In advance of this weekend's Reformation Sunday--the 493rd anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany--CT has run across a bold alternative historical theory on what really went down on that famous October 31st:

Whatever you happen to be celebrating this Sunday, have a safe and happy weekend.

Posted by Trevor Persaud at October 29, 2010 1:50PM | Comments (3)

New Reformation

Ever since Martin Luther Christians have been calling for new reformations, with varied levels of seriousness. (In 1982 Robert Schuller published Self-Esteem: The New Reformation.) However, Chris Wright's call on Saturday morning of the Cape Town 2010 congress had a note of unusual authenticity. His address was followed by Femi Adeleye's take-no-prisoners talk on prosperity teaching, which he labeled "another gospel." More to the point, much of Saturday was devoted to repentance and prayer, as participants were asked to reflect deeply on their lack of humility, integrity and simplicity.

Wright made a detailed comparison to the state of the church now and in the Roman Catholic church before Luther. In both cases, he said, the ordinary people were deprived of the word of God, but rather were offered a religion based on a bargain: give to the church and reap blessings. The clergy in both cases often benefit, with sumptuous lifestyles and unaccountable power.

"What is the greatest obstacle to God's mission in the world?" Wright asked. "It is not other religions, or a resistant culture. Our idolatry is the single biggest obstacle to world mission. We are a scandal, a stumbling block to the mission of God. Reformation is the desperate need of our day, and it must start with us. If we want to change the world, we must first change our world."

In a subsequent press conference Wright said the congress should not be "a jamboree of evangelical triumphalism."

Wright serves as International Director of Langham Partnership International, which supports ministries to strengthen Christian leadership and preaching in the Majority World.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 24, 2010 12:57AM | Comments (8)

Quite a number of Sudanese Christian leaders have come to Cape Town 2010. Yesterday they held a press conference along with the leaders of the World Evangelical Alliance to draw the church's attention to the upcoming referendum on January 9, 2011. Sudanese citizens of the South--largely Christians and animists in an Islamic country--will vote on whether to secede and form a new nation. The church leaders, including Anglican bishop of Khartoum Ezekiel Kondo, spoke of the deep anxiety of Christians as the day of the referendum approaches. It is not clear whether the north-dominated government will allow the referendum to go forward. Should the referendum proceed and the citizens of the South elect to secede, there is great uncertainty about the possibility of civil war. And even in the best of circumstances, Southerners displaced to the north may be prevented by force from returning to their southern homes. If they return they face dangers from land mines planted during the civil war, massive problems of food supply, and other issues. Christians who make their home in the north pleaded for Christians around to globe to advocate for them, too. Reverend Elizabeth Aya, head of the Anglican Mother's Union, pleaded for Christians to help. "We need you to join us in prayer," she said. "We want our freedom. We have been suffering."

The World Evangelical Alliance under Geoff Tunnicliffe, who also participated in the press conference, is organizing churches to pray and volunteer as election monitors.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 23, 2010 7:18AM | Comments (3)

At a conference of 4,000 Christians from every part of the world, the most fascinating learning doesn't necessarily come from the platform addresses. It can come from introducing yourself. Seated next to you is likely to be someone from a different world and with an incomparable experience. Here are notes on three fascinating conversations I have had:

Finny Philip did his PhD in NewTestament at Durham University under James Dunne, but he hardly lives in an ivory tower. The school where he is principal, Filadelfia Bible College, is the training institution for a denomination that began with a dream in 1981. Finny's father in law, Thomas Mathews, attended a meeting in the Indian state of Rajasthan led by the famous missiologist Donald McGavran. Seized by McGavran's message on church growth, a small group began to pray about their response. They were drawn to pray for the state of Maharashtra, even though none of them knew a single person there. Eventually five of them boarded a bus, sure that God was calling them.

When they arrived at their destination in Maharashtra, a man approached them. "Are you from Rajasthan?" he asked. They said they were. "I had a dream, in which I was told that five people were coming from Rajasthan with suitcases. I was told to meet you and take you home."

The five followed him home and stayed with him for one month. By the end of that month they had baptized 500 people. Since the converts knew nothing at all about the Bible, training was called for. An informal school at first moved from place to place. Gradually the church multiplied to include hundreds of congregations; gradually the training courses became the permanent institution of Filadelphia, which offers courses up to the master's level.

The church has continued to grow. Persecution of new believers is very strong, Finny told me, so nearly all their converts are serious in their commitment. A strong academic curriculum serves a lively, expanding church.

Ivan Satyavrata is a pastor in Calcutta, India, who spun off for me the following statistics. His congregation each Sunday comprises 4,000 people, meeting in eight different services in eight languages. (Periodically, they all meet together as one congregation.) The church is also a mission center, which has planted and helps sustain 400 congregations and 30 "mercy centers" in three states. The church supports 14 schools in Calcutta, ten of which serve the poor, providing free primary and secondary education and one hot meal a day. Altogether there are 2,000 students. Ten thousand people are fed free meals every day on the streets of Calcutta. The church has 830 employees, counting teachers; over 200 work in the office.

And you think you have responsibilities!

Hwa Yung is a Methodist bishop in Malaysia. He told me of growing up in a world of active and potentially malevolent spirits, where superstitions were strong. He often saw people walk on fire or put skewers through their cheeks or other body parts.

