news in brief
Proud?
Buses and Underground signs were wrapped in rainbow flags by Transport For London as part of London’s Pride week, in early July.
50 Santander bikes (formerly Boris bikes) were adorned with the same symbol. Skittles, the sweets known for their ‘rainbow colours’ were produced in totally white packets as ‘only one rainbow deserves to be the centre of attention’. Facebook now issue a rainbow flag as one of seven standard emojis to use to ‘like’ a status.
Leslie Jarvis 1938 –2017
Jonathan Jarvis and Howard Sayers
Date posted: 1 Sep 2017
On 27 July 2017, the funeral and thanksgiving service for Leslie Jarvis was held at
Market Street Chapel, Hailsham. The
chapel was
full with
family and
friends
from many churches.
The spirit of thanksgiving and worship,
especially
through
the
singing of Leslie’s
favourite hymns, was a testimony to the
grace of God in his life and a wonderful support to Leslie’s wife Nettie and his family.
Jonathan Jarvis gave a message of thanksgiving and reminiscence on behalf of the family, Pastor Paul Relf gave the reading and
prayer and Pastor Howard Sayers spoke from
Philippians 4.
Australia: Catholic Church in the dock
Peter Riddell
Date posted: 1 Sep 2017
The relationship between church and society in Australia has always been ambiguous.
In the earliest years of European settlement
following the establishment of Sydney in 1788,
a fundamental divide existed between the free
settlers and colonial officials on the one hand,
who tended to be Anglican, and the large numbers of convicts, often Irish Catholics, who were
predictably anti-authority and resentful.
Erroll Hulse 1931 –2017
<span>Sharon James remembers the life of her father, who went to glory on 3 August</span>
Date posted: 1 Sep 2017
Erroll was brought up in a privileged and nominally Christian family in South Africa.
While studying architecture at the Afrikaans-speaking Pretoria University, his friend David Cowan invited him to Pretoria Central Baptist Church, and he was converted.
Tasmania: 0 week mission
Andrew Maskell
Date posted: 1 Jul 2016
Thirteen years ago, my ‘gap year’ brought
me to Tasmania. Now by God’s providence,
wisdom and humour I find myself living
and ministering to the university community
(with
the University Fellowship of
Christians) in Hobart, along with my wife
and two children.
There are close to 14,000 students on campus in Hobart but the University Fellowship
has historically represented about 0.5% of
that number. Our ministry is one of evangelism and training leaders. It is an exciting but
arduous and slow mission field. Or at least it
has been until this year…
Bishops rebooted
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 Jul 2017
Anglicans claim to be part of the Reformed Western catholic tradition and one of the most visible ways that continuity over the centuries is maintained is through episcopacy, which the English evangelical reformers of the 16th century quite deliberately retained in contrast to their continental counterparts.
Was that wise? In the present-day Anglican Provinces of the West, the claim to Reformed catholicity is looking ever more dubious as apostolic substance ebbs away. Moreover, disunity and doctrinal incoherence in the Anglican Communion has been an episcopally led phenomenon.
Jesus’ prayer for unity in his church
Alan Purser
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Alan Purser has a careful look at what Jesus was actually saying
John 17 is holy ground: Jesus prays for unity, that his church may be one. For this is the key to effective mission.
The Third Degree
Examgelism!!
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Jul 2017
Spring months are busy.
It’s the time of mission weeks. By contrast the pace of the university summer term can seem slower as students knuckle down for end-of-year deadlines and exams. Yet with these stresses and challenges also comes a stream of evangelistic opportunities – in Christ and in Christ alone can we find rest for our weary souls and purpose for our lives. So, despite the increase in deadlines and work pressures, Christian Unions (CUs) continue in their gospel mission.
Cult hero
Association of Evangelists
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
In June it was announced that Tony Brown would be joining the team of the Association of Evangelists.
As a former Jehovah’s Witness, his special interest is outreach to the cults, as well as teaching churches how to reach people caught up in cults.
Radical inclusion?
Rob Munro
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
Superficially we did the usual things: passing obscure legal provisions.
For example, there was giving official permission not to have to wear robes at main services (which I realise you all have done faithfully up until now); the valiant effort to put something to do with mission on the agenda. We even had the obligatory ‘current affairs’ motion, this time from the Archbishops following the surprises at the General Election, generally calling for more prayer and appropriate lobbying.
Narrow way
Karen Soole
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
Book Review
TO BE A PILGRIM:
40 days with The Pilgrim’s Progress
Read review
Hearing God in the Old Testament
Keswick Ministries
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
I asked my wife, Bridget, for her thoughts on where to go with this article. She laughed and said: ‘Why do you ask me? You’re the one who’s taught the Old Testament!’ Then she added: ‘But I do keep hearing people saying, “I find the Old Testament really hard.”’
I’ve heard that many times, too. So I want to do three things here: acknowledge some of the challenges; ground our view of the Old Testament as God’s Word; give one pointer as to how to hear God’s Word in the Old Testament (OT).
