The Third Degree
Missions' flying start
Pod Bhogal
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
We’re thrilled by what the Lord has been doing through Christian Unions last term. Here are some highlights.
The CU at Reading, in partnership with local churches, hosted a meal for a remarkable 280 international students. Susie, a member of the CU, met a Chinese girl who said she would like to find out more about the Bible. ‘She was very enthusiastic’, commented Gareth Leaney (Staff Worker, Reading). He continues, ‘[she] even asked if she could use a Bible app on her phone so she could understand the translation’.
Emancipating the world
Richard Pearcey
Date posted: 1 Nov 2012
The post-9/11 international order finds itself in the grip of a global struggle ‘for the hearts and minds of people and the souls of nations’.
So writes author, speaker, teacher, and activist for the poor and hungry, Darrow Miller, in the vitally important new book, Emancipating the world: a Christian response to radical Islam and fundamentalist atheism.
Frontline ministry
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Nov 2012
Before the African sun has crept over the hills to the north, the 63 Sudanese men planning to enter the army as chaplains begin running in formation.They chant prayers and sing about Jesus. The soldier at the front carries a green flag with a red cross bearing the words ‘Mountain Chaplaincy Corps’.
The chaplains run for 60 minutes, passing through the town of Nimule, then climb to the top of a hill before running back down again and returning to the camp led by Wes and Vicky Bentley. As the soldiers stream into the compound, it begins to get light — a soft pink glow appearing on the eastern horizon.
Loopers
Jason Gardner
Date posted: 1 Nov 2012
None Review
The cost of intervention LOOPERS
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Scotland: Tron turfed out
On October 9, the Glasgow Presbytery of the Church of Scotland took the decision to evict the congregation of St. George’s Tron from the church building and the minister, Willie Philip, from the manse, without undue delay.
This follows the church’s stand against the denomination’s decision at the General Assembly in May 2011 to pursue a path which would allow gay ministers to take on parishes and for those in same-sex relationships to be trained for the ministry.
Below me, the clouds
One dark, blacked-out evening early in 1945, when returning from an evening service, I overheard my brother Harold quietly speaking to mother.
She was distressed at seeing her eldest son, Fred, go to Malaya as a soldier. Harold himself would soon be joining the army. She was naturally afraid that she might lose both sons in the war. He spoke to her gently of death as a gateway into ‘the Lord’s presence’ and not the end of life.
A battle I face
Julian Hardyman
Date posted: 1 Oct 2012
An interview with Vaughan Roberts, Rector of St Ebbes Church, Oxford, by Julian Hardyman, Senior Pastor of Eden Baptist Church, Cambridge, about same-sex attraction.
Julian: Vaughan, earlier this year your book Battles Christians Face was republished in a fifth anniversary edition. You added a new preface which included these words: This ‘is the most personal of my books, partly … because I wrote out of my own experience. We all face battles in the Christian life, some of which are common to each of us, while others are shared only by a few. Of the many battles I could have written about, I chose to focus on eight which, to a greater or lesser degree, I face myself’. What responses have you had?
Vaughan: The fact that a pastor struggles with image, lust, guilt, doubt, pride and keeping spiritually fresh is not exactly a revelation to anyone who knows their own heart and understands that Christian leaders are weak and sinful too; and the admission of an occasional struggle with depression causes no surprise these days. The fact that the other chapter is on homosexuality, however, has caused a small ripple of reaction and led some to ask why I wrote those words and what I meant by them.
Filling a big gap
Mike Taylor
Date posted: 1 Oct 2012
Book Review
WITNESSING TO WESTERN MUSLIMS
A worldview approach to sharing faith
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Reaching the world's universities
Michael Green uses the apostle Paul's model at the opening on July 7 of Blue Boar House in Oxford, the new home for UCCF and IFES.
It is little short of miraculous to have acquired a large property like this in the centre of Oxford.
The Third Degree
Robin Peak
Date posted: 1 Jul 2012
24 UCCF short-term mission teams, comprising around 150 students, Staff and Relay Workers, will be involved in summer mission teams this year.
16 of the 24 teams of up to 15 students will be going abroad to Europe, Asia and Africa, representing an increase from the ten teams that were sent last year.
This happy breed?
When I was around 13 years old, our church inducted a new minister. Our choir was asked to sing at the service. I can remember the serious misgivings I had as I was learning the words of the song:
So send I you to labour unrewarded, to serve unpaid, unloved, unsought unknown;
God with us now
David Miller
Date posted: 1 Sep 2012
Book Review
HOLY SPIRIT — LIVING GOD
A biblical, practical and simple guide to the Holy Spirit
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The Lewis revival
John Benton
Date posted: 1 Jul 2012
The Hebrides is a group of islands around 40 miles west of the north of Scotland. Lewis is the most northerly island and Harris is its southern peninsula.
The Western Isles had experienced a number of short periods of revival at the end of the 19th and during the first half of the 20th centuries, but especially between 1949 and 1952.
Positive signs in Europe
Matthias Lohmann
Date posted: 1 Jul 2012
While the financial problems of the Eurozone continue to bring political uncertainty, a step forward for biblical Christianity in Europe seems to be on the cards.
One sign of this was the striking popularity of two recent conferences in Switzerland and Germany with input from the Gospel Coalition from the USA.
Youth Leaders
Starting from scratch
Dave Fenton
Date posted: 1 Aug 2012
Recent research suggests that you will only find provision for under 18s in around 50% of churches in the UK.
If you reduce that to provision for 11s to 18s (youth) your chances are reduced to 25%. Starting up in youth ministry can be hard work and discouraging, but, if the figures are right, then 25% of churches providing something for children have nothing for post-11s. What those children do at 11 is open to speculation, but I suspect it is a mixture of moving on to other churches or staying at home.
India: Good Shepherd Ministries
India’s outcast Dalits (untouchables) have endured three millennia of oppression and injustice.
Leaders of this group, which totals a quarter of a billion people, have in recent years asked the church and Christian organisations in India to assist them in their plight. Good Shepherd / Operation Mobilisation India Ministries (GS/OM India Ministries) is at the forefront of this response and the massive movement of the Holy Spirit underway among India’s Dalits.
