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Our day started with a 5.30am alarm and a bleary-eyed drive into London. By 8.45 we had our seats within eight feet of a TV in the ‘Signal Box’ at Euston Station to witness one of the greatest displays of English rugby ever! Could this day get any better?

The Grace Baptist Mission Annual Delegates’ Meeting was not an immediately obvious progression! GBM exists to ‘help churches support their missionaries worldwide’ and it is funded by, directed and answerable to the churches that it supports. The church delegates’ meeting, the church business part of GBM’s Annual Mission Day, began with a focus on the Great Commission and Matthew 16:18. We have seen progress through mission – because Jesus is building his church. There have been hard times – because the gates of hell are arrayed against us. But we press on – because we know Jesus is in charge and Satan will not prevail!

Wednesday 6 November saw the inaugur-al ‘Pray for London’ event hosted by the London Gospel Partnership.

Over 100 church leaders and church workers, along with many other believers, gathered together at East London Tabernacle for a time of dedicated prayer for God’s saving grace to be seen powerfully throughout London.

Co-Mission churches have long used the metaphor of a lifeboat to remind ourselves that we need to be rescuing the perishing.

Richard Coekin (Co-Mission) has drawn on lessons from the Titanic disaster and Neil Powell (City to City) has written of the need for ‘a Dunkirk spirit, where a huge number of lifeboats were mobilised to realise a vision far too big for any group to achieve alone’.

The Christmas holidays tend to be a great time for kids. The average family in the UK will spend an additional £2,000 over the Christmas period on gifts, food and trips.

It is not the same picture for everyone, though. 700,000 kids in London are living below the poverty line, after you’ve taken housing costs into account. For these homes the additional financial stress of Christmas can often be the cause of family arguments, stress, and domestic abuse. It is not surprising that, despite the cold weather, winter is a time when many kids run away for the first time.

Wycliffe Bible Translators opened its new Wales office in Bridgend on 14 September.

Carwyn Graves, Wycliffe’s Wales Team Leader, spoke about the long history of Welsh mission workers, who often pushed for mother-tongue Bibles and literacy programmes where others ignored them. Yet, he also focused on the future, and how churches in Wales can still be meaningfully involved in world mission today through praying, giving and going.

News from the Eisteddfod Mission during August always shows that an eclectic group of people are reached by the missioners who speak to Welsh and English-speaking festival goers.

This year was no exception. The first day included a couple who had belonged to a sect. On the second day, a person said that after death she would return as a cat or dog. As with most times of mission, there can be the feeling that one is trying to sell umbrellas to people who are living in a dry desert. Most people just don’t see their need of Christ. In fact many people answering the question ‘describe your life in three words’, used happy and contented in their responses.

In November, the Riviera International Centre, Torquay, hosted The FIEC Leaders’ Conference. This year’s theme, Leadership at Every Level, was perfectly timed; as attendance reached 1,000 and the FIEC continues to grow numerically, now is the time to carefully consider how to raise up leaders to ensure growth is lasting, sustainable, and deeply rooted in biblical truth.

John Stevens, FIEC President, opened proceedings by reminding the gathered pastors, elders, women’s workers, and other leaders of the biblical vision for leadership from Ephesians 4. Godly leadership, he instructed, proceeds from an identity rooted in the gospel; to lose sight of that is to build ministry on oneself. And the danger? A ministry that finds its worth in oneself will be slow to delegate, loathe showing humility or weakness, and will find pride in concentrating power. Only the gospel sets one free to serve.

A Reading shopping centre, part-owned by an investment company based in Abu Dhabi, caved in to LGBT demands to drop a US fast-food restaurant from renting premises, it was reported in October.

Owners of the Oracle centre in Reading will not renew Chic-fil-A’s six-month lease, claiming it is the ‘right thing to do’. In 2012 the restaurant’s CEO, Dan Cathy, stated that the company supported the ‘biblical definition of the family unit’. It donated money to Christian charities that support traditional marriage.

A church plant on an urban housing estate will this month celebrate its first anniversary and its success in building a congregation that represents around a dozen nationalities.

While Hope Church Vauxhall’s first year has brought some challenges, including the death of one of its young couples, Senior Pastor Sam Gibb says he is seeing tremendous gospel progress.

‘The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the very power of God.’

The words of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians opened REVIVE, Co-Mission’s Annual Bible Festival which took place at the University of Kent at Canterbury in June. In a Big Top filled with attendees from 28 Co-Mission churches across London, the weekend began with an evening of praise, prayer, interviews and a talk by Richard Coekin, CEO of Co-Mission, on ‘The Power of the Cross’. While the message of Christ crucified is despised as weak and foolish by the world, it is central to the Bible, history and Co-Mission. Indeed, it remains the only way that Co-Mission will grow as a network.