As a science student who became a Christian in high school, he pushed that world away. Doing his college education in Australia, he appreciated the rational arguments of Francis Schaeffer and others. He knew nothing about the charismatic gifts.

When he finished school and returned to Malaysia to teach school, however, he found himself in a different world--the same world he had grown up in. Those rational arguments provoked mystification in his friends. "Rational arguments were not a way to come to any kind of belief."

Hwa Yung's world cracked open when one of his best students became one of his worst, almost overnight. The girl eventually quit school. Her best friend told Hwa Yung why she had cracked up. Another student, a boy, had been attracted to her, but when she didn't respond he had put a charm on her.

"I was 24 or 25 years old. The girl and her friend came to see me and another teacher. This whole situation was totally new to me. I listened in fascination as I heard how her family had taken her to temples seeking a cure, as well as seeking the best psychiatric help. Nothing helped. She couldn't concentrate. She couldn't do anything. She couldn't even help her mother in the kitchen.

"'We can't help you,' I told her, 'but Jesus can.' She accepted Jesus as her savior, and within two weeks she was completely back to normal."

That began a re-thinking of supernaturalism. He took years reading deeply into Christian history, the Bible, and Asian Christian leaders like Sunder Singh. Now, as a bishop, he is committed to spreading a supernatural faith that holds word and Spirit together.

This afternoon I was talking to Ian Buchanan, the leader of a prominent Christian organization in the UK, Langham Partners. He mentioned how encouraging it was to encounter people like these. When he looks at the shrinking church in the UK he finds it easy to become discouraged. But at Cape Town he is constantly reminded of the greatness of the church around the world. There really are amazingly fabulous things going on through the lives of wonderful people whom you have never heard of. And they are seated next to you.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 22, 2010 12:24PM | Comments (1)

I’m in Cape Town for the third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Four thousand delegates are here in what is being described as the most representative gathering of Christian leaders in history. But one group is notably underrepresented: prominent figures associated with evangelical Christianity in the United States, especially pastors of large churches. Rather than name names, let me put it this way: pick a celebrated American evangelical church leader, especially one who founded his current congregation, and I will give you 5-1 odds that he (and most of the missing are “he”s) is not here, at least not as part of the official US delegation.
 
For better and for worse, these absences tell us a lot about power, influence, innovation, and the future of global movements like evangelical Christianity. Here are a few lessons from the ecclesial Realpolitik of the no-shows (in rough order from brutally honest to genuinely hopeful) . . . .

For megapastors, platform time is the price of participation. Entrepreneurial pastors live to speak. Or perhaps more accurately and fairly, they live to influence, and they exercise much of their public influence by speaking. If they are not given a speaking slot, they are likely to conclude that their time can be better spent elsewhere.

Several speakers at Cape Town 2010 have commented on the weighty responsibility of addressing 4,000 of their fellow leaders. But the pastors who aren’t here address audiences that size or larger every week, and the audiences they address are much more willing to follow their lead than a heterogenous group of international representatives. Two prominent American pastors who are here, John Piper and Tim Keller, both were given significant speaking responsibilities. Of course there are very busy leaders, like Wooddale Church's Leith Anderson and Evergreen Baptist Church's Ken Fong, who are happy to participate around the tables in the main hall with no special recognition—but they are notable exceptions.

Learning happens in the hallways, not the hall. Sitting in a conference hall hearing presentations is a highly inefficient use of time. You can easily read the text of a twenty-minute talk in five minutes—twice. (Video is even more inefficient—you can read the script of a ten-minute video in under a minute.)

By contrast, conversations in the hallways can be brief, responsive to a busy leader’s interests, and easily cut short if a more important or interesting person walks by. And the hallways have a serendipity factor that suits the curiosity and short attention spans of entrepreneurs—you never know who you’ll run into. As masterful stagers of events themselves, megapastors know all too well that what happens in the hall is highly choreographed and designed to minimize surprise (at least to the event organizers). They would much rather take their chances in the hallways. 

Innovation happens today in small distributed networks, not in large centralized meetings.Much of the most creative and innovative work being done in mission—both practice and theology—is happening in ad hoc networks made easier by inexpensive air travel and widespread Internet access. Megapastors and their churches have already sought out the most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in the world, and keep up ties with them through regular visits and nearly continuous virtual communication.

Meanwhile, a large event like Cape Town 2010 has to hew to the center of the bell curve—otherwise it would alienate or confuse crucial constituencies. Small networks are much more able to generate and disseminate genuinely novel ideas and practices, and one of the paradoxical geniuses of the megapastors is their ability to stay connected with small innovative networks even as they oversee large organizations.

The globalization that made “Lausanne 1974” so powerful, and made “Lausanne 2010” possible, may well make “Lausanne 2046” unnecessary. For many of the participants in the 1974 meeting, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to connect with leaders from other parts of the (largely Western) Christian world. Yet the 1974 meeting occurred on the cusp of revolutionary declines in the cost of international travel and communication, which provided its leaders and its message with a powerful cultural tailwind that dramatically increased their influence. Today most of the leaders at Cape Town 2010 live lives saturated by connectivity, which makes such singular meetings less significant.

