Closure on a closure?
When a church shuts, what are we to think?
Some months ago, the church I served as pastor for over 15 years worshipped together for the last time.
The missing Sola?
Clive Every-Clayton
Date posted: 1 Feb 2018
Clive Every-Clayton on universal Truth for a post-modern age
We still bask in the memory of the great work of God 500 years ago.
Just a boy amidst the Revival
Richard Bewes
Date posted: 1 Nov 2017
Richard Bewes recounts his childhood with missionary parents in East Africa
My parents were missionaries in Kenya.
Good news in F.E. Colleges
Claire Povey
Date posted: 1 Nov 2017
It all started for Festive ten years ago.
An eclectic mix of people with a heart for Further Education Colleges and Sixth Forms sat around a table and prayed for God to take what they had and multiply it.
Letter from America
Wars and rumours of wars
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Dec 2017
Many of us would suppose that we live in unusually disturbed times.
A leading relief organisation in America estimates that they are dealing with, on average, far more serious crises in the early part of this century than in previous decades. There appears to be a growing flame of upsets, civil wars, brutality – and downright barbarism. Not to mention North Korea: what on earth is the world going to do about that most unstable situation?
Churches in jeopardy
Eric Barger
Date posted: 1 Dec 2017
Eric Barger on the liberal roots of the Emergent Church
Over a century ago, spiritual liberalism swept through the once-sound mainline denominations, wreaking theological havoc on anyone in its path.
The Third Degree
The last best opportunity
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Oct 2017
University is a key moment.
From day one, university promises a chance to reinvent yourself, to make lifelong friends and to load your CV with qualifications that will guarantee you your dream job upon graduating.
standing together
The yawning gap
Graham Nicholls
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
‘Sending missionaries abroad is boring.
‘It belongs to a bygone pioneering age. It’s part of cultural imperialism. It’s no longer necessary. It’s not a priority.’
Jesus’ prayer for unity in his church
Alan Purser
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Alan Purser has a careful look at what Jesus was actually saying
John 17 is holy ground: Jesus prays for unity, that his church may be one. For this is the key to effective mission.
The Third Degree
Examgelism!!
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Jul 2017
Spring months are busy.
It’s the time of mission weeks. By contrast the pace of the university summer term can seem slower as students knuckle down for end-of-year deadlines and exams. Yet with these stresses and challenges also comes a stream of evangelistic opportunities – in Christ and in Christ alone can we find rest for our weary souls and purpose for our lives. So, despite the increase in deadlines and work pressures, Christian Unions (CUs) continue in their gospel mission.
Hearing God in the Old Testament
Keswick Ministries
Date posted: 1 Aug 2017
I asked my wife, Bridget, for her thoughts on where to go with this article. She laughed and said: ‘Why do you ask me? You’re the one who’s taught the Old Testament!’ Then she added: ‘But I do keep hearing people saying, “I find the Old Testament really hard.”’
I’ve heard that many times, too. So I want to do three things here: acknowledge some of the challenges; ground our view of the Old Testament as God’s Word; give one pointer as to how to hear God’s Word in the Old Testament (OT).
The gospel in African soil
Jim Sayers
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Why is Africa so prone to falling foul of pernicious prosperity teaching?
Ian Flanders produces radio Bible-teaching programmes for Francophone Africa with Grace Baptist Mission Radio.
Living a life of reckless abandon
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
Gary Clayton remembers five missionary martyrs and tells us of a new play about their story
Missionary Ed McCully wrote this to his friend Jim Elliot on 22 September 1950:
The Shack: re-inventing God
JEB
Date posted: 1 Jul 2017
Revisiting William Paul Young’s book as the story comes to the cinema
Back in 2007 when the book by William Paul Young came out I can remember reading in the end-notes a rather impassioned plea from the author that his readers should pray that one day his story would be made into a movie.
Get up and give it a go!
Mike Mellor
Date posted: 1 Jul 2017
Mike Mellor with some motivation for evangelism
It was pioneer missionary C.T. Studd who asked in exasperated disbelief: ‘How can a man believe in Hell unless he throws away his life to rescue others from its torment?’
Smuggling Bibles into China?
Steve Laverty
Date posted: 1 Jul 2017
Steve Laverty with a salutary tale of his experience
26 October 2016 was the day the Chinese authorities arrested four Northern Irish lads for moving Bibles from Hong Kong (HK) into China. I was one of them.
A turning point in our society?
Paul Barnes
Date posted: 1 May 2017
Paul Barnes interviews Mike Overd and comments on the Street Preacher Movement
A new threshold was crossed for British justice in February.
standing together
Post-Christian Christianity
Graham Nicholls
Date posted: 1 May 2017
How does the church operate in an increasingly hostile culture which no longer assumes Christianity is essentially good?
That was the topic when around 75 people, mostly church leaders and theological students from across the whole of the UK and from widely different denominational groups came together in March for the biennial Affinity Theological Study Conference.
Life is Christ, death is gain
Peter Jensen
Date posted: 1 May 2017
Peter Jensen’s sermon from the thanksgiving service for Mike Ovey, at All Souls, Langham Place on 13 March
Here is the world’s stark truth: you are either alive or you are nothing.
Virtual ministry?
en staff
Date posted: 1 Jun 2017
en looks at how we are being encouraged to utilise online resources in our churches
Everyone values high-quality resources.
Techno-philiacs
Zuckerberg’s epistle
Ed Brooks & Pete Nicholas
Date posted: 1 Apr 2017
At the age of 33, Jesus Christ was a figure of scorn.
A little more than three years from the beginning of his public ministry, the following he had built had all but deserted him. His mission to establish a global community under the loving rule of God seemed to be a sad joke. He was crucified, dead and buried.
Helen Roseveare 1925–2016
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Feb 2017
Julia Cameron reflects on the remarkable life and ministry of Dr Helen Roseveare, who died on 7 December 2016 aged 91
Helen Roseveare is widely-recognised as one of the most courageous and influential missionaries of the 20th century.
Churches together again?
David Stone
Date posted: 1 Mar 2017
David Stone’s concluding article concerning lessons from the past about church cooperation
In last month’s article, we looked at the development of the Baptist Union (BUGB) and the Congregational Union (CUEW).
Before it’s too late
Tim Sunderland and Phil Walter ponder the sad case of a declining church putting things off for too long
Goodway Road was a small church on a housing estate in the north of Birmingham.