North to Alaska

“Alaska” What comes to mind when you see that word? 49th state to join the union – just celebrated its 55th Birthday? Long days – long nights? Cold followed by more cold? Beautiful scenery, landscapes untouched by human development? Earthquake? There’s gold in them there hills? Cruise line destination? Well you get the idea. There are so many things about Alaska. It seems since Sarah Palin came on the political landscape, Alaska has gained a resurgence of interests. There has got to be at least a half-dozen reality shows covering some segment of society - high risk fisherman, crabbers, and survivalist. Alaska recently came to our attention when Marie stopped by last summer to ask if we had ever considered a CFCI Base for that state? Honestly, we had not since most of our ministry activities are south all the way to Argentina. But Marie got us thinking and we then asked the obvious question, “Do you want to go for us?” We just completed a new staff orientation here at our International office. We had candidates wanting to go to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Toronto, Iowa, and (wait for it) Alaska! Marie Fitts was released to begin the fundraising process to become a CFCI Missionary to Anchorage. She will also work in the rural areas with the indigenous people living there. Please keep Marie and CFCI in prayer as we work to find God’s will for Alaska, His timing, location, and ministries.

Megachurches!

Big churches, for right or wrong, get a disproportionate amount of attention. Below is a profile the latest megachurch statistics.

Keep in mind that the average church globally numbers fewer than 100 in worship. Across the world, there are almost 5 million Christian congregations; the Center for the Study of Global Christianity’s Status for Global Mission – 2013 (line 42) puts the number at 4,629,000. In some countries, especially those where Christianity is all but illegal, these gatherings of Christians are almost exclusively house churches in form. In fact, today 5.1 billion people today live in countries with high or very-high religious restrictions or hostilities, according to Pew Research Center. Thus for better or for worse, only in some countries are large public churches free to develop.

Megachurches – those Protestant congregations averaging 2,000 or more in weekly worship attendance, adults and children, all physical campuses – exist in at least 48 countries (see a list of global megachurches here). Many nations, even giant ones like India, have received minimal research in terms of how churches are growing and multiplying.  For now, megachurches in North America have been researched more than those in other countries, so here’s what we know about very large churches in the United States:

Scope and Size of U.S. Megachurches

5 million - Number of people who worshipped in a U.S. megachurch last weekend (if it was a regular weekend, with Christmas and Easter being much higher).

1,650 - Current number of megachurches in the United States, according to church lists compiled by Leadership Network.

0.5% - While almost 10% of Protestant churchgoers attend a megachurch, these churches represent only about half of one percent of the roughly 320,000 Protestant churches that exist in the United States. For more breakdown by size, see these Hartford Institute for Religion Research FAQs.

46 - Amount of the 50 states have a megachurch (not yet in Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont). Megachurches can be found in Washington DC as well.

Almost all - Number of Protestant denominations that have at least one megachurch from the biggest denominations (Southern Baptists, United Methodists, Evangelical Lutherans, etc., which each have many) to smaller denominations (Foursquare, Christian & Missionary Alliance, Nazarene, etc.). Most denominational megachurches hold their denominational affiliation lightly – Saddleback is Southern Baptist, and LifeChurch.tv is Evangelical Covenant, for example – and many are nondenominational, such as Lakewood, Willow Creek, North Point and Potter’s House.

21% - Amount of today's megachurches founded in the last 20 years. Average (median) founding date of all current megachurches is 1977. 

22% - Amount of today's megachurches founded by their current lead pastor. (Thus the current pastor was the church's very first pastor.)

79% - Amount of current megachurch pastors who led their congregation through its most dramatic growth era occur -- i.e., under whose leadership it became a megachurch.

55 - Average (median) age of today's megachurch lead pastor (5% are under age 40, 18% under age 45).

POSTED ON 12/12/2013 BY WARREN BIRD IN THE LEARNINGS BLOG

A Little Christmas 

Story

December 2013

Christ For The City International

Approximately eight years ago, we met an unknown man while we were doing our ministry in the streets of San Jose, Costa Rica. From the beginning, he got our attention because of his personal characteristics: meek, polite, he knows the Scriptures better than most; his words are always full of grace and praises to the Father, his story and life a complete mystery

.

