Knowing God Better
Uniting God’s people
Jonathan Lamb
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
Social commentators frequently remind us of a paradox of our age.
Alongside the integration and cohesion of globalisation, there has been an accompanying and more troubling trend – the rise of nationalism and tribalism. Fracture lines are seen across nations, communities and eth-nicities. As Christians we joyfully affirm the counter-cultural unity which the gospel brings. But often we do not see this working as it should. A pastor was once asked if he had an active congregation. ‘Oh yes’, he replied. ‘Half of them are working with me, and half of them working against me’.
Tilehurst launch
Dan Dwelly
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
ChristChurch Tilehurst launched on 4 September, having first been established as a congregation from Carey Baptist Church in Reading.
Originally operating as a satellite congregation called Carey Westwood Farm, the work grew from about 30 people, including children, to about 60. In 2015, with the blessing of Carey, they began the process of establishing the new church.
Sudan: teachers arrested
Morning Star News
Date posted: 1 Nov 2016
Authorities in southeastern Sudan arrested
the headmaster of a Christian school on 5
September and took over its property.
Armed police
and officials
from
the
National Intelligence and Security Services
arrested the Rev Samuel Suliman and 12
teachers at the school in Madani, capital of
Al Jazirah state. The Christians were accused
of supporting the Sudan People’s Liberation
Army-North (SPLA-N), a rebel group fighting government forces.
Missionary marriages in trouble
Mike Peterson
Date posted: 1 Aug 2016
Mike Peterson asks: ‘That missionary family might be smiling in the photo on your fridge, but is their marriage hanging by a thread?’
I winced as the lights suddenly cut off.
Capital Gains
The invisible mission field
Graham Miller
Date posted: 1 Nov 2015
Reading through Scripture I am struck by Christ’s commitment to those on the margins of society.
I feel challenged that he didn’t use clever strategies to aim first to reach the best and brightest from the Jerusalem temple school so that they could be useful for his efforts. Instead, Jesus spent time with lepers, tax collectors, fishermen, women and Samaritans. In recent years the movement to revitalise the church with new plants and initiatives has sometimes focused on the young, the bright and the mobile. If we are to be faithful to the Great Commission we must be careful that our outreach doesn’t leave out large segments of society.
London Underground
Around two years ago, a young and newly ordained minister and his wife had a vision to plant a church in the heart of Central London which would last for 100 years.
But rather than taking a group of around 40 people, as is the usual church planting route, they did something crazy. With the blessing of their sending churches and a number of Christian organisations, Malcolm (formally at St Ebbe’s Church in Oxford) and his wife decided to move to London with no money, no people and no place to plant a new church. Two and a bit years later we praise God that there is a new church in Central London meeting in Leicester Square.
Keswick: Global Tour
Peter Maiden
Date posted: 1 Aug 2016
We need to be informed of what God is doing in his world.
The information will cause us to appreciate the greatness of our God and the certainty of his promises. It will also stimulate us to prayer for many of our brothers and sisters who are paying a high price to follow Christ today. In Europe it is possible to think that as Bible-believing Christians we are part of an ever-decreasing minority, yet we are a protected minority, though the fear is that these protections are fast disappearing.
Audrey Osei-Mensah 1936 –2016
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
Audrey Laura Osei-Mensah was born
in
East Ham and professed faith in Christ aged
14,
through her confirmation class
in
Wanstead.
In
1955
she went up
to
Birmingham University to read geography.
As she wrote in her memoirs: ‘It was during
my first year that Bible study replaced geography as my first
love, which
it has
remained ever since!’
She served on the Birmingham CU Exec
alongside a thoughtful student from Ghana:
Gottfried Osei-Mensah, with whom she maintained
a
friendship while
teaching
at
Clarendon School
from 1959 to 1962. In
1962 she applied for a position with SIM in
Nigeria, whereupon Gottfried, by now with
Mobil Oil in Accra, proposed to her. At her
father’s suggestion, she first went to Ghana for
three months to get to know Gottfried’s family
and context. They married the following year.
PNG: thank you, fifty times!
Rosie Crowter
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
On July 10 1966 the Evangelical Church of Papua New Guinea (ECPNG) was born.
