Mass evangelism
Mass evangelizations (referred to as large evangelizations by the organizers themselves ) are evangelistic events with thousands of participants that aim to win people over to the Christian faith. Mass evangelists are mostly hosted by evangelists and often have an altar call as an element of the event .
history
Mass evangelizations that have been narrated occurred in the 18th century revival movements in Great Britain and in today's United States, particularly in the early days of Methodism . John Wesley was on his second visit in Gwennap ( Cornwall ten thousand) listeners. George Whitefield preached in the open field in England and America to thousands of listeners each, and his voice is said to have been intelligible for a mile. He reached the largest audience in 1741 in Cambuslang near Edinburgh , where he spoke for an hour and a half to an estimated one hundred thousand people, ten thousand of whom are said to have converted.
At the beginning of the 18th century the Camp Meetings , a specifically American version of Christianity, arose in the United States , where people from far away came together for several days to hear preachers in the sparsely populated areas without religious infrastructure. Often several preachers took part, sometimes speaking for hours. Twenty thousand people are said to have attended a camp meeting in Cane Ridge , Kentucky , in 1801. These camp meetings were an integral part of the second great revival movement in the United States from 1800 to 1830. They were particularly popular with the Methodists and Baptists and later led to the establishment of the Restoration Movement . After the American Civil War , it was the sanctification movement in particular that held such camp meetings, and in more recent times it is mainly the Pentecostal movement .
In the second half of the 19th century, preachers like Charles Haddon Spurgeon , Charles Grandison Finney and Dwight Lyman Moody drew so many listeners that church buildings were too small and they had to move to public concert halls and similar buildings.
In the middle of the 20th century, Billy Graham , Oral Roberts and William Branham in particular became known through mass evangelizations. While Billy Graham worked primarily with non-charismatic churches and congregations, Roberts and Branham were leaders of the Pentecostal healing revival. In Germany, the German Tent Mission carried out major evangelistic events from the Second World War .
present
Today in Germany Reinhard Bonnke , Andreas Huebner , Wilhelm Pahls and Ulrich Parzany are known as preachers at major events, some of which focus on Africa . Evangelist Bonnke brings together an extraordinary number of visitors at evangelism events in Africa, in Nigeria (West Africa) the million mark was exceeded for the first time.
An African journalist reports in the NZZ that in 1991 Bonnke evangelism in the Muslim north of Nigeria caused serious unrest with 300 deaths.
In Germany, since 1993, there have been regular non-denominational mass evangelizations under the name ProChrist , the central event of which is broadcast via satellite to over 1,300 venues in 18 European countries, mostly rooms of free and regional churches.
It can be observed that evangelism events have taken place worldwide in the last few decades. In January 2005 , for example, there was a three-day event in India where more than 7 million people came together for three events.
criticism
Criticism of mass evangelizations is loud both from the evangelical as well as from the regional church and secular side, even if this is justified differently.
Charismatic mass evangelizations such as Bonnke's meet with criticism primarily because of the healing reports. The Austrian Evangelical Alliance writes:
“The gospel is clearly preached in these events. But emotions are fueled and healing is emphasized with all the unfortunate flaws of such mass healing gatherings. The glorification of miracles, which are often not tested or medically confirmed, is pastoral irresponsible and therefore to be rejected. "
The long-term effect of mass evangelism is also often critically questioned. In a 1987 study by theologian Christian A. Schwarz , committed Christians named just 5 percent of mass evangelism as one of the main factors that led them to join a church (76% said friends and 22% said their own pastor).
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Richard Green: Chapter 7 - A Decade of Evangelistic Toil (1741-1750): The Moral Condition of the Country. In: John Wesley - Evangelist. The Religious Tract Society, London, 1905, archived from the original on September 29, 2007 ; accessed on December 9, 2019 .
- ^ A b Georg O. Schmid: Missionswerk “Christ for all Nations” (CfaN) / Reinhard Bonnke. In: relinfo.ch . 1998, accessed December 9, 2019 . }
- ↑ Hakeem Jimo: Harvesting souls for the "combine harvester of God": The controversial German evangelist Bonnke in Nigeria. (pdf, 16 kB) In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . November 16, 2000, accessed on December 9, 2019 (reproduced on kirchen.ch).
- ^ Christian A. Schwarz: Basic course evangelism. Koinonia-Verlag, 1993.