search

Karen Soole

Date posted: 1 May 2013

Some Christians were offended by the airing of Melvin Bragg’s BBC documentary The Mystery of Mary Magdalene on Good Friday.

I was not one of them; possibly because my expectations were so low that I was pleasantly surprised by the affirmation of the Gospel accounts as historical evidence.

‘The fruit of the Spirit is joy.’

If a Christian is defined as someone in whom God’s Spirit lives, then a joyless Christian is a contradiction in terms. Yet we all know that much of life is not characterised by joy, and so we either tend to feel guilty, because clearly we are not ‘spiritual’ enough, or we sigh briefly and then get on with things. But there are those nagging Bible commands. ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice’ (Philippians 4.4). What’s it all about?

More than happiness

The first thing to realise is that joy is not the same thing as happiness. Often people say that joy is much deeper, which has led to the observation that some Christians’ joy is so deep it never seems to surface! The difference is not so much in depth as in duration. Happiness happens — it comes and goes and is largely the response of our emotions and feelings to external events. Nobody can be permanently happy; indeed you only have to set out determined to ‘be happy’ to soon feel quite miserable. So what is the joy that Christians have which is not experienced by those who do not share our faith?

JR: You speak around the country about the need to grow and disciple leaders within local churches. Briefly, how do you understand biblical leadership?

MH: Paul speaks in Philippians 1 and 2 Corinthians 1 about working with people for their progress and joy in God, so that they grow firm in their faith and have abundant joy in Christ. That’s a great, simple definition of spiritual leadership. You don’t have to think very hard to see why a church that is standing firm in their faith and full of godly joy is going to be a beacon for the gospel.

Adrian Reynolds

Date posted: 1 Mar 2013

2013 marks 30 years of the Evangelical Ministry Assembly.

It’s now well established as an annual feature in the ministerial calendar. But why do people keep coming. EN asked a few regulars.

Most of our youth groups are attached to a church. It may be just one of the activities the church gets up to alongside its services on Sunday. There are youth groups which are completely separate from the life of the church and there are others where there is some kind of link between the two. How much should integration be attempted or should we wait until they are 18 when they simply move up to ‘adult church’?

All-age service

One answer to this is the all-age service which some do well and for others it becomes a children’s service where the adults and older children are spectators. In a typical church with people of most ages represented, is it possible for there to be some degree of shared activity? Starting with services, I think it is possible to bring young people into what is done there. If they stay in the morning services or turn up in the evening their presence needs to be acknowledged. That does not mean the whole service is geared to their language and culture, but, if they are there, what can’t they do. They can welcome at the door, they can read a lesson, they can pray, they can play in the worship band and, at the end, they can help count the money and make the coffee. It may even appropriate for a 16-year-old to preach the first five minutes of a sermon (initially) and have his talk critiqued by a sensitive mentor.

Here are some encouragements and challenges from the past.

The monk Columba sailed from Ireland, with 12 companions, and after a perilous journey landed on the island of Iona in 563. He founded a monastery there to train young men for the evangelisation of the North Picts.

‘Would you like to hear more about the restored gospel?’

This is a question many of the 58,000 missionaries for the Mormon Church (or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) ask people worldwide every day. This 14-million-member-strong movement is getting public attention as Mitt Romney, the losing US presidential candidate for the Republican Party, is a committed member.

Though nominal Christianity is declining in Britain, Bible-believing Christian faith seems to be making real headway.

The increasing suspicion that God has something special in store is epitomised by the transformation that has occurred at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology (WEST) in the last couple of years.

An estimated 12,000 students attended Christian Union carol services in 2012, the biggest of which drew over 3,000 attendees.

Associate Christian Union Staff Worker Michael Ots was the speaker at Durham Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (DICCU) carol service. He commented: ‘It was awesome to see over 3,000 people packing every corner of the cathedral to hear about Jesus. It’s not unusual for [carol service] attendance to be at least four times that of the CU. In Durham it was ten times! Student carol services are probably the most effective events of the whole year at getting not yet Christians to hear the gospel’.

John Chapman, Sydney’s leading evangelist for more than 50 years, passed away in hospital on November 16 2012 at the age of 82.

‘Chappo’, as he was affectionately known, was converted in his teens and was active in youth ministry. Following a stint as a manual arts teacher, he spent a year in Moore College and was ordained in the Diocese of Armidale in 1957. After a challenging curacy in Moree, he was appointed Youth Director for the Diocese in 1960 and then Director of Christian Education (1966-68).

Much ink has been spilled recently over the decision by the Charity Commission to deny the Plymouth Brethren charitable status in respect of one of its gospel halls in Devon (the Preston Down Trust).

The church trust, a member of the Exclusive Brethren, was refused charitable status on the basis that it failed to demonstrate that it provided a genuine public benefit.