Christian evangelical leaders of hundreds of organizations agreed recently in a conference in Hungary to strengthen cooperation among them to better address the economic and moral decline of Europe.

Some 500 participants in the HOPE•II congress, organized by Hope For Europe, met in Budapest to plan cooperative strategies to offset “deep poverty” and a “culture of death” in Europe, Jeff Fountain, congress director, told BosNewsLife.

Fountain told BosNewsLife, “Some 500 leaders returned home from the HOPE•II congress in Budapest a few days ago, buoyed with fresh perspectives” to lend “hope for Europe against a background of crisis and scandal embroiling European institutions.”

The participants in the four-day event came from some 40 European nations, and included artists, theologians, politicians, evangelists and pastors, according to BosNewsLife.

Some 20 talks were given by renowned Christian leaders, including world famous book authors such as Thomas Schirrmacher, Philip Jenkins, Os Guiness and Vishal Magalwadi, according to the congress website.

This is the second time Hope for Europe held its congress in Budapest (the first time was in 2002). The organization, which has  ties with the European Evangelical Alliance, seeks to network Christians of different professions across Europe, the website said.

The congress opened on May 9, which marks “Europe’s forgotten birthday,” Fountain said during the congress, adding, “Few Europeans are aware that on 9 May 1950 the first move was made towards the creation of what is now known as the European Union,” BosNewsLife reported.

Fountain said this was the day when “French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman surprised the world…by announcing a plan for France, Germany and other European countries to pool together their coal and steel production as ‘the first concrete foundation of a European federation,’” according to BosNewsLife.

However Fountain said Schuman “would be appalled by the false ethic of greed in the financial sector, and the ‘culture of death’ expressed in youth suicides, abortions, euthanasia, low birth rates, rising murder rates, [and] signs of deep spiritual poverty,” BosNewsLife reported.

Noting that Schuman envisioned “a community of peoples deeply rooted in Christian values,” the Penn State University historian said Europe’s roots are strongly linked to Christianity, BosNewsLife said.

The keynote speaker of the event, Philip Jenkins urged Evangelicals to remind Europeans of their Christian roots. “Look around you…at street names, religious holidays, flags, monuments, and you can’t avoid seeing how much Europe is rooted in a deeply Christian past,” BosNewsLife reported.

Jenkins also debunked as “myth” the belief that Europe would one day be filled with Muslim migrants, noting that birth rates of Muslims in Europe, and across the world, have fallen from six to 1.6 within the last quarter century, according to the website.

Jenkins blamed the fall in birthrate, which is the steepest ever recorded, to Europe’s secular lifestyle which makes it difficult to maintain sustainability, the website said.

Failed humanistic vision

Other speakers at the event cited the failure of the “humanistic vision of society and economy,” and noted the need to bring back to Europe biblical truths, according to the website.

During the congress, five HOPE awards were also given to ministries for their contribution in promoting hope, the website said. The recipients of the awards are: TopCretien.com (a Paris-based website), the Santa Clara Church in Stockholm (for inner city work), Sergey and Mariana Glushko (Teen Challenge, Kyiv), Patricia Green (Berlin-based work against trafficking) and Shirinai Dossova (for witnessing to communists and Muslims).

New churches are booming in New York City today, but they do not cater so much to the unsaved, as to the un-churched, a study said.

The New York City Leadership Center, a nonprofit organization that studies developing Christian ministries, noted that in 1975 only 10 evangelical churches existed in Manhattan. By 2000, four out of every 10 was an Evangelical Christian church, and today there are more than 200.

People going to these churches

Thousands are drawn to these churches on Sundays, catering primarily to Christians who have left their home towns to go to bigger cities like New York, Christianity Today said.

According to the NYCLC website, there are vastly under-churched areas in Greater New York, and millions of people are drawn to the new Evangelical churches to fill their spiritual gaps and rediscover the faith they already have in them. However, there are still many more churches that need to be built to address migration.

