
First Baptist Church, Mbale Uganda
A typical modern thriving African church. Originally planted by a Western agency it blends aspects of African and Western practice creating an authentic town centre church. Key features are evangelism, community engagement, partnership and respected leadership.

Bukhumwa Christian Church, near Mbale, Uganda.
This church is in rural Eastern Uganda, not far from the town of Mbale. This was a relatively new church planted in an area with few churches. In this setting, teaching people the Christian faith, and how to live it out, requires much dedication and long term commitment by the leaders and the people. Part of developing that commitment is to have a membership system with responsibilities and privileges. As such there is a wide discrepancy between attendance and membership with many attendees not in a position to make a membership commitment. Such is the pattern of a growing church. I have preached in this church twice.

Sibembe, Church of Uganda.
The current building for Sibembe church is too small. Work on a new building is in progress. As part of a large multi-congregation parish with only one ordained minister, Sibembe like many Church of Uganda churches, is run by lay people with a lay reader and “Leader of Christians” taking services most of the time. Growing churches push the boundaries of what are meant by “lay” and “ordained”.

Sibembe, Church of Uganda.
Sibembe is one of over 20 congregations in the parish of Bubuto in Eastern Uganda. Although the Anglican church had been in Uganda since the 19th century, it experienced rapid growth in the post-war period due to a renewal movement known as the Balakole, the “saved ones”. Sibembe church started life as the fruit of that renewal movement. A generation or so on and it is still a growing church.

Yoida Full Gospel Church, Seoul S. Korea.
At the end of the 20th century this was reputed to be the church with the world’s largest membership. Estimates vary but it has been many hundreds of thousands. It was held up as an example of church growth. It had many problems, but then growing churches do!

Yoida Full Gospel Church, Seoul S. Korea.
On the day in 2010 that I visited the church, I estimated from the size of the building, and the number of services, that around 150,000 people attended in that room. I am told that there were other rooms where staff (Sunday school etc) had a remote link. Also there were other satellite congregations on remote link. The founding pastor, Yonggi Cho, preached and led communion.