Spiritual revolution
1957 saw three unknown young students take a step of faith that would have consequences beyond their wildest dreams.
50 years have passed since George Verwer, Dale Rhoton and Walter Borchard, then still in their teens, drove down Route 66 from Chicago towards Mexico City in a beat-up 1949 Dodge truck filled with Spanish gospels and tracts. This was the beginning of what was to become Operation Mobilisation (OM). An unlikely spiritual revolution had started.
Heading for the door
As, this month, Joel Edwards stands down from his role as General Director of Evangelical Alliance, he gave an interview to EN.
EN: In what ways do you think evangelicalism has changed during your time at E?
Alice Compain, 1934-2008
Ray Porter
Date posted: 1 Oct 2008
Alice Compain, the veteran OMF missionary to Cambodia and Laos, died at a nursing home in Pembury, Kent on September 4 2008 at the age of 74.
Alice was prepared by God to be a missionary to Laos and Cambodia. Born into a multilingual Christian family in London. English, French and German were the languages of the home. At the age of six she began to play the violin and that would prove the key to much of her subsequent service.
Tutu and Tearfund
In the Autumn issue of Tear Times, the magazine of the relief charity Tearfund, the organisation advertised that they had asked Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at a conference supported by them on Saturday September 6 in London.
EN was contacted and had conversations with a few evangelicals who felt very uneasy about this and asked us to write and ask Tearfund some questions.
Arguing for GAFCON
Wallace Benn & Mark Burkill
Date posted: 1 Nov 2008
The Christian work and fellowship started by GAFCON in Jerusalem in June 2008 has only just begun.
We are well aware that it faces plenty of dangers and obstacles as it seeks to renew the Anglican Communion in the work of the gospel. We know that it has already been misunderstood in various quarters. This may lead some to hesitate about supporting it. That is why we want to respond to the particular misunderstandings and historical errors that are stated in the article by Iain Murray in the September 2008 issue of EN, although both of us have enormously appreciated books he has written over the years.
The Third Degree
Dan Hames
Date posted: 1 Nov 2008
Back in January’s EN, Michael Reeves wrote about the imminent launch of UCCF’s online theological centre, Theology Network (http://www.theologynetwork.org). He promised all the thrill of an old-fashioned sweetie shop minus the sugar — and he explained the rationale for this website: ‘To unleash the best biblical teaching so that students and all users might come to know and love the Lord Jesus in deeper, life-changing, mission-igniting ways’.
Behind the launch of Theology Network was our hope that UCCF Christian Unions would be theologically driven — that is, illuminated, empowered, and consumed by God’s gracious revelation of himself in his Son. We launched with the conviction that when students are captivated by the great gospel of Jesus they would be propelled onward in evangelism and tooled-up for discipleship.
Where are the men?
Chris Street
Date posted: 1 Oct 2008
The 600 men who attended the fifth Cardiff Men’s Convention in 2008 are still telling us that it was ‘the best convention yet’. Once more the All Nations Centre in Cardiff was filled with men who brought a compassion to worship, a real hunger for truth in the teaching and, maybe most important of all, the encouragement of being with other Christian men.
The title of this year’s convention was ‘Leaving a Legacy’, the central idea being that Christian men have a significant responsibility to create a positive legacy in their churches, their family, their workplace and in the wider community. The teaching was designed to challenge and inspire, but also to equip men to take on that responsibility.
The view from down under Down Under
David Jones
Date posted: 1 Aug 2008
Tasmania isn’t literally the end of the earth, but you can see it from here, and, like island communities everywhere, Tasmanians are fiercely independent and proud of where they live.
Jenny Cullen defines an island as ‘A place where people are usually nice to each other, nobody’s in a hurry, people stop and talk to each other on the street even in nasty weather, there are no secrets, and life just pretty much works the way it should most of the time. It’s not too complicated’. That’s what it’s like most of the time.
Acting apart
Naomi Philippi
Date posted: 1 Jul 2008
It’s Sunday morning. Not much has changed. You throw on some clothes and grab a coffee on your way out the door. Destination — church.
It’s just what you’ve been brought up doing. No rhyme or reason — just habit. There’s a handshake at the door, then you head for the back pew.
'Time out' on divisions
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Sep 2008
Lambeth 2008 ended on a high. As the final service ended in Canterbury Cathedral, the names of nine members of an Anglican Mission Order in Melanesia martyred in 2003 were placed in the chapel of Martyrs of our Time.
Their colleagues processed with their names, from the nave up the many steps to the quire screen, singing the most haunting refrain. They passed from sight through the quire screen. But they continued singing. The refrain echoed round the cathedral. It was as though we had seen the martyrs themselves pass into the nearer presence of God, yet their beautiful singing could still he heard. Strong men wept.
Learning to plant churches for the 21st century
In Sheffield in September 2007, a new training programme began called Porterbrook Training, part of the Porterbrook Network. Michael Jensen interviews its director, Steve Timmis, for EN, to find out what it is all about.
MJ: Before we talk about Porterbrook Training specifically, can you tell us how the Porterbrook Network came into being?
Three in one
Bill James
Date posted: 1 Jul 2008
Book Review
FATHER, SON AND SPIRIT
The Trinity and John’s Gospel
Read review
Legal beagle
David Chapman
Date posted: 1 Aug 2008
Book Review
THE CHRISTIAN CHARITIES HANDBOOK
The Essential Guide for Trustees and Managers
Read review
Unlocking the mind of the unbeliever
Andrew Baughen
Date posted: 1 Aug 2008
The Clerkenwell Symposium was a gathering of UK evangelists with Tim Keller earlier this year to discuss how to unlock the mind of the unbeliever.
The group sought to develop ways of evangelism which:
'Hear O earth': 50 years of GBM radio
John McDonald
Date posted: 1 Jun 2008
The radio work of Grace Baptist Mission (GBM) began in India 50 years ago. It was a cause for deep gratitude that the recommendation from Conference in India to the Mission Council in London asking permission to establish a radio ministry was unanimously accepted in the 1950s.
Not all Strict Baptists of that generation were happy about radio. Even in 1963, when in the UK on furlough, a missionary was told by one pastor that, ‘Radio is the devil’s instrument’.
Capital gold
Geoff Gobbett
Date posted: 1 Jun 2008
Book Review
YOU’LL GO TO LONDON
The autobiography of Lionel Ball
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Edith Margaret Clarkson, 1915-2008
Christopher Idle
Date posted: 1 Jun 2008
Margaret Clarkson, whose rarely-used first name is Edith, was born in 1915 into, as Margaret herself described, ‘a loveless and unhappy marriage’, which broke up when she was 12.
C. Stacey Woods (‘a name not widely known’) was well celebrated by Julia Cameron in November’s EN. Another of his hidden achievements came in Toronto in 1946. He asked Margaret Clarkson to write a hymn.
Uganda cries for justice
Peter May
Date posted: 1 Jun 2008
A small team of solicitors, sent by BMS World Mission to work with the Uganda Christian Lawyers’ Fraternity (UCLF), is engaged in a major project in Kampala, striking at the root of one of Uganda’s greatest needs.
Following in the footsteps of Christian educationalists and healthcare professionals, who have done such pioneering work in Uganda over the past 120 years, these lawyers are laying foundations for justice both now and for the future.
