A new church in Liverpool
FIEC
Date posted: 1 May 2020
Plans are underway for a new church plant in a deprived area of Liverpool.
The Cornerstone Collective – a group of FIEC and Acts 29 churches on Merseyside – will, God willing, plant into the Kensington area of the city in January 2021.
CiS: ‘stay committed’
Christians in Sport
Date posted: 1 May 2020
As the world gets to grips with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, sportspeople all over the world are also seeing their lives change – particularly those in top-level sport, as their careers are on indefinite hold with serious financial implications.
In April, Christians in Sport (CiS) launched a new campaign calling on Christian sportspeople all over the world to reach out and keep investing in the lives of their sports friends even though sport has been cancelled. In the midst of all the uncertainty, the call to Christian sportspersons remains the same: reach the world of sport for Christ.
news in brief
Australia: mission again
Christian Witness to Israel will restart its mission work in Australia, it was reported in March, nearly 50 years after its first missionaries shared Jesus with Jewish people in that country.
Mark and Rahel Landrum are based in Sydney in New South Wales, where there is a thriving Jewish community of around 50,000 people. In total, Australia’s Jewish population numbers around 120,000, and includes many Holocaust survivors who arrived during and after the Second World War.
A planner’s dream and a church’s vision
Association of Grace Baptist Churches (SE)
Date posted: 1 May 2020
Thamesmead was
the brainchild of
the
Greater London Council’s city planners:
a new town on the south bank of the
Thames estuary. Building on marshland
east of Woolwich, developers
initially
experimented in the new urban architecture
of
the 1960s before returning
to more
conventional Barrett housing in the 1980s.
When phase
two was built, Titmuss
Avenue Baptist Church was planted, with
a new building overlooked by high-rise
homes and aerial walkways. The initial team
under Michael Toogood established a small
fellowship
that
then
received wonderful
pastoral
care
through
the ministries of
Derek French in the later 1980s and Robin
Dowling
in the 1990s. In the 2000s the
church struggled
for direction as Sunday
attendance (paradoxically) increased.
Africa and Asia-Pacific: combatting Covid-19
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jun 2020
As an unprecedented virus disrupts the planet, MAF’s planes and people are helping to prevent the spread of coronavirus in some of the world’s poorest places.
Implementing every precaution possible to protect its personnel and the isolated areas MAF serves, the organisation has been quick to offer support wherever possible.
Church future is not Zoom
The Christian Institute / Open Doors / en staff
Date posted: 1 Jun 2020
Six leaders of the Early Rain Covenant Church were removed from their homes and detained by Chinese authorities whilst watching an online service on Easter Sunday. Taking place via Zoom, it was interrupted as police raided members’ homes. Someone watching the service said: ‘I thought it was the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt.’
The electricity was disconnected in one of the homes and others received phone calls warning them that the police were coming. All six leaders were later released.
Somalia: Al-Shabaab terrorists delight in Covid-19
Barnabas Fund
Date posted: 1 Jun 2020
A spokesman
for
the Al-Shabaab
terror
group active in Somalia declared coronavirus
as a ‘punishment visited by Allah upon the
disbelievers’ in an audio message reported
on 27 April.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus
cases in Mogadishu began to climb, the militant,
known as Ali Dhere, called on Muslims to gloat
about the ‘painful torment’ inflicted on any
non-Muslims who contract Covid-19.
The Red Carpet
A tale of two trees?
Alex Duke
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
1917 begins and ends at a tree. In the middle is war and death and hell; in the middle is also heroism and sacrifice and courage. Which wins? The latter one, the victorious one, the one that speaks of hope and a future.
But as one character says near the end: ‘Hope is a dangerous thing.’
UCCF: introducing students to Jesus
Kate Duncan
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
Manchester CU students woke up on the final day of Home, their February mission week, to a Facebook review that was painful to read. A student, who had attended events during the week, had written: ‘I can’t fault the friendliness of those helping with the week … but Home has put me off Christianity more than any other engagement I’ve had with faith.’
An estimated 50,000 students will have attended a Christian Union (CU) mission over these past few weeks. Across the country, CUs have sought to give every student an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel through high-profile, focused weeks of engaging, persuasive and creative evangelism. As the Parable of the Sower tells us, the response will be mixed. This Manchester review was a sobering reminder that, despite all the CU’s efforts to bring people to Christ, some seed falls on the path and is immediately snatched away.
Paschal lambs or curate’s eggs?
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
Gary Clayton wonders why Easter in the West appears to have so little to do with the season celebrated by Jesus
Many years ago, shortly after I became a Christian, I took part in an evangelistic sketch showing the difference between various religions. One actor quoted from Mohammad, another from Buddha, Confucius and so on. Finally, it was my turn.
history
A passion for purple
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
In 1856, English chemistry student William
Henry Perkin (1838–1907) was looking for
a cure for malaria – he stumbled upon a way
to make a synthetic purple dye from coal tar.
In so doing, he
literally changed history,
for his discovery led to advances in medicine,
photography, perfumery, food production, and
revolutionised the fashion industry.
Helen Cadbury (1877–1969): no chocolate soldier
Janice Pibworth
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
Janice Pibworth tells the story of Christian campaigner Helen Cadbury
Helen Cadbury was the sixth child of Richard Barrow Cadbury of the famous Cadbury’s chocolate business.
