Lausanne World Pulse – News Briefs

AROUND THE WORLD: Christian Persecution Showing No Sign of Improvement
According to the German yearbook, Martyrs 2007, at least one in ten Christians around the world suffers persecution. In Iraq alone, three in four Iraqi Christians have left their country in fear of harassment, kidnapping or death. There are more than 200 million Christians worldwide who suffer persecution or discrimination; unfortunately, according to the report, there are no signs of improvement. (idea)

AROUND THE WORLD: Kirk Franklin Named CEO of Wycliffe International
Kirk Franklin was recently appointed by the Board of Wycliffe International to become the new executive director (CEO) of Wycliffe Bible Translators International. He replaces Dr. John Watters. Franklin, a citizen of both Australia and the USA, has served with Wycliffe since 1980, most recently as executive director of Wycliffe Australia. He spent twenty-five years in Papua New Guinea (PNG), is fluent in the Tok Pisin language of PNG and has traveled to twenty-five countries, meeting with mission organizations and speaking at churches and mission events. “Bible translation is a key facet of the overarching mission of God,” Franklin stated. “We face tremendous challenges. More than two thousand of the world’s minority language groups still need access to scripture in a language and format they can readily understand. The raising of resources for Bible translation takes place in a rapidly changing social, cultural, economic, political and religious environment in each nation and globally.” (Wycliffe International)

AROUND THE WORLD: SVM2’s 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting
Student Volunteer Movement 2 (SVM2) is holding a 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting 15 February 2008 through 6 March 2008. The event will engage the emerging generation to return to Christ as the fountain of life. Highlighted in each of the twenty-one days will be the core elements of repentance, personal holiness, finding joy, healing, experiencing satisfaction in Christ and being channels of that fountain to the nations. The prayer and fasting can be done either alone or in a group, in any location. Participants can download a prayer and fasting guide. (Student Volunteer Movement 2)

ETHIOPIA: Graduates Aim to Reach the Horn of Africa for Christ
The Awassa District Centre located in Awassa, Ethiopia, was the site of a December graduation ceremony for forty-four students receiving a diploma of ministry or certificate in ministry from the Horn of Africa Creative Leadership Institute. Speaker and Horn of Africa field education coordinator Terry Barker asked the graduates, “Who do you say that Jesus is?” and challenged them to live with the knowledge they acquired in school, pass it on to others and be prepared to answer those who question their faith. Horn of Africa field strategy coordinator Howie Shute sent his congratulations and reminded the students that the Awassa Centre is part of a bigger system of education and training. He believes their district has become a leader in a great movement of God across the Horn of Africa, with thousands of new churches being planted and thousands of new converts coming into a relationship with the living Lord. The message further stated, “Having a system of multiplication of pastors is a must in order to sustain the system of multiplication of churches that is taking place in the district and the field. This means that you are all teachers and you must teach and teach until Jesus comes.” (Nazarene Communications Network News-Africa)

GERMANY: Churches Preaching “Light” Version of the Gospel
According to German theologian Christoph Stenschke, evangelical Christians in Germany have embraced a postmodern “light” version of the gospel. Stenschke says that in contrast to preachers speaking on repentance, hell and sin, as they did in previous decades, most sermons today are a call to “make friends with Jesus.” The outcome has been little life-long, life-changing discipleship and enthusiastic commitment to the faith. Germany’s largest evangelical church, the German Baptist Union, for instance, has not seen experienced any significant growth in years. (idea)

HAITI: Clean Water Transforming Communities
Something as simple as clean, safe water can transform a community. For churches in Haiti—where more than half of the eight million people do not have access to safe drinking water—this means they can become the source of both the literal and spiritual water of life. At the Saint Michel, Haiti, Church of the Nazarene, a hand-pump well has allowed church members to offer water to their community. It means they can provide water for the children at their day school—a necessity for growing and learning. It also helps them cook the food for the school’s daily feeding program. In the northern peninsula of Haiti, La Reserve Church of the Nazarene is also finishing a fresh-water cistern that will provide water for a community in the mountains and for the kids at their day school. Through the Haiti Water Project, groups are partnering with local churches to empower them to provide sustainable water resources for the people in their communities. (Nazarene Caribbean Communications Office)

