Today’s Headlines:

COURT REFUSES TO RULE ON BAN OF CHURCH IN MADAGASCAR

HOUSE CHURCH IN CHINA GROWS TO 5,000 FROM 70 IN 3 YEARS

NEED FOR SPIRITUAL TRAINING INCREASES AS CHURCHES MULTIPLY IN CHINA

HOME-BASED CHURCHES IN SPAIN HAVE POTENTIAL FOR ‘HIGH IMPACT’

Today’s Top Stories:

Indonesian officers have detained five people, including a former soldier, following last month’s beheading of three teenage Christian girls in eastern Indonesia’s volatile Poso regency on Sulawesi Island. A spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the attacks were an attempt to reignite religious violence in the area. The grisly beheadings, which occurred on Saturday, Oct. 29, a few days before a major Muslim holiday, triggered an outcry in Poso and across Indonesia. “The role of these five people is still being investigated by police officers,” said deputy national police spokesman Soenarko Artanto. He refused to clarify whether the army is holding the five. The military have claimed credit for capturing four of them. Maj. Gen. Kohirin Suganda said the capture took place a few days ago. Police said that up to six people dressed in black outfits and masks killed the teenage schoolgirls with machetes near downtown Poso. (WorldWide Religious News/Reuters)

COURT REFUSES TO RULE ON BAN OF CHURCH IN MADAGASCAR

A court in Madagascar has refused to rule on the banning of the popular FPVM protestant charismatic church, saying only the president could overturn the ban after consulting the council of ministers the church’s appeal was referred to. The police closed the church in October after the interior ministry declared it a threat to public order. President Marc Ravalomanana, a “devout Christian,” is the deputy head of the island’s more traditional FJKM church who took office in a six-month revolution three years ago and was re-elected to his church post last year. The FPVM is accused of illegally occupying churches assigned to Ravalomanana’s church in southeastern Madagascar, but FPVM members said the landlords offered them the buildings, most of which are wood-and-thatch huts. The civil court said that it could not reopen the FPVM because it lacked the authority to overturn a ministerial decision of this nature. Local media has accused Ravalomanana of violating the country’s secular constitution. Approximately half of Madagascar’s population is Christian, belonging to established Protestant or Catholic churches. (WorldWide Religious News/BBC)

* HCJB World Radio has helped establish three Christian FM radio stations in Madagascar together with local partners. The most recent station went on the air in Ihosy in October 2003, broadcasting to the under-reached Bara tribe with additional programming in Malagassy, French and English. Partner stations also have been planted in the cities of Diego Suarez and Antananarivo.

HOUSE CHURCH IN CHINA GROWS TO 5,000 FROM 70 IN 3 YEARS

Southwestern China’s Guangxi province in has been, until recently, a spiritual “desert.” Idol worship was the norm, and the few Christians could not imagine revival. Recently, however, churches have begun growing rapidly. For example, three years ago a house church in one region had 70 members; today it has 5,000. The revival is being led by a middle-aged couple who were expelled from the state-sanctioned church (Three-Self Patriotic Movement) in 1998. They started a house church where they met sitting on the floor. (Friday Fax)

NEED FOR SPIRITUAL TRAINING INCREASES AS CHURCHES MULTIPLY IN CHINA

The rise of religion in China is catching the attention of the country’s leaders, says Erik Burklin of China Partner Ministries. However, there is a lack of trained pastors to lead the fast-growing churches. “Young emerging Christian leaders and pastors have to be trained to take on the ministry responsibilities being vacated by older pastors,” he said. A China Partner lecturing team recently finished a week of training at the newly established Christian Counseling Center in Nanjing, founded in 2002. “Around 40 people signed up for this training session from 40 different provinces,” Burklin said, adding that similar activities can be expected as churches continues to expand. In some areas Chinese government officials are cracking down on believers, but in other areas churches are being reopened and seminaries are being built. Church leaders are likely to continue on the path of specialized training to meet new needs as people discover themselves in Christ, Burklin said. (Mission Network News)

HOME-BASED CHURCHES IN SPAIN HAVE POTENTIAL FOR ‘HIGH IMPACT’

Greater Europe Mission (GEM) is determining how to minister to the Catalan people group in Spain where just one-fourth of 1 percent of the people are evangelical Christians. GEM’s Lauren Wells says the mission is rethinking how local churches reach out to the community. Wells says home-based churches have the potential for high impact and don’t use a lot of the “professionalism” that many people are wary of across post-Christian Europe where Catholicism and religious traditions have left many people skeptical of the church. “People will tell you face to face that they’ve had the gospel in their country for 2,000 years. But if we come as servants actually demonstrating to them . . . a Christian walk, they find that very, very attractive,” he explained. “GEM is hoping to provide much-needed support for those Catalan Christians who will step out in faith to reach Spain in new ways. It’s a crucial need, especially as home-based churches are rethinking the traditional methods of church.” (Mission Network News)

* HCJB World Radio has been operating Radio Vida, an FM station in southern Spain, since 1998. The station broadcasts the gospel in Spanish, English and Arabic, reaching listeners as far away as Morocco.