Arab and Jewish musicians team up
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 1 Oct 2025
Arab and Jewish musicians who are all believers in Jesus have teamed up to bring musical harmony in the Middle East.
The Israel and Ishmael Worship Tour, organised by Maoz Israel - an organisation "committed to reaching every Israeli with the truth of the gospel" - took place over the summer across France and Belgium, covering 18 cities in 30 days. The tour featured performances by Arab and Jewish musicians, worshipping Yeshua (Jesus) together in Hebrew, Arabic and French. Among them were the Arabic worship music Sakhnini brothers from Nazareth, who became Christians in recent years, and subsequently teamed up with Jewish believers in Jesus.
Prosperity gospel statement released
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 30 Sep 2025
A new statement is aiming to address the growing influence of prosperity gospel and “word of faith” teachings in African churches.
The Africa Statement on Prosperity Gospel and Word of Faith Theology (ASPG) has been produced in Swahili, English and Amharic, and signed by notable pastors and church leaders across the continent.
letter from America
Christian Nationalism, OK?
Josh Moody
Date posted: 29 Sep 2025
One of the hot topics of the moment is regarding so-called “Christian Nationalism”.
The very phrase strikes terror in some – the word nationalism sounds to them perilously close to nationalist if not fascist. For others, looking at the growing demographic trend of Islamic populations in the West, or the rise of the “Nones” with no religious commitment at all, reconstituting a specifically Christian approach to national government is a needed realpolitik response to what will otherwise be increasing persecution of Christians in time to come. All this has become even more heated with the recent tragic and appalling assassination of the Christian leader and political advocate for contemporary Republicanism, Charlie Kirk. What are we to think of it all?
Voddie Baucham dies at 56 after 'emergency medical incident'
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 26 Sep 2025
American pastor, author and educator Voddie Baucham has died at the age of 56.
Writing on Facebook, Voddie Baucham Ministries said: "We are saddened to inform friends that our dear brother, Voddie Baucham, Jr., has left the land of the dying and entered the land of the living.
‘Remarkable’ Bible translation progress
Wycliffe Bible Translators
Date posted: 26 Sep 2025
Imagine being in rural Kenya last March, where the Upper Pokomo people gathered in eager anticipation. After years of waiting, a joyous procession arrived carrying boxes wrapped like precious gifts. Inside lay something more valuable than gold: the New Testament in the Upper Pokomo language.
As the packages were opened, singing and dancing broke out. Then, for the very first time, God’s word was read aloud in the Upper Pokomo language. The moment was unforgettable. The Scriptures were no longer distant for the Upper Pokomo people, but they could finally hear God speak directly to them in the language they dream in, laugh in, and cry in.
Malawi: Celebrations as Lambya Bible launched
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 26 Sep 2025
In the northern Malawian town of Chitipa, thousands gathered to celebrate the launch of the first complete Lambya Bible.
The culmination of a 21-year translation effort, the Bible was formally dedicated and presented to the community during a five-hour programme of music, dancing, singers and even acrobats. Attendees were reportedly visibly joyful as many received one of the first 1,000 copies to be distributed.
Paracetamol, vaccines and the truth about autism
Kay Morgan-Gurr
Date posted: 24 Sep 2025
Once again, we see another myth about autism emerging. Earlier this week, President Trump claimed that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism.
He also looked at the MMR vaccine, saying it’s safer to have each vaccine separately. The vaccine myth has been thoroughly debunked, and the doctor behind the "research" was struck off. And yet Trump, believing the lies, has raised it again.
North Korea clamps down on radio broadcasts
Luke Randall
Date posted: 24 Sep 2025
Radio broadcasts into North Korea have been cut by around 80 per cent, leaving the nation’s citizens even more isolated from the world as authorities make the smuggling of unfavourable information into the country a “top priority."
Following several changes in North Korea, including turning off propaganda loudspeakers on their southern border, observers are hopeful that greater ties could be forged with the country's southern neighbours.
Erika Kirk: 'I forgive him because it's what Christ did'
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 23 Sep 2025
Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, has publicly forgiven her husband's alleged killer, stating: "I forgive him because it's what Christ did."
Tens of thousands of people gathered at a memorial service in Arizona, to mourn the death of political activist and Christian Charlie Kirk - who was fatally shot while addressing students at Utah Valley University on 10 September.