Assuming we avoid global cataclysms as well in the next 36 years as we have in the last 36, it seems to me a safe bet that global evangelicalism will be even more networked and interconnected when I am the age of René Padilla and Samuel Escobar (the young guns of Lausanne 1974, who took the stage last night to warm and reverent applause) than it is today. Undoubtedly there will continue to be all sorts of occasions large and small for global leaders to meet and learn from one another in 2046. But the very multiplication of those opportunities will make singular events like Cape Town 2010 less likely to be seen as justifying the massive effort and expense they require.

The absence of major American figures really doesn’t matter and probably actually helps—for two reasons. First, they are already so well connected that anything of import that happens at Cape Town 2010 will reach and influence them. Second, and more important, their absence has created space for others. There are young leaders, women leaders, and leaders from minority cultures in the USA who took (at least metaphorically) the chairs vacated by the busy megapastors, and unlike the megapastors they do benefit tremendously from the new connections and learning opportunities in Cape Town. They also have room to speak and lead that they might not have otherwise. And some of them will stay in touch and collaborate for years after Cape Town 2010 is over. Very likely, when we look back from 2046, we will discover that the most significant outcomes of Cape Town 2010, unforeseen and unforeseeable today, came from those relationships—and from the very spaces created by the missing megapastors. And in 2046, without a doubt, those leaders will be the ones having to make the tough decisions about what to do with their power and their all-too-limited time—just like the no-shows of 2010.

Posted by David Neff at October 22, 2010 11:09AM | Comments (27)

Cape Town 2010 is no congress of old lions. The theme of "God on the Move" is frequently repeated, and the emphasis is on the church's future, not the past. Most participants are in the prime of their working life, and a sizable number are in their twenties. Wednesday night the worship band had them dancing in the aisles.

But Wednesday night's last presentation featured the living memory of Lausanne in the persons of Rene Padilla and Samuel Escobar, seated on stage and recounting the history of the Lausanne movement. It was a fond moment for the many delegates who know the two or have been influenced by them. The two Latin Americans remembered congresses from the 1960s, including the 1966 Berlin World Congress on Evangelism, that led up to the first Lausanne congress in 1974. Escobar recalled his work on the drafting of the Lausanne Covenant, now so widely embraced but then subject to intense pressure and criticism. Both men recalled not only the major conferences in Lausanne and Manila, but many smaller and regional gatherings affiliated with Lausanne that worked to clarify and direct the evangelical movement. The affirmation of wholistic ministry--the embrace of both evangelism and social involvement, integrated together--clearly remains a central achievement of the movement, as Escobar and Padilla think of it. And that, too, is a pointer to the future.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 21, 2010 12:48PM

Hackers launched millions of hits from several locations on Cape Town 2010 websites, according to Joseph Vijayam, IT chair for the Lausanne Movement. He and other conference officials declined to speculate about the source of the malicious attack, which interrupted global links for the first two days of the conference. Doug Birdsall, executive chair of the conference, told Christianity Today that he was hugely disappointed. "Why would anybody do such a thing? This is not consistent with values of any kind."

Seven hundred sites in 95 countries were prepared to extend the congress to a wider audience, in addition to individuals accessing presentations on their own computers. As a result of the cyber attacks internet broadcasts were impossible for the first two days of the congress. "Finally, after two rough days, they are being served as planned," said Victor Nakah, GlobaLink chair for the congress.

Officials also clarified that an internal virus, brought in by a mobile phone, had affected convention computers.

The problems were solved primarily by two cousins from Bangalore, India--IT experts who had registered as volunteers to help with routine IT tasks. Unknown to conference organizers, they had the skills needed to respond to the unexpected attack.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 20, 2010 12:29PM | Comments (1)

After months of preparation, prayer, discussion and debate, more than 4,000 evangelical leaders have gathered in Cape Town, South Africa for the Third Lausanne Congress on Global Evangelization.

So now that they're there, what exactly are the organizers and delegates in Cape Town hoping to accomplish?

One important goal of the Congress becomes clear when we notice how missionary conferences have changed over the years. This is a picture from the famous and influential World Missionary Conference 100 years ago in Edinburgh, Scotland:

This is a picture from Cape Town 2010.

Just for fun, here's another one, from the opening ceremonies:

Over the past several years, it's become apparent in the church that the Global South and East--Africa, Asia, and South America--have grown just as active in sending missionaries as they are in receiving them. Conferences like Cape Town are partially about making it clear that Christianity in the 21st century regards mission work as a fully global partnership.

"The church in the South tends to look at herself through the eyes of the North," wrote Daniel Bianchi of Buenos Aires earlier this year as part of the Lausanne Movement's Global Conversation. "When you convince someone that he needs help you also convince him that he can’t help others, somebody said. The church in the [South and East] needs to regard herself as valuable, capable and responsible as the rest of the church."

But the Congress wants to do more than just make the statement. By bringing the delegates together in Cape Town, organizers hope that mission-minded Christians from across the world can get to know each other, become aware of the strengths, weaknesses, problems and opportunities apparent in every part of the world, and come to a common consensus and strategy on how missions is supposed to work in the next century.

That's one of the reasons the conference has the word "Lausanne" in its name. The original Lausanne Conference--the First International Congress on World Evangelization, held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974 and organized by such influential evangelicals Billy Graham and John Stott--produced the Lausanne Covenant, a very influential missions manifesto which became "a rallying point for many evangelicals all around the world," in the words of Chris Wright, chair of the Lausanne Theology Working Group. Claiming the original conference in their heritage, the organizers of Lausanne III hope to refresh the agenda for global evangelization.