David Fitch, associate professor of evangelical theology, Northern Baptist Seminary, agrees with NYCLC. He told Christianity Today that most churches, like the megachurch of Tim Keller, is reaching out to Christians who are pre–churched, but who are new to New York and who need a new place to worship.

Fitch told Christianity Today, “The attractional dynamics that often typif[y] these kinds of church planting depend largely on existing Christianized populations,” he wrote in a blog post in January.”

The changing trend in church goers is unmistakeable. In 2008 sociologist Scott Thumma of Hartford Seminary studied 400 megachurches and asked where their members came from. One out of five said they had either been un-churched for a long time, or had dropped out of church for several years then came back, Christianity Today said.

Keller, in a comment that he put in Thumma’s blog, noted that the first attendees in his church were indeed largely un-churched people, because there were so few evangelicals in Manhattan at that time (1980s).

Things changed in the 1990s and Keller said, “for every one New Yorker/secular person who came to Christ, we saw 2-3 others join who were coming from other churches. Without that, we would be a quarter to a third the size we are now,” Christianity Today reported.

Churches today in New York start and grow simply by bringing in Christians who are looking for a place where they can worship, rather than by evangelizing. Thumma told Christianity Today, “[A]lmost no one going to megachurches is truly from the ranks of the unsaved, or entirely unchurched.”

Intensify faith

This new trend does not mean that evangelical churches have a diminished purpose nor can it imply that the churches do not exert effort in ministering to unbelievers, Christianity today said.

By drawing in people who are already Christians, there is often the experience of having an intensified faith, a greater love of God. There is a feeling of conversion and a decision made, oftentimes, to become more serious in one’s faith.

Thumma, a co-author of The Other 80 Percent: Turning Your Church’s Spectators into Active Participants, sees this as a good thing and a good purpose for both older churches and newly-planted churches, Christianity Today said.

NYCLC views this as an opportunity to evangelize. Its web site said, “Our research among Christian financial industry leaders in Manhattan indicates that 2/3 of those surveyed are not actively integrating their faith with their vocation. The NYCLC seeks to gather Christ’s followers for fellowship, encouragement and engagement in exercising their faith and influence in every sector of society.”

Social networks

Many people in churches today are marginal, but they can be used by God to reach out to the un-churched, Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research in Nashville told Christianity Today.

Rodney Stark, co-director, Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, says a church needs strong members to grow, as these are the kinds who will invite friends and neighbors to church. He told Christianity Today, “Churches really are social networks.”

The need for leadership training of church members is also noted. NYCLC provides training and resources for ministry leaders who would not have the finances to pay for such training, Christianity Today said.

The circumstance lends room for the opportunity. Reaching the un-churched and empowering them through leadership training to reach non-Christians is an opportunity that is well presented in the current setting of migration.

The powerful biography of a World War II Christian pastor from Germany who plotted to assassinate Hitler was named, recently, the Christian Book of the Year.

The book, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, authored by Eric Metaxas was awarded Christian Book of the Year by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, Charisma News said.

The book was published by Thomas Nelson Publishers in Mar. 2010, and marks the third consecutive time that this Nashville-based publishing firm landed the Christian Book of the Year Award, according to Christian Newswire.

The German theologian was executed by Hitler in April, 1945, because he was part of a plot to assassinate the Fuhrer.

Vice President Joel Miller of Nelson’s Acquisitions and Editorial for Nonfiction Trade Group told Christian Newswire, “Eric Metaxas presents a figure who speaks both to our times and to our spirits. It’s been an honor to work with him and a joy to see such a wide and eager reception of his important work.”

The book, which has been described as a “biography of uncommon power,” is a bestseller on several lists including the New York Times (on six separate occasions), and ECPA Top 50, according to Christian Newswire.

The biography was also featured in leading publications and television programs including the Wall St. Journal, Harpers, C-SPAN, the Washington Post, Christianity Today, NPR, Publishers Weekly, FoxNews and others, Christian Newswire said.

The book, which will be available in paperback form in the fall, also made six “Best of 2010” lists, among them Kirkus Reviews, Relevant, Barnes & Noble and Christianbook.com, according to Christian Newswire.