Pakistan: Concern over religious freedom
Luke Randall
Date posted: 23 Sep 2025
Religious freedom in Pakistan is in growing danger, partly due to a rising number of false allegations of blasphemy, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
In a report which analysed breaches of religious freedom in the nation between July 2024 and the end of June this year, the organisation claimed that the state is increasingly being subjected to pressure and intimidation by Muslim extremists who are gradually gaining a grip of several levers of the state.
Calls for release of Eritrean pastors held 20 years
Luke Randall
Date posted: 22 Sep 2025
Christians have been called to remember their fellow believers amidst intensifying persecution in Eritrea. Oft dubbed the "North Korea of Africa," the state cracks down on dissent, and an Open Doors spokesperson has called for believers not to “be blind to the suffering of our persecuted brothers and sisters."
Open Doors are one of several charities which have called for the release of seven church leaders in Eritrea who have been held without charge for over 20 years. The men are yet to stand trial, and their families have not been allowed to visit them, in a situation emblematic of the suffering of Christians all over the country.
letter from America
Division and vision among evangelicals
Josh Moody
Date posted: 20 Sep 2025
I was recently in an email dialogue with a friend in ministry. He was asking me about my thoughts on division within the evangelical church in the USA. It’s a tricky topic. One person’s division is another’s valiant stand for truth.
One aspect of this challenging topic is adopting the correct analysis. It’s always perilous to postulate solutions before you have correctly identified the problem, or provide treatment before you have an accurate diagnosis. What exactly is going on? There are a number of different factors at work.
‘Life or death’ for Afghan Christians
Luke Randall
Date posted: 5 Sep 2025
Many Afghan Christians in Tajikistan are facing a “life or death” predicament in the form of forced deportation back to Afghanistan, according to a Sat-7 source.
The move follows similar schemes undertaken by Pakistan and Iran, from whom almost two million Afghans have been returned to their homeland in seven months.
Evangelical concern over Austria aired
Luke Randall
Date posted: 3 Sep 2025
The World, European and Austrian Evangelical Alliances (WEA, EEA and EAÖ) have contributed to a report which expresses concern about freedom of religion, the abortion of unborn children with disabilities, and human trafficking in Austria.
The report, which also featured contributions from Herzwerk, which helps people in prostitution in Austria, criticises the Austrian government’s implementation of “a hierarchical system of recognition” of religious organisations, which it says discriminates against smaller and newer groups.
letter from Japan
Japan: Gospel opportunities and political threats
John Newton Webb
Date posted: 2 Sep 2025
In the city where we minister, every area has a Community Business Association. Despite not being a business, our church was invited to join our local association; we’re the only church in the city to be a member of one.
This has given us many opportunities to meet people, to publicise the church in local shops, and also to participate in local community events.
Evangelicalism grows in Catalonia
Luke Randall
Date posted: 1 Sep 2025
The number of evangelical worship places in Catalonia has increased by 100 in four years, making it the religious tradition which has experienced the “most significant growth” during the last 20 years.
There were 889 evangelical worship places as of 2024, 100 more than in 2020, which continues a steady pattern of growth which began in the late 19th century, mostly due to Pentecostal churches, according to the Religious Map of Catalonia.
letter from Liberia
Building the church in West Africa
James Stileman
Date posted: 29 Aug 2025
In an episode of Come Fly with Me, the BBC’s 2010 satirical fly-on-the-wall documentary set in a fictional UK airport, Ian Foot, the Chief Immigration Officer, challenges a passenger from Liberia for travelling under a forged passport. “The slight giveaway,” says Foot smugly, “is there is no such country as Liberia.”
The affronted passenger, appalled by the officer’s racism, points to Liberia on a map of West Africa and the humiliated Foot lets the visitor through.
Ukraine: Five reflections on the war
Jonathan Frais
Date posted: 28 Aug 2025
What do you make of the conflict in Ukraine? Its presence feels like the "new normal". Should we be bored, interested, concerned or even frightened? Let me offer five reflections.
- What the Bible says
Jesus said there will be “wars and rumours of wars” (Mark 13v7), and spring is the time “when kings go off to war” (1 Samuel 11v1). Battles are so well known that we urge one another, “Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6v12). The relative peace of the last 70 years has been unusual in historical terms but Jesus told us, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12v31) and that can apply to a country in need.
We know that Jesus, “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9v6), says “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5v9) and “he himself is our peace”, reconciling enemies “through the cross” (Ephesians 2v14, 16) – whether Jew, Gentile or “Scythian” (Ukrainian; Colossians 3v11). As a gospel people, “God is our refuge and strength” even when familiar borders and landmarks move (“mountains fall into the heart of the sea”; Psalm 46).
