19980802 Brigada Today

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News and Notes about Brigada, Your Gateway to Missions Networking!
On the WorldWide Web, browse https://brigada.org or http://www.eGroups.com/list/brigada-today
Brigada Today is “the missionary helper newsletter!”
Compiled by Doug Lucas <DLucas@teamexpansion.org>, Louisville, KY
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In this issue….

WHOA! I GOT MAIL ABOUT WINKIE

Okay. So maybe people DO read Brigada Today. Sometimes they read it more closely than I!!! Last week, I incorporated an update from Winkie Pratney without even giving it as much as a scant reading. Now I go back and re-read it and I think, “I can do math. Why did I just print that as it was?” Perhaps it was trust in a name, perhaps it was being too rushed in the middle of the night trying to get things out the door, … I don’t know. Whatever it was, I apologize. On the one hand, it’s great making a few big mistakes now and then. It’s actually kind of therapeutic for me — because when I get a ton of reader response, it at least shows me that people are actually READING this stuff.

And boy did I get reader response!

) A ton of people wrote in about last week’s item “IS CHRISTIANITY IN A GROWTH SPURT? YOU BET!” So many readers wished that I had intercepted what do seem to be errors in math and research. Yikes.

It was indeed my responsibility… I’m not always going to be able to be an expert on the history of church growth in every land… or the current status in ever people…. But thank goodness there are people out there reading this stuff and correcting me if I’m offbase! Well anyway, I was getting so much mail about this item that I asked one of the writers to write a response. Prof. Ray Prigodich, the Chair of the Department of World Christianity at Denver Seminary ray@densem.edu, agreed and here’s his response: “I’d like to respond briefly to an item entitled “Yes, the global Christian movement is indeed growing at a dramatic pace. Unfortunately, however, this encouraging report contained numerous factual errors and highly questionable statistics.

It’s not true that 90 years ago there were no churches in Korea. In fact, Protestant missionary efforts began there in the 1880s, and there has been a continuing Roman Catholic presence in Korea since the late 1700s.
It’s highly unlikely that in Africa in 1900 only 1 in 13,000 were Christian. In The Growth of the Church in Africa, Peter Falk estimates that at the turn of the century 3% of Africa was Christian, while in The Kingdom of God in Africa Mark Shaw estimates that there were already 4 million believers there by 1900.
Despite the oft-quoted estimate of 75+ million believers in China, recent careful research by OMF puts the figure at a much more conservative 30 million.
I know of no serious researcher who believes there are over 85 million Christians in India. In 1993 Patrick Johnstone estimated the total Christian community to be no larger than 25 million. It’s highly unlikely that this number has more than tripled in just five years, nor do reliable reports coming out of India support the bold estimate that “up to 100,000 a day,” or 36.5 million a year, are coming to Christ there.
Muslims have long been and continue to be highly resistant to the gospel. The assertion that “over 19 million converted from Islam to Christianity” would seem to have no factual basis whatever. Furthermore, even if true, to say that this figure represents 12% of the world’s Islamic population is clearly wrong. The world’s Muslims number approximately 1 billion. Nineteen million is no more than 2% of 1 billion. And Indonesia is by no means 30% Christian. Nearly all sources still use a figure of under 15%.
While it may be true that “in 1993 there were over 14 million requesting salvation in the former USSR,” such a statistic needs to be carefully nuanced. In the former Soviet Union, while many respond superficially to invitations to receive Christ, very few are genuinely converted. The evangelical movement there still represents no more than 2 or 3% of the total population of 300 million.

Yes, let’s rejoice that the Church is growing. But in our enthusiasm, let’s not exaggerate the extent of that growth.”

So what did Mr. Pratney say? He wrote back to us, “…As the intention of the summary is to show people quickly the overall amazing escalation of the work of Christ in His church and not focus on the details of each nation or people-group, there will always be some kind of error in presentation….” You’ll have to decide how much error you’ll want to accommodate, but hopefully, the above corrections will help. If you’ve distributed Mr. Pratney’s info. on any other network, would you be willing to distribute some of the correction as well???

GET READY FOR LYRIS

On Aug. 17th, MAFxc will reportedly begin offering a new kind of email conference software (Lyris) that utilizes email commands for email functions while duplicating everything onto the web transparently, via a password protected web site. Many Brigada conferences WILL cut over to the new Lyris format. It offers some tremendous advantages…. so get ready for some upgrades!

DO YOU USE OUTLOOK OR NETSCAPE FOR EMAIL?

If you use Outlook (Express or 98), better check out http://www.microsoft.com/ie/security for a security patch that keeps hackers from accessing your machine during downloads of certain attached files. It’s not a very pervasive problem . . . but it does have perplexing potential . . . so it’s worth the fix. Those who use Netscape can expect a fix soon too. Note that this “hack attack” could be leveled at your hard drive even if you’re not planning on OPENING the files. Apparently, you would only need to be receiving them. Keep in mind that this hole was discovered by experts at a security group in Finland — and that’s what they DO (look for holes). But then, so do a bunch of other misguided vandals, apparently. Still, as far as anybody knows, this attack hasn’t actually occurred in the wild, but it’s definitely a risk. Probably worth the time to fix… and it’s a free fix too. Thanks to all those (including Microsoft) who sent advisories about the fix.)

