Olly’s lockdown ministry: ex drug addict goes online
London City Mission
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
There’s a curious exchange between Jesus and the man who had the legion of demons driven out from him at the expense of a large herd of pigs. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you’ (Luke 8:38).
There’s every indication that he is committed and sincere about following Jesus, and certainly his life has been transformed. Yet he is turned down and told to go back home. Why?
Co-Mission: declaring Jesus through carols and craft
Co-Mission
Date posted: 1 Feb 2020
Co-Mission is committed to planting and strengthening churches throughout London to reach the lost for the glory of God. We want to reach people who wouldn’t normally come to church to hear about Jesus. Here are two examples of Co-Mission churches using the opportunity of Christmas to present guests with their need for a Saviour.
Christ Church Balham held its annual ‘carols in a pub’ service with a unique twist – mashing up traditional carols with pop music! This has become CCB’s biggest outreach event of the year. The theatre at the Bedford Pub in Balham was packed with friends and family of churchgoers, as well as those in the pub curious at the merriment. All enjoyed belting out carols with the ten-piece band, to a mix of merry renditions of Take On Me by Aha (or Angels from the Realms of Glory), Giant by Rag’n’Bone Man (or See Amid the Winter’s Snow) and All the Small Things by Blink 182 (or O Come All Ye Faithful).
news in brief
Passing the online plate
UK local churches are being offered a vital online-giving platform to help reverse the decline of income due to coronavirus.
Whilst some churches are starting to re-open their doors, the lack of collection-plate offerings is causing financial challenges for many churches. However, Stewardship is offering every church in the UK an online webpage and portal, which they can then customise for their church, thus creating a dedicated fundraising page to maximise
New ministry refreshment network launched online
Paul Coulter
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
We’re tired. Zoom fatigue, confinement, and heightened awareness of death, on top of personal needs, have wearied us.
Christian leaders have faced additional challenges. Lockdown forced an urgent development of new forms of church gatherings and pastoral connections. Emerging from lockdown with social distancing means another rethink, while no one knows yet what the ‘new normal’ for church will be. This is a time of rebuilding.
New online prayer gathering for London in November
A prayer gathering for London, which started last year, is going online this November. It is one of several exciting initiatives now being developed by the relatively new London Gospel Partnership (LGP). Richard Bray, incoming LGP Chair, reports:
One of the great encouragements of the past 20 years in the UK has been the growth in churches working together across denominational lines in regional Gospel Partnerships. These partnerships have provided training, organised missions, and seen the fruit of church planting.
Peter Maiden 1948 – 2020
OM
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
On 14 July 2020, our
dear brother
in Christ
Peter Maiden met his
Saviour
face
to
face.
With his passion
for
exegetical preaching and
his
shepherd’s
heart,
Peter leaves a legacy of
sharing God’s truth with
love
and
compassion
that will live on within
world missions.
As
the
International Director of OM
from 2003 to 2013, Peter emphasised the
spirituality of OM team members and the
importance of God’s word permeating the
entire life of Jesus followers. While leading
a life of total surrender to Jesus, in both his
public and personal life, he demonstrated
a quiet steadiness coupled with a visionary
passion for seeing the lives of people around
the world changed by Christ. Under his
leadership and guidance, new ministries
developed as part of OM’s growing holistic
approach to mission.
Mary Gladstone 1926 – 2020
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
While Mary Gladstone’s name may not be
widely known, the fruit of her labours is
clearly evident.
As a new Christian at Cambridge, she
and her friends befriended an unconverted
fresher, Helen Roseveare,
later to become
one of the foremost missionaries of the 20th
century.
the ENd word
This is the vision your church needs now
Jeremy McQuoid
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
How is your church doing as it hits the autumn? How are your services at the moment?
The question I am hearing in every webinar from church leaders is: are we ready post-lockdown? How will the impact of the prolonged absence of physical services affect our congregations?
New Christian student resources for pandemic
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
Student Christian umbrella group UCCF is launching new resources to enable students to engage with the gospel and keep making Jesus known.
The Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) has planned resources for Christian Unions (CUs) which cover all eventualities in the current pandemic. ‘More than ever we will need to encourage our CUs to maintain and sharpen the tools used for the kind of evangelism that has been bearing fruit, albeit with a somewhat different expression from what has gone before,’ says Peter Dray, UCCF Head of Creative Evangelism.
