Documentary Explores Modern Asia Revival

A charismatic evangelist is spotlighting what he describes as the world’s “largest numerical revival” in a new documentary that premiers Friday.

1040, hosted by minister and musician Jaeson Ma, explores the spread of Christianity throughout Asia, where the church has grown at an unprecedented rate in recent decades.

Photo: Jaeson Ma traveled throughout Asia to film the 1040 documentary.

In China alone, the number of Christians has mushroomed from roughly 1 million in the 1970s to 70 million today, with some sources estimating that there are more than 100 million Chinese believers. In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, almost 10 percent of its 245 million people are Christian, according to U.S. State Department statistics.

“It’s such a mind-blowing movement because really what you see out there is the book of Acts, it’s happening just like it was written in the Bible,” said Ma, 29, a U.S.-born evangelist who founded Campus Church Networks, a student-led church-planting movement based in California. “People are being raised from the dead; signs and wonders are happening, miracles and healing. Churches are being planted every day. Millions are getting touched with the gospel. It’s shaking society and transforming the culture.”

The film’s title refers to an area known as the 10/40 Window, a region between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north latitude that spans from North Africa to East Asia. Most of the nations are predominantly Muslim or Buddhist, and many of the world’s least-evangelized people groups live in the region.

For nearly three months last spring, Ma toured China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia, filming interviews with church leaders as well as with Asian celebrities, artists and entrepreneurs representing both Christians and non-Christians. (Watch film teaser below.)

“I think we understand in the West that things are quickly, rapidly moving toward the East—and that’s not just politically, that’s not just economically, that’s not just militaristically, but it’s spiritually,” Ma said.

“I truly believe that the Eastern church is rising up to be a global leader in the body of Christ in this hour to be used by God to kind of spearhead the finishing of the Great Commission,” he added. “I think for us it’s important that those in the West are educated to see what’s happening with their own eyes and to join in on what God is doing and to partner with our brothers and sisters in the Eastern cultures who are really laying down their lives for the gospel.”

1040 also features interviews with prominent Christian leaders and missiologists such as Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer; Youth With a Mission founder Loren Cunningham; Campus Crusade for Christ President Steve Douglas; and prayer leader Cindy Jacobs, co-founder of Generals International.

“What’s happening in Asia right now is actually the greatest move of God in human history … and a lot of the church in the West is not really aware how dynamic the church in Asia is right now,” Bickle said. “There is a grass-roots movement that the Bible clearly talks about that will be so powerful in its influence, and I think it’s mostly young people.

“They will operate in the power like the apostles did in the book of Acts, and they will so influence the culture and even the government in Asia that it will create the influence that causes Asia as a whole … to resist the enticements and the threats of the Antichrist,” he added. “That is massive in its implications.”

Hip-hop artist M.C. Hammer, a minister and mentor to Ma, is also featured in the film. “The world is looking at Asia at this historical moment,” he said. “With its economic rise, there is also a powerful spiritual movement that is spreading and transforming entire cultures.”

Produced by Adventures.TV in conjunction with Arowana Films, 1040 is scheduled to premier Friday at the City of the Angels Film Festival in Hollywood. The movie will then be shown in churches nationwide as part of a grass-roots screening campaign. Screening information is available at the film’s Web site. 1040 releases on DVD in June.