Personalia Update: February 17, 1984

A Dallas Theological Seminary student has made Olympic gold his goal in 1984. Jerry Mungadze will compete this summer in the 1,500-meter, the 5,000-meter, and the marathon races, representing his home country of Zimbabwe. Mungadze started running 30-to-40 miles a day while in grade school.

Homer Dowdy, formerly a top executive with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, has been named executive vice-president of Food for the Hungry International (FHI), based in Geneva, Switzerland. He will direct FHI’s International Institute for Relief and Development, organizing seminars and conferences on world relief. Udo Middlemann, a L’Abri Fellowship trustee, will join FHI in April to direct the education program for the International Institute for Relief and Development. He will develop an educational program on hunger awareness, relief, and development.

More than 2,000 Brazilian evangelical leaders attended the country’s first nationwide congress on evangelism. In addition to discussing evangelization in Brazil, they addressed such problems as violence, poverty, corruption, and prejudice. In a joint statement, the leaders called for a “clear proclamation by word and life of the gospel in its totality for all men in Brazil.” Organizers disavowed any acceptance of liberation theology. But many leaders struggled with the church’s role in changing society.

A letter-writing campaign by 34 U.S. congressmen has led to the release of a jailed Chinese Christian. The human rights group Christian Response International credits pressure from Washington for the release of the man, identified only as the son of a prominent Shanghai house-church leader who remains imprisoned. In their letters to Chinese officials, the congressmen also inquired about reports that hundreds of Christians in China have been jailed since a crackdown on crime was initiated last August. Chinese Christians are under constant pressure to register with China’s official church.

A Baptist youth organization in Nagaland, India, has launched an antiliquor campaign in the state. Nagaland Baptist Youth is one of several organizations protesting the rapid rise in liquor licenses now being issued in Nagaland. The groups have asked their government to prohibit liquor sales.

The government of Spain has granted free television and radio time to broadcast non-Catholic church services. To take advantage of the opportunity, Spanish evangelicals are creating evangelistic programs to reach a potential audience of more than 12 million.

The Church of Sweden has been reprimanded for sex discrimination. The denomination was ordered to award $1,000 to Sylva Edvall, a woman who was denied a position as pastor of a congregation in Goeteborg. Edvall appealed to the Swedish government after the job was given to a man with less experience and fewer qualifications. The government then ordered the church to give her the position and a $1,000 settlement.

The Baptist World Alliance reports growth during 1983 in the number of Baptist churches and church members worldwide. Membership increased by 70,000 in Asia, and it topped one million for the first time in Africa. However, Baptists lost 90 churches and 1,051 members in Europe. Worldwide membership stood at 31,553,278 in 123,305 churches, a 3 percent increase over 1982.

Some 20,000 volunteers are coming to Los Angeles to spread Christianity among the throngs.

An estimated 900,000 visitors from around the world will converge on Los Angeles this summer to witness the 1984 Summer Olympics. In addition, nearly half of the world’s population is expected to watch the athletic events on television.

With international attention focused on Southern California, Christian leaders are planning an ambitious missionary outreach there. Some 20,000 volunteers will travel to Los Angeles in July to evangelize the multitude. More than 70 Christian organizations and churches—both Protestant and Catholic—are helping to plan the outreach. In addition to reaching the lost, organizers hope the massive outreach will revive a passion for world missions.

The Olympics Outreach Committee, which began its work early last year, is divided into a national advisory committee, a Los Angeles advisory committee, and a working committee. The national advisory committee is headed by two well-known Los Angeles-area pastors, Lloyd Ogilvie, of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and Jack Hayford, of The Church on the Way. The working committee includes more than 30 full-time volunteers.

The plans are ambitious. Programs will cover everything from prayer to entertainment to crisis intervention. Evangelistic projects under consideration include the use of multimedia presentations at Olympics game sites, mime and drama troupes, street bands and street evangelists, rallies, and tent meetings. Volunteers will hand out gospel tracts, sports magazines, and Bibles in foreign languages.

Youth With a Mission (YWAM) is planning to bring in some 7,000 teenagers from around the world to help share the gospel. The army of young evangelists will be housed in church basements and in the homes of church members. The teenagers will witness to foreign visitors in their own native languages. They also will preach in ethnic communities.

It has been suggested that the flood of gospel literature and street preaching will result in overkill. But Bernie Ogilvy, a YWAM staff member who will coordinate youth outreach, disagrees. “You can never oversaturate with such a huge population,” he says. “The outreach will be very diversified. Different speciality groups will be targeted with specific evangelistic programs.”

Before the Olympics begin, outreach planners will be tackling problems associated with such a large-scale evangelistic undertaking. Organizers have to obtain permits to set up booths and to mobilize street evangelists. Housing, meals, and transportation for out-of-town volunteers need to be lined up. Arrangements need to be made for discipling those who will accept Christ.

The biggest problem is raising the money necessary to conduct the Olympics ministry. Funds are being solicited through advertising and through participating churches and ministries.

Despite the potential difficulties, organizers believe strongly in what they will be doing in Los Angeles this summer. Says media committee chairman Mike Hernandez, “God could use the Olympics to fan the flames of revival throughout the world.”

RICK GRANTin Los Angeles

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