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From Aberdeen to Plymouth, tens of thousands of students have been given the opportunity to hear the gospel and respond to the claims of Jesus Christ.

UCCF students, staff and supporters have recently been at full capacity with nearly 90 large-scale missions impacting campuses up and down Britain.

So far we have identified three issues which cause problems. These are theological ignorance, the work of false teachers, and an unfettered pragmatic approach to ministry as possible reasons for the current theological crisis in evangelical mission organisations. However, there are other factors which may support the spread of heresy and problematic mission strategies.

Low view of local church

Sometimes it is a low view of the local church and its role in world mission that fosters unhelpful strategies and even heretical views in the mission field. For many years mission organisations have been reminding local churches in the West of their responsibility for world mission. Local churches, they rightly argue, must be mission-minded.

Where are evangelical missionary organisations heading in the long run?

So far we have seen that unbiblical positions, such as Open Theism, held within evangelical mission organisations may be the result of either theological ignorance or the work of false teachers. However, there are other factors which foster problematic theological views and mission strategies.

In June 2005 Jonathan Stephen, principal of the Wales Evangelical School of Theology, published an article entitled ‘The Current Crisis in Evangelicalism’ in EN.

Stephen looked at a number of postmodern heresies which posed a severe threat to Bible-centred Christianity. Among these heresies in contemporary evangelicalism identified were Open Theism, the New Perspective on Paul, and the Emerging Church, as well as the rejection of the doctrine of penal substitution. Seven years on, these postmodern theologies have undoubtedly gained influence. However, they no longer pose a threat to evangelical churches in Europe and North America alone. There is another group in the evangelical constituency that is also affected: mission organisations and their partners overseas.

Over 90 CU mission weeks have taken place on campuses all around Britain this academic year.

Responses to the gospel have been varied but Christian Union events weeks continue to be a source of great encouragement.

Josh Moody

Date posted: 1 Dec 2012

‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s...’ This is the famous pronouncement of the Master in response to a particularly intense period of Pharisaic grilling. But what precisely does it mean as Christians in America negotiate a cultural landscape that appears less friendly to traditional Christian values and the message of the gospel than in the recent past?

The blogosphere is not short of answers, but I suggest that 1 John, in particular, provides a compelling look at the right way to respond. In the context in which John was writing, there was an incipient ‘Gnosticism’ that was advocating a toned down spirituality, denying that Jesus was the Christ in ‘flesh’, and therefore that it was possible to be spiritual without actual practical commitment to the local church or, indeed, without practising righteousness. In other words, in response to pressures from a pagan environment, the church was susceptible to a form of teaching that allowed it to live in a less combative fashion with its neighbours — understandable in its own right — but by means of denying core doctrines (‘Jesus is the Christ’) and core moral behaviour (‘practising righteousness’).

CUs in Great Britain have begun preparations for their February Uncover missions by launching the Uncover ‘pray for five, give to five and invite five’ campaign. UCCF hope that the national initiative, which involves students praying for five friends, giving those friends a Gospel and inviting them to read it one-to-one, will reach 50,000 students in 2012/13.

Tim Rudge, UCCF Field Director, was the main speaker for Royal Holloway Christian Union’s launch event. He commented: ‘The CU did a fine job. They made it simple, so that students could easily understand the strategy. On each chair the CU had put out a copy of the Gospel, a pray for five prayer card and a copy of the Uncover Seeker Bible Study Guide. They bundled their Gospels in to attractive “gift” packages of five.

‘A legacy is something you leave behind that will benefit others.’

Have you noticed how in recent years everything and everyone has to have a legacy? Events, people, organisations are now measured by their legacy — by what of worth they leave behind.

Andy Lines

Date posted: 1 Oct 2012

October 27 marks the 90th anniversary of the launch of the Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society (BCMS), now called Crosslinks.

This is a landmark shared with the FIEC. As we look back with thanks to God, it is also salutary to ponder the continuing need for such a society.

Squadron Leader Michael Cole, OBE, explorer and practical missionary, was born on April 10 1935. He died of cancer on September 25 2012, aged 77, at his home in Ross-on-Wye.