I long to see people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ all over London – particularly people from other cultures or faith backgrounds, or those who are marginalised by society or living in some of London’s most deprived communities.

Well before the horror of the 2017 fire at Grenfell Tower brought the area to national attention, my colleagues at London City Mission were talking with churches, praying and planning how to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to more people in the area. Having marked the two-year anniversary since that terrible night on 14 June 2017, I want to share with you some of the stories I’ve heard from people who are now ministering in the area alongside local churches.

The Evangelical Alliance announced in July that Gavin Calver will be its new Chief Executive Officer. He will succeed general director Steve Clifford, who announced in April that he is stepping down.

Dr Tani Omideyi, chair of the Evangelical Alliance’s board of trustees, said: ‘With a strong field of applicants, Gavin impressed the board with his extensive expertise and his vision for the future, and he left us with a sense of excitement and great expectation. We came out of the process feeling confident that we have found someone chosen of God for this new season.’

The Free Church of Scotland will facili-tate a focused outreach initiative called ‘Generation19’ which aims to encourage local churches to reach out to their com-munities with the gospel.

In 2017 a census of Scottish churches was carried out by Brierley Consultancy which indicated a sharp decline in church attendance and engagement. The report showed that ‘some 390,000 people regularly attended church, being 7.2% of the Scottish population, down from 17% in 1984.’ This decline was the equivalent of ‘losing ten congregations per month’.

In the last week of August 1,000 Christian Union leaders gathered at the Quinta Christian conference centre in North Shropshire for the 100th Forum conference.

Over the last century, 40,000 students have been equipped for witness in their universities through Forum, and it was a privilege to stand alongside students this year.

A lot has happened with 20schemes over the course of this summer, from holiday clubs to conferences to new partnerships. God is always at work in all things, but over the past few months 20schemes have seen Him do many big things.

On 20 June, the church-planting network hosted ‘Sing Scotland’ with Keith & Kristyn Getty and John Piper. The day began with a day conference where over 300 Christians from across the UK gathered. Topics focused on how we sing corporately and the preaching of God’s word.

Didcot is England’s most normal town. Statisticians reached that conclusion after crunching the numbers in 2017.

With a working-class population connected with the railway and power station, a sizable benefits class in social housing, alongside large numbers of nuclear scientists and biotech research labs, and huge new housing developments that are more affordable than Reading and Oxford, Didcot is an interesting microcosm of English life. It is set to double in size by 2035 as a ‘Garden Town’ with 10,000 homes being built. It is also home to the Baptist Union headquarters, but, given its rapid growth, not overwhelmed with churches, particularly on the new estates.

Frances Whitehead brought unusual energy and passion to her role as John Stott’s secretary – ‘a most understated job title’, as Hugh Palmer made clear in his opening remarks at her thanksgiving service in All Souls, Langham Place.

It is widely agreed that the reach and extent of John Stott’s ministry was doubled by Frances. Days were long and full. She handled an enormous correspondence, typed Stott’s books from longhand, and oversaw the infrastructure of each of his endeavours until it could be handed on. Their partnership was unequalled; and they would become known around the world as ‘Uncle John’ and ‘Auntie Frances’.

Despite the anger and vitriol that fills the front pages of our tabloids, there is good news on the streets of London…

Let me tell you about my friend Ilyas Ayoub, who works in one of the most diverse parts of our capital – Forest Gate in East London. Ilyas works at a mission centre, sandwiched between a temple and a mosque, where he partners with local churches to love the community and by sharing the gospel message.

In January, Co-Mission, a network of local churches in London, launched a film We Plant Churches to Reach the Lost.

Through a series of testimonies the film explains why the network does what it does. Co-mission seeks to follow Christ’s command in Matthew 28:19: ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’

A vicar and Oxford biology graduate resigned from the Church of England and from his role as a school governor in May. This occurred after transgender ideology, endorsed by his diocese and taught in the CofE school where he was a governor, silenced him as a scientist and a Christian.

During a training session on transgender issues run by Mermaids, John Parker was told by the headteacher: ‘This is training, John, it’s not your time to share your view-point.’ This followed his request to raise some different perspectives. The training session was recorded, and the audio clearly demonstrates that his request was shut down by the headteacher.

Every year, FIEC provides two retreats exclusively for women. Thrive is for women in ministry and the Ministry Wives’ Retreat is for those who are married to men in full-time pastoral ministry.

It’s an opportunity for women to spend time away from the busyness of church life and be encouraged in their service to Christ.