Church life
Why your church needs biblical theology
Joanthan Leeman
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
The discipline of biblical theology is just as important to the life of your church as systematic theology.
Biblical theology is the root of doctrine; systematic theology is the fruit. And we need to get both right if we want to know who Jesus is, what the gospel is, and how to guard and guide our churches.
history
1919 revival in Toronto
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
During and after World War
I, many
English-speaking Evangelicals were hoping
and praying that one positive result of the
horrors of that war would be a great awakening of men and women to their sin and
their need for the Saviour.
It was not to be; but there were local revivals,
a century on, that we should remember.
Richard Bewes OBE 1934 – 2019
Justin Brierley
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
The Revd Richard Bewes OBE, the former rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place in London, has died aged 84.
Bewes was an influential Christian leader in the UK throughout his life. He was the rector of All Souls from 1983 until his retirement in 2004. He also served on the Church of England Evangelical Council in the 1990s and was on the British Board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for much of his life.
Canny years
in Byker
Victoria Marsay
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
A church, situated opposite the Byker Wall
in Newcastle, celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Meeting
in
a
corrugated-iron
hall,
Welbeck Road Evangelical Church started
under Newcastle City Mission. Over 50
attended the Sunday School, many coming
from the surrounding estates which were
to be made famous by the BBC children’s
television programme Byker Grove.
Abkhazia: beacon of light
OM
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
War-torn Abkhazia, a partially recognised republic of Georgia, has seen a number of children coming to Christ in recent months.
Many in the area are involved with crime and suicide attempts are frequent. Children also live under the spiritual oppression of the pagan traditions. In such conditions, the teenage club at the church is a beacon of light for teenagers in the town. It is a place for children to develop, learn new things, and spend quality time together.
The Third Degree
Using media in CU mission
Joe Cook
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
More and more, meeting students where they are means meeting them online.
As a result media, and specifically video, is increasingly being used to reach students with the gospel.
IT’S A FREE CHOICE
Andy Palmer
Date posted: 1 Mar 2019
Christ Church Balham, in South West London, joined the Free Church of England denomination in January.
It is hoped that this move will help secure gospel ministry for generations to come and send many more people into full-time paid gospel ministry.
Transported to Australia?
David Robertson
Date posted: 1 Apr 2019
Evangelist David Robertson tells us why he is going Down Under
I was doing some research into my predecessor at St Peters Dundee, Robert Murray McCheyne.
Modern mission pressures
Luke Jenner
Date posted: 1 Dec 2017
The Grace Baptist Mission (GBM)’s Annual Mission Day took place on 21 October and proved to be an encouraging time.
It contained the usual mix of missionary updates, the chance to pick up high-quality resources to help us to pray, give and think more effectively, and treasured fellowship with hundreds of other globally-minded Christians from across the UK.
Experiencing The Underground
People International UK
Date posted: 1 May 2019
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to
meet in secret as an underground church?
Have you ever felt that it is almost impossible to imagine what it’s like to meet under
persecution? How do you meet? How does
it feel? How do you worship when you can’t
make any noise? What are the issues? When
challenged, what do you say and how do
you react?
A mission organisation in a Central Asian
region has begun to challenge Christians in
more comfortable surroundings to consider what it would be like to meet in secret.
The Gospel According To AI
Ben Clube
Date posted: 1 May 2019
Oak Hill Theological College student, Ben Clube, contemplates whether Artificial Intelligence is ‘good news’
The past century has seen explosive interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Pop culture has perpetuated the hype with The Terminator in the 80s, The Matrix in the 90s, and a deluge since the millennium with I-robot, Ex Machina, Black Mirror, Westworld, etc.
history
Reformers & missions IV
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
In seeking to re-evangelise
Europe, the Reformers made
powerful use of the latest
technology at their disposal,
namely, the printing press.
By Calvin’s death in 1564, his interest in
Christian publishing meant that there were
no less than 34 printing-houses in Geneva,
which printed Bibles and Christian literature
in a variety of European languages. In the
1550s particularly, Geneva was a hive of
biblical editions and translations.
