UCCF's contribution to the Worldwide Church
Lindsay Brown
Date posted: 1 Dec 2003
UCCF celebrated 75 years of student ministry this year. In a two-part article, Lindsay Brown reflects on its contribution to the church. This month he looks at the UK.
I served on UCCF staff nearly 25 years ago and, as I write, I cast my mind back further, to my own student days in the early-mid 70s. I carry a deep sense of gratitude to God for the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, now UCCF.
Monthly column on youth work
UCCF
Date posted: 1 Dec 2003
Admin is like Marmite: you either love it or hate it. For me, when it comes to hot buttered toast, I can't resist adding a dollop of the brown sticky stuff, but for all things administrative I am more than happy to put them off until another day.
So, after a recent bout of filing, I was surprised to find myself feeling encouraged and full of thankfulness to God. For one, my desk now looked respectable beside the desk of the girl I share an office with (who barely allows a piece of paper to stay on her desk for two minutes). More significantly though, I created a file labelled 'EN' and, as I inserted cuttings of this column from the last 18 months, saw how God has been working.
JOINED UP
Roger Fawcett
Date posted: 1 Jan 2004
Book Review
An Introduction to Youthwork and Ministry
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Iraq: 'The Lord is doing something'
Mike Creswell
Date posted: 1 Jan 2004
Mike Creswell works for the Southern Baptist News Service. In November he visited Iraq and looked at some of the projects the Southern Baptists are involved with.
Approaching Baghdad, the twin-prop, 19-seat plane does not circle. It does not descend slowly. Instead, the plane does a hard right turn, goes just about sideways and sort of falls out of the air, levelling off at the last minute to land some seconds ahead of your stomach. Fortunately the pilot tells you before it happens that it's going to happen, but still . . .
Music
Yaks with bronchitis!
Richard Simpkin
Date posted: 1 Jan 2004
Have you ever sat next to someone in church who sings like a yak with bronchitis? What can possibly be going on in their heart as they honk out 'I'm in that place once again' on a monotone?
I spoke on a Christian Union's house party a while ago, and we saw in the Bible that if we belong to Jesus, then whoever we are, whether we can sing or not, we have the most intimate relationship with God that we could ever hope for or deserve (1 Corinthians 6.17).
Start a Christian group at work
Ben Stone
Date posted: 1 Nov 2003
At the London Men's Convention in May there was an interview with Ben Stone, who works for Schroders.
This month Ben tells EN more about life as a Christian in the City (London's financial district), and how he set up the Christian group that meets regularly at his firm . . .
NEAC: Anglicans stand firm
David Baker
Date posted: 1 Nov 2003
Hundreds of delegates at a landmark gathering of Anglican evangelicals have been challenged to renew their passion for the essentials of evangelical belief - and to trust one another more.
Around 2,000 people, including about 30 bishops from Britain and abroad, attended the Fourth National Evangelical Anglican Conference (NEAC4) in Blackpool over five days to hear dozens of speakers focus on the theme 'Bible, Cross and Mission'.
Letter from America
A shining sun
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Dec 2003
I recently went to hear Chuck Colson, the famed author of Born Again, once notorious as an insider in the political Watergate scandal. He was sent to prison. But in the midst of the maelstrom surrounding him, Chuck Colson became 'born again'. Ever since, he has been the highly regarded and influential leader of Prison Fellowship.
Colson was speaking about Jonathan Edwards. In his lecture he touched on a wide variety of contemporary themes and issues that are facing evangelicals. In particular, he suggested, the drift towards moral relativism was likely to face a turnaround as a result of September 11. It's hard, was the gist of what he was saying, to swallow the idea that there is no evil in the world when you watch airplanes on suicide missions colliding into buildings containing thousands of human lives.
Replanting the Bible on campus
Jonny Woodrow & Matthew Spriggs
Date posted: 1 Sep 2003
UCCF came into being as it defended Bible Christianity on campus. Recent events Loughborough University show that their historical stance is still necessary...
