Germany

“We pray that a lost generation of Europeans will come home to the God of their forebears.”

Roland Werner

Nine years after the Berlin Wall came down and eight years after the reunification of the two German states, the country of Martin Luther and of the Heidelberg Confession faces challenges as never before. Germany truly has a new face, one that people in both the east and the west of our nation still have to get used to beholding in the mirror. The same is true for the church.

Before reunification, just under half of the population in West Germany was Roman Catholic, and just over half was Protestant. We now are confronted with a three-thirds situation, the last third being unchurched or openly atheistic citizens. Under the rule of communism and the antireligious policies of the East German government, church membership dropped from 95 percent in 1945 to about 20 percent in 1990. Over a million people left the official church after reunification on October 3, 1990 (which is now our National Day). This was due in large measure to the reintroduction of the system of church taxation in the east. Today, only 5 percent of the Protestants and 10 percent of the Catholics bother to go to church on any kind of regular basis. In the east, many families have been unchurched and therefore untouched by the gospel for three or four generations. At a recent evangelistic outdoor event, young people were asking: “God—what is that? We have never heard about it.”

Nevertheless, there is a real—but by no means pervasive—evangelical movement within the traditional Protestant churches, as there is, of course, in what are called the “free churches.” Free churches include Baptists (80,000 members), Methodists (almost 50,000), Free Evangelicals (30,000), various Pentecostal and charismatic churches (80,000), the Salvation Army, and a few other small denominations. Altogether, their membership totals only 300,000, which is less than half a percent of the total population. Even though attendance in these churches is sometimes double the actual membership, their numbers are still minuscule in relationship to the overall population.

Sadly, there is an unhealthy tendency toward in-house fighting among certain evangelicals. Some more fundamentalist evangelicals, who have stood their ground against liberal, neoliberal, Marxist, and feminist interpretations of the gospel, are now turning against their fellow evangelicals, whom they see as compromising culturally and dogmatically. They protest especially the inclusion of charismatics into the German Evangelical Alliance and cooperation in evangelism with renewal groups inside the Roman Catholic church.

But despite these internal problems, there is also a growing interest among evangelicals from the traditional, free, and charismatic churches to make the gospel known in Germany. The opening up of the Iron Curtain has opened up new avenues of outreach to sister evangelical churches in central and eastern Europe, which need our support. There are many partnership and exchange programs linking Christians from different European countries. Some of these links had been formed in communist times, when Christians from East Germany already shouldered the responsibility of helping their more eastern brothers and sisters.

Christians are also responding to the millions who have lost their jobs and find themselves in a psychological and spiritual vacuum following the breakdown of the Communists’ centralized system. Under the motto “Come follow Jesus,” Christival 1996—a five-day congress for young Christians—brought together over 32,000 young people from all over Germany, plus another 2,000 from neighboring countries, to the east-German city of Dresden. It helped define a new positive identity for young people of many different churches as followers of Christ.

In the wake of Billy Graham’s 1993 “Mission to Europe,” held in Essen and linked via satellite to 330 venues in Germany and throughout Europe, other similar events followed—in 1995 from Leipzig with 360 link-ups, and in 1997 from Nuremberg with 660 link-ups and a combined participation of 1 million people. In January of this year, a youth event trained and challenged young Christians to work together across denominational lines in witnessing to their friends. Two major evangelistic events are being planned for 2000, one of them involving youth at the World’s Fair to be held in Hanover.

Although the fires of the gospel may not burn as high and as brightly in “post-Christian” Europe as in other areas of the world, and though most churches and ministries are small and regional, the fruit they are producing is real and will last. Christians here are confident that the tearing down of the physical walls is a sign of what God wants to do in the spiritual world as well. We pray and believe that a lost generation of Europeans will come home to the God of their forebears. For Germany is not only a country with a rich spiritual history, but also a people called to trust the God of the future.

Roland Werner is a Bible translator, university evangelist, and the leader of an interdenominational church for students in Marburg. At 41, he serves as chair of the Christival evangelistic festivals and is a member of the German Lausanne committee. E-mail: rolwerner@aol.com

Copyright © 1998 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Germany: Conservative Loss Distresses Evangelicals

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Germany

Germany

“We pray that a lost generation of Europeans will come home to the God of their forebears.”

Roland Werner

Nine years after the Berlin Wall came down and eight years after the reunification of the two German states, the country of Martin Luther and of the Heidelberg Confession faces challenges as never before. Germany truly has a new face, one that people in both the east and the west of our nation still have to get used to beholding in the mirror. The same is true for the church.

Before reunification, just under half of the population in West Germany was Roman Catholic, and just over half was Protestant. We now are confronted with a three-thirds situation, the last third being unchurched or openly atheistic citizens. Under the rule of communism and the antireligious policies of the East German government, church membership dropped from 95 percent in 1945 to about 20 percent in 1990. Over a million people left the official church after reunification on October 3, 1990 (which is now our National Day). This was due in large measure to the reintroduction of the system of church taxation in the east. Today, only 5 percent of the Protestants and 10 percent of the Catholics bother to go to church on any kind of regular basis. In the east, many families have been unchurched and therefore untouched by the gospel for three or four generations. At a recent evangelistic outdoor event, young people were asking: “God—what is that? We have never heard about it.”

