How to massage a survey
David Robertson
Date posted: 1 May 2015
An interesting article recently appeared on the Christian Today website apparently indicating a big shift in Christian attitudes towards same sex relationships.
Seemingly one in four churchgoers now thinks that same sex relationships are okay but 37% of those are too frightened to speak out.
Good to give / great to receive
Toni Coulton
Date posted: 1 May 2015
Toni Coulton tells us about an innovative new outreach to those just off to be students
Someone had a brainwave!
Banner brilliant
Malcolm MacGregor
Date posted: 1 May 2015
The Banner of Truth Leicester Conference,
13-16 April featured a galaxy of speakers.
Alongside Kevin De Young from Michigan
the main speakers were Stuart Olyott and
Michael Reeves ably assisted by Alan Davey
(SW
France), Geof Kingswood
from
Canada and Gary Brady and Geof Thomas.
The
theme was
‘The Suffering of
this
Present Time.’ Kevin De Young set out the
rational behind our suffering in the suffering
of Christ and our identity with him. There
was a mind blowing sermon focussing on the shame of the cross. Stuart Olyott took the
pattern of ministerial suffering set by Paul in
2 Corinthians. This included some remarkable words of personal testimony which were
both humourous and profound. Michael
Reeves spoke on Puritan teaching concerning suffering and suffering
in the
life of
Spurgeon. Alan Davey covered the cost of
commitment on the mission field. Father
and
son-in-law Geof Thomas and Gary
Brady provided the opening and closing sermons. At first glance the theme may have
appeared gloomy but the speakers handled it with wisdom, warmth and scriptural integrity. It was a particularly affecting time of fellowship. Well done Banner!
Worship God UK
Dave Gobbett
Date posted: 1 May 2015
We interview Dave Gobbett about why he is backing the Sovereign Grace conference in Bath this month
en: How did you get to know and what do you like about the Sovereign Grace work?
DG: I’ve known and loved the work of Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) since 2000, when I spent a year in the US. I was on staff at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC with Mark Dever, and in the previous year Mark had become friends with C.J. Mahaney, a local charismatic church pastor 40 minutes from DC as well as the then head of SGM. In Dever’s typically contagious style, that friendship spilled over into our respective church staff teams, and I especially enjoyed getting to know Bob Kauflin (director of Sovereign Grace Music) and Jeff Purswell (head of Sovereign Grace’s Pastor’s College, and former teaching assistant to Wayne Grudem).
With the Spirit’s help
Elizabeth Westmacott/ Matthew England/ Mark Jenner
Date posted: 1 May 2015
Saved 2 Serve (S2S) is a conference for people ages 15 – 25 considering Christian mission. It took place in Ware on 28 March.
The main speaker was David Hircock, and the theme was on the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion, conviction, transformation and reassurance. A reminder was given that life is not going to be a ‘spiritual high’. Sometimes we feel distant from God, other times we are keenly aware of his presence. But God is always with us. Our feelings don't affect that fact.
BUILDING UP BOURNEMOUTH
Lansdowne Baptist Church
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
‘We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.’
So said Winston Churchill defending the adversarial nature of the House of Commons debating chamber. The same could be said of our church buildings. They are monuments to the era in which they were built and reflect its values.
Capital Gains
Samaria on Thames
Graham Miller
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
The Great Commission calls us to reach out in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.
The UK’s Commonwealth heritage makes us a remarkably diverse nation with London the most globalised city in the world, and we are surrounded by ‘Samaritans’ – those who are culturally very different from ourselves.
news in brief
CAR: attacks
On 17 February, more than 14 homes and churches were torched and missionary centres vandalised in the area around Kaga-Bandoro, in the north-central part of the Central African Republic.
Local Christians said that many pastors fled to the town of Kaga-Bandoro, where another church was burned.
Iran: great encouragement as many baptised
Elam Ministries
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
In early March it was reported that, in recent
weeks, over 220 Iranians and Afghans have
been baptised
in
two cities
in
the Iran
region. Elam Ministries says: ‘Please join us
in praying for these new believers, and for
the churches as they disciple them.’
The baptisms were joyful day-long occasions, full of worship, prayer, fellowship over
meals and the sharing of testimonies. One
new believer at one of
the ceremonies recalled how finding a New Testament by
accident had started him on his journey to
Christ. Remarkable
stories of
the Lord’s
providence abounded during both days.
news in brief
Outbid in Canterbury
Emmanuel
Church
Canterbury
(see
January en) was outbid in an auction for a
redundant chapel.
Despite the disappointment, the church
family has seen the Lord at work within it,
bringing a great sense of unity, seeing very
generous giving, and bringing
together a
team of ‘professionals’ from both within and
outside the church to work on the acquisition of a property. They plan to work together to this end in the months ahead.
