everyday theology
Substitute ‘saviours’
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 18 Oct 2024
Justification of sinners by grace alone lies at the heart of the gospel. It is the proof and consequence of the fact that Christ is so entirely all-sufficient a Saviour that His work needs no supplementing by us. While this may be good news, it is not an easy truth for the fallen to swallow.
The fact that Jesus pronounces a foul sinner righteous while condemning a life committed to religious uprightness (see Luke 18:9-14) offends our pride. For the humbling effect of Jesus’s teaching, so entirely condemning our self-reliance, makes it far easier to reserve the message of justification by grace as one only for beginners or outsiders. Justification may be an essential evangelical truth, but it is one that all evangelicals struggle to live by.
bridging cultural divides
Are you only friends with people like you?
Jason Roach
Date posted: 12 Oct 2024
In my experience, eating fish and chips at the seaside can be a life threatening experience. Not because of the quality of the fish and chips, but because of the flocks of birds trying to eat it at the same time.
On one memorable trip, I was in the process of trying to rescue my daughter's meal from a veracious seagull, when its partner in crime took the opportunity to swipe mine. I think they must have enjoyed it, because a few minutes later they deposited most of what they had digested on my head. In His wisdom, the Lord has ordained that trips to the beach would remind me of that old adage: birds of a feather, flock together.
safeguarding briefing
Church culture: 'But we've always done it that way'
Jules Loveland
Date posted: 7 Oct 2024
In every church, there is an often unseen influence that can bring life and progress to a congregation or leave it stagnated. This influence is church culture.
Frequently overlooked and under-appreciated, culture is always present. It shapes the way we think, behave, and interact with one another. Understanding the significance of our church culture is essential, for effective evangelism, growth and pastoral care.
Why is some ‘sound’ expository preaching just so dull and boring?
Jon Barrett
Date posted: 4 Oct 2024
‘The preacher pulls the little cord that turns on his lectern light and deals out his note cards like a riverboat gambler. The stakes have never been higher.
‘Two minutes from now he may have lost his listeners completely to their own thoughts, but at this minute he has them in the palm of his hand. The silence in the shabby church is deafening because everybody is listening to it. Everybody is listening including even himself. Everybody knows the kind of things he has told them before and not told them, but who knows what this time, out of the silence, he will tell them?’
Ten questions with: Oliver Wyncoll
1. How did you become a Christian?
I was blessed to grow up in a Christian family, attending an Open Brethren assembly in Banbury during my childhood. When I was eight, I went to a Christian boarding school in Bath for ten years. I was known as a Christian at school, but had no real relationship with Christ as my Lord and Saviour and rarely wanted to read the Bible on my own.
bridging cultural divides
Crossing cultures as an introvert
Jason Roach
Date posted: 3 Oct 2024
A common concern around welcoming people from different cultures into the local church is that it is impossible for introverts. I remember one person saying, 'I find it hard enough to speak to my friends, let alone to strangers!'
It’s part of a bigger fear among Christians that we just don’t have what it takes to reach out to those who are different from us. What do we do when we want to communicate across cultural differences, but the bar just seems too high?
bridging cultural divides
Bridging cultural divides: it takes one small step
Jason Roach
Date posted: 20 Sep 2024
'I gave them my freedom (bus) pass and scribbled down the address of the church on the back of a receipt! Praying that they'd come along today.'
If I could have raised one eyebrow I would have. As it was, I simply smiled. It seemed risky... He had only met Araz, Dilvan and Genc* - the three Kurdish men that he spoke of - the day before. They had been housed in a local hotel while their Asylum claims were processed.
a Jewish Christian perspective
Not ashamed
Joseph Steinberg
Date posted: 17 Jul 2024
As someone who has been in missionary work in the UK for over 35 years, I have noticed that the church and Christians have grown less confident in sharing Jesus with those around them.
Many fear being ridiculed by identifying themselves as Christians. This is nothing new; Christians have often suffered a fear of rejection because of their faith, thus the Apostle Peter’s exhortation in 1 Peter 3:15 to always be ready to give an answer to anyone who enquires about the hope you have within you.
