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Milla Ling-Davies

Date posted: 1 Apr 2022

CU mission weeks are back.

Until recently, the idea of hundreds of students sitting chair to chair in a marquee, baguettes in hand and listening to a gospel talk, has seemed laughably out of reach. In the past few weeks however, 77 Christian Unions across Great Britain were finally able to run mission weeks in-person again. After a two-year break, they were uncertain how these weeks of focused evangelistic events might be received.

A town crier has been successfully used by a church to attract people to its mission week.

Morley Town Crier Steven Holt was engaged by Morley Community Church in West Yorkshire to publicise its events.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 May 2022

A North Carolina folk duo is preparing to come to Chelmsford, Essex to share the gospel through music.

Songs of the Folk (aka classically trained married couple Andrew and Lauren Cason), discovered that music opened doors for them into people’s lives to share the Good News of Christ – often to the most marginalised in society or those harder to reach.

It has been an exciting first half of 2022 for Affinity, a network of around 1,200 churches and Christian organisations working in partnership for the sake of the gospel, writes Graham Nicholls.

We were delighted to welcome new members to Affinity – churches from a diverse range of backgrounds including majority Jamaican, Congolese and Chinese churches.

Naunton Lane Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Cheltenham, has inducted a new minister, The Revd Matt Faux.

The appointment ends a three-year gap. Matt, who originally trained as a teacher, had completed a BA in Theology at Union School of Theology, Bridgend. Matt is married to Rachel and they have three boys: William, Joshua and Isaac.

A new UK National Ministry Survey shows an apparent contradiction between a majority of the general public disapproving of ‘people trying to convert others to their faith’ and thinking ‘everyone should leave everyone else alone’ (73%), and high numbers of the general public feeling comfortable about having a conversation with a friend about Jesus (54%) or attending an Easter service (50%).

The National Ministry Survey was a collaborative endeavour of Co-Mission, A Passion for Life, FIEC and ReNew seeking mission data for the benefit of the UK church.

Graham Miller, Chief Executive of London City Mission, shares his joy of hearing dramatic accounts of people who have been saved out of chaotic and destructive lives into God’s family:

Meet Craig (see photo), brought up in North West London in a non-religious household. By the age of 21 he was living a chaotic life, committed a crime and was sentenced to prison.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.’

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.’

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.

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.