Mark Kuyper, ECPA president, said the award was given because of the quality of the biography and its popularity and achievements. “This is a great book that connects well with people [and] touched people’s hearts and minds,” Charisma news reported.

Other ECPA winners

Other ECPA winners are You Changed My Life (inspiration) by Max Lucado and published by Thomas Nelson; Almost Heaven (fiction) by Chris Fabry and published by Tyndale House Publishers; and The Action Bible Illustrated (children) edited by Doug Mauss and published by David C. Cook, Charisma News said.

Other ECPA awardees are Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament (bible reference) with John H. Walton as general editor and published by Zondervan; and HCSB Study Bible (bibles) with Jeremy Royal Howard and Edwin A. Blum as general editors and published by Holman Bible Publishers/B&H Publishing Group, Charisma News reported.

Even as thousands of refugees from Tunisia have fled to a tiny island in Italy, causing dispute among some EU nations, Evangelicals are helping to minister to them by distributing aid and Bibles.

Some 26,000 illegal immigrants from Tunisia crossed the Mediterranean in tiny boats in the last few weeks, causing what some officials in Italy call a “human tsunami,” the AP reported.

Italy has said it will grant six-month permits for residency to the migrants, providing a chance for them to try to settle in neighboring countries through Europe’s visa-free Schengen zone, the AP said.

Not everyone is happy about this. France, in an unprecedented move, set up guards along the Italian border and Germany said it may follow suit, the AP reported. France is only willing to honor permits of those migrants who have evidence of financial resources.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the Tunisians should be repatriated adding, “There is no rule that says that illegal economic migrants should be welcomed here and allowed to travel freely in Europe,” the AP reported.

In response, Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni said it seemed pointless to be a part of the EU if the nations within it could not collaborate on this and other issues, the AP said.

Tunisia has undergone great destabilization recently, due to an uprising that culminated last January in deposing its longtime
president, according to the AP.

Meanwhile, the Evangelical Alliance Italy is collaborating with the island’s local authorities in assisting the migrants and helping them in fostering good relations with the local community, Christian Today said.

According to Christian Today, Lampedusa, which is only 75 miles away from the coast of Tunisia, has long been a point of arrival for North African illegal immigrants who are seeking a better life in Europe.

With the unrest that is prevailing in North Africa, some 50,000 migrants are expected to try to enter the island, according to Christian Today. In a statement, the Evangelical Alliance in Italy said this is a great opportunity to share the gospel.

The migrants are willing to risk grave danger to leave their countries. The AP said that last Thursday two women drowned when their boat, loaded with 250 migrants, went off course then landed on Italy’s Pantelleria island.

In another incident, a boat with some 300 illegal immigrants capsized, the AP said, and only 50 of them survived. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is urging Tunisia to take their citizens back.

Christian volunteers are doing what they can for migrants in both Lampedusa and a migrant center in Mineo, Sicily, by providing aid and distributing bibles and Christian literature, Christian Today said.

They are also counseling the migrants and sharing the love of Jesus in suitable ways, Christian Today reported. The alliance is seeking prayer and joint cooperation in cultural mediation and humanitarian assistance, “in the hope that God will open further
Gospel opportunities,” according to Christian Today.

A survey of Evangelical leaders showed recently that most of the respondents don’t believe that the bible requires that Christians tithe.

The February Evangelical Leaders Survey, conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals, showed that 58 percent of evangelical leaders do not believe the tithe is required by the bible, CNN News said.

Some 42 percent of responding evangelical leaders said they believe tithing is a biblical requirement, Star Tribune said. The NAE, which is the U.S. biggest Evangelical umbrella group, included among respondents its 100 board of directors, CNN said.

However, it did not say how many members of its board answered the survey. Members include highly influential people such as the heads of the Assemblies of God, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and the Salvation Army, CNN reported.

Origin of tithe

Leith Anderson, president of the NAE said in a statement, “The Old Testament called for multiple tithes, sort of combining government taxes with religious stewardship. Many churches later adopted 10 percent as the standard,” Star Tribune reported.