Keswick 24: Feeling spiritually dry?
Mark Ellis
Date posted: 17 Jul 2024
I know what it’s like to feel dry. To feel Jesus is distant. To know in my head I couldn’t be closer; that my life is now hid in Christ. But not to sense that in my heart. To feel my eyesight is clouded and my heart is stale.
And the Keswick Convention is not the answer to my problem. But it can help. Because our good God gives us many ways to bring our hearts closer to the sunshine of the gospel; many ways that will melt our hearts as we look to Jesus. And what I love about the Convention is that it’s like an oasis. It’s an opportunity to be refreshed. And then sent back out again.
South Asian exchange
The cost of following Jesus
Rani Joshi
Date posted: 5 Sep 2024
In recent months, as I’ve been meeting more South Asian believers who have come from other faiths, I questioned if we really understand the cost of following Jesus and what discipleship looks like for those who have come from a different faith. Especially from a ministry context.
Over 5.5million people in the UK are from a South Asian background and do not know Jesus. If mission and evangelism is at the heart of what you are doing, then it’s important to understand how to help people transition well, remain in their communities and culture (if they feel called to).
everyday theology
Are you a ‘real sinner’?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 4 Sep 2024
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
defending our faith
The training challenge
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 29 Aug 2024
One of the great challenges facing the church is how we train the next generation of apologists, pastors, evangelists and other workers.
The needs are great. I know many churches who are looking to recruit pastors but struggling to find someone appropriate. Likewise, how do we train apologists? Many online apologists using YouTube and other forms of social media are self-taught, mean well, but sometimes mislead.
How do we help avoid evangelical civil war and promote real unity?
Andy Mason
Date posted: 17 Jul 2024
We conservative evangelicals need each other. The challenges before us are just too big. We really can’t be what God has called us to be on our own. Our future should really be together. The stewarding of the gospel in our time demands it.
However, our future is also very tied to our ability to get on with one another. We need a very good capacity to navigate internal disagreements. Above all, we need a deep resistance to fracture and splintering. Some might feel that this is unproblematic. After all, we have the gospel of God, and one would’ve thought that that was enough to overcome any difficulties. Things are, though, a bit more complicated.
Reaching ‘satan’s last stronghold’: the fatal mission of John Allen Chau
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 1 Jan 2024
In 2018, American John Allen Chau bribed five fishermen to take him to Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean. A new documentary tells the story of his ultimately fatal mission to share the gospel with one of the last ‘uncontacted’ tribes who were living there.
‘My name is John. I love you and Jesus loves you. Jesus Christ gave me authority to come to you. Here is some fish!’ These were John’s first words to the North Sentinelese as he approached in his kayak. The two tribesmen strung their bows and moved towards him aggressively.
Ten Questions with: Reinhold Titus
1. How did you become a Christian?
I was born into and raised in a nominal Christian home. While attending university, I attended a camp organised by an interdenominational youth organisation. The Lord revealed Himself to me through His Word and Spirit. However, it took me a few days of pondering on the decision and implications of committing my life to Him. I did so one afternoon while in my room, being convicted of His love, sacrifice and my need to know and walk with Him.
2. What lessons have you learnt since that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
I don’t know if I would do anything any differently. I made mistakes, but that was part of the growth process. I was privileged having people alongside me who took discipleship and mentoring seriously and did it with me when I came to faith. That included the awareness that faith was not only a personal matter but communal and expressed in acts of service.
everyday theology
Evangelicals? Humble?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
At the heart of being an evangelical is humility. That might seem a laughable claim amid all the empire-building and hubris that has blackened the name of evangelicalism.
And there is something about evangelicalism that can make it a fertile soil for pride. Evangelicals are people of the word, and so learning is in the blood. Yet learning so commonly fosters arrogance.
disability & accessibility
Mission to one of the largest unreached groups in the world
Kay Morgan-Gurr
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
When we want to reach a people group with the gospel, there are many things we want to be trained in first. We learn the language and the culture. We immerse ourselves in the way of life in order to learn how we can respectfully reach out to them.
