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Slumped in his desk chair, James let his mind wander through the following day’s family service. He would be preaching on Mark 12.41-44 — the widow’s offering.

He sighed heavily; if he had a penny for every time his congregation had heard him speak on giving, he could cover the church’s budget deficit single-handedly. James was always inspired by the widow’s sacrifice, but he needed a fresh way of presenting it — something that would engage the distracted children and teenagers, the busy professionals and parents, as well as the scholarly students and senior citizens in his congregation.

On December 23 2010, Ernest Lloyd went to be with the Lord. He was 98 years old.

By any standard his life was remarkable. At the age of five, Ernest was abandoned to the care of the Naomi Home for Women and Children, run by the Barbican Mission to the Jews. He never knew his father and the only recollection he had of his mother was that of a tall, dark, Italian Sephardi Jewess from whom he inherited his height, black hair and striking looks. Life was particularly hard for Jews during WWI. A timid and melancholic child, Ernest was an object of hatred, called a ‘Christ killer’ and like many other Jewish children, suffered frequent taunts and even stoning.

John Blanchard has recently brought out a new evangelistic booklet. He talked to EN about the cross in the run-up to Easter.

EN: You have a new booklet out entitled Why the Cross? What would you say is the great attraction of the cross for needy sinners?

‘Bring me my books!’ was the Apostle Paul’s demand.

But why? Had he forgotten what he had read? Doubtful. Nor did he need them to supplement the Scriptures as though somehow his library was incomplete without his precious parchments. Paul had a firm conviction in the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures. And yet he wanted his books.

The vast majority of Christian organisations are suffering from the economic recession. They report a drop in subscriptions and have had to downsize their operations.

Some have had to make redundancies in their personnel. At a time when they might have planned to extend their work they need to contract it and wonder how they will recover if at all. Perhaps Robert Arthington is the one who can solve their problem.

Famous books

The Authorised Version of the Bible (or the King James’s Version) was published in 1611. The precise date when copies began to roll off the presses of the King’s printer seems to be unknown, but it must have been early in the year, as two further editions followed in 1611. It was first published as a large folio volume, intended for public reading in church, and was sold loose-leaf for ten shillings or bound for 12 shillings. It was the work of teams of scholars, whose brief was to revise the Bishops’ Bible of 1568, itself largely based on the work of William Tyndale.

Famous events

Pierre Viret, a Swiss/French Protestant Reformer, was born in 1511 at Orbe, a small town now in the Swiss canton of Vaud, and was converted from Roman Catholicism while studying at the University of Paris. A close associate of John Calvin, he was dubbed ‘The Smile of the Reformation’ for his sweet and winning demeanour and preaching.

Blaise Pascal argued that ‘good men should wish Christianity were true’, and be persuaded of the same.

Imagine a generation of students living among their peers day in day out who were thoroughly convinced how amazing it is to be a Christian, how lovely their Saviour is and how mind-blowingly and heart-singingly wonderful the gospel is. Would they not make a noticeable difference in their halls and sports teams and lectures and tutorials?

We are saddened by the recent death on January 10 2011 of Robin Wells, third General Secretary of UCCF.

It is with sadness that we report the news that Dr. John Bendor-Samuel, Director-Emeritus of Wycliffe Bible Translators in the UK, died following a road traffic accident close to his home on January 6.

John was born in June 1929 and brought up in a Christian family. He was converted to Christ as a child around the age of five. He went on to study history at Oxford and served for a period as the secretary of the Oxford Christian Union, OICCU.

Horizons

Principle: The gospel enlarges my horizons, giving me a concern for God’s world.

Consider this

Barry had been on a foreign holiday once or twice, but he’d basically gone for the sun. Though he loved to eat curry, he’d always been suspicious of immigrants. And he’d never paid much interest to foreign news unless our troops were involved. What had any of it got to do with him?

Lindsay Brown, International Director of The Lausanne Movement, gave the closing address at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation.

The first hope of Congress leaders was, he said, for ‘a ringing affirmation of the uniqueness of Christ, and the truth of the biblical gospel; and a clear statement on evangelism and the mission of the Church — all rooted in Scripture’. The Congress drew 4,000 evangelical leaders and influencers from 198 nations. In addition, the event extended its reach to 650 GlobaLink sites in 91 countries.

Leonardo De Chirico

Date posted: 1 Dec 2010

Setting up a new Pontifical Council is not something that happens often in the Vatican, given the conservative nature of the institution.