Nevertheless, there is a real—but by no means pervasive—evangelical movement within the traditional Protestant churches, as there is, of course, in what are called the “free churches.” Free churches include Baptists (80,000 members), Methodists (almost 50,000), Free Evangelicals (30,000), various Pentecostal and charismatic churches (80,000), the Salvation Army, and a few other small denominations. Altogether, their membership totals only 300,000, which is less than half a percent of the total population. Even though attendance in these churches is sometimes double the actual membership, their numbers are still minuscule in relationship to the overall population.

Sadly, there is an unhealthy tendency toward in-house fighting among certain evangelicals. Some more fundamentalist evangelicals, who have stood their ground against liberal, neoliberal, Marxist, and feminist interpretations of the gospel, are now turning against their fellow evangelicals, whom they see as compromising culturally and dogmatically. They protest especially the inclusion of charismatics into the German Evangelical Alliance and cooperation in evangelism with renewal groups inside the Roman Catholic church.

But despite these internal problems, there is also a growing interest among evangelicals from the traditional, free, and charismatic churches to make the gospel known in Germany. The opening up of the Iron Curtain has opened up new avenues of outreach to sister evangelical churches in central and eastern Europe, which need our support. There are many partnership and exchange programs linking Christians from different European countries. Some of these links had been formed in communist times, when Christians from East Germany already shouldered the responsibility of helping their more eastern brothers and sisters.

Christians are also responding to the millions who have lost their jobs and find themselves in a psychological and spiritual vacuum following the breakdown of the Communists’ centralized system. Under the motto “Come follow Jesus,” Christival 1996—a five-day congress for young Christians—brought together over 32,000 young people from all over Germany, plus another 2,000 from neighboring countries, to the east-German city of Dresden. It helped define a new positive identity for young people of many different churches as followers of Christ.

In the wake of Billy Graham’s 1993 “Mission to Europe,” held in Essen and linked via satellite to 330 venues in Germany and throughout Europe, other similar events followed—in 1995 from Leipzig with 360 link-ups, and in 1997 from Nuremberg with 660 link-ups and a combined participation of 1 million people. In January of this year, a youth event trained and challenged young Christians to work together across denominational lines in witnessing to their friends. Two major evangelistic events are being planned for 2000, one of them involving youth at the World’s Fair to be held in Hanover.

Although the fires of the gospel may not burn as high and as brightly in “post-Christian” Europe as in other areas of the world, and though most churches and ministries are small and regional, the fruit they are producing is real and will last. Christians here are confident that the tearing down of the physical walls is a sign of what God wants to do in the spiritual world as well. We pray and believe that a lost generation of Europeans will come home to the God of their forebears. For Germany is not only a country with a rich spiritual history, but also a people called to trust the God of the future.

Roland Werner is a Bible translator, university evangelist, and the leader of an interdenominational church for students in Marburg. At 41, he serves as chair of the Christival evangelistic festivals and is a member of the German Lausanne committee. E-mail: rolwerner@aol.com

Copyright © 1998 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Reform Us Again

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Germany

Russia

“When the Communists fell, we discovered we did not speak the same language as secular Russians.”

Sergei I. Nikolaev

When the Communists fell and the door was opened, we thought we needed only a few years to convert Russia for Christ. We started very intensive evangelization. We preached to hundreds of thousands, started missions and Bible studies, distributed millions of Bibles and Christian literature, and planted a lot of churches.

What we discovered later was that we did not always speak the same language as secular Russians. For decades the church had developed its own culture in isolation—you cannot ignore the fact that Russia was closed to the gospel for 75 years. We held church services, but to have Bible studies we would sit around a table with biscuits, sandwiches, and cups of tea. But this big table was nothing but decoration for the secret police. If they would break in, it’s a party. The main purpose was to study the Bible and pray. That was our culture. So when we went and preached to secular people, we could not connect well with their culture. Even after ten years of openings, evangelical ministry in Russia is still both relatively small and very new.

This is why most people here still do not know what evangelical Christianity is about. They have heard so many negative stories about born-again believers that they are surprised to hear good stories. For many, evangelical Christians are still those who killed their kids and sacrificed infants, and all the other propaganda they heard. When they hear what evangelical Christianity is really about, it is a revelation.

When we preached the gospel, people responded enthusiastically. Our church had a front-row bench where we celebrated everybody new. But the next Sunday there was another bunch to celebrate. And then after 20 Sundays those who were in the first row moved to the last row and then just stopped coming.

These converted secular people thought, “If I come to the church I will find something I never found anywhere else.” So you had teachers, doctors, lawyers, artists, actors eagerly listening to a pastor who was a shoemaker. Often, the level of teaching was homecooked, pastors were not educated enough and didn’t know who they were talking to. These people started to go around the circle from this church to that church.

So not only do we need to convert people out there to Christianity, we also need to convert the church culture and build up the new generation of church leaders. Today we have to decide—and this is what is on the minds and souls of younger pastors—whom evangelical churches in Russia are going to serve. Are we going to serve old-style believers already in the churches, or we are going to be the kind of church that also serves those who are not church people yet? We need to find the forms that will not be radically different from our Russian tradition, but at the same time will be attractive culturally, intellectually, spiritually, theologically, and emotionally to those new to the church.

One example of the challenge we face is a class of people sometimes called “the New Russians.” They represent a new mentality, an entrepreneurial and consumerist class. They madly accumulate a lot, but the values are not real life—more the product of Hollywood movies. So, with their new freedom, they seek opportunities without a moral core within their hearts. Many of them are good people who don’t really understand what is going on. So many find that when they drive the new Mercedes, they did not change at all on the inside.

