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Though nominal Christianity is declining in Britain, Bible-believing Christian faith seems to be making real headway.

The increasing suspicion that God has something special in store is epitomised by the transformation that has occurred at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology (WEST) in the last couple of years.

On the other side of the Channel, the gospel is making progress. 20 years ago, there were probably some 1,800 Bible-believing churches in France. Today it is more like 2,500. That is quite rapid growth.

This was the estimate of Reynald Kozycki, who works among evangelicals at a national level. He says that over 100 new churches have been started in Paris mainly through migrants from other countries. But throughout the country a positive work of church planting is being pursued (through agencies like France Mission) and producing fruit.

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.

Polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife or husband at once.

It is practised in a number of religions, including some branches of Mormonism, African tribal cults and Islam.

Does God have a plan for London? People from all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds from across the globe pass through or have become part of Britain’s capital city.

The world is in London. This means that, even apart from what might happen as people come for the Olympic Games in 2012, London has enormous potential in God’s purposes for worldwide mission and it seems that many Christians have begun to understand this.

These days many people seek answers to life’s questions on the internet. Looking for God is a ministry for Christ which taps into this modern phenomenon.

Looking for God is a website accessed through a Google search when buzz words like ‘God’, ‘peace,’ ‘faith’, etc. are typed in. The aim of the website is to draw people to consider Christianity.

The evangelical community is growing in London and leading the way for other European cities.

This was just one of the very positive messages coming out of the Urban Plant Life Conference held at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster on November 18. Sponsored by the London City Mission (LCM) and with major input from Tim Keller and the church-planting arm of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York, this was an outstanding event. Apart from Keller’s excellent, clear and challenging teaching, what made it so remarkable was that it drew together Christians from quite different evangelical traditions all heavily engaged in planting churches.

Until 1989, Poland was a Communist state ruled from Marxist Russia. Religiously, traditional Catholicism was the dominant force. But, during the years 1975 to 1990, God used a music group Deo Decyma (Ten for God) to spread the good news of Jesus Christ in Poland. This is something of their story.

The Krol family, headed up by the father Wilhelm Krol, a professor of civil engineering in Gliwice and a lay preacher, were evangelical Christians. Though their surroundings were quite hostile to the gospel, nevertheless the children, Nina, Henio and Adas, knew the Lord and felt very secure and free in Christ.

A Christian married couple I know of had to move out of London and leave their church to go north with the husband’s job.

Much to the surprise of some of their long-term Christian pals they began attending the little and very local Anglican church in the village to which they had moved. The friends of the couple had concerns. The church was small, the teaching was not heretical but it was not great, and there was nothing there for their four children.

At a time when churches are reported to be in decline, the theme of growing churches is obviously of major importance for Christians.

‘Growing churches: reach, build, send’ was the title of a conference sponsored by the South East Gospel Partnership (in affiliation with Affinity) at St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, London, on February 3.

In October, a South African bishop ordained three staff members of the Co-Mission Initiative churches, based in South West London, whose senior pastor is Richard Coekin. The Bishop of Southwark has since revoked Richard’s licence as a Church of England minister (see front page article).

Since the ordinations, there have been media interviews, in which Richard Coekin has clarified that his main concern is about the authority of the Bible in the modern Church of England. From right across the country, evangelical churches and individuals have inundated Richard’s church office with emails and letters of unqualified support. There have been messages from abroad, not just from South Africa, but from Australia, America, Brazil and more, simply saying that they agree wholeheartedly with what Richard is seeking to do.

If you are part of a small church you have a choice. You can choose to see the small size of the congregation as a reason to be discouraged and downhearted. Or you can choose to see the church’s smallness as a reason why you might be just the church God can use.

Where am I coming from with that last statement? Is it just foolish optimism? I don’t think it is. Here is my reasoning.

The British Evangelical Council (BEC) has a new name - 'Affinity', with a subtitle, 'Church-centred Partnership for Bible-centred Christianity'.

