JOEL-NEWS-INTERNATIONAL-371 * 27 JULY 2001 * WWW.JOELNEWS.ORG
IN THIS EDITION:
JN371-1. Switzerland gets prayer army
JN371-2. 'Online' churches - the wave of the future?
JN371-3. Barna presents startling statistics
JN371-4. Barna research shows most Protestants don't witness
JN371-5. Barna: 'Net-based Christianity will outgrow traditional church'
JN371-6. Barna says church must change for sake of the unchurched
JN371-7. Barna: 'Charismatics have highest level of biblical accuracy'
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APOLOGY - Because we moved our office, we haven't been able to publish Joel News International over the past two weeks. You will receive an extra edition this week, focusing on George Barna's research and his important new book 'Boiling Point'. A must for Church leaders who desire to be effective in ministry in the New Millennium.
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PRAYER FOR INDONESIA - Suzette Hattingh is currently ministering in Indonesia and requests prayer for the tense situation in the country. She writes: "This past Sunday two churches were bombed in Jakarta, 60 people badly injured. Please pray against riots that are destroying the country, and for wisdom for the political and religious leaders in Indonesia."
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JN371-1. Switzerland gets prayer army
By: Marc van der Woude
"Raise up an army, oh Lord." Swiss Christians are taking the words of this revival song quite literally nowadays. During the last year an important question has been debated in this neutral mountain nation: the plan to halve the national army, train it to specialise and thus make it more effective. Such things get widely discussed, to be finally decided in a national referendum.
Beat Christen, a national prayer leader, joined the discussion and decided to send a letter to the Defense Department. "Now that we are all thinking about the future of our army, I suggest forming a special 'prayer brigade' within the army. The reason I write this is because this is what was done in biblical times. Kings had prophets to advise them, to hear from God what they should do. Many battles have been won that way. Intercessors can play an important role for the safety of Switzerland."
The Defense Secretary was interested and sent the letter on to the General Staff. The army leadership read the letter and decided to invite Beat Christen for an 'orientation interview'. When he met the generals, Beat showed them the history of the prophet Elisha who received strategic information about the aggressive plans of the king of Aram against Israel (2 Kings 6:8-12). On the basis of this information, the king of Israel knew what to do. Another key passage is Psalm 127:1, which says it is of no use for the watchmen (the army) to guard the city if the Lord does not watch over it.
This was a new idea for the military commanders. Although they did not see how they could start a prayer unit in the Swiss army, they encouraged Beat to organise it himself. In case of national emergency, this prayer army could be called into action. Beat has now found several Christian officers who are willing to help in starting up a prayer army. They are talking about concrete implementation of this plan; one idea is to recruit 7,000 intercessors (one for every thousand Swiss) for this special unit, who can be mobilized within one hour. This prayer army is to 'offer its services' to the Swiss Parliament and the General Staff.
Beat Christen is well-known in political circles; nine years ago he was officially accredited to the Swiss Parliament as an intercessor. This means he and two other intercessors have access to the parliamentary buildings to pray on the spot. He has also positioned prayer groups behind the scenes for the World Economic Forum in Davos, a yearly meeting of political and economic leaders. Besides this, he coordinates prayer for over 200 companies in Switzerland.
The Swiss prayer movement has grown strong during these last few years. There are 24-hour prayer centres in 21 regions, sponsored by the churches. On 1 August, a National Day of Prayer will be held in the city of Biel, with an expected number of between 20.000 and 30.000 participants. This date is Swiss Independence Day, when traditionally fires are lit on the mountaintops. Let us pray that the prayers of the Swiss Christians may light a fire of God in this nation.
[Reproduction of this report is welcomed, but we ask that you use this credit line please: Source www.joelnews.org]
Source: Joel News
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JN371-2. 'Online' churches - the wave of the future?
Churches need to stop building bigger buildings and start relying more on the Internet, say two leading pastors in the church growth movement. David Yonggi Cho, pastor of the 750,000-member Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, and Rick Warren, pastor of the 15,000-member Saddleback Valley Community Church, say the Internet is a "next generation strategy" that will connect decentralized home groups to the larger church body.
The two met recently in California to discuss church growth strategies for the 21st century, and their conclusion was -- stop building buildings and use that money for world missions. The interview appeared in the July 25 issue of Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox, a free, e-mail newsletter available from the Web site www.pastors.com.
With 20,000 new converts a year, Cho says there is no way his church can match buildings to membership and so he's encouraging younger converts to stay at home and worship through the Internet. "We are so jammed that we have no way to keep growing except by going to cyberspace," says Cho. He says he tells young people, "Don't come to church, just stay home and get your teaching through the Internet." These long-distance members give regular feedback on the sermons and services, and they can give their tithe through the Internet, and they stay physically connected to the larger body through small study groups.
Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose Driven Church," adds, "Even if we had all the buildings we needed, one question is whether or not the next generation wants to worship in huge buildings." He says Saddleback is experimenting with live Internet services on the weekends and has already set up a GroupNet to help small groups stay connected to each other.
Cho's church offers live services over the Internet, including Sunday and Wednesday. "But also, when I want to give special instructions or teaching to the cell groups," says Cho, "then I will teach it through the Internet to the cells and apartments. It is silly to build larger and larger church buildings. It is silly to spend more money on branch church buildings! You'll never have enough. I really believe this, and I have already announced to my people and ministers that the next step is to go into total cyberspace ministry because it is a real waste of money to build larger buildings."
Warren adds, "No matter how much land you have, it eventually fills up. Besides, just think of that money and how it could be used for missions. Our goal is to decentralize -- to send our church members out for ministry into their neighborhoods." Regarding the traditional need for buildings, Warren cites Saddleback's legacy: "We wanted to prove to the world that you don't have to have a building to grow a church. We were running over 10,000 in attendance before we built our first building. So we know how to grow and minister without buildings. What we're trying to learn now is how to do it through the Internet -- into the homes."
Cho says this strategy does not mean you completely abandon a central church building. He says, "We need both ministries together -- a strong, young church and a very powerful Internet service." He says this helps the local church to minister worldwide. "There are many American-Koreans participating in our church's ministry through the Internet," says Cho. "Through the Internet, we can have world-wide fellowship and world-wide services." Two years ago, Cho was invited to preach in Dubai. During the services, the authorities came to tell him, "If you ever move out of the British Embassy, you will be arrested." Yet, about 3,000 Islamic young people kept coming to Cho's services. Cho asked them how they even knew there were services, since the police were trying to squelch the meetings. They said, "Through your Internet services! In Saudi Arabia, we have no church, and we can't own a Bible, but we can still read the Internet. We are watching your Internet service and you announced that you were coming to Dubai -- so we took our vacations and came out."
Source: Assist News Service and Pastors.com
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JN371-3. Barna presents startling statistics
Some startling statistics, based on International Census Data, Barna Research, and other research data:
Born again Christians - defined in the surveys as people who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ and that He is still important in their life today and who also say they know they will go to Heaven after they die because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.
1) Nearly half of born again Christians (47%) agree that Satan is "not a living being but is a symbol of evil."
2) 31% of born agains also believe that if a person is good enough they can earn a place in Heaven.
3) 24% of born agains agree that "while he lived on earth, Jesus committed sins, like other people."
4) 15% of born again Christians claim that "after He was crucified and died, Jesus Christ did not return to life physically."
5) About one out of four (26%) born again Christians believe that it doesn't matter what faith you follow because they all teach the same lessons. (e.g. Hindu, Buddhism, Islam, etc.)
6) Roughly 95% of all Christians never lead ONE person to Christ.
7) Although most believers say that serving the needy is important, just 34% gave any time and/or money to serve the poor in the last year.
8 Born agains are more likely than are non-Christians to have experienced divorce (27% versus 24%)
9) One out of every six born again Christians (16%) gave no money to his/her church during 1999. The proportion who tithed to their church was just 8%.
10) Christians spend 7 times as much time on entertainment as they do on spiritual activities.
11) In a nationwide survey among born-again adults, none of the individuals interviewed said that the single, most important goal in their life was to be a committed follower of Jesus Christ.
12) 30% of born agains have watched a "R" rated movie in the last 7 days compared to 40% of non born again people.
Source: Barna Research Group and others
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JN371-4. Barna research shows most Protestants don't witness
The Great Commission has become the great omission for a majority of believers. According to a recent report of the Barna Research Group, only one out of every three adults attending a Protestant church shared their faith with a nonbeliever last year. The findings were part of a study among the 12 largest denominational groupings in the United States.
The study found that Pentecostal, Assemblies of God and Mormon church attendees are the most active in a variety of religious endeavors, while individuals who attend Catholic and Episcopal churches are generally the least involved in eight religious activities - including prayer, Bible reading, witnessing and church attendance - evaluated in the nationwide survey of 6,000 adults.
BRG president George Barna said: "The groups whose adherents are most likely to possess biblical perspectives are also those whose adherents are most actively pursuing spiritual experiences. The churches where people's beliefs have strayed farthest from the Bible tend to be those in which the people are least involved in religious and spiritual pursuits."
BRG found that the most common religious practice among adults is prayer. Participation was highest among those who attend a Pentecostal church -- 97 percent of whom said they had prayed in the last week. The lowest was among those who attended an Adventist church (79 percent).
