Will the circle be unbroken?
Janice Pibworth
Date posted: 1 Apr 2018
Janice Pibworth tells the story of hymnwriter Ada Ruth Habershon (1861–1918)
Will the circle be unbroken is inscribed on the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Rotunda.
news in brief
Word and Spirit
The Fellowship of Word and Spirit conference took place in late January.
Bible readings were from Johnny Juckes on the opening chapters of 1 Samuel, and from Dave Walker, Jason Ward, and Geoffrey Firth about the missio Dei from the perspectives of God, the world and the church. It was a great encouragement for so many people, patiently and faithfully serving the Lord in the churches where he has placed them, to join together in prayer at many times during the three days.
Nigeria: leader arrested
World Watch Monitor
Date posted: 1 May 2018
On 7 March, police in Nigeria’s north east
Adamawa State arrested the organiser of a
protest march against the continued killings of predominantly Christian farmers by
mainly Muslim Fulani herdsmen.
Mijah Stanley had called on ‘all pro-democracy and civil rights organisations, faith-based and community-based organisations,
as well as other Nigerians’ to rally. However,
the march never went ahead after police
spokesperson S.P. Othman Abubakar warned
they would be arrested and prosecuted.
Together for the Gospel – distinct from the world
Jamie Southcombe
Date posted: 1 May 2018
Almost 13,000 pastors and church leaders gathered from 11-13 April for the 7th biennial Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, Kentucky.
Together for the Gospel started with a friendship between four pastors and has now burgeoned into one of the largest Christian conferences in the world. Attendees came from over 50 different countries including a record 62 from the United Kingdom.
Global communion with colonial structure
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 May 2018
In his insightful contribution for this column
last month, Chris Sugden showed that the
lack of accountability and anxiety about
brand protection revealed
in the Oxfam
scandal are also unresolved problems for
the Anglican Communion.
Both have a global reach and both have to
deal with imbalances of power and the need
for inclusive leadership.
news in brief
Suicide okay?
Guernsey will hold a vote on whether or not
to legalise assisted suicide in May.
If the motion is passed by politicians, an
18-month consultation period will then take
place on the legal framework. The proposal
will allow people to kill themselves with
assistance from a doctor, and will ask the
Parliament to consider issues such as conscientious objection and a requirement to be
terminally ill.
Wheaton: case won
The Christian Institute
Date posted: 1 May 2018
A Christian college gave thanks to God in
February after winning a legal battle with
significant implications for religious liberty
in the US.
Wheaton College won the right to not
provide health insurance which covers abortion-inducing drugs. The case centred on the
Affordable Care Act – ‘Obamacare’ – which
obliges employers to provide health insurance that includes ‘contraceptives’ which act
to destroy human embryos.
Dorothy Marx
John Capon
Date posted: 1 May 2018
Dear Editor,
Ray Porter’s obituary notice of Dorothy
Marx (February en) brought back distant
childhood memories
for me. She and
I
shared the same piano teacher, the redoubtable Enid Bulow of Sutton, though Dorothy
was 15 years my senior. She was a far more
accomplished pianist than I ever became, as
Mrs Bulow took great pride in her star pupil
being awarded an LRAM (Licentiate of the
Royal Academy of Music) diploma.
Rwanda: recovering the Great Commission
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 Mar 2018
In January two new Anglican Primates were elected, the Bishop of Maridi, Justin Badi Arama, as Archbishop of South Sudan and the Bishop of Shyira, Dr Laurent Mbanda, as Archbishop of Rwanda.
Both nations have suffered internecine violence, and by far the most notorious example remains the Rwandan genocide of 1994 in which an estimated 1 million people died. Given the long history of insecurity which predated South Sudan’s recent independence, internal strife was predictable, but Rwanda was an established kingdom well before the colonial era, in which different ethnic groups lived peacefully. Moreover, Rwanda was the home of a powerful revival in 1929 which spread spontaneously during the 1930s and became known as the East African Revival.
Priorities: God’s or ours
Steve Nation
Date posted: 1 Mar 2018
Looking at Acts 6.1-7, with Steve Nation
Thus far in the Book of Acts, it’s been quite a ride.
TAKING A LIBERTY
Richard Cunningham
Date posted: 1 Apr 2018
‘The Christian Union should be banned from having a freshers’ stand.’
This was the unilateral announcement last October (2017) of two rogue members of Oxford’s Balliol College Junior Common Room Committee. This was to make the Balliol freshers’ fair a ‘safe, secular space’. This decision was subsequently overturned by an irate student body, but the incident caught the attention of the national media.