INDIA: Verse-by-Verse Teaching Translated into Hindi
Pastor Chuck Smith’s (founder of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, USA) verse-by-verse Bible teachings have been translated into Hindi through the efforts of K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia (GFA), and the GFA team. In a country where nearly 600 million people speak Hindi, GFA hopes to get 100,000 CD copies of Smith’s teachings into the hands of Indian pastors and missionaries. “One of the greatest crises we have is when revival breaks out and millions of people turn to Christ—but then, when there’s not enough teaching of God’s word, usually they end up in all kind of extreme cults,” said Yohannan. “So we felt compelled to give to pastors something they can actually listen to and then be able to teach their congregations. This project is Pastor Chuck Smith teaching through the Bible; Genesis to Revelation; chapter by chapter; line by line.” For nearly five decades, Smith has been teaching thousands of people God’s word every week. The Calvary Chapel movement birthed the modern-day worship music and contemporary Christian music. (ASSIST News Service)

IRELAND: Significant Decline in Religious Knowledge
According to a new poll, levels of religious knowledge throughout Ireland are decreasing significantly, and in Northern Ireland (NI) are even lower than in the Republic. According to an Ekklesia article, the poll is believed to be the first ever conducted on the subject in NI and is the follow up to a religious knowledge poll conducted in the Republic of Ireland on behalf of The Iona Institute and the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland (EAI). Those organizing the poll conclude that, contrary to popular belief, NI is less religious than the South and that it was already known that church attendance figures in the North were lower than in the South. The poll found that levels of religious knowledge among Northern and Southern Catholics were roughly the same; however, in general, levels of religious knowledge among Northern Protestants were lower than among Northern Catholics. The one question where Protestants were more likely to know the answer was when asked what the first book of the Bible was. Sixty-eight percent of Protestants knew it was Genesis, compared to only fifty-four percent of Catholics. However, only forty-two percent of respondents in the North knew there are four Gospels. Thirty-nine percent of Catholics knew the first of the Ten Commandments, compared to twenty-six percent of Protestants. The poll also found a marked difference between the levels of knowledge found among younger and older age groups. Just twenty-one percent of NI respondents aged 16-24 knew there are four Gospels. Stephen Cave, of the Evangelical Alliance (Northern Ireland), explained, “The results of this poll throw serious doubt on the claim that we are a ‘Christian country.’ The findings present a serious challenge to the Church and those involved in religious education.” (ASSIST News Service)

JAPAN: Increased Poverty among Young Adults
Japanese Christian groups are noticing increasing poverty among young adults. This in a country that once had an image that its companies provide lifetime employment and that it has a strong middle class base. “If one applies the commandment, ‘You shall not kill,’ this should mean allowing poor young adults in Japan who have insecure lives as part-time and contract workers to live properly,” says the Rev. Iwao Hayashi of the United Church of Christ in Japan. (Ecumenical News International)

SRI LANKA: Church Groups Call for Solution to Ethnic Conflict
Church groups in Sri Lanka have made a united call for a political solution to the ethnic conflict that has divided the island for two years and claimed more than six thousand lives. “Fighting will not lead us anywhere,” the Rev. W. P. Ebenezer Joseph, president of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, said. In recent months, Sri Lanka has slid back into civil war between security forces and Tamil rebels seeking autonomy from the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Although a 2002 ceasefire put in place by Norwegian mediators ended two decades of conflict, fighting flared again after the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse in November 2005. Rajapakse won with the support of Sinhala nationalist parties. (Ecumenical News International)

UNITED STATES: Jewish and Muslim Interfaith Dialogue Project
Two major religious organizations, one Jewish and one Muslim, have unveiled an interfaith dialogue project intended to reach hundreds of thousands of their members across the United States and Canada. At its biennial convention in San Diego on 15 December 2007, the Union for Reform Judaism announced it had begun discussions with the Islamic Society of North America. (Ecumenical News International)

ZAMBIA: First Lady Says Country a “Christian Nation”
Maureen Mwanawasa, the First Lady of Zambia, has stated in an interview concerning HIV/AIDS in Zambia, that her country has become a “Christian nation.” According to Mwanawasa, “The Church is one of the biggest helpers of [Zambia’s] government in the fight against HIV/AIDS….Actually, our country was declared a Christian nation, so you can see how dependent we are on God for an answer to the challenge.” Her husband, President Levy Mwanawasa, caused a sensation in 2005 when he gave his life to Christ and, as President of Zambia, was baptized at a local Baptist church in Lusaka, the country’s capital city. “This baptism was an incredible occasion for the Baptist witness to many people who have not been in church before,” said Troy Lewis, a Southern Baptist missionary in the southern African nation of more than ten million people. “They heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.” On the day of his baptism, Mwanawasa shared his spiritual journey before a packed chapel service. He told listeners he had been “struck” by Jesus—similar to the Apostle Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus. (ASSIST News Service)