- What the news reports
On 24 February 2022, as martial law was imposed to keep men for fighting, many women and children fled. One million went through the Polish border in the first week. (The numbers soon surpassed the estimated two million Hebrews under Moses leaving Egypt.)
Since then, standing with Ukraine is regarded as one of the few agreed causes in Western political life. But people differ on the detail.
Some perspectives are too narrow, claiming that the war is just nations scrapping over land (ignoring daily Russian war crimes of targeting civilians, torturing prisoners, and gassing soldiers). Other angles are too wide, claiming that millions have died (although Ukraine has seen 70,000 soldiers die with 400,000 injured; while Russian forces have four times the death toll and double the injuries). And some approaches are simply wrong, such as Russia saying that Ukraine started the war, or that Russia cannot be beaten (when it lost to Japan in 1905, was defeated by Germany in 1914-18, and was pushed out of Afghanistan in 1989), or that tyrants are secure (tell that to Syria’s Assad).
- What war teaches us
Soldiers are our protectors. They are the extension of the authority of parents, teachers and police officers. In their encounters with fighters, neither John the Baptist nor Jesus nor Peter told them to resign (Luke 3v14; 7v1-10; Acts 10). But alliances for self-interest are inevitable. In time of war, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and so we helped Stalin fight Nazi Germany. On one side, Russia has soldiers from North Korea, technology from China, and has bought weapons from Iran and raised money by cheap oil sales to India. On the other side, there is safety. Countries have welcomed Ukraine’s refugees (a million each in Poland and Germany; 370,000 in Czechia [or Czech Republic]; 190,000 in the UK). But NATO is divided and timid, offering support short of the ability to defeat the aggressor (or, as the Ukrainians say, Make Russia Small Again).
- How we should pray
Pray for strength. War is exhausting. In Kyiv, some residents no longer go to the shelters when the sirens blare nightly.
Pray for protection. Across Ukraine, schools devote class time to explaining the dangers of playing with bomb debris but tragedies still happen.
Pray for courage. Zelensky has defied all predictions of his and Ukraine’s demise as his drones take bombs vast distances and keep sea lanes clear for grain exports. He travels widely to rally support (you leave Kyiv by 12-hour train for Poland). Meanwhile, Western leaders meet often but tread carefully, preferring not to rile Putin by spending the frozen assets of his oligarchs, or by intercepting his shadow fleet of sanctions-busting ships, or by placing troops in Ukraine itself.
Pray for resistance fighters behind enemy lines. Russification of the occupied territories has backfired with Kyiv loyalists able to use their new Russian passports to move freely across the Russian Federation.
Pray for truth. Putin does not want peace. His war economy is aimed at restoring the Soviet Union, as his writings make clear (hence the USSR flag at the prisoner exchange in May and the USSR ["CCCP"] slogan worn by Foreign Minister Lavrov as he arrived for the meeting with President Trump in Alaska).
Pray for Russia. May the regime’s leaders repent of their brutality, the media recover its voice, mourning families be told the truth, and prisoners of conscience be freed.
Pray for churches, particularly in Ukraine. May each one be renewed by Scripture as a community of hope and love for the traumatised and grieving.
Pray for Christian organisations helping Ukraine, such as the Bible Society, Samaritan’s Purse, and the Slavic Gospel Association.
- How we should act
Thank your MP for taking the issue seriously. (Remind them that we had common enemies in the Vikings and first had diplomatic contact when Oliver Cromwell corresponded with the Cossack hetman, Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.
Ask hosts of Ukrainian guests where they get advice on negotiating British culture (benefits, NHS, school, housing) and make sure local pastors have contact details.
Offer your church hall to Ukrainians for their parties.
Seek to include a Ukrainian flag at Remembrance Sunday.
Ask teachers you know not to push Ukrainian children to take GCSE Russian as an easy exam; they see it as the language of murderers. (But do ask headteachers to request that exam boards offer Ukrainian as a GCSE.)
Ask a youth group to research what the United Nations means by "abducted children".
Preach on what the Orthodox Church – strong in both Russia and Ukraine - gains and loses by its focus on “participating in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1v4).
Count among your “good deeds” (1 Peter 2v12) support of Ambulances for Ukraine and personally encourage anyone who visits the country.
Think about donating a car. (On the frontline, Ukrainian soldiers prefer civilian vehicles and British ones are prized because Russian snipers assume the driver is on the other side.) Or consider the Ukraine Investment Framework.
Be concerned. But don’t be frightened.