FREE RESOURCE LIST FOR MISSIONARIES, AGENCIES, AND COMMITTEES

Grace gracew@idmail.com is sending out a lengthy biography to those who request it. She’s evidently quite a servant-hearted individually, not wanting to make money off of it. I’ve looked over several chapters of her resources and they’re legit’! Lots of web sites, booklets, videos, citations, articles, the works! So… if you’d like to get access to her list, just drop her a note. Thanks Grace!

WHY THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE FOR BRIGADA TODAY?

Every once and awhile, someone asks why we do a copyright notice at the end of each Brigada Today. A quick re-read will assure you that it doesn’t limit you in the least if you plan on re-using any material for missions mobilization. The only folks it would limit (we hope) are those who would use the material against the cause of Christ… like … say . . . some reactionary atheist who wanted to quote us to defame the web site or whatever. So technically speaking, his purposes would not be in line with the copyright notice and we could CONCEIVABLY prosecute him.

Would we do it? Well… it might be a great way to raise some extra funds for the coming year’s marketing budget to print up a GREAT Brigada brochure for conventions and mailers!!!

However, in the 3 1/2 years we’ve been in operation, we’ve only known of that kind of thing happening one time. It was a militant fundamentalist Muslim.

“THE BEST BIBLE SOFTWARE AWARD”

Okay. John’s serious. He wants to take on this challenge of finding the best Bible software in the world. So . . . all you Bible software experts and users . . . unite! John wants to hear from you big-time. He’s looking for the best price, best options, best “helps,” easiest to learn, best interface, best support, and best-related software. So go ahead . . . take your best shot. For the purposes of this study, John’s at a non-commercial email account biblesoftware@hotmail.com. He’ll report back to us on his findings (from your submissions) in a couple of weeks . . . so don’t delay… write today!

(Vendors are welcome to submit their opinions too!)

WATER FILTERS TO GO

The one liter sport style AquaOne Portable Water Filtration Bottle can, according to its makers, purify just about any water from just about any of world’s spigots. Including the original filter, it costs just $20. Each filter is good for 70 gallons. Replacement filters cost just $13.50. For more information or to order contact Peter Sidebotham 73362.1503@compuserve.com.

GLOBAL GLIMPSE ON THE GLOBE

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church has been scheduled for November 10 this year. Prayer this year is as important as ever as reports of persecution have increased from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Maldives, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and Cuba. Roughly two thirds of the world’s population live in areas where Christian evangelism is forbidden or strictly controlled.
(Source: http://www.persecutedchurch.org)
Global Glimpse is compiled each week by John Hanna, Caleb Project, Littleton, CO.

HITCH YOUR EDUCATION TO A STAR . . . A NORTHSTAR!

NorthStar (formerly known to Brigada as CyberHigh) is an online Christian school which offers grades 7-12 in USA, Canadian, and UK programs of study. We are the first online member school of ACSI and are seeking accreditation through them. We are opening our “virtual doors” to the school on September 2 as we start our school year. We support both Macintosh and Windows computers. Financial aid items: Because of a partnership between NorthStar Academy and Wycliffe, all students whose parents work for SIL/Wycliffe automatically qualify for a major scholarship and selected SIL families will receive Wycliffe grants and/or matching funds grants from an independent source when they enroll their children in NorthStar Academy.

Stop by NorthStar at http://www.northstar-academy.org or email Brett Bowers at brett@northstar-academy.org for more information.

GETTING THE KURDS ON THE WAY … IN SPANISH

Been looking for a way to orient your SPANISH-speaking fellowship to reach out to Kurds? Look no further. The booklet entitled, The Kurds: A People of Destiny has now become Los Kurdos: Un Pueblo Con Destino. This booklet is a handbook for outreach to the U.S. Kurdish Population that now reside in North America. They’re $2.00 each from
Wells of Life International Relief
P.O. Box 968
Colorado Springs, CO 80901
tel. 719-596-2007
Or contact D. ‘Moose’ & Kathy Guttromson dguttrom@televar.com.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT DAKAR ’98?

Dakar ’98, a “Regional Consultation for Francophone West Africa on Holistic evangelism/Church Planting and Partnership Development for Unreached People” (I bet that’s a mouthful in English OR French!) was staged June 5th-12th 1998, in Dakar, Senegal, as a forum to help foster partnership among the diverse ministries of the established and the emerging church for a focused, united effort among Francophone West African people groups with no church. 150 delegates representing at least 78 different church and mission agencies, from 26 different countries around the world were there. The Consultation ended on a high note after having set some achievable goals for national consultations and exploration of new partnerships for various unreached people groups that had been identified. For more information on how you might be able to get involved in this process please contact Wayne McGee – Regional Advisor for Sub-Saharan Africa Interdev – AD 2000 and Beyond Task force for Partnership wmcgee@xc.org.

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BRIGADA TODAY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE FOLLOWING TEAM OF REGULAR VOLUNTEERS:

Global Glimpses: John Hanna, Caleb Project, jhanna@cproject.com
Brigada Website: Bob Mayhew, WebServant@brigada.org
Brigada Customer Service Manager: help@brigada.org
Brigada Coordinator: Doug Lucas, Team Expansion & Brigada, DLucas@teamexpansion.org
and many other occasional contributors too numerous to mention!: But thanks for working together! That’s the dream of Brigada!