"Just as Lausanne I produced The Lausanne Covenant and Lausanne II [in 1989] produced the Manila Manifesto, Cape Town 2010 will also produce a major document that we pray will help unite and guide the Church in the years to come by helping establishing missions and evangelization priorities," writes Doug Birdsall, executive chair of Cape Town 2010.

One of the planks of the Lausanne Movement's platform is that "evangelization requires the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world," to quote the original Covenant. The "whole gospel," according to Wright, means bringing to the world both God's message of sin and redemption and God's "passion against political tyranny, economic exploitation, judicial corruption, the suffering of the poor and oppressed, brutality and bloodshed."

And we can only reach every part of the world, he adds, by utilizing every part of the church.

"None of us can engage in every area," Wright writes. "That is why God created the church with a multiplicity of gifts and callings, so that we can, as a whole church bear witness to the whole gospel in the whole world."

That, in a thumbnail, is the stated mission of Cape Town 2010.

(Photos courtesy Wikipedia, Lausanne Movement Flickr Photostream)

Posted by Trevor Persaud at October 20, 2010 10:43AM | Comments (2)

Libby Little gave a stunning testimony of grace under suffering at this morning's Cape Town 2010 session. Speaking immediately after John Piper exposited Ephesians 3 and spoke of the role of suffering in displaying God's glory, Little spoke quietly of her husband's recent death in Afghanistan.

The violent murder of ten International Assistance Mission workers was prominently publicized in news accounts in early August. Little read from her notes of the daily one-minute satellite phone calls she received from her husband Tom during his medical visit to a remote Afghani valley.

She also shared from what appears to be the bloodstained notes, recovered from her husband's body, of his last talk while on the Afghan mission. The Littles have lived in Afghanistan for more than 30 years. Little shared her family's decision to stay through multiple armed conflicts in Christianity Today's Global Conversation.

We will post the transcript of her talk if it becomes available.

Editor's update: Libby Little's earlier piece about the Christian call to suffering in mission is on the Global Conversation Project's website.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 20, 2010 5:20AM

Communications officials for Cape Town 2010 say that malicious attacks were responsible for internet woes that kept global links from operating during the first three days of the congress.

An important part of the plans for Cape Town 2010 has always been global participation through the internet. Hundreds of sites have been established to download and show video of the congress; and people throughout the world are encouraged to follow the congress through the Lausanne Cape Town 2010 website. These plans were disrupted, apparently because an unknown malicious agent attacked the website. At the same time a virus was unleashed within the convention computers, which caused internet connections to slow or crash.

The internal virus has been eliminated, officials said, and the internet assaults defended against. So far the attacks have not been repeated. A press conference this afternoon will give further details. As of today, Cape Town 2010 officials said, congress materials are up to date on the website.

Editor's Update: Find updated videos, photos and more information about Cape Town 2010 on Lausanne's website.

Photo courtesy of the Lausanne Movement Flickr stream.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 20, 2010 5:03AM

When executive chair Doug Birdsall invited Malaysian Methodist bishop Hwa Yung to work with him in planning Cape Town 2010, Hwa Yung had one question. "Which kind of conference do you want to have? A normal kind of congress dominated by old western leaders? Or one that represents what the church is today?"

Cape Town 2010 was designed to represent the global evangelical church, but the devil is in the details. I spent some of the conference's third day finding out those details.

How did 4,000 church leaders get invited? Who chose them? Who decided how many to invite from the US, or from Burundi, or from China? And how? Here's the short version of what I learned.

The process started with a selection committee, chosen from the Lausanne network including one representative from each of 12 regions globally. That committee chose a selection director for each of 200 countries. According to Lindsay Brown, international director for Cape Town 2010, the committee looked for "Christian statesmen" who would be fair-minded in trying to represent the whole church in their country, not merely their friends or fellow church members. That chair gathered a selection committee, vested with the authority to choose delegates for their country.

How many?

That depended on the number of evangelical Christians that resided in each country, based mainly on statistics from Operation World. The number of delegates was proportional to that population, though additional delegates could be added if the country had a vigorous foreign mission profile and/or a vital and fast-growing church. Out of a total of 4,000 delegates, the United States got to send 400, Canada 50, the UK 80, China 230. There would be far more from Africa than from North America.

A point of contrast: at the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference exactly a century ago, there were 1200 delegates: 500 from the US, 500 from Britain, 4 from Asia, and none at all from Africa. The world has changed.

The national selection committees were tasked with choosing delegates according to certain guidelines. The delegates should be those in agreement with the Lausanne Covenant, the statement reached by the first Lausanne congress in 1974. Each delegation should be relatively young (at least compared to those who ordinarily attend significant world missionary conferences), and balanced in terms of the nation's churches, ethnicities, and genders. A complex grid suggested that at least 60% be under the age of 50 and 10% under 30, that women represent at least 35% of the seats, that the nation's ethnicities and denominations be fairly represented, and that at least 10% of the delegates come from the "marketplace"--being lay people who had no official status in church or mission. Sometimes the guidelines had to bend, as they did when Japan and Korea found it impossible to invite enough women or to leave elders behind in favor of younger people. As I write the final statistics of attendance are not known, but Hwa Yung thought that women represented perhaps 27% of the conference--less than the goal the selection committee set, but probably far more than at any comparable congress in the past. In general, Hwa Yung says, the selection committees produced the kind of congress aimed for.

