Nigeria: Horrific death toll of Christians
Luke Randall
Date posted: 1 Nov 2024
The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) has called for the Nigerian government to strengthen religious rights, following their discovery that Christians have been the most violently persecuted group in Nigeria during the last four years.
A study by ORFA revealed that 16,700 Christians have been violently killed out of an overall civilian total of 55,900, mainly by Islamist extremists. This makes them the most discriminated-against people group in the country. Other groups to feature high on the list were security forces and terror group members.
news in brief
Nicaragua: Legal status cancelled
Scores of Protestant churches, the Nicaraguan Evangelical Alliance, and the Latino-Islamic Cultural Association, were among 169 civil society organisations whose legal status has been cancelled by the Nicaraguan government.
The move follows the similar cancellation of 1,651 civil society organisations last month, and brings the total number of organisations that have arbitrarily lost their legal status since 2018 to 5,552. Among those cancelled are two historic Protestant denominations: the Episcopal Church of Nicaragua (dating back to 1612), which belongs to the Global Anglican Communion, and the Moravian Church of Nicaragua, established in 1847.
letter from Moldova
‘Please preach for as long as you want!’
Donald J Morrison
Date posted: 9 Sep 2024
Горячий христианский привет каждому читателю! Translated from Russian, this reads: Warm Christian greetings to every reader!
It is now just over 20 years since I made my first mission trip to Moldova writes Donald J. Morrison. One afternoon at the London Theological Seminary (LTS) compound in London, a Moldovan friend – with whom I was studying – asked if I would do him a ‘very big favour’. Sometimes we discover that swiftly saying ‘yes’ without any rational thought can have far reaching and widespread consequences! What was this ‘very big favour’? Would I drive a 15-seater bus, gifted by a London church, to his home town, Cahul in Moldova! Always open to a new challenge, I volunteered to go! The six-day epic journey was memorable – in more ways than one! After travelling through seven countries, and encountering mega ‘border problems’ we finally reached our destination, having covered 1,840 miles! Since then, we have been back many times. Before providing a report about my very latest trip, let me give you a brief overview of the country.
Jewish mission marks anniversary
Charles Gardner
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
Christ Church Jerusalem, the city’s headquarters of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ) is celebrating its 175th anniversary.
Founded in London in 1809 by William Wilberforce and others, CMJ last year celebrated the bicentenary of its involvement in the Holy Land. But it was not until 1849 that Christ Church was built.
New minister for Govan Free Church
Luke Randall
Date posted: 27 Oct 2024
David MacPherson has been appointed as the new minister of Govan Free Church. He moves to the West Glasgow congregation following ministry in other congregations including Bon Accord Free Church in Aberdeen and Greenock Free Church, as well as a period of mission work in Peru.
About 85 people attended the service of induction, which saw the church induct only its second-ever minister, following Norman Mackay’s departure in 2022. Mackay had planted the church in 2013.
380 CofE evangelicals discuss gospel growth
Chris Tufnell
Date posted: 27 Oct 2024
Amid great uncertainty in the Church of England, 380 delegates from over 170 churches have gathered at the national ReNew conference in Leeds.
ReNew is a united movement of Anglican evangelicals, both inside and outside of the Church of England, with a positive vision for the growth of the gospel through pioneering, establishing and securing healthy local churches.
Middle East: ‘sleep-deprived and anxious’
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 26 Oct 2024
‘We are sleep deprived and anxious,’ evangelicals at the centre of the Middle East conflict have told en, ‘but we keep faith in God.’
As the conflict involving Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran reached ever-higher temperatures, staff at Christian TV station SAT-7 reported how they are caught right in the heart of the terrifying situation.
Amazing Grace: John Newton exemplified 'the great doctrine of love'
Ruth Eardley
Date posted: 25 Oct 2024
According to theologian Jim Packer, John Newton was ‘the friendliest, wisest, humblest and least pushy of the 18th -century evangelical leaders’. At a recent church history lecture by Dr Lesley Rowe, Leicestershire folk were also pleased to learn that Newton had a special place in his heart for the county and visited on several occasions.
Newton was motherless from the age of six, boarded at a harsh school from the age of eight, taken to sea at 11 and an accomplished blasphemer by age 12. He was press-ganged into the Navy, flogged, enslaved and, famously, became captain of a slave-trading ship.
National week of prayer comes to an end
en staff
Date posted: 23 Oct 2024
en Board member Carl Knightly, Director of Networks at London City Mission was among those at Emmanuel Centre, Westminster, as part of the ‘National Week of Prayer’.
Writing on X, he said: ‘Many people came together to pray for the UK, and this was one of numerous events occurring across the nation, and indeed nations… It was a blessed and profound time of prayer and worship, as we came before God to lift up the UK to Him. I was privileged to facilitate some of that prayer time, and join with fellow believers in this special afternoon.’
everyday theology
Substitute ‘saviours’
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 18 Oct 2024
Justification of sinners by grace alone lies at the heart of the gospel. It is the proof and consequence of the fact that Christ is so entirely all-sufficient a Saviour that His work needs no supplementing by us. While this may be good news, it is not an easy truth for the fallen to swallow.