Anderson added, “Since there is such a strong evangelical tradition of tithing I was a little surprised that a majority of our evangelical leaders say the tithe system of the Old Testament does not carry over to the New Testament or to us,”
according to Star Tribune.

NAE leaders said the survey findings do not mean that Christians need not tithe. Alan Robinson of the Brethren in Christ Church told Star Tribune, “While tithing is not ‘required’ today, it is my view that Christian generosity will, at a minimum, reflect the Old Testament requirements of the law and should, in fact, greatly exceed it.”

Dan Olson, a sociology professor of Purdue University told CNN, “Most Christians would say the laws of the Old Testament are not what save you – you’re supposed to be giving out of a spirit of freedom, not because you’re bound to laws.”

The study also showed that while most leaders don’t believe that Christians are required to tithe they themselves, at 95 percent,
give at least 10 percent of their income, Star Tribune said. Of those who do not tithe, one respondent said it depends on his situation and needs.

Anderson, head of NAE, told Star Tribune, “For many American Christians, sacrificial giving encouraged throughout the Bible would mean giving over 10 percent. Personally, I believe that the New Testament teaches ‘proportionate giving’ that may be more or less than 10 percent depending on income.”

Anderson told Star Tribune that he personally gives more than the biblical 10 percent. “My hope is that in coming years we will see more generous, proportionate, cheerful and sacrificial giving among American evangelicals.”

The Evangelical Leaders Survey is conducted every month. Respondents usually include the NAE board of directors, denominational CEOs, and representatives of various evangelical organizations including universities, churches, missions
and publishers, Star Tribune said.

Another study by Empty Tomb Inc. revealed a different tune where church followers are concerned. Findings showed that
evangelical church members on the average give four percent of their earnings to the church. Olson suspects the average may even be lower, at perhaps two percent or less, according to CNN.

Sources:

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/119403279.html

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/07/survey-minority-of-evangelical-leaders-say-bible-requires-tithing

A Christian commission issued a statement recently condemning a wave of arrests of Christians in Iran that started on Christmas Day.

The Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance called for an immediate halt to the arrest of Christians which totaled 70 during the Christmas season, Continental News said.

Christians and other minority religious have been arrested in Iran in the past, Canadian Press said, but the recent wave of arrests is considered the largest and most closely coordinated.

The RLC-WEA statement said, “The ongoing raiding of homes and arrests of Christians in predominantly Shi’ite Iran, which began deplorably during the Christmas season, needs to stop immediately,” according to Continental News.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported that 25 of the total are evangelicals who were arrested on Christmas Day, including pastors from home churches, according to Asia News. Eleven of the 25 have since been released.

CSW expressed “serious concerns” for the remaining 14, as house church members have been brutally interrogated and placed in solitary confinement to force them to reveal the names other Christians, Asia News said.

Asia News added that Iran’s media, religious and political leaders have of late spewed strong and plentiful anti-Christian rhetoric. The Canadian Press said that officials are indicating that more arrests may follow.

Many Christians in Iran avoid sanctioned churches, which of late have been more closely monitored by Islamic authorities since the unrest that followed the 2009 disputed election of hardliner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Canadian Press said.

Saman Kamvar, of the Iranian Christian News Agency, told Canadian Press that the raids were a sign of the government’s insecurity. He added that it is likely that the stepped up arrests occurred because Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denounced home churches which gave a green light for the crackdown.

Godfrey Yogarajah, executive director of WEA-RLC told Continental News, “The growing authoritarianism in Iran only shows that the regime’s popularity is falling drastically which is making the government highly insecure and unnerved.”

Yogarajah’s views were echoed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and writer Shirin Ebadi who said the recent arrests “are all clear signs of the fear developing within the government.” Ebadi’s own lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, was arrested and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment for “acting against national security,” Asia News reported.

Possible political charges

It is still not clear what the remaining 14 jailed Christians will be charged with, Canadian Press said. If they are convicted for trying to convert Muslims, the penalty is death.

