Teenagers, mental health and the gospel
Eleanor
Date posted: 1 Feb 2021
If you ask any teenager today to summarise in a word what they think of the state of the world, I doubt you would get one positive answer in a thousand.
Recently, in my sixth form PSHCE class, the teacher started the lesson off with that question, and sure enough the answers were immensely depressing. ‘Racist’, ‘Sexist’, ‘Classist’, ‘Empty’, ‘Dying’, ‘Pointless’ – by the end, the teacher seemed slightly taken aback at the dark direction his ‘think about the world’ exercise had taken!
earth watch
Rising sea levels: what’s the truth?
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
Where I live in the former county of Huntingdonshire is a long way from the sea. But according to some predictions of sea-level rise, it could be a lot closer soon.
In one scenario, with widespread inundation of the Fens, Cambridge could virtually become a coastal city by 2050. London, Cardiff, Blackpool and Hull could all be severely affected. Scenarios like these are alarming and make great media headlines, but what is really going on?
Why do some US evangelicals still support Donald Trump?
By evangelical historian, Martyn Whittock
How strong is evangelical support for Donald Trump now? How has his recent bout of Covid affected that perception? And watching from outside the US, how is it possible Bible believing Christians can back such an extraordinary figure?
defending our faith
The right to offend and ‘the coddling of the American mind’
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
Apologetics, like comedy, requires that we are able to challenge points of view, express unusual opinions and think outside of the box. Apologetics, also like comedy, is not to the taste of the easily offended.
In February 2021 Merseyside Police had to issue an apology over a poster campaign which had claimed ‘Being Offensive is an Offence’. The force had released an unfortunate media picture of a police van bearing the false claim and including four menacing police offers, one holding what could be interpreted as a cane. In the wake of widespread criticism it was withdrawn and the apology issued. According to the Crown Prosecution Service finding something offensive does not mean you are a victim of a crime and causing someone offence does not mean you have committed a crime.
defending our faith
The Schaeffer paradox
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
If you have any interest at all in apologetics
– the defence of the faith – you will have
come across the work of Francis Schaeffer
(1912-1984).
It
is hard
to over-estimate his great
influence on thoughtful evangelicalism. His
range of writings, from climate change to
postmodern art, reflect a rare calling as a
missionary to culture. There were weaknesses
in
his ministry,
oversimplifications
of
philosophical
theory
and
a
perilous
partnership with secular political power, but
contemporary apologetics is enormously in
his debt.
defending our faith
Loving the creator’s work
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Jan 2020
One of the topics now dominating public discussion is climate change. From Extinction Rebellion protests to BBC wildlife programmes, we are continually reminded that there is a real issue here.
Even Jeremy Clarkson, in the new Grand Tour series for Amazon, has admitted that climate change is a genuine threat to the environment and human existence. Clarkson, not known for sympathy with anything that would get cars off the road, conceded the point while filming on the Mekong river in Vietnam. Dramatic falls in river levels, destitute fishermen, absent rainfall, are all observed – leading Clarkson to admit there is an environmental crisis.
2021: LOOKING AHEAD
A variety of evangelicals reflect on what might lie ahead in the next 12 months
Innovative evangelism? Adrian Reynolds, Associate National Director FIEC
I hope and I pray that 2021 will see churches give evangelism its appropriate focus. In general terms, the lockdown has held us back: churches have often succumbed (understandably) to survival mode – let’s just keep going! Others have seen opportunities, but have not really known how to make the most of them. Others still have not known how to adapt to a changing environment and have simply mourned what they cannot do rather than explore what they can.
Culture watching
Billie Eilish: pop queen for an anxious age
Sarah Allen
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
You still might not have heard of Billie Eilish, so let me enlighten you. She is an eighteen-year-old from Los Angeles who has been making music with her brother in her bedroom.
About four years ago they put out a song on social media. About a year ago her first album was released. Since then she has won five Grammy awards (including Song of the Year; Album of the Year and Best New Artist – the first time anyone has had this haul since 1981) and has released (together with her brother) her latest song – the new James Bond theme. Right now, her YouTube channel has 27.3million subscribers (for comparison, John Piper’s Desiring God channel has under half a million). So, at the stage most teenagers are wondering what to pack for their first term at university, Billie Eilish is negotiating with designer labels which want to clothe her and magazines which want to feature her. And, as this is the 21st century, she’s also facing all kinds of social media ‘trolls’ who want to attack her.
J.I. Packer 1926 – 2020
Leland Ryken
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
A man who influenced Christendom.
James Innell Packer, better known to many as J.I. Packer, was one of the most famous and influential evangelical leaders of our time. He died on Friday 17 July, at age 93.
