Anglican Mission in England to establish Diaconate
AMiE
Date posted: 10 Sep 2024
The latest Synod of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) has seen its three bishops present a detailed paper on why they have Anglican bishops, presbyters and deacons.
Lee McMunn writes: ‘Their substantial report traced the Biblical and historical roots for why we do what we do. We concluded that Anglican orders are very much fit for purpose, are for the blessing of the Church and should be joyfully embraced. As a result of our discussions, we resolved to establish a vocational Diaconate for godly and gifted men and women who have been properly identified and trained.’
Ten questions with: Israel Oluwole Olofinjana
en staff
Date posted: 9 Jun 2025
Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is director of One People Commission, part of the Evangelical Alliance.
He is a Baptist minister and has led two multi-ethnic Baptist churches and an independent charismatic church. He is the founding director of Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World, a mission network initiative that provides cross-cultural training to reverse missionaries in Britain. He is a consultant to the executive team of Lausanne Europe, advising them on matters related to diaspora ministries in Europe.
Gateway to the south for new church plant
en staff
Date posted: 30 Apr 2025
Balham in London was once famously described by the late comedian Peter Sellers as the “gateway to the south” in a much-loved comedy parody of American travelogues.
Now decades later those words are proving prophetic as Christ Church Balham (CCB) seeks to reach out and plant a new church some six miles to its south. CCB is part of both the Co-Mission reformed church planting movement and the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE).
The ‘black hole’ at the centre of the Church of England
John Dunnett
Date posted: 28 May 2025
It is easy to think that the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) can is being perennially “kicked down the road”.
However, en readers are invited to note that we are about to enter a season in which Diocesan Synods across the Church of England are being invited to hold a special discussion on the proposals. Make no mistake – these discussions will be used to give “ballast” to the project – and the juggernaut will lumber on.
Franklin Graham UK tour prompts support – and caveats
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 26 May 2025
American missionary Franklin Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is bringing his evangelistic tour to the ExCel venue London this June – despite recently provoking concern among some UK evangelicals.
The event comes as part of Graham’s God Loves You Tour, which aims to partner with local churches to share “the simple message of God’s love”. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) are hoping to draw thousands to the venue, as they did when it was last held there in 2023.
Myanmar: Christians acting after quake
Luke Randall
Date posted: 25 May 2025
Churches and mission partners have sprung into action to support the relief effort in Myanmar following the catastrophic earthquake which shook the nation last month. However, military control and violence still persists amid stories of gospel opportunity.
The southeast Asian country was devastated by the 7.7 magnitude quake which has killed more than 3,600, and the nation’s church community has crossed denominational divides to support the relief effort.
Reformed scholar Gordon Wenham dies
en staff
Date posted: 25 May 2025
Tributes are being paid to renowned Biblical scholar Gordon Wenham, who has died.
Wenham, born in 1943, was a Reformed British Old Testament theologian and writer, and was once described by US academic Tremper Longman as “one of the finest evangelical commentators today”.
Ministry to farmers: sowing and growing
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 24 May 2025
A Christian association is seeking to fill a reported gospel need in farming communities.
Tony Baskerville, Cheshire-based tenant farmer on the Rode Estate, Scholar Green, and elder at Grace Church, Sandbach, says that farmers are feeling increasingly marginalised. “There is a tremendous opportunity to reach out to them in genuine Christian love,” said Baskerville.
New college with Christian aims and ethos launches
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 23 May 2025
In response to the increasingly prevalent liberal and progressive ideologies appearing in universities, a “new and unique” Christian college has been launched.
Selden College will be based in Oxford and has a twofold vision: to recover the heritage of Christian higher education, and to glorify God in this arena.
Nigeria: More than 3,000 killed
Luke Randall
Date posted: 22 May 2025
Over a hundred Christians have been murdered in a series of brutal attacks by Fulani herdsmen in Plateau State, Nigeria in recent weeks, with Open Doors conservatively estimating that across northern Nigeria more than 3,100 have been slaughtered in the last year.
Alongside those murdered, thousands of Christians have been left displaced, which Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK and Ireland, explained is problematic during the current rainy season, as many will have no way to care for their families or provide food.
The lifesaving flights battling sorcery and snakebites
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 5 Apr 2025
Whether it’s snakebite or sorcery, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flights are making all the difference to the people of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Growing up in Dodomona, in the Middle Fly District of Western Province, PNG, Titus Yabua witnessed many members of his community dying from treatable illnesses, accidents, snakebites and pig bites.
letter from Russia
Gospel hope melts Siberian hearts
Mark Foster
Date posted: 7 May 2025
In Far East Russia, believers endeavouring to share the truth of the gospel face problems which are peculiar to the context in which they work. Harsh wintry conditions, isolated scattered communities, impassible roads and, most critical of all, strong resistance to Christian truth and a suspicion of believers, must all be overcome if the gospel is to take root and conquer hearts.
One approach has been proving encouraging and effective – the building of “Hope Centres” in communities where there is resistance to gospel witness, and no ready acceptance of evangelists from “outside”.
Rachel Cocksedge appointed
en staff
Date posted: 6 May 2025
Rachel Cocksedge has been appointed as new Executive Assistant at Faith in Later Life.
“She’ll be playing a key role in supporting our mission to equip and inspire churches to reach and empower older people. Please pray for wisdom, joy and God’s guidance as she serves with us,” the organisation reports.
France: One new church planted ‘every ten days’
Luke Randall
Date posted: 28 Apr 2025
There are encouraging reports of new gospel growth in France – with evangelicals claiming one church is being established every ten days, and a new study revealing younger Protestants are increasingly likely to identify as evangelical.
