Awakening Latin America
Nathan Schmutz
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
For the first half of the 20th century, Latin America was an almost exclusively Catholic continent. Though the gospel had been preached in Latin countries for decades, the local evangelical church hadn’t grown significantly. In 1970, only 4% of the population identified as evangelical and the continent was still considered a mission field. But this was about to change.
Operation Mobilisation started with an outreach of a few young students in Mexico, but the focus soon shifted towards Europe, the Muslim World and India. MV Logos, OM’s first ship, was already in service in those parts of the world when the prospect of a second ship opened the possibility for OM to return to Latin America in an impactful way.
Niger: no news on kidnap
World Watch Monitor
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
It’s been over five months since a pioneering US missionary was kidnapped in Niger.
Jeff Woodke, who worked for Jeunesse en Mission Entraide et Developpement, a branch of the US-based Youth With a Mission, was abducted by unknown assailants in October, from the town of Abalak in northern Niger.
Techno-philiacs
Zuckerberg’s epistle
Ed Brooks & Pete Nicholas
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
At the age of 33, Jesus Christ was a figure of scorn.
A little more than three years from the beginning of his public ministry, the following he had built had all but deserted him. His mission to establish a global community under the loving rule of God seemed to be a sad joke. He was crucified, dead and buried.
Looking outwards with the gospel
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
In February, the Secretary General of the
Anglican
Communion,
a
Nigerian
Archbishop, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, addressed
the General Synod of the Church of England;
and Growth and Decline in the Anglican
Communion – 1980 to the Present, edited by
David Goodhew of Cranmer Hall, Durham,
was launched at a conference.
Archbishop Fearon clarified that the term
‘Anglican Communion’ referred to churches
which find their common roots through the
CofE and its tradition to the witness and mission of the apostolic church. ‘The very word
anglicana implies a living tradition of faith in
the gospel as this church has received it …
from Augustine of Canterbury … to renewal
in
the English Reformation and beyond.’
‘They feel they owe so much of their faith, in
human
terms,
to
the
faithful giving of
Christians in the CofE over the centuries.’
Before it’s too late
Tim Sunderland and Phil Walter ponder the sad case of a declining church putting things off for too long
Goodway Road was a small church on a housing estate in the north of Birmingham.
Glasgow: planting the gospel
Paul Brennan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
Paul Brennan brings us up-to-date with new congregations linked to The Tron Church in Glasgow
The last year has been one of significant change for The Tron Church.
Major developments at Keswick
Jonathan Lamb
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
Cumbria
is an English county known
worldwide, not least for having at its heart
the beautiful Lake District National Park,
nominated to become a World Heritage site.
Then there’s the Keswick Convention, a
name which has also rippled around
the
world. And yet another famous export are
Derwent Pencils.
The Third Degree
Making friends in Kingston
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
‘Would you be interested in our events this week?’
I was offering an information flyer to passersby in the university hallway, a busy thoroughfare en route to lectures. Most students had taken one. Some even stopped to chat, asking ‘What’s this about?’ or having a go on the ‘Question Wheel’ – discussing purpose, identity or love over a free bowl of cereal or cup of coffee.
news in brief
Egypt: false imprisonment
A 15-year-old Coptic Christian boy was sentenced to 15 years in an Egyptian prison for sexual assault, even though forensic reports showed no evidence of a crime.
His mother says her son, Fadi, is innocent and was targeted only because her Muslim neighbours, whose eight-year-old son was the alleged victim, ‘don’t like Christians’. The Muslim boy’s grandfather is imam at the local mosque. The family were forced to move home, which itself is a crime against the Egyptian Constitution where Article 63 prohibits arbitrary forced displacement of citizens.
Reflecting on spiritual abuse
Karen Soole
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
Karen Soole tells of her own experience and reminds us of some needed lessons
Horrific stories of historic abuse within the evangelical community were recently exposed by Channel 4 News.