letter from Japan
Aslan is on the move… here in Japan
Charley Ballinger
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
If you have ever read the Chronicles of Narnia you may remember reading the words ‘Aslan is on the move’.
As you did so, perhaps a chill went down your spine as the prospect of the coming victory over evil becomes a palpable reality. Well, as I write, a chill goes down my spine as it would seem that the Lord is on the move here in Japan.
everyday evangelism
Reasons not to plan mission events (and reasons to do so)
Glen Scrivener
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
In the last decade I’ve been involved with scores of week-long or weekend missions put on by churches and Christian Unions.
Such outreaches – like those planned for the Passion for Life initiative next year – are big investments. We need some solid reasons to give of our time, money, talents and energy. Often though our reasons are poor.
Balls & Bibles
Christians in Sport
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
This summer young people and adult volunteers are coming together to run Sports Plus – seven, week-long, residential camps across five locations in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Sports Plus Director Ian Lancaster describes it as ‘serious sports action for the serious sporty young person.’ He added: ‘Competitive young people make friends with like-minded others from across the UK and come under the sound of the good news of Jesus. It is a vital work for these youngsters to start connecting their sport and faith – working out how the gospel enables them to play with freedom, and how it can define their identity in a performance driven world.’
Smiles from new bishops
AMiE
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) has two new bishops.
The AMiE Synod endorsed Tim Davies and Lee McMunn as Assistant Bishops under the leadership of Convocation Bishop Andy Lines.
Embody ‘Jesus the traumatised one,’ says Langberg
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Around 120 people met
on
a damp
Saturday in Cardiff to listen to renowned
psychologist Dr Diane Langberg share her
deep knowledge of different forms of abuse,
grief and on ‘care for the caregiver’.
Dr Langberg has nearly 50 years’ experience
working with trauma victims and survivors
of different forms of abuse, ranging from
sexual and physical abuse; experiences of war;
and increasingly, abuse of power in churches.
Egyptian evangelicals launch unique new film festival
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Seeking to encourage and equip emerging Christian film-makers from Egypt and the Middle East – and allowing them to focus on the issues that most concern them – were the goals of the first-ever Salam (‘Peace’) Film Festival, which has taken place in Alexandria.
The brainchild of Christian TV station SAT-7 and the Evangelical Church of Egypt, the Festival comprised 26 films which were shown and competed for a series of awards.
Keswick’s James Robson: ‘What we try and stand for is respect for everybody’
Rebecca Chapman
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
As final preparations for this summer’s Keswick Convention were being made, en spoke to its Ministry Director, the Revd Dr James Robson.
With the much-awaited Keswick Convention of 2022 almost upon us, James joined us on Zoom, from a light-filled room full of books. With all that is happening at Keswick, including the Derwent Project, there was certainly no shortage of things to be grateful to God for…
Naked Truth tackles porn
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
A new programme to help churches tackle issues of porn use and addiction within their congregations has been unveiled, against the background of rising consumption.
According to research carried out by the charity launching the programme, the Naked Truth Project, 13% of UK adults admitted to being addicted to watching pornography. The ‘Church Membership’ programme was launched at a House of Commons event, hosted by Tim Farron MP (photo) and attended by six other MPs and peers.
Hunger emergency: Christians respond
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Even before the invasion of Ukraine, many of the poorest nations of the world were suffering the catastrophic impact of climate change.
Earlier this year the island of Madagascar, for example, experienced its ‘worst drought’ in 40 years. UNICEF says half a million under-fives will be ‘acutely malnourished’ this year; in the south, where 80% of the people depend on agriculture to survive, the UN World Food Programme estimates that half of the population now faces hunger. The drought has decimated crops and dried up water sources, resulting in little sustenance for communities and cattle. The pandemic, deforestation and Madagascar’s cyclone season have further exacerbated their woes. According to UNWFP, this could become ‘the first famine to be caused by climate change’.
Don’t neglect rural areas, Scottish evangelicals told
Free Church of Scotland
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Around 70 delegates attended the ‘In a Big
Country’ conference about rural ministry
held at Dingwall Free Church in Scotland.
The conference, which was organised by
the Free Church of Scotland, was a great
opportunity
for delegates
to study God’s
word, to hear what He is doing in rural
Scotland, and to encourage each other.
Welsh tackle abuse scandals horror
Rob James
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Welsh Baptist ministers spent some time
recently focusing on the pressing issue of
‘Abuse of power in the local church’.
Phil
Swann
(see
photo)
of
Llanelli
Evangelical Church opened up a topic which
the Baptist Union of Wales admits is not
often talked about but ‘can do great harm’ to
both ministers and members. ‘Recent public
cases have drawn attention to how church
leaders need be more aware of the potential
abuses of power within the local church and
the damaging effect this can have on those
caught up in such situations,’ it said.
Evangelical Futures: What’s the future for Anglican evangelicals?
