Glorifying God in mission
Ms Elisabeth Elliott
Date posted: 1 Nov 1998
Of all the privileges God has given me, none has been greater than that of being a missionary.
I cannot remember a time when I did not hope that God would give me the opportunity to be a missionary.
Kingdom cool
Mr Adam Sparks
Date posted: 1 Feb 2000
Much of modern Western evangelicalism can be likened to a defective cookery book in which the methods are specified, but the ingredients are not or, at best, are very weakly defined.
The preparation details, oven temperature, technique etc., are given an inordinate amount of attention but the ingredients are overlooked. This article explores the concepts of style and content-relevance and truth, and urges us not to make truth a secondary matter.
A thousand years in the life of the church
Dr David Calhoun
Date posted: 1 Dec 1999
'With the near approach of the year one thousand,' Charles Williams wrote in The Descent of the Dove, 'Christendom everywhere expected the end. It did not come. The first millennium . . . closed and the second opened with no greater terror than the ordinary robberies, murders, rapes, burnings, wars, massacres and plagues, and the even less noticeable agonies of each man's ordinary life.'
In the year 1000, an important part of ordinary life in Europe was the Christian church. With the 'conversion' of Constantine in the early 4th century, the persecuted church had become the tolerated church and then, before long, the official religion of the Roman Empire. The invasions of the 'barbarians' from the north and east introduced chaos in the empire but extended Christianity through the conversion of the European tribes, and the 'centre' of the church shifted for the third time - from the Jewish Christian world of the eastern Mediterranean, to the Greco-Roman world of Rome, to the converted tribes of northern and central Europe.
China's Christian Millions
Tony Lambert
Date posted: 1 Jan 2000
Fangcheng County in southern central Henan, China is an agricultural district with 926,000 inhabitants. 60 years ago, Henry Guinness, David Adeney and other missionaries of the China Inland Mission travelled by bicycle with Chinese colleagues throughout the villages, and small churches were planted.
Today, there are so many Christians that hostile cadres have labelled the area a 'Jesus Nest'.
Mission on our doorstep
Ms Sally Sutcliffe
Date posted: 1 Nov 1997
What does cross-cultural mission mean to you? Brave souls hopping on a plane and flying across the world? But what about Britain? In many towns and cities, different faith communities live cheek-by-jowl.
If you are contemplating mission abroad but have not yet reached out to Asians here in Britain, why not? 'Reaching out to Muslims in Huddersfield' may not have quite the same ring as 'pioneering mission in rural Pakistan' but it is essentially the same thing.
GOOD NEWS ABOUT INJUSTICE
Peter Comont
Date posted: 1 Dec 1999
Book Review
By Gary A. Haugen IVP. 200 pages. £7.99 If you could give one gift to the next generation young believers, what would it be? Gary Haugen asks this question at the beginning of his book, Good news about injustice, and comes up with a simple answer: courage!
Read review
36 Steps to Christian Leadership
Dixon E Hoste
Date posted: 1 Oct 1999
The name of Dixon E. Hoste is not well-known today. But there are three reasons why he deserves to be better remembered.
The first is that he was the second General Director of the China Inland Mission, the chosen successor of Hudson Taylor.
Roy Clements walks out
John Benton
Date posted: 1 Nov 1999
It is with great sadness that we report that Dr. Roy Clements, who resigned some months ago as minister of Eden Chapel, Cambridge, is now separated from his wife.
He had told her that he had a celibate relationship with a younger man who has acted as a research assistant for him. A very few close friends had been aware for a little while that Roy had struggled with homosexual attraction over a number of years.
Do you believe this?
Dominic Stockford
Date posted: 1 Nov 1999
Unlike the question of Jesus to Martha (John 11.26), I was never asked: 'What do you believe?' until I reached my early 30s.
It may seem an extraordinary story, but I am not extraordinary. If this leads to others moving forward in their faith, then God be praised.
A radical ministry of principled pragmatism
David Baker
Date posted: 1 Oct 1999
Is Vaughan Roberts a theological liberal? Certainly some may have been tempted to ask the question after he wrote an article in a theological magazine critical of the UCCF basis of faith. Then there is the fact that his views were slated by noted American evangelical Don Carson in his book The Gagging of God.
Just as well then, that Evangelicals Now sent me to interview the other Vaughan Roberts. For there are two people called the Rev. Vaughan Roberts, both clergymen, but with somewhat differing theology.
You in Your Small Corner - the elusive dream of evangelical unity
Mark Johnston
Date posted: 1 Sep 1999
There are few more significant challenges facing the church and churches of our day than that of pursuing meaningful unity.
The fact that Jesus prays for a unity which can be witnessed by a watching world in such a way as to endorse the credibility of the gospel (John 17.20-23) and the fact that Paul uses a verb which can be translated 'spare no effort' to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4.3), both point to a Christian responsibility which too many Christians too easily shirk.
The faith in France - any future?
Paul Wells
Date posted: 1 Aug 1999
France is traditionally a Roman Catholic country. At the end of the 20th century, religion has been marginalised. People are turning away from Catholicism by the score, but what are they looking for?
In today's France, materialism is much in evidence. At all levels of society, people want to move up and have more. However, it has fostered frustration and emptiness and also guilt. The poor are left on the outside. So on the French TV news, the plight of the homeless always figures during the winter months. But apart from that, compassion is by proxy.
A brief guide to Christian websites
Chris Walley
Date posted: 1 Jun 1999
Scattered through the articles in The Times were nearly 20 web sites for those with computers and modems to find and download further information.
On television, a campaign is running to push the use of the web, and even my cereal packet boasts its own cryptic address of slashes and letters. The web is spreading so fast that - for once - the word 'explosion' is not hyperbole.
Mission field - Clapham
Mr Ian Brown
Date posted: 1 Apr 1998
Mission field: Clapham
Courland Grove is a Grace Baptist Church in a run-down part of inner London. Our congregation is mainly some of the poorest members of society: single parents, the mentally disadvantaged and unemployed.
Among these needy folk are some with extreme problems: alcoholics, schizophrenics, drug addicts and the psychologically disturbed. Many members lack either a paid job or a normal family background. Many are damaged by broken relationship situations.
What are we waiting for?
What are we waiting for?
Luis Palau, international evangelist from Argentina, was speaking at a series of mission meetings in north-west England in May. EN caught up with him, and heard some scorching comments on the lack of urgency in the British church.
EN: You have been visiting Britain since the 1970s and you are just starting another mission. What do you think of the state of the church?
