Stuart King
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
1922 – 2020: MAF pioneer
It’s not often that the good-natured office comedian is the person who founded the organisation, but it says something about the humour and humility of Stuart King, pioneering founder of the world’s largest humanitarian airline, who ascended into glory on 29 August 2020.
Stuart, who died age 98 in the 75th year of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), combined a mischievous sense of humour which led him to make jokes at meetings and then ask the person leading to get on with it, with a deep desire to glorify God and serve the developing world through aviation and technology.
Jewish ministry
name change
IMJP
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Christian Witness to Israel is changing its
name to International Ministry to Jewish
People.
CEO Joseph Steinberg explained that: ‘We
became increasingly aware that the name of
our mission, Christian Witness to Israel, has
become a hindrance to engage parts of the
church as we seek to expand our reach and
share the Good News of Jesus with as many
Jewish people as possible. This
is due to
the assumption many make that our name
means we are focused on politics or land
issues in the Middle East when in fact we, as
an evangelistic mission, are solely focused on
telling Jewish people about Jesus, wherever
they may be.’
history
Bede, the quiet monk who lived through events that shook the world
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
If I were asked which historian I would love to meet apart from the Biblical authors, I would say, without hesitation, Bede (c. 673–735).
An English Benedictine monk and scholar, Bede is chiefly known for his Church History of the English People (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum), a history of England from the Roman occupation to 731, the year that it was completed. In the Middle Ages, though, Bede was equally known for his 20 or so commentaries on various books of the Bible and a work on the Lord’s Prayer. In all, Bede wrote about 40 works, nearly all of which are extant. Regretfully, one that we do not have is his translation of the Gospel of John into Anglo-Saxon.
400 years on, how the Mayflower Pilgrims can still inspire us...
Martyn Whittock
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
In 1620, 102 ill-prepared settlers landed two months later than planned, in the wrong place on the eastern coast of North America.
They were a mixture of ‘saints’ (asylum-seeking members of separatist Puritan congregations) and ‘strangers’ (economic migrants necessary for the financial success of the venture). By the next summer, half of them were dead. Yet, from this inauspicious beginning, the impact of the Mayflower settlement still resonates 400 years later.
news in brief
Franklin Graham
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
(BGEA)
is suing venues
in Manchester,
Birmingham, Sheffield and Wales for breach
of contract, it was reported on 1 November.
Franklin Graham told the Guardian that
he was ‘being denied [a platform] because of
religious beliefs’. Some people have regarded
his views as homophobic or Islamophobic.
Others have welcomed the opportunity to
have him speak in the UK. The events were
cancelled amid protests made by LGBT rights campaigners.
‘12 Associates’ commissioned to help pastors and spouses
Living Leadership
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
Living Leadership, which supports leaders across the UK and Ireland, writes:
These are strange times. The rapidly changing landscape for churches and Christian organisations has created immense pressures for leaders. Some are weary and fed up with the feeling that every time they get going with one set of restrictions, the goalposts shift. Others are growing fainthearted, close to collapse and chronically discouraged.
‘The Lord has
helped us’
en staff
Date posted: 1 Dec 2020
Founded in 1893 as the Foreign Missions
Club, the Highbury Centre is a Christian
guest house in North London which has
given shelter to missionaries, pastors, full-time Christian workers and their families
for over 100 years.
Now,
in the second English
lockdown,
unable to open unless people are travelling
on essential business, Sue Scalora of
the
Centre said: ‘The Lord has helped us through
the ups and downs, and we’ll try and keep
open even though we’re making a loss at the
moment serving the Lord’s people.’
Helping HK Christians
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
Dear Editor,
In September’s en you helpfully drew attention to developments in Hong Kong, explaining that this may result in some Christians using rights granted by the UK government to settle here.
Church life
The Great Commission and the local church
Joanthan Leeman
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
Are you a goer or a sender?
I trust you’ve heard a preacher or a missionary ask that question. Their point: the Great Commission calls some people to leave kith and kin for the foreign fields of unreached peoples. And it calls other people to send missionaries with prayer, finances, and support broadly.
Co-founder of MAF dies
Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
Mission Aviation Fellowsip (MAF) co-founder, former RAF Flight Lieutenant, and Normandy Landings veteran Stuart Sendall-King, has died aged 98. He was one of the early pioneers to take light aircraft to the remotest parts of Africa in the aftermath of World War II.
Serving as an aircraft engineer during the Second World War and ending his RAF career as Chief Technical Officer at RAF Duxford, Stuart nurtured a growing desire to use aircraft for good – helping to establish MAF in 1945.
evangelicals & catholics
Packer’s papal mistake?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
The global church owes a debt of gratitude to James I. Packer (1926–2020). During the second half of the 20th century he has embodied Evangelical theology at its best, especially on issues like the authority of Scripture, penal substitutionary atonement, and the interplay between theology and spirituality. This is to say that, if I dare critique one minor – albeit significant – instance of his theological involvement, I do so out of immense respect.
