New term, fresh faces
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
In the Western hemisphere, September saw a new year for schools, universities and many professional bodies. This year it saw the elections for the new five year term of the Church of England General Synod and four new appointees in the Anglican Communion and the Church of England take up their office and ministries.
They all come from evangelical and orthodox backgrounds and commitments.
WEST kicks off
Kerry Orchard
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
Students, staff and supporters gathered on
Saturday, 12 September
for
the WEST
Dedication Service to mark the beginning of
the new academic year.
Principal Jonathan Stephen explained the
values underlying the work of WEST and
Union. These are: delighting in God; growing in Christ; serving the church and blessing
the world. Jonathan said:
‘We
join God’s
mission to fill the earth with the glory of
Jesus as we are led by the Spirit.’
Shoulder to shoulder
Susie Leafe
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
In 1995 the Irish rugby authorities commissioned a song to unite players and supporters from all four provinces of Ireland as they played as one team in the Rugby World Cup.
No doubt we’ll hear the resulting song on numerous occasions over the coming weeks:
news in brief
Theology free
As theologyontheweb.org.uk celebrated its
14th anniversary on 1 September,
the
25,000+ theological articles that it hosts are
equipping millions of visitors around the
world to study in-depth, not only the Bible,
but also church history, biblical archaeology
and Christian missions without the need to
access a university or Bible College library.
Launched in September 2001 the original
website biblicalstudies.org.uk has developed
into eight inter-linked sites which provide
their resources free of charge.
9Marks in Richmond
JEB
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
Christian conferences are often strong on the great matters of the gospel but offer little guidance as to the nuts and bolts of church life.
9Marks Ministries, headed up by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., majors on local church related issues and Tuesday 1 September saw the first 9Marks conference in this country. With around 100 church leaders in attendance, it was hosted at Duke Street Church in Richmond where the pastor is John Samuel. The main mover behind the day was Jonathan Worsley of Kew Baptist Church, himself a former intern at Capitol Hill.
London: global warming party
FIEC
Date posted: 1 Aug 2015
On Monday 15 June more than 120 people gathered at Bankside Space in Southwark, London – which will be home to The Globe Church – to hear about this new venture.
The Globe Church is being planted in an area of art galleries and entertainment venues with theatres, restaurants and hotels on its doorstep. It’s also home to tens of thousands of people who live in Lambeth and Southwark. The new church is a joint initiative between several FIEC churches in London and the capital’s Co-Mission network of evangelical churches.
150 years ago... a story to inspire us all
Chris Fry
Date posted: 1 Aug 2015
On Saturday 24 June 1865, James Hudson
Taylor visited a friend in Brighton, England.
Six years of missionary service in China had
intensified his burden for the interior of that
great land and its 300 million people.
But there was no mission organisation prepared
to
launch
out
into
the
inland
provinces. He was burdened by the fact that
every hour of the day a thousand Chinese
were dying without Christ.
Temple talks
David Luke
Date posted: 1 Aug 2015
Book Review
GOD DWELLS AMONG US
Expanding Eden to the Ends of the Earth
Read review
Bury: light in the north
On Saturday 27 June the church at Radcliffe
Road Baptist Church (RRBC) met with invited friends from other churches to give thanks
for Geoff and Maggie King’s 30 years of
ministry in Bury, Greater Manchester.
In 1985 Geoff and Maggie
left Derby
Road Grace Baptist Church, Watford, to re-plant a small and fading work in Bury. Along
with David and Laura Higham from Wigan,
Geoff and Maggie were supported in this
work by their sending churches and by the
Grace Baptist Mission.
Africa is turning the tables
Those reached by Western missionaries are now becoming missionaries themselves
Over the last several years Operation Mobilisation has been developing an exciting new Missions training centre in Zambia.
Work in Progress
Curl up and dye?
Roger Loosley
Date posted: 1 Aug 2015
Subject: Liz Lewin, a hairdresser from Leeds who is married with one child.
Age range: 50-60.
Interests: work, church, walking and friends.
RJL: How did you become a Christian?
Liz: I had left home and was living alone. My business as a mobile hairdresser took me to visit wealthy clients in big houses – I thought I had made it! I started asking meaning of life questions. I was visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses and talked to them, but I had a problem with their views on blood transfusions. After I left home my parents had become Christians and when I had to have an operation they were praying for me.