Iran may file political instead of religious charges to avoid international disapproval, Canadian Press said, as it is already faces international outcry over its stoning of an Iranian woman charged with adultery, and its nuclear program.

Prior to the Christmas season arrests, Iran was also beset with concerns from the international community over the arrest of Pastor Behrouz Sadegh-Khanjani and the conviction of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani of the Full Gospel Church, who is charged with apostasy meriting the death penalty, Continental News reported.

The government may be intentionally calling the arrested Christians missionaries rather than evangelicals, as the latter is a faith group, whereas missionaries could be viewed as enemies of the state who corrupt the people, Canadian Press said.

Yogarajah told Continental News, “It is highly condemnable and incongruous that while Shi’ites themselves face persecution in Sunni-majority countries like Pakistan where they are minorities, in Iran some of their leaders emulate the same intolerant Sunni extremists by persecuting the Christian and other minorities.”

Yogarajah added, “Regular campaigns against minorities by the Iranian regime cost the people of Iran dearly as they divert the country’s limited resources, that could be used for citizens’ welfare, to fund activities that only create tensions and isolate the country even further,” Continental News reported.

The WEA-RLC in its statement urged “the human rights and religious freedom fraternity and international policy analysts to treat and highlight the escalating persecution of minorities in Iran as an extremely serious issue,” Continental News reported.

Christian leaders are united in supporting the pending referendum in Sudan, slated on Jan. 9, 2011, saying it should be held on schedule, and be fair, free and lend due respect to the referendum’s results.

Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches and Dr. Geoff Tunniclifee, CEO and secretary general of the World Evangelical Alliance stressed the need to support Southern Sudan at this crucial time, according to PR-USA Net.

Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, Catholic archbishop of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, said, in Rumbek, southern Sudan that,  “Anybody trying to go against the majority… can be sure that he is turning against the will and the plan of God,” ENI News reported.

Pengo is president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. He made the statement ahead of a pending special meeting of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, ENI News said.

The referendum in Sudan is being held to determine if the majority Christian southern Sudan portion of the country would like to run as an independent nation, or remain as part of Northern Sudan, which is largely Muslim, ENI News reported.

Pengo said, “It is our hope and prayer, [that] the will of God expressed through the majority will be respected as such, as the will and plan of God,” according to ENI News

The referendum was one of the conditions agreed upon in the 2005 Naivasha Agreement, which was reached between Khartoum central government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army after years of war, PR-USA Net said.

Tveit had called for a day of prayer for the country on Dec. 5. Both he and Tunnicliffe noted that hundreds of thousands of Christians who live in northern Sudan may be affected by the referendum’s outcome, PR-USA Net said.

At the same time, the two Christian leaders noted, according to PR-USA Net, that millions of Christians and Muslims are still displaced from the war, and live in dangerous parts of the country. Their plight would worsen if the referendum is delayed.

Tunnicliffe noted that for 50 years Sudan has suffered very much, and there is a need for a better way. He and Tveit said a common voice is an important step in drawing international attention, and the attention of their churches, toward the country, PR-USA Net said.

The WCC and WFA represent most of the world’s Anglican, Protestant, Evangelical and Orthodox churches with perhaps a billion people around the globe, PR-USA Net reported.

Tunnicliffe told PR-USA Net that if the referendum is not successful, “we are going to face an ongoing huge problem with conflict, not just in Sudan, but in the region.”

The WCC and WFA leaders also seek support from Muslim leaders and in a recently-held consultation in Geneva, some 60 Christian and Muslim heads and scholars said in their final statement of Sudan, “It is important that these tensions not be seen as being between Muslims and Christians.” PR-USA Net reported.

The Sudan Council of Churches invited recently WEA to install monitors during the referendum. WEA has long worked in Sudan through relief and development activities, according to PR-USA Net.

A separate referendum will be held in the Abyei region which has rich oil reserves, to determine if it should form part of the southern or northern part of Sudan, ENI News said.