The modern war on truth
Chris Wright
Date posted: 1 Jan 2020
Chris Wright discusses the ramifications of living in a society where lying is the norm
‘What is truth?’ asked Pontius Pilate. Jesus had just said: ‘Everyone who is on the side of truth listens to me’ (John 18:37-38).
defending our faith
Persuasive, not just loud
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Jun 2020
While many churches have been engaging with social media and establishing an online presence, others among us have felt less enthusiastic for Facebook and Twitter. Such platforms have felt either intrusive or superficial and the concept of virtual church a contradiction in terms.
But all such thoughts are now pre-Covid. Since the virus, even the most technophobe among us have been mastering virtual backgrounds in Zoom and exchanging comments on Facebook Live. For better or worse, the church has fully embraced the Internet age. At Moorlands College we have shifted all our teaching online and my local church now has two Internet Sunday services along with a daily prayer meeting and weekly homegroups. Things will change again as the lockdown unwinds, but ministry will never be pre-Covid again.
Culture watching
Resilient world?
Sarah Allen
Date posted: 1 Sep 2019
Climate change, zero-hours contracts, student debt, sexualised society, social-media dependence, housing crisis, Brexit. There’s no doubt that we are living in an era of great uncertainty and so it’s no surprise that rates of mental ill health, especially in young people, are rising.
A fragile world makes for fragile hearts. 2015 UK data has shown that the proportion of university students who identify themselves as having mental health problems doubled between 2008–09 and 2013–14.
Discipline and the limits of authority
Andrew Carter
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
Andrew Carter discusses smacking, abuse, power and liberty in modern society
In October of last year, it became a criminal offence in Scotland for a parent to smack their naughty child. The Welsh Assembly has recently voted for a similar ban and legislation will come into effect in Wales in 2022. In England, the law still allows a parent to smack their child providing they don’t use an implement or leave a mark.
Culture watching
The war on plastic
Sarah Allen
Date posted: 1 Aug 2019
A rubbish lorry pulls up at sea wall and its container slowly tips. As its jaws start to open a tangled mass of bags and packaging begins to slide towards the sea. You know there must be some camera trick going on, but it’s still hard not to shout at the TV: ‘Stop! Don’t do it!’
This is the shock opening to BBC’s documentary series, War on Plastic, (aired in June, now available on iPlayer). In this programme, following David Attenborough’s exposé of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Anita Rani ride the wave of environmental concern, exploring our problem with plastic use and waste.
Atheism, gender & self-harm
JEB
Date posted: 1 Dec 2018
Aspects of a very 21st-century tragedy from a biblical point of view
Many young males are committing suicide.
Abortion 50 years on
Dr Mark Houghton
Date posted: 1 Apr 2018
Dr Mark Houghton surveys the situation
I have an important opening remark.
The missing Sola?
Clive Every-Clayton
Date posted: 1 Feb 2018
Clive Every-Clayton on universal Truth for a post-modern age
We still bask in the memory of the great work of God 500 years ago.
Conversion therapy
Dr Peter May
Date posted: 1 Sep 2017
Dr Peter May helps us to understand the main debate at the recent General Synod of the Church of England
Did anyone understand it?
Crossing the Culture
Culture & #LoveTrumpsHate
Angeline Liles
Date posted: 1 Mar 2017
It shook thousands of people out of their homes and onto the streets in protest.
The executive order, signed by the newly inaugurated President Trump on 27 January, immediately suspended the settlement of Syrian refugees for an undefined period of time. It also stopped the resettlement of all other refugees for four months.
What is a nation?
Jim Sayers
Date posted: 1 Apr 2016
As the debate over the united nations of Europe floods our media, Jim Sayers asks a pertinent question.
2016 is the year for the people of Britain to think hard about nationhood.
Rebuilding a nation
Phil Reid
Date posted: 1 Jan 2016
Phil Reid walks us through the ideas embedded in Nehemiah 8.1–12
A nation lies in ruins. There is a need to rebuild – physically, morally, spiritually.
Keeping the bookshop sailing
en staff
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
The high street still provides tremendous opportunities for the gospel
The double award-winning Manna Christian Bookshop in Streatham, South London, opened in 1981.
Nones on the rise
Dr James Emery White
Date posted: 1 Jul 2015
Martin Salter interviews Dr James Emery White for en
James Emery White is senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and founder of Serious Times, a ministry which explores the intersection of faith and culture and hosts ChurchandCulture.org. Recently he authored the book The Rise of the Nones about people with no faith.
Creation care
James Hindson
Date posted: 1 Sep 2013
My son Tom is not yet a Christian.
He provoked me recently by saying that he felt that we Christians are living lives of what he called ‘delusional necessity’.