SOUTH AFRICA
Despite increasing racial tensions, an ambitious high-school ministry is finding success in a multiracial effort to evangelize the next generation of South Africans. According to Ted Carr, national director of Youth for Christ/South Africa (YFC), more than 27,000 teens have accepted Christ since the April launching of “Youth Harvest,” a six-year program to send evangelistic teams into the nation’s 3,100 high schools.
Using teams of unpaid volunteers, YFC h as already held evangelistic assemblies in 504 high schools. In addition to the young people hearing the gospel and responding, Carr says many teachers are being saved.
Carr believes the church can be most effective in South Africa by embracing evangelism rather than politics. “We walk a tightrope,” he says. “We want to be culturally relevant, yet we cannot polarize by aligning ourselves with a given ideology. Once we take sides, we lose credibility and would never have access to the schools,” he says, adding that the nature of a ministry can in itself be a strong political statement.
“Our teams are fully integrated,” says Carr, “because we are opposed to an apartheid system. The nonracial nature of our program provides a model for the students we are ministering to.”
Angry And Anxious
In addition to being angry, South African teens, says Carr, are disoriented. “The blacks, especially, are angry at the system of apartheid, while all young people are anxious about the future.” Employment is a major concern, given the prospect of increased economic sanctions. “If the [international boycott] is only 20 percent effective, 343,000 blacks and 90,000 whites will lose their jobs,” he says. Carr adds that South African youths know their country is the focus of international attention, and, he says, their uncertainty about the future makes them more open to the gospel.
It is amid this backdrop that YFC is trying to reach high schoolers. Nearly all of the schools are segregated, so the appearance of blacks, coloreds, and whites performing skits, singing, and giving testimonies always commands attention. Team members spend two months training, then travel to schools for the remainder of the year. Currently seven teams are in place.
Local churches conduct follow-up efforts, and school principals often invite the teams back. The teams also perform on city streets, parks, and in local auditoriums in an effort to reach the entire community.
Though South Africa’s YFC staff are pleased with the results of the first seven months of “Youth Harvest,” they are concerned about its future. A major hurdle is finances, primarily scholarship money to help blacks who cannot afford the training and have difficulty raising their support.
Although South African churches contribute to “Youth Harvest,” their donations do not cover the expenses of the program, Carr says. To compensate, as well as to recruit team members, Carr has sought help from U.S. Christians. Last year, six Americans joined “Youth Harvest,” and next month 18 will leave for South Africa, according to Earl Schultz, vice-president of YFC/USA’S world outreach office, YFC/USA is a cosponsor of “Youth Harvest.”
North American Scene
POVERTY
Poor Are Still With Us
Two new studies suggest that poverty remains a major problem for many American families—particularly black families.
A report released by the Washington-based Urban Institute found that among eight Western industrial democracies, the United States had the highest level of children living in poverty. According to the report, which was based on 1979 data, 17.1 percent of American children lived in families with incomes below the government’s official poverty line. At the same time, Switzerland and Sweden had the lowest numbers, with only 5.1 percent each.
A second study, done by the nonprofit Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, reported that income gaps between black and white families in America appear to be widening. Center director Robert Greenstein said most families suffered sharp economic setbacks during the 1981–82 recession, but in the following five years of economic recovery, white families recovered the lost ground while black families did not. “As a consequence, the gap between black and white median family income is now wider than in the late 1970s,” Greenstein said.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Christian College Kudos
Five Christian College Coalition members were included in U.S. News and World Report’s list of the nation’s top colleges. Under the category of small comprehensive colleges, Messiah College placed eighth, while Azusa Pacific University was twenty-fifth. Taylor University and Dordt College ranked twentieth and twenty-first respectively in the regional liberal arts category, while Oral Roberts University was ranked fifteenth among comprehensive colleges.
U.S. News and World Report rated the nation’s colleges according to five criteria: quality of the student body as determined by the school’s selectivity, strength of the faculty and teaching, extent of resources, ability to retain students through graduation, and reputation for academic excellence. In all but the last category, objective data were used to quantify a school’s performance.
“We think this reflects the good job all our colleges are doing in focusing on the quality of undergraduate teaching, concern for students, and an interdisciplinary approach to education,” said Karen Longman, vice-president of the Christian College Coalition.
CHURCH AND STATE
No School Prayer In Canada
The Ontario Court of Appeals has struck down a section of a provincial education act that required a recited prayer and Bible reading in public schools. According to a report in Religious News Service, the court rejected the Ontario government’s argument that, since students could be excusedfrom the religious exercises, the law was constitutional.” The reality is that it imposes on religious minorities a compulsion to conform to the religious practices of the majority,” the court said of the law. The ruling said the mandatory religious exercises are “inconsistent with the multicultural nature of our society as recognized by the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms].”
Brian Stiller, executive director of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, called the decision “unfortunate, but not surprising.” “For those of us who have observed the increased secularization of our culture,” he said, “to plead multiculturalism is nothing less than a smoke screen.” The larger agenda, Stiller believes, is to exclude the Judeo-Christian base from public education.
AIDS MINISTRY
Camp And Campolo Team Up
Christian musician Steve Camp and noted speaker and author Anthony Campolo have formed a new foundation that will attempt to provide a Christian response to AIDS. The purpose of AIDS Crisis and Christians Today (ACCT) is to educate Christians about AIDS as well as “provide a way for them to get involved” in reaching out to AIDS victims and their families, according to Camp.
The two are planning a series of meetings that will combine music and AIDS information. They hope the events will lead Christians to organize local hospices specifically for AIDS victims.
UPDATE
In Search Of A Seminary
When the American Lutheran Church and Lutheran Church in America merged to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America last year, a handful of conservative Lutherans formed their own denomination: the American Association of Lutheran Churches (AALC). At its recent first convention, the new group voted to halt the process of beginning a formal relationship with Fuller Theological Seminary, partly over an inerrancy issue.
Robert Meye, dean of Fuller’s school of theology, acknowledged that some in the denomination felt Fuller’s longstanding view of the infallibility of Scripture was not strong enough. But he also pointed out that an executive committee of the denomination had unanimously recommended to the larger body to affiliate with Fuller.
PEOPLE AND EVENTS
Briefly Noted
Died: Elmer A. Frink, general overseer of Elim Fellowship, a Pentecostal fellowship of churches, ministers, and missionaries.
Resigned:As pastor of one of the fastest-growing Southern Baptist churches, Bill Weber, after confessing he had committed adultery. In 11 years, his Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas grew from a handful of people meeting in private homes to 10,000 members.
