The Consequences of

a Truncated Gospel
The Examples of Zambia, Brazil,
Korea, and the United States

Session 1
Introduction
 zambia - africa’s first christian nation
Zambia has a strong
tr adition of Chr istian
influence and the church
has grown significantly in
the past 25 years. In 1991
former President Frederick
Chiluba openly dedicated
Zambia to God as a
Christian nation. However,
while 50-70% of Zambians, including 60% of political leaders, consider
themselves Christians, few are able to bridge the gap between a private life
of faith and their public life. Biblical principles have not been applied to
Zambia’s civic arena. Christians today lead key areas of political life,
holding instrumental positions in several political parties. Foundational
Christian values such as speaking truth, accountability (transparency),
pursuing justice and loving God and one’s neighbor, offer a basis on which
national Christian leaders can stand. However, their political party
agendas often take precedence and ‘the good of all others’ becomes
secondary.1 Christianity, thus, has struggled to produce authentic lifestyle
changes, perhaps best evidenced in Chiluba’s arrest on corruption charges
in 2003 and the fact that Zambia is among the most corrupt nations in the
world (occupying place number 111 of 163 countries according to
Transparency International). e lack of transformational impact of the
Gospel in the country can also be seen in Zambia’s poverty and AIDS
indices: In the late 1960s, after its independence in 1964, Zambia was the
world’s third largest copper producer. Four decades later, after struggling
through its colonial legacy, the collapse of world copper prices,
mismanagement and debt, Zambia has become one of the world’s poorest
nations. ree-quarters of Zambia’s population live on less than $1 USD a
day, according to World Bank figures. What’s more, AIDS  is ravaging
Zambian economic, political, cultural and social development, and will
continue to do so for the foreseeable future, the U.S. State Department
says. In urban areas, HIV/AIDS is estimated as high as 23.1 percent and
life expectancy fell from 50 years in 1987 to 37 in 2002 as a result of the
pandemic. Only four years ago have Christian politicians and pastors
begun to concertedly address the challenge posed by the AIDS crisis.
While its response to the disease is late, the Zambian government has
finally shown increased willingness to confront HIV, indicated by the
formation of the National AIDS Council to fight the disease and support
infected people.

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 brazil - vibrant christianity
at the evangelical church in Brazil is
strong is immediately evident to any
visitor. Compared to other Latin
American countries where non-Catholic
congregations are often small, hidden
away on back streets and decidedly not
influential, the church is Brazil is almost
brazen in its visibility and self-promotion.
From one or more churches on every
block in some sectors of Rio de Janeiro to
billboards for a Christian bookstore
overlooking downtown Sao Paulo’s
popular central square; from numerous radio and television stations
broadcasting fiery sermons around the clock to glaring neon signs
proclaiming “Assemblies of God” atop the largest buildings in some rural
towns, Brazilians are filling churches as fast as they can open and sharing
their faith in a way that would put fellow believers in other countries to
shame. Today over 22% of the population is evangelical, up from just
5.7% in 1970.2 Many are attracted to Christianity by dynamic worship
services and the emphasis on a personal relationship with God. For the
majority, faith remains a private affair though; their devotion playing out
at church and at home. A growing number, however, have ventured into
the public arena: As of 2004, more than 60 evangelicals are serving in
congress, 10% of Brazil's nearly 600-member congress.3 While some
evangelical politicians have sought to bring higher ethics and social justice
issues to the forefront, especially Pentecostal politicians have acquired a
reputation for conservatism, moralism, and (in some cases) corruption. In
all the scandals which have rocked Brazilian politics in recent years,
Protestants have been involved. Indeed, a disproportionately large number
of Pentecostal and evangelical congress members are under investigation
since early 2006 for a contract kickback scandal. What’s most
unfortunate, not only politicians but also denominational leaders, charities
and organizations claiming to speak in the name of all evangelicals have
been implicated, badly damaging the public image of the evangelical
community.4 While a growing number of evangelicals are seeking to
address social issues such as a rising crime rate, poverty and the new
landless peasant movement, most churches continue to be solely focused
on saving souls for heaven. Violence, poverty, exclusion, and corruption
remain constant themes in everyday Brazilian life: 22% of the country’s
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is taken through corruption. Roughly
30% of the population continues to live under the poverty line, seeking to
survive each day anew under desperate conditions.

