Zprávy HCJB 9.2.2006

 NA FILIPÍNÁCH VYSTOUPENÍ FRANKLINA GRAHAMA PŘILÁKALO TISÍCE LIDÍ
   V úterý večer 2. února, hned první den čtyřdenního turné Franklina Grahama, který vystoupil s řečí o lásce a odpuštění v Kristu, Filipínci zaplavili park Rizal v Metro-Manile. Evangelijní sdružení Billyho Grahama hlásí, že na festival se přišlo podívat celkem 33 700 lidí, a že 1490 z nich se rozhodlo jít za Kristem. Metro-Manila je v posledních 30 letech jednou z nejrychleji rostoucích oblastí světa a je nyní jedním z nejkosmopolitnějších středisek jihovýchodní Asie. Současně zde rychle přibývá bídy, zločinnosti, nezaměstnanosti, drog a AIDS. Biskup Reuben Abante, hlavní organizátor festivalu řekl, že „Filipínci velmi volají po zvěstování evangelia a po duchovní obnově, kterou evangelium přináší.“ Festivalový výbor zvolil téma „Je naděje.“
 
 VŠECHNY ZPRÁVY V ANGLIČTINĚ
   GLOBAL PASTORS NETWORK SEEKS TO REACH 1 BILLION WITH GOSPEL

A Global Pastors Network (GPN) “Billion Souls Initiative” conference was held at Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 7, as speakers aimed to further a campaign to reach 1 billion souls for Christ worldwide. More than 650 church and lay leaders attended the event. A preliminary goal is to start 5 million churches in 10 years. “This initiative is not just about [planting churches] overseas,” said James Davis, co-founder and president of GPN and host speaker of the conference. “It’s about learning to cross a chasm to lost communities. Unless churches work together, the Great Commission will never be finished.” GPN was founded by the late Bill Bright and Davis in 2002 as a resource for meeting churches’ needs for trained and equipped pastors. GPN is planning similar conferences this year in Chicago, Dallas and Minneapolis. (Assist News Service)

BLIND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN CUBA FACES ‘SEVERE HARASSMENT’

Juan Carlos González Leiva, a prominent blind Christian human rights activist in Cuba, has been subjected to severe harassment recently, reported the human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide. González, who has spent the last two years of his sentence under house arrest, will complete a four-year sentence on March 12. He believes that the harassment, such as denying him water and electricity, is an attempt to make him leave the country after his release. Despite the threats, González is vowing to remain in Cuba and continue his campaign for human rights improvements. He was arrested in March 2002 after staging a protest in a hospital concerning the reported mistreatment of a journalist who had been beaten up by the Cuban police. González was arrested and imprisoned without trial for two years before being handed a four-year sentence. (Assist News Service)

* HCJB World Radio continues to air Spanish programs to Cuba via shortwave from South America. Hundreds of listeners have enrolled in the ministry’s Bible Institute of the Air, a Spanish correspondence program incorporating radio broadcasts. In addition, numerous pastors’ workshops sponsored by Apoyo, a joint training ministry with Leadership Resources International, have been held in Cuba since the mid-1990s.

THREATS ON SRI LANKAN PASTOR MAY SIGNAL RETURN OF VIOLENCE

On the morning of Monday, Feb. 6, a man came to the Dutch Reformed Church in Galle, Sri Lanka, looking for the pastor. The pastor was not there at the time, so he spoke to the caretaker and the pastor’s wife. The man threatened to cut off the pastor’s limbs and kill him if he ever visited the Hikkaduwa area again. As he left, he made derogatory statements against Jesus Christ and Christians. It is unclear whether this incident was related to threatening letters against the pastor that had been received last month by Christians in the village of Werellana in Hikkaduwa. There are also reports that anti-Christian groups in the Galle area made a list of prominent Christian pastors, suggesting the beginning of an organized plot to unleash a wider circle of violence. (Voice of the Martyrs)

FRANKLIN GRAHAM CONFERENCE IN PHILIPPINES DRAWS THOUSANDS

Filipinos poured into Manila’s Rizal Park Thursday, Feb. 2, as Franklin Graham spoke about the love and forgiveness found in Christ on the first night of the four-day Metro Manila Festival in the Philippines. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reported that 33,700 people attended the festival, and more than 1,490 committed their lives to Christ. Metro Manila has been one of the fastest-growing regions in the world the last 30 years, and it now stands as a major cosmopolitan center of Southeast Asia. However, the rapid growth has brought poverty, crime, unemployment, drugs and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Bishop Reuben Abante, general secretary for the festival said, “The Philippines is simply crying out for preaching of the gospel and the spiritual regeneration it brings.” The theme chosen by the festival planning committee was “There Is Hope.” (Religion Today)

SURVEY: MEGA-CHURCHES GROWING QUICKLY IN SIZE, INFLUENCE

A new survey on U.S. Protestant mega-churches shows they are among the nation’s fastest-growing faith groups, drawing younger people and families with contemporary programming and conservative values.

The number of mega-churches, defined as having a weekly attendance of at least 2,000, has doubled in five years to 1,210. The mega-churches have an estimated combined income of $7.2 billion and draw nearly 4.4 million people to weekly services, according to “Mega-churches Today 2005.”

The study, based its findings on 406 survey responses from mega-churches, was written by Leadership Network, a nonprofit church-growth consulting firm in Dallas, and the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, which did a similar survey in 2000.

“When you add up all that mega-churches are doing from books to video to the networks of connection across the nation, you can’t say this phenomena of more than 1,200 mega-churches is anything but really one of the most influential factors of American religion at this point in time,” said Scott Thumma, researcher for the study and sociology professor at Hartford Seminary.

Paul Harvey, American history professor at the University of Colorado, said mega-churches have a “market economy of religion. They just show the instant adaptability of religious institutions. They reflect how Americans have morphed their religious institutions into the way they want them to be. Religious institutions have to respond to that.”

Mega-churches typically have well-stated goals for growth, contemporary worship services and an emphasis on evangelism. “These large churches have figured out how to address the needs of people in a relevant, engaging way that is actually making a difference in their lives,” said researcher Dave Travis of the Leadership Network. (WorldWide Religious News/AP)

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