Keswick’s James Robson: ‘What we try and stand for is respect for everybody’
Rebecca Chapman
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
As final preparations for this summer’s Keswick Convention were being made, en spoke to its Ministry Director, the Revd Dr James Robson.
With the much-awaited Keswick Convention of 2022 almost upon us, James joined us on Zoom, from a light-filled room full of books. With all that is happening at Keswick, including the Derwent Project, there was certainly no shortage of things to be grateful to God for…
Welsh tackle abuse scandals horror
Rob James
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Welsh Baptist ministers spent some time
recently focusing on the pressing issue of
‘Abuse of power in the local church’.
Phil
Swann
(see
photo)
of
Llanelli
Evangelical Church opened up a topic which
the Baptist Union of Wales admits is not
often talked about but ‘can do great harm’ to
both ministers and members. ‘Recent public
cases have drawn attention to how church
leaders need be more aware of the potential
abuses of power within the local church and
the damaging effect this can have on those
caught up in such situations,’ it said.
Don’t neglect rural areas, Scottish evangelicals told
Free Church of Scotland
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Around 70 delegates attended the ‘In a Big
Country’ conference about rural ministry
held at Dingwall Free Church in Scotland.
The conference, which was organised by
the Free Church of Scotland, was a great
opportunity
for delegates
to study God’s
word, to hear what He is doing in rural
Scotland, and to encourage each other.
Evangelical Futures: What’s the future for Anglican evangelicals?
A new book to be published in June by IVP called God’s Church for God’s World brings together voices drawn from all major Anglican evangelical networks in the UK, demonstrating a commitment to the gospel being proclaimed and a unity both throughout and beyond the Church of England.
With a number of young contributors, it also offers a glimpse of possible futures for the Anglican Church. This extract (with some very minor adaptations for publication here) not only summarises the book’s contents but also gives a flavour of the situation Anglican evangelicals face – a useful overview both for them and also for non-Anglicans to whom the whole Anglican ‘thing’ can sometimes seem understandably perplexing and exasperating.
Mission 2022: churches prepare to reach out afresh
John MacKinnon
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
We have all heard the phrase ‘build back better’ many times in recent days as everyone seeks to establish what a new normal will look like.
For the church of our Lord Jesus Christ the pandemic has given all of us an opportunity to review much of our activity and to ask serious questions, as we emerge from the various restrictions, as to how we can recalibrate and refocus on the centrality of the good news of the gospel.
Shoe leather and locusts eaten in horrific drought
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jun 2022
Facing its worst drought in 40 years, food and water in Madagascar are so costly at the moment that reports are coming in of communities eating locusts, leaves, clay and even shoe leather to survive, the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) says.
MAF writes: UNICEF says that half a million children under the age of five will be ‘acutely malnourished’ this year, with a further 110,000 facing ‘severe malnourishment’.
Blood and fire
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jun 2022
Book Review
‘WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE’:
William Booth, the Salvation Army and the
Skeleton Army Riots
Read review
FIEC: 100 not out!
Joel Murray
Date posted: 1 May 2022
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is marking its centenary this year.
And to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the organisation has announced that it is gathering 100 gospel projects from around the country to enable church partnerships and fuel prayer for mission.
The fascinating story of John Brown of Haddington
R.A. Miller
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
This year marks the 300th birthday of John Brown of Haddington.
In 1722, Brown was born into a poor Christian family in Scotland. As a young teenager, he found himself an orphan after an illness claimed the lives of his parents. Soon after, he found himself quite sick as well. Brown wrote this in his memoirs, ‘Four fevers on end brought me so low within a few months of my mother’s death, as made almost every onlooker lose all hopes of my recovery.’
A wee dram, a big dream: the Christian working with whisky and billionaires
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
Is it possible to be a committed Christian entrepreneur in the world of Scotch whisky? Duncan McFadzean (photo) reckons so.
He is an Investment Banker to the Scotch whisky industry and co-founder of Creo, which exists to ‘connect, train and resource Christian entrepreneurs to advance the common good’.
What will happen at Lambeth 2022?
Global Anglican bishop gathering looms
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
The Lambeth Conference which is set to
take place from 26 July to 6 August, last
met with all Anglican bishops in attendance
in 1998 – 24 years ago.
The 1998 conference was due to receive
the report of the Decade of Evangelism from
its
secretary, Cyril Okorocha of Nigeria.
This was
shelved and Canon Okorocha
stood down in favour of pressure from some
bishops to discuss the issue of homosexual
unions. The outcome of the 1998 conference
was a
resolution, Lambeth 1.10, which
‘while
rejecting homosexual practice
as
incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our
people to minister pastorally and sensitively
to all irrespective of sexual orientation and
to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals’.
Five ways to welcome the cultural outsider
Jason Roach
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
I slipped in at the back of the church. In front of me was a family with an eight-year-old girl sitting nervously next to her dad. She looked even more agitated when a man that she didn’t know sat next to her in one of the few seats left.
