Month: September 2012

Christians are Terrorist Targets Across Africa

/ Steinar Opheim

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 A big share of Africa’s terrorist groups is connected to Islamist networks. This has made the Christians on the continent especially vulnerable. Also the lives of several tentmakers are at risk.

The Christians in Nigeria have been under pressure for several years. Also the past 12 months there have been numerous deadly attacks against churches and congregations in Africa’s most populous nation. The Islamist group named Boko Haram has taken on responsibility for many of them. Their aim is to overthrow Nigeria’s secular government and implement Sharia as nationwide laws. Sharia already constitutes a big part of the legal system in several of the country’s northern states.

It is however not only in Nigeria that Christians increasingly are becoming targets for militant Muslims with clearly defined political goals. In Mali most of the Christians fled the Northern territories when Tuareg-rebels and Islamists gained control in the end of March. Eyewitnesses tell stories of rape, murder and robbed and ruined Christian homes. Christians in Kenya, Sudan, Morocco, Libya and Egypt have also become victims in bloody and deadly attacks the past six months.

According to World Evangelical Alliance al-Qaeda may be a major back player in 
the attacks on Christians in Africa. WEAs conclusions are built on reports from the defense forum of Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). The forum indicates that the war in Afghanistan has forced al-Qaeda to establish its work in other region where their training can go on more or less unnoticed.

– Right now the leaders in al-Qaeda are trying to form strategic partnerships with likeminded organizations in Africa, for instance with al-Shabaab. At the same time they are strengthening their ties with organizations they are already collaborating with, states RUSI´s security analyst Valentine Soria in a report.

A great number of tentmakers both from Africa and other continents are serving God in the affected nations across Africa. Many of them are staying on at the places where God has put them despite the dangers. The past years Global Opportunities and Tent have run tentmaking courses in several of the nations where Christians have been targeted.

Powerful Stories of Muslims Who Met Christ

/ Phill

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Many people have heard that Muslims 
are led to Christ through visions and dreams.

Now the American pastor Tom Doyle has gathered several such stories in a book called «Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?»

– The stories in this book are about real people I know personally or are known by my family’s closest friends in the Middle East. If we couldn’t verify the experience, we left it out – no Christian fairy tales here, states the author in the introduction to the book that was released last week.

In addition to being a pastor, Tom Doyle plays a central role in the mission and development agency named “e3 Partners”. He estimates that he has been visiting the Muslim world close to 100 times. The content of the book is partly based on interviews with 200 former Muslims who have received Jesus.

One of the stories is about Adel from Syria who was a nominal Muslim in his teenage years. As a young adult he started searching for the real truth.

– The beginning of the end of his search occurred the first night he met Jesus in a dream. The morning after, he tried to convince himself it was “only” a dream, a desire erupting from somewhere in his subconscious and motivated by his compulsive thinking about ultimate things. The next morning – the morning after his second dream – dismissing the experience was more difficult. Twenty-eight additional nights in a row of seeing Jesus left Adel helpless before the gracious God he had encountered. Within a week after the last dream, he found a Christian believer who could explain what he should do, and Adel accepted Jesus, states the book. Adel later on was imprisoned because of his faith. While in prison he led many of the other inmates to Christ.

The author confirms reports given by other sources that more people are coming to Christ today than ever before in history.

– I believe Islamic terrorism is Satan’s attempt to keep the gospel message away from Muslims. The enemy thinks that if he can make the rest of us afraid of Muslims or make us hate them, then he can short-circuit Jesus´ church fromreaching Muslims. But that is not working. Jesus has stepped in 
and is opening Muslim hearts Himself, states the author.

Europe’s Last Hegemony is Falling – and Africa is Taking Over

/ Steinar Opheim

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In the midst of “de-christianisation”, secularism and materialism Europe has kept 
one leadership position in the Christian world. But now even this hegemony seems to fall.

According to Status of Global Mission 2012 there are still more church members in Europe than on any other continent. But within the coming one-two years Latin-America will overtake Europe. Just a few years later Africa will surpass both Latin-America and Europe and take the leadership role. Since the church grows faster in Africa than on any other continent, Africa will probably keep on top of the church member statistics for many years to come.

100 years ago no one could challenge Europe’s top position as the World’s Christian center of gravity. In year 1900 70 per cent of all the world’s church members belonged to European churches. Since then the churches in Europe have experienced stagnation or decline. At the same time the population growth on the continent has been very small.

Huge growth

The churches in Africa have had the opposite development. In year 1900 less than nine million Africans were members of a Christian church. Today the African churches in total have approximately 500 million members.

– The church growth has been greatest in areas where we earlier found the traditional, African religions. The gospel has given people hope and filled spiritual needs that the traditional religions could not meet. Now we also see that the Gospel is advancing in the Muslim areas in the northern part of Africa despite the threats and persecution that the believers are facing there, comments Tiowa Diarra. He is the head of Tentmakers International Africa (TIA), a network that is training African tentmakers to take the gospel to all the unreached areas in Africa and beyond.

Tentmaking is seen as a great mission model in Africa. Because most tentmakers are supporting themselves through their work, this model allows all churches to be involved in the worldwide mission work even if their resources are limited.

Growing impact

According to Operation World the evangelical churches in Africa are growing faster than all other congregations. 100 years ago the continent had 1.6 million evangelical Christians. Today they number 182 million.

Tiowa Diarra believes that the African churches to a growing extent will impact 
the worldwide Christian church in the years to come.

– The African congregations can contribute with many things. For instance I believe we can give valuable input when it comes to evangelism and discipleship training, says the TIA leader.

Next year Tentmakers International Africa will host the TI World Congress on tentmaking. The Congress is taking place in Dar es Salaam in the beginning of August.