A Bible and a memory foam mattress – it must be Word Alive!
Amanda Robbie writes: A refreshing, a reunion, a rejoicing. So many good things can be said about last week’s Word Alive event ‘Back Together Around the Word’. A crowd of almost 4,500 gathered at Pontins in Prestatyn after a three-year gap, thanks to the hard work of Nigel Beynon and Tom Roberts and the organising team, and of course, the grace of God.
Our family geared ourselves up with jumpers and shorts, raincoats and swimming kit, a slow cooker and a memory-foam mattress topper. We stuffed the car and entrusted the dog to kind carers and made our way to Wales to face all kinds of weather and the joyous sight of Christians getting together to learn from the Lord and one another.
Baptist same-sex pressure
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 May 2022
The Baptist Union
(BU)
council
is
considering
changing
the ministerial
requirements
in
relation
to
same-sex
marriage for its ministers.
It
is understood 70 people, mainly BU
ministers who are part of pressure group
Affirming Baptists Together, signed a letter
to the General Secretary of the BU requesting
that it effectively change its rule requiring its
ministers to be single or in a heterosexual
marriage on the basis that it is discriminatory.
letter from the
Philippines
Reuben & Cathy Saywell
Date posted: 1 May 2022
So it begins. A new life as missionaries, 7,000 miles from home, in the far east country of the Philippines – in particular, a densely populated municipality named Santa Maria, about 15 miles north of the capital city.
This is a work that my wife and I have been preparing for and praying over for almost a decade. The two of us met as teenage freshers at Aberystwyth University, and from then until now, every day, from that very first meeting, we have had the call for gospel witness in this needy nation heavy upon our hearts. And now, at last, we’ve made it!
‘Remember
vulnerable’
en staff
Date posted: 1 May 2022
Churches are being urged to remember that,
for some people, returning to church as the
pandemic eases is still a difficult thing.
Carl Knightly, part of the leadership team
at London City Mission and an Ambassador
for Faith
in Later Life,
said:
‘Whilst
vaccination
rates are high and cases
far
lower than they were, many are still fearful
of the implications of catching Covid and
becoming unwell.
Haiti: help after tanker fireball horror
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
A petrol tanker which crashed, overturned
and exploded – unleashing a fireball killing
90 – is the latest in a series of tragedies for
Haiti, after which Christian agency MAF
has helped bring disaster relief.
The Mission Aviation Fellowship has been
at the forefront of assisting in the wake of
this most recent traumatic event – only a
short while after starting to wind up
its
humanitarian
response
to an earthquake
which had claimed 2,200 lives a few months
earlier. When the devastating 7.2 magnitude
earthquake struck Haiti’s western peninsula
on 14 August 2021, causing major damage
and destroying tens of thousands of homes,
MAF personnel responded immediately.
An alcoholic father. Homeless as a child in Brazil. Ministry in Nepal. Now the UK…
Jonathan Winch
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
Jonathan Winch, Executive Director of Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Newcastle, spoke to Ronaldo André, one of their students. This is part of their conversation. ‘When I was five I ran away from home; my father was an alcoholic and would have killed me. I spent the next year and a half living on the streets of Brazil.
‘The police can’t arrest little children; they just beat them up and let them go. My life as a little child became about drugs, theft and robbery on behalf of the criminal gangs that vie for control of Brazil’s streets. I witnessed stabbings; I saw people setting others on fire. And then one day a woman stopped me and offered me a place in a children’s home.
AMiE renews
aim for 2050
AMiE
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE)
says it is seeing encouraging signs of growth
both
in existing churches and
in new
fellowships joining.
AMiE describes itself as ‘a fellowship of
faithful Anglican churches committed
to
gospel mission’ and is linked to GAFCON,
the global movement of Anglicans committed
to orthodox views on sexuality.
750 churches show passion!
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
More than 750 churches across the UK and Ireland have signed up to A Passion for Life – a pioneering, month-long, evangelistic mission this Easter.
The mission is providing the tools to enable individual churches to ‘plan, build and promote’ their evangelism in the lead-up to Easter. They range from online support resources to training videos, which the organisers said are being well-received by churches.
30 churches Scottish aim
John MacKinnon
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
The Free Church of Scotland have recently released a video and booklet promoting their aim to see a healthy gospel church for every community in Scotland:
Healthy in ministry; healthy in mission; healthy in training; and healthy, growing gospel congregations that are a blessing to the community around them. David Meredith, the Mission Director of the Free Church of Scotland, said: ‘The key to developing a healthy gospel church is to be rooted in two things – rooted in the world of the Bible and its proclamation, while building a bridge into contemporary society. The sweet spot of being faithful to Christ and the Bible, and engaging with our own society.’
Michael Griffiths: a life
Reuben Grace
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
Dr Michael Griffiths, renowned author,
speaker and former General Director of
OMF International, died at the age of 93
on 9 January.
Michael was born
in Cardiff
in 1928,
and came to faith in Christ in 1942 at a
Christ’s Hospital School Christian Union
meeting, under the preaching of an exiled
German pastor. Studying Natural Sciences
at Peterhouse College, Cambridge,
he
served on the Executive Committee of the
Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union
in several positions, including as President.
He graduated
in 1952, but stayed on at
Ridley Hall to train for Anglican ministry.
At this time Michael met his wife Valerie, at
a conference on English Puritans at Martyn
Lloyd Jones’ Westminster Chapel.
Ukraine orphans: ‘A dramatic and terrifying escape’
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
The Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) is a supporter of the Grace Shelter, an orphanage run by Grace Church (Baptist) in Odessa, a port on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, since 2004.
Fifty-three children, aged from about three to 18, and their ‘orphan parents’ lived there. The site also hosted a ‘transition house’, which provided a number of small apartments for young adults for a couple of years whilst learning to become independent.