Data collected by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) on behalf of the Protestant Federation of France reveals that younger people and those on lower incomes who regard themselves as practicing Protestants in France are increasingly likely to identify as evangelical Christians.
letter from America
The US and UK: Transatlantic lessons
Josh Moody
Date posted: 27 Apr 2025
I recently returned to the UK for a preaching tour. I preached 13 times in about as many days. Godcenteredlife.org had a conference in London. We did a missions conference with Crosslinks in Belfast. And more.
It’s made me reflect, with renewed up close and personal experience, on the differences, strengths and weaknesses of the different church scenes. Obviously, there are many more, and much bigger, churches in the USA. Right before I came to the UK, I heard of another church in the USA of about 15,000 people in attendance – a church that previous to that brief awareness moment I had never heard of. If there was a church in the UK with 15,000 people in attendance I would have heard of it and been quite familiar with it. But the size difference is not the most notable, nor in some ways, the most important distinction.
Myanmar: ‘Your prayer is our hope...’
Luke Randall
Date posted: 24 Apr 2025
Following the devastating earthquake in Myanmar, which has killed thousands and destroyed many buildings, evangelicals are reporting a desperate need for aid – and glimmers of gospel opportunity.
The 7.7 magnitude quake has prompted an immediate humanitarian crisis in a country which has been gripped by civil conflict for four years, with missionaries in the nation already experiencing a “tenfold increase” in requests for missionary aid even before the earthquake.
Network celebrates 15 years
en staff
Date posted: 18 Apr 2025
The Grace Baptist Partnership, a network dedicated to planting, training and revitalisation, is celebrating 15 years of mission and outreach.
Representatives from more than 20 churches gathered at Dunstable Baptist Church for the annual Grace Baptist Partnership (GBP) Prayer and Praise gathering. The structure of the event flowed with the ministry emphases of GBP, namely growing leaders, planting and revitalising churches, and reaching nations.
USA: New task force to remove ‘anti-Christian’ bias
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 18 Apr 2025
President Trump is on a mission to get rid of “anti-Christian bias” in the US, creating a task force especially for the purpose.
Headed up by Attorney General Pam Bondi, the task force is to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government”, Trump announced in Washington recently during National Prayer Breakfast events.
Jack Hemmings, pioneer pilot, dies aged 103
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 23 Feb 2025
Jack Hemmings, who has died at the age of 103, was co-founder of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), the largest humanitarian airline in the world.
In 1945 Jack, an RAF Squadron Leader tasked with protecting the Bay of Bengal from Japanese invasion, read an article advocating the need to use planes to ‘carry messengers of peace and to unload cargoes of blessing’. As RAF Flight Lieutenant Murray Kendon wrote: ‘Instead of spreading destruction and death why should [aircraft] not now spread life and healing by that message wherein lie the seeds of peace and power?’
Pakistan’s little-known Christian story
Mike Wakely
Date posted: 5 Feb 2025
In a small town in western Punjab, now in northern Pakistan, there lived a Hindu from a caste of farmers. His name was Nattu Lal. He heard the gospel, put his faith in Christ and was baptised in November 1872.
Nattu was the son of the head man in his village. His family was wealthy, but Nattu wasted his money and proved himself to be a poor Christian witness. But he did one thing that was of immense importance. He brought a poor man called Ditt to faith in Jesus.
Creation care: It is a gospel issue, although not a salvation one
Chris Wright & Dave Bookless
Date posted: 25 Feb 2025
We appreciate the article ‘Is creation care a gospel issue?’ by John Samuel and Richard Buggs in the January issue of en, and share their concern that the phraseology of the Cape Town Commitment might be mistakenly interpreted as ‘adding works to grace,’ and thereby ‘undermining’ the message of the gospel itself.
That is certainly no intention of ours, or indeed of the Lausanne Cape Town Commitment, which elsewhere in Part 1.8 defines the gospel of grace very strongly in terms ‘trusting in Christ alone … on the work of Christ and the promise of God.’
‘Jesus is Lord, and I see my own sin’
Thomas McBride
Date posted: 1 Apr 2025
It has been a season of vibrant, missional events weeks for Christian Unions. With around 100 CUs taking part, the gospel message has been heard by thousands of students, and hundreds are exploring further.
Students in the University of Warwick Christian Union were some of the first to hold their events week this year, which was centred on the theme of “Hope”. Halfway through the week, Ben (name changed), a CU member’s housemate, decided to attend an event. His curiosity had been piqued after he heard the events week was taking place and he arrived with questions. Interested, but by no means certain of the truth of what he had heard, he said to CU members afterwards: “I don’t know why God loves us”.
FIEC appoints new Director for Essex
FIEC
Date posted: 30 Mar 2025
Simon Medcroft has been appointed to serve as Director for Essex with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).
Simon has served as pastor at Danbury Mission for 20 years and will now be seconded to FIEC for one day a week to serve affiliated churches in Essex – one of the fastest growing but least churched counties in the UK.
‘Why do so many gospel churches favour the rich?’
Jim Sayers
Date posted: 22 Mar 2025
“There is nothing inherently admirable about people with money. Why, then, do so many gospel churches favour the rich?” That was the challenge given by Steve Kneale at a recent conference, challenging leaders to a “religion that is pure and undefiled” (James 2:27).
Many ministries target the rich and successful for “strategic” reasons, but does that mean we have shown favouritism in our giving to mission? It is much harder to fund gospel work among the poor; there is no payback and lots of help is needed.
The ‘black hole’ at the centre of the Church of England
It is easy to think that the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) can is being perennially “kicked down the road”.
However, en readers are invited to note that we are about to enter a season in which Diocesan Synods across the Church of England are being invited to hold a special discussion on the proposals. Make no mistake – these discussions will be used to give “ballast” to the project – and the juggernaut will lumber on.