A new book to be published in June by IVP called God’s Church for God’s World brings together voices drawn from all major Anglican evangelical networks in the UK, demonstrating a commitment to the gospel being proclaimed and a unity both throughout and beyond the Church of England.
With a number of young contributors, it also offers a glimpse of possible futures for the Anglican Church. This extract (with some very minor adaptations for publication here) not only summarises the book’s contents but also gives a flavour of the situation Anglican evangelicals face – a useful overview both for them and also for non-Anglicans to whom the whole Anglican ‘thing’ can sometimes seem understandably perplexing and exasperating.
Mission 2022: churches prepare to reach out afresh
John MacKinnon
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
We have all heard the phrase ‘build back better’ many times in recent days as everyone seeks to establish what a new normal will look like.
For the church of our Lord Jesus Christ the pandemic has given all of us an opportunity to review much of our activity and to ask serious questions, as we emerge from the various restrictions, as to how we can recalibrate and refocus on the centrality of the good news of the gospel.
Shoe leather and locusts eaten in horrific drought
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jun 2022
Facing its worst drought in 40 years, food and water in Madagascar are so costly at the moment that reports are coming in of communities eating locusts, leaves, clay and even shoe leather to survive, the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) says.
MAF writes: UNICEF says that half a million children under the age of five will be ‘acutely malnourished’ this year, with a further 110,000 facing ‘severe malnourishment’.
Blood and fire
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jun 2022
Book Review
‘WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE’:
William Booth, the Salvation Army and the
Skeleton Army Riots
Read review
FIEC: 100 not out!
Joel Murray
Date posted: 1 May 2022
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is marking its centenary this year.
And to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the organisation has announced that it is gathering 100 gospel projects from around the country to enable church partnerships and fuel prayer for mission.
Jésus t'aime
Marche Pour Jésus 34 @Mpj34 / Evangelical Focus
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
More than 10,000 people have taken part in a national march for Jesus in Paris.
The majority of those taking part in the event, which resumed after a two-year break due to the pandemic, were reported to be between the ages of 25 and 35. The march was led by a team from YWAM (Youth With A Mission) accompanied by six musical bands.
news in brief
Mexico: evangelical
leader sentenced
Naasón
Joaquín García,
the
leader
of
Mexico’s largest evangelical church, has been
sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison for
sexually assaulting three teenaged girls from
his church. He will also be required to register
as a sex offender for life.
The 53-year-old
led
the
congregation
La Luz Del Mundo based in Guadalajara,
Jalisco, Mexico, which
runs churches
in
several
locations
throughout
the United States and Mexico.
What will happen at Lambeth 2022?
Global Anglican bishop gathering looms
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
The Lambeth Conference which is set to
take place from 26 July to 6 August, last
met with all Anglican bishops in attendance
in 1998 – 24 years ago.
The 1998 conference was due to receive
the report of the Decade of Evangelism from
its
secretary, Cyril Okorocha of Nigeria.
This was
shelved and Canon Okorocha
stood down in favour of pressure from some
bishops to discuss the issue of homosexual
unions. The outcome of the 1998 conference
was a
resolution, Lambeth 1.10, which
‘while
rejecting homosexual practice
as
incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our
people to minister pastorally and sensitively
to all irrespective of sexual orientation and
to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals’.
The fascinating story of John Brown of Haddington
R.A. Miller
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
This year marks the 300th birthday of John Brown of Haddington.
In 1722, Brown was born into a poor Christian family in Scotland. As a young teenager, he found himself an orphan after an illness claimed the lives of his parents. Soon after, he found himself quite sick as well. Brown wrote this in his memoirs, ‘Four fevers on end brought me so low within a few months of my mother’s death, as made almost every onlooker lose all hopes of my recovery.’
Justin Mote goes to glory
Bob Marsden
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
Bob Marsden writes: To God be the glory, great things He has done, and He did great things in and through the life and ministry of Justin Mote, who died recently.
Justin was converted while at school and he was nurtured in the faith at Emmanuel Church, Northwood. He studied at Oak Hill but, being too young to be legally ordained, he served as a lay curate at St Mary’s Basingstoke with Alex Ross.
Europe: different strands of evangelicals work together
Joel Murray
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
More than 600 church workers from 41 countries and four continents have attended the European Leadership Forum (ELF).
The mission of ELF, which was held in Wisla, Poland, is to ‘unite, equip and resource evangelical leaders to renew the Biblical church and evangelise Europe’. Their desire is for different evangelical groups to work together to achieve more than any single organisation can on their own.
Could the jobs crisis be an opportunity for churches?
We live in unusual times. Job adverts have been carefully drafted and widely distributed, yet the deadline for applications comes and goes with no one expressing interest.
This scenario has been taking place up and down the country. Currently, there are record numbers of vacancies as firms struggle to recruit. We experience the outworking of this with scenes of airport chaos and rising NHS waiting lists. There are shortages across sectors, from probation officers and dental nurses to plasterers, construction workers, and the agriculture industry. Those wanting to learn to drive cannot find driving instructors or even book a test.