Marriage: divorced from truth
en staff
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
The government opened a consultation1 in July (closing on 7 November) on Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education, seeking views on the draft regulations and statutory guidance to schools.
This is already part of the curriculum in most schools as PHSE, but is due to become compulsory. Many parents, including Christians, are abdicating their responsibility to teach sex and relationships to their own children. Aware of this, the government has taken the chance to construct a curriculum which includes some helpful elements, but also some unhelpful teaching about sex and family life.
USA: chaplain cleared
The Christian Institute
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
A decorated US Army chaplain who faced a
court martial over accusations of discrimination against a lesbian couple was cleared of
all charges, it was reported on 25 August.
Major Scott Squires was investigated and
faced dereliction of duty charges after he
told a soldier he could not lead a marriage
retreat that included a same-sex couple. The
chaplain had to pull out of the event when he
learned of the same-sex couple and arranged
for an alternative chaplain to take over, but
his actions were deemed discriminatory.
Ethiopia: graduation
Church Mission Society
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
The first students graduated from groundbreaking St Frumentius’ Anglican College, in Gambella, western Ethiopia in the summer.
For these students, the road to graduation has been especially challenging: two of the seven graduates are refugees and the others are from two different ethnic groups that have a history of conflict.
Stranmillis: pressing on
Harold Gibson
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
It is with a sense of great anticipation and with thankfulness to God that the congregation of Stranmillis Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Belfast returned to its normal location in September.
For the past 12 months the church has been in a period of transition. Having vacated their normal location at 36 Stranmillis Road at the end of July 2017, due to the major building and redevelopment project, services of worship relocated to Stranmillis University College on Sunday mornings and to Lisburn Road Hall in the evenings.
The octogenarian in the train station
EN
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
On 3 July George Verwer celebrated his
80th birthday and announced a tour of the
UK to 20 or so train stations to give friends
a chance to meet him and pray.
He said he needed a ‘sabbatical’ from big
events after last year’s OM 60th celebration.
George said he wanted to be able to have
time to sit with people, and big parties don’t
allow for that. So through July and August he plans to sit in coffee shops and train stations for a few hours so people can have a few
minutes conversation, ‘maybe a prayer and
for sure a photo – for me maybe a few tears’.
People come, people go
Linda Allcock
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
Linda Allcock on the mixed emotions experienced in a mobile congregation
‘People come. People go.’ That was the phrase repeated in The Globe Church original promotional video at our launch in 2015.
USA: walk out on Pence
EN
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
In contrast to the UK prayer breakfast in
Parliament where the leaders of the nation
were called to listen to someone speak from
the Bible, the Southern Baptists took up the
request from Vice-President Mike Pence to
speak at their convention in mid-June.
In a piece
for The Gospel Coalition,
Jonathan Leeman wrote: ‘… having a political leader address our churches or associations of churches tempts us to misconstrue
our mission. Our mission is not the mission
of the Republican, Democratic or any other
party. Our mission, when gathered,
is to
work toward Great Commission ends. To
bring
in a politician risks subverting our gospel purposes to the purposes of that politician’s party. … it undermines our evangelistic and prophetic witness … it hurts the
unity of Christ’s body’. There would inevitably be divided political opinions in a church
over any individual or party.
Enfield: what’s in a change of name
FIEC
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
‘A name change on its own doesn’t really mean much… but it’s a great opportunity for us to use this to talk to people in Enfield about Jesus!’ said pastor, Nathan Howard, to a room full of church members.
And so it was put to the church: a ‘relaunch’ as Enfield Evangelical Free Church became Enfield Town Community Church. There would be new signage, a new website and a timely excuse for a big invitation to all their community.
Lighthouse International Church
Clive Thorne
Date posted: 1 Jul 2018
In the 2001 census Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims represented 4.6% of the population of England and Wales.
This rose to about 7% in 2011 and is expected to be over 10% in the 2021 census. A conservative estimate is that people of these faiths will constitute over a quarter of the population of England and Wales by 2050 in only about 30 years time. Many inner city areas have seen church after church closed down, with some being converted into mosques or temples. What is the church doing to reach this burgeoning mission field on our doorstep?
Why GAFCON?
Chris Sugden and Vinay Samuel
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
‘Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.’
The successful conclusion of GAFCON 2018, ten years after its formal beginnings as a global Anglican movement that had its roots in, among others, the Lambeth Conference of 1988 of which Archbishop Manasses Kuria of Kenya said: ‘This was our Lambeth’ and (then Bishop) David Gitari of Kenya said: ‘Anyone who wants a resolution passed in 1998 will have to come to terms with the African bishops.’
