Winning the World

266 Wi nn i ng the Wor l d: Fac i l i tat i ng Urban Chur ch P l ant i ng Movement s

Ralph D. Winter Editorial, continued

For example, in Japan there are “churches” that are so Western that in the last forty years they have not grown by a single member. Many astute observers have concluded that there is not yet “a Japanese form of Christianity.” When one emerges, it may not want to asso ciate with the Western Christian tradition except in a fraternal way. In India we now know that there are actually millions of Hindus who have chosen to follow Christ, reading the Bible daily and worshipping at the household level, but not often frequenting the West-related Christian churches of that land. In some places thousands of people who consider themselves Muslims are nevertheless heart-and-soul followers of Jesus Christ who carry the New Testament with them into the mosques. In Africa there are more than 50 million believers (of a sort) within a vast sphere called “the African Initiated Churches.” The people in the more formally “Christian church” may not regard these others as Christians at all. Indeed, some of them are a whole lot further from pure biblical faith than Mormons. But, if they revere and study the Bible, we need to let the Bible do its work. These groups range from the wildly heretical to the seriously biblical within over ten thousand “denominations” which are not related to any overt Christian body. Thus, not all “insider” movements are ideal. Our own Christianity is not very successfully [ sic ] “inside” our culture, since many “Christians” are Christian in name only. Even mission “church planting” activi ties may or may not be “insider” at all, and even if they are they may not be ideal. Around the world some of these movements do not baptize. In other cases they do. I have been asked, “Are you promoting the idea of non-baptized believers?” No, in reporting the existence of these millions of people, we are reporting on the incredible power of the Bible. We are not promoting all the ideas they reflect or the practices they follow. The Bible is like an underground fire burning out of control! In one sense we can be very happy.