The pandemic slowed many data-gathering efforts, but the fog seems to be clearing to reveal more of the great things happening in the global Church these last few years. The 24:14 Network has revised its estimate for the number of rapidly multiplying disciple-making movements from 1,491 to more than 1,850, including about 100 million believers in millions of small churches. See the story below.
Global: Number of Disciple-Making Movements Tops 1,850
Algeria: How to Keep Being Bold for the Sake of Jesus
USA: Survey Finds Unprecedented Drop in Bible Reading
China: Every Student Learns About God in School, But Does Not Know It!
Since the mid-1990s, we have witnessed the remarkable and explosive of disciple-making movements globally, with much of that growth happening in the past 10 years. From a very small handful of known movements in 1995, the number has grown to over 1,850 movements globally, encompassing over 99.9 million believers in 6.8 million churches (typically small, house-church type gatherings). This means over 1% of the world’s total population are Christ-followers in rapidly growing movements!
These numbers are the tip of the iceberg—the “floor” and not the “ceiling.” Certainly, the numbers are higher than this. These movements can be found in every [region] though their largest numbers are in Africa and parts of Asia (mostly Southern Asia). Growth is especially significant in the world’s least-reached places. Movements are touching every religious block, growing markedly among Muslim and Hindu peoples, with progress also among some Buddhist peoples.
However, in many places, this remarkable growth is still a just drop in the bucket among the much larger populations. Much work still remains to be done.
The full article also summarizes several ways to look at how close we are to seeing every people group and place engaged with the gospel and points out the remaining gaps. See a data dashboard on the 24:14 Network’s website (under “Global Movement Statistics”).
Omair [waited] for the judge to pronounce the verdict of his latest appeal. Several years prior, his business had been shut down when he’d been accused—and acquitted—of printing and distributing Christian literature. Last year, he had discovered the renewed charge via a paper slipped under the door of the church he pastored, a few months before it, too, was closed by the Algerian government.
When the judge announced a one-year suspended sentence and a fine, Omair sighed, thankful to be heading home to his wife and two teenage children rather than to prison. With brothers and sisters around the world lifting him up in prayer, Omair will continue to appeal the accusation, but it’s not the first time he’s been in court. Bold in the face of losing his freedom, he understands the cost of actively sharing God’s love in his country: spiritual opposition manifested in physical persecution.
“I have been in courts before the judge more than 14 times with all kinds of accusations,” Omair explained. “God has kept me free to continue the ministry and proclaim His love to many others. Reading the Word of God, fasting and praying, memorizing Bible verses about fear, and seeing many lives changed and transformed—this how I kept being bold for the sake of Jesus.”
There has been an “unprecedented drop” in the number of Bible users in the United States since last year, according to a report released by the American Bible Society.
The 2022 State of the Bible report based its findings on responses collected from a survey of 2,598 US adults conducted in January. The twelfth annual report asked Americans a variety of questions about their Bible use and their thoughts on its role in society.
The American Bible Society defines Bible users as “those who use the Bible at least 3-4 times each year on their own, outside of a church setting.” After reaching a high of 53% in 2014, the share of Bible users among the US adult population consistently remained between 48% and 51%. Just last year, 50% of Americans were Bible users. However, in 2022, Bible users in the US accounted for just 39% of the adult population, the lowest in more than a decade.
Also learn about a new report on what American Christians believe when it comes to missions. It includes an update and some nuance on the widely circulated Barna finding that most American Christians don’t know what the Great Commission is (Mission India and Barna, via Mission Network News).
China is a Communist country and strictly enforces atheism, but buried in their history and integrated into their culture are stories of the Bible that the government cannot hide.
In this exclusive video, we unpack some of the most shocking ways that every Chinese has learned about the God of the Bible, but is simply unaware of it.
Today, China is experiencing one of the world’s largest revivals. Could this be due, at least in part, to the mounting evidence that the forgotten God of ancient China, Shangdi, and the God of the Bible are the same? Could God have planted testimonies in the ancient Chinese language that would forever give witness to the Chinese people? Is it possible that the Lord of the Earth paved a way thousands of years ago for the Chinese to discover him today?
For most of the Western World, darkness came over Ukraine on February 24, 2022. For Ukraine however, this darkness has been hovering since 2014, when three large chunks of territory were taken by Russia. We have many friends in one of those areas who lost everything then. Many of them built a new life elsewhere in Ukraine or abroad.
Dima, a friend who had moved to Mariupol, has just lost everything again. His pregnant wife Polina took their son to Portugal while Dima stayed in Ukraine to bring people to safety from Lviv in the west, to Mariupol, east of Ukraine.
Let me tell you about Oxana. Oxana brought her children to safety in Moldova first, then later to Poland. She works around the clock to get vulnerable people to safety and has evacuated at least 20 complete orphanages, many of these children have disabilities. Pavlo, her husband, is drafted into the army. Oxana and her team go back and forth into Ukraine [daily]. The border is absolute chaos, but by breaching this chaos daily, they are surely penetrating the darkness with amazing light and life for thousands.
The complete article contains pictures and more stories of “God’s absolute miraculous workings through so many people.”
