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And you really expect to judge the state of God's work in this world by the American press???
Here are a few other venues ...
China
The rate of conversion to Christianity in China is staggering. There were about 2 million Christians 30 years ago. Today there are between 23.5 million (the official statistic taken from state-run churches) and 130 million (including house churches) according to China Aid, a Christian charity working in China. Though the latter figure is debated, if it's in the ballpark it means the number of Christians outstrip Communist party members (78 million) by tens of millions.
Chinese Christianity will not be crushed | Nicola Davison | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
BEIJING — Chinese are embracing Christianity in a social revolution that is spreading through town and countryside to the point where Christians already may outnumber members of the Communist Party of China.
Read more: Millions all over China convert to Christianity - Washington Times
Africa
Africa, the “dark continent” to which American Christians shipped missionary after missionary during the 20[SUP]th[/SUP] Century, now features 40 percent of the Nigerian population among the rolls of Christians, according to the CIA Factbook.
Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk’s Operation World reports Uganda is 88 percent Christian and Kenya is about 78 percent Christian.
Missions analysis at the Free Methodist Church of North America say their Africa churches are the fastest growing in their denomination and the largest Anglican province in the world is in Nigeria.
Read more at Africa’s ‘Christian’ population on rise
African Muslims converting to Christianity large scale numbers (from Al-Jazeera website)
This translation of a televised conversation reveals a rare glimpse into the outlook of Muslim scholars who are concerned about Christianity’s growth. The invited guest is Sheikh Ahmad Al Katani; the president of The Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, which is an institution specializing in graduating imams and Islamic preachers.
Katani starts off describing the overall problem:
Islam used to represent, as you previously mentioned, Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century. On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.
As to how that happened, well there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed.
Al-Jazeerah Website -- Six Million African Muslims Convert to Christianity Each Year
The recent “Mighty Men” conference in South Africa attracted an estimated 300,000 men to the farming community of Greytown in the Kwazulu-Natal province. Some believe this was the largest gathering of Christian men in the world.
http://johanjoubert.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/0d4d9b7c010c46a7895c5b86cb7645941.jpg
The Middle East
At the same time that traditional Christian populations are being driven out, Muslims are converting to Christianity at what missionaries and other Church leaders describe as an unprecedented rate. Joel Rosenberg claims that “more Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history.”
An Iranian dissident told Rosenberg that there may be as many as 4.5 million converts in Iran. New Testaments and other Christian literature have flooded Iran, and Iraqi pastors cannot keep up with the demand for Christian books and pamphlets. Out of the carnage of Sudan, as many as a million have become Christians since 2000. By 2005, there were reportedly 100,000 Christian converts in Saudi Arabia. Because of vicious persecution, it is impossible to tell how many Christians there are in Afghanistan, but some have estimated as many as 20-30,000, and there is a similar number in Uzbekistan, a country that twenty-five years ago had only a handful of believers. Accurate numbers are difficult to find and more difficult to confirm, but even if these are inflated, there’s little doubt that something remarkable is happening.
Religious Change in the Middle East | First Things
Egypt
A massive four-day national prayer event is starting today, Oct. 26, in the desert north of Cairo, and is expected to draw 50,000 people from all over Egypt and reach around 5 to 6 million viewers with television coverage. Last November 70,000 Egyptian Christians gathered for praise, worship, and prayer at St. Simon Church in Cairo while millions around the globe followed the event live on TV and the Internet. This was a significant event: It was the largest Christian gathering in the modern history of Egypt.
Read more: Massive Desert Prayer Gathering Draws Together Egypt's Christians | Colin Dye
Brazil
Hundreds of churches joined together in November for a 2.5 mile march of witness in San Paulo, Brazil, then stayed to listen to Christian bands and messages from celebrities and preachers. This was the country’s 17th annual march, held each year on the same day the Catholic Church celebrates the Corpus Christi holiday, which is not observed by evangelical Protestants but is a national holiday in Brazil. Last year, more than 48,000 churches and over 850,000 homes tuned into one of the largest evangelistic outreaches in history through television, called My Hope Brazil. Evangelical Protestants have grown from 9% in 1990 to 15%, according to the 2000 census.
Viet Nam
In the lead up to Christmas, huge Christian prayer gatherings were held in the major cities, attracting 12,000 Christians in Hanoi and 40,000 to one event in Ho Chi Minh City. Christian groups admit to being surprised by their new found freedoms, saying such large gatherings would have been unthinkable even 12 months ago.
Huge Christian gatherings signal new religious freedoms in Vietnam | Connect Asia | ABC Radio Australia
Here are a few other venues ...