In building our seminary, we worked with a woman who is one of the new Russians. She is a president of a very successful company. In the process of helping us she found that she needed something else. I invited her to teach the course on management at our seminary. Later she called and said, “I manage my money; I manage my company; but I’m not managing my life.” Now she is visiting our church, singing our hymns. There are a lot of people like that.

These New Russians value their time, they treasure their powers, and they will not go to the churches that will not give them what they expect. This is a great challenge for the church—to be ready for the actual needs of today’s people. This is why theological education is so important for our leaders. In Russia, evangelical Christianity is young, but I believe it can be the spark of reform in mainline churches and the beam of hope for a hopeless country. Overall, I am very optimistic about the way evangelical Christianity is developing. Our numbers are small, but our opportunities are great.

The son and grandson of evangelical pastors, Sergei I. Nikolaev, 49, translated for Billy Graham’s historic preaching tours in the Soviet Union. He now serves as president of Saint Petersburg Evangelical Theological Academy and is pastor of Temple of the Gospel Church in Saint Petersburg. E-mail: thacadspt@aol.com

Copyright © 1998 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Learning to Speak Russian

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Russia

Kenya

“Africa is a land of great potential, a sleeping spiritual giant.”

David M. Kasali

The church in Africa has been compared to a lake that is a mile long and an inch deep. Because of the political and social turmoil that Africa is going through, the church has become like a hospital where people come to get hope. As a result, many people are coming to the Lord. But the teaching and the knowledge of the Bible are often superficial, and Christianity is not transforming people’s lives.

This is graphically illustrated by looking at the powerful revival that started in Rwanda in the 1930s—the East African Revival. It had such a big impact that by 1994 about 80 percent of the population of Rwanda was Christian, either Protestant or Catholic. But sadly, Rwanda was the site of the 1994 genocide in which a half-million people were murdered. Christians were slaughtering Christians. How could this happen?

I am grateful for the missionaries who came to Africa. My father was converted by one from America. Only now is the African church waking up to the fact that we might not only be a receiving church but a sending one like the American church. But there are some things we should learn to do differently.

There is a saying among my people that missionaries don’t cry. This perception grew out of the early missionaries’ method of ministry. Typically, they would build their homes on the top of a hill and the health clinic or church down the hill. They would come down to minister to the people, then retreat to the hilltop to live in the security of their homes. This was not discipleship; this was not modeling, identifying, and living with others as Jesus did. To this day, Africa is in desperate need of open, transparent leadership that not only preaches but also models what is preached.

The missionaries also placed an unhealthy emphasis on being separated from the world. While being called out is biblical, it was sometimes applied in misleading ways. Up until the 1980s, the common understanding of African Christians was that Christians should not be involved in social matters—the “affairs of the world.” We learned not to play drums in the church, because that was worldly; and we stayed out of politics and business, because they were considered worldly. This stance would cost the church a great opportunity when independence came to many African countries in the 1950s and 1960s. During those turbulent years, African society desperately needed the contributions of Christians.

I recently presented a paper at a consultation of church leaders in Nairobi. In it, I made the point that the responsibility of the church now is to preach the whole counsel of God—a message of redemption, a message of rehabilitation, and a message of reconstruction. Christians should help build stronger societies by building churches, hospitals, schools, and businesses. Islam is very appealing to Africans today not because of its belief system but because of the material gains it offers. Muslims come with money from the East and build very good primary schools and high schools. They build some of the best hospitals around. They provide loans to governments and to people who want to start small businesses. They send young Africans to the Middle East to be trained in their religious schools.

Fortunately, the church in Africa is experiencing a healthy self-correction. In the midseventies and eighties, a new generation of church leaders arose who brought drums and our own songs into our churches. They encouraged Christians to become involved in politics, even to run for office. Today, more and more are doing that successfully.

Of course, it would be a mistake for the African church to swing to the other extreme and “Seek first the political kingdom, and all the rest will be given to you,” as the first president of Ghana urged following the independence of his country. Politics alone has not brought solutions to the challenges of Africa. In fact, since independence, we have had more problems to deal with than ever before. Our problems ultimately are not economic, but spiritual. If we engage the world from this spiritual perspective, we will maintain a biblical balance of being in the world but not of it.

Not all of our problems are inherited ones. A lesson Christians in Africa could learn from those in America is about how to operate in a democracy. In many African countries today, people vote not necessarily for the best candidates or according to issues, but along tribal lines. If Christians in my country (where 80 percent are Christians) and other countries would rise above these tribalisms, they would make a tremendous difference in Africa.

I believe African Christians must also take an active part in forming democracies that are not defined by the West but by the African context. American-style democracy cannot work in Africa for two reasons. The first is that democracy is expensive. It costs a lot to maintain it, and we cannot afford it in Africa with our current economic situation. The second is that democracy can run well only where people are informed about the issues. We are not trained in democracy. Many people in my country have not even finished primary school. And so they depend on their leaders to decide for them what is good and what is right.

But Africa is a land of great potential. It is a sleeping giant spiritually. My prayer is that we can awaken this giant so that we can be a blessing not only to our own countries but also to others around the world. As Christians, we too are called to make disciples of all nations, both in Africa and abroad.

David M. Kasali, 44, is president of the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in Kenya. He holds degrees from the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. E-mail: pnegst@maf.org

Copyright © 1998 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Cursed by Superficiality

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Kenya

South Korea

“Since the economic crisis, prayer mountains have never been busier.”

