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The first article in a three-part look at a serious hindrance to evangelical unity . . .

Earlier this year, a booklet was issued with the title Bible Churches Together - A Plea for True Ecumenism(1). It had three related aims: to clarify the position of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches with regard to the ecumenical movement, to provide some background information about the new network called Essentially Evangelical and to urge greater co-operation between all churches that were genuinely submissive to the authority of the Bible.

After the Ascension of Jesus, the witness of the apostles to the Jewish community was marked with outstanding success.

In only one day, the Jewish feast of Shavuot (Pentecost), 3,000 were baptised, and each day following 'the Lord added to their number' until over 5,000 men believed, not counting women and children. No section of the Jewish community lay outside the reach of the good news, even '. . . many of the priests were obedient to the faith' and with the transformation of the Sanhedrin's leading hit-man, Saul of Tarsus, first-century Judaism was shaken to its core.

Over 10,000 evangelists, pastors and preachers met in Amsterdam in early August for the largest international gathering of ministers ever held.

Ill health prevented Billy Graham from attending the conference that his organisation had hosted. At the last minute even plans for him to deliver the opening address by satellite had to be abandoned.

It is full of cast-off sofas and television sets. It has an ancient organ and piano gathering dust in one corner, and a disused pool table shrouded by junk of all descriptions in the other.

A huge sheet of plywood covering the ancient snooker table props up two huge loudspeakers that pump out music generated by the two record decks that it also supports. The weather-beaten green side-door, the entrance to the room, is cheap, shabby and entirely appropriate. The room is not state-of-the-art, neither is it conventional in church terms. It is not luxurious, but comfortable. Not chic, but cosy. The Underground is the perfect venue for the youth outreach every Saturday and Sunday night.

In an age of preoccupation with the superficial, to discover a man of real quality and courage can be exciting and humbling.

Such a man is my 76 year old friend, Joe Pilkington. Let me tell you a bit about him.

Some people see the Church of England as in crisis at the present time. Perhaps lessons from great men of the past need to be heeded.

John Charles Ryle was born on May 10 1816 at Park House, Macclesfield. His father was a banker with an income of £15,000 a year, and he grew up in an environment of privilege and prosperity, but spiritually there was little evidence of vital Christianity. In recalling these early days, he concluded that they were 'destitute of any real religion'.

The fourth conference of 'Essentially Evangelical' met at High Leigh in mid-June, attended by a wide range of evangelicals. Here is a summary of the vision-setting address given by David Jackman, Director of the Cornhill Training Course, at the end of the consultation.

'Essentially Evangelical' was born in 1997, at a conference in Bawtry Hall, which drew together a number of leaders across the spectrum.

For 50 years now, a remarkable work of the gospel has been going on in France among the travellers, called 'gypsies' or 'Romany people'.

These were the folk who live mainly in Eastern Europe (and also Spain). Hitler tried to eliminate them along with the Jews and other minorities. They have also been subject to attacks in recent years from extreme right wing groups in Europe.

Sadly 'Can't train, won't train' summarises what many ministers feel about developing the next generation of church leaders. But it needn't stay like that . . .

There is a wealth of encouragement in the Scriptures that point towards a much more positive approach. An increasing number of ministers are getting involved and passing on their insights and experiences (see, for example, The Briefing No. 218).

'But we sang that last week!' Do you know who chooses your church's hymns? Is more than one person involved? Prayerfully? Is it you? Are they chosen on the spot, or the day, week, or month before?

Most musicians, especially the non-expert, appreciate the early choosers. The church where the hymns were announced 12 months ahead, is an extreme case! However you answer my questions, the selectors affect us all.

Mildred Cable once observed: 'The year 1900 holds the same significance as does the Flood in Old Testament chronology. All China mission history dates before or after 1900.'

Missions in China had been going for six decades of the 19th century when the Boxer Rising took place. There were 85,000 Chinese Christians in some 60 Protestant societies, and church buildings and institutions were just beginning to reach a fraction of the population.

Of all the privileges God has given me, none has been greater than that of being a missionary.

I cannot remember a time when I did not hope that God would give me the opportunity to be a missionary.

Much of modern Western evangelicalism can be likened to a defective cookery book in which the methods are specified, but the ingredients are not or, at best, are very weakly defined.

