In Depth:  Tim Thornborough

I sat under the blazing lights of the TV studio, the presenter looking at me suspiciously.

I was the nasty, Bible-bashing evangelical, out of tune with the culture, the times and reality as he knew it. He really only had one aim. To show the world how irrelevant and bigoted I really was. I gulped nervously and tried to put on a brave smile as the red light went on and he turned to me, eyes boring into me like gimlets…

Mark Driscoll started a Bible study in his lounge in Seattle just 15 years ago.

His church — Mars Hill — now numbers some 19,000, and his fiery straight-talking sermons are watched by thousands more online. EN’s Tim Thornborough caught up with him at the London Men’s Convention.

E. Earle Ellis, Research Professor of Theology Emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and the founder of the Institute for Biblical Research, passed away on March 2.

His name may not be well known in the UK, except perhaps for his name on the cover of a few commentaries, but Earle was an outstanding Christian biblical scholar who fought for his faith within an often hostile academic arena.

Tim Thornborough finds encouraging news of gospel progress with everyone he talks to who is using the Christianity Explored course.

In quiet ways all over the country, people meet week by week and read Mark’s gospel.

When October 31 comes and the streets fill with crowds of kids dressed as ghosts, ghouls, vampires and witches, the reaction of many Christians is to batten down the hatches and refuse to answer the door.

This is an understandable reaction. Why should we encourage and reward 'trick or treaters' for glorying in the works of the devil? And while it is a harmless bit of fun for many children, there is always a more malicious minority that the more vulnerable among us would not want to open our doors to.

Frank Retief was newly married when he started the church of St. James, Kenilworth, Cape Town. The mother church had bought an old building in a rundown part of Cape Town that was ripe for development.

At the first meeting in 1968 just four children showed up. Now St. James's has an auditorium seating 1,500 people, but, more spectacularly, it has spawned 22 daughter and grand-daughter churches in the Cape region.

Tom Seidler was arrested in the grounds of Eton College in November 1995 for drug possession. It brought to an end his drug-taking career which had started in the College three years earlier ...

TT: Where did you get involved in drugs?

TS: While I was at Eton. Mostly, people didn't take drugs during the week, but weekends were busy and half-terms were a frenzy. Out of 1,200 people at Eton when I was there, I guess that there were only about 20 people who were regular users. I think that's quite a small proportion. I started drinking when I was 16, and then was given some weed (marijuana) when I was 17.

With Wimbledon in the air, Tim Thornborough talks to Kent Kinnear - a professional tennis player on 'the tour'.

In England we tend to associate tennis with the couple of weeks at the end of June when Wimbledon is transformed into the shrine of a sport invented over 100 ago by Major Digby Clopton and originally sold as Spairistike - a polite game to play on the lawn with friends on a summer afternoon. Little did he realise that over 100 years later, his game would grow into a vast industry that tours the world, commands megabuck salaries for its leading players and turns them into sporting icons.