In recent years, the economy of Asia has been a speeding train, moving full-steam ahead toward modernization. I travel across Asia three months out of the year, and everywhere I go one scene stands out: tall building cranes dotting the skyline. They have become the hallmark of a continent on the move. Everywhere, high-rise apartment buildings are going up next to thatched-roof huts. Businesses are spreading their wings to new and bigger facilities.

The church in Asia has been aboard this speeding train. Especially in countries like South Korea, known as “the Tiger” of Asia, economic prosperity has brought astonishing amounts of material wealth to the church. The faithful keep the coffers full. One very wealthy businessman in Seoul gives up to half of his wealth to the church. I know of an elder who, when his church was embarking on a building program, sold his house and gave the money to the building project.

And the church has something to show for it. At least, outwardly. Churches have not only put up large, impressive sanctuaries, they have purchased whole mountains on which to build discipleship training centers and facilities where people come, day and night, to pray. The South Korean churches, which number among the largest in the world, often build and run their own schools. Recently, churches have even begun to purchase land for cemeteries—something new for the Asian church.

But now Asia’s speeding train has entered a dark tunnel, and many see no light at the end. Long to be remembered as the year of economic bailouts, 1998 finds the East deep in the throes of economic depression. Countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia are reeling daily from the devaluation of their currency, nose-diving stock prices, ever-increasing commodity hikes, and growing unemployment. South Korea alone is faced with at least $150 billion in foreign debt. According to a recent article in the Korean Daily Business Newspaper, one billion people in Asia are presently unemployed.

In North Korea, where I grew up, and in South Korea, where I presently live, one is quickly reminded of the early 1950s when our country was still smouldering from the Korean War. Since then, we have known amazing growth and prosperity, but many of us have not forgotten a past when one had to scratch and claw for the next meal. While we are not facing anything like the devastation of war, Asians are clearly shaken—and the church along with it. Amidst this economic gloom, the church is stopping to take stock, to ask itself some tough questions.

The mood, especially in South Korea, has turned toward repentance. Listen in on almost any Sunday morning Protestant worship service in the urban areas—where the effects on the church of secularism and materialism are most keenly felt—and you will most likely hear prayers of confession, confession of arrogance and of indifference toward God in the face of affluence. Prayer mountains have never been busier. People are there to plead with God for healing, both spiritual and financial healing. While I have not noticed a particular increase in church attendance since the economic crisis hit South Korea, I have noticed a new fervency in prayer. Churches were calling for special all-night prayer sessions, and attendance in early-morning prayer meetings is on the increase.

It is not altogether surprising that the Asian church is turning toward repentance in the face of economic crisis. In Asian countries of great affluence, such as South Korea, “Prosperity Theology” has long been taught from the pulpits. At its core is this reasoning: The more you give to God, the more he will bless. Forget him, and hard times are bound to come. In South Korea, such thinking reflects a strong shamanistic influence.

As a child, I remember walking by the open door of a house and hearing the awful wailing of the Mudang woman—a kind of shaman witch doctor—who had been called into a home where there was a crisis. The woman would dance in order to drive out the spirit that had caused the crisis. As the Mudang danced, the members of the family would put money into her pockets. They believed the more money they gave, the more blessings they would receive. Now that the “blessings” are drying up for the Asian Christians, they are beginning to look inward.

“The South Korean church, with over 5,500 missionaries in more than 100 countries, is scrambling to come up with new ideas of how to continue funding its mission endeavors.“

For example, the church in South Korea is finally recognizing its materialism and secularism—trends that have been predicted by some who have charted the tremendous church growth in our country during the 1980s. To these ecclesiastical watchdogs, it was just a matter of time until the South Korean church would be facing the kinds of things the church in the West is facing. They have been proven right. Decay has set in. Already in 1994, a statistical bulletin put out by the government’s Ministry of Information posted a 4 percent decline in church attendance. That decline has continued, and pastors are feeling it at the grassroots level. One pastor of a 6,000-member church in Seoul reently told me his church has experienced a 43 percent decline in giving since the economic crisis became full-blown. That same church has laid off nine of its pastoral staff and cut a number of its projects for the year. Construction on a building project had to be halted for lack of funds.

Since the Asian churches, particularly the churches in South Korea and India, have become sending churches, missions have also taken a severe hit in the economic fallout. The South Korean church, with over 5,500 missionaries in more than 100 countries, is scrambling to come up with new ideas of how to continue funding its mission endeavors. In November of 1997, the South Korean World Missions Association arranged meetings among the missions executives of South Korea to deal with the critical situation arising from the 100 percent devaluation of the South Korean currency. In January, the same group adopted a strategy that included seven recommendations to its 58 member agencies. Included among the recommendations was one that supporting churches raise 40 to 50 percent more support for each missionary, while the missionary in the field cut living expenses by 50 to 60 percent. They encouraged South Korean missionaries to send their children to local indigenous schools rather than to expensive foreign schools. And the South Korean World Missions Association recommended mission administrators reduce overhead costs and cut back on travel expenses for executives.

Pastors and denominational leaders are also hearing the summons. In the countries of Asia where economic prosperity has flourished, the pastor has also participated in the blessings. A long-time concern stemming from the rapid growth and economic prosperity of the church in South Korea has been the politics of money. Money has been the cancer eating away at integrity within the church. Bribery has been common in church politics. I know of one pastor of a large church who was running for the position of moderator of his denomination. At the annual convention, he paid the hotel bill for key delegates in return for their votes.