EMA 2017: fruit amid the battle
JEB
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
It wasn’t easy to find the Barbican Centre
for
this
year’s
Evangelical Ministry
Assembly (EMA) amid London’s burgeoning road and building works. But it was
worth the tricky navigation for Tuesday –
Thursday, 27–29 June.
The conference theme was ‘Bearing Fruit
and Growing’, with the morning Bible readings coming
from Ephesians. These were
given by Andy Gemmill of
the Cornhill
Training Course in Scotland and reminded
those there that, amid the spiritual battle,
‘your church is what Christ’s rule looks like
now.’ We need to ‘do church’ (I’m not sure I
like
that phrase) by
faith, not by
sight,
because for all its present flaws the church
displays God’s wisdom to the astonishment
of the heavenly powers.
Durham’s purple patch
UCCF
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
Durham Christian Union won an award for
‘Best Society Event’ at the National Society
Awards on 19 May.
Hosted by the National Union of Students
and Red Oak Roller, the evening celebrated
university
societies
around
the United
Kingdom and what they contribute to their
members, their campuses and to the wider
community.
Wye Jesus
Evangelical Movement of Wales
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
Bethesda Evangelical Church (Hay-on-Wye)
and EMW, with Show Jesus, an evangelistic
enterprise, supporting, spent four days seeking to share the wonderful news of Jesus and
his
love
with
folk
attending
the
International
Hay-on-Wye
Literature
Festival in late May.
Following the theme – ‘LIFE - what’s your
question?’ the gospel was shared through artistic skills including pottery, storytelling, poetry and through preaching. Michael Ots spoke on
suffering
linked
to
the
tragic Manchester
bombing. Local author and church member
Ollie Balch led a guided tour around Hay.
Algeria: God has raised up his church
OM
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
When OM Field Leader Youssef and his wife Hie-Tee moved to his native Algeria in 1988 to establish an OM ministry, a revival among the Kabyle people was already sweeping the northern region. ‘Before 1981, there were very few believers,’ Youssef said. Today, he knows of believers in every one of the 2,400 Kabyle cities, villages and towns.
In July 1981, the early Kabyle church, 40 to 50 believers, started a two-year process of praying and fasting, memorising 365 verses about fear. A new Kabyle radio ministry broadcast sermons and teaching across the region, and a church in Ouadiha, led by an Algerian-Swiss couple, began a wide literature distribution campaign in villages and showed the Jesus film in local cafés.
Living a life of reckless abandon
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Gary Clayton remembers five missionary martyrs and tells us of a new play about their story
Missionary Ed McCully wrote this to his friend Jim Elliot on 22 September 1950:
The gospel in African soil
Jim Sayers
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Why is Africa so prone to falling foul of pernicious prosperity teaching?
Ian Flanders produces radio Bible-teaching programmes for Francophone Africa with Grace Baptist Mission Radio.
Rwanda: revival, genocide & recovery
Paul Perkin
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Rwanda is a land of contradictions. Arriving at Kigale one is immediately aware that this is quintessential Africa, and yet, ‘This is not Africa as I know it!’
One of the first hints is the airport inspection for plastic bags, banned in the country for environmental reasons. This beautiful, hilly, and in parts mountainous land is spotlessly clean – almost manicured.
THE EUSTON SPACE CENTRE?
en staff
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Reach out. Build up. Send out.
A mission statement of ‘sharing the life-giving story of God with London and the world’ could seem overambitious to say the least, but with the use of a vast building in central London surrounded by people from all around the world, this Euston Church statement is wonderfully appropriate.
Gentle correction
Richard Coekin
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Dear Readers of en,
I was very grateful for the kind commendation of my new book Gospel DNA on page
25 of your May 2017 edition by Pastor Mark
Troughton.
I appreciate
that his warm
approval was only well meant, but it was sufficiently over-generous for me to feel obliged
to
comment.
I would
like
to openly
acknowledge
the obvious but
important
truths that the 30 Co-mission ministries in
London that he mentions (19 established
churches and various pioneer ministries) are
attributable a) to the extraordinary grace of
our living Lord growing his churches by his
living Word; and b) to the collective efforts
of many servant-hearted leaders and congregation members across London. I raise this
because we are clear throughout Co-mission
not only that we are daily dependent upon
God, but also that if we fail to give him the
glory he deserves we may rightly face his discipline. For ‘neither he who plants nor he
who waters is anything but only God who
gives the growth’ (1 Corinthians 3).
Iraq: Kurdish Bible done
Church Mission Society
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
A team of Bible translators in Kurdistan,
northern Iraq, working against the backdrop
of civil unrest and religious persecution, have
completed the first-ever translation of the
whole Bible into the Central Kurdish Sorani
language and launched it in April.
For eight years, mission partners have
worked alongside
indigenous Kurds and
other foreign nationals drafting text, checking names, terminology and style, and finally
checking
both
the Old
and New
Testaments so that they could be published together for the first time as the complete
Bible.