Christ at the core
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
David Melilli, executive director of God Centered Life Ministries, interviews en columnist Josh Moody, the founder of the project
God Centered Life Ministries began last December (2014), with the vision of ‘a generation living for God.’
Location, location, location
Euan Dodds
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
Euan Dodds urges us to think carefully before we move house
Would you ever consider moving house in order to be closer to your church?
NHS: missionaries miss out
Global Connections / various
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
Concerns have been raised regarding the NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015 which will come into force on 6 April and as to how these will affect missionaries who require hospital treatment.
The Government has taken the view that, since the UK has a residency-based health-care system, free NHS hospital treatment should only be provided to visitors in rare cases, for example when they are working for the UK Government (including on humanitarian projects) or when an international obligation requires it.
Christian Aid?
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
Christian Aid Week in May is an established national institution. Thousands of volunteers, including me, drop red envelopes through people’s letter-boxes and collect them at the end of the week. Thousands who never attend church respond generously to appeals to help the most deprived in the world.
Christian Aid began in response to the refugee crisis at the end of the Second World War. It puts into practice the teaching of Jesus to love our neighbours and to obey him in helping the poor, the hungry and the naked. Jesus did not specify that these poor people had to be Christian.
Cuba: the gospel marches on
Carl Chambers
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
The island of Cuba has recently hit the news again, because the US has finally overturned its 50-year policy of isolation by re-establishing diplomatic relations with this state socialist country.
World politics is not the only area where fundamental changes are happening – the church in Cuba is another one.
Nigeria: missionary freed
Morning Star News
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
On 7 March the Free Methodist Church USA announced the release of its kidnapped missionary in Nigeria, Phyllis Sortor.
In a statement signed on behalf of the Board of Bishops of the church, David W. Kendall said 71-year-old Sortor was released by her captors on Friday evening, 6 March. He said armed gunmen abducted Sortor on 23 February from Hope Academy school in Emi-Oworo village in the central Nigerian state of Kogi.
Two new AMiE churches
Susie Leafe
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
‘Thanks be to God’, as us Anglicans like to say, two brand new Conservative Evangelical Anglican churches have opened in the last few months: one in Salisbury and another in Guildford.
Both have been started under the auspices of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) where they join a good number of other churches already identifying with AMiE’s remit and, wonderfully, there are many more churches in the pipeline.
Remembering the year ahead
Joy Horn
Date posted: 1 Jan 2015
Joy Horn highlights some significant anniversaries from Christian history coming up in 2015
EVENTS
Justin Martyr was put to death in Rome in 165. From a pagan background, he became a Christian aged about 30, and taught in Ephesus and Rome. He wrote two ‘Apologies’ or defences of Christianity against misrepresentation.
Joyful, infectious theology
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
... Mike Reeves has a dream
The Revd Dr Michael Reeves is Director of Union and Senior Lecturer at Wales Evangelical School of Theology.
Ken Wycherley 1943 –2014
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
Ken Wycherley served with UCCF
from
1975 to 1989, first as a Travelling Secretary,
then on the senior staff team.
In the early 1980s he played a strategic role
in restructuring the student department to
meet the needs of rapid growth in the tertiary
sector. Ken’s clarity of thought was appreciated by staff and student leaders alike, as policies and guidance were formulated on a range
of campus issues. He always retained a strong
commitment to evangelism and mission.
Fruit after 60 years
Alex Bowler
Date posted: 1 Jan 2015
Sixty years after Billy Graham held the 1954 Greater London Crusade in the old Harringay Arena, another gospel mission in Harringay took place in mid-October with an amazing conversion story with a link to that original event.
A lady who went to hear Billy Graham preach the gospel in the Harringay Arena in 1954 left that event without committing her life to Christ but 60 years later she came to the ‘Hope For Harringay’ mission and received Jesus as her Saviour! Like the others who came to the Saviour of the world during the mission, she shone with the joy of her salvation.
news in brief
CAR: awards
On 13 November, three top religious leaders of the Central African Republic were awarded a prize for their efforts for peace in the war-torn Central African Republic.
In the midst of the country's two years of violence, often portrayed as confessional conflict, the three clerics formed a joint platform to promote peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims. Their message: violence in CAR is not primarily caused by religious conflict; instead, the root of the conflict lies in the struggle for political power.
Website Smith video clip
Edward Fisher
Date posted: 1 Mar 2015
Dear Sir,
Thank you so much for having the courage
to present the Jay Smith video clip in the
news item headlined ‘Charlie at the corner’
on the online version of en on your website.
What Jay Smith says gets to the heart of the
problem with the Qu’ran: how to treat the
later surahs compared to the earlier.
