pastoral care
Letting down others?
Helen Thorne-Allenson
Date posted: 1 Feb 2022
Do you ever feel as if you are letting everyone down? The inbox is out of control. The people you’ve been meaning to phone still haven’t heard from you. The to-do list is spiralling. And, even when you do meet with someone, you’re conscious they’re not getting your best (It’s not just you! Ed.).
At times like this we know that life isn’t sustainable, but we also desperately want to deliver what we (or others) think we should. So, distracted, demoralised and demotivated, we try to plod on, hoping that – one day, if we try hard enough – we’ll manage to catch up. If that doesn’t work, we can always run away, we remind ourselves – subconsciously at least, that’s often our Plan B.
news in brief
From Russia with love
From Siberia to Greater Manchester, Russell Phillips has taken over as pastor of Radcliffe Road Baptist Church, Bury.
While studying Russian at Cambridge, Russell went to Novosibirsk, Russia with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES). He met his wife Oxana there and they married in Scotland in 1999.
everyday evangelism
Three questions on evangelism and the three wrong right answers!
Glen Scrivener
Date posted: 1 Dec 2021
When I train people in personal evangelism there are three questions I ask which always elicit the right wrong answers.
They are the right wrong answers because they are the ones I expect people to give. But they’re also the right wrong answers because, in their own way, they are correct. It’s just that you can be correct and wrong at the same time. Let me share the three questions and the answers they usually provoke:
Josep Rossello: what’s next?
Nicola Laver interviews the South American bishop who came to the UK on a mission which has unfolded in unexpected ways
An exodus of evangelicals from the Free Church of England (FCE) continues against the backdrop of serious fraud allegations and a culture of secrecy against its senior leadership. Both the police and the charity regulator are investigating a range of allegations against Bishop Primus John Fenwick, who is resisting calls to resign.
Online ‘Yorkshire pudding bake-along’ draws students
Kitty Hardyman
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
From Kingston-upon-Thames (photo left) to Strathclyde (photo right), students in Christian Unions across the UK have been active welcoming first-year students.
Dinners, picnics, tables at Freshers’ Fairs laden with cake, even an online ‘Yorkshire pudding bake-along’ – all these sought to create an inclusive space for any students’ first contact with Christians.
Covid: wipeout fears, but church serves
Our worldwide Anglican news focuses this month on the life of a Christian community in India. Chris Sugden writes:
Divya Shanthi Church, School and Community Services grew out of St John’s Church ( Church of South India) Bangalore, India as a mission initiative to serve poor families in North Bangalore.
Titus Trust: ‘Power must be redeemed’
en staff
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
The future of organisations like the Titus Trust depends on whether they realise power must be redeemed as well as people, a psychologist who attended the Iwerne Camps has told en.
Dr Simon Walker, a Christian psychologist who works in school mental-health safeguarding, and who was at Iwerne Camps in the 1980s, was speaking after the publication of a report into the Titus Trust by independent charity Thirtyone:eight, which aims to protect vulnerable people from abuse.
Seventy new missionaries mark 70 years of Slav mission
www.sga.org.uk
Date posted: 1 Jun 2021
The Slavic Gospel Association has marked its 70th anniversary by sending 70 new mission partners to spiritually- needy areas. Mark Foster, Director of Field Ministries, reports:
Covid-19 put an end to national and international travel in 2020, but not to gospel outreach and expansion. Slavic Gospel Association [UK], as part of its 70th Anniversary Projects, had planned to support the sending of 70 new missionaries into spiritually-needy communities – one for each year of its existence – to bring the good news of salvation in Christ. What would become of such a project in the paralysing lockdown due to the pandemic? Was there any hope of even getting near to that target? If it were reached, was any kind of spiritual return possible?
Unholy Halloween: what’s the history?
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
The road to hell, in a quote generally attributed to Samuel Johnson or St Bernard of Clairvaux, is paved with good intentions.
Whether you’re a UK believer organising a ‘Light Party’, an evangelical Christian running a ‘hell house’1 in America, an avid trick-or-treater pounding the streets, or one of the 11,766 people in England and Wales identifying as Wiccans in the 2011 Census, Halloween is an issue that’s hard to avoid.
Baby saved from flesh-eating condition
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
A five month-old girl named Sangai, who needed urgent medical treatment for a flesh-eating condition, has been saved by a Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot in Liberia.
Little Sangai was also suffering from hydrocephalus – a build-up of fluid on the brain. The condition, if left untreated, can damage brain tissue.
Three new churches are launched in London
Co-Mission
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
Co-Mission says it is ‘thrilled’ about three new church plants that, ‘in God’s kindness’, have just launched in London.
Redeemer Queen’s Park in north-west London launched on Saturday 25 September at 4 p.m. in Salusbury (sic) Primary School. Over the last year, God has graciously assembled a core team of 25 adults with a few kids to boot. Amazingly, 65 adults and 13 kids turned up for their launch, and even more the second week! Most arrived through personal relationships with the core team. Others connected with Redeemer through flyering or social media. The church’s university outreach and its children’s work are big draws.