Latvia: battling the sex trade
Ruth Firth
Date posted: 1 Aug 2015
Freedom 61 is a Christian organisation based in Latvia’s capital city, Riga, and is an initiative of Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
Taking its name from Isaiah 61.1, Freedom 61’s mission is to proclaim freedom to victims of human trafficking, freedom to men who are buying women for sex, and also to protect the freedom of those who are at risk of being trafficked.
Rethink your church strategy
Ian Buchanan
Date posted: 1 Aug 2015
Ian Buchanan recommends that we now need to think in terms of intergenerational ministry
I’ve been thinking about 20th-century church growth logic.
UCCF: summer travels
Angeline Liles
Date posted: 1 Sep 2015
Each summer UCCF sends teams of Christian
Union (CU) students from all over Britain as
a tangible expression of one of the core values
of being generous in world mission.
Some teams remain in British towns working alongside local churches in their outreach
to communities, while others travel further
afield. During June and July this year, eight
UCCF summer teams headed to places like
Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine and Slovakia, to
join alongside the CU movements in those
countries. Our prayer is that God has used
these summer teams powerfully to bring the
nations to praise him.
Nigeria: eye-opening visit
Paul & Christine Perkin
Date posted: 1 Sep 2015
Christians
in Northern Nigeria use
the
word
‘Crises’ in the same way that the
word
‘Troubles’ was used
in Northern
Ireland of a terrorist attack or other act of
sectarian violence.
‘Have you heard there was another Crisis
yesterday
in Kanu
(or Kaduna or
Jos)?’
means children were abducted, or a church
was torched, a pastor was killed, or a bomb
exploded in a market.
Rugby World Cup outreach
Tim Howlett
Date posted: 1 Sep 2015
From mid-September to the end of October, thousands of people will be following with interest the Rugby World Cup in England and Wales. There will be 47 matches at 12 different venues before the final is played at Twickenham on 31 October.
United Beach Missions has produced 100,000 rugby-themed gospel leaflets (written by Roger Carswell) with the aim to distribute as many as possible outside the grounds on match days.
FFM: 100
The Fellowship of Faith for the Muslims (FFM) is celebrating their centenary anniversary.
This prayer movement began at the Keswick Convention in 1915, inspired by a challenging address by Dr Samuel Zwemer, the missionary speaker that year. Started during WWI, at a time when little was known about the Muslim world by most Christians in the West, it soon led to hundreds of Christians around the world committing themselves to daily intercessory prayer for Muslims, with branches in different countries.
A new vision for the Fens
Anne Roberts
Date posted: 1 Sep 2015
September 11–12 sees a new initiative in
rural Norfolk much in need of life-changing
Bible teaching.
‘Word on the Wash’ is a weekend conference
hosted by Terrington St Clements Parish
Church, near Kings Lynn. The Fens and the area
around the Wash may not seem like a dramatic mission field and it is not served by many
major roads, but there is a real spiritual need.
Switzerland: gospel kiosk
As a land-locked country, Switzerland doesn’t seem the most obvious place for United Beach Missions to operate.
But in the first fortnight of July, thousands of people visit Montreux for the world famous International Jazz Festival. The ‘Kiosque Biblique’ is a permanent small wooden chalet, built in 1965, situated along the lake front and open from March to October each year. It is owned by the local Christian bookshop and run by volunteers. The kiosk sells drinks, postcards and souvenirs, but its main purpose is to sell Bibles and Christian books in many languages. Everybody who buys something is offered a free leaflet about the Christian faith in their own language.
Where’s the Scottish Church?
Andy Hunter
Date posted: 1 Jul 2015
Andy Hunter investigates the causes of spectacular spiritual decline north of the border
Christian identification in Scotland has now fallen below that in England.
Africa: radio training
Roger Cook
Date posted: 1 Jul 2015
Nyankunde is a small town near the Ugandan border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which I visited in 1989 on my very first trip to Africa.
In March I was responding to a request for training and technical help from a young man who has started a radio station to bring a ‘message of reconciliation’ to this war-torn area.
Field work
Ray Porter
Date posted: 1 Jun 2015
Book Review
MISSION MATTERS
Essays on the Theory, Practice and Contexts
of Mission
Read review
Nones on the rise
Dr James Emery White
Date posted: 1 Jul 2015
Martin Salter interviews Dr James Emery White for en
James Emery White is senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and founder of Serious Times, a ministry which explores the intersection of faith and culture and hosts ChurchandCulture.org. Recently he authored the book The Rise of the Nones about people with no faith.
