‘If we must die because of our faith in Jesus, that is what we must do’
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
Following the latest military coup in Burkina Faso, the West’s politicians are apparently now worried that Russian mercenaries may be invited in to quell the jihadist uprising there.
Meanwhile, Western Christians are being asked to pray for their brothers and sisters in the unstable and poverty-stricken West African nation, that they may have the courage to keep preaching the gospel.
From Brazil to Malaysia… Hope is explored globally
In January 2022, Christianity Explored Ministries launched its latest evangelistic resource, Hope Explored – a three-session course on the hope, peace and purpose found in Luke’s Gospel and the Christian faith.
During the spring and summer, over 500 churches in the UK implemented the materials as part of their evangelism. More recently, it’s had an increasingly international impact.
defending our faith
Evangelicals and women
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
At present the role of women in ministry
is one of the most pressing topics among
evangelical Christians.
Recent books reassessing complementarian
and egalitarian perspectives on
the Bible
have provided some helpful reconsideration
of the topic and reflection on the nature
of leadership in the contemporary church.
However,
for onlookers
from outside the
evangelical church,
the debate can
seem
antiquated and out of touch.
Have we lost sight of the central message of salvation?
Jon Barrett
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
Converted aged 20, I’ve been a Christian for 34 years and an ordained minister for 24. Add to that the fact that I was brought up in an evangelical family and you’ve got over half a century of life lived in and around the evangelical world.
Recently, I’ve found myself spending quite a bit of time ruminating on how evangelistic preaching has changed over that time period and how- much to my concern- it now tends to focus almost entirely on the benefits of the gospel at the expense of the substance of the gospel.
Bishop’s task
en staff
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
The new flying bishop for conservative evangelicals in the Church of England, Rob Munro, takes on his role at a critical time.
Dr Munro, who has been Rector of St Mary’s Cheadle, will be a crucial voice in future votes and discussions on sexuality which are at a critical stage. The former Maths and PE teacher, will have a special national ministry to parishes of a complementarian evangelical theology across England.
From a kibbutz and New Age to the New Covenant and Christ
Charles Gardner
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
A Messianic Jewish pastor is greatly indebted to Christians with a special love for the people of Israel. For without them his family would not have discovered Jesus as their Messiah.
Now helping to lead a congregation in Haifa, Jonathan Arnold describes his faith journey as being ‘from New Age to the New Covenant’.
Check your evangelism
healthcheck.talkingjesus.org
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
An ‘Evangelism Health Check’ is now live online.
The check is a survey tool set up by the Evangelical Alliance which church leaders can use to gauge how their church feels about sharing the gospel and their evangelism habits. The survey can be run live in services with the results updating in real time so leaders can get an up-to-date and accurate picture of where their church is at in terms of evangelism and mission.
Churches bridging the north-south gap
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
A partnership between two independent churches – one in a middle-class southern area and the other on a Yorkshire council estate – is bridging the north-south divide and advancing the gospel.
Banstead Community Church lies 13 miles outside central London in leafy Surrey which, along with Sussex, is the wealthiest part of England according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). ‘Average wealth’ is said to be £263,000 by the ONS.
Rico full-time with Christianity Explored
Christianity Explored Ministries
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
Well-known
evangelist Rico Tice will
be working
for Christianity Explored
Ministries
(CEM)
full
time
from next
September, it has been announced.
For the past 21 years Rico (56) has worked
for both CEM and as Senior Minister for
Evangelism at All Souls Langham Place.
Symes goes off-stream from Mainstream
Paul Eddy
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
Andrew Symes is to stand down as Executive
Secretary of Anglican Mainstream on 1
January 2023 after nearly ten years in post.
Symes, 56, who had earlier
served with
Crosslinks
in South Africa,
joined Anglican
Mainstream in 2013 to further its work amongst
orthodox Anglicans in the UK.
Doubt on Welby’s future role
Paul Eddy
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
If the Church of England moves towards blessing same sex-marriage, or ‘opts into’ allowing gay marriages in its churches as a result of the Church’s General Synod meeting in February 2023, ‘pain and distress will be felt by millions of faithful Anglicans across the globe’, and ‘significant questions would be asked as to whether Archbishop Justin Welby would be able to continue to lead the Anglican Communion.’
So says the Mouneer Hanna Anis, Archbishop Emeritus of Egypt, a global Statesman within the Anglican Communion and an adviser to the primates of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), whose provinces represent 75% of Anglicans across the globe.
politics & policy
Winter woe: strikes & Strep A
James Mildred
Date posted: 1 Jan 2023
You’d think as we prepare to celebrate Christmas this year, free from the overhanging threat of Covid-19 restrictions, that there’d be a bit more festive joy and cheer in the air.
Except there’s a lot of angst, depression, and exhaustion. Nowhere is this more obviously illustrated than amongst our political class. What with MPs like Sajid Javid announcing they’re not standing next year (although one Boris Johnson is standing…) and the melodrama (should that be psychodrama?) of three prime ministers in three months, it’s been especially fraught.
