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The Free Church of Scotland have recently released a video and booklet promoting their aim to see a healthy gospel church for every community in Scotland:

Healthy in ministry; healthy in mission; healthy in training; and healthy, growing gospel congregations that are a blessing to the community around them. David Meredith, the Mission Director of the Free Church of Scotland, said: ‘The key to developing a healthy gospel church is to be rooted in two things – rooted in the world of the Bible and its proclamation, while building a bridge into contemporary society. The sweet spot of being faithful to Christ and the Bible, and engaging with our own society.’

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Mar 2022

More than 750 churches across the UK and Ireland have signed up to A Passion for Life – a pioneering, month-long, evangelistic mission this Easter.

The mission is providing the tools to enable individual churches to ‘plan, build and promote’ their evangelism in the lead-up to Easter. They range from online support resources to training videos, which the organisers said are being well-received by churches.

Dr Michael Griffiths, renowned author, speaker and former General Director of OMF International, died at the age of 93 on 9 January.

Michael was born in Cardiff in 1928, and came to faith in Christ in 1942 at a Christ’s Hospital School Christian Union meeting, under the preaching of an exiled German pastor. Studying Natural Sciences at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, he served on the Executive Committee of the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union in several positions, including as President. He graduated in 1952, but stayed on at Ridley Hall to train for Anglican ministry. At this time Michael met his wife Valerie, at a conference on English Puritans at Martyn Lloyd Jones’ Westminster Chapel.

The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) says it is seeing encouraging signs of growth both in existing churches and in new fellowships joining.

AMiE describes itself as ‘a fellowship of faithful Anglican churches committed to gospel mission’ and is linked to GAFCON, the global movement of Anglicans committed to orthodox views on sexuality.

Jim Sayers

Date posted: 1 Apr 2022

With news of how God brings blessing and new life out of the darkest of situations in His church, Jim Sayers of the Association of Grace Baptist Churches writes:

What happens when your church building gets destroyed in an air raid? That happened to the church in Chatham Road, Wandsworth Common on 15 October 1940. After World War 2, large numbers of Londoners moved out to the new towns. A number of Grace Baptist churches were planted in these new towns in the 50s and 60s, a time of real social change. So Fryerns Baptist Church was planted in Basildon, Essex in 1954 to replace the church in Wandsworth.

The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) has met for the first time as a Convocation since the pandemic.

AMiE – a network of Anglican churches outside the Church of England, and linked to GAFCON – had as its conference theme ‘Thrive.’

The Annual Conference of the London Gospel Partnership has taken place at East London Tabernacle, hosted by their pastor Ray Brown.

Given the effort and necessity of pastors and churches across London to respond faithfully to the challenges of the pandemic, the conference’s theme was gospel hope in a post-Covid landscape.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Jan 2022

International Mission to Jewish People (IMJP) is to step up its efforts to reach and share the gospel with Jewish people living in London, the result of a discernible new openness among some to hear and receive the good news.

One such person was Simon, a young Jewish punk rock singer. Befriended by an IMJP missionary, he revealed how tough he was finding lockdown. The missionary talked about the hope he had in Jesus, Simon accepted a copy of John’s Gospel and the two are now having regular one-to-one Bible studies.

Around 50 members of more than ten different churches have met at Jubilee Church Hull to celebrate all that God has been doing since October 2018.

The vision of Hull 2030, which began then, is to pray and work together to see 20 healthy gospel-centred churches planted in Hull by 2030; as well as to encourage church revitalisation and gospel co-operation.

April 2022 marks the half-way point of a Ten Year Vision for the Irish Baptist College (IBC).

As of this year, IBC has been in existence for 130 years. Originating in Dublin in 1892, it moved to Belfast in 1963 and since 2003 has been located in the lush countryside near Moira. The College’s primary focus has always been to serve the Irish church context; even so, graduates have served on all the inhabited continents of the globe.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Mar 2022

Christchurch Durham is facing mounting pressure to commission an independent review following serious allegations of abuse of power against the pastor, who left last December.

