Exloring Life Eternal

Missions Catalyst Features: NEWS FEATURE -- Wed Aug 31, 2005
-- Edited by Pat Noble <newsfeature@missionscatalyst.org>

SIGNIFICANT CHURCH GROWTH IN NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
from: ASSIST News Service (http://www.assistnews.net) - August
4, 2005

by Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

“The most significant events of the Middle East and North Africa
are not reported by CNN. In fact, even those who are ‘imbedded’
in the region find it challenging to piece together the magnificent
work that God is doing in establishing his Church, often through
grass-roots and largely independent and invisible efforts.”

These were the comments of a member of the Strategic Resource
Group (SRG) who attended a conference organized by the Arab World
Evangelical Ministers' Association (AWEMA) and held earlier this
year in Cyprus. He is one of a staff of 12 from SRG, an organization
that that is regionally focused upon the Middle East, North Africa,
and the Arabian Peninsula.

The SRG spokesperson says that, according to what he discovered
at the meeting, the most significant church growth is currently
taking place today in North Africa.

“Estimates vary, but the number of Christians from both Berber
and Arab backgrounds number in the tens of thousands, and all
within the last 15 years,” he said. “Initially this almost ‘spontaneous
church growth’ movement began with the tribal and ethnically
distinct Berber peoples, but today church growth has spread into
the Arab populations of two countries in North Africa. This indigenous
church growth movement is all the more astounding for it is taking
place in a milieu absent of any historic Christian presence and
little direct involvement by outside Christian workers.

“God is raising up a growing number of national Arab Christians
who are undertaking direct evangelism, church planting, and discipleship
work in other Arab countries. This development has primarily
been a response to the need to bring together new believers who
have found the Lord through the media, some experience such as
dreams, miracles, or a chance meeting with an itinerate believer.
What is so exciting in many countries is the fact [that] these
Arab church planters are harvesting without need to do significant
sowing. Clearly the Lord has been preparing many thousands to
come into his Church ahead of the national work.

“Another outstanding trend is the development of national leadership.
A much greater percentage of leadership and initiative is now
taken by national believers in all countries, especially those
with marked church growth. Non-Arab believers are increasingly
playing roles that foster and support the work of national leaders
and church planters - roles that fill a specialized niche. Media
trainers, medical professionals, Christian curriculum designers,
and others are now urgently needed to come alongside a growing
number of nationally led initiatives aimed at capturing the hearts
of non-Christian Arabs through the presentation of a holistic
gospel.

“But note, this is not a western-style attempt to develop a ‘seeker
sensitive’ approach, but rather a compassionate and reflexive
response to spiritually hungry people whose lives are deeply
distorted by an array of social, cultural, and religious forces.”

The demand for more training

The SRG spokesperson went on to say, “Roughly 2,000 Protestant
churches exist today across the 22 Arab countries, yet there
are only 15 theological training centers, and most of these are
small and do not have advanced pastoral or counseling training.
Additionally, these training centers are allowed only in the
few countries that permit open Christian education. The demand
for quality theological and pastoral training is now outrunning
regional training capacity.

“Training needs vary widely across the Middle East and North
Africa. In those few countries with historic churches, the primary
needs are for secondary training in evangelism and revitalization.”

He said that a handful of the larger city churches in the Middle
East are now “getting serious about outreach.”

Growing house church movements

Another development that was discovered was that several Arab
countries have growing house church movements; this is because
half of the Arab countries outlaw public Christian worship.

“The pressing needs to train leaders include the countering of
false ideas, to heal the rifts within the young, national churches,
and to relieve pressure of the few who do lead,” he said.

“For those ‘highly restrictive’ countries which have few national
believers (Yemen for example), Arab expatriates need training
in biblical studies, evangelism, and in tentmaking skills to
be able to work in a different Arab country as effective witnesses.

“In support of all three of these facets of empowerment is the
urgent need for the development of local curriculum and programs
produced by nationals that are contextually relevant to both
their populations and their immediate needs. It is incumbent
on the international church to serve national writers, artists,
producers, and educators in skill and capacity building. Increasingly,
national believers know what they want to say; they need help
in building the megaphone!"

Vulnerable to economic stress

"The general Arabic-speaking population of the region is still
expanding rapidly, reaching nearly 300 million souls today. As
expected, with such growth comes a bevy of social and economic
ills. High unemployment, increasing poverty, and persistent illiteracy
are significant issues for all countries save the oil-reach Gulf
countries, and even these find national wealth unevenly and unjustly
distributed. A typical Egyptian family lives on two dollars a
day.

“Christians of a non-Christian background are particularly vulnerable
to economic stress. Algeria, with the fastest church growth,
sets its rate of unemployment at 27%, yet the rate among Christian
Algerians from a non-Christian background is 95%. Micro-enterprise
development may be a viable strategy in selected areas to … enable
‘entry’ for Arab expatriate Christian workers, and to build socially
legitimate businesses and commercial activities around which
various forms of Christian outreach can be developed.

“One promising example is a Christian bookshop and publishing
operation established by a national Christian living among the
Kurdish Iraqis. The director plans to distribute 35,000 copies
of the Bible and other Christian books within the next two years.”

The SRG spokesman concluded by saying, “I’ve lived in one the
region’s largest cities for 18 years, and I could not have imagined,
back in 1987, that in March of this year 11,000 national believers
would gather to pray and fast for three days under a tent, and
to listen to their leadership challenge them openly, in the name
of Jesus, to go out and win their nation for Christ.”

For more information on the ministry of Strategic Resource Group,
go to their web site (http://www.srginc.org).

Full story here (http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05080020.htm).