The current crisis has also been a reminder to the church about its social responsibility. Many Christian leaders in South Korea have forgotten that the South Korean church has flourished in part because of a document called “The Nevius Papers.” In 1890, a British missionary from China, John Nevius, visited South Korea, bringing with him the three indigenous principles of missions upon which the South Korean church was founded: self-support, self-propagation, and self-government. While Nevius made the three principles famous for the South Korean church, another of his principles was that the church should offer help to those in economic need.

After the Korean War in 1950, it was the church that helped pick up the pieces, offering food and clothing to a nation that, basically, had lost everything. While much of the relief came from the West, it was channeled through the churches. The churches came to be known as the place one could go for help. Thousands of South Koreans flocked to the church to fill their empty bowls with rice. In fact, the churches grew so fast during that time that soon their members became known as “rice Christians”—giving rise to the concern about easy believism among the church members of South Korea. Nevertheless, during that time, the church established a strong reputation for its concern for the needy. But in recent years, the church in Asia has, to a great extent, forgotten the widows and the orphans, the underfed, the elderly, unwed mothers, prostitutes. Some have leveled the charge that the churches of South Korea were so busy with their expansionistic plans that they had forgotten people in need.

Because of the crisis, this is beginning to change. The church is calling believers to return to a renewed faith and practice, to a new purity of lifestyle, and to a new financial integrity. Foremost in many church leaders’ minds is how to minister to the unemployed. Several churches I know of are making housing available for their members who can no longer afford to pay rent. Churches are setting up committees to plan programs for the unemployed—helping them with such practical matters as writing resumes and preparing for job interviews. Some churches are offering psychological counseling for the unemployed as well.

Recent months have brought a “gold drive” to South Korea, initiated by churches and civic groups. The citizenry was called upon to donate their gold—rings, bracelets, watches—to help pay off the national debt. Pastors announced the drive from their pulpits. Some even took off their gold rings during their sermons and placed them in special baskets. Many churches are sponsoring clothing drives and are recycling appliances and household items among their membership.

In Asia today, where only 8 percent of the 3 billion people claim to be Christians and where the traditional religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam are prevalent, many non-Christians are asking, “What are the real differences between Christianity and Buddhism?” Now, however, we have a chance to show the world the love and care for the community that has, for centuries, been a hallmark of Christianity.

In my early years, I lived in North Korea. My father died during the Korean War of complications from malnutrition. Before he died, he wrote in his Bible this simple request: “Please return to North Korea some day and establish a church.” It has been the goal of my life to go back to North Korea someday and fulfill my father’s request.

My story, I believe, represents where the Asian church is today. We are passing through a dark tunnel, but we have not forgotten our heavenly Father’s request to build his church. God has chosen the Asian church to proclaim his message of salvation to the nations. Ours is a young church compared to the West’s. But it is a strong church, one that I believe will rise to the challenge before it—that of using the current crisis as an opportunity for cleansing and renewal so that it may give itself more diligently than ever before to the task of world evangelization.

Bong Rin Ro was interviewed by Ruth Senter, a freelance journalist and a former editor of CAMPUS LIFE magazine, who lives part-time in Seoul, South Korea.

Bong Rin Ro, 63, is academic dean and professor of church history and missions at the Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology, Seoul, South Korea. E-mail: ttmklee@unitel.co.kr

Copyright © 1998 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Southcentral Asia

“‘You are more Christian than Christ,’ my Hindu friend told me.”

Greetings from your brothers and sisters on the other side of the world, people you will one day meet when we all get to glory.

I am a native of a Southcentral Asian country where many Muslims and Hindus live. I myself, though, was raised by a Christian mother and attended a church that encouraged us to take the gospel to the villages around us. My message has always been and will always be that Jesus is the only Son of God and the only way to the Father. I believe that with all my heart. But in my experience of sharing Jesus with those of different religions, I have learned something that I think Christians in the Western church should take to heart as well: it is not Christianity we have to offer, but Jesus himself.

I remember the first time I heard a Muslim man read the passage of Jesus’ birth from the Qur’an. It hit me that there was a lot about Jesus in the Qur’an that I could agree with, which meant there was a lot a Muslim could share with my view of Jesus. With my evangelical theological training, though, I was predisposed to throw out all things Muslim, regardless of the good in them or of the potential bridge they might provide for witnessing to our Lord. This posture led many believers in Jesus in my country into absurd practices, such as our young women getting married in white dresses when the only women in my country who wear white are widows.

A childhood friend of mine who is Hindu and who had risen to an important government post once told me, “The problem with you Christians is you’re more Christian than Christ.” I began to see there was a lot of truth to that. We were, in fact, far too judgmental. I began to see the reality that if we would just lift Jesus up, he would draw all people to himself.

Soon after this realization I was given a dramatic reminder of its truth. I was sitting in my office in the city when a man came in and asked me, “Do you have any other book about Jesus other than John’s Gospel.” Knowing from his dress and his language what part of the country he was from, I was sure there was no Christian witness there. I replied, “Sure! But how did you find out about John’s Gospel?”

“One of our people was traveling here,” he said, “and when he came back, he brought this book about Jesus with him.” In his village in the evening, people gather around and somebody who is literate will read whatever he has gotten his hands on—perhaps a month-old newspaper or some comic book. To make a long story short, the reading of the Gospel of John touched this man I met, and he had accepted Jesus as his Savior. And in God’s sense of humor, the person who had read aloud that tract of John was the Hindu priest of the village temple—not an ordained, theologically trained minister of the gospel. It reminded me that it is the message, not the messenger, that counts. That message is Jesus. It’s not, “Forgive me, Christianity.” It’s not, “Forgive me, my denomination.” It’s not, “Forgive me, my home church.” It is Jesus alone.