Some faith leaders are taking part in the ‘It Gets Better Project,’ which lends support to young people who are being bullied because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

However, other faith leaders say that while bullying is always wrong, quoting scripture should not be blamed for extreme bullying that has the recent rash of suicides.

Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said in a video that LGBT youth have dignity and beauty as God’s creation. Hanson said he joined the project so he could lend hope, especially those who were driven to commit suicide from bullying, according to Business Wire.

In the video Hanson said, “Your life carries the dignity and beauty of God’s creation. God has called you by name and claimed you forever. There is a place for you in this world, and in this church.” The father of six children, Hanson added, “I can only imagine what it’s like to be bullied for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. But I do know how bullying can destroy someone,” Business Wire reported.

Hanson shared his daughter’s struggle for being bullied as a biracial child. Noting that words can both harm and heal, Hanson said, “Sometimes the words of my Christian brothers and sisters have hurt you, and I also know that our silence causes you pain.” The video can be seen at http://www.elca.org/itgetsbetter.

Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, who is openly gay, pointedly attacked Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics and Mormons who say gays are not acceptable to God. Robinson said, “I want to tell you as a religious person, that they are flat out wrong. God loves you the way you are,” The Christian Post reported.

Greg Kandra, a Roman Catholic deacon in Brooklyn N.Y. wrote in Beliefnet, “Robinson is entitled to his opinion, and his own moral theology. We can respectfully disagree about his conclusions. But I can’t respect the way he has gone about brazenly dismissing (and, in fact, misrepresenting) the moral teachings of others,” according to The Christian Post.

Evangelical leader Chuck Colson urged Christians to condemn bullying, but also stressed that believers must defend biblical morality “in a way that rejects condemnation and invites conversation and conversion.” Colson said the trend to blame Christians for the suicides because of its “anti-gay rhetoric” is “disturbing,” The Christian Post reported.

Focus on the Family president Jim Daly said he did not think Christianity is responsible for the suicides. Daly said Christianity, when properly interpreted and practiced, is the best solution to the mistreatment of people. In a CNN blog Daly wrote, “If there is a single golden thread woven through the Bible and the faith it informs, it is this: when it comes to human rights and how we treat each other, no person is superior or inferior to the next,” The Christian Post reported.

Daly stressed, “To violate the dignity of another person, in any form or fashion, is to contradict the very basis of Gospel-centered living. And to suggest that an orthodox understanding of Christianity encourages abuse against homosexuals is a sad misreading of the very tenets of the faith,” according to The Christian Post.

A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute that was conducted after the suicides studied the link between religious messages and public images of homosexuality. Its findings revealed that 72 percent of Americans believe religious communications have added to “negative views” of LGBTs, and 65 percent link these religious communications to the rise in suicides among gay youth, USA Today said.

The study, which was co-sponsored by Religion News Service surveyed 1010 U.S. adults from Oct. 14-17, according to USA Today.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins told The Washington Post, “There is no contradiction between Christian compassion and a call for holy living. But the life which is holy … or even healthy … requires abstinence from homosexual conduct. We would do no one a favor if we ceased to proclaim that truth,” USA Today reported.

A British tycoon has achieved fame and wealth, but said this does not compare to the greater cause of building up the U.K. South Asian Christian community as a force to forward the gospel.

Manoj Raithatha was once an award-winning playwright who went on to earn millions in realty. Now he serves as National Coordinator for the newly-formed South Asian Forum of the Evangelical Alliance, Christian Today reported.

The SAF was formed by the Evangelical Alliance early this year. It seeks to unite and support U.K. Christians who originally came from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

There are some 75,000 South Asian Christians in the U.K., a potentially strong force that can be used to forward their interests in media and government, lend encouragement and support to one another, and strengthen ministry, Christian Today said.

Ram Gidoomal, who chairs SAF’s Steering Group told Christian Today, “For too long South Asian Christians have not had a voice. But, with the appointment of Manoj, we can look forward to fostering greater unity among churches and representation to the wider community.”

The challenge will be in overcoming barriers that are to be expected from people who have ethnicity in eight countries, each with its own culture, customs, dialects and languages, according to Christian Today.