China
The rate of conversion to Christianity in China is staggering. There were about 2 million Christians 30 years ago. Today there are between 23.5 million (the official statistic taken from state-run churches) and 130 million (including house churches) according to China Aid, a Christian charity working in China. Though the latter figure is debated, if it's in the ballpark it means the number of Christians outstrip Communist party members (78 million) by tens of millions.
Chinese Christianity will not be crushed | Nicola Davison | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
BEIJING — Chinese are embracing Christianity in a social revolution that is spreading through town and countryside to the point where Christians already may outnumber members of the Communist Party of China.
Read more: Millions all over China convert to Christianity - Washington Times
Africa
Africa, the “dark continent” to which American Christians shipped missionary after missionary during the 20[SUP]th[/SUP] Century, now features 40 percent of the Nigerian population among the rolls of Christians, according to the CIA Factbook.
Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk’s Operation World reports Uganda is 88 percent Christian and Kenya is about 78 percent Christian.
Missions analysis at the Free Methodist Church of North America say their Africa churches are the fastest growing in their denomination and the largest Anglican province in the world is in Nigeria.
Read more at Africa’s ‘Christian’ population on rise
African Muslims converting to Christianity large scale numbers (from Al-Jazeera website)
This translation of a televised conversation reveals a rare glimpse into the outlook of Muslim scholars who are concerned about Christianity’s growth. The invited guest is Sheikh Ahmad Al Katani; the president of The Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, which is an institution specializing in graduating imams and Islamic preachers.
Katani starts off describing the overall problem:
Islam used to represent, as you previously mentioned, Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century. On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.
As to how that happened, well there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed.
Al-Jazeerah Website -- Six Million African Muslims Convert to Christianity Each Year
The recent “Mighty Men” conference in South Africa attracted an estimated 300,000 men to the farming community of Greytown in the Kwazulu-Natal province. Some believe this was the largest gathering of Christian men in the world.
http://johanjoubert.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/0d4d9b7c010c46a7895c5b86cb7645941.jpg
The Middle East
At the same time that traditional Christian populations are being driven out, Muslims are converting to Christianity at what missionaries and other Church leaders describe as an unprecedented rate. Joel Rosenberg claims that “more Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history.”
An Iranian dissident told Rosenberg that there may be as many as 4.5 million converts in Iran. New Testaments and other Christian literature have flooded Iran, and Iraqi pastors cannot keep up with the demand for Christian books and pamphlets. Out of the carnage of Sudan, as many as a million have become Christians since 2000. By 2005, there were reportedly 100,000 Christian converts in Saudi Arabia. Because of vicious persecution, it is impossible to tell how many Christians there are in Afghanistan, but some have estimated as many as 20-30,000, and there is a similar number in Uzbekistan, a country that twenty-five years ago had only a handful of believers. Accurate numbers are difficult to find and more difficult to confirm, but even if these are inflated, there’s little doubt that something remarkable is happening.
Religious Change in the Middle East | First Things
Egypt
A massive four-day national prayer event is starting today, Oct. 26, in the desert north of Cairo, and is expected to draw 50,000 people from all over Egypt and reach around 5 to 6 million viewers with television coverage. Last November 70,000 Egyptian Christians gathered for praise, worship, and prayer at St. Simon Church in Cairo while millions around the globe followed the event live on TV and the Internet. This was a significant event: It was the largest Christian gathering in the modern history of Egypt.
Read more: Massive Desert Prayer Gathering Draws Together Egypt's Christians | Colin Dye
Brazil
Hundreds of churches joined together in November for a 2.5 mile march of witness in San Paulo, Brazil, then stayed to listen to Christian bands and messages from celebrities and preachers. This was the country’s 17th annual march, held each year on the same day the Catholic Church celebrates the Corpus Christi holiday, which is not observed by evangelical Protestants but is a national holiday in Brazil. Last year, more than 48,000 churches and over 850,000 homes tuned into one of the largest evangelistic outreaches in history through television, called My Hope Brazil. Evangelical Protestants have grown from 9% in 1990 to 15%, according to the 2000 census.
Viet Nam
In the lead up to Christmas, huge Christian prayer gatherings were held in the major cities, attracting 12,000 Christians in Hanoi and 40,000 to one event in Ho Chi Minh City. Christian groups admit to being surprised by their new found freedoms, saying such large gatherings would have been unthinkable even 12 months ago.
Huge Christian gatherings signal new religious freedoms in Vietnam | Connect Asia | ABC Radio Australia