A dazzling theatre for God’s glory
Sharon James
Date posted: 1 May 2020
Sharon James looks at the role of Christianity in the public square
In 1793 a poor cobbler from an obscure village in Northamptonshire arrived in Calcutta. Driven by the conviction that God should be glorified in all nations, William Carey (1761–1834) is remembered as the father of the modern mission movement and as a great educationalist and social reformer.
Puk Kyong Kim (‘Kim’) 1938 – 2019
Mark Harvey
Date posted: 1 May 2020
In the 1960s, a diffident young Korean, who was an ex-refugee aspiring to be a pastor, knocked at the door of Swiss L’Abri. Cynthia Stanton, Edith Schaeffer’s long-serving worker, opened it and greeted him. In due time, they were to wed.
It was a chalk-and-cheese liaison, but it was to produce much unobtrusive fruit. She was a Londoner, her father running a fleet of black taxi cabs. His father had fled North Korea to Beijing, where he and his wife sheltered refugees. Both Kim’s parents were freedom fighters in a volunteer Korean army against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). They suffered torture and witnessed atrocities. Kim was born in Beijing one year into that war.
Bible By The Beach special
From the Bible By The Beach Chair of Trustees, David Bourne...
It was with much sadness, but recognising the fast pace of events, that the Trustees took the inevitable and necessary decision to cancel this year’s Bible By The Beach conference which was due to take place at the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne from 1 – 4 May.
We find ourselves in confusing and troubling times, and yet we remain confident in our good and sovereign Lord and in His good purposes.
Unsung Heroes
Dorothea Clapp 1901–1990
Brian Maiden
Date posted: 1 Mar 2020
Have you ever heard of Dorothea Clapp or her son, Daniel? Probably not.
Before I tell you about them, let me tell you about George Verwer, who you probably have heard of. George, now 81 years of age and still preaching around the world, is the founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM).
LCM: the vulnerable need Jesus
London City Mission
Date posted: 1 Mar 2020
I’ve had people worry that the work of the
London City Mission might be exploitative.
Elderly people can be ripped off by someone
pretending to be a friend; a homeless person
could be exploited by heavy shepherding
whilst they are weak.
That risk has been used by some to suggest
that we should avoid evangelism amongst
children and vulnerable adults lest we are
accused of spiritual abuse. And yet I can
think of no greater abuse than to know the
good news of Jesus and to willingly hold it
back from someone in desperate need. The
vulnerable need Jesus!
Saving valley chapels
Alan R. Taylor
Date posted: 1 Mar 2020
Dear Sir,
It was heartwarming to read of Robert
Stivey’s attempt
to
re-open
some of
the
chapels in the valleys of South Wales (en January, front page).
politics & policy
Let’s talk about robots...
James Mildred
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
A few weeks ago, I attended a round table with a panel of experts, exploring a Christian response to artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.
My primary mission there was to observe and to learn. It was fascinating listening to attendees discuss their fears and hopes for the future. Robotics and AI is a massive subject and it is complicated, too. I suspect the daunting nature of the issue puts many people off. But what is clear is that robots and AI are set to play an increasingly prominent role in our lives. In turn, this will prompt huge questions about the value of work and what it means to be human.
Surrender of the faith
The Revd Dr Peter Mullen
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
Dear Sir,
Every January something pops through my letterbox to bring a shaft of light into these dark days. The CofE authorities send me a little advertising puff about the annual Lent Course provided by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. For years this has given me a laugh, although, to use a phrase of my mother’s, it’s too daft to laugh at. All the usual politically-correct nostrums cast in the Noddy language with which the church patronises and torments us to death. But suddenly this booklet isn’t funny anymore.
news in brief
Australia: fostering bias
A Christian couple launched a legal action after they were banned from becoming foster carers due to their biblical views on LGBT issues, it was reported in February.
Byron and Keira Hordyk said they would love a child who identifies as LGBT as their own, but would help them to overcome their sin. Despite an initially favourable report, their application was refused on the grounds that their views would not ensure ‘a safe living environment’. The Equality Opportunity Commission refused to hear their case, and it has been referred to the State Administrative Tribunal.
The lonely aftertaste of Secret Cinema
Johnny Lawes
Date posted: 1 Apr 2020
First Madagascar, then Venice. We stopped by MI5, picked up some drinks and headed to the casino. But suddenly a fight broke out, gunmen appeared, and we all dropped to the floor. Not my average Friday evening.
I recently became one of 120,000 to experience Secret Cinema’s Casino Royale. It was a thrilling evening: a secret location, black tie and special missions, culminating in an immersive showing of the film, complete with live actors and pyrotechnics. It’s a format that has soared in recent years, perhaps because it consciously offers something not digital. Phones are sealed away and people have to interact. Instead of immediate and constant information, it offers secrets. And instead of a ‘purely digital experience’ it offers ‘touch’.
You get what you pay for
‘Drink silver particles in water.’ ‘Make your body more alkaline.’ ‘Drink water every 15 minutes.’ These were just three online cures which circulated at the start of the Covid-19 (C-19) pandemic.
All such claims were plainly ridiculous, but there were others that sounded more plausible, due to being wrapped up in nice ‘science-y’-sounding language.