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Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Feb 2023

The Revd Dr Paul Bailie, Presbyterian minister, lecturer and lover of Africa, died unexpectedly on 15 November 2023, just days after turning 54.

He was ordained by the Presbyterian Church of Ireland (PCI) in 1995; and from 2007 he had been chief executive of Mission Africa, one of the oldest interdenominational evangelical missions in the UK. He had recently joined the ICC Executive Committee representing the Presbyterian Church.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Mar 2023

The Baptist Union (BU) could change its rules to allow the ordination of practicing homosexuals as early as October 2023 – but evangelical ministers within the union are making moves to defend the orthodox position.

In January, an in-person meeting of the newly-formed Evangelical Baptist Ministers for Marriage was held, against the background of increasing division over the issue of allowing the accreditation of practicing gay ministers. More than 220 orthodox evangelical baptists attended the meeting.

A church launched last year in Wallsend has a newly-ordained minister.

Hope Church Tyneside was launched in May 2022 after a local Church of England congregation voted to leave the denomination and join the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE). A significant number of the members chose to join them in this endeavour, following the spiritual course which had been set years previously.

‘Our campus needs to know the good news of Jesus.’

These were the words of a member of Aberystwyth Christian Union following three days of outreach on their campus back in November. CUs traditionally hold outreach weeks in the spring term. These weeks provide an opportunity for focused mission: the CU hosts events aimed at welcoming every student at their university to consider Jesus. The gospel is clearly proclaimed, and every guest is given the chance to respond.

A bumper crop of mission initiatives is being highlighted by the the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) as it continues to mark 100 years since its founding in 1922.

‘Back in the spring we asked our churches to tell us about what they are doing to further the mission of proclaiming Christ and His gospel. We hoped 100 might respond and we could share their news; in the end we received more than 170 submissions,’ said Adrian Reynolds, FIEC Head of National Ministries and Chairman of the en Board.

Nearly 1,000 pastors, elders, women’s workers, youth leaders, and others in church leadership gathered at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool in November for the 2022 FIEC Leaders’ Conference.

It was the first national conference for three years, due to the Covid pandemic, but came just in time to mark FIEC’s 100th anniversary.

The continuing ramifications of recent leadership scandals in evangelical churches and the wider Christian world are being freshly addressed by one of the UK’s leading evangelical networks.

Affinity – which links around 1,200 churches and Christian organisations – says it wants to aim towards healthy Christian communities ‘where concerns about pastoral malpractice can be raised and dealt with fairly, and in ways which are honouring to Christ, theologically faithful and legally compliant’.

For some guests at London City Mission’s Webber Street day centre, near Waterloo, rehabilitation and restoration is a life-long journey. This is Josef ’s story.

Ten years ago, during the winter that Josef slept on the streets of London, the only way he could find reprieve from the biting cold was by sleeping on the vents that blow warm air out from the Underground.

Well-known evangelist Rico Tice will be working for Christianity Explored Ministries (CEM) full time from next September, it has been announced.

For the past 21 years Rico (56) has worked for both CEM and as Senior Minister for Evangelism at All Souls Langham Place.

The new flying bishop for conservative evangelicals in the Church of England, Rob Munro, takes on his role at a critical time.

Dr Munro, who has been Rector of St Mary’s Cheadle, will be a crucial voice in future votes and discussions on sexuality which are at a critical stage. The former Maths and PE teacher, will have a special national ministry to parishes of a complementarian evangelical theology across England.

Andrew Symes is to stand down as Executive Secretary of Anglican Mainstream on 1 January 2023 after nearly ten years in post.

Symes, 56, who had earlier served with Crosslinks in South Africa, joined Anglican Mainstream in 2013 to further its work amongst orthodox Anglicans in the UK.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Jan 2023

A partnership between two independent churches – one in a middle-class southern area and the other on a Yorkshire council estate – is bridging the north-south divide and advancing the gospel.

Banstead Community Church lies 13 miles outside central London in leafy Surrey which, along with Sussex, is the wealthiest part of England according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). ‘Average wealth’ is said to be £263,000 by the ONS.

An ‘Evangelism Health Check’ is now live online.

The check is a survey tool set up by the Evangelical Alliance which church leaders can use to gauge how their church feels about sharing the gospel and their evangelism habits. The survey can be run live in services with the results updating in real time so leaders can get an up-to-date and accurate picture of where their church is at in terms of evangelism and mission.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Aug 2021

A Brazilian missionary is working among young people in Chard, Somerset, mentoring and giving mental-health support with the help of local ministries.

Raquel Lima (see photo), who is also serving the local Portuguese community, has been placed by Latin Link (in partnership with South West Youth Ministries) to mentor and support young people alongside Forefront Church, an independent evangelical fellowship.

Frank Entwistle will best be remembered for his leadership of Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) for 25 years, retiring in 2002.

Set up in 1936 as the Publishing House of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (later UCCF), IVP was the strongest and most widely-known independent evangelical publisher of its day. Frank Roland Entwistle grew up in Lancashire, imbibing a love of books and of reading from his father. Following his conversion aged 14, he set his heart on ordination, and later studied theology at St John’s College, Durham, choosing a special option on Luther and Calvin. He was prepared for ordination at Cranmer Hall. The fairly conservative faculty, and the strong inter-collegiate Christian Union (DICCU), gave Frank a thorough Biblical grounding. While at Durham he met his wife, Beryl, and they married during his curacy at St John’s Harborne in Birmingham. In 1965 Frank joined the home staff of what is now Crosslinks, editing the Society’s magazine and books.

Dr Osita Orafu, originally from Nigeria, has been ordained in the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) at Trinity Church, Scarborough.

AMiE is a network of Anglican evangelical churches outside of and independent of the Church of England.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Oct 2022

A warning from charity Crisis UK that hundreds of thousands of UK households could become homeless this winter, has prompted London City Mission (LCM) to issue an urgent call for help.

Figures show that, up to now, good progress had been made with 2,689 fewer people sleeping rough in the year to April 2022 compared to the previous year. An LCM spokesperson said the warning of the impending rise in homelessness is a ‘heartbreaking projection’ threatening the work already done.

The founder of the Newfrontiers network of charismatic evangelical churches, Terry Virgo, has addressed 100 FIEC church leaders.

He was speaking at the London Leaders’ Gathering of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).

When builder and Brethren member Sir John Laing was motivated by his deep faith to give away money for the gospel he could little have dreamt that almost £500 million would be given to Christian causes.

Now the trustees of the J.W. Laing Trust are celebrating the centenary of the initial gift that got it going. After Sir John Laing, who died in 1978 aged 98, took over the management of his family’s small building business, he built it into a global construction and civil engineering group, employing over 10,000 people, and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The current cost of living crisis could prove an opportune moment for Baptists to rediscover their Biblical roots, a Welsh leader says.

Writing in a recent newsletter, Baptist Union of Wales’ Mission Director Simeon Baker acknowledged the challenge of maintaining large buildings and the pressures that brings, not least on church finances and this is likely to get even harder over winter.

Bishop Andy Lines, of the Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) is to be assisted by two new assistant bishops.

Stuart Bell (photo left) who led St Michael’s Aberystwyth, the largest Anglican church in Wales, and Ian Ferguson (right), a minister from Westhill Aberdeen, will serve in the Anglican Convocation in Europe (ACE).