I’m an amazing kayaker. In my mind, that is. In the physical realm, not so much! I once picked up a beautiful, hand-made wooden kayak at a garage sale. The first time I tried it out, I managed to balance and very gently paddle it… on a pond. For my second effort, I took it to a way-back cove in our local reservoir. I had managed to gain a semblance of control amid the slight lake ripples when a nearby DWAB (dad with a boat), decided to pack up the family beach picnic and roar out of the cove full throttle.
As I hopelessly watched the tsunami roll my way, I remembered with distress a snake I’d seen swim by—and realized I hadn’t seen it get to the edge. After dumping into the water, I slowly headed to the shore, one arm swimming, the other holding onto the upturned boat. Only then did I muse, “Maybe kayaking is not for me.”
What about you? What do you wish you were better at? On the other hand, what is one thing you do better than the average person? These are fun and universal questions to kick around. I ask them today because I want to share how Jesus met Peter in the midst of what he could do and what he was going to get really good at doing.
Who’s The Better Fisherman?
Luke records for us in chapter five that Jesus was teaching the crowd God’s Word. Oh, how I wish that phrase was in blue, underlined, and linked to a full transcript of the talk!
Whatever he was saying must have been pretty good, because the crowd kept closing in until Jesus asked Peter if he could hop up on his boat. Peter agreed, but it turned out Jesus was starting an epic version of “if you give a mouse a cookie!”
Jesus finished his teaching and asked Peter to row out a bit and let down the nets. Torn between knowing how (and when) to fish and thinking Jesus was pretty cool and maybe not wanting to wash the nets again, Peter obliges.
The resulting catch began to break the nets, even threatened to sink the boats. Ponder this for a minute: Did Jesus cause the fish to gather in Peter’s nets? Or did he create fish that hadn’t been there just moments before? And if so, when they landed on dining tables the next evening, were they not the best-tasting fish anyone in Capernaum had ever had?
Peter, for his part, read the room, dropped to Jesus’s knees, and begged him to depart, explaining, “I am a sinful man.” Peter realized this wasn’t a matter of trying a little harder, maybe losing a few pounds and he’d measure up. No, Jesus had just double-trumped him at the very thing he was good at! Jesus was on a whole other level. Best to face the music honestly.
Seeing Jesus in action should naturally make us wonder how far we fall. It’s scary to feel afresh how amazing Jesus is and then realize what a train wreck we may be. I believe we need this occasionally, but the weight can be devastating. May we move quickly from “amazing Jesus” to “I’m a train wreck” to the realization that Jesus lifts our face, our eyes, to his and says, “You are forgiven. I choose you.”
And he does choose us, like he chose Peter, “Don’t be afraid. You’re going to be a fisher of men.”
(Parenthetically, good thing Peter’s job was fishing and not selling cars or working as a short-order cook!)
But sharing our faith can be hard, confusing, frustrating, and fraught with guilt and shame. Here’s something that has encouraged and energized me lately:
Mark Mittelberg, author, academic, and partner-in-crime with Lee Stroebel, writes about five styles of contagious faith. He says when we think about sharing our faith, we feel most natural in one of these five approaches.
Truth Telling: Someone with this style is more direct and hard-hitting. They might like knocking on doors of strangers or walking up to people and doing surveys in the shopping mall or meeting new people that just moved in. This type of person is bold about getting to the point, talking about spiritual matters, and so forth.
Reason Giving: Someone with this style tends to share evidence and answer questions. They may help with more of the cognitive side, the intellectual side, of Christianity and help people realize Christianity is true and it makes sense. Some people can open the doors and build friendships; others answer questions.
Story Sharing: This person likes to tell their testimony and share their story. They talk about their experience with Christ in a way that can influence and affect the experience of the other person.
Selfless Serving: This person helps others and makes a difference in people’s lives in tangible ways. That helps open doors to also share about the love and truth of Christ.
Friendship Building: This approach is seen in someone who’s more relational and connects with people in natural ways, but through those relationships then begins to share their faith.
Which of these styles most resonates with you? Definitely friendship-building and story-sharing for me. Hearing that Jesus wants me to share him in ways that emanate from who I am is freeing for me and makes me want to give it a fresh go. I don’t anticipate bringing in nets full of people like Peter did (3,000 in one day!), but I want to do my part. There’s a lot of pain and fear swirling around these days. Jesus would like to replace that with abundant life.
After almost 20 years of writing Practical Mobilization columns, I’m going to take a six-month hiatus. Our intrepid publisher, Marti Wade, will make sure you get a monthly dose of great content. She’s the best.
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If you’ve been waiting for the right time to take the 12-lesson Encountering the World of Islam course, this is it. To celebrate their 30th anniversary, our friends at EWI are offering their online course for just $99 (regularly $249). This only applies to the summer online class, but that’s just around the corner: May 2 to July 31. Join us in celebrating EWI and inviting others to participate!
Myanmar: Military Destroys 47 Churches in Predominantly Christian States
Niger: God at Work Among Fulani and Tuareg Tribes
Ukraine: A Kidnapped Missionary Is in Grave Danger
El Salvador: How a Missionary Used Bitcoin to Transform a Town
Russia: Witches Gather to Cast Spells in Putin’s Enemies
Greetings, readers!
Want to let you know our website has been down for a week after the web hosting bill went astray. We’re working on getting the site, with posts going back a few decades, back online. Meanwhile, you can find recent articles through the Mailchimp archives or send us a note.
Here are a few things you might find useful but that didn’t quite fit in the collection of news stories below.
