INNOVATIVE MINISTRIES n INNOVATIVE MINISTRIVE n INNOVATIVE MINISTRIES n INNOVATIVE MINISTRIES n INN

Ukraine, a former republic of the Soviet Union, experienced phenomenal growth since it gained independence after the breakup of the Soviet state in 1991. . . . This growth in Ukraine did not happen by chance.

Ukrainian Baptists evangelism in the country is organized and coordinated nationally, regionally and locally.

House Churches and Cell Groups Cuba and Vietnam’s numerical growth are due in part to the house church movement in those two countries. Cuba’s house church movement came as a result of government policy, which made acquiring property, constructing houses of worship and having large gatherings difficult. There are essentially two types of house churches in Cuba:

those that are a “church” in their own right and those that meet as cell groups of a larger, existing congregation. In the latter instance, most congregations are divided into zones, which are further divided into cell groups. These zones and cell groups have the responsibility to plan and initiate evangelism within their neighborhood. When each cell reaches a critical number over and beyond which they would not be allowed to meet legally, that cell is further divided into new cells where the excess membership meet. With this approach, it is not unusual for a single congregation to reach 2,000 or more persons. It appears that a government policy meant to restrict church growth contributed to further growth instead.

Cuba and Vietnam’s numerical growth are due in part to the house church movement in those two countries. . . . It appears that a government policy meant to restrict church growth contributed to further growth instead.

Aggressive Church Planting Zambia, Cambodia, Nepal and refugee camps in Northern Thailand have demonstrated that a radical church planting program leads to increased numerical growth. Since the first Baptist church was planted in Cambodia in 1995, there are now 440 churches with more than 18,500

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members affiliated with the Cambodia Baptist Union (CBU). The union aims to have at least one church in each of Cambodia’s 1,621 communes by constructing no less than five churches and founding five additional house churches each year. Communes comprise five to 13 villages and will have at least one evangelist each. All 24 provinces in the Southeast Asian country have five trained Baptist church planters each. An estimated 150,000 Myanmar refugees, largely from the

Karen ethnic group, live in refugee camps in Thailand, with approximately 50,000 living in Mae La, one of the largest. More than 250 Baptist churches have been planted in the camps since they were established in the mid 1980s to house those fleeing fighting and persecution in Myanmar.

Evangelizing the Marginalized

It appears that reaching out to disadvantaged and marginalized ethnic and social groups in a society or community lead to numerical church growth. The examples are many. In India, Baptist and other churches reached out to the Dalit, formerly referred to as Untouchables, who are at the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system. Most Christians in South India, for instance, are Dalit.

Churches, including Baptists, have very strong followings in Northeast India, where populations are closer, ethnically, to Southeast Asians. Northeast Indian states are, for the most part, largely marginalized in the Indian political and economic systems. Three of these Northeast Indian states, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram, reportedly have majority-Christian populations. Approximately 90 percent of Nagas in Nagaland are Christians, with about 80 percent being Baptists. It is similarly the case for India’s neighbor, Myanmar, also

known as Burma. The marginalized Chin, Kachin and Karen in Myanmar have a large and strong Christian presence, among them Baptists, going back to the time of Adoniram and Ann Judson, American Baptist missioners in the first half of the 19th century.

The Myanmar Baptist Convention has more than one million members, nearly doubling its membership over the past two decades.