SENT: when mission takes us to a holiday cottage
Keswick Ministries
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
If a holiday cottage could write, it would fill many a book.
Visitors come and go and the cottage is woven into the tapestry of life. More often than not, the cottage forms the centrepiece of the annual holiday highlight. It offers four walls of protection from the hustle and bustle of the daily slog, a much-needed haven. Depending on its setting, it will also serve as a door into another world, a world of beauty and escape.
Encouragement in Europe
Michael Ots
Date posted: 1 Feb 2019
Michael Ots reflects on ten years of the Fellowship of Evangelists in the Universities of Europe (FEUER)
The name FEUER is a slightly tenuous acronym, using English words to spell the German word meaning ‘fire’.
Why a northern seminary?
Jeremy Marshall
Date posted: 1 Mar 2019
Jeremy Marshall challenges the current evangelical status quo
In 1854 the novelists Charles Dickens and Mrs Gaskell each wrote best sellers (Hard Times and North and South).
South Park impact
Jason Freeman
Date posted: 1 Mar 2019
South Park Chapel in Ilford appointed Shenazzer Ephraim as evangelist and disciple maker at a service on 26 January.
The chapel was founded in 1906 and has been seeking to make Jesus known ever since. Times have changed and the demographic has changed but the gospel is still the same and is still the power of God to save people.
EFAC: successful re-launch completed
The Revd Richard Crocker
Date posted: 1 Feb 2019
The Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) held the second part of its 2018 international Council meeting in Nairobi in October.
The successful establishment of the Council heralds EFAC’s reemergence as a powerful international Anglican ministry. EFAC’s vision is to encourage and develop biblically faithful fellowship, teaching and mission, as well as to resource church leaders throughout the Anglican world. There were 22 participants, including those from existing, reviving (four) or developing EFAC national Chapters. Five continents were represented and 11 participants were bishops.
London Gospel Partnership
Brian O’Donoghue
Date posted: 1 Apr 2019
At the first London Gospel Partnership Conference, on 2 February, leaders gathered from a diverse range of churches to be encouraged in biblical ministry across the capital.
Kevin De Young gave two outstanding talks at East London Tabernacle on the theme of God’s Message by God’s Means for London. His first address on 1 Thessalonians 2 highlighted the centrality and importance of God’s word for God’s work in gospel churches. His second talk (The Big God of Small Things and Small People, Zechariah 4) was a magnificent encouragement to trust in God’s power even as we are so conscious of our own great weaknesses.
Sri Lanka: new term
Dr Paul Hoole
Date posted: 1 Apr 2019
On 11 February, Baldaeus Theological
College (BTC) opened
its new semester
with a simple worship service and a few
local pastors.
The message given at the service addressed
the importance of producing Bible-learned
servants of God whose lives reflect the holiness and goodness of God in character and
conduct.
Northern training
Professor Michael Reeves
Date posted: 1 Apr 2019
Dear Sir,
Jeremy Marshall’s article ‘Why a Northern
lucidly highlights
Seminary?’ (March en)
the great need for gospel work in the North
of England, which has often been neglected
by theological education, church planting,
and
investment. He rightly observes that
evangelicalism has a Southern and London
bias at the expense of northern English cities, let alone Scotland and Wales.
New church
Barry King
Date posted: 1 Apr 2019
The only evidence of a church in the central
Bounds Green area is a plaque commemorating a Church of England building torn down
in the 1990s which was replaced with flats.
An area just over a mile up the road from
Wood Green, Bounds Green has its own local
culture, a Piccadilly Line underground rail
station, a national rail station, shops, cafés,
barbers, a small but popular monthly street
market, and thousands of residents.
Keep going, pastor!
Jonathan Worsley
Date posted: 1 Apr 2019
Dilapidated buildings, small budgets and struggling congregations: Jonathan Worsley on irresistible grace & ministerial steadfastness
It’s Monday morning. You’re driving to the church office, reflecting on your sermon from Sunday.
