John Stott: Abrahamic and apostolic?
Chris Wright
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
Chris Wright suggests the scale and scope of Stott’s ministry were epic
‘I am a great believer,’ John Stott would often say, ‘in the importance of B.B.C. Not the British Broadcasting Company, nor Bethelehem Bible College, nor even Beautiful British Columbia. But “Balanced Biblical Christianity”.’ In my own assessment of John’s life and ministry I suggest a Biblical balance of Old and New Testaments by saying that the scale and scope of John Stott’s significance within the global church has been both Abrahamic and apostolic.
Matthew Hill
Malcolm Lane
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
1939 – 2021
Matthew
Hill
became
widely
known
as Home
Secretary
of
the
Spanish
Gospel
Mission
and
did
much
to
raise
the profile of
the
Mission
amongst
churches.
Born in the New Forest, he was converted
in his teenage years and his life was Christ-centred from that point onwards. It was not
long after leaving school that he was accepted
to study at Birmingham Bible Institute and
on leaving there, he (and Jean, who he had
known from their teenage years and who he
had recently married) left for the unknown
territory of Stockton-on-Tees to take over
the running of the Quayside Mission. This
was a place of refuge for the homeless and
a gospel ministry was also carried on there.
‘I think it’s all true, I’m a Christian now!’
This term has marked the beginning of the annual mission week season for the Christian Unions: weeks of high-profile events designed to reach the wider university with the gospel. In the absence of marquees and lecture halls, they used a range of tools to speak of Jesus: social media, Zoom, podcasts, post and even radio. But this year, it was their most unassuming and understated tool that proved to be the most powerful: friendship. Milla Ling reports:
After a CU member arrives at university, they have a three- or four-year window to witness to the students they meet. During these years of friendship they can demonstrate the reality of what is spoken about at evangelistic events. And, in the context of loving relationship, can gently challenge where a visiting speaker may not be able to.
‘Man of character’ moves
to Langham Partnership
LCM / LP International
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
Global mission
organisation Langham
Partnership International has a new leader.
Tayo Arikawe will move from his post as
Director of Ministries at London City Mission
(LCM)
to
the position of
International
Director with Langham in April.
Hope on the high seas – OM marks 50 years
www.om.org
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
Operation Mobilisation, the outreach mission, was founded by George Verwer 64 years ago. This year marks the 50th anniversary of OM’s ship ministry. Seelan Govender, CEO of OM Ships, writes:
With more urgency than ever before as the numbers increase each year, we’re focusing on our vision to connect with the least-reached people groups of the world – those with little chance of hearing the gospel – in order to see them become vibrant communities of Jesus-followers.
John Stott - what you should know
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
The centenary of John Stott’s birth falls on 27 April 2021. As he died ten years ago, his name won’t be well-known to younger readers. This is one reason why we are holding centenary events, to introduce his name and his legacy to a new generation.
The breadth of John Stott’s influence is remarkable. Aged 29, he was appointed Rector of All Souls Langham Place, next door to the BBC. He wrote years later of how ‘dissatisfaction’ is a mark of a leader, and he showed it himself from early days. Decades before the term ‘fresh expressions’ was coined, he opened the All Souls Clubhouse, a church for the unchurched, in the poorer part of his parish. He started guest services, then unheard-of, beginners’ groups, and training courses for lay leaders. And he was a seer. So international students became a focus in the post-colonial 1960s as newly-established governments began sending their most able to the UK. The list goes on.
news in brief
Abortion law change?
The Severe Foetal Impairment Abortion
(Amendment) Bill has passed
its second
stage at the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Disability
rights
campaigner, Heidi
Crowter, who has Down’s syndrome, had
told the Health Committee of the assembly:
‘The law … tells me and other people with
Down’s syndrome that we are worth
less
than those without disabilities. That is why I
want … the laws to be fairer.’
Stranded! But God is at work…
en staff / Andy Bowerman / The Guardian
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
An evangelical Middle East chaplain is playing a key role in resolving a long-running dispute which has left five sailors stuck on an abandoned tanker for years.
Andy Bowerman, Regional Director for the Mission to Seafarers, has been visiting the stranded crew of the Panama-flagged MT Iba since May 2019 to ensure they have adequate food, water and fuel – as well as responding to their requests for spiritual support and to questions about what motivates him to help them.