So, in July this year, there was much rejoicing and celebrating in the various districts as we remembered how God had brought his messengers with the wonderful Good News that ‘Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners’ – sinners from every tribe and nation in the world, including this island with 850 tribes!
news in brief
Algeria: Facebook crime
A Christian in Algeria was sentenced on 1 August to three years in prison and given a heavy fine for blasphemy against Islam and its prophet for a social media post.
Slimane Bouhafs, 49, was arrested for posting a message on social media about the light of Jesus overcoming the ‘lie’ of Islam and its prophet. He also published photos showing the execution of a civilian by an Islamist terrorist. His family said the trial was a ‘sham’.
Roger Cook 1941 –2016
Jim Sayers
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
Roger’s great contribution in his many years of
service was developing radio ministry in both
France and Francophone Africa.
Known widely
among Grace Baptist
churches for his work
in GBM Radio at
Abingdon, he and his wife Helen began their
missionary service in Belgium. In 1967 they
were the first GBM missionaries to be sent
into Europe by their church in Hounslow, as
GBM adopted a church-based approach to
mission.
In 1969
they moved
to Mons,
where they worked to plant a church, coming face to face with the growing ‘practical
atheism’ of an otherwise Catholic culture.
Africa: Council of Anglican Provinces
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
The Council of the Anglican Provinces of
Africa (CAPA) was
founded
in 1979
in
Chilema, Malawi, by the Anglican Primates
of Africa. It reaches out to individuals, communities and groups through more than 40
million dedicated Church members in the
25 African countries with an Anglican presence. That 40 million
is over half
the
Church-going Anglicans in the world.
CAPA is headed by a council to run the
Provinces’ activities. Its secretariat, headed
by General Secretary Canon Grace Kaiso
from Uganda, is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Dithering or deciding?
Susie Leafe
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
There have been a lot of headlines about the
Church of England in recent weeks.
Many open letters have been written, a
celibate gay bishop has been paraded, and
even Church meetings in Tunbridge Wells
have got a mention. I don’t think it is just
the lack of real news during the ‘silly season’
that has caused it. No, it is also the fact that
the Shared Conversations about Scripture,
Sexuality and Mission are officially over, and
the time has come to make a decision. And
there is no easy answer.
A pair of shoes led me to Christ!
Randy Newman
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
A quarter of a million Jewish people live in the UK – and this month, most of them will be celebrating Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. But for Randy Newman, author of Questioning Evangelism, it was this Jewish Festival that started his journey to faith in Christ. Everything changed when he looked down at his shoes…
I was born into a Jewish family in the suburbs of New York City.
news in brief
No ghost trains
A visitor to Perrygrove Railway in the Forest of Dean has reported that it has decided to become a Halloween-free attraction.
Appreciating that not every family wants ghosts and ghouls when out with their family through all of October, which includes the half-term break, the railway attraction has decided to go ghost free.
YOUNG LEADERS TAKE BATON
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
Six years after the Third Lausanne Congress came the Third Lausanne Younger Leaders’ Gathering (YLG2016) in Jakarta.
YLG2016, held in August, was probably the most connected gathering of leaders ever. Its planning was chaired by a Brazilian, Sarah Breuel who, with her young family, is serving in Italy with IFES. In the previous year, an online platform was launched.
Healthy church evangelism
JEB
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
Duke Street, Richmond was the venue for
the second Healthy Churches Conference
which took place on 5 September and is
from the ‘9Marks’ background.
Last year the speaker was Mark Dever of
Capitol Hill Baptist, Washington. This year,
with the focus on evangelism, it was Mack
Styles of Redeemer Church, Dubai.
After mission
Janet Cordle
Date posted: 1 Jan 2013
Book Review
HEADING HOME
My search for purpose in a temporary world
Read review
The Shandong revival
Jonathan Bayes
Date posted: 1 Aug 2016
Jonathan Bayes with a little bit of history of the church in China during the 1930s to encourage us
Shandong is a coastal province in the north-east of mainland China.
Engaging
Martin Salter
Date posted: 1 Jul 2016
Book Review
CHRISTIAN MISSION IN THE MODERN WORLD:
Updated and Expanded
Read review
Steve Brady’s story
Keswick Ministries
Date posted: 1 Aug 2016
Steve Brady, Principal of Moorlands College in Dorset, will tell you that he is from Liverpool and a true Evertonian.
Steve Brady loves football, but truly comes alive when talking about the Word of God. Steve comes from a mixed church background and had little to do with church during his childhood.
