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.
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.
‘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.
news in brief
Sex ed man returns
The creator of the sexually-explicit Warwickshire sex ed curriculum removed from use in the county earlier in 2020, has made a comeback with a new curriculum on his Going Off the Rails website.
Jonny Hunt claims his new work closely follows the government Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) ‘curriculum’. A training session must be attended before the materials can be purchased. The self-styled ‘sex ed’ consultant’s biography still includes no academic qualifications in the field of education or RSE (en January 2020).
Three new church plants go forward in Beckenham, Folkestone and Hull
EN
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
Three evangelical church plants in differing networks have taken their first steps forward across the UK.
Grace Church Beckenham
Pastor of the new Grace Church Beckenham, Matt Dew-Jones, says people in this new congregation are passionate about both Beckenham itself, and God’s grace. ‘God is a giver (in so many ways), and ultimately at the cross. As we see a world marked by taking …we love that [God] gives forgiveness and the power to change.’ In statements on their website, the church is clear it wants to ‘become generous like Jesus. We want our lives, our time, energy and money to be used to serve Jesus and His world’ and they want to be a place where ‘people like me love people who are not like me in a committed church family’.
evangelicals & catholics
Packer’s papal mistake?
Leonardo de Chirico
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
The global church owes a debt of gratitude to James I. Packer (1926–2020). During the second half of the 20th century he has embodied Evangelical theology at its best, especially on issues like the authority of Scripture, penal substitutionary atonement, and the interplay between theology and spirituality. This is to say that, if I dare critique one minor – albeit significant – instance of his theological involvement, I do so out of immense respect.
It is no secret that in Packer’s theological biography his involvement with the ‘Evangelicals and Catholics Together’ (ECT) initiative has puzzled many of his admirers. How such a solid theologian could be prone to sign theologically-blurred documents and encourage confusing ecumenical activities has been a standing question in many people’s minds.
Co-founder of MAF dies
Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
Mission Aviation Fellowsip (MAF) co-founder, former RAF Flight Lieutenant, and Normandy Landings veteran Stuart Sendall-King, has died aged 98. He was one of the early pioneers to take light aircraft to the remotest parts of Africa in the aftermath of World War II.
Serving as an aircraft engineer during the Second World War and ending his RAF career as Chief Technical Officer at RAF Duxford, Stuart nurtured a growing desire to use aircraft for good – helping to establish MAF in 1945.
Missionary centre future?
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Dear Editor,
I would like to ask readers to pray for the Highbury Centre at 22-26 Aberdeen Park, London N5. Since 1893 it has been a place of welcome for missionaries and Christian friends from all over the world, who appreciated its Christian ethos.
New ministry training scheme for athletes
Christians in Sport
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Christians in Sport, in partnership with other sports ministry organisations globally, is helping to pilot a new training journey specifically for young Christian leaders who are active in the world of competitive and elite sport.
As good as the many ministry training schemes in the UK are, they are often not best suited to the competitive and elite sports player. Mission and discipleship within this world is one of the most unique aspects of sport ministry. Working with athletes who compete at the highest levels, train intensively and often travel regularly, they are often on their own with few believers around them. Some of them are also in the public eye.
Genocide: the plight of Muslim and Christian Uighurs
A missionary, writing under the pseudonym Peter Morrison, issues a wake-up call
Genocide. The Armenians. The Jews. Rwanda. And more recently the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica and the Muslim Rohingya of Burma. And now many fear… the Muslim Uighurs of China – more than 1 million of whom have been imprisoned in ‘re-education’ camps.
Abuse: our experience
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Dear Editor,
Since
reading
the
Independent
Inquiry
into
the Child Sexual Abuse
in Cof E
churches, I became aware of how much the
report mirrored my daughter’s experience.
The difference was that this happened in an
evangelical church. Therefore, I believe this
report is valuable for all churches and needs
to be read thoughtfully.
news in brief
China: Rev. 22.19
A Communist textbook used in Chinese schools falsifies the Biblical account of John 8:3-11 and claims that Jesus murdered the woman who was found in adultery and writes that Jesus says He Himself is a sinner.
One Christian, distressed about the distortion of the Biblical account, reportedly wrote on a social media post: ‘I want everyone to know that the Chinese Communist Party has always tried to distort the history of the church, to slander our church, and to make people hate our church.’
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).
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.
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
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?
To boldly go... to eternity and beyond?
‘These are difficult times when there’s not that much good news. And I think this is one of those things that is universally good. No matter where you are on planet Earth, this is a universally good thing.’
Those words were delivered earlier this summer. So quick quiz (without cheating and looking down this column for answers): who said them, and about what?