If you think huge building capacity, large church attendance, and membership when you hear the term megachurch, you are absolutely right. The Hartford Institute for Religious Research describes a megachurch as any protestant church with a sustained weekly attendance of 2000 persons or more in its worship services counting all adults and children. In this list, we swept through all 7 continents to bring you.

 Top 15 megachurches in the world visited by 1000’s daily

1. Yoido Full Gospel Church

The Yoido full gospel church, popularly dubbed the largest megachurch on earth is an answer to the prayers of thousands of believers in South Korea. Affiliated to the Assemblies of God church, it is believed to have over 450,000 members. It is located in the heart of South Korea in the city of Seoul. It was founded by Pastor David Yonggi Cho who is now retired in 1958. The church is blessed with countless testimonies of healing miracles and an awareness of the presence of God. The church is currently headed by Senior Pastor Young Hoon Lee. 

 

Chinese Government takes measure to curb the propagation of Christianity 

The Chinese communist regime has taken bold moves in an attempt to eliminate the Christian faith community by removing Bible apps from App Store in China and Christian WeChat public accounts. Even bible in hard copies can not be purchased online, as a result, worshippers who wish to read Bible online have to use VPN to circumvent the firewall.

Disabling WeChat accounts

Father Francis Liu from the Chinese Christian Fellowship of Righteousness tweeted that few Christian WeChat accounts such as  “Gospel League” and  “Life Quarterly” cannot be accessed online anymore, and a message reading  “(We) received a report that (this account) violates the ‘Internet User Public Account Information Services Management Provisions’ and its account has been blocked and suspended.” is displayed when any Chinese citizen attempts to access those accounts. 

Religious restrictions in china 

According to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List, when it comes to persecution of Christians, China is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world. 

Apart from the above-mentioned steps, bookstores owned by state-sanctioned Three self churches have increased their sales of books that propagate President Xi Jinping’s belief or the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ideology. The ICC report added that “Even their WeChat accounts are turning into propaganda channels for CCP.”

This is not the first time that a bible app had been deleted, in 2019 the Chinese Government got rid of a called WeDevote which had been downloaded 10 million times in the span of 6 years. Even American Bible Apps such as YouVersion cannot be accessed from the Chinese app store.  

The CCP is even willing to brainwash children by portraying Christianity as a dark religion to them and train them to report any family member that might adopt the Christian faith. 

The Samaritan’s Purse project has been delivering shoebox gifts

Nonetheless, Samaritan’s Purse is steady with their work and is in fact sending out more shoeboxes than ever with a hope to bring relief and instill faith among the hearts of the distressed with their annual project Operation Christmas Child. 

More about the organization 

Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization has been, since 1970, helping victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, famine, and disease to meet ends and also with spiritual and physical aid.

The Samaritan’s Purse project is known for collecting and delivering shoeboxes which are filled with hygiene items, school supplies, and fun toys with an additional small booklet that relays the gospel message of Jesus Christ. 

Extraordinary Initiatives during COVID-19 pandemic

Despite the COVID- 19 restrictions, this movement accomplished great reach owing to the fact that people could pack the boxes in the security of their homes and submit them to anyone from more than 4000 Drop-off locations, apart from this the organization also offered the option to virtually pack a shoebox gift. 

Heartwarming achievements of the volunteers from all around the world

It was reported by Samaritan’s purse that almost 9.1 million were collected worldwide, which was made possible by the compassionate efforts of nearly 570,000 volunteers worldwide and around 70,000 participants who worked at the drop-off locations and more than 51,000 people who came forward to inspect the shoeboxes at eight different processing centers across the country. 

The goodwill of the participants was aided by almighty as well when the prayers of over 4,000 God’s people were answered as the lockdown in Thailand was lifted and the organization was able to hold their events in the country where earlier circumstances indicated bleak opportunities for shoebox deliveries. 

With the happiness given and received the volunteers are now preparing for the upcoming national collection week which is November 15 – 22, in hopes that their efforts reach another 8.2 million children with gift-filled shoeboxes.

 C. René Padilla (1932 – 2021) 

He was an Ecuadorian evangelical theologian and missiologist. He introduced the term integral mission. His mission states that every Christian must have major responsibilities in his life.

Number 1 –  Evangelism

Number 2 –  social activism

Initial Years and Education

He was born in Ecuador in the year 1932. His parents were not rich.

When he was 2 years old his family moved to Colombia. After completing his schooling, he studied BA in philosophy & MA in theology at Wheaton College, Later he joined the University of Manchester to pursue Ph.D. in the New Testament. His guide was FF Bruce.

In the year 1959 Padilla was working for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Latin America as a traveling secretary. As a need of the hour, Padilla developed a new evangelical social theology. Later it was termed as integral mission.”[3]

He was widely known among fellow Christians and he had followers from around the world. He was recognized with an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Wheaton College in 1992.

Rene writes: ‘The Micah Network is an encouraging sign of the present-day awakening of the social conscience among evangelicals around the world. Its major strength is that it provides a unique space for evangelical Christians from all over the world to grow together in their understanding and practice of Christian discipleship in a global world affected by consumerism, injustice, and oppression.

He left us at the age of 88 years on 27th April 2021.

Even in the time of the pandemic, the Chinese have not changed their lookout for Christianity

It’s a story of a pseudonym (Fake name) Li Yuese, who has been tortured nearly for 10 months. Chinese authorities have detained him after a raid on his house church.

Li said, several attempts made by authority people, to make him un-follow the practices of Christianity. For approximately 10 months he was kept in a room which has almost no light and poor ventilation.

Authority people generally come in plain clothes, both men and women are their officials. Their agenda is to torture Li so that he can accept the other religion. The condition of the detention center is worse. They give food two times a day. Staying there makes a person feels sick.

Furthermore, officials pressurized him to sign a statement which is not written by Li.This is the only way to get out of the detention center. Otherwise, they will keep beating you.

Li was quite determined about his religion, his faith in God has helped him in getting bail and he started church activities again after coming out of the detention center

Readers Comments –

Till the time we are dependent on Chinese goods. Chinese will overpower the world

Another reader comment – Many sick governments and people have tried to obliterate Christianity. It doesn’t work. It just comes back stronger than ever.

This is not a new story. This has been going on for decades, yet the world takes no action against the powerhouse. This is what Christian persecution really looks like

Source – foxnews.com/world/china-brainwashing-christians