Evangelism Now: ten key truths outlined
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
‘Evangelism
in a time of crisis’ was the
theme of the 2021 Evangelism Conference,
entitled ‘Evangelism Now’, held at All Soul’s
Langham Place.
Rico Tice set out the three key principles
of evangelism: it must be based on God’s
sovereignty; the gospel must be presented
with both integrity and truth; there must be
no deception in how we operate.
College cuts: doubt over evangelism centre
en staff
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
An evangelical theological college has axed
the role of Director of Ministerial Training,
bringing into doubt the future of its specialist
centre for training future evangelists.
Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, said loss of income
due to the pandemic necessitated the change
– which means theologian evangelist Greg
Downes (photo) will lose his job as well as
his family home, which went with the role.
news in brief
Virgin closure
Fundraising platform Virgin Money Giving,
relied on by many churches, will no longer
take online donations as of 1 December.
Leading Christian philanthropy charity
Stewardship has urged church and charity
treasurers to take necessary action to ensure
online donations continue.
The platform – a subsidiary of Virgin
Money – will
close
completely by 22
February 2022. Church treasurers needing
more information can call Stewardship on
020 8502 5600, or visit stewardship.org.uk/
fundraising-churches-charities
Surge in student gospel interest
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Dec 2021
There has been increasing openness to the gospel among university students in the UK this Autumn, the UCCF has reported.
One unbelieving student attended an Abertay Christian Union (CU) lunchtime talk on ‘Lasting Joy’. Afterwards he said: ‘If this is true, you have a genuine hope for eternal happiness. If it’s not, you still have an anchor that allows you to find joy in this life – I find that exhilarating!’
New hope at Hope Church
AMiE
Date posted: 1 Dec 2021
The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) has a new member church – Hope Church Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire.
The congregation is meeting in Astrea Academy Derne, on the south side of Goldthorpe village.
Marginalised find mercy on London streets
London City Mission writes: The cruelty of the pandemic has been that people already struggling have been hardest hit.
It’s those on the margins of society who were more likely to have died or suffered loss from Covid. It’s those living in crowded homes, less able to socially distance, whose low-paid work, if it hasn’t disappeared, has put them more at risk of contracting the virus. And it’s those for whom Covid, far from being a chance to save money, has added costs in the form of additional heating and food. London has been especially hit; reliance on foodbanks has more than doubled in the capital this year.
Tibet: what challenges under Chinese rule face the few believers?
As a precocious youngster I devoured Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer, the Austrian climber who after World War II became tutor to the young Dalai Lama in Tibet.
I still have the newspaper clippings of the thrilling escape of the Dalai Lama into India from Chinese troops in 1959. I then had no idea that over 50 years later I would myself see the golden roofs of the gigantic Potala Palace in Lhasa and cross the vast plateau with its nomads and herds of yaks.
news in brief
Honduras: evangelicals
now in majority
The Roman Catholic Church was
the
majority
religion
in Honduras, central
America, and is officially recognised by the
government. But it has now been overtaken
by evangelicals.
A new survey shows that 43.2% of the
population identify themselves as evangelical
Christians while just 38.2% call themselves
Catholics. 13% of Hondurans say they do
not belong to any religious denomination.
Is there an undiscovered Dragon in your church?
Karen Todd
Date posted: 1 Dec 2021
Church is not a business, right?
In recent months many of us have come to question the businesslike approaches of many megachurches and church plants, particularly as scandals have revealed the thin ice on which some have been built. But, before we overreact and discredit this businesslike approach, we should not lose the valuable insights that those with a good business head have brought to our churches.
‘Dial-a-doughnut’ and ‘Circus’ inspire 1,000 young leaders
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
Having never set foot on campus, having met only a few members in their CU and feeling uncertain about what university life will be like this term, many Christian Union leaders were especially eager to come to Forum 2021.
Forum is UCCF’s annual training conference for CU leaders, aiming to inspire and equip them to share the gospel in the universities, before they head back to campus in September. This August, over 1,000 students from across Great Britain arrived at the Quinta Christian Centre in Shropshire. They met friends face-to-face, sang praise to God, attended seminars and put their heads together to plan for the year in front of them.
A Passion For Life 2022 – how is it designed to work?
John MacKinnon
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
One of life’s most enjoyable experiences and one that spans the globe in its cultural relevance is the joy of sharing a meal amongst family, friends or even on occasions with complete strangers.
In the journey of life, I’ve known the simplicity of an apple given at great sacrifice in a poverty-stricken African village, the elaborate feasts of civil gatherings, the splendour of wedding celebrations, the countless choices of restaurant menus and, my favourite, the gathering round the family table for home-cooked fayre where the main ingredient is love.