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AROUND THE WORLD: Gospel Communications Launches Volunteer Matching Site
Gospel Communications is launching an online volunteer matching site in partnership with TechMission to match Christians with volunteer opportunities in ministries serving under-resourced communities. Potential volunteers can search over 2,200 volunteer and short-term missions opportunities from over 1,300 organizations. The site is in partnership with TechMission’s ChristianVolunteering.org, which is the first major website to match volunteers with Christian volunteer service opportunities. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, the value of the donated time of faith-based volunteers in 2005 was US$51.8 billion dollars. ChristianVolunteering.org’s partners serve over thirty-five million low-income individuals each year. In addition to matching volunteers to local volunteer opportunities, the site also has sections for short-term missions opportunities, virtual volunteering opportunities and volunteer opportunities for church small groups. (Christian Newswire)

ETHIOPIA: GRN Team Records Gospel in Twenty-four Languages
Three Global Recordings Network (GRN) recordists from Sierra Leone recently traveled to Ethiopia, where they recorded the gospel in twenty-four languages during a six-week period. Three Ethiopian believers assisted the team on “The Sheba Recording Project” by serving as readers, translators and a driver. In most of the areas the team visited, the people they encountered were animists. In some villages they were warmly received; in others, they were rejected and asked to leave. (Global Recordings Network)

FRANCE: Faith-based Organizations Not Using Assets to Fullest
Faith-based organizations have failed to use the power of their investment funds to transform global money markets, leaders of Christian, Jewish and Buddhist groups have been told at a conference on ethical investment in Paris. “The great faiths wield enormous economic power in stock and shares,” Joost Douma, secretary general of the International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG), told representatives of more than twenty faith-based groups. “The assets of 3iG’s members alone are equivalent to more than the Bank of England’s entire foreign currency and gold reserves.” (Ecumenical News International)

GERMANY: Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians among Most Faithful Churchgoers
Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians are among Germany’s most faithful churchgoers. Although they make up only slightly more than one percent of all twenty-six million Protestants, they account for twenty percent of the worshippers on an average Sunday. These figures were released during the annual gathering of the “Circle of Charismatic Leaders” meeting 3-5 December 2007 in Kassel. The thirty-five leaders represent approximately 300,000 Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians from mainline, evangelical and independent churches. The mainline Protestant churches have twenty-five million members on their rolls. About four percent worship on a regular Sunday. Catholics go to church in greater numbers; fourteen percent of the 26.6 million Catholics attend mass. (ASSIST News Service)

HONG KONG: Fifty Million Bibles Produced
Celebrations are planned in China to mark the production of more than fifty million Bibles in the People’s Republic by the Amity Printing Company, a joint venture between the United Bible Societies and the Amity Foundation, a Chinese Christian agency. “After the cultural revolution of 1966 to 1976, many Chinese Christians are doing their best to take the chance to read the Bible,” said Qiu Zhonghui, general secretary of the Amity Foundation. (Ecumenical News International)

MAURITIUS: Bible Society Responds to Rise in Violence
Violence pe briz lavenir nou zanfan (Violence is ruining our children’s future) is the theme of a campaign launched in October 2007 by the Bible Society of Mauritius in response to a rise in violent crime. “Cases reported to the police clearly indicate that there is an upsurge of violence in this country,” said Bible Society executive director Marc Etive. “This is the result of a profound sense of ill-being in our society. There is an urgent need to help people channel their energy in the right direction in order to reach their full potential as human beings. The Bible Society’s partners in the campaign include the Council of Religions, KINOUETE (an organization that rehabilitates ex-prisoners), the police department and the National Agency for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Substance Abusers. The Bible Society and its partners have printed three thousand posters and 100,000 brochures, which will be distributed across the country. (Bible Society)

NETHERLANDS: Ten Days with the Bible Travels the Country
Quizzes, television programs, dance workshops, Bible reading marathons and more were used to encourage people to engage with the Bible during the recent 10 Days with the Bible event organized by the Netherlands Bible Society. Across the country, 10 Days with the Bible events brought God’s word into venues such as schools, shopping centers, marketplaces and homes for the elderly. Many churches also celebrated Bible Sunday during the same period. Supporting materials provided both digitally through a dedicated website and in print ensured that both organizers and participants were guided and inspired. Firmly locating 10 Days with the Bible within its overall Bible engagement strategy, the Bible Society also used this initiative as the launch pad for a project designed to support Bible work in Eastern Europe. During the ten days, United Bible Societies translation consultant Dr. Marijke de Lang and Dr. Marina Lomova, who works in Moscow for the Institute for Bible Translation, toured the country giving presentations on translation work in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Central Asia. (Bible Society)

