New outreach aimed at 95% of under-18s
en staff
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
Scripture Union England and Wales (SU) has
launched a mission framework, Revealing
Jesus, based upon
research undertaken
about how people come to faith. Its aim
is to see children and young people find a
personal vibrant faith in Jesus.
It’s designed to connect with the 95% of
under-18s who have no contact with church
in England and Wales.
In
four
steps, –
Connect, Explore, Respond, Grow – young
people are guided and supported on their
faith journey.
LCM: Bible study boom
London City Mission
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
Graham Miller of London City Mission writes:
Are we preaching the word in season and out of season? My friend, Jeremy Marshall, said that he’s never had so many take-ups for one-to-one Bible studies as he had at the beginning of lockdown. One of our missionaries, Olly Sherwood, had so many wanting to study with him that he had to train up extra study leaders. Preach the word in season and out of season.
C of E orthodox fight on as new Anglican group set up
EN
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Evangelicals in the Church of England have been preparing to contend in the wake of the launch of Living in Love and Faith – while a new Anglican network has also been set up.
At the latest General Synod, a presentation was given on the new Living in Love and Faith (LLF) resources on issues of sexuality and gender.
history
Of Bede and birds
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Last month we looked at the life of Bede
(c.673–735),
the Anglo-Saxon historian
who is best known for his Church History
of the English People (Historia Ecclesiastica
Gentis Anglorum).
Why does this historical work – which
traces
the history of England
from
the
Roman occupation to 731, the year that
it was completed, as well as detailing the
conversion of
the Anglo-Saxon peoples –
merit calling Bede a model historian?
A safe church is a transparent one
Carl Chambers
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Carl Chambers argues that victims of abuse have been failed by churches too easily covering things up
In 2015, Matthew Syed published a book called Black Box Thinking. He contrasts the culture of the airline industry with the health service in the US and UK.
90% of pastors lack proper theological
training, major conference is told
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
90% of pastors have no formal theological
education,
a
specialist
in
theological
education in the Global South has told an
international consultation.
Dr Manfred Kohl, who has experience in
supporting and financing ministry training,
explained
that
for
this
reason he
funds
only people – and not buildings. He also
challenges institutions and their funders to
think
radical
thoughts about
theological
education.
Scots Free Church
planting push
Freechurch.org
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
With
the
aim
of
planting
30
churches by 2023,
a Church Planting
Director has been
announced by
the
Free
Church
of
Scotland.
The Revd Neil
MacMillan
said:
‘Planting new churches
is a vital part of our mission
in secular
Scotland. As we sustain and nourish existing
congregations,
the gospel also drives us
outwards to new places and new people. The
most
important element of this challenge
is prayer, so pray for a movement of God’s
Spirit in our nation so that we can do all this
and much more.’
Revealed: untold story of students in Covid
Milla Ling
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Many of us are aware of the difficulties that students have faced this year; Covid outbreaks on campus, intense loneliness and even protests against extreme restrictions – it is becoming a sadly familiar story. But underneath and alongside this, runs another, lesser-known story of the innovation and passion shown by the Christian Unions.
Faced with a tough and completely different context, the CUs courageously rose to the challenge and tried exciting new ways of sharing the hope of Jesus within the universities.
Two-day-old Barako saved in ‘miracle’ flight
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Even though the number of flights MAF made in 2020 was reduced because of coronavirus, its planes were still able to bring hope, help and healing to 26 of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable nations.
In Kenya, where overland travel can be dangerous by day and treacherous at night, Pilot Daniel Loewen-Rudgers flew a baby boy from Dukana, on the Ethiopian border, to Kijabe Hospital, when the condition of the newborn became critical. According to Daniel: ‘It was a miracle we could fly to a good hospital like Kijabe during the pandemic.’
Leatherhead: church lockdown launch
Joel Murray of the FIEC describes how God
has been answering the prayer of a church
in Leatherhead:
How often do we really pray Ephesians
3:20, asking God to do immeasurably more
than we ask or imagine?
Stuart King
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
1922 – 2020: MAF pioneer
It’s not often that the good-natured office comedian is the person who founded the organisation, but it says something about the humour and humility of Stuart King, pioneering founder of the world’s largest humanitarian airline, who ascended into glory on 29 August 2020.
Stuart, who died age 98 in the 75th year of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), combined a mischievous sense of humour which led him to make jokes at meetings and then ask the person leading to get on with it, with a deep desire to glorify God and serve the developing world through aviation and technology.
Jewish ministry
name change
IMJP
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Christian Witness to Israel is changing its
name to International Ministry to Jewish
People.