Added to the 4,000 were several hundred special delegates, chosen by the Lausanne staff or added because of their status as missionaries (unlikely to be chosen by the committees in either their home country or the country where they serve).

The end result is no perfect mirror of the evangelical church, but it is undoubtedly the most representative body of the evangelical church ever assembled. I suspect that of all church congresses, evangelical or not, at any time in history, it most closely approximates the demographic reality of Christian populations around the world. In that sense, at least, Cape Town 2010 is historic.

International director Lindsay Brown says that global equity was reflected in finances, too. China's 230 delegates (unable to attend because the Chinese government refused to let them go) paid for all their own expenses besides contributing several hundred thousand dollars to the expenses of others. Most Indian delegates paid their own expenses. Malaysia did the same, even though they had been allocated scholarship funds. "China and India gave more than Europe," Brown says. "This is the first time I've seen that kind of open-handedness." Hwa Yung adds, "We in the global South asked for greater numbers [of delegates]. We must also come up with the money to support them."

Editor's Note: CT also covered the run-up to Cape Town in an earlier report.

Photo courtesy of the Lausanne Movement Flickr stream.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 20, 2010 1:49AM | Comments (9)

I have never before attended a congress or convention that put out a press release on its problems with internet access. Cape Town 2010 told us last night--whether proudly or despondently was not quite clear--that their internet use had overwhelmed the system at Cape Town's sparkling convention center.

Not even the recent World Cup had used nearly so much capacity. Even today, the third day of the conference, wi-fi access was very spotty. Conducting interviews with Cape Town 2010 leaders this morning, I was regularly interrupted by technicians apparently trying to upgrade capacity. If they have been successful, you couldn't prove it by me.

Being no IT expert I will not guess whether the beautiful city of Cape Town or its gleaming convention center are substandard in these matters. I am sure of this, however: evangelicals are connected.

IT issues on such a scale would have been unthinkable at Lausanne in 1974 (the first conference) or at Manila in 1989 (the second). With virtually every nation in the world represented here, it appears that few evangelical leaders fail to possess a cell phone and a laptop. They are connected to the world.

More to the point, they can write and talk to each other globally--and they do. And they will.

Photo of Krish Kandiah, executive director of Churches in Mission at Evangelical Alliance, U.K., courtesy of the Lausanne Movement Flickr stream.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 19, 2010 3:29PM

The high point of the first full day of the Cape Town 2010 Congress turned out to be a testimony from an 18 year old girl, Sung Kyung Ju. She told how she and her family fled from North Korea when she was six years old. In China, relatives led them to a church where they were exposed to Christianity. But her father, who she said was a ranking North Korean official, was forcibly sent back to North Korea in 2001.

After spending three years in prison, he was allowed to return to his family in China. This time, though, he went back to North Korea voluntarily--in order to witness to the gospel. In 2006 he was caught and imprisoned, and his family has not heard from him since. His daughter said they imagine that he has been executed.

Sung Kyung Ju herself became a Christian when she saw Jesus in a dream. She now hopes to study diplomacy so that ultimately she can play a part in reconciling the country she loves to Christ. "I want to bring the love of God to North Korea," she said, her voice faltering.

Her tearful testimony obviously moved the assembly. She was given a standing ovation that lasted so long she was called back to the platform to acknowledge the response.

Some have raised questions about whether Cape Town 2010 will lose the Lausanne movement's focus on evangelism in favor of social justice concerns. Apparently not, if the audience's response to this North Korean witness was any clue.

Photo taken by James Krabill, courtesy of the Lausanne Movement Flickr stream.

Posted by Tim Stafford at October 19, 2010 4:28AM | Comments (8)

Crystal Cathedral Ministries, which owes about $7.5 million to unsecured creditors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this morning, according to the Orange County Register.

Earlier this year, the megachurch founded by television evangelist Robert H. Schuller slashed several programs and laid off 50 employees to cut $4.9 million from its $20 million annual operating budget. The Register reports that Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman said the bankruptcy filing was a necessity because of lawsuits.

A committee of creditors who were working with the church for the last six months declared an impasse, foreshadowing the bankruptcy. Church board member and Schuller's son-in-law, Jim Penner, said Friday that the cathedral's intention is to repay all vendors 100 percent.

Among the long-time vendors for the "Glory of Christmas" pageant still waiting to get paid are Oliver, who supplied camels, horses and sheep for the pageant; wardrobe manager Juliet Noriega; dry cleaner Bruce Johnson, who cleaned the actors' costumes; props manager Sharon Crabtree, and Carin Galletta, whose public relations firm provided publicity for the pageant.

At least two creditors, including equipment financing company PNCEF LLC., have sought and obtained court-ordered writs of attachment.

Earlier, CT covered the church's apology for its debts, Sheila Schuller Coleman's new leadership, and interviewed Robert A. Schuller about his departure from the church his father founded.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at October 18, 2010 4:15PM | Comments (15)

Barry Minkow, the former ponzi scheme operator who is now a pastor in San Diego and private fraud investigator, has responded to Christianity Today regarding the claims made about him in LA Weekly.