Harringay, 1954 – a personal recollection
John Peet
Date posted: 1 Apr 2018
I was only a teenager in 1954 when a young American evangelist, Billy Graham, and his team were invited by local churches to come to the UK and conduct an evangelistic crusade in London.
I have a mixture of good memories of the team and their ministry. The ‘song leader’ was Cliff Barrows, and George Beverley Shea, with a rich baritone voice, was the soloist.
Connected in the North
Clive Bullock
Date posted: 1 Apr 2018
Over a hundred gathered for this year’s
‘Connected’
leadership
conference
at
Dewsbury Evangelical Church, drawing in
(mostly) men from the North of England.
In a period of profound changes in our culture, the theme of this year’s conference was
‘Things we dare not forget’. John Benton was
the main speaker, giving two papers and sharing an afternoon Q & A platform with Luke
Jenner (Pastor, Grace Baptist Church Halifax).
There was also an informative and encouraging
church reports session with six ‘messengers’
from across the footprint of the conference.
Leadership and the Oxfam scandal?
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Apr 2018
The scandal surrounding Oxfam staff in Haiti in 2011 has brought to light the need for the leadership in global organisations to address the imbalance of power between well-resourced institutions and desperate people struggling to survive in a disaster zone.
At the heart of the issue is accountability. The history of Christian mission, and of the Anglican Communion in particular, suggests that accountability must be rooted in the local situation. Anglican bishops around the world long since ceased to be accountable to any UK-based ecclesial body. They are leaders in their own ‘provinces’ and accountable to their own people. Powerful charities, which are the 21st-century equivalents of 19th-century missionary societies, could do well to develop similar models of local accountability, to address the issues and implications of the imbalance of power and its misuse.
Billy Graham – living proclamation
Richard Bewes
Date posted: 1 Apr 2018
Richard Bewes, former rector of All Souls, Langham Place, recalls his meetings with the great evangelist
The first time I ever heard him, it was like a drumbeat in my head: You are going to be doing this for the rest of your life.
news in brief
New law
A campaign was launched in late February
to bring about a law to protect religious
freedoms in the UK.
The law would hope to ‘affirm the freedom from being required to support a particular worldview or set of beliefs in order to
hold a public sector job; stand for election;
work in teaching, healthcare and law; study
at university; or give parental care to a child.
A review of the supporting literature is on page 5.
news in brief
BBC ups religion
The BBC will increase its mainstream religious output by giving greater prominence to non-Christian festivals such as Eid, Passover and Diwali, it was reported at the end of December.
It intends to broaden its audience by reflecting ‘an increasingly pluralistic society’. The BBC’s atheist head of religious programming, James Purnell, said it was important for British society to understand where it had come from and how religion plays an important part in that, stating: ‘The issues around belief are incredibly important to how we live.’
Youth work – now and then
Roger Carswell
Date posted: 1 Jan 2018
Roger Carswell calls for urgent action
I wonder how different from ours will be the Lord’s record of church history in the 20th century?
Word on the world
Chris Wright
Date posted: 1 Jan 2018
Langham Partnership’s International Ministries Director Chris Wright seeks a biblical response to the current world
Right now, we are living in a terminal phase of Western civilization.
defending our faith
Excavating the truth
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Mar 2018
Late last year Donald Trump declared that the US would recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel.
For many tourists to the Holy Land this seemed fairly uncontroversial. Given that this is the location of the Israeli Parliament, many visitors always assumed Jerusalem was its capital. However, in practice Tel Aviv has been the internationally recognized capital with diplomatic missions located there. Trump’s plan to move the American embassy has created real friction on the ground.
Facing the finances
How’s the money in your church?
I hope there’s enough and I hope you pay your pastor adequately (1 Timothy 5.17, 18). Without a proper salary he will worry about his family bills and that is bound to affect his ministry adversely. Churches who underpay their preacher tend to suffer spiritually. The ‘keep him poor, keep him humble’ attitude in some churches is appalling.
But, visiting various places, I have become aware that some churches are facing financial problems – and they are not the type of church you would expect to be in difficulties. They are generally growing churches. I have heard it said that the optimum church size financially is one of around 80 members – one pastor to support and volunteers doing what they can. It is when churches go beyond that threshold that expenses per capita rise steeply. More staff may be required (not least for administration), maybe the building needs to be enlarged, or a new kitchen is required. Perhaps more people are offering themselves for Bible College or the mission field.