When the movie The Last Temptation of Christ came out, Christians made a small protest against it, but the only countries in the world where today that movie is legally banned—because of its blasphemy against Jesus Christ—are in the Islamic world. This reverence for Jesus provides me with a natural starting point for sharing the gospel. I begin by asking what the Qur’an teaches about Jesus. Muslims answer that “He’s a prophet.” When I ask what kind of prophet he was, they explain that he’s a prophet like all the other prophets and that the Qur’an teaches them not to discriminate among the prophets. But then I point out that the Qur’an also teaches Jesus was miraculously born without a father and that he was born at God’s command while all the other prophets had a physical father—so the Qur’an itself is discriminating.

Their strongest objection comes next: the Qur’an does not teach the Christian blasphemy that he was the Son of God. How then, I ask, does the Qur’an describe Jesus? I ask this knowing the Qur’an goes so far as to say Jesus was the “essence” and “breath of God.”

After hearing this discussion one day, a government official stood up and said to the group, “We know there is a division between Christianity and Islam over Jesus being the Son of God. The more I come to know Jesus, however, the more I see him as being God. If he is the breath and essence of God, that means he is God.” That’s what it is all about: to help somebody come to the position that is not the “Christian viewpoint” or the “Islamic viewpoint,” but the Jesus viewpoint.

Today, because of the faithful witness of local believers over the years, I’m happy to say that in the Parliament of my country and of several surrounding countries there are Parliament members who meet together weekly to study the Word and to pray. Naturally speaking, this could never have happened, for sociologically they are Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. But the barriers society and religion have built between them, Jesus has torn down. They are followers of Jesus Christ. Please remember these brothers and sisters in your prayers.

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The crime scene was a simple village school in central Vietnam’s Quang Ngai Province. The time was late 1997. A group of 12-year-old children were talking about a teacher from a nearby village who had come and told them stories about Jesus. Some of the children had decided to become Christians, and they began telling others about their discovery—until one of the teachers reported this “dangerous” activity to the local police. The police gathered the offending children and told them that they must stop talking about this “foreign superstition.”

Though subdued for a couple of days, the children soon resumed their “Jesus talk.” It wasn’t long before the police again showed up at the school and picked out the three “ringleaders.” These children were taken to a police camp and held incommunicado for a full week. The pleas of their parents for their immediate release fell on deaf ears.

When the children were released, they told how they were deprived of food and water for long periods of time, had been interrogated for hours, were pressed to reveal the identity of the teacher who had told them the stories, and had been lectured about the stupidity of the superstitions they believed. The boy who most resisted the questioning had had his head held under water in the toilet until he almost drowned. The families of the children were told that because their children had persisted in the religious faith, they would never be permitted to attend the public school again.

This event is not an isolated one, particularly in Quang Ngai Province, where it is often dangerous to be a Christian. Compared to the oppressive first decade of Communist rule beginning in the mid-1970s, the situation for people of all faiths has improved in Vietnam. Vietnam’s growing community of evangelical Protestants, now estimated at 700,000 believers, is four times the size of what it was only 23 years ago, in 1975, when Communists took control of all of Vietnam. The most remarkable growth has been among minority tribes. At least 120,000 Hmong along the Chinese border have become Christians in the last decade. Yet widespread harassment and abuses persist, from remote mountain villages to the big cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The following list of religious-liberty abuses from just the last two years document this continuing persecution:

• At least nine Christian leaders are in prison, some serving three-year sentences and others languishing for months without formal charges or trials. Many more Christian leaders among Vietnam’s minorities, whose names are difficult to obtain, have been arrested and detained by security forces for various periods of time and often under horrible conditions.
• Church buildings are still being confiscated. A church in Thanh My in Lam Dong Province was bulldozed in December 1997. Currently the Evangelical Church of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City is appealing an action of the city’s People’s Committee to confiscate its valuable An Dong property.
• In Gia Lay, Kon Tum, Christian members of a minority group being relocated because of a government dam project were alone excluded from an offer of new land and new homes. In other locations, Christians in minority tribes are denied access to the public water supplies in their villages—specifically because they are Christians.
• Worship services in Vietnam’s more than one thousand house churches are routinely “busted” by security police. The leaders and the homeowners are levied heavy fines—often in excess of $100. There is no guaranteed freedom of assembly, even though Vietnam’s laws permit meetings of up to 20 people in homes. Christian literature is routinely seized in these raids, including Bibles with the official government imprimatur.
• Two pastors of the “open” churches, who have led their congregations’ churches for 15 and 17 years, may be forced to leave them because their residence papers are said to be out of order.
• In the last 22 years, authorities have permitted only one class of 13 students to take a pastoral training course. Other than that small exception, no theological schools have been permitted. No ordinations are permitted. Any training of church leaders must be done in ways not visible to the public and the authorities.
• In northern Vietnam, leaders of the only church body in Vietnam with legal recognition, the Hanoi-based 20-congregation Evangelical Church of Vietnam, are being visited by representatives of the Bureau of Religious Affairs and the police. The church leaders have been asked about their thoughts on the need of holding another church conference (the last one permitted was nine years ago) and about who should be the next leader to succeed the Reverend Bui Hoanh Thu, the long-time and pliable leader who died last year.