The paper accused Minkow of:

• Missing a court hearing while instead relaxing at a Ritz Carlton and seeking the advice of an anti-aging doctor.
• Lying to a judge;
• Lying to the public about companies whose stock he was betting against;
• Lying to the court about having trading against companies he was investigating;

There are a number of other accusations the paper makes, but these are at the heart of its complaint that Minkow’s redemption story should no longer be considered valid and that he’s scheming once again.

In Minkow’s response to CT he says a number of items in the LA Weekly story are false, others are taken out of context, and others are true but now outdated.

Missing a court hearing. Minkow missed a court meeting, and his lawyers told the judge he had been in the emergency room. Instead, Minkow was at the doctor’s office. He provided to CT a letter from the doctor and the hospital showing that he had been seen by the doctor and hospital staff. The letter states that Minkow "suffered from an apparent food poisoning episode" on the night before the court hearing in Florida, which resulted in blood in his urine. Minkow says the food was from the Ritz Carlton he had stayed at in Los Angeles. "I was stuck in LA," Minkow said in an email, "trying to catch the red eye because my lawyers wanted a full day of preparation before the hearing. I had to be dropped somewhere and checked into the Ritz at Marina Del Rey because it is blocks away from the airport." The next day, his doctor wrote, "I am prohibiting him from flying anywhere over the next 48 hours." Minkow says that while his doctor does work at an anti-aging health facility, he was formerly an emergency room doctor. CT’s attempts to confirm with the doctor have not yet been successful.

Lying to the judge. At some point, while Minkow was sick from apparent food poisoning, he says he likely told his lawyers he was going to the emergency room. Instead, he ended up seeing his doctor. He says it was a simple mix up that the judge was told he was in the ER.

Lying to the public about companies whose stock Minkow bet against. Minkow says he has yet to be proven wrong in the cases he has brought to the FBI and SEC. In some cases, including one mentioned by LA Weekly, fraud perpetrators fled the country and stopped their crime, preventing a successful conclusion. While not every case has been an unambiguous win, Minkow says his record "certainly does not lead to the conclusion that it was all irrelevant and speculative." He says his work has forced companies to change their behavior and be more open to the public.

Lying to the court about his trading activities. Minkow says he was incorrect when he told a judge that he had not bet against the stock of a public company he was attacking. He says he had simply forgotten that he made an $1,100 trade that was open for just one day. He had provided the FBI with access to his trading account. "Why would I be so stupid" to lie? Minkow asked when he could so easily be found out. "If truth were told about that," he says, "it wouldn’t have been harmful."

Still, Minkow says that six months ago, he stopped the practice of betting against the stock of public companies. While a common and legal practice, he says it was becoming a distraction. He says he’s learning the difference between vital and important. "I’m passionate about uncovering fraud and passionate about Jesus. But I got distracted. My loyalties are to the gospel and the pulpit." He said he is returning to investigating smaller investment fraud cases instead of those of public companies, which require much more time. "That’s why we stopped doing it," he says. "Even before the article came out our behavior was changed."

Members of the board of Minkow’s church, Community Bible Church of San Diego, have expressed their ongoing support for Minkow to Christianity Today.

Posted by Rob Moll at October 18, 2010 7:14AM | Comments (14)

Before the busy schedule of Lausanne's Cape Town 2010 began, an American friend and I took a brief driving tour of Africa's most European city. Our guide was a retired newspaper editor, and as a colored citizen of South Africa, he had tales to tell about the days of apartheid.

One beautiful part of the city to which he took us stacked its houses up a tall hill, giving the residents glorious, expansive, but expensive views. We parked at the end of the neighborhood's highest street and climbed a steep dirt path to get the best possible view. The dirt path was unstable, slippery, covered in loose rocks. So on our descent my friend, a Wheaton alum, talked about a lesson she'd learned when she took a mountain climbing course while a student. I learned you should always keep your eye on where you are, she said. Not where you're going or where you've been. If you look ahead or behind, you'll just freeze.

My friend knew it was a metaphor for life.

So it seemed like a providential moment when Doug Birdsall, executive chair of the Lausanne Movement, introduced the first event for the gathering's 4,500 participants. He reminisced about the great leaders who led the first Lausanne gathering back in 1974.

He mentioned Billy Graham and John R. W. Stott, Rene Padilla and Gottfried Osai Mensah. But then he said we are not here to recreate Lausanne I. Our purpose was not to restore some sort of missiological golden age. Nor can we solve the missiological problems that will be faced by our grandchildren. Our duty is in the present. Our challenges are in the present. And those are what we are here to analyse and strategize about.

In a talk later that evening, Birdsall referenced several of the conference's major concerns: how we are to witness to people of other faiths and how we are to cautiously capitalize on the dynamics of globalization. He spoke of priorities: scripture translation and reaching unreached people groups.

He concluded with a call to moving forward in "bold humility."

This morning, on the conference's first full day, four plenary speakers will talk about "making the case for the truth of Christ in a pluralistic, globalized world." Clearly, the ground of pluralism is like the hill my friend and I climbed on day zero--slippery, covered with loose rock. An important element of our strategy must be to look very closely at where we are walking.

