A time to plant
Matthew Mason
Why is British soil unproductive for the gospel? How can we not lose heart? At St Paul’s Hammersmith on 25 June, The Planting Collective – a partnership of Acts 29, Co-Mission, and the FIEC – heard Tim Keller and John Piper offer answers at their first biennial conference, ‘A Time to Plant’.
It was thrilling to see 400 delegates from across the UK, Europe, Africa and America. 25 years ago, church planting in Britain was unusual. Now, many churches are being planted, in villages and cities, reaching young professionals, the urban poor, immigrant communities and middle England. It was also encouraging to be reminded that there is no mystique to planting. Most delegates and seminar presenters were ordinary pastors of ordinary churches. The central things are prayer, God’s Word, love for people, godly lives and a heart for the lost.
Conference on the cross
Matthew Mason
Readers will be aware that penal substitution — that Jesus died in the place of his people and bore the penalty for their sins — has become a controversial doctrine within certain sectors of British evangelicalism.
Most recently, Steve Chalke has dismissed the doctrine in a book and a series of articles, even caricaturing it as ‘a form of cosmic child abuse’.