- What is your name?

- Love… Dennis

- Love?

- Yes, that is my name…

Every time we meet him, we have the same sensation: Is “Love” a man like any of us, or an angel sent from Heaven to be with us, to test how sensitive or indifferent we can be to our fellow men?  Or is “Love” the result of a horrible series of tragedies in his life? To this day we don’t know the answer; what we do know is that he is with us, and seeing him changes our day.

One Wednesday morning while we were waiting with Jonathan, my partner in this ministry to the “ homeless,” for a group of men who would sit with us to share the message of salvation, we saw Dennis, fallen in the street.

Many were looking at him, but no-body tried to help him. Immediately we went to his aid; we lifted him up, we pulled up his pants because they were down around his knees leaving him naked.  We hugged him and took him to the park, where there was no danger of his being hit by a car; his condition was extremely painful.

The witnesses of this scene were many; we were at a very busy bus stop. I imagined that some of them were thinking:

- All these drunks and homeless should die, they make our city stink!

What we didn’t know was that a woman was being touched by the message of love that we didn’t even realize we were communicating.

She started to follow us from a distance, and then she got closer; finally she expressed to us her interest in knowing a God that moved common people to show genuine love to the unwanted.

Without knowing it “Love” had taken this woman to the foot of the cross. We don’t meet “this man” very frequently, but every time we do, inevitably we ask:

- Who really are you? Are you an angel? Tell the truth now!

-           

He always gives the same reply:

- May the Lord bless and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, and may He have mercy on you!

-           

Later without our noticing it, “Love” slips away, simply disappears from our sight, goes to nowhere….

In this Christmas time we wonder: Will there be another Dennis somewhere else, waiting to find arms to hug him and accept him? Here in Costa Rica, we have one!

When you think about us, please pray that we can continue without failing in our ser-vice to the poor, the miserable, the ones who suffer, the ones who hope to find the love of the Father.

¡Receive a big hug! Horacio & Esther

Missionaries in Costa Rica

E-mail: horacio.cpci@gmail.com 

Dental Missions in the land of Machu Picchu!

Mark Just Gentle Care Missions, a dental team from Anchorage, Alaska, served with CFCI Peru on October 16-22 this year.

Dr. Just has been going on dental missions since 2008. Since then he and his team have provided care in the Philippines, Honduras, Guyana and this year, the team decided to travel to Peru with CFCI.

In Rimac, Peru, the team helped five schools, the local police office, and a public market place that was open to all of the locals. As a group they also felt the need to provide care, as a thank you, to the church that was hosting them.

In the schools they encountered many children whose mouths were in the worst shape. They saw six-year-old kids that needed all their baby teeth removed. They saw teenagers with many adult teeth that already needed extractions. It became apparent that the lack of dental health education, as well as the lack of finances, is a major issue in Rimac. While the team wanted to extract as many teeth as they could to get the kids out of pain, they were told that they were not allowed to remove teeth without permission from the children's parents. This put them in a tough spot so, instead they did a few fillings and made sure that all the children received a cleaning and education on how to properly brush and floss.

At the market, police station, and church the majority of the adults’ mouths were in similar condition to the children that they saw in the schools. Surprisingly, the team came across many who did not want to extract their teeth, though many were broken at the gum line and abscessed. These teeth definitely needed extractions and could not be saved, but they wanted the team to ‘fix’ them instead. Nevertheless, the team did what they could to give them the most proper care and most importantly… dental health education!

The team found that the people of Peru are very different from what North Americans are used to, they are high spirited, positive, hard working and built tough, but EXTREMELY kind hearted people. 

A team member reports, "It has only been two weeks since we have been back and we miss the Peruvians DEARLY!!! We could not have asked for a more successful mission and this is ALL thanks to Andres, his son Gabriel, our host family (the Vega family), and all who helped with this mission. They were the absolute best, they catered to our needs, jumped right on tasks that needed attending to, made sure that the we were ALWAYS safe and comfortable, even when we ventured out to Machu Picchu! It seems to be that they gave us no other choice, but to come back to Peru." 