Yet Pope Benedict XVI has just released the motu proprio document entitled Ubicumque et semper (‘Everywhere and always’) that establishes the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.

PREACHER, KEEP YOURSELF FROM IDOLS

By Derek Tidball

It became known that a group of foreign extremists — ‘terrorists’ to most people — had re-grouped in London after being imprisoned and tortured in their own country. A City Missionary who spoke their language was anxious to find them, so he quietly sounded out some of his contacts, and after several unsuccessful attempts, met with them in an area that had become almost totally populated by ethnic minorities. He told them that he had come on behalf of the Christians of London to offer advice and sympathy. He spoke of God’s love and of his justice. Most of the group were antagonistic, intent on violence, but the City Missionary went back repeatedly to talk with them.

In one of London’s poorest areas a City Missionary walked through an overgrown garden to knock at a door. A man opened the door, but would not let him in. He was suspicious and troubled. After a short conversation, the missionary offered to return and tidy the garden. The work was done — and the missionary was invited indoors. A friendship developed, and the man began attending the local mission hall to play pool, and joined a Bible study. He began attending Sunday services at a local church, whose members regularly helped with his garden.

Missionaries on home assignment have many responsibilities. They talk to their mission, report to churches, reconnect with their home church, contact supporters, deal with health issues, see family and maybe get some holiday. This article is not addressed to them!

UCCF loves it when students hear, engage with and respond to the love of God expressed in Jesus Christ. We want students to ‘live life to the full’ — that is, to know that Jesus loves them and see that life with him is the best way to live.

Here are some testimonies from students, UCCF Staff Workers and Relay volunteers from this last year for you to enjoy.

All over the UK today, supermarket chains, shops and restaurants are selling halal meat.

We may find it on the menu at our children’s school or the local hospital, or be offered it when we go to a sporting event. If we go for a meal with Muslim friends, any meat we are served will probably be halal. It can be hard to avoid eating this meat, especially as it is often not labelled and little information is available to the consumer.

Being a child of missionary parents is not easy. Heidi Sand-Hart has written a book on the subject and spoke to EN about it.

EN: Tell us about your background. Were your parents missionaries?

Does God have a plan for London? People from all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds from across the globe pass through or have become part of Britain’s capital city.

The world is in London. This means that, even apart from what might happen as people come for the Olympic Games in 2012, London has enormous potential in God’s purposes for worldwide mission and it seems that many Christians have begun to understand this.

One of the big surprises of the 20th century was the dramatic growth of the churches in the non-Western world.

A bigger surprise was that, as Philip Jenkins asserts, those churches growing fastest are all strongly supernaturally oriented. ‘In this thought world, prophecy is an everyday reality, while faith-healing, exorcism, and dream-visions are all basic components of religious sensibility.’

In 1983 I left teaching in a large comprehensive school to work full time as a travelling evangelist.

Before then, evangelism had been my life, so that when God called me into this work, it was a natural progression from what I had been doing. In the last quarter of a century there have been huge changes not only in society and church, but also in methods of evangelism. Some of this has been rapid.

A fresh influx of old ladies converted to lively Christian faith in their 80s is now sorely needed to revitalise small local churches.

An influx of old gentlemen of that generation would also be wonderful but an old lady born in 1930 brings the following benefits to a local church that is in urgent need of major spiritual surgery:

I was born blind, without eyes. This came as a great shock to my parents, but, despite this, and their questions as to why God had allowed this to happen, they were determined to treat me as normally as possible. I was included in all family activities, and I went through mainstream education all the way from playschool to sixth form. It was a challenge, but, with help from God and friends, family and staff, I got through it.

I was raised in a Christian family and attended church and Sunday school regularly at Potton Baptist Church. I can’t say what date I became a Christian, but I remember always asking God to help and forgive me, right from a very young age. He is my best friend. I was 12 when I knew for sure I was a Christian and wanted to make my faith public by being baptised.

The summer holiday is definitely one of the perks of student life; months without coursework deadlines or exams, but does student ministry take a break too? With many students going home, travelling or working, it may appear that there isn’t much opportunity to reach the student world with the good news about Jesus. But things aren’t always what they seem...

This year six UCCF-led teams of students are going overseas, to Lithuania, Bulgaria, a country in the Former Yugoslav Republic, Russia, Paris and an East European country. Each team is made up of students from Christian Unions across the UK and led by Christian Union Staff Workers.