Posted by David Neff at October 18, 2010 12:45AM

As thousands of evangelical leaders from 200 nations prepare to convene in Cape Town on Sunday, it looks like the more than 200 delegates from China have slim odds of attending.

Organizers of the third Lausanne Congress asked for "urgent prayer" Friday about signs that there may be "a concerted effort to prevent all Chinese participants from attending the Congress." NPR first reported Thursday that all 230 Lausanne delegates from China's house church community may be turned back at the nation's airports. Compass Direct gathers many details here. News even hit the NYT.

The National Association of Evangelicals is calling on China to retract the travel ban. China Aid points out that 200 seats were left vacant at the second Lausanne Congress in 1989 because Chinese delegates were prevented from making the trip to Manila

China's Foreign Ministry defended the actions to NPR by saying Lausanne organizers communicated secretively with illegal congregations and did not invite members of China’s state-controlled church. "This act has openly challenged China's principle of an independent, autonomous, self-governing church. It is a flagrant interference in China's religious affairs," the statement said.

Compass Direct said a Chinese paper reported that members of the Three-Self Protestant Movement had wanted to attend but "were required to sign a document expressing their commitment to evangelism, which members of official churches could not do due to regulations such as an upper limit on the number of people in each church, state certification for preachers, and the confinement of preaching to designated churches in designated areas."

On the good news side, Lausanne organizers reported that the Cuban delegation successfully left Cuba and will arrive in Cape Town via London on Thursday.

CT covered the visa difficulties often faced by attendees of Christian gatherings in the U.S. here.

Posted by Jeremy Weber at October 15, 2010 3:16PM | Comments (2)

In what the ministry is describing as unrelated moves, Prison Fellowship’s chief president/CEO and COO announced their resignations yesterday.

Mark Earley, former attorney general for Virginia and gubernatorial candidate, has led the organization since 2002. He will stay in the position to assist the board in finding a replacement, said the ministry, which Charles Colson founded in 1976.

“We are grateful for Mark’s leadership and his commitment to the ministry of Prison Fellowship. He has played an integral part in reducing recidivism, building safer communities, and restoring families through the transforming power of Jesus Christ,” Prison Fellowship Board Chairman Michael Timmis said in a written statement. “Through his preaching and teaching, Mark modeled and demonstrated his deep, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Meanwhile, retired Navy Rear Admiral Curtis Kemp also announced his resignation as chief operating officer of Prison Fellowship Ministries, a position he has held since 2007.

The resignations “were both personal and individual circumstances,” Prison Fellowship spokeswoman Kimberly Alleyne told CT by phone. “They were not related.” In a later e-mail, Alleyne said the ministry is not putting out a statement on Kemp’s resignation. “At this time we are focused solely on ensuring the continued advancement of our mission,” she said.

Posted by Ted Olsen at October 15, 2010 2:18PM

Barry Minkow, the former con man turned pastor turn fraud investigator turned Wall Street watch dog, is once again under the heat of the Los Angeles press. It was the investigative journalism of a couple of reporters who tore down the curtains of Minkow’s 1980s stock market swindle. Now, LA Weekly claims that “court records going back nearly two years show that Minkow is again not to be trusted. ... A Miami judge in one of those cases says Minkow has no credibility, that he ‘will lie, plain and simple.’ ”

I wrote about Minkow for CT in 2006. At the time, he had uncovered roughly a billion dollars of fraud, much of it being perpetrated against Christians. And much of it was ongoing. In the Bernie-Madoff-type schemes he was uncovering, the scheme was still ongoing. People hadn’t yet lost money, and no one had called the police. Minkow heard about these scams, saw his fingerprints on them, and investigated the deals while turning his findings over to the police. They, in turn, appreciated his work and highly recommended him.

Minkow was making a comeback, but he always knew that patience with an ex-con ran thin. “One and done,” he said, knowing that one screw up would cost him years of trust rebuilt.

Beth Barrett's LA Weekly piece suggests Minkow should now be considered done. The heart of their accusation is the way he has characterized a handful of companies. In the press and through his own publicity, Minkow claims that diet supplement company Herbalife, homebuilder Lennar, and other businesses are operating frauds or ponzi schemes.

But, the Weekly says, Minkow is lying in order to profit by betting against the companies’ stock. Minkow has been upfront about the fact that his Fraud Discovery Institute makes its money by betting against the stock prices of the companies it investigates. Minkow isn’t alone. Other organizations do the same. As long as Minkow isn’t lying about the companies he bets against, it’s perfectly legal.

But LA Weekly says he is lying. After Lennar sued Minkow for his public statements about the company, a judge said, ""There is no evidence of fraud or diversion of funds to other projects." And Barrett explains, "The judge's decision meant that damaging allegations made public by Minkow on Marsch's [his client] behalf in January 2009 had been weighed in a court of law and found to have no basis in fact."

Among other things, the lawsuit also found that although Minkow testified under oath that "he'd never bet against Lennar's stock by buying put options before leveling allegations against the company ... Minkow was forced to admit that he had indeed shorted Lennar's stock, twice." (Note: Technically, buying put options and shorting the stock are two different, unique ways of making money off a falling stock price.)