It is no secret that in Packer’s theological biography his involvement with the ‘Evangelicals and Catholics Together’ (ECT) initiative has puzzled many of his admirers. How such a solid theologian could be prone to sign theologically-blurred documents and encourage confusing ecumenical activities has been a standing question in many people’s minds.
Three new church plants go forward in Beckenham, Folkestone and Hull
EN
Date posted: 1 Oct 2020
Three evangelical church plants in differing networks have taken their first steps forward across the UK.
Grace Church Beckenham
Pastor of the new Grace Church Beckenham, Matt Dew-Jones, says people in this new congregation are passionate about both Beckenham itself, and God’s grace. ‘God is a giver (in so many ways), and ultimately at the cross. As we see a world marked by taking …we love that [God] gives forgiveness and the power to change.’ In statements on their website, the church is clear it wants to ‘become generous like Jesus. We want our lives, our time, energy and money to be used to serve Jesus and His world’ and they want to be a place where ‘people like me love people who are not like me in a committed church family’.
news in brief
Sex ed man returns
The creator of the sexually-explicit Warwickshire sex ed curriculum removed from use in the county earlier in 2020, has made a comeback with a new curriculum on his Going Off the Rails website.
Jonny Hunt claims his new work closely follows the government Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) ‘curriculum’. A training session must be attended before the materials can be purchased. The self-styled ‘sex ed’ consultant’s biography still includes no academic qualifications in the field of education or RSE (en January 2020).
Missionary centre future?
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Dear Editor,
I would like to ask readers to pray for the Highbury Centre at 22-26 Aberdeen Park, London N5. Since 1893 it has been a place of welcome for missionaries and Christian friends from all over the world, who appreciated its Christian ethos.
Abuse: our experience
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Dear Editor,
Since
reading
the
Independent
Inquiry
into
the Child Sexual Abuse
in Cof E
churches, I became aware of how much the
report mirrored my daughter’s experience.
The difference was that this happened in an
evangelical church. Therefore, I believe this
report is valuable for all churches and needs
to be read thoughtfully.
news in brief
China: Rev. 22.19
A Communist textbook used in Chinese schools falsifies the Biblical account of John 8:3-11 and claims that Jesus murdered the woman who was found in adultery and writes that Jesus says He Himself is a sinner.
One Christian, distressed about the distortion of the Biblical account, reportedly wrote on a social media post: ‘I want everyone to know that the Chinese Communist Party has always tried to distort the history of the church, to slander our church, and to make people hate our church.’
Genocide: the plight of Muslim and Christian Uighurs
A missionary, writing under the pseudonym Peter Morrison, issues a wake-up call
Genocide. The Armenians. The Jews. Rwanda. And more recently the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica and the Muslim Rohingya of Burma. And now many fear… the Muslim Uighurs of China – more than 1 million of whom have been imprisoned in ‘re-education’ camps.
New ministry training scheme for athletes
Christians in Sport
Date posted: 1 Nov 2020
Christians in Sport, in partnership with other sports ministry organisations globally, is helping to pilot a new training journey specifically for young Christian leaders who are active in the world of competitive and elite sport.
As good as the many ministry training schemes in the UK are, they are often not best suited to the competitive and elite sports player. Mission and discipleship within this world is one of the most unique aspects of sport ministry. Working with athletes who compete at the highest levels, train intensively and often travel regularly, they are often on their own with few believers around them. Some of them are also in the public eye.
Olly’s lockdown ministry: ex drug addict goes online
London City Mission
Date posted: 1 Sep 2020
There’s a curious exchange between Jesus and the man who had the legion of demons driven out from him at the expense of a large herd of pigs. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return home and tell how much God has done for you’ (Luke 8:38).
There’s every indication that he is committed and sincere about following Jesus, and certainly his life has been transformed. Yet he is turned down and told to go back home. Why?
Co-Mission: declaring Jesus through carols and craft
Co-Mission
Date posted: 1 Feb 2020
Co-Mission is committed to planting and strengthening churches throughout London to reach the lost for the glory of God. We want to reach people who wouldn’t normally come to church to hear about Jesus. Here are two examples of Co-Mission churches using the opportunity of Christmas to present guests with their need for a Saviour.
Christ Church Balham held its annual ‘carols in a pub’ service with a unique twist – mashing up traditional carols with pop music! This has become CCB’s biggest outreach event of the year. The theatre at the Bedford Pub in Balham was packed with friends and family of churchgoers, as well as those in the pub curious at the merriment. All enjoyed belting out carols with the ten-piece band, to a mix of merry renditions of Take On Me by Aha (or Angels from the Realms of Glory), Giant by Rag’n’Bone Man (or See Amid the Winter’s Snow) and All the Small Things by Blink 182 (or O Come All Ye Faithful).
What are you like at wrestling in prayer?
Wrestling is a strange image of prayer. If you read some of the pieces written about prayer today, it seems even more strange.
They tell us (rightly) that prayer is about intimacy and relationship, about knowing God. The Bible’s image of wrestling suggests instead conflict and hard work. It may be an intimate way to fight, but it isn’t sweet. This kind of fighting is sweaty, painful – and all about endurance.