Her dad saw her nervousness, put his arm around her and said: ‘Don’t worry. Let me tell you a story about this man. Ten years ago, I was new to this country. I walked into this church for the first time not knowing anyone. This guy walked across from the other side of the church and made me feel like family.’
everyday evangelism
Love your neighbour: a strategy to reach the world
Glen Scrivener
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
It used to be much more difficult to connect with our neighbour (that’s neighbour singular – we’re at the end of a terrace). He spoke no English and would furtively dart in and out of the property. When the police hauled him away we learned that he’d converted the whole house and its roof space into an indoor cannabis farm. I had no idea he was so entrepreneurial.
The new tenant, let’s call her Debs, is a mum of three and a smoker (of the tobacco variety). I mention this only because she is out smoking on our shared porch 20 times a day, which is bad for her health but, I hope, good for her soul.
Europe: different strands of evangelicals work together
Joel Murray
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
More than 600 church workers from 41 countries and four continents have attended the European Leadership Forum (ELF).
The mission of ELF, which was held in Wisla, Poland, is to ‘unite, equip and resource evangelical leaders to renew the Biblical church and evangelise Europe’. Their desire is for different evangelical groups to work together to achieve more than any single organisation can on their own.
Justin Mote goes to glory
Bob Marsden
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
Bob Marsden writes: To God be the glory, great things He has done, and He did great things in and through the life and ministry of Justin Mote, who died recently.
Justin was converted while at school and he was nurtured in the faith at Emmanuel Church, Northwood. He studied at Oak Hill but, being too young to be legally ordained, he served as a lay curate at St Mary’s Basingstoke with Alex Ross.
Jésus t'aime
Marche Pour Jésus 34 @Mpj34 / Evangelical Focus
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
More than 10,000 people have taken part in a national march for Jesus in Paris.
The majority of those taking part in the event, which resumed after a two-year break due to the pandemic, were reported to be between the ages of 25 and 35. The march was led by a team from YWAM (Youth With A Mission) accompanied by six musical bands.
news in brief
Mexico: evangelical
leader sentenced
Naasón
Joaquín García,
the
leader
of
Mexico’s largest evangelical church, has been
sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison for
sexually assaulting three teenaged girls from
his church. He will also be required to register
as a sex offender for life.
The 53-year-old
led
the
congregation
La Luz Del Mundo based in Guadalajara,
Jalisco, Mexico, which
runs churches
in
several
locations
throughout
the United States and Mexico.
Beeke’s Scottish challenge: P…P…P…P…P…P…P…P…P…P
Richard G Buckley
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
The 31st annual meeting of the Scottish
Reformed Conference has taken place at
Hamilton College.
Dr Joel Beeke from Heritage Reformed
Congregation in Grand Rapids, USA was
the main speaker. He preached on the words
of Psalm 22 that Jesus reiterated at the Cross:
‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken
me?’ In the course of his sermon, Dr Beeke
reflected upon the profound depths of the
real experience of Jesus whilst he prayed
this, both what it does not mean and what
it does mean. But also from the question
‘Why?’ – what was
the purpose of
this
experience and
the
infinite
love of God
and the Lord Jesus Christ expressed in this
cry. In his second address, he pressed upon
Christians the urgent need to reflect upon the agony of Christ when we pass through
sharp and painful experiences in life. He did
so in a unique sermon of ten points each
beginning with the letter ‘P’. In thanks, our
chairman
suggested adding another
three
points likewise beginning with ‘P’, to the
positive pleasure of the people present!
BU evangelicals in new call
Evangelicalbaptist.uk
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
A new resource
for evangelicals
in
the
Baptist Union has been launched.
Evangelicalbaptist.uk
says:
‘This website
exists
to help equip
the Baptist church
family to face the challenges and take hold
of
the opportunities
from an evangelical
perspective. We need
to hold on
to
the
truth found
in God’s word and continue
to communicate it in a real, relevant, and
radical way.’
Evangelical Futures: Diversity - a powerful witness to a divided world
Graham Miller
Date posted: 1 May 2022
As we consider our future as evangelicals, we should return to the commission the Lord Jesus gave before His ascension: ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).
Sharing our faith is core to our identity as followers of Jesus Christ, and Christians sharing their faith with others has been used by God to underpin the growth of the global church – despite heresy, persecution and scorn, the gospel prevails!
news in brief
Cost of living
As
the cost of
living crisis deepens,
the
Evangelical Alliance
(EA)
is urging UK
churches to use their power to take action,
such as helping with the means that churches
already have; and supporting other Christians
in what they are doing in the community.
Writing on the EAUK website, advocacy
coordinator Jo Evans said:
‘As Christians
who trust in a good God who commands
us to love our neighbour as ourselves, we
should be motivated above all other sectors
of society to take action and do something about the problem at hand.’
‘I’ve had to pinch myself – evangelism’s never felt so easy’
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
CU mission weeks are back.
Until recently, the idea of hundreds of students sitting chair to chair in a marquee, baguettes in hand and listening to a gospel talk, has seemed laughably out of reach. In the past few weeks however, 77 Christian Unions across Great Britain were finally able to run mission weeks in-person again. After a two-year break, they were uncertain how these weeks of focused evangelistic events might be received.
O-Yea? Oh yes!
Andrew Dalton
Date posted: 1 May 2022
A town crier has been successfully used by a church to attract people to its mission week.
Morley Town Crier Steven Holt was engaged by Morley Community Church in West Yorkshire to publicise its events.