The British Evangelical Council (BEC) has re-invented itself. Its re-launch took place on March 25 at a smart London hotel, with a swish DVD presentation and reporters from national daily newspapers present.

Dr. Paul Brand was best known for his medical labours among lepers in India. His work was immortalised in the popular book 'Ten Fingers for God' by Dorothy Clarke Wilson. He died in July, though his obituary did not appear in The Daily Telegraph until September.

He was the son of missionary parents in India. When I saw the notice of Dr. Brand's passing I took a special interest because his father, Jesse Brand, was sent out to India as a missionary from our own congregation way back in 1907. In fact, his grandfather, Henry, besides being an alderman of Guildford, was also a deacon of our church. Jesse was noted for his evangelistic zeal. With others he had begun a tract society in the town and it is interesting to read some of its records. The members distributed Christian tracts to houses, on public transport and in the public parks. During 1905-6, nearly 19,000 tracts were given out. One entry in the records reads: 'Dogs were a menace. But two women went to a house with a tract in one hand and a bone for the dog in the other!'

William Taylor is the Minister of St. Helen's Bishopsgate in the City of London, where Dick Lucas preached before his retirement. William has been outspoken in his opposition to the appointment of Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury. In this frank interview with EN, he explains why...

EN: What are the problems with Rowan Williams becoming the next Archbishop of Canterbury?

'How should old mission agencies adapt to the challenges of reaching the world in the 21st century?'

That is a question with which Andy Lines is having to wrestle. Last year Andy became the new General Secretary of Crosslinks, formerly known as the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society, and EN interviewed him recently to see, among other things, what his thoughts were.

Surely we must stand amazed at the comparative lack of prayer in the British churches.

Think about our nation at present. Family breakdown is rife. Street crime is at record levels. Our media is awash with pornography. There is abortion on demand. Drugs are easily available. The churches are dwindling. Islamic extremism is on the rise. I can imagine the Lord Jesus standing at the door of many a church prayer meeting and thinking to himself: 'What has to happen to this country before my people will come and take prayer seriously?'

Bill Edgar is both a professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and an extremely talented jazz musician who has spent a lot of his life in France. He is not only very intelligent and cosmopolitan, but uses his gifts to share the gospel in various ways. EN took the opportunity to interview him while he was in Britain earlier this year.

EN: Bill, tell us about your background?

BE: My parents met in North Carolina during the war, while Dad was in the army. That is where I was born. Shortly after, we moved to Paris, France, and I grew up there. Then we spent seven years in New York. But after that, the rest of Dad's professional career until he retired in 1983, was in Geneva. It was not a Christian home, but it was a wonderful home.

How can you mix church and jazz? What do God and jazz have in common? Well, the answer is 'a great deal' according to Professor William Edgar of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

Not only is Bill Edgar a professor of apologetics at perhaps the foremost Reformed seminary in the USA, but he is also an extremely gifted jazz pianist.

John Piper, the well-known author, conference speaker and pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, was in England during October. EN obtained an interview with him at the offices of the Zacharias Trust in Oxford. . .

EN: What was the most significant factor in you becoming a Christian?

What can you give as a Christmas present which will be both spiritual, encouraging and enjoyable?

Good question. Here are some suggestions from EN.

Operation World

Top of the list this year must come a copy of the new edition of Operation World, the comprehensive guide to global Christian mission. Picking up our news from British TV, fascinated by pictures of horror and working to a secular Western agenda, we very often have a highly distorted view of what is going on in the world.

Billy Kennedy is an evangelist with many years of outreach and pastoral experience in reaching young people. He talked to EN about his life and its lessons.

EN: Billy, tell us about the early days of your life.

It is with great sadness that we report that Dr. Roy Clements, who resigned some months ago as minister of Eden Chapel, Cambridge, is now separated from his wife.

He had told her that he had a celibate relationship with a younger man who has acted as a research assistant for him. A very few close friends had been aware for a little while that Roy had struggled with homosexual attraction over a number of years.