AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER

* THE STATUS OF GLOBAL MISSION IN 2007

* HOLY SPIRIT STIRS UP HUNGER FOR GOD IN RUSSIAN YOUTH

* BOLD ADVANCE OF THE CHURCH IN INDONESIA

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THE STATUS OF GLOBAL MISSION IN 2007

Every year Prof. David Barrett, editor of the World Christian Encyclopaedia, and Todd Johnson of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, publish their Status of Global Mission. Through incorporating secular as well as church-based sources this is probably one of the most comprehensive databases in the world. The Status of Global Mission shows gradual changes in the global population and the ‘market share’ of the world’s leading religions.German missions strategist Wolfgang Simson compared the status reports of consecutive years, and observes some major shifts in the making, that don’t yet show up in the global statistics. “The growth of both Islam and Hinduism is slowing down,” he says.”Officially, in the current number of Hindus many are counted in who would not consider themselves Hindus any more. Amongst them are many millions of Dalits (Low Cast or Outcast people groups) in India that are getting ready to leave organized Hinduism forever. Some of their own political leaders are rallying a massive religious change, which will lead to a seismic landslide in the set-up of India. In this case, India will cease to be a majority-Hindu nation, and in all probability become a majority-Christian nation, the largest Christian democracy in the world.””During the last few years, the greatest number of converts from Islam to Christianity has been reported since history. This steady and even growing stream of Christians seems to spread across most Muslim nations in the world today, starting amongst those that are considered Soft-Islam (where the Islamic Sharia law is not implemented) to those that are considered Hard-Islam. Underground/Housechurch-based Christianity is the main ecclesiastical vessel that carries this development.”Barrett and Johnson’s Status of Global Mission shows that the number of ‘Great Commission Christians’ is growing, as well as the giving to Christian causes. On the downside however, in terms of volume, ecclesiastical crime is still ahead of global missions. Currently, 24 billion US dollar is embezzled every year and stolen out of the pocket of the church by its own staff. This is two billion more than the entire world’s giving for global mission. If this process goes ahead unchecked, theft within the church by the church, will reach 65 billion by AD 2025.Also, looking at the costs per baptism (currently 349,000 US dollars), the church isn’t handling her resources in the most cost-effective way. Denominationalism is also on the rise: in the year 1900, only 1,900 denominations were counted worldwide. Currently their number has risen to 39,000, and is expected to rise even more to 55,000 denominations by AD 2025.

Source: Joel News

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HOLY SPIRIT STIRS UP HUNGER FOR GOD IN RUSSIAN YOUTH

Children and young people in Russia are craving truth, and “youth ministry is seeing new and unbelievable growth in a generation that is more open to the Gospel than previous generations.”Eugene Bakahmutsky, who heads up all youth ministry in Russia, with the Baptist Union and the support of the Slavic Gospel Association, explains, “The new generation is really empty, their souls and hearts. So they really hunger for truth.” This openness is at least partially due to the fact that Russians are reportedly searching for their identity in a society which is becoming increasingly “more materialistic and less spiritual.”In spite of the rising secularism, Bakahmutsky sees a move of God amongst the young people that he says is a blessing and an opportunity to share the Gospel. “Youth were involved in local church life before, but it was not a real youth ministry- it was kind of being in church. But now, youth ministry looks like a strong movement, a real mechanism, a real approach to this new youth culture,” Bakahmutsky says, “So, it’s just brand new, really.”He added that a group he had joined had recently gone to visit young people in college dorms. “Every door which we knocked [on], every person we talked to wanted to talk about Jesus Christ. And, just because they lost hope in drugs, and they lost hope in entertainment stuff, they just wanted something serious, something real,” explained Bakahmutsky.

Source: Mission Network News

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BOLD ADVANCE OF THE CHURCH IN INDONESIA

In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, thousands of new churches have sprung up. Most of these have a young membership, and there is a growing acceptance of women as leaders.Indri Gautama, a former businesswoman of Chinese descent, is one of Indonesia’s female church planters. She wants to see her nation transformed by Christ and says: “It seems like 60 percent of the disasters happening in the world are in Indonesia. God has allowed this so we will seek Him.” Her 1,500-member Apostolic Generation Church that began in 2002, feeds hundreds of the city’s poor every week, and it provided significant aid to victims of Jakarta’s recent floods. Gautama believes her calling is to train a new generation of Christian leaders. “We have to be willing to take risks. We must adopt a kingdom attitude.”National prayer mobiliser Daniel Pandji says that more than 60,000 churches have been planted in Indonesia in recent years – so many that almost every hotel in Jakarta rents out meeting rooms to congregations that don’t have their own buildings. Christians in 500 cities in the country have organized ‘prayer altars’ where believers are storming heaven for a national revival. “It used to be so hard to gather churches together,” Pandji says. “But now we are in a season when churches want to come together for prayer.”

Source: Joel News

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