Grief and growth in Basildon
Jim Sayers
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
With news of how God brings blessing and
new life out of the darkest of situations in
His church, Jim Sayers of the Association of
Grace Baptist Churches writes:
What happens when your church building
gets destroyed in an air raid? That happened
to the church in Chatham Road, Wandsworth
Common on 15 October 1940. After World
War 2, large numbers of Londoners moved
out to the new towns. A number of Grace
Baptist churches were planted in these new
towns in the 50s and 60s, a time of real
social change. So Fryerns Baptist Church was
planted in Basildon, Essex in 1954 to replace
the church in Wandsworth.
‘Steward power well’ – call
Jo Bull
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) has met for the first time as a Convocation since the pandemic.
AMiE – a network of Anglican churches outside the Church of England, and linked to GAFCON – had as its conference theme ‘Thrive.’
800 Sunday School teachers trained
Mike Beresford & Ruth MacBean
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
Children for Christ Ministry (CFCM) has trained over 800 Sunday School teachers over the last two years in Malawi.
This remarkable achievement has taken place during four successive waves of Covid-19, where restrictions on gathering were commonplace. Furthermore, whilst many organisations focused on the cities, CFCM deliberately targeted teachers throughout the length and breadth of the country, which is roughly the size of England.
London hears message of post-Covid hope
Matt Laube
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
The Annual Conference of
the London
Gospel Partnership has taken place at East
London Tabernacle, hosted by their pastor
Ray Brown.
Given the effort and necessity of pastors
and churches across London
to
respond
faithfully to the challenges of the pandemic,
the conference’s theme was gospel hope in a
post-Covid landscape.
HK: mission fear
Peter Morrison
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Christian missions from across the world, which are based in Hong Kong, may be forced out, it is feared.
There is an increasing ‘climate of fear’ in the former colony, according to a missionary speaking under a pseudonym to Evangelicals Now.
Jewish openness prompts new outreach
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
International Mission
to
Jewish People
(IMJP) is to step up its efforts to reach and
share the gospel with Jewish people living
in London, the result of a discernible new
openness among some to hear and receive
the good news.
One
such person was Simon, a young
Jewish punk rock singer. Befriended by an
IMJP missionary, he revealed how tough he
was finding lockdown. The missionary talked
about the hope he had in Jesus, Simon accepted
a copy of John’s Gospel and the two are now
having regular one-to-one Bible studies.
New hope in Hull
Hull 2030 Steering Group
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
Around 50 members of more
than
ten
different churches have met at
Jubilee
Church Hull to celebrate all that God has
been doing since October 2018.
The vision of Hull 2030, which began
then, is to pray and work together to see 20
healthy gospel-centred churches planted in
Hull by 2030; as well as to encourage church
revitalisation and gospel co-operation.
Russia: a new spiritual awakening
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
Evangelicals Now is regularly privileged to come across much faithful gospel witness by often small and (humanly-speaking) under-resourced evangelical ministries in sometimes far-flung areas of the world. The GoodWORD Partnership (GWP), founded by Blair Carlson in Minneapolis in 2005, is one of those.
Blair coaches national church leaders in local evangelism, guiding them with their outreach, including preparation and follow-up within local churches. He has just returned from Russia and Poland, where GWP helped lead a major evangelism training conference, the Forum for Evangelism in Russia, which is now in its fifth year. Blair spoke to Evangelicals Now afterwards:
Exclusive: persecuted Finn speaks out
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
As this edition of Evangelicals Now went to press, the trials of Finnish Christians Päivi Räsänen MP and Bishop Juhana Pohjola, of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, had started.
Both are accused of agitation against an ethnic group, specifically Räsänen’s ‘insulting’ of homosexuals on a radio programme and in a booklet published in 2004 by Pohjola.
Durham church inquiry plea
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
Christchurch Durham is facing mounting pressure to commission an independent review following serious allegations of abuse of power against the pastor, who left last December.
Tony Jones, senior pastor at the independent Anglican church until his resignation last year, has been accused of abuses of power and governance and presiding over a ‘culture of fear’.
Jerusalem: Jewish people told of Jesus
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
International Mission to Jewish People (IMJP) is organising evangelistic coach tours in order to reach Jewish Holocaust survivors with the gospel.
An increased openness among Jewish people to hear about Jesus as Messiah means that hundreds of Jewish people are now regularly joining IMJP’s Bible tours, where they visit sites in the Holy Land which have a particular significance in the story, life, and claims of Jesus.
Target may be exceeded
Davy Ellison
Date posted: 1 Mar 2022
April 2022 marks the half-way point of a
Ten Year Vision for the Irish Baptist College
(IBC).
As of this year, IBC has been in existence
for 130 years. Originating in Dublin in 1892,
it moved to Belfast in 1963 and since 2003
has been
located
in
the
lush countryside
near Moira. The College’s primary focus has
always been to serve the Irish church context;
even so, graduates have served on all the
inhabited continents of the globe.
Nine million mission gifts en route around the globe
Nick Cole
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
Samaritan’s Purse is once again sending over 9million shoebox gifts to thousands of churches around the world to give out to children in their local communities and take the opportunity to share the gospel with them.
Over 1,000 churches and many more families and individuals in the UK donated at least 250,000 shoeboxes to the Operation Christmas Child annual project. Additionally over 300 churches around the nation opened their doors as collection centres in November. The gifts are being sent to 2,355 churches in Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Central Asia, Liberia, Middle East, Moldova, Nigeria and Serbia. The largest consignment of ten containers (80,000 shoeboxes) was sent to 556 church partners in Liberia and the smallest shipment of one container to the Middle East will be distributed in refugee camps and among the persecuted Christian community.