Is our leadership wasting talent?
Catherine Cowell and Sean Kennedy on releasing the enthusiasm of church members
‘No, the church won’t be able to support your project, because it’s not part of what we do,’ said the Revd Simon.
UBM: Oxbridge mission
UBM
Date posted: 1 Aug 2014
In the city centres of Oxford and Cambridge in June, people from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya, Turkey, China, Russia and atheists from the UK stopped to hear a presentation of the gospel as a United Beach Missions ‘Christian Answer’ team preached and witnessed for the Lord Jesus.
Many stopped, asked questions and listened to reasoned, interactive, Christian presentations: ‘How can God allow evil?’, ‘Who am I?’, ‘Reasons not to be an atheist’, ‘Did Jesus rise from the dead?’ And then there were the very many personal conversations as people willingly and eagerly discussed the claims of Jesus Christ.
Work in Progress
Being a big noise?
Roger Loosley
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
Subject: Dr Phil Harper, CEng MIMechE MInstNDT PhD MEng, who runs his own company in Sheffield making ultrasonic measuring and monitoring equipment for engineering applications. Married with two children.
Age range: 30–40.
Interests: Food, cooking, DIY.
RJL: Were you were brought up in Sheffield?
Phil: No, I was brought up on a farm in Kilkenny in Southern Ireland.
The Third Degree
IFES World Assembly
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
What do you get when you gather 1,000 evangelicals from 148 countries in a Mexican resort?
Nothing less than una fiesta grande: a plethora of culture and a little foretaste of Revelation 7.9: ‘…there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb…’
Scots train
FIEC
Date posted: 1 Nov 2015
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical
Churches (FIEC) in partnership with the
Free Church of Scotland is to offer a new
training course at Edinburgh Theological
Seminary
(ETS),
it was announced
in
September.
FIEC directors will deliver the
lectures
alongside other experienced pastors which
will enable participating students to obtain a
new ETS certificate in ‘Independent Church
Ministry’.
Special needs?
Sophie Killingley
Date posted: 1 Nov 2015
Book Review
THE LIFE YOU NEVER EXPECTED
Thriving While Parenting Special Needs
Children.
Read review
Reaching for the summit?
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Nov 2015
‘Summitry’ was a regular part of the Cold War. The USSR and the USA faced each across the Iron Curtain with separate alliances, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Warsaw Pact. Their leaders could not meet as part of one organisation, without recognising the unrecognisable: the West did not recognise the division of Berlin. In 1963 John F. Kennedy proclaimed across the Berlin Wall: ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’.
But US and Russian Presidents did meet in ‘summits’. And Archbishop Justin Welby has called a summit of Anglican Primates in Canterbury for 11–16 January 2016 in these words:
When is failure faithful?
Dr Mike Ovey
Date posted: 1 Nov 2015
Dr. Mike Ovey asks if current evangelicals are in denial about some important matters
A week ago I was at a major Church of England jamboree as a friend was installed in a new and more senior post.
New director
Natalie Parsons
Date posted: 1 Sep 2015
On 30 June Minister David Meredith of
Smithton Free Church was offered the position of Missions Director
for
the Free
Church of Scotland.
In mid July he accepted the position after
spending two weeks in prayer and discussion
with the elders at Smithton, as well as others
in the wider Church.
news in brief
Bangladesh: 18 baptised
Rural Muslims Bangladesh’s (RMB) partnership with FEBA UK combines Christian teaching with input on health and social issues, it was reported in July.
18 listeners have been baptised in the last year. Those who respond to RMB’s gospel message know that, in doing so, they risk being expelled from their villages. RMB broadcasts in Bengali, providing trustworthy material on faith and practical issues, and presents Christian content in a style that is accessible to non-literate listeners.
Capital Gains
Regular visiting
Graham Miller
Date posted: 1 Aug 2015
We live in a shallow world of internet ‘friendships’.
In contrast to this, the London City Mission perseveres with the long-term commitment and depth of relationships that we find described in the Bible.
Brazil: Amazonian disciples
Jason Murfitt
Date posted: 1 Sep 2015
Imagine the scene: you have been a missionary in a river community in the middle of the Amazonian jungle for nearly ten years, and, among other things, have spent over four years teaching the children from Genesis to Revelation.
But now some of the children are entering adolescence and you have decided to begin a Friday evening club to take the older ones ever deeper into the Word. As your wife busily prepares the after-meeting meal, you silently rehearse your notes – an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. Expectations are running high as the veranda begins to fill up with excited teenagers, all arriving by canoe in the half-light. You thought eight to ten might attend… but in no time 25 have arrived!
Manchester mission conference
David Butler
Date posted: 1 May 2014
Supporters of the European Missionary Fellowship (EMF) in the north-west of England gathered at Chorlton Evangelical Church, Manchester on March 8 for an afternoon conference.
A report was given by EMF missionary Volodymyr Kostyshyn, who pastors a church in Ternopil, west Ukraine, both about his own ministry and also about recent political developments in Ukraine.
World Cup – give it a try?
Neal (Paddy) Patterson
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
Paddy Patterson invites us to make the most of the opportunities that the Rugby World Cup offers
This next few weeks are a great opportunity to reach anyone in Britain with a sporting bent now that the Rugby World Cup has arrived on our shores.
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:
‘I always want to win!’
Graham Hooper
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
Graham Hooper asks if Christians should be competitive
‘The trouble with the rat race is that even when you win you’re still a rat.’ (Lily Tomlin)
Elaine Todman 1973 –2015
Peter Mawson
Date posted: 1 Oct 2015
On Tuesday 22 August almost 500 people packed into a church in South Bristol. Was this for a person with an international ministry, or for someone well known within the Christian community? Well no, actually. The Thanksgiving service was for Elaine Todman, the wife of Neil, the lead pastor of Headley Park Church.
Elaine became a Christian at the age of 16 through the witness of a friend at school and through a Billy Graham campaign.
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.
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.’