If you'd like information about serving in Peru please contact angieb@cfci.org.

Thoughts on God's Favor from Dave Gehrls, CFCI Missionary in Omaha, Nebraska

Thoughts on GOD’s FAVOR from Dave Gehrls

Everyone in vocational ministry will share about the dry times of struggling to be faithful to God’s call when there is little or no fruit…God allows these times to test, strengthen and develop greater Christ-likeness. Many can also share about times of God’s favor where they felt literally carried on a tide of God’s Spirit.

Jesus said He only did what He saw the Father doing…and that is the secret to God’s favor…learning to see with the eyes of Christ. Especially during times of God’s Favor we need to learn humility because, in our humanity, we will never fully arrive in this life.

I am definitely still learning to hear and follow God instead of asking Him to follow and bless one of my ideas…but several times this year we have experienced God’s Favor as the Lord led us to come along side a venture or initiate something. Each time I felt the Lord wanted to do something special…and each time there was a time when it looked like we were going to fail and I wondered if I had heard the Lord. But as we prayed and kept our eyes focused on Jesus, God showed up at just the right time and did something wonderful.

EXAMPLES OF GOD’s FAVOR in 2013:

The “More God, Less Crime” conference on April 28th which brought together about 150 Law Enforcement, City & State Government, Pastors and local ministry leaders for a day with Dr. Byron Johnson, one of the leading criminologists in the nation who has documented reduction in crime when churches get more involved with the police. Dr. Johnson was impressed with the level of synergy we have in Omaha that he feels is needed in other cities. We are already working on the next steps to involve more believers in needs facing our community. A DVD of the conference is be available in a few days…please contact me if you would like a free copy.

South Omaha Peace Walk in August: Homicides were up this summer especially in South Omaha. A young Hispanic woman had been murdered and dumped in an open gravesite. Instead of doing our usual First Responders PrayerWalk at the site I felt led to encourage the Hispanic Pastors alliance to call for a public PrayerWalk for Peace in South Omaha the following Sunday afternoon. The alliance leaders met Friday evening and Saturdaymorning we sent out announcements. Saturday afternoon Captain Belcastro got permission to meet at 24th & N and walk four blocks up 24th Street and back. I also got a call that Mayor Stothert wanted to come. Sundayafternoon, on one days notice, the Hispanic pastors with a police escort led a full block long walk of several hundred families including Mayor Stothert, her husband, and community leaders praying for peace on their streets and it headlined the TV news that night… GOD’s FAVOR!

South Omaha Stakeholders: After the August PrayerWalk in South Omaha I felt the Lord say the time was right to encourage “Stakeholders” in South Omaha. “Stakeholders” are the people, churches, businesses, police, government and community organizations who have stake in their local neighborhood coming together to take back their streets from those causing violence. In several North Omaha Stakeholders areas violence has been reduced as much as 80%. Southeast Precinct Captain Belcastro has come to every homicide Prayerwalk in her precinct and after several planning meetings we saw about 40 key leaders meet at a local grade school for an introduction to Stakeholders by Willie Barney in October. Children in this school speak at least six different languages and a several more dialects representing 15 or more different cultures many of whom are recent refugees from violence torn countries. At the end of this meeting they all committed to do Stakeholders and a local lead committee came together with a strong faith based leadership…GOD’s FAVOR!

Favor with City Leaders: Precinct Captains send officers to every First Responders PrayerWalk and often come themselves. Mayor Jean Stothert sends several from her personal staff to every FRPW and she has been to five since she was elected last May. For some reason Jean, two female Captains and a female Homicide Detective often greet me at PrayerWalks with a public hug…GOD’s FAVOR.

Favor with other ministries: We have developed significant Kingdom partnerships with many churches and almost every ministry in Omaha…we are Teammates not competitors.

And I could go on with current examples of GOD’s FAVOR in Omaha and Tijuana.

The Secret to GOD’s FAVOR: Seek to see with the eyes of Christ what the Father is doing then follow Him and get involved with a servant heart. Who does He want to Save Today, Heal Today, Set Free Today…?