Michael Cole adopted the words of the Victorian missionary explorer David Livingstone, ‘Sympathy is no substitute for action’, as his own personal motto.

The lyrical opening to Dire Straits’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and the melodic refrain of Brothers in Arms resonated in my sound track while coming of age in the early 80s.

Knopfler’s song, ‘Sailing to Philadelphia’, featured in June this year. I didn’t sail to Philadelphia, ‘a world away from the coaly Tyne’ where family roots lie. I flew there to complete the two modules of Biblical Counselling training provided by CCEF, which require on-site attendance: Counselling Observation and Essential Qualities of a Biblical Counsellor.

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.

We’re thrilled by what the Lord has been doing through Christian Unions last term. Here are some highlights.

The CU at Reading, in partnership with local churches, hosted a meal for a remarkable 280 international students. Susie, a member of the CU, met a Chinese girl who said she would like to find out more about the Bible. ‘She was very enthusiastic’, commented Gareth Leaney (Staff Worker, Reading). He continues, ‘[she] even asked if she could use a Bible app on her phone so she could understand the translation’.

The post-9/11 international order finds itself in the grip of a global struggle ‘for the hearts and minds of people and the souls of nations’.

So writes author, speaker, teacher, and activist for the poor and hungry, Darrow Miller, in the vitally important new book, Emancipating the world: a Christian response to radical Islam and fundamentalist atheism.

Before the African sun has crept over the hills to the north, the 63 Sudanese men planning to enter the army as chaplains begin running in formation.They chant prayers and sing about Jesus. The soldier at the front carries a green flag with a red cross bearing the words ‘Mountain Chaplaincy Corps’.

The chaplains run for 60 minutes, passing through the town of Nimule, then climb to the top of a hill before running back down again and returning to the camp led by Wes and Vicky Bentley. As the soldiers stream into the compound, it begins to get light — a soft pink glow appearing on the eastern horizon.

On October 9, the Glasgow Presbytery of the Church of Scotland took the decision to evict the congregation of St. George’s Tron from the church building and the minister, Willie Philip, from the manse, without undue delay.

This follows the church’s stand against the denomination’s decision at the General Assembly in May 2011 to pursue a path which would allow gay ministers to take on parishes and for those in same-sex relationships to be trained for the ministry.

One dark, blacked-out evening early in 1945, when returning from an evening service, I overheard my brother Harold quietly speaking to mother.

She was distressed at seeing her eldest son, Fred, go to Malaya as a soldier. Harold himself would soon be joining the army. She was naturally afraid that she might lose both sons in the war. He spoke to her gently of death as a gateway into ‘the Lord’s presence’ and not the end of life.

Michael Green uses the apostle Paul's model at the opening on July 7 of Blue Boar House in Oxford, the new home for UCCF and IFES.

It is little short of miraculous to have acquired a large property like this in the centre of Oxford.

24 UCCF short-term mission teams, comprising around 150 students, Staff and Relay Workers, will be involved in summer mission teams this year.

16 of the 24 teams of up to 15 students will be going abroad to Europe, Asia and Africa, representing an increase from the ten teams that were sent last year.

When I was around 13 years old, our church inducted a new minister. Our choir was asked to sing at the service. I can remember the serious misgivings I had as I was learning the words of the song:

So send I you to labour unrewarded, to serve unpaid, unloved, unsought unknown;

While the financial problems of the Eurozone continue to bring political uncertainty, a step forward for biblical Christianity in Europe seems to be on the cards.

One sign of this was the striking popularity of two recent conferences in Switzerland and Germany with input from the Gospel Coalition from the USA.

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.

Recent research suggests that you will only find provision for under 18s in around 50% of churches in the UK.

If you reduce that to provision for 11s to 18s (youth) your chances are reduced to 25%. Starting up in youth ministry can be hard work and discouraging, but, if the figures are right, then 25% of churches providing something for children have nothing for post-11s. What those children do at 11 is open to speculation, but I suspect it is a mixture of moving on to other churches or staying at home.