Christians start to bring hope in post-blast Beirut
Exclusive photos and report from Phil Good in Beirut, Lebanon. Phil and his wife Sylvie work with the Church Mission Society (CMS) and the evangelical Resurrection Church there.
‘Resurrection Church Beirut (RCB) has raised funds and undertaken to repair 100 homes that have been damaged. Counselling support is ongoing and will be needed for many months to come; the repercussions of this event will reach a long way into the future and the church is preparing for the long haul. After the news fades, so many people will need to rebuild their lives, and rebuilding lives is what the church knows about.
Evangelical leads couple to faith in chance Rome meeting
EN
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
An English evangelical led a German man
and his Bolivian wife to Christ after he met
them by seeming chance in the very highest
point of St Peter’s Roman Catholic basilica
in the Vatican.
Greg Downes, Director of Ministerial
Training, and Dean of The Wesley Centre
for Missional Engagement at the evangelical
training college, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, says:
AMiE: gospel growth North and South
AMiE
Date posted: 1 Aug 2020
The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) is a fellowship of faithful Anglican churches committed to gospel mission.
They are passionate about planting and strengthening churches for the salvation of many and the glory of God. They have a gospel ambition to see 25 AMiE churches by 2025 and 250 by 2050.
Ever felt like an impostor?
Sam Hodgins discusses feeling like a fraud and her new identity in Christ
Seventy percent of people are reported to have experienced ‘impostor syndrome’ at least one time in their life. It’s that feeling you have when everyone around you seems to know what they’re doing, but you have no clue. Or when you’ve been asked to take on some responsibility, but you feel like a fraud and wonder when you’ll be found out.
earth watch
Nature in lockdown!
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
How has
lockdown been
for you? The
coronavirus pandemic has affected virtually
every aspect of our lives. Christians have
rightly spent much time discussing when
and how we will be able to meet face-to-face
again for worship.
While most of us were stuck at home
though, many
people
had
a
renewed
appreciation of the nature all around us.
In the absence of traffic noise, we noticed
how loud the birdsong is. Our local parks
and green spaces took on a new importance
for our daily exercise. At the end of every
working day my wife and I would walk
through
the meadows near our house,
enjoying the beauty of creation in a way that
perhaps we didn’t before.
Petty rules
Michael Haighton (Revd)
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Dear Editor,
I write in response to the article ‘Living with difference’ in the July issue of en.
Saudis tell UN that Muslim
prejudice is ‘racism’
Barnabas Fund
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Saudi Arabia has called the United Nations
to focus on ‘eliminating Islamophobia’ as
an outworking of tackling online racism
and xenophobia.
Meshaal Bin Ali Al Balawi, Saudi’s Head of
Human Rights at the United Nations Mission
in Geneva, addressed
the Human Rights
Council, flagging the internet as a ‘space for
practicing racism’ as he called for the UN to
work towards finding a ‘solution’. The Saudi
leader stated that the world needs to ‘prohibit
racial discrimination in all its forms’.
Why Christmas Day but not Ascension?
Christopher Idle
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Dear Editor,
Several of the Christian organisations, missions and churches which I support or belong to include in their regular mailing a Prayer Diary, with valuable topics and news for every day of the year.
Keswick: inside the Convention’s ‘Tardis-style’ new centre
EN
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
It might sound like a cliché, but on this occasion it happens to be true.
Stepping inside the Keswick Convention’s Derwent Project really is like entering Doctor Who’s Tardis. Not only does it appear to be much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside, but it is big – in fact, enormous. Indeed, the space seems to go on and on and on… To paraphrase the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, if you thought it was a long way to the local shops, think again…
Jim Packer – a personal memoir: from Puritanism to Winnie-the-Pooh
Tony Baker
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Tony Baker reflects on several decades of friendship with J.I. Packer
The first time I heard Dr Jim Packer must have been at midweek talks he gave to the CU in Oxford (OICCU) in the 1950s.
Robin Dowling 1946 – 2020
Geoff Gobbett
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Robin Dowling, a well-known former Grace Baptist pastor, missionary and theologian, departed to be with Christ on 31 July 2020.
He will be sorely missed as a much-loved husband, father and grandfather. He served his generation in the ministry of the gospel from the 1970s till fairly recently. Coming from Bristol, he was well known amongst churches there when he took on the pastorate at Salem Baptist Church in Kew, Richmond, Surrey in the late 1970s. He immersed himself in encouraging Grace Baptist Churches, serving the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (South East).