Manoj, 38, is a young Christian, having committed his life to Christ in 2008 after a family tragedy led him to clarify the meaning of true wealth. To augment the task he faces, he is now pursuing theology at St Paul’s Theological Centre, in South Kensington, London, Christian Today reported.

Manoj told Christian Today, “At one time my main focus was on making money and being successful in business. Nowadays, my ambition is to bring together fellow South Asian believers as well as connect with people of other faiths.”

In 2008 Manoj’ then two-year-old son was brought to St. Thomas Hospital in London due to severe breathing problems. “(He) was intubated, Christian friends set up a prayer vigil. After five days in the intensive care unit my son suddenly bolted upright in bed. Miraculously, he was healed,” Christian Today reported.

Manoj and his wife Maria went to their local church to thank God, and kept going back until they committed their lives to Jesus at Soul Survivor Church in Watford. Manoj told Christian Today, “It was by God’s grace and love that my son now lives, and it is also by God’s grace that I’ve been given an altogether new direction in life.”

Long journey

As a young professional Manoj was a writer for the TV series, “My Life as a Popat,” which won a Bafta award. His first play, “BBA (British-born Asian) and Proud” won an Edinburgh Fringe First award and toured UK theatres, Christian Today said.

He became a tycoon when he established Summertime Properties. Among his biggest deals was purchasing Clarence House in Leeds at some $54.3 million. Manoj also bought and sold properties in Sheffield, Bradford and London, according to Christian Today.

Manoj told Christian Today that it is a miracle that his business, though affected temporarily, survived the recession. However, he said the biggest turning point in his life was when he became a Christian.

The world’s largest umbrella group of evangelicals pledged recently to lend assistance and support to southern Sudan to ensure that the country has a fair and peaceful referendum.

The World Evangelical Alliance outlined specific actions they will take to support southern Sudan’s Jan. 9, 2011 referendum. The referendum will determine if the south will choose independence, or if it opt to stay united with northern Sudan, Christian Today reported.

Observers are concerned that preparations for the referendum are behind schedule. No border has been demarcated to separate the north from the south, and no standards for voter eligibility have been drawn. The south blames the north for the delay, the Christian Post said.

Charlotte Scawen, acting head of Oxfam told the Christian Post, “The longer uncertainty drags on, the more likely violence could flare up. People here are waiting eagerly for the chance to decide their future, and expectations are extremely high.”

Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, WEA secretary general announced that they would mobilize global prayer for a “free, fair and safe referendum,” and lobby among their respective governments to speed up preparations. WEA also launched a peace fund for the country, Christian Today said.

WEA also said its global network of churches and NGOs will be mobilized in support of holistic development, peace and good governance. They pledged to lobby at the highest levels of government and institutions in Sudan, and will send international observers to the referendum, the Christian Post reported.

WEA holds under its umbrella some 420 million evangelical Christians, 128 national alliances covering seven regions, and 104 associate evangelical organizations and global networks. Their reach extends to governments, other faith groups and media; and they possess consultative status at the United Nations, the Christian Post said.

At the WEA forum last week held in Juba, capital of Southern Sudan, Tunnicliffe lauded President Salva Kiir, who was in attendance, for meeting with the church and showing reconciliation by granting presidential pardon to some rebel leaders, Christian Today said.

For two decades Sudan was locked in a vicious civil war that left 1.5 million dead and over four million displaced. In 1983, Christians in the South took up arms when the government tried to impose Islamic law, the Christian Post said.

The civil war ended in 2005 with a Comprehensive Peace Agreement including a six-year transitional unified government during which time the south would have autonomy. The referendum next year is one of the conditions of this agreement, Christian Today said.

International observers are worried that a failed referendum may bring back civil war. Aiah Forday-Khabenje, General Secretary of the Association of Evangelicals of Africa (AEA) called on the international community saying, “We are looking to governments to honor the commitment they made, to ensure that the referendum goes ahead on time,  and that it does not result in further suffering for the people of Sudan” Christian Today reported.