CEO Joseph Steinberg explained that: ‘We
became increasingly aware that the name of
our mission, Christian Witness to Israel, has
become a hindrance to engage parts of the
church as we seek to expand our reach and
share the Good News of Jesus with as many
Jewish people as possible. This
is due to
the assumption many make that our name
means we are focused on politics or land
issues in the Middle East when in fact we, as
an evangelistic mission, are solely focused on
telling Jewish people about Jesus, wherever
they may be.’
history
Bede, the quiet monk who lived through events that shook the world
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
If I were asked which historian I would love to meet apart from the Biblical authors, I would say, without hesitation, Bede (c. 673–735).
An English Benedictine monk and scholar, Bede is chiefly known for his Church History of the English People (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum), a history of England from the Roman occupation to 731, the year that it was completed. In the Middle Ages, though, Bede was equally known for his 20 or so commentaries on various books of the Bible and a work on the Lord’s Prayer. In all, Bede wrote about 40 works, nearly all of which are extant. Regretfully, one that we do not have is his translation of the Gospel of John into Anglo-Saxon.
400 years on, how the Mayflower Pilgrims can still inspire us...
Martyn Whittock
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
In 1620, 102 ill-prepared settlers landed two months later than planned, in the wrong place on the eastern coast of North America.
They were a mixture of ‘saints’ (asylum-seeking members of separatist Puritan congregations) and ‘strangers’ (economic migrants necessary for the financial success of the venture). By the next summer, half of them were dead. Yet, from this inauspicious beginning, the impact of the Mayflower settlement still resonates 400 years later.
news in brief
Franklin Graham
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
(BGEA)
is suing venues
in Manchester,
Birmingham, Sheffield and Wales for breach
of contract, it was reported on 1 November.
Franklin Graham told the Guardian that
he was ‘being denied [a platform] because of
religious beliefs’. Some people have regarded
his views as homophobic or Islamophobic.
Others have welcomed the opportunity to
have him speak in the UK. The events were
cancelled amid protests made by LGBT rights campaigners.
‘12 Associates’ commissioned to help pastors and spouses
Living Leadership
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
Living Leadership, which supports leaders across the UK and Ireland, writes:
These are strange times. The rapidly changing landscape for churches and Christian organisations has created immense pressures for leaders. Some are weary and fed up with the feeling that every time they get going with one set of restrictions, the goalposts shift. Others are growing fainthearted, close to collapse and chronically discouraged.
‘The Lord has
helped us’
en staff
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
Founded in 1893 as the Foreign Missions
Club, the Highbury Centre is a Christian
guest house in North London which has
given shelter to missionaries, pastors, full-time Christian workers and their families
for over 100 years.
Now,
in the second English
lockdown,
unable to open unless people are travelling
on essential business, Sue Scalora of
the
Centre said: ‘The Lord has helped us through
the ups and downs, and we’ll try and keep
open even though we’re making a loss at the
moment serving the Lord’s people.’
Helping HK Christians
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
Dear Editor,
In September’s en you helpfully drew attention to developments in Hong Kong, explaining that this may result in some Christians using rights granted by the UK government to settle here.
Church life
The Great Commission and the local church
Joanthan Leeman
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Are you a goer or a sender?
I trust you’ve heard a preacher or a missionary ask that question. Their point: the Great Commission calls some people to leave kith and kin for the foreign fields of unreached peoples. And it calls other people to send missionaries with prayer, finances, and support broadly.
Can we renew our cities in a Christian way?
I have a great love for cities; especially London, where I was born and bred. However, despite their attractiveness as major centres of cultural and intellectual activity, when we consider the UK’s soaring urban crime rates and the relatively higher incidences of self-harm and suicide in our cities, it’s clear that something has gone seriously wrong. Last year, in our urban cities and towns, there were 34.7 recorded acts of violent crime per 1,000 population, compared to 6.8 in rural areas. Additionally, there were more than double the number of vehicle offences per 1,000 in predominantly urban areas, when compared to predominantly rural areas. While social scientists have discovered an exponential relationship between population density and both deprivation and the crime rate, unravelling the underlying causes – and, more importantly, potential cures – has proven far more difficult. Frederic Le Play was a celebrated 19th-century French sociologist, engineer and economist, who, in his twenties, was converted to Christ from atheism. He was also the first scholar to investigate shifts in family configurations systematically. His ability to speak five languages and understand eight facilitated his extensive surveys of working-class families in different European, North American, Asian, North-African and Asian countries. Although a pioneering technologist, one of the key findings from his 1855 publication ‘Les ouvriers européens’ (‘European workers’) was that, despite the benefits of industry and urban development, the major social upheaval that they caused had resulted in smaller nuclear families replacing traditional extended families. He also explained that the resultant loss of intergenerational ties (including moral and religious traditions) had led to moral decay.
Despite this evidence, Le Play’s findings were keenly contested by some of the 20th century’s leading sociologists, until his position was eventually vindicated by later studies.