John Newton at 300 Conference
About 80 people of varied ages and from a range of church groupings – including Independents, Anglicans, Brethren, Presbyterians and Baptists – rose to sing, unaccompanied, Amazing Grace, and so ended the John Newton at 300 Conference, which was organised by York Evangelical Church and hosted by City Church, York.
The conference included Dr Graham Beynon, Head of Local Ministries, FIEC, giving an engaging and thoughtful biographical sketch of the main events in Newton’s life, interspersed helpfully with lessons that we could learn from them, including our need to appreciate the sometimes complex nature of conversion, and the recognition of how we may all have blind spots as we are influenced by our pervading culture.
Dewsbury: only connect
The Connected Conference held at Dewsbury Evangelical Church was encouragingly full, with 50 of the 135 attendees being new to the conference, much younger in age, and comprising of more women.
Titled ‘Apologetics for the Rest of Us’, Dan Strange, College Director at Oak Hill, led three sessions on Creative, Conversational and Cultural Apologetics. Rooting his talks in the authoritative word of God, and employing a wide range of cultural examples and commentators – from Herman Bavinck to Miley Cyrus; from Ted Turnau to The Lightning Seeds – he helped unpack the need to work hard at connecting non-Christian friends and family to the Lord Jesus by making a plausible and attractive defence for the hope that is within us. Although sobered by the size of the task, all were uplifted by being reminded of the confidence of the apologist, that Jesus is Lord.