PHILIPPINES: WCC General Secretary Speaks on Christianity in Asia and Africa
Asia and Africa may become the center of gravity for twenty-first century Christianity, says World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary the Rev. Samuel Kobia, who has challenged Philippine church leaders to prepare for this shift. “Christianity is declining in Europe but growing in Asia and Africa,” Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya, told bishops and other church leaders in Manila. The WCC leader said that church buildings in Europe are being sold to Muslims, who are converting them into mosques, and to business people, who are transforming the churches into hotels, restaurants and other commercial centers. On the other hand, Filipino churches have begun to spread their reach overseas as they seek to minister to Filipinos seeking overseas jobs. (Ecumenical News International)

SWITZERLAND: Caring for the Aging Population in Europe
Europe’s largest grouping of churches has noted the continent’s steadily growing proportion of people over the age of sixty-five and is calling for the rediscovery of “the interdependence between generations.” The executive committee of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches said in a statement on 29 November 2007 that less than three percent of Europe’s population was over sixty-five a generation ago, but that by 2050 it could be twenty percent, with only half of the population of working age. “Such changes bring new perspectives to much older human questions such as ‘How should we view old age? What is the status of the elderly in our societies? How do we care for their needs?'” the CEC committee concluded after adopting a position paper on “Aging and the care for the elderly.” (Ecumenical News International)

UNITED KINGDOM: Walking School Bus Plan for Green Church of the Year
The first parish in England to be named the Green Church of the Year took steps to reduce its carbon footprint eighteen months ago with a “walking school bus” scheme for adults to walk children to school rather than driving them there in cars. Sixty separate daily car journeys have been eliminated since the Rev. Cathy Horder and other leaders set up a roster to escort the children to school. Since then, Holy Trinity (Anglican) Church at Cleeve near Bristol has switched to a green energy supplier, run its own recycling scheme and campaigned against the extension of the Bristol airport. (Ecumenical News International)

UNITED STATES: Third Annual Saddleback Global Summit on AIDS & The Church
The third annual Saddleback Global Summit on AIDS & The Church was recently held with a challenge from Dr. Rick and Mrs. Kay Warren to the more than 1,700 attendees for the Church to lead with love in the global response to HIV/AIDS. Warren emphasized that his church did not do this conference for a cause, but rather for a person, Jesus Christ. “If you want to know how much Jesus loves people with AIDS, just look at the cross,” he said. “It all comes down to whether you accept the world’s or Jesus’ response to AIDS. The world’s response is A.I.D.S.: Avoidance, Intolerance, Distance and Superstition. But Jesus’ mandate to respond to people with AIDS is for us to replace each of those with H.O.P.E.: Help, Openness, Presence and Education.” The two-and-a-half-day event featured more than ninety international speakers, including Sen. Hillary Clinton; Her Excellency Jeanette Kagame, First Lady of Rwanda; Her Excellency, Maureen Mwanawasa, First Lady of Zambia; Ambassador Mark Dybul, U.S. global AIDS coordinator; Dr. Peter Piot, UNAID executive director; Dr. Robert Redfield, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland at Baltimore; and Pastor John Ortberg from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California. The Summit remains the only HIV/AIDS conference worldwide to be built entirely on a practical “local church-based” strategy designed to mobilize millions of congregations around the world for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. (ASSIST News Service)

UNITED STATES: Majority of Teens Okay Occasional Dishonest and Violent Behavior
A significant percentage of American teenagers, who are confident in their ability to make ethical decisions, regard dishonest and even violent behavior as necessary for success, according to the fifth annual Junior Achievement/Deloitte Teen Ethics Survey. The majority of teens surveyed (seventy-one percent) say they feel fully prepared to make ethical decisions when they enter the workforce. Yet thirty-eight percent of that group believe it is sometimes necessary to cheat, plagiarize, lie or even behave violently in order to succeed. Nearly one-quarter (twenty-three percent) of all teens surveyed think violence toward another person is acceptable on some level. Of those who think so, the justifications for violence include settling an argument (twenty-seven percent) and revenge (twenty percent). (Deloitte & Touche USA LLP)

UNITED STATES: Pat Robertson Steps Down as CEO of CBN
Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), has relinquished his duties as Chief Executive Officer of the network. He will continue on as chairman of the board. His son, Gordon Robertson, was named the new CEO. As chairman, Pat Robertson will continue active involvement in the ministry he founded as well as the presidency of Regent University. Gordon Robertson lived in Manila in the Philippines for five years and was placed in charge of CBN’s Asian operations in China, India, Indonesia and Southeast Asia. He has assumed expanded responsibilities to include the production of CBN’s flagship program, The 700 Club, its national and international news and its digital media division. (ASSIST News Service)

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