Church life
The Great Commission and the local church
Joanthan Leeman
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Are you a goer or a sender?
I trust you’ve heard a preacher or a missionary ask that question. Their point: the Great Commission calls some people to leave kith and kin for the foreign fields of unreached peoples. And it calls other people to send missionaries with prayer, finances, and support broadly.
Olly’s lockdown ministry: ex drug addict goes online
London City Mission
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
There’s a curious exchange between Jesus and the man who had the legion of demons driven out from him at the expense of a large herd of pigs. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you’ (Luke 8:38).
There’s every indication that he is committed and sincere about following Jesus, and certainly his life has been transformed. Yet he is turned down and told to go back home. Why?
New online prayer gathering for London in November
A prayer gathering for London, which started last year, is going online this November. It is one of several exciting initiatives now being developed by the relatively new London Gospel Partnership (LGP). Richard Bray, incoming LGP Chair, reports:
One of the great encouragements of the past 20 years in the UK has been the growth in churches working together across denominational lines in regional Gospel Partnerships. These partnerships have provided training, organised missions, and seen the fruit of church planting.
Peter Maiden 1948 – 2020
OM
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
On 14 July 2020, our
dear brother
in Christ
Peter Maiden met his
Saviour
face
to
face.
With his passion
for
exegetical preaching and
his
shepherd’s
heart,
Peter leaves a legacy of
sharing God’s truth with
love
and
compassion
that will live on within
world missions.
As
the
International Director of OM
from 2003 to 2013, Peter emphasised the
spirituality of OM team members and the
importance of God’s word permeating the
entire life of Jesus followers. While leading
a life of total surrender to Jesus, in both his
public and personal life, he demonstrated
a quiet steadiness coupled with a visionary
passion for seeing the lives of people around
the world changed by Christ. Under his
leadership and guidance, new ministries
developed as part of OM’s growing holistic
approach to mission.
New ministry refreshment network launched online
Paul Coulter
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
We’re tired. Zoom fatigue, confinement, and heightened awareness of death, on top of personal needs, have wearied us.
Christian leaders have faced additional challenges. Lockdown forced an urgent development of new forms of church gatherings and pastoral connections. Emerging from lockdown with social distancing means another rethink, while no one knows yet what the ‘new normal’ for church will be. This is a time of rebuilding.
news in brief
Passing the online plate
UK local churches are being offered a vital online-giving platform to help reverse the decline of income due to coronavirus.
Whilst some churches are starting to re-open their doors, the lack of collection-plate offerings is causing financial challenges for many churches. However, Stewardship is offering every church in the UK an online webpage and portal, which they can then customise for their church, thus creating a dedicated fundraising page to maximise
Ever felt like an impostor?
Sam Hodgins discusses feeling like a fraud and her new identity in Christ
Seventy percent of people are reported to have experienced ‘impostor syndrome’ at least one time in their life. It’s that feeling you have when everyone around you seems to know what they’re doing, but you have no clue. Or when you’ve been asked to take on some responsibility, but you feel like a fraud and wonder when you’ll be found out.
earth watch
Nature in lockdown!
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
How has
lockdown been
for you? The
coronavirus pandemic has affected virtually
every aspect of our lives. Christians have
rightly spent much time discussing when
and how we will be able to meet face-to-face
again for worship.
While most of us were stuck at home
though, many
people
had
a
renewed
appreciation of the nature all around us.
In the absence of traffic noise, we noticed
how loud the birdsong is. Our local parks
and green spaces took on a new importance
for our daily exercise. At the end of every
working day my wife and I would walk
through
the meadows near our house,
enjoying the beauty of creation in a way that
perhaps we didn’t before.
Robin Dowling 1946 – 2020
Geoff Gobbett
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Robin Dowling, a well-known former Grace Baptist pastor, missionary and theologian, departed to be with Christ on 31 July 2020.
He will be sorely missed as a much-loved husband, father and grandfather. He served his generation in the ministry of the gospel from the 1970s till fairly recently. Coming from Bristol, he was well known amongst churches there when he took on the pastorate at Salem Baptist Church in Kew, Richmond, Surrey in the late 1970s. He immersed himself in encouraging Grace Baptist Churches, serving the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (South East).
Jim Packer – a personal memoir: from Puritanism to Winnie-the-Pooh
Tony Baker
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Tony Baker reflects on several decades of friendship with J.I. Packer
The first time I heard Dr Jim Packer must have been at midweek talks he gave to the CU in Oxford (OICCU) in the 1950s.
Why Christmas Day but not Ascension?
Christopher Idle
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Dear Editor,
Several of the Christian organisations, missions and churches which I support or belong to include in their regular mailing a Prayer Diary, with valuable topics and news for every day of the year.
Petty rules
Michael Haighton (Revd)
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Dear Editor,
I write in response to the article ‘Living with difference’ in the July issue of en.
Saudis tell UN that Muslim
prejudice is ‘racism’
Barnabas Fund
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Saudi Arabia has called the United Nations
to focus on ‘eliminating Islamophobia’ as
an outworking of tackling online racism
and xenophobia.
Meshaal Bin Ali Al Balawi, Saudi’s Head of
Human Rights at the United Nations Mission
in Geneva, addressed
the Human Rights
Council, flagging the internet as a ‘space for
practicing racism’ as he called for the UN to
work towards finding a ‘solution’. The Saudi
leader stated that the world needs to ‘prohibit
racial discrimination in all its forms’.
Keswick: inside the Convention’s ‘Tardis-style’ new centre
EN
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
It might sound like a cliché, but on this occasion it happens to be true.
Stepping inside the Keswick Convention’s Derwent Project really is like entering Doctor Who’s Tardis. Not only does it appear to be much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside, but it is big – in fact, enormous. Indeed, the space seems to go on and on and on… To paraphrase the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, if you thought it was a long way to the local shops, think again…