Tony Jones, senior pastor at the independent Anglican church until his resignation last year, has been accused of abuses of power and governance and presiding over a ‘culture of fear’.

The future of organisations like the Titus Trust depends on whether they realise power must be redeemed as well as people, a psychologist who attended the Iwerne Camps has told en.

Dr Simon Walker, a Christian psychologist who works in school mental-health safeguarding, and who was at Iwerne Camps in the 1980s, was speaking after the publication of a report into the Titus Trust by independent charity Thirtyone:eight, which aims to protect vulnerable people from abuse.

From Kingston-upon-Thames (photo left) to Strathclyde (photo right), students in Christian Unions across the UK have been active welcoming first-year students.

Dinners, picnics, tables at Freshers’ Fairs laden with cake, even an online ‘Yorkshire pudding bake-along’ – all these sought to create an inclusive space for any students’ first contact with Christians.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Nov 2021

‘Evangelism in a time of crisis’ was the theme of the 2021 Evangelism Conference, entitled ‘Evangelism Now’, held at All Soul’s Langham Place.

Rico Tice set out the three key principles of evangelism: it must be based on God’s sovereignty; the gospel must be presented with both integrity and truth; there must be no deception in how we operate.

An evangelical theological college has axed the role of Director of Ministerial Training, bringing into doubt the future of its specialist centre for training future evangelists.

Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, said loss of income due to the pandemic necessitated the change – which means theologian evangelist Greg Downes (photo) will lose his job as well as his family home, which went with the role.

Co-Mission says it is ‘thrilled’ about three new church plants that, ‘in God’s kindness’, have just launched in London.

Redeemer Queen’s Park in north-west London launched on Saturday 25 September at 4 p.m. in Salusbury (sic) Primary School. Over the last year, God has graciously assembled a core team of 25 adults with a few kids to boot. Amazingly, 65 adults and 13 kids turned up for their launch, and even more the second week! Most arrived through personal relationships with the core team. Others connected with Redeemer through flyering or social media. The church’s university outreach and its children’s work are big draws.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 Dec 2021

There has been increasing openness to the gospel among university students in the UK this Autumn, the UCCF has reported.

One unbelieving student attended an Abertay Christian Union (CU) lunchtime talk on ‘Lasting Joy’. Afterwards he said: ‘If this is true, you have a genuine hope for eternal happiness. If it’s not, you still have an anchor that allows you to find joy in this life – I find that exhilarating!’

London City Mission writes: The cruelty of the pandemic has been that people already struggling have been hardest hit.

It’s those on the margins of society who were more likely to have died or suffered loss from Covid. It’s those living in crowded homes, less able to socially distance, whose low-paid work, if it hasn’t disappeared, has put them more at risk of contracting the virus. And it’s those for whom Covid, far from being a chance to save money, has added costs in the form of additional heating and food. London has been especially hit; reliance on foodbanks has more than doubled in the capital this year.

The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) has a new member church – Hope Church Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire.

The congregation is meeting in Astrea Academy Derne, on the south side of Goldthorpe village.

Milla Ling-Davies

Date posted: 1 Oct 2021

Having never set foot on campus, having met only a few members in their CU and feeling uncertain about what university life will be like this term, many Christian Union leaders were especially eager to come to Forum 2021.

Forum is UCCF’s annual training conference for CU leaders, aiming to inspire and equip them to share the gospel in the universities, before they head back to campus in September. This August, over 1,000 students from across Great Britain arrived at the Quinta Christian Centre in Shropshire. They met friends face-to-face, sang praise to God, attended seminars and put their heads together to plan for the year in front of them.

Gabby Samuel has joined the FIEC as the Women’s Ministry Development Worker.

Gabby is the youngest member of the Ministry Team and is supporting the FIEC as it raises the next generation of women’s ministry workers, as well as helping FIEC to think carefully and wisely about issues related to ethnic diversity in church.