When it came to Bible reading, Pentecostals (75 percent) were the most likely to study Scripture. The least likely Bible readers were Catholics (23 percent), Episcopalians (30 percent) and Lutherans (32 percent). Although they are not generally considered to be a Christian church, Mormons (67 percent) were more likely to read the Bible during a typical week than were Protestants overall. Barna said the figure was surprising because most Mormons do not believe that the Bible is the authoritative word of God.
Another surprise was the discovery that most Baptists had not witnessed to a nonbeliever in the last year. Baptist churches are often known for their evangelistic focus, yet only four out of every 10 adults who attend a Baptist church said they had verbalized their faith to a non-Christian.
Overall, Barna said the survey revealed "a nation that is comfortable with religion but not particularly committed to spiritual growth." He commented: "Most people who are aligned with a Christian church really make a rather minimal investment in religious activity. Most people describe themselves as religious, describe their faith as being very important in their daily life, but make only a half-hearted effort to truly master the foundations of their chosen faith and live a life that is determined by that faith."
Source: Barna Research Group
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JN371-5. Barna: 'Net-based Christianity will outgrow traditional church'
A Barna Research Group study shows the Internet is one of the fastest developing areas in the ministry world today and, according to pastors, one of the most confusing. More than 100,000 Protestant churches already minister to people through the Web, the study found.
According to Barna, within this decade as many as 50 million individuals may rely solely upon the Internet to provide all of their faith-based experiences. "We foresee two-thirds of people engaging in Net-based religious pursuits on a regular basis as the decade progresses, such as listening to archived religious teaching, reading online devotionals, and buying religious products and resources online," says Barna.
The study shows virtually every dimension of the faith community will be influenced by online faith developments through the likes of self-produced and self-marketed worship music, e-mail broadcasting, theological chats, online meetings, broadcasts to congregants who are immobile, live webcasting of mission trips, and 24/7 ministry training from the best trainers and educators in the world.
Source: Barna Research Group
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JN371-6. Barna says church must change for sake of the unchurched
"Church leaders will have to better understand why the unchurched don't feel they need organized religion. Church leaders will need to find better ways to make the church relevant through programs that help people with their needs, whether that's learning about computers or improving marriages."
Such are the conclusions reached by George Barna, the well-known 46-year-old religion researcher, and his team, after spending 15 to 18 months in research, followed by 15 months on the road speaking at 50 to 75 seminars. "We found that many churches had good intentions, but not much deep understanding," Barna said. "In the seminars we try to get the church leaders to see that you can't do the same things anymore. You need to think strategy... Churches are no longer a one-size-fits-all ministry," he added. "They tend to think great numbers at one time and give them all the same thing. It's not going to work any longer."
The United States has 95 million to 100 million unchurched people. "We think the major obstacle is the attitude of the unchurched toward the churched," he said, "but the bigger issue is the attitude of the churched toward the unchurched... You must know what your goal is," Barna concluded.
Source: Barna Research Group
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JN371-7. Barna: 'Charismatics have highest level of biblical accuracy'
Pentecostals are often accused of being emotional and theologically lightweight, but charismatics are "the most biblically astute people." That is the assessment of a leading Christian pollster who found widely varying religious beliefs among the 12 largest denominational groupings in the country.
The latest Barna Research Group report, which evaluated people's opinions on eight faith-related perspectives, found "a clear-cut pattern" within the data: "Individuals associated with charismatic or nondenominational congregations were more likely than adults from other types of churches to possess biblical views on each item."
A majority of Assemblies of God attendees firmly believe Satan is real, while only 20 percent of Catholics, Episcopalians and Methodists hold this view. Other findings by BRG noted that Pentecostals based much of their faith on scriptural doctrine:
* Given the statement "the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches," four out of five charismatics agreed, while just one out of five Episcopalians concurred.
* Six of 10 Pentecostals believed salvation is a gift of God through the atoning death of Jesus, while only 9 percent of Catholics embraced this view.
* Personal responsibility for evangelism was most widely adopted by charismatics (73 percent) and least widely accepted among Episcopalians (12 percent) and Catholics (17 percent).
Barna said the survey challenges some widely held assumptions about charismatics. "This survey did not go deeply into people's theological knowledge, but even in examining some very basic biblical concepts the study shows that the common wisdom about the Bible knowledge and convictions of charismatics is inaccurate. In fact, there is interesting correlation between the educational achievement and theological interpretation. Overall, charismatics have lower levels of education but higher levels of biblical accuracy, while individuals attending mainline churches are generally better educated but are more likely to have theological perspectives that conflict with the Bible."
Source: Barna Research Group |