Glasgow: planting the gospel
Paul Brennan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
Paul Brennan brings us up-to-date with new congregations linked to The Tron Church in Glasgow
The last year has been one of significant change for The Tron Church.
Before it’s too late
Tim Sunderland and Phil Walter ponder the sad case of a declining church putting things off for too long
Goodway Road was a small church on a housing estate in the north of Birmingham.
Reflecting on spiritual abuse
Karen Soole
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
Karen Soole tells of her own experience and reminds us of some needed lessons
Horrific stories of historic abuse within the evangelical community were recently exposed by Channel 4 News.
The Third Degree
Making friends in Kingston
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
‘Would you be interested in our events this week?’
I was offering an information flyer to passersby in the university hallway, a busy thoroughfare en route to lectures. Most students had taken one. Some even stopped to chat, asking ‘What’s this about?’ or having a go on the ‘Question Wheel’ – discussing purpose, identity or love over a free bowl of cereal or cup of coffee.
news in brief
Egypt: false imprisonment
A 15-year-old Coptic Christian boy was sentenced to 15 years in an Egyptian prison for sexual assault, even though forensic reports showed no evidence of a crime.
His mother says her son, Fadi, is innocent and was targeted only because her Muslim neighbours, whose eight-year-old son was the alleged victim, ‘don’t like Christians’. The Muslim boy’s grandfather is imam at the local mosque. The family were forced to move home, which itself is a crime against the Egyptian Constitution where Article 63 prohibits arbitrary forced displacement of citizens.
Knowing God Better
Depending on God’s Spirit
Jonathan Lamb
Date posted: 1 Feb 2017
‘I believe in the Holy Ghost,
I believe in the Holy Ghost.’
It was apparently the habit of the great
Baptist preacher, C. H. Spurgeon, to say this
quietly under his breath every
time he
mounted
the
steps of
the pulpit at
the
Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. Even if
the story is apocryphal, Spurgeon’s ministry
affirmed the importance of the Spirit’s work:
‘Men might be poor and uneducated, their
words might be broken and ungrammatical;
but if the might of the Spirit attended them,
the humblest evangelist would be more
successful than the most learned divine
or the most eloquent of preachers.’
Huge momentum!
Ray Evans
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
Book Review
SPIRIT EMPOWERED MISSION:
Aligning the Church’s Mission with the Mission
of Jesus
Read review
Crossing the Culture
Hearing God in Silence
Angeline Liles
Date posted: 1 Feb 2017
‘God still sees us even though we worship in secret.’
In rural 17th-century Japan, a native Christian convert assures two newly arrived Jesuit priests on a mission from Portugal that his faith, and the faith of his fellow villagers packed into the dimly lit hut, is fervent and resilient, even in their impoverished and persecuted state.
FIEC: leaders’ challenge
Mike Hitchings
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
The FIEC Leaders’ Conference, held in 2016 from 31 October to 3 November, is the main annual gathering for FIEC churches.
563 pastors, church leaders and church workers representing over 200 churches met this year in the metropolis of Hemsby on the Norfolk coast.’
Joan Margaret Wales 1916 –2016
Ronald Clements
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
Joan served with China Inland Mission
(CIM) as an evangelist from September
1945 until her expulsion from China in
April 1951.
She continued as a missionary, working in
Thailand with OMF International, until her
‘retirement’ in 1983. In her 70s and 80s she
was able to return to China on short-term
teams,
teaching English. Her biography,
Point Me to the Skies (Monarch Publications),
was published in 2007.
Daisy Barclay 1916 –2016
Sue Brown and others
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
Daisy Barclay died in November, just a
few weeks after her 100th birthday.
Born in 1916 in the east end of London,
Daisy Emma Barclay (née Hickey) was the
youngest of seven children. After the death
of her mother, when aged two, she was fostered by a Baptist couple
in Cheshire.
Through them she came to faith in Christ.
Laugh?
