Celebration as church marks first birthday
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
First birthdays are special, and for an Essex
‘church in the home’ – its first birthday
marked an encouraging year despite the
pandemic.
Cornerstone Church
in Colchester, an
Anglican church, began on 18 October 2020
under the oversight of Anglican Mission in
England (AMiE). It has coined the phrase
‘… starting in the home, sustained in the
home!’ to reflect the church’s conviction of
the value of meeting in the home.
John Stott’s ‘new’ book: a heartfelt environmental plea
Thomas Creedy
Date posted: 1 Nov 2021
In 2011 IVP published what was intended by the author to be his final book – summing up decades of prayer, study and ministry. John Stott’s The Radical Disciple, ten years on, continues to provoke, encourage and inspire.
Stott’s own purpose in that book was ‘to consider eight characteristics of Christian discipleship which are often neglected and yet deserve to be taken seriously’. One of these was ‘creation care’, an issue which is increasingly coming to our attention and the focus of the world. With the Stott centenary running from April 2021 to April 2022, IVP took the decision to publish John Stott on Creation Care, a definitive collection of Stott’s writings on the topic, carefully compiled from throughout his ministry. Sam Berry and Laura Yoder, in their own way, have carefully curated tens of thousands of Stott’s own words, adding interpretation and context, to produce a vital new book.
letter from the
Irish Republic
David Houlton
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
Columba and evangelicals
In
the midst of
the pandemic many
churches across Ireland are celebrating a
prince, born
into a minor royal
family
1,500 years ago, who became the founder of
one of the greatest evangelistic movements
ever in Europe.
Between 7 December 2020 and the same
day
in 2021, senior church
leaders
from
across County Donegal
in the northwest
of
Ireland are uniting
to pray
together,
and walk together, to celebrate the life and
ministry of Colmcille (Columba), born in
a remote part of the county, who founded
a movement that spread the gospel to the
pagan Scots, and then to the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and
inspired generations of Irish
and English Christians to bring the gospel
to their pagan kinsmen in mainland Europe.
Fifty years on: from the Festival of Light to CARE and the future…
It was Saturday, 25 September 1971. Tens of thousands of people, young and old, met together on London’s Trafalgar Square for the largest ever open-air gathering of Christians in British history.
People carried placards showing a map of the UK or showing messages like ‘Jesus loves you’. Some wore Nationwide Festival of Light (NFoL) T-shirts and there was a general atmosphere of sheer excitement and expectation.
Reasons to ‘ReJoyce’
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
On 7 July, MAF Pilot Mike Brown loaded a new Kodiak Quest 100 aircraft with food supplies and Bibles and flew to Emdoman, central Papua.
The first operational flight for MAF’s newest aircraft had taken almost three years to reach MAF’s Indonesian programme due to coronavirus restrictions.
Changing cricket and changing church
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
Dear Editor,
I enjoyed reading John Stevens’ article in the September edition on the new format of cricket with the introduction of The Hundred tournament.
New Mozambique and Angola venture
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
24 September 2021 marks the inauguration of the newest province of the Anglican Communion, known as the Igreja Anglicana de Mocambique e Angola (IAMA, or the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola).
To proceed, the project required a minimum of two thirds of the Anglican Primates to vote in favour and this threshold was reached in August.
British Christians helping Afghan refugees
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
As UK Christians consider how they might help the sudden influx of refugees from Afghanistan, one church leader with extensive experience of mission to Muslims has warned that the overwhelming majority of evangelical churches will not see any asylum seekers placed anywhere near them by the government.
Stephen Kneale (photo left) of Oldham Bethel Church says: ‘Most of these asylum seekers are open to Christianity. We already welcome many Afghani refugees who are, typically, very receptive to a gospel that is demonstrably different to what they left behind. Dozens of those we have witnessed to have put their faith in Christ.
Vietnamese evangelicals find favour
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Oct 2021
Evangelical Christians and the Vietnamese Government appear to have learnt from past mistakes – and their joint response to a recent coronavirus outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City has highlighted the benefits of prompt co-operation.
After some students at the Evangelical Church of Vietnam South’s Institute of Bible and Theology developed coughs and fevers last summer, church authorities immediately called the government health department. Tests revealed that 290 of the 306 students and staff on the campus had Covid-19. The authorities immediately quarantined the campus and sent in a medical team. Two Christian doctors and five volunteers of a Christian student fellowship also entered the campus to serve the sick. The 15 who needed hospital treatment included the Dean of Students, pastor Nguyen An Thai, and his wife.
everyday evangelism
God’s plan to reach
the world: it might
surprise you
Glen Scrivener
Date posted: 1 Aug 2021
‘If I became a Christian, I would have to
spend every waking moment trying to save
others.’
The words
came
from
an
extremely
intelligent student considering
the call of
Christ – let’s call him Phil. It was the last
night of a university mission and Phil told
me he was terrified of the gospel being true
because if it was he couldn’t imagine how he
could justify anything other than a life of
unceasing evangelism from that day on.
Are we missing the point of the Bible?