Similarly, in southern Vietnam, authorities are trying to recruit a leader for the Evangelical Church of Vietnam to replace the seriously ailing 98-year-old Reverend Ong van Huyen. Eight preconditions are presented to candidates. One person who has seen the conditions says that they clearly require compromises unacceptable to evangelical believers. If a leader cannot be found, there is little hope the authorities will allow the organization to resume normal operations or hold annual conferences to choose leaders.

These are all reasons to pray—and to advocate appropriately—for religious freedom for the church in Vietnam. The story of the church in Vietnam is one of growth in spite of suffering. Anyone who has visited the church in person comes away humbled by the courageous faith of Christians in the midst of hardship. Theirs is a story to challenge and inspire all believers.

This report was first given on World Evangelical Fellowship’s Religious Liberty E-mail Conference. The author, a long-time missionary to Vietnam, wishes to remain anonymous.

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Jesus Can Still Mean Jail

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Vietnam

West Bank

“We are a forgotten faithful, but not by the Lord.”

Bishara Awad

An Arab Christian community has existed in this land since the Day of Pentecost (see Acts 2). Palestine and much of the Middle East were predominantly Christian during the Byzantine era. In spite of 2,000 years of wars and unrest, we see the faithfulness of the Lord in keeping for himself a living witness here.

By some estimates, the number of Arab Christians in the entire Middle East is 16 million, less than 7 percent of the total Arabic population. We are a forgotten faithful, but not by the Lord. An important head of state, also a Muslim, once put it this way: “It is important to keep the Arab Christians in the Middle East; they are the glue that holds the community together.”

In the Holy Land, the situation is more precarious, with the percentage of Palestinian Christians today being less than 2 percent. This is a tragic drop from 17 percent at the turn of the century.

As a Christian who was born in the Holy Land and who can trace my ancestors back several hundred years, I don’t feel that this land is only mine. People of all nationalities have deep spiritual, historical, and emotional ties to this land—the cradle of Christianity and Judaism. Pilgrims come from all parts of the world to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to see the empty tomb, and to revitalize their faith in their Lord and Savior.

A colorful spectrum of churches comprises the Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land. Members of the historical churches—namely, the Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, and Latin Catholic—take pride in tracing their heritage back to the earliest church. Their monasteries, cathedrals, and churches stand as a physical timeline of their faithfulness to the Christian witness. In addition, the Protestant and evangelical churches are making their impact in this land. Most of these churches were started in the eighteenth century by Western missionaries. Baptists, Pentecostals, Nazarenes, Missionary Alliance, and other evangelicals work together as if they are one congregation. Their small numbers and the great challenges facing them draw them to each other as they serve their one Lord.

In keeping with the example set before them by the first church, Palestinian Christians have always been on the forefront in providing charitable relief to the needy. In 1948, an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homeland and became refugees. Today, 20 refugee camps are home to over a million people. All Palestinians, both Christians and Muslims, are restricted to tiny areas of land within the West Bank. This continues to have devastating effects upon the Palestinian economy. Palestinian Christians, in cooperation with the church worldwide, are working to alleviate this suffering.

The church’s influence is also felt through the spiritual encouragement it brings to the surrounding communities. Presently, under the Palestinian National Authority, the church has many opportunities to present the good news to the lost. Palestinian Christians freely distribute Christian literature, hold Bible studies, do correspondence courses, and advertise in the local papers. On several occasions, the Jesus film has been broadcast in prime time on Palestinian public television. Recently, in Bethlehem, an evangelical church was allowed to begin broadcasting Christian programs from its own local radio station. Soon the same church will have its own Christian television station. We praise God for these and many other opportunities. We see this as a clear signal that under the Palestinian Authority freedom of religious expression is tolerated—which is quite the opposite of rumors that the Palestinian Authority is persecuting Christians.

Nonetheless, the church in the Holy Land has not escaped the suffering brought about from nearly a century of political and economic unrest. The growth and outreach of the church is severely hampered by the ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. On top of this, the Jewish and Muslim majorities, by their sheer numbers, are gradually squeezing out any Christian presence here, making the church very vulnerable and susceptible to changing political winds.

Another believing community in the Holy Land is the Messianic Jews. God is doing a great work among them, too, and the number of Messianic assemblies is growing. Some estimates report the number of Messianic Jews to be approximately 3,000. Like the Palestinians, they have their own congregations and institutions. Palestinian Christians praise the Lord for these brothers and sisters in Christ. It is not easy for them to express their faith openly. Israeli monitoring organizations have been set up to track their mission activities, and attempts are being made in the Israeli Knesset to pass legislation making it illegal for them to possess Christian literature or to evangelize.

Unless the world understands the precariousness of this remnant of faithful believers—Palestinian and Jewish—who are determined to keep the gospel light shining, pilgrims to this land of promise may visit our shrines and churches yet never meet a local Christian. Christians here believe that despite the darkness of the hour there is still hope for the Middle East, for Palestine/Israel. Why? Because God’s people, those redeemed by the blood of Jesus, are still here.

The church of Jesus Christ in the Holy Land needs the prayers and support of its brothers and sisters in the West. Our churches have taken the Great Commission to heart. They have planted churches in different parts of the land. Some have their own institutions and schools. Without their influence, Christianity in the Holy Land would be nearly extinct.

It is unfortunate that some Christians from the West believe God gave the land solely to the Jewish people. The resident Arab population, Christians and Muslims, are dismissed as trespassers or a stumbling block to the fulfillment of prophecies.