The court records show that Minkow also made other false claims during the trial. He also lied on more than one occasion about his absences from the proceedings. The paper reports:

On Aug. 2, the day Minkow was to travel from Los Angeles to Miami to testify in Lennar's lawsuit, he told the court he'd missed a red-eye flight because he had been hospitalized in an emergency room for assorted ailments, including nausea, anxiety, kidney stones, food poisoning and a migraine.

When the judge ordered him to produce hospital records, Minkow was forced to concede that he had lied. Under oath, Minkow admitted that he had not visited the ER but instead stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey and sought treatment the next day from an anti-aging doctor in San Diego.

Judge Freeman said that Minkow "seems to have absolutely no sense of responsibility for telling the truth," and had exhibited "misfeasance and fraudulent conduct."

"The truth is whatever he decides is important to the moment," Freeman said.

The piece then goes on to blame the rest of the media industry’s complicity in Barry Minkow’s fake comeback from convict. Oddly, it neglects to mention former Los Angeles Times religion reporter William Lobdell, who went to work with Minkow, writing about the companies he investigated.

The story is painful to read, especially to me, as I got to know Minkow well when writing about him. It was clear that the desire to be a recognized success was still a powerful motivator for him. But he was also incredibly honest about his failings and eagerly erected support from friends and church members to help him where he was weak.

It’s also clear that Minkow has gotten quite carried away in his side gig profiting from his investigation of public companies while pastoring a church. He’s lied to a judge, and while maybe he has not defrauded investors again, he has caused a significant loss of money based upon his making untrue statements. He may be sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission. I’m hopeful Minkow and his accountability partners can reign him in. According to this LA Weekly piece, his demons still have some power. He could be a fantastic pastor because he's a gifted man. I pray those gifts will be directed toward kingdom building.

Update: Minkow has responded.

Rob Moll is a Christianity Today editor at large.

Posted by Ted Olsen at October 15, 2010 8:36AM | Comments (13)

Jimmy Sanchez, one of the 33 Chilean miners who have been trapped for over two months in the San Jose copper-gold mine in the Atacama Desert, would like to make one small correction to all the stories about life in the mine:

“There are actually 34 of us,” the nineteen-year-old miner wrote in a letter sent up from the mine on Tuesday, "because God has never left us down here."

Amid reports of squabbling on the surface among families of the trapped miners, some say things are much calmer underground as everyone prepares for this week’s attempt to bring them back up. The men have worked hard to keep their spirits buoyant during the ordeal, organizing themselves into a community and dividing up their living-room-sized space. Early on, they set aside a space to pray daily, and religious groups have converged on the mine to serve the miners' spiritual needs. Once a supply line was established, Seventh-Day Adventists sent down mini-Bibles with magnifying glasses; the Jesus Film Project loaded 33 MP3 players with an audio adaptation of the famous JESUS film. A crucifix was sent down in August, and it's said that miners also requested statues of Mary and the saints. The miners signed a flag which was presented to Pope Benedict this weekend.

Christian leaders of various denominations have come to the San Jose mine; the Guardian is rather bemused by all the activity, describing a “surge in religious fervor” as the rescue operation takes shape.

Baptist Press reports that two miners have “made professions of faith” since their entombment started. Pastors are also ministering to the families of the miners, who have camped out nearby.

“In the midst of this catastrophe, God is in control, and it is the Lord who has kept their family members alive," says Marcelo Leiva, pastor of Vallenar Baptist Church in Vallenar, Chile.

The miners are also thinking a lot about their family lives. Esteban Rojas, who never had a church wedding with his wife Jessica Yanez, has proposed again after 25 years. Others have decided to end their “empty” marriages. Miner Johnny Barrios has two women waiting for him topside, both of whom came to the San Jose mine to pray for his return. "Johnny doesn't want to come up," a psychologist working with the miners quipped in the Guardian.

As the hours tick away toward the expected rescue, the families holding vigil at San Jose are far from the only ones praying for the safe and speedy rescue of the 33 men. Spirits are so high that the miners are fighting among themselves about who will be the last to ascend—too many men are volunteering to stay down till the end. They’ve also contacted a lawyer to work out a deal by which they can share profits equally from the story.

Whatever happens when he and his compatriots stand in sunlight once again, Jimmy Sanchez wants to hold on to the lessons he’s learned in the past few months.

“God wanted me to stay here, I don't know, maybe so I change from now on,” Sanchez wrote.”I have thought and I'll change a lot. I have suffered too much and don't want to suffer any more. In the hard moments I was thankful of God because I got a daughter. I expect than when my turn arrives everything will be OK. Hugs for everyone."

Posted by Trevor Persaud at October 12, 2010 11:32AM | Comments (30)

One of the most interesting religion stories to watch right now in Africa is how Kenya's Maina Njenga, former leader of the notorious Mungiki, is regrouping and rebranding his claimed 6 million followers from a youth gang known for violence and extortion into a church movement.

In a rare interview, Njenga explains the intention behind his recent actions here. In September he made a public departure from high-profile Jesus Is Alive Ministries after its leader, Margaret Wanjiru, opposed Kenya’s new constitution. From Nairobi, CT covered the violence, accusations, and aftermath of the recent constitution debate.

CT covered Njenga's December 2009 conversion in this dispatch from Nairobi. Previous CT coverage of religion in Kenya can be found here.

Posted by Jeremy Weber at October 8, 2010 10:36AM