James Cary
Date posted: 1 Aug 2021
We all thought there were four but actually there are five. Not Gospels, but tastes. There’s sweetness, sourness, saltiness and bitterness. And the fifth is umami, the Pete Best* of the culinary world that was there from the beginning. Umami is a meaty, broth-like, or savoury taste.
What’s your favourite taste? For me, there’s nothing better than a juicy ripe sliced tomato with olive oil, salt, red onion and basil, accompanying a medium-rare T-bone steak with some twice-cooked chips. And mustard mayo. There’s a restaurant in Stellenbosch in South Africa which did that to perfection. One day, I hope to return there for that transcendent experience.
‘London:Living?’ revamped
Co-Mission
Date posted: 1 Aug 2021
Co-Mission churches are finding new ways to get the gospel out into local neighbourhoods and beyond.
Christ Church Mayfair has redirected its London:Living? podcast to be an evangelism tool addressing current issues for their congregation members to share with the community. These include the topics of Death & Loss, Peace of Mind, and Racism & Injustice. Through these conversations the church can engage people in their Honest Questions and Christianity Explored courses.
news in brief
USA: two pastors arrested over Capitol riots
James Varnell Cusick Jr., 72, and his son Casey Cusick, 35, both pastors at the Global Outreach Ministries church at Melbourne, Florida have been arrested in connection with the Capitol riots on 6 January.
They face charges including: disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. David Lesperance, a 68-year-old congregant of their church, faces similar charges. Bodycam footage and CCTV images showing the three men inside the Capitol have been presented as evidence.
news in brief
Newham call to prayer
victory
It has been revealed that Newham Council
assured residents in April that a decision
allowing mosques to broadcast the Muslim
call to prayer during Ramadan last year
would not be repeated this year.
In May 2020,
the
sound of
‘There
is
no God but Allah and Muhammad is his
messenger,’
followed by
the command
to
pray, could be heard. Residents complained,
but after an unsatisfactory
response one
resident
challenged Newham’s mayor,
a
Muslim, on a Zoom drop-in, but was met
with ‘excuses’. A legal letter was sent, arguing
that the decision was unlawful on various
grounds. It is not known whether the council
acknowledged any unlawfulness, but it said
it would not authorise broadcasts during Ramadan 2021.
DRC: warlords find faith after violence
Charles Raven
Date posted: 1 Aug 2021
For decades, DR Congo has suffered from chronic political instability, corruption and underdevelopment, worsened in recent years by the growth of Islamist insurgency. One of the dioceses worst impacted is Boga in Uturi province on the border with Uganda. In August 2019, the Anglican hospital in Boga was destroyed by Islamist insurgents and 200 people were abducted.
The diocese also has a Bible training school which focuses on the essential work of training catechists and evangelists who are on the front line of mission. It functions as a training community of 86 people, 13 married students with their families, and 17 single students. This too was in Boga, but recently the security situation deteriorated to the extent that it became too dangerous to continue.
‘Lightning rod’ spurs church plant drug focus
20 Schemes
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
A BBC News article has been ‘a lightning
rod’ for a Scottish organisation’s mission
to bring the gospel to the poorest and those
afflicted by addiction.
Twenty Schemes says the news item has
helped it refocus towards planting churches
in the poorest areas around Glasgow. Peter
Campbell of 20Schemes writes:
‘On 30
July 2021 BBC News published an article
announcing that Scotland’s drug death total
for 2020 was 1,339 people. It means that
Scotland continues to have by far the highest
drug rate in Europe, and over three and a half
times that of England and Wales. The worst-hit areas are, of course, the poorest, with the
schemes (housing estates) being 18
times
more likely to have a drug-related death than
other areas.
Final blows to Zacharias organisation
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Sep 2021
Two new developments in the past few days
appear to hasten the final demise of Ravi
Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).
Firstly, a number of donors in the USA
have filed a complaint in a Georgia federal
court,
claiming
that
the
organisation
covered up
its founder’s abusive conduct.
They allege
they were misled
to believe
that
their donations were being used
to
promote
‘Christian evangelism, apologetic
defence of Christianity, and humanitarian
efforts.’ However,
the donors claim
they
were misinformed as they were told there
was no evidence of abuse; instead ‘Zacharias
was a prolific sexual predator who used his
ministry and RZIM
funds
to perpetrate
sexual and spiritual abuse against women’.
Reaching the unreached on the roof of the world
Slavic Gospel Association
Date posted: 1 Jul 2021
Geographically and physically, the region of Pamir in Tajikistan is an area of outstanding beauty.
The Pamir mountains are lofty and lonely, one of the last ‘undiscovered’ regions on earth, and one of the ‘world’s best kept secrets’ according to a former British ambassador to the country. The average height of the mountains in the eastern Pamir region is over 20,000 feet above sea level.
We need to be bold when the moment arises
I have found a new role model. A woman prepared to act against her family for the sake of the Lord and his people.
She used her abilities and the resources at her disposal to serve the Lord’s cause even at the risk of her own life. She is a little intimidating because she seemed so in control despite her vulnerability. Her nerve extended to extreme violence. She is Jael, and we read about her in the book of Judges.