Mark Drama
Andrew Page
Date posted: 1 Feb 2012
No props. No costumes. No professionals. Every incident in Mark's Gospel in 90 minutes.
Andrew Page tells us about his brainchild, the Mark Drama, which gets student groups and churches acting out the gospel.
The story on an Albanian atheist
Gani Smolica
Date posted: 1 Feb 2012
God has done a remarkable work in the country of Albania. Gani Smolica was caught up in it from the beginning….
Gani was born in Peja, Kosovo in 1958. His family were Albanian Muslims, but at school, being part of the former Yugoslavia, he was taught atheistic Marxism. He studied English Language at university and, as a good student, was invited to become a member of the Communist Party. It was an offer you could not refuse. So he went to Communist Party meetings, but at home he observed the Muslim feasts, though he did not really believe in God at all.
How to visit your missionary
Peter Grainger
Date posted: 1 Feb 2012
For the past two years, since stepping down as Senior Pastor of Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, Peter Grainger, along with his wife, has been ‘pastor at large’, visiting some of the Chapel’s 40-strong missionary family — in North Africa, India, Bolivia, Romania, Malawi and the UK.
It took eight months from leaving Britain in March 1871 for journalist Henry Stanley to reach the town of Ujiji near Lake Tangyanika and to utter the immortal words, ‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?’ on meeting the famous missionary. It took my wife and me 18 hours to reach the city of Blantyre (named after Livingstone’s Scottish birthplace) in Malawi to meet our missionaries, David and Kirsty Kanyumi, serving at the Evangelical Bible College of Malawi.
Puritan heart
Karen Soole
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
Book Review
SMOOTH STONES FROM ANCIENT BROOKS
Selections from the writings of Thomas Brooks
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Caymanian Christians
Thabiti Anyabwile
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is made up of three small islands in the Caribbean.
The largest island, Grand Cayman, is home to 55,000 people from over 100 nationalities. While small, the island represents an important opportunity for exporting the gospel, as the nations traffic to and from her shores.
Polygamy?
John Benton
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
Polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife or husband at once.
It is practised in a number of religions, including some branches of Mormonism, African tribal cults and Islam.
Young, Christian and unashamed
Helen Thorne-Allenson
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
On November 12, 1,200 young people aged 14-18 and their leaders descended on central London. Not to watch the Lord Mayor’s show. Nor to take part in any of the current protests in the capital. But to head to Westminster Chapel to learn about Jesus Christ at the one-day event ‘Sorted’.
This annual feature of the youth work calendar, dedicated to encouraging and supporting Bible-centred youth work throughout London and beyond, has now been running for over ten years. Shortly after this year’s event, Helen Thorne caught up with chair of the planning team, Nathan Howard to find out for EN what went on and why events like Sorted are so important.
Snowbirding?
Dr Brian Morris
Date posted: 1 Nov 2011
Retire to the Costa del Sol to help plant churches!
What follows is one believer’s account of an annual six-month winter sojourn that has become a spiritual blessing of deepening faith and joy.
Europe doesn't do God?
Stephen Timmis
Date posted: 1 Nov 2011
A fly-tipped estate in Wales, the sparkling coast of Italy, the diversity of London: what do these entirely different places have in common?
They share not only great gospel need, but also, by God’s grace, blossoming gospel witness. Western Europe has a vibrant cultural heritage. This region offers hundreds of years of spiritual, academic, artistic, musical, scientific and architectural abundance. But today it is a spiritual wasteland; the most secular continent in the world.
Into all the world
It began in a chapel in Bloomsbury in 1861.
150 years later, Grace Baptist Mission is at work helping churches support their missionaries on four continents and in 13 countries. Jim Sayers tells the story of the growth of this work of God’s grace.
GBM began life in 1861 as the Strict Baptist Mission. A group of Strict Baptist churches in London were concerned to come together to support ‘the work of spreading the gospel among the heathen’. They decided to focus their efforts on supporting workers in India. Mr. Henry Doll, an Anglo-Indian already living in India, became the long-serving superintendent of the work on the field, supporting Indian Christians who worked as pastors and evangelists. Madras became the focus of the work, and a new area opened up in Tinnevelly in the south of Tamil Nadu, as well as a work in Ceylon.
The Third Degree
Mission man
Pod Bhogal
Date posted: 1 Oct 2010
Mission weeks are the focal point of a CU’s evangelistic campaign. These weeks are where CU members can invite their friends to hear the gospel being preached in a way that is persuasive, attractive and relevant.
Pod Bhogal, UCCF’s Head of Communications talks to Michael Ots (Associate Christian Union Staff Worker, itinerant evangelist and mission speaker) about his involvement with CU mission weeks this year.
Big man’s biography
Andy Lines
Date posted: 1 Nov 2011
Book Review
PIONEER MISSIONARY, EVANGELICAL STATESMAN
A Life of A.T. (Tim) Houghton
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Light in Scots' darkness
Robin Sydserff
Date posted: 1 Dec 2011
At its General Assembly last May, the Church of Scotland took a decision that set a ‘trajectory’ towards recognising same-sex relationships as appropriate for those in leadership in the Church.
This is one of a number of decisions that marks a radical departure from biblical orthodoxy. Evangelicals now find themselves facing in a different direction from the denomination. While technically no decision has been made (a theological commission will report to the General Assembly in 2013), the majority of evangelicals believe that the path is set. The progress of secular legislation through the Scottish Parliament will add further impetus to the liberal agenda.
Servant pastor, joyful people
Marcus Honeysett
Date posted: 1 Oct 2011
Recently a church leader said to me: ‘It has just dawned on me that the Bible says that my job is to work with people for their joy in God. That revolutionises what I think I should be doing’.
He had made a critical discovery: biblical leadership is about growing and equipping disciples who are full of the joy of the Lord. And who, in turn, make more disciples.
Ex-offenders transform ex-offenders
Transformed is an organisation founded by ex-offenders for ex-offenders. Its goals are simple: to serve those who are trying to escape from the crime and addiction subcultures.
It also seeks to encourage hope in the hopeless, to show a cynical world by stories of changed lives that Jesus is alive today, and to mobilise the wider church to do the same. In particular, it sees its calling to the mission field beyond (as opposed to behind) the prison gates.
John Appleby, 1925-2011
Philip Grist
Date posted: 1 Sep 2011
The sudden homecall of John Appleby on July 24 came as a shock to his family and friends. So has ended the earthly life of a devoted servant of the Lord.
After a brief pastorate at Wood Green, John answered the call of God to service in South India. Little did he realise, when serving with Fleet Air Arm as a radio mechanic, that this was to be a vital part of his preparation for the work of radio evangelism in India which would develop in the late 1950s. When Strict Baptist Mission — now Grace Baptist Mission (GBM) — was presented with a challenge from the Far East Broadcasting Co. (Manila) to consider the possibility of a radio ministry, John was the only serving missionary qualified for this type of ministry. The potential was immense. The Mission accepted and Tamil programmes to India and beyond commenced in November 1958. The blessing of God was evident as enquirers began to respond. The early days were tough. There was no studio, just a tape recorder, microphone, seven-inch tapes and a stopwatch! It was a case of finding the quietest place for recording programmes. Imagine that in India!!
John Stott, 1921-2011
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Sep 2011
John Stott went to be with Christ on the afternoon of July 27, aged 90. He was listed by TIME magazine (April 2005) as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Column inches for his obituary in the UK broadsheets (all July 29) were more than would be afforded to most cabinet ministers.
