Some more reasons for hope
The following grounds for hope were published in November in the third (2002/2003) edition of Religious Trends. It focuses on the years 1995-2000 with a forecast to 2005 giving information and analysis on church membership and church attendance.
Belief in God is still high
Two-thirds, 67%, of the population believed in God in the 1990s, and over half, 52%, in heaven. Half, 49%, said they believed in Jesus as the Son of God. While these proportions have declined over the past 30 years they continue to be relatively high.
Moving mountains
William Grunbaum
Date posted: 1 Dec 2001
Back in 1917 the mountain of Communism thrust itself into human history with the revolution in Russia.
During subsequent decades it engulfed one country after another in its Red embrace.
The uniqueness of Christianity
Ray Porter
Date posted: 1 Jan 2002
'He's a Pakistani, but I think he's a Christian', was one of the more bizarre comments from Rochester Cathedral at the announcement that Michael Nazir-Ali was to be the new Bishop.
New syllabuses for Religious Education have shown that there is a continuing debate about which religion should be taught in state schools. The Prince of Wales has declared his desire to be a defender of 'faith' or 'the divine' rather than of any religious group. The Archbishop of Canterbury seems to favour a multi-faith Coronation Service for Charles III. There are some suggestions that the evangelisation of ethnic minorities in Britain should be banned as racial discrimination. It is in this climate that we are to speak about the call to cross cultures with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not just non-Christians who are confused about the link between race and religion.
Triple murder 30 years on
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Jan 2002
Edinburgh. Wednesday January 5 1972. Elaine was in the basement of the Scripture Union building near the West end of Princes Street, rehearsing for an evangelistic concert.
Elaine was a gifted, warm-hearted extrovert, a few months away from sitting Higher exams at James Gillespie's High School. She was an achiever: academically across a range of subjects; on the sports field; as a musician with a fine soprano voice; and as a leader. That evening she sang a song about discovering faith, strumming her guitar.
Evangelical confidence
Philip Hacking
Date posted: 1 Nov 2001
The Decade of Evangelism is well and truly over, to the concealed (or unconcealed) delight of many.
There were advances made for the gospel in the Decade of Evangelism but, sadly, church attendance continued to slide and the Christian influence in our nation to wane. In my article last month I pleaded for a renewed confidence in the gospel. That must be paramount; then we need renewed confidence in how to proclaim it.
Surprised by God at Christmas
A brother serving in Asia
Date posted: 1 Dec 2001
As I considered serving the Lord abroad I had many doubts about whether he would really provide for my needs as a Christian worker on the field.
Yes, I had read missionary biographies, which spoke of God's wondrous provision for others, but would he really provide for me, a former telecom manager living in suburbia? Could I leave the comfort and security of home?
Monthly column on the arts
David Porter
Date posted: 1 Oct 2001
As I write this, the television is full of images of appalling destruction, the aftermath of the terrorist attack on America. I had planned to write at length this month about our family visit to the States this summer, but for obvious reasons that will have to wait for another time.
Let me instead take a few moments to celebrate one small part of American Christianity, which we encountered during our visit: the Mennonite community in the Central Valley of California. We stayed with a Mennonite family near Fresno, whom we had got to know over the years through their visits to L'Abri Fellowship but had never visited ourselves.
The tide is turning, what are the prospects now?
David Potter
Date posted: 1 Nov 2001
A perceptible change is evident - and not before time!
After nearly 2,000 years Christians are becoming more aware and accepting of people with learning disabilities.
Books in the bloodstream
Carol Grugeon
Date posted: 1 Oct 2001
This autumn sees the publication of four books from the Carswell family, and all have the underlying aim of spreading the message of the gospel in differing ways.
Emma Carswell, marketing executive of Paternoster Publishing, would like to see a new approach to evangelism in literature. Working with authors around the world, Emma encourages them to write creatively for unbelievers, as well as persuading Christians to use books as a central tool in evangelism. 'People are very innovative and imaginative in different methods of evangelism, but when it comes to books they tend to be less creative. I would love to see a wider range of evangelistic books that approach the gospel from different angles, and are written for people of varied backgrounds and spiritual stages', said Emma. Her own book, Love in a Box, is written with this vision in mind.
It could never happen here?
Margaret Jones
Date posted: 1 Sep 2001
My children must have been about six and ten. The six year-old happily gave up her room for two of them, the other had the spare room.
'They' were three young workers from a well-known Christian organisation who had come to hold a mission in our town along with our church young people. We had a great week - even though they ate us out of house and home!
Operation World
Jonathan Francis
Date posted: 1 Sep 2001
Winning the world
A new 21st century edition of the missions book Operation World is about to be published. Jonathan Francis of Paternoster Press took time to introduce it to us.
Operation World is a book specifically written to change the world. The authors, many of whom have been working on the Operation World project for years, do not shrink from this fact.
Biography of John Stott, Vol. 2
Timothy Dudley-Smith
Date posted: 1 Sep 2001
Towards the end of the 1950s, Richard Bowdler left the staff of All Souls, Langham Place, and the ministry of 'Chaplain to the Stores' passed to Michael Harper.
He was a Londoner (the family home had been in Welbeck Street) and he had long been an occasional visitor to All Souls. He was converted to Christ in his first year at Cambridge, and during the vacations had alternated between All Souls and Westminster Chapel.
