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John Stevens

Date posted: 1 Sep 2014

Back in May, at the same time that UK voters were expressing their increasing Euroscepticism in the European elections, I was privileged to attend the European Leadership Forum in Poland.

This is an annual ‘by invitation’ conference that seeks to serve and equip national Christian leaders to renew the biblical church and re-evangelise Europe. There were over 750 delegates.

In what looks like a bid to extend its influence in the South Asian region, so-called Islamic State (IS) militants have allegedly distributed 12-page pamphlets in the north-west of Pakistan, in Peshawar and in Afghan refugee camps based near its outskirts, it was reported in early September.

They were written in Pashto and Dari, and titled Fatah (Victory) The editor’s name, however, appears fake and their place of publication obscure. For a long time, Afghan resistance groups, including the Haqqani Network, Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan and the Tora Bora group have published similar pamphlets, magazines and propaganda literature in Peshawar’s black markets. However this latest spread has raised fears of a possible link between IS and such militants, threatening all non-Muslims.

After seven years of harassment by hard-line Muslims, a Palestinian church in East Jerusalem has been forced out of their building, church leaders said in late August.

The congregation of Calvary Baptist Church, under Holy Land Missions, moved out of their building in the Shofat area of Jerusalem in July after Islamists threatened their landlord. They are looking for a safer, more permanent place to meet.

The capital cities of Australia’s states experienced their first Muslim Global Dawah Day on July 5, with teams of young mission-minded Muslim activists distributing leaflets and engaging in street evangelism for Islam. They took their lead from a wealth of online resources, with well-known British activist Abdur Raheem Green being a key spokesman for the worldwide campaign.

Although Global Dawah Day had little profile in the mainstream Australian media, it came at a time of considerable public anxiety and government activity over reports of home-jihadis grown leaving to fight for radical Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq. In early July, the Australian Attorney General warned that at least 60 Australians are actively involved in fighting with extremist groups, such as the newly declared Islamic caliphate, with a further 150 providing various forms of support.

Christianity Explored Ministries (CEM) announced in June a major new link up with Prison Fellowship International (PFI) where the Christianity Explored course will form a key part of PFI’s strategy of taking the gospel to prisoners throughout the world, with two pilot projects launched in Nigeria and South Africa.

PFI was founded in 1979. Its network of 45,000 volunteers currently undertakes monthly prison ministry with 2million inmates in 3,700 prisons in 127 countries. There are an estimated 10 million inmates in 22,000 jails across the world. The Prisoner’s Journey, PFI’s new, three-strand evangelism programme (of which Christianity Explored is the core part) aims to reach 1 million of these prisoners with the gospel by 2020.

As we move into a Jubilee year celebrating 50 years of independence we are seeing wonderful things happening here in Zambia.

In November 2013 the Lord provided all of the funds to finish the OM training centre. The training centre will continue to grow the work of training future African missionaries. Construction is now at full speed with over 70 workers each day. We are building lots of accommodation, an office block, classrooms and a main hall as well as the skills training centre and bookshop which have already been completed.

Opponents of a European initiative paving the way for governments to rule on the legitimacy of religious groups and reduce home schooling rights won a battle in mid April in the Council of Europe.

In Europe, where public education often includes teachings on morality at odds with churches and officially unrecognised religious groups are labelled sects, the stakes were high at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

At face value, Australia and Malaysia share a number of common features. Both are medium-sized nations, with Australia having a population of 22 million and Malaysia 28 million.

Both are multifaith societies. Australia’s 61% Christian majority sits alongside a non-religious minority of 22% as well as smaller numbers of Buddhists (2.5%), Muslims (2.2%), Hindus (1.3%) and others. Malaysia’s 60% Muslim majority shares the country with Buddhists (19%), Christians (9%), Hindus (6%) and others. In effect, both societies are highly pluralistic in terms of both faith and ethnicity.

‘I grabbed my six-year-old and we were all screaming and praying for God’s grace. I saw our walls falling down, then we ran out.’ Dalia’s tears began to slip down her cheeks as she re-lived the terrifying morning of 15 October 2013. The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the Philippines island of Bohol.

‘We stayed in an evacuation centre for two, almost three weeks, then in a tent. When we went back to check the church we found it destroyed. We still sleep in the tent but we’ve put it inside a small bamboo hut that we built during the rains. When people ask me, ‘how can you smile?’ I say I smile because I am alive! That’s something to thank God for.’

On March 26, two days after World Vision in the USA had announced that it would employ Christians in same-sex marriages, the relief organisation reversed its decision.

World Vision’s American branch had announced, on March 24, that it would no longer require its more than 1,100 employees to restrict their sexual activity to marriage between one man and one woman. World Vision president, Richard Stearns, made it clear by saying: ‘The new policy will not exclude someone from employment if they are in a legal same-sex marriage’.

Living out a missional lifestyle was one of the main themes at the second day of the third Mission-Net Congress held from December 30 to January 2 in Offenburg.

The key topic of the first day was ‘Mission with a Migrant Background’. In mostly interactive seminars, the participants discussed several aspects of this theme, such as why classical mission strategies seem to fail in today’s church and why people are actually talking about a missional lifestyle. Vivid discussions ensued and at the end there were more questions than answers.

Since the start of January 2014, a Christian group in Guatemala has begun meeting the practical needs of some of the young abused girls from Guatemala’s streets and introducing them to Jesus at the same time.

For a long time, the Oasis centre had received calls from Guatemala’s Child Protection Agency, as well as organisations like International Justice Mission, asking if they could provide help for girls as young as ten, who had suffered from systematic sexual abuse and were pregnant.

As the news hit the media about atrocities in Sudan, EN received a report on December 20 from a Christian living in Sudan.

‘We have experienced heavy fighting between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir or to his former vice president, Riak Machar, on December 15. The government called it an attempted coup but it was actually a political difference that arose over party meetings and the president’s dictatorial tendency that sparked the fight. The president wants to eliminate all his political critics in hope of becoming a full dictator. Unfortunately, the fight turned quickly into tribal conflict targeting people that come from Nuer tribe in Juba.

SOAR International Ministries, an Alaska-based organisation dedicated to missions and outreach in Russia, has partnered with local Russian churches during the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, to spread the gospel to tourists and communities converging on the event.

The ministry sent 40 volunteers to Russia to establish a number of ‘fun zone’ hospitality centres in local church buildings. They will also go out into parks and other public venues to invite others to partake in their activities.

Most Christians are familiar with Jesus’ command, the Great Commission, to make disciples of all nations.

But with the average Christian giving less to mission than the cost of a coffee, once a month, it appears that the church is omitting the commission, it was concluded in December by Gospel for Asia.