Christopher Ash: ongoing surrender
Keswick Ministries
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
I suppose most of us sometimes wish our stories were more exciting than they are.
That goes for the stories of how God first brought us to faith in Jesus Christ; we sometimes wish – foolishly – that the contrast with our pre-conversion life might be more dramatic because we had sunk into deeper depths of sinfulness before our conversions than we did.
Reformation worship
Jonny Gibson & Mark Earngey
Date posted: 1 Sep 2018
Have we drifted too far from the Reformers’ vision of church?
How do you structure your church services?
Association Day in East Anglia
Mark Newcombe
Date posted: 1 Sep 2018
The new-look Association Day ‘Foundations
18’ took place on 7 July with the theme
‘Growing and Going’, held at a new venue,
the Faith Mission Centre at Earl Stonham
outside Stowmarket.
Lewis Allen of Huddersfield preached
twice,
supplemented
by
seminars
from
Graham Daniels, Ray Evans and Jim Sayers.
Storm clouds over China’s church
Tony Lambert
Date posted: 1 Sep 2018
Tony Lambert gives his assessment of what is going on in the world’s most populous nation
Since the death of Mao in 1976, the church in China has enjoyed remarkable growth and revival.
Standing on the authority of God’s Word
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 Sep 2018
In this column last month, Chris Sugden and Vinay Samuel helpfully answered the question ‘Why GAFCON ?’. This month, as the full significance of the third GAFCON conference held in June becomes clearer, I want to offer a personal reflection on the question of where GAFCON is going.
The short answer is nowhere! The appeal in GAFCON’s Letter to the Churches to the Archbishop of Canterbury to restore godly leadership has been ignored and there can be no doubt now that it is through GAFCON that the faithful Anglican tradition will be continued. The powers-that-be seem determined that the Communion should embrace the optional orthodoxy of ‘good disagreement’.
Connecting the isolated
SAT-7
Date posted: 1 Sep 2018
A viewer survey in July by Christian satellite TV channel SAT-7 produced hundreds of viewer testimonies, showing that SAT-7 is changing perceptions towards Christianity and is providing valuable support for believers across the Middle East and North Africa.
Over 5,000 people responded to the survey, which was promoted on social media. Viewers rated SAT-7 highly on almost all criteria including image, sound, and content quality. SAT-7 says that the viewer testimonies are ‘compelling evidence that SAT-7 is succeeding in its mission of making God’s love visible in the Middle East and North Africa’.
DELAYED BLOSSOM
Dr Martin Seccombe
Date posted: 1 Jul 2018
The eyes of the world were on Japan in 2011.
This was when it was left reeling from the triple disaster of a powerful earthquake, a devastating tsunami and a catastrophic nuclear accident. Seven years later, Japan is gearing itself up for a happier return to global attention – the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Olympics in 2020. Sporting occasions can be a fantastic opportunity to bring a nation together in unity and celebration.
Training and sending
Dave Ramsey
Date posted: 1 Jul 2018
During the week beginning 13 May, the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland held its annual assembly meetings in Lisburn.
The 118 churches across the island work together in evangelism, church planting, mission, training, women’s and youth work. The assembly kicked off with ‘Association Sunday’, when churches are encouraged to engage in pulpit swaps and joint services.
Sent right where you are
Martin Salter
Date posted: 1 Jun 2018
Martin Salter, speaker at this year’s Keswick Convention, on how good deeds should dovetail with evangelism
When we speak of ‘mission’ or ‘missionaries’ we tend to automatically think of those in far-off places.
Grenfell Tower: one year on
Graham Miller & Jackie Blanchflower
Date posted: 1 Jun 2018
Last June, the 24-storey tower block of public housing flats in North Kensington was engulfed in an horrific fire.
In the early hours of Wednesday, 14 June 2017, a fire broke out at Grenfell Tower in West London. 71 people lost their lives. The fire continues to impact the whole nation.
Myanmar: plight of Christians ignored by world media
World Watch Monitor
Date posted: 1 Jul 2018
Almost 7,000 people belonging to the largely Christian minority group in Kachin, northern Myanmar, have fled their houses since fighting between the army and a rebel group flared up in early April, according to recent figures from the Red Cross.
‘It’s a war where civilians are being systematically targeted by members of Burma Army … [yet] the international community chooses to overlook it,’ political analyst and writer Stella Naw told the Guardian newspaper, with international attention on Myanmar focused on the humanitarian crisis facing the country’s Rohingya Muslims.
Evangelism that really works
Jeremy Marshall
Date posted: 1 Jul 2018
Imagine 12 people sitting in a pub chatting about John’s Gospel.
Nobody checks their phone, nobody needs to leave. This is despite the fact none of them has been in church for years (some never).
