2003. 74% of the 6- to 12-year-olds interviewed stated that they believe in God. 58% indicated that they also pray regularly. There is an East/West divide: 82% believe in God in the West, whereas only 27% do so in the East.
Source: dpa, www.welt.de

Canada

Slow growth and honest questions

From 19th-21st November 2003, around 750 Christian leaders from various churches and movements gathered in Vancouver, Canada, for a national conference with the aim of documenting missionary progress in the nation. The conference was organised by Vision Canada, a movement related to the Dawn vision. One of the speakers was Claude E. Payne, Anglican Bishop in the USA, who aims to triple the 160 Anglican churches in his diocese by 2005. Because this can only happen through a miracle, the diocese also calls itself "Community of Miraculous Expectation".

615 new churches since 1997

There were 9,152 churches in Canada in 1997; this number has grown to 9,767 today. The number of churches has grown, but not as quickly as expected. In the first national conference in 1997, Canadian churches set themselves the aim of planting 10,000 new churches by 2015: "every existing church should plant two others; one to replace itself, because no church lives forever, and another to expand the Kingdom of God," says Murray Moermann, Coordinator of Vision Canada.

Christian faith growing, church attendance declining

A Canadian study published on 8th November 2003 reveals two trends: a growing number of Canadians have an Evangelical faith, but distance themselves from Christian churches. "It is obvious that Canadians do not like Canada's Christian churches. And perhaps the church will really form increasingly in houses and other small group forms," say Moermann and Lorne Hunter.

	1993	1996	2003
Forgiveness through Jesus	61%	63%	66%
Given my life to Christ	29%	35%	44%
Attend church every week	23%	21%	19%

Don't confuse me with the facts!

Church futurist Leonard Sweet ("Is the church a pink Cadillac with fins?") presented analysis of the incompatibility of the church with postmodern culture. "Evangelicalism has become an aggressive and insecure sub-culture," says Eddie Gibbs, Professor at Fuller Seminary, Pasadena. "For some time, I've been asking myself two serious questions: 'Does God really want more people like you and me on the face of the Earth?' and 'Does God really want more churches like yours and mine?' Could it be that in such a fragmented society, it is not the monopolies but 'only the paranoid' which survive, as Intel CEO Andrew Grove claims in his book?" he asks. Dr. Ken Stade, Director of Winnipeg's Seminary of Urban Ministry and national coordinator of Canada's growing house church network CHCN, commented "Many Christians say 'Don't confuse me with the facts!', and act Ostrich-like in a fear of facing the obvious and drawing the uncomfortable conclusions. The problem is not the analysis, but the fear of the unknown. That's exactly where our faith in the returning Christ should become active."
Source: NEXT... Congress, www.outreach.ca and kenstade@moderndigital.net

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