Dr Chris Wigram
Date posted: 1 Mar 2017
Play Review
I WAS A TEENAGE CHRISTIAN
Read review
Church plants again
Dave Williams
Date posted: 1 Mar 2017
Dear Sir,
I think it’s a good thing that there’s an
ongoing conversation about church planting
into our unreached areas via your
letters
page. I know that, from time to time, en
puts the spotlight on church planting and on
gospel work in tough areas. Maybe another
spotlight on the great work happening in
needy areas would be timely.
The Communist experiment
Richard Bewes
Date posted: 1 Mar 2017
Richard Bewes reflects on the revolution of 1917 and its fruit in the last 100 years
Forget Trump for the moment.
news in brief
Appeal lost
In a legal challenge to the law surrounding end of life issues, campaigners have said they will continue to protect the most vulnerable despite losing an appeal in mid-January.
Disability campaigners Nikki and Merv Kenward lost an appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice where they were protesting amendments to guidelines which make it less likely that medical staff will be prosecuted for wilfully ending a patient’s life.
DNA Download in the city
Dan Haynes
Date posted: 1 Mar 2017
In January, St James Clerkenwell played home to the first City to City UK DNA Download conference, with 45 churches and 13 UK cities represented.
The conference provided an opportunity to think about theological vision and ministry values that are needed to see the cities of the UK reached with the gospel. The Gospel: it renews hearts, changes lives, builds the church and impacts the world. The City: aim to equip churches for the challenges and opportunities that come from ministering in UK cities. The Movement: City to City UK is a movement of church-planting churches, working together from different tribes and networks.
How evangelical is the Pope?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Dec 2016
Leonardo De Chirico uncovers the particular brand of Catholicism that Pope Francis advocates and gives a biblical assessment
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as Pope Francis on 13 March, 2013.
pastoral care
How can I pray for you?
Steve Midgley
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
An essential feature of biblical counselling is that we pray for those we counsel.
Not ‘pray about them in their absence’ but ‘pray with them in their presence’.
Ever-present past
Joy Horn lists some of the Christian anniversaries coming up in 2017
Events
In 1517 Bernard Gilpin was born at Kentmere Hall, Westmorland, into a distinguished family. He became rector of Houghton-le-Spring, Co. Durham, and became known as ‘the apostle of the North’ for his constant tours, preaching the Reformation gospel.
GAFCON: ‘to free our churches’
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 Jan 2017
GAFCON has confirmed the dates for its third international conference. Between 17-22 June 2018 it will return to Jerusalem, the venue of the first Global Anglican Future Conference in 2008 (from which the movement takes its name).
The GAFCON announcement explains that ‘The city stands as a constant reminder of the birth of the gospel and the movement’s determination to remain true to the teachings of our Lord and his Word’ and so, to appreciate the significance of the 2018 conference, it is worth recalling how it all began.
defending our faith
Reformation and reason
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Feb 2017
2017 marks 500 years since the Reformation (dating it from Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Door).
Hopefully, for many Christians, this will reawaken an interest in our heritage. It is time to blow away the dust, if we have allowed it to settle, and read some classics of Christian history. John Calvin’s Institutes, Martin Luther’s Table Talk and later Puritan writings, like those of Jonathan Edwards, will all help remind us of the depths and riches of Reformation theology.
Planted!
Kate Blanche
Date posted: 1 Feb 2017
On 8 January, Cowley Church Community
(CCC) voted to adopt its first constitution
and become a fully independent church.
Planted by Magdalen Road Church, the
new congregation has a vision
to reach
Cowley, on the east side of the city.
In Spring 2016, 30 adults and children were
commissioned by Magdalen Road Church
and began meeting every Sunday afternoon at
a community centre in central Cowley.
news in brief
Africa: shortages
Millions in Madagascar, Malawi and Zimbabwe continue to face severe food shortages as a result of drought across the region, it was reported in January.
People in rural communities were so desperate that they were prepared to risk eating locusts, which are known to be toxic. Young people are collapsing from hunger and exhaustion. Countries with economies that are less robust are suffering greatly due to poor infrastructure and emergency relief processes. The problems are in cities as well as rural areas.
