The Friday Fax

"The number of house churches in the USA has probably doubled in the past 18 months, from 2,500 to 5,000," according to participants at a symposium organized by Church Multiplication Associates' Neil Cole in Los Angeles from 25-28 April 2005. "The main growth comes from missionary groups aiming to reach the unchurched with the Gospel and involve them in multipliable discipleship structures," says Cole. "We're expecting up to 1,000 participants at the next national House Church conference in the USA in Denver from 2-5 September 2005," say Tony and Felicity Dale, part of the team organizing the conference. John Eldredge was the main speaker at last year's conference; this year, speakers include Rolland and Heidi Baker, who saw some 5,000 new churches planted in Mozambique and neighbouring nations over the past 5 years, Wolfgang Simson and Neil Cole.

Bill Bright Billion Soul Initiative

Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ who died in 2004, prompted the Billion Soul Initiative founded at the end of last year. Close colleagues and participants in consultations with Bright report that he explained his personal missionary vision for the future shortly before his death. He called on Christians to cooperate to call 1 billion people to follow Christ in the next 10 years by planting 5 million house churches. James O. Davis, John C. Maxwell and Steve Douglass subsequently formed the Global Pastors' Network. A 'global church planting congress' is planned for September 2005, in which over 350 Christian leaders will gather to plan this "largest evangelistic initiative in human history", as the organizers describe it.

Source: various, including James O. Davis

While researching his soon to be published book 'Apostolic Genius', Alan Hirsch, author of 'The Shaping of Things to Come' "stumbled upon some extremely notable, even astonishing, discoveries by important observers of the global Christian scene." Already in 2001, Professor David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson mentioned that there were already 111 million Christians without a traditional local church. Barrett highlights particularly the development of the so-called 'Neo-Apostolic' networks and movements, of which there are already over 20,000 around the world, numbering around 394 million Christians. According to Barrett, these Christians reject historical denominationalism and all restrictive central authority, and attempt to lead a life of following Jesus, seeking a more effective missionary lifestyle. They are the fastest-growing Christian movements in the world. Barrett estimates that by the year 2025, these movements will have around 581 million members, 120 million more than all Protestant movements together. Hirsh, who has invited all of Australia's missionary movements to a conference in Victoria (Forge National Summit, 1-3 July 2005), confirms the trend from his own experience, and believes that these new Christian movements "are simply under the radar of traditional Christianity", at least as long as it holds on to the classical Constantine church structure (pastor + building + programme = church).

Source: Alan Hirsch, www.forge.org.au

Berlin was infamous for the violent demonstrations on 30^th April and 1^st May, International Workers' Day. "That's going to change," reports Kerstin Hack. The 'spiral of violence' was broken last year, with only 'minor incidents' in places known for major violence, and only one single street battle. 2005 was "The most peaceful 1^st May since 20 years!", according to the press. Kerstin Hack: "There were no real street battles, only a few thrown stones and bottles, and one upturned car which lost petrol but did not burn. That's certainly partly due to the many people who celebrated a peaceful May Day and the Police's wisdom, but also to the Christians on the streets praying, both in 2004 and 2005. There was an open-air service, and cleaning teams and prayer teams were on the streets. In 2004, it was relatively peaceful wherever the intercessors were; violence only escalated in places which we had too few people to cover. This year, with only one exception, the violence stopped almost before it began."

Source: Kerstin Hack, e-mail info/at/down-to-earth.de, tel. (+49) 30 822 7962

After many examinations in specialised clinics following her infection with Hepatitis A, Christina Roth from Dresden was diagnosed as suffering from Hodgkin's Lymphoma (lymph node cancer). Only 20 years old, the diagnosis was a deep shock. She went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Many Christians prayed for her, but she was not supernaturally healed; the therapy was effective, and the tumour disappeared. The next shock came only four weeks later during a check-up: she had leukaemia, perhaps as a result of the radiotherapy. On 9^th November 1999, she started her second chemotherapy. Weeks passed in which she was sometimes close to death. Her doctors later suggested a stem cell transplantation, which Christina refused, much to their concern, because they thought she wanted to die. (The stem cell transplantation had a 50% chance of success, chemotherapy 10-20%.) Christina, though, decided to trust God, "who is above all chances of success". Whenever she spoke with her doctors about God, they listened without paying any real attention. A check-up at the Carl Gustav Carus University Clinic in November 2004 finally delivered the long-hoped-for result: "Complete remission of both Hodgkin's Lymphoma and the secondary Acute Myelitic Leukaemia..." "I can now declare you healed!" the doctor said, a statement which is very seldom made of cancer patients.

Source: Christina Roth, Dresden, in Josua Bote (Joshua Courier), Germany. Fax +49 30 672 1415

Daniel Hari, Pastor and founder of Omegalive.ch, an initiative for evangelising New Agers, writes about his recent seminar about "Healing like Jesus" in Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland:

"Fifty-one people took part in the course, many of whom found Jesus and were baptised. One morning, one of the participants had a strange experience: 'I suddenly sensed the spiritual presence of my Indonesian guru, and felt dizzy. The feeling only passed when someone prayed with me and I renounced my connection with him. I used to revere him, and was impressed by his wonderful ability to lovingly heal people while in a trance - it seemed so pure and powerful, and I had never seen anything like it in Christian churches. Now, my eyes have been opened: I was deceived. He wanted to sleep with every woman in his seminars, including me. I managed to keep him at a distance. Now, though, I am completely free, and have no grudge against him. Jesus Christ freed me from the man, and I can now bless him."

Source: Daniel Hari, www.omegalive.ch

Kingdom Ministries, a Swiss missions agency, assists in starting church planting movements, particularly in India. One of the key elements are local Christians involved in saturation (house) church planting. Kingdom Ministries regularly receives reports like this:

"In the name of Jesus, stand up and walk!" G. Singh used the words Peter spoke to the invalid. 66-year-old Mayadar rode a sort of trike from house to house, begging, and expected Singh to give him some coins. Singh, though, prayed with authority, and Mayadar was healed! He rose from his 'wheelchair' and could walk! He was baptised, and now leads other beggars to Christ.

Deliverance and church planting

37-year-old Iqbal, a Sikh, came to a Christian meeting. He was tormented by evil spirits, and had torn 15 suits in 20 days. He was delivered following intense prayer, and decided to follow Christ after listening attentively to God's Word. Last year, the church planter working in the region led 158 people to Christ and baptised them. There will soon be a church in every village in the region.

Source: Kingdom Ministries, Switzerland, tel. (+41) 33 439 3099

People used to skip church to go fishing. Today, they go fishing to experience church. An increasing number of churches and mission agencies are specialising in reaching unchurched anglers and outdoor-enthusiasts below a typical church radar, according to a Charisma report. Terry Chupp, founder of Team Jesus Ministries (www.teamjesusministries.org) believes these groups to be the least-reached in the USA. "If you only fish in your own bathtub, you'll catch nothing. You have to go where the fish(ermen) are," he says. There are an estimated 50 million recreational anglers in the USA. Evangelist Al Odom reports that over 2,500 anglers have come to faith in Christ; "We use fishing as a lure, pardon the pun, to draw men into an environment where they can experience the life-changing power of Christ." The New Testament, he says, has many references to fishing, and 8 of Jesus' 12 disciples were fishermen. "I think it was no coincidence that God's plan was to use fishermen to bring his Word to all people," says Jim Grassi, founder of Let's Go Fishing Ministries (www.letsgofishing.org).

Source: www.charismanow.com