Sometimes we take the time to make friends with people from that culture and learn more from them, including the idioms and nuances of their language - you know, the things a classroom lesson won’t teach you and can leave you a little embarrassed and red faced when you say the wrong thing.
everyday theology
Do we downgrade Christ?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 18 Jul 2024
To be faithful to the gospel means treating Christ and His redeeming death and resurrection as matters ‘of first importance’ (1 Cor. 15:3-4). And yet, through the centuries, Christians have managed to downgrade Jesus, cast Him in their own image, or use Him as the icing to sell some other agenda.
But that is not the evangelical way. Evangelicals look to Scripture to know Christ, and there they find the unique Son of God, exclusive in His glorious identity and completely sufficient as a Saviour.
defending our faith
One man’s quiet legacy
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 17 Jul 2024
Archaeological excavations at Corinth have revealed a wealth of remains that help us understand the New Testament and also demonstrate that the books were written during the middle of the first century AD. We have just returned from filming there for a new series on the Bible – it really brings the Bible to life.
Corinth was an important travel hub for the Roman Empire, sitting on a narrow neck of the Greek mainland. Nowadays a canal joins the Ionian Sea to the Aegean Sea and saves boats a long journey around the coastline. In Paul’s day, boats were dragged overland along a portage road, remains of which can still be seen.
Keswick 24: God is at work today in the least expected places
Femi Adeleye
Date posted: 17 Jul 2024
Two years ago, I was invited by the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba, to speak at the Joshua Generation International Youth Conference (JGIYC). It was to take place at the National Stadium in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria.
When I was told 30,000 young people were expected at the five-day event, I had some reservations. To my pleasant surprise, there were about 33,000 young people in attendance, and they were all irrepressible in their response. At least one third committed their lives to serving God’s purpose in their generation.
everyday theology
Showing Christ personally
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 1 Jun 2024
If the desire of the Father, the work of the Spirit, and the purpose of Scripture is to herald Jesus, then so it must be for the faithful preacher.
If the Son’s great and eternal goal is to win for Himself a bride, then His heralds must woo for Him. They are like Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24, commissioned to find a bride for His master’s son. Only when we take our eyes off ourselves and herald Him will we truly glorify God. But when we do that, we may be sure that our preaching will always be evangelistic and, at the same time, always edifying to the saints.
everyday evangelism
What about the Crusades and the Inquisition?
Glen Scrivener
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
There are any number of ways the subject might crop up, but crop up it will: ‘Religion causes all wars… ’; ‘Christians are hypocrites… ’; What about the Crusades / the Inquisition / conquistadors… ?’; ‘Those Christians really hurt me… ’.
These are different kinds of statements and, as we’ll see, they should be addressed differently – especially that last one. But there’s one thing they all accomplish: they tempt the Christian to dissociate from church.
Olympics then and now: What can Eric Liddell teach us today?
Luke Randall
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
The Olympic Games are almost upon us. They start in Paris on 26 July and countless storylines will inevitably surround what is arguably the world’s biggest sporting event.
Can Novak Djokovic finally claim the gold medal, the one accolade which has eluded him during his glittering career, in what is surely his last realistic chance to win it? Can Tom Daley win a fifth Olympic medal? Can Simone Biles become the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history? These are just some of the headlines which will fill papers around the globe as the games draw near.
women in mission
Are you still hiding from Halloween?
Ruth Evans
Date posted: 7 Sep 2024
As a family, for years, we avoided Halloween almost entirely. We made the deliberate choice not to get involved with things like Light Parties and, when we moved to our small village, our young children were very content to either just let me answer the door to the many trick or treaters (given the size of our village we have a disproportionately large number) or we would leave treats at the door and go out.
Although most children dressed up cute, we had some local teens who enjoyed dressing up as scarily as they could and my children became quite 'anti' everything Halloween.