The training is over, the iceberg is here
Graham Miller
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
After 100’s of hours of hearing the gospel preached, will Bible-believing Christians now apply what they have heard, and be a conduit for God’s blessing to the poor?
The tip of the iceberg has been horrendous. The number of deaths is impossible to even reconcile. And they tell little of the pain and suffering that each death has left behind.
Churches badly harmed by Equatorial Guinea blast
Iain Taylor / Evangelical Focus
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
More than 100 people were killed after a massive explosion in Equatorial Guinea (central West Africa) in March, with 600 injured and almost 300 in hospital. More than 60 people were rescued from under the rubble by the civil protection corps and the fire service.
Local Christians and churches were badly affected too, with a Baptist pastor (as yet unnamed) killed and several members of the Baptist Church of Bata killed or injured.
New leader for global group
Christian Today / ThomasSchirmacher.net
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
New Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), German theologian Thomas Schirrmacher, has begun work after being inaugurated.
The WEA was established in 1846 and works in 129 countries. It claims to represent 600 million evangelicals.
‘Billy Graham of Africa’ dies
Iain Taylor / godreports.com
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
Stephen Lungu, one of the great evangelists of recent times and revered as the ‘Billy Graham of Africa’, has died of coronavirus, aged 78.
Stephen grew up in pre-independence Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and was the product of a dysfunctional family, living on the streets and getting involved with street gangs.
Christian medics rush to aid of boy and chimpanzee
Gary Clayton of the Mission Aviation Fellowship writes: For more than 75 years, MAF’s fleet of light aircraft has been flying patients from some of the world’s most hard-to-access areas to hospital.
Many MAF flights involve women facing pregnancy complications, accident victims or people wounded due to tribal conflict. Two, less typical, MAF medevacs involved a two-week-old chimpanzee and a ten-year-old boy.
Stark warning to Southern Baptists
Iain Taylor / Southern Baptist Convention
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
Departing President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), J.D. Greear, has used his final message to the Executive Committee to demand that the church engages constructively with Critical Race Theory (CRT).
The talk coincided with the much-publicised decision of leading Bible teacher Beth Moore – a longstanding critic of Donald Trump – to quit the SBC, saying ‘I can no longer identify with Southern Baptists.’
Evangelical
church grows
in Spain
Iain Taylor / Evangelical Focus
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
New official data reveals that almost 2% of
the Spanish population now identifies as
Protestant or evangelical.
In
the 20 years
to 2018,
this group
multiplied eightfold, to become the fastest-growing denomination in the country. And
those evangelicals are now worshipping in well
over 4,200 churches across Spain, opening on
average 16 new churches a month.
40,000 view new video on Jesus
CEM
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
More than 40,000 people have viewed a beautifully-illustrated presentation of Jesus in its first month of being released.
What is Christianity? was created by Christianity Explored Ministries (CEM). Using rich imagery and a voiceover from Thabiti Anyabwile, it tells the story of human history. It’s the story of our creation by God and our rebellion against Him; the story of salvation found only in Jesus.
New vision for North West
The North West Gospel Partnership (NWGP) exists to help churches work together to reach the North West with the gospel. The region has a population of over 7 million people and so the task is great and complex. In recent months the Trustees have been revisiting and reviewing the Partnership’s purpose, aims and strategy. Mark Pickles tells us more:
To reach even 10% of the population (700,000 people) we would need 7,000 churches (assuming an average membership of 100); at present we have about 100. Put like that, the sheer size of the task is overwhelming. We are committed to the three-fold task of church planting, church revitalising and church strengthening.
evangelicals & catholics
Pope Francis, United Nations Chaplain?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
In observing the recent global activities of Pope Francis, the Argentinian philosopher Rubén Peretó Rivas asked whether Pope Francis aims at becoming the ‘Chaplain of the United Nations’.
His 2020 ‘universal’ initiatives indeed look like those of the United Nations in language, scope and content. While the encyclical ‘All Brothers’ reiterated the Roman Catholic universalism two (en, December 2020), other projects deserve to be mentioned in this respect.
New leaders for CofE evangelicals
CEEC
Date posted: 1 Apr 2021
Lis Goddard and Ed Shaw have become Co-Chairs of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), it has been announced.
Ed Shaw is pastor of Emmanuel City Centre Church in Bristol, a congregation established in recent years via a Bishop’s Mission Order. He is also Director of Living Out – an organisation run by same-sex-attracted Christians setting out an orthodox, Biblical view of sexuality.