The fact that Jesus pronounces a foul sinner righteous while condemning a life committed to religious uprightness (see Luke 18:9-14) offends our pride. For the humbling effect of Jesus’s teaching, so entirely condemning our self-reliance, makes it far easier to reserve the message of justification by grace as one only for beginners or outsiders. Justification may be an essential evangelical truth, but it is one that all evangelicals struggle to live by.
Four new churches on the same day
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 14 Oct 2024
Four new church plants were launched on a single Sunday, three within the growing International Presbyterian Church (IPC) - bringing the total to 20 churches.
On 1 September, Grace Church Coventry, Christ Church, Headington and All Saints, Exeter were launched. The IPC denomination has, under its ‘2030 vision’, an ambition for 20 new churches by 2030. Jonty Rhodes, elder at Christ Church Derby and chair of the denomination’s church-planting committee said: ‘It’s been an encouraging few years.’ Also on 1 September, a new AMiE (Anglican Mission in England) congregation, Christ Church Hessle, held its commissioning service.
bridging cultural divides
Are you only friends with people like you?
Jason Roach
Date posted: 12 Oct 2024
In my experience, eating fish and chips at the seaside can be a life threatening experience. Not because of the quality of the fish and chips, but because of the flocks of birds trying to eat it at the same time.
On one memorable trip, I was in the process of trying to rescue my daughter's meal from a veracious seagull, when its partner in crime took the opportunity to swipe mine. I think they must have enjoyed it, because a few minutes later they deposited most of what they had digested on my head. In His wisdom, the Lord has ordained that trips to the beach would remind me of that old adage: birds of a feather, flock together.
Prayer times literally ‘out of this world’
Luke Randall
Date posted: 8 Oct 2024
During the Covid pandemic, Christians had to learn how to engage with church differently because of national restrictions. Now, two NASA astronauts have taken virtual church to a whole new level.
Christians Barry Wilmore and Tracy Dyson, who were among the four astronauts on the Boeing Starliner’s flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in June, are members of Providence Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas.
safeguarding briefing
Church culture: 'But we've always done it that way'
Jules Loveland
Date posted: 7 Oct 2024
In every church, there is an often unseen influence that can bring life and progress to a congregation or leave it stagnated. This influence is church culture.
Frequently overlooked and under-appreciated, culture is always present. It shapes the way we think, behave, and interact with one another. Understanding the significance of our church culture is essential, for effective evangelism, growth and pastoral care.
Timothy Dudley-Smith: A life in three scenes
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 15 Aug 2024
RT REVD TIMOTHY DUDLEY-SMITH OBE: 1926-2024
Timothy Dudley-Smith will be remembered best for his rich contribution to hymnody. He is widely-regarded as the greatest modern hymnwriter of the 20th and early 21st centuries. At his 90th birthday celebration, Pam Rhodes, presenter of BBC Songs of Praise, described his popularity as springing out of ‘his understanding of the human condition’.
Why is some ‘sound’ expository preaching just so dull and boring?
Jon Barrett
Date posted: 4 Oct 2024
‘The preacher pulls the little cord that turns on his lectern light and deals out his note cards like a riverboat gambler. The stakes have never been higher.
‘Two minutes from now he may have lost his listeners completely to their own thoughts, but at this minute he has them in the palm of his hand. The silence in the shabby church is deafening because everybody is listening to it. Everybody is listening including even himself. Everybody knows the kind of things he has told them before and not told them, but who knows what this time, out of the silence, he will tell them?’
Ten questions with: Oliver Wyncoll
1. How did you become a Christian?
I was blessed to grow up in a Christian family, attending an Open Brethren assembly in Banbury during my childhood. When I was eight, I went to a Christian boarding school in Bath for ten years. I was known as a Christian at school, but had no real relationship with Christ as my Lord and Saviour and rarely wanted to read the Bible on my own.
bridging cultural divides
Crossing cultures as an introvert
Jason Roach
Date posted: 3 Oct 2024
A common concern around welcoming people from different cultures into the local church is that it is impossible for introverts. I remember one person saying, 'I find it hard enough to speak to my friends, let alone to strangers!'
It’s part of a bigger fear among Christians that we just don’t have what it takes to reach out to those who are different from us. What do we do when we want to communicate across cultural differences, but the bar just seems too high?
Three churches unite to launch new plant in Kidderminster
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 30 Sep 2024
In a display of unity, three churches in Worcestershire have overcome stylistic and theological differences to form a new church plant, recognised by the FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches).
Set to officially launch in January 2025, the formation of the new Grace Church Kidderminster occurred after two churches in the Wyre Forest each approached the lead pastor of nearby Woodgreen Church, Richard Lacey, for help. With small and aging congregations, both Kidderminster Evangelical Church (KEC) and Christ Church Wyre Forest, (CCWF) had recognised a need for external assistance – they contacted Lacey within weeks of each other.
Polluted politicians?
Keir Starmer’s political honeymoon didn’t survive the summer. His new government started with a gloomy message of ‘buckle up, this is going to hurt’, while floating tax rises to tackle the public finances.
Then it was revealed that he and some of his colleagues received gifts worth large sums of money in the form of clothing and hospitality. They did not break the rules, but neither did they help to restore the trust in politicians that has been seeping away in recent years.