We are two Christian students at Loughborough and this is our account of the attempts that have been made to maintain a biblical witness on campus over the last few years. Our purpose in writing this article is to encourage university students to be faithful disciples of Christ by rooting evangelism and discipleship in the word of God.
Monthly column for hymns and songs
Christopher Idle
Date posted: 1 Nov 2003
Worship & war
Before this series signs off (next month, after four years; believe it or not, it replaced Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in the paper), and before postmodernism is eclipsed by something else, let's try out a bit of pm-ism here. That is, the text you are reading and singing from may sometimes be crucially defined by its context or its readers, whatever the author thought it meant.
For example, however you chose to remember September 11, November 11 still reverberates at least in the older national British consciousness. 'Armistice Day' may have been transferred to 'Remembrance Sunday', but it is 11/11 which defines the relevant religious observance-for some, the last surviving vestige of a liturgical year.
'Restoring hope in our church'
Steve Donald
Date posted: 1 Nov 2003
'Restoring Hope to the Church' was the title of a recent Anglican national initiative featuring church leaders and parishes engaging with their communities. However, hope for the Church of England rests in whether it will turn away from the liberal agenda that has dominated it for so many years to the gospel agenda outlined in the Bible.
There is great hope coming from the mainly orthodox and growing Anglican Communion which appears determined to exercise biblical discipline on the New Westminister decision to allow same-sex blessings and the New Hampshire decision to appoint the first gay Bishop, Gene Robinson. Manchester Cathedral has been caught up in this crisis by agreeing to host a service in October for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.
Monthly column on hymns and songs
Christopher Idle
Date posted: 1 Sep 2003
Unless a British Christian of the current generation has been stolidly attending only one church, or one kind of church, for the past 20 years, it is unlikely that he/she will have failed to encounter 'Mission Praise', in one of its many shapes or forms.
The success of this book has been phenomenal; in some congregations it has swept the board, and even in otherwise catholic, reformed, liberal or charismatic assemblies it has crept in at least as an alternative option for Sunday or the week night gathering. How come?
Monthly column on student work
UCCF
Date posted: 1 Sep 2003
It's been a scorcher of a summer. As I write, temperatures are climbing towards a record 100 degrees. So as Britain basked in the hottest summer and students dispersed to go on mission teams, family holidays, or to earn some cash, what have I been up to? Did I stop work in the absence of any student activity on campus? Have I spent the summer months topping up my tan and perfecting my barbecuing techniques?
I may have been tempted to, but instead a sweltering office in Victoria has been my home. But I'm not complaining, because I was given the exciting task of working with a team of students and UCCF staff around the country to prepare three new projects for launch in September.
Bible isn't rubbish any more!
Terry White from Belfast found a Bible in a council skip. It changed his life.
I come from a non-Christian family. In 1985, while walking up the road one morning, a friend offered me a job. Immediately I said 'yes'. I wanted it because I had been unemployed for three years. He told me to come down to the council offices for an interview. After I had a medical, I got the job!
Brief lives
John Benton
Date posted: 1 Oct 2003
Book Review
THE BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF EVANGELICALS
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Excellent
John Benton
Date posted: 1 Oct 2003
Book Review
THE BLURB 36 pages. £1.75 Published by UCCFThis month sees the launch of an excellent new magazine from UCCF who usually write this column for EN. For obvious reasons we couldn't let them review their own mag, so...
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Leadership, truth & witness
UCCF
Date posted: 1 Oct 2003
As UCCF gives thanks for 75 years of witness to Christ in the student world EN asked Dr. Oliver Barclay, a staff member of UCCF from 1945 and General Secretary 1964-1980, to reflect on his involvement with the Christian Union movement.
EB: What was your experience as a Christian student?
Taking a tough job
Jonathan Stephen, who for many years has pastored Carey Baptist Church in Reading, takes up the position of Director of British Evangelical Council from September. Known as a man who likes to get things done, EN asked Jonathan about what the future might hold . . .
EN: Can you remind us of the function of BEC and how it came into being?