The preparation details, oven temperature, technique etc., are given an inordinate amount of attention but the ingredients are overlooked. This article explores the concepts of style and content-relevance and truth, and urges us not to make truth a secondary matter.

'With the near approach of the year one thousand,' Charles Williams wrote in The Descent of the Dove, 'Christendom everywhere expected the end. It did not come. The first millennium . . . closed and the second opened with no greater terror than the ordinary robberies, murders, rapes, burnings, wars, massacres and plagues, and the even less noticeable agonies of each man's ordinary life.'

In the year 1000, an important part of ordinary life in Europe was the Christian church. With the 'conversion' of Constantine in the early 4th century, the persecuted church had become the tolerated church and then, before long, the official religion of the Roman Empire. The invasions of the 'barbarians' from the north and east introduced chaos in the empire but extended Christianity through the conversion of the European tribes, and the 'centre' of the church shifted for the third time - from the Jewish Christian world of the eastern Mediterranean, to the Greco-Roman world of Rome, to the converted tribes of northern and central Europe.

Fangcheng County in southern central Henan, China is an agricultural district with 926,000 inhabitants. 60 years ago, Henry Guinness, David Adeney and other missionaries of the China Inland Mission travelled by bicycle with Chinese colleagues throughout the villages, and small churches were planted.

Today, there are so many Christians that hostile cadres have labelled the area a 'Jesus Nest'.

What does cross-cultural mission mean to you? Brave souls hopping on a plane and flying across the world? But what about Britain? In many towns and cities, different faith communities live cheek-by-jowl.

If you are contemplating mission abroad but have not yet reached out to Asians here in Britain, why not? 'Reaching out to Muslims in Huddersfield' may not have quite the same ring as 'pioneering mission in rural Pakistan' but it is essentially the same thing.

The name of Dixon E. Hoste is not well-known today. But there are three reasons why he deserves to be better remembered.

The first is that he was the second General Director of the China Inland Mission, the chosen successor of Hudson Taylor.

Unlike the question of Jesus to Martha (John 11.26), I was never asked: 'What do you believe?' until I reached my early 30s.

It may seem an extraordinary story, but I am not extraordinary. If this leads to others moving forward in their faith, then God be praised.

It is with great sadness that we report that Dr. Roy Clements, who resigned some months ago as minister of Eden Chapel, Cambridge, is now separated from his wife.

He had told her that he had a celibate relationship with a younger man who has acted as a research assistant for him. A very few close friends had been aware for a little while that Roy had struggled with homosexual attraction over a number of years.

David Baker

Date posted: 1 Oct 1999

Is Vaughan Roberts a theological liberal? Certainly some may have been tempted to ask the question after he wrote an article in a theological magazine critical of the UCCF basis of faith. Then there is the fact that his views were slated by noted American evangelical Don Carson in his book The Gagging of God.

Just as well then, that Evangelicals Now sent me to interview the other Vaughan Roberts. For there are two people called the Rev. Vaughan Roberts, both clergymen, but with somewhat differing theology.

There are few more significant challenges facing the church and churches of our day than that of pursuing meaningful unity.

The fact that Jesus prays for a unity which can be witnessed by a watching world in such a way as to endorse the credibility of the gospel (John 17.20-23) and the fact that Paul uses a verb which can be translated 'spare no effort' to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4.3), both point to a Christian responsibility which too many Christians too easily shirk.

France is traditionally a Roman Catholic country. At the end of the 20th century, religion has been marginalised. People are turning away from Catholicism by the score, but what are they looking for?

In today's France, materialism is much in evidence. At all levels of society, people want to move up and have more. However, it has fostered frustration and emptiness and also guilt. The poor are left on the outside. So on the French TV news, the plight of the homeless always figures during the winter months. But apart from that, compassion is by proxy.

Scattered through the articles in The Times were nearly 20 web sites for those with computers and modems to find and download further information.

On television, a campaign is running to push the use of the web, and even my cereal packet boasts its own cryptic address of slashes and letters. The web is spreading so fast that - for once - the word 'explosion' is not hyperbole.

Mission field: Clapham

Courland Grove is a Grace Baptist Church in a run-down part of inner London. Our congregation is mainly some of the poorest members of society: single parents, the mentally disadvantaged and unemployed.

Among these needy folk are some with extreme problems: alcoholics, schizophrenics, drug addicts and the psychologically disturbed. Many members lack either a paid job or a normal family background. Many are damaged by broken relationship situations.