Very soon the church in Bethlehem and the rest of Palestine will celebrate a new millennium. The challenge facing the church for the year 2000 and beyond is how to be a catalyst of Christ’s love, peace, hope, and renewal. As the church moves forward in proclaiming the true faith by word and deed, may the eyes of the world be drawn to the Middle East—not, we pray, to view clashes between warring parties, but to behold afresh the miracle of God incarnate in the lives of dedicated disciples. Then, from Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Christ, the Savior of the world, may once again be lifted up and glorified.

Bishara Awad, 59, is founder (in 1979) and president of Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank. In 1948 he and his Palestinian family became refugees. That same year he lost his father to a stray bullet during the fighting surrounding Israel’s statehood. Since 1972, Awad had been a leader among the evangelical churches in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He currently attends the East Jerusalem International Baptist Church. Bethlehem Bible College is located on Hebron Road and welcomes visitors. E-mail: bethbc@planet.edu

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Squeezed by Warring Majorities

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West Bank

Brazil

“Pastors want more people, and if a strategy works—regardless if it is biblical or not—it is used.”

Adult evangelical Christians in Brazil still remember what a stigma it was to be known as a crente (a believer). We were considered stupid, poor, and backward. People openly disliked us. But not any longer. We have left our underprivileged status behind us. Today we count soccer players, artists, business people, politicians, and high-society people among our ranks. Sophisticated convention centers and five-star hotels serve as our meeting centers. Weekly magazines cover the evangelical presence in society.

Much of this has come through the sheer numbers we have attracted into our churches in the last two decades, though precise numbers are difficult to come by. Some figures say evangelicals make up 20 percent of Brazil’s population of 160 million people. A 1996 census, however, put the evangelical figure at 10.95 percent.

At any rate, the growth of the Protestant church has attracted attention—including that of the Vatican in this historically Catholic country. Pope John Paul II has visited Brazil twice (in 1980 and 1997). What worries him is the growth of Pentecostalism, which has begun to threaten the hegemony of the Catholic church here. Still, as Leonardo Boff, a prominent Catholic spokesman, declares, “The growth of the evangelical church is based on its own merit, due to the fact that they are more organized and closer to the Brazilian reality.”

The major evangelical denomination here is the Assemblies of God, which claims a membership of more than 10 million. Other major denominations include Universal Church of God’s Kingdom, Christian Congregation, Four Square Gospel, and many other Pentecostal churches. Baptists and Lutherans rank the highest of non-Pentecostal evangelical churches.

The Universal Church of God’s Kingdom deserves special attention. It is a ten-year-old church, born in Brazil with no help from outside. Under the leadership of a self-proclaimed bishop, the church has grown from a small group to 3 million members today (yes, in one decade!). It is now established in major cities around the world, where it buys theaters and movie houses for its meeting places (paying as high as $6 million for one). It owns the third-largest TV station as well as countless radio stations in Brazil. The church is even creating a political party, called the Social Action Party, with the intention to launch its leader, Edir Macedo, for president in 2002. The church already has six representatives in the Congress.

However, many of the practices of this church are denounced by other evangelicals. Some of its preachers encourage people to give all they have in order to be blessed. Television evangelists instruct viewers to place a cup of water on their TV sets, which they then bless and urge listeners to drink in order to be healed. Some sell anointed oil for similar healing purposes. The Brazilian Evangelical Association has issued a statement alerting Christians against such practices.

Of course, the Universal Church of God’s Kingdom does not hold a monopoly on problems here. One of my greatest concerns is that almost all growing churches in my country are sold out to prosperity theology (the belief that God will reward the faithful with material blessings). In a land where poverty is rampant, high unemployment and bankruptcy are everywhere, and the health system is inadequate, it is no surprise that people flock to churches and crusades that promise all kinds of cures and blessings from God.

The numerical growth of members has all too often become a primary goal. Pastors want more people, and if a strategy works—regardless if it is biblical or not—it is used. And little reflection is given to what kind of Christianity we are producing. This has placed a tremendous burden upon those who refuse to employ such strategies, especially when these pastors are accused of not being anointed by the Holy Spirit. When pastors do address biblical issues of suffering and identification with Christ on the cross, they see many people leave to attend churches that offer what they are looking for.

Because of prosperity theology, some look on the poor as a curse (“If the thousands living in the shantytowns in our major cities would just believe … “); whereas the poor present the greatest mission field in our country. Another neglected group is our native Indian population, whose numbers have plummeted from around 6 million in 1500, when Brazil was colonized by Portugal, to 242,206 today. While 131 out of 243 tribes have no evangelical missionary presence, it is very hard to raise money to send missionaries to our own Indian tribes. The missionary work and Bible translation being done among them is usually the work of foreign missionaries.

It remains to be seen how the church in Brazil will react if times of persecution, severe economic depression, or political oppression should come. On the one hand, we have high hopes for the church and that Brazil will become a major launching ground for worldwide missions. On the other hand, we hope that the church will become a strong voice in our society against the maladies and injustices of our land. We pray that the church will grow in maturity and be a witness to our society of the signs of the kingdom of God.

Antonio Carlos Barro, 44, is the founding president of the South American Theological Seminary in Londrina, Brazil, and pastor of Eighth Presbyterian Church in the same city. A native of Brazil, he is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary. E-mail: acbarro@sercomtel.com.br

Copyright © 1998 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.