DAWN Fridayfax 2004 #10

USA

Church planted over the internet

"I recently received an e-mail from a friend on the East coast of the USA who had led someone to Christ over the internet. It turned out that the person lived in Austin, Texas, as do I. My wife Felicity and I met the couple; three short weeks later, they had a new church in their house. Yesterday evening, there were already 12 participants, and we had a fabulous time! For me, that is another example of finding 'people of peace' (see Luke 10) in their home, bringing Christ into their sphere of influence. Similar things are happening all over the nation," says Tony Dale.
Source: Tony Dale, www.house2house.tv

USA

20 house churches in one year

Since a regional conference in Raleigh, North Carolina last year, twenty new house churches have formed. It doesn't stop there, though: the new movement has already started thinking about multiplying itself, and is training the next generation of church planters using Tony and Felicity Dale's "Getting Started" material.
Source: Tony Dale, www.house2house.tv

India

How 1,000 new church planters were born in "the missionaries' graveyard"

Bihar, a State in northern India with 87 million inhabitants, was known as "the missionaries' graveyard". In the past five years, though, the picture has been a little different: some 1,000 church planters were trained in the area, according to the Dawn Report. What happened? "Most important was training new believers and established Christians to spread the Gospel in an oral culture. The results are better than we could have dreamed," say Rev. Jim Bowman and his wife Carla. In 1998, they started training 120 evangelists and pastors in oral communication, with astonishing results, as the participants started putting that which they had learned into practice: one pastor has planted 30 new churches, another 20, others 5, 15 or 17 - unheard of in Bihar!

How people in oral cultures retain information

American anthropologist Paul Hiebert points out four aspects important in organising, retaining and communicating information in oral cultures:

• memories: poems, songs, riddles, proverbs
• symbols: colours, art, images, carvings
• stories: storytelling, drama, dramatic dance
• rituals: basic creed and ideas as theatre

Traditional evangelistic concepts such as tracts and Bible studies have little effect, because many people in tribal societies and villages are illiterate; written information has very little value for them. The evangelists were trained to use stories, songs and metaphors to communicate the Gospel. In five years, over 1,000 church planters have been trained, who are leading thousands of people to Christ, and planting new churches.

Some of the characteristics of the church planters

• 80% are Biharis, 20% missionaries from other Indian cultures
• 60% are full-time church planters, 40% part-time
• 80% are directly involved in church planting, 20% in social ministry
• 80% are less than 30 years old


Source: www.dawnministries.org

World

Did you know...?

• There are 6.2 billion people alive
• 600 million churchgoers every week
• 1.5 billion Christians who regularly listen to or watch Christian radio and TV
• 1,883 million 'laypeople' (99.8% of church membership)
• 150 million Christian pilgrims each year
• 250 million Christians who travel abroad as tourists each year
• 50 global prayer networks (35 active)
• 25 million in full-time prayer ministry
• 15 million weekly prayer groups
• 200 million Christians praying for world mission every day
• 3.45 million local churches
• 33,800 denominations
• 23,000 ministries and agencies
• 400,000 base ecclesial communities
• 481,000 Christian institutions
• 170,000 Christian schools
• 1,500 Christian colleges and universities
• 4,800 Bible Schools and Theological Seminaries
• 5,500 Christian hospitals
• 30,000 Christian medical centres
• 58% of Christians are rich (11% wealthy, 37% comfortable, 10% getting by)
• 42% of Christians are poor (29% needy, 13% in poverty)
• average Christian income: US$ 8,050 p.a.
• average donation per person and week: US$ 2.75
• 1.1 million ordained clergy (8% women)
• 500,000 monks and 1.3 million nuns
• 1.2 million professional theologians
• 3,000 evangelistic events each year


Source: World Christian Trends, William Carey Library, David Barrett & Todd Johnson, http://www.gem-werc.org/gd/gd.htm in "Resources for Mission"

Switzerland/Africa

"The Kingdom of God is more than just eating and drinking"

It all began in Berne, Switzerland: a young African stood with a small group near the restaurant where Martin Bühlmann and Bene Müller, Senior Pastor and worship leader of the Vineyard Berne eat lunch. Martin and Bene spoke with the group, inviting them to church. The following Sunday, some of the men came, and experienced God. One of them, Cosmos Touleassi, had a vision one night that week, and became a follower of Christ, and lived his new faith as a refugee from Togo, Western Africa. In the following years, Cosmos and his wife Peace train others part time to follow Christ. They later returned to Togo, to plant Vineyard churches; today, Cosmos and Peace are the national leaders of the Vineyard movement in Togo, with 80 associated churches. God often performs miracles in the midst of the nation's economic difficulties; in 2001, a 4-year-old boy was raised from the dead in one of Togo's Vineyard churches, with the result that over 150 people, predominantly Muslims, decided to follow Christ.
Source: Mark Moser, mark.moser@vineyard-bern.ch

This Web version of the DAWN Fridayfax is maintained by the Jesus Fellowship Church (Jesus Army) as a service to the Christian church. Please visit our web pages which feature the e-zine Streetpaper and its special Revival section.