Evangelical Futures: Deconstruction, an ‘oppressive’ Bible – and what to do
Karen Soole
Date posted: 1 Nov 2022
Vast swathes of our country do not know the gospel – we know that. The Bible Society report ‘Pass It On’ in 2014 showed that 54% of parents thought the Hunger Games plot could be in the Bible , and there is no reason to think things have improved.
Many share the atheism of public figures such as Ricky Gervais, who proclaims loudly – there is no God. His message is clear – you can be religious, live as you like, but none of it is real – there are no spiritual realities. These situations are not new. Ignorance and unbelief have existed from generation to generation. However, we are facing new expressions of unbelief as the culture wars impact the church.
Brazilian on a mission to Chard
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Aug 2021
A Brazilian missionary is working among
young people in Chard, Somerset, mentoring
and giving mental-health support with the
help of local ministries.
Raquel Lima
(see photo), who
is also
serving the local Portuguese community, has
been placed by Latin Link (in partnership
with
South West Youth Ministries)
to
mentor and support young people alongside
Forefront
Church,
an
independent
evangelical fellowship.
East Ender Millionaire Becomes Evangelist
John Todd
Date posted: 1 Nov 2022
The ‘East End’ of London – West Ham, Stepney, Millwall, Brixton, the Docklands, Whitechapel… just a few of the many well-known places there.
It is the home of EastEnders – a popular TV series since 1985 with over six-thousand daily episodes. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall featured on the Albert Square set in the 2nd of June 2022 episode of the Queen’s Diamond jubilee weekend. Call the Midwife, another popular BBC period-drama series from January 2012, is based on the lives of nurse-midwives in the East End from the late 1950s.
Frank Entwistle 1937 – 2022
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Nov 2022
Frank Entwistle will best be remembered for his leadership of Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) for 25 years, retiring in 2002.
Set up in 1936 as the Publishing House of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship (later UCCF), IVP was the strongest and most widely-known independent evangelical publisher of its day. Frank Roland Entwistle grew up in Lancashire, imbibing a love of books and of reading from his father. Following his conversion aged 14, he set his heart on ordination, and later studied theology at St John’s College, Durham, choosing a special option on Luther and Calvin. He was prepared for ordination at Cranmer Hall. The fairly conservative faculty, and the strong inter-collegiate Christian Union (DICCU), gave Frank a thorough Biblical grounding. While at Durham he met his wife, Beryl, and they married during his curacy at St John’s Harborne in Birmingham. In 1965 Frank joined the home staff of what is now Crosslinks, editing the Society’s magazine and books.
Jesus’ return and green issues today
Dave Gobbett
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, widely known as COP27, has just been running in Egypt. In a timely new book* Dave Gobbett of Highfields Church Cardiff helps us think through a Biblical perspective on the environment. This extract explains how Jesus’ return might impact our thinking on this issue.
‘We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him … The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever’ (1 Thess. 4:14, 16).
politics & policy
CARE enters fifth decade
James Mildred
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
Why does CARE engage with politicians and bring a Biblical perspective to laws and legislation?
There is one reason among many that stands out to me. As the mission agency to UK politics, we believe that Biblical principles for human flourishing are good for all in society. Respecting the building blocks of society that God has created is the first step towards a fairer and more just society. And if we don’t bring these values into the corridors of power, how will politicians ever hear them?
news in brief
Iran: Christians released
Human-rights
advocates
are mystified
about why two Christians, imprisoned in
Iran for their church leadership roles, have
been freed a few days after a fire broke out
in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
The
leaders
are Pastor Naser Navard
Goltapeh, who had spent two months
in
solitary confinement, and Fariba Dalir, who
was jailed for starting a house church. She had
spent 38 days in solitary confinement. Both
pardons were unexpected and had previously
been denied. One theory is that Evin Prison
is hosting Mahsa Amini protestors and is
quickly running out of space.
AMiE ordains
AMiE
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
Dr Osita Orafu, originally from Nigeria, has been ordained in the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) at Trinity Church, Scarborough.
AMiE is a network of Anglican evangelical churches outside of and independent of the Church of England.
Anti-Semitism then and now
Do many people in Britain, including Christians, and our own evangelical constituency, lack insight when it comes to Jewish people and to the reality and impact of anti-Semitism?
The answer is yes. Read firstly Jewish believer Gary Clayton’s chilling history of Christian anti-Semitism (here). Read secondly the review of David Baddiel’s recent TV programme (Jews Don’t Count) by his fellow Jew, Joseph Steinberg, CEO of the International Mission to Jewish People (here), who will be joining our rota of occasional contributors in 2023. And thirdly read the thorough, wise and definitive judgement last week of the Disciplinary Tribunal investigating Stephen Sizer (here). (You can read the entire ruling online by searching online for ‘Church of England tribunal decisions’). There can be no doubt.