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 south korea - a praying church
e Korean Protestant church is
only 120 years old. However,
Korean churches have
experienced amazing revival and
growth in the last century,
becoming one of the strongest
and most active churches in the
world. e world’s largest church – the Full Gospel Church of Yong-Ki
Cho, which boasts almost one million members – is in Seoul, Korea’s
capital. Further, over ten thousand Korean missionaries are now working
in the world, making Korea the second largest missionary sending country
in the world only after the USA. Every day, new churches are planted and
new missionaries are sent. Every year, innumerable young men and
women devote their lives to the Christian ministry and compete to enter
theological institutions. Korean Christians are vigorously praying,
worshipping, studying and evangelizing. Indeed, South Korea’s revival has
been fueled by fervent prayer. If you want to learn fervent intercessory
prayer – go to the Koreans. Early morning-prayers that begin at 5 am are
common in most churches. So-called prayer-mountains where Christians
retreat to, to pray and fast for days and weeks at a time, dot the country’s
landscape. Notwithstanding, Korea’s churches are now facing a crisis of
secularization and consequent lack of influence on society. When the
country began to develop into an industrial and modernized nation in the
1960s, Christian institutions and churches were busy keeping up with the
trend: their orientation moved to material success and power at individual,
societal, governmental levels. Korean Christians became importers and
admirers of the Western culture, which also brought with it western
materialism and individualism. In conjunction with this trend, a growing
zeal for quantitative church growth and large mega churches led churches
to downplay church discipline and lower membership standards, moral as
well as spiritual.  Many churches did not put emphasis on living a life of
spiritual, social and ethical excellence. ey did not pay attention to
bringing up whole persons with a sense of justice, freedom, sincerity,
human quality, responsibility, love, service and stewardship.5 ey did not
encourage their members to integrate faith with work and scholarship, but
negligently allowed them to adopt a secular, dualistic worldview which
separates the spiritual side of life from the rest.6 As a result, moral
problems like divorce, abortion, or immoral business dealings are frequent
and rarely disciplined in the churches.7 e consequences of this secular
drift have become obvious in the last decade: Even though churches
continue to pray fervently, the younger generation tends to find their
parents churches boring and irrelevant to life, and great numbers of young
people leave the church as soon as they are old enough.8 Pastor Paul H.
Sohn, aptly outlines the challenge the Korean church needs to accept if it

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 is to remain relevant: “I am sure our Lord Jesus Christ, the head of His
church, earnestly desires that Korean churches be holistic churches that
serve their communities and nation. … [is is] part of the recovery of
God’s intention for His church.”9

united states - in god we trust

In the United States, there
are churches in most
communities, and there are
thousands of churches in
major cities. You can drive
from Los Angeles to New
York, listening to Christian
radio most of the way. ere
are Christian television
stations in all major cities. ere are Christian primary schools and
secondary schools, Bible schools, colleges, seminaries, and even
universities. If you were to “color” an American map by religion, it would
be colored “Christian.”10 Around 40% confess to be born-again
Christians. Not surprisingly, these numbers have translated into political
influence. e Christian Right has mobilized tens of thousands of
churches and successfully lobbied politicians to strengthen traditional
family values, make abortion illegal, and keep homosexual unions from
being legally recognized. An overtly non-religious politician would not
stand a chance to run for office today. In fact, the current President openly
confesses that Jesus is his greatest hero and that he is a born-again
Christian; his acknowledgment is what helped him win the presidency
twice. Nonetheless, despite their apparent influence on a nation-wide
level, survey after survey demonstrates that evangelical Christians are as
likely to embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, materialistic, self-
centered, and sexually immoral as the world in general. Divorce and
domestic abuse is more common among "born-again" Christians than in
the general American population. Evangelical youth are only about 10
percent less likely to engage in premarital sex than non-evangelicals. Only
6 percent of born-again adults tithe and the rest give an average of just 3%
of their income, down from over 6% in 1968. As evangelicals got richer
and richer, they chose to spend more and more on themselves and give a
smaller and smaller percentage to the church, missions and the poor.
White evangelicals are the most likely people to object to neighbors of
another race, exhibiting higher levels of racist behaviors than any other
religious group. As one evangelical leader says about his fellow American
Christians: “With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with
their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex, and self-
fulfillment.”11

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 group work
Read together the country case study assigned to your group.

Once you have read your country case study, discuss the following three
questions with members of your group:

• Why do you believe that despite significant church growth the Gospel
has not been able to transform the society of the country you just
studied?
• Has the Gospel significantly transformed the communities in which you
minister? Why?
• If your church closed up tomorrow, would anyone notice? Would your
city protest? Would your city weep? Would anybody – apart from your
church members – care?

Select one member of your group to present a summary of your country

case study and findings before the entire class.

homework assignment and application

Read the article ‘How People View the World’ and answer the questions at
the end of the article in your Application Journal. I realize that this article
may be somewhat complicated for some of you. We’re going to review it
next week, so I ask you to try the best you can to read and understand the
article and answer the questions.

application journal

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 personal prayer
Pray each day that God may use this course to help you become somebody
who can influence others and help your church become an agent of
transformation in your community. Pray also for one class member, who
you’ve committed to pray for. Jesus said that he wants us to bring much
fruit, IF we remain in him. So remain in him and pray that God can use
this course to help you grow in him and in his vision for your city, nation
and world.

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 endnotes
1 Jubilee Center Zambia
2 Online, available at http://www.lam.org/news/article.php?id=250 and http://
www.infobrasil.org/brasil/2004regioes.html; With over 6,000 cross-cultural missionaries,
Brazil’s missionary force is among the world’s largest.
3 Online, available at http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata364.htm
4 Dennis A. Smith and B.F. Gutierrez (eds.), In the Power of the Spirit, Online, available at

http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=374&C=12
5 Jung S. Rhee, Secularization and Sanctification (Free University Press of Amsterdam,

1995), Online, available at http://jsrhee.com/QA/diss4.htm

6 MLC Conference Paper, Online, available at http://www.iapche.org/korea.htm
7 Jung S. Rhee, Secularization and Sanctification (Free University Press of Amsterdam,

1995), Online, available at http://jsrhee.com/QA/diss4.htm

8 Mac Pier and Katie Sweeting, e Power of a City at Prayer, 54
9 Paul H. Sohn, My Perspectives about DNA Korea, 2003, Unpublished Speech
10 Darrow Miller & Bob Moffitt, On Earth as it is in Heaven, 65
11 Ronald J. Sider, e Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, ???

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