No good tree bears bad fruit
Richard G Buckley
Date posted: 1 Jul 2019
The 30th meeting of the Scottish Reformed Conference took place on 11 May at Hamilton College.
The Revd Professor Sinclair B Ferguson (4th from left) and Dr Robert Murdock (3rd from left), Principal of the Faith Mission College in Edinburgh, spoke to about 450 people from different Reformed churches and denominations.
From truth to fear and intimidation
Christian Concern
Date posted: 1 Jul 2019
A vicar and Oxford biology graduate resigned from the Church of England and from his role as a school governor in May. This occurred after transgender ideology, endorsed by his diocese and taught in the CofE school where he was a governor, silenced him as a scientist and a Christian.
During a training session on transgender issues run by Mermaids, John Parker was told by the headteacher: ‘This is training, John, it’s not your time to share your view-point.’ This followed his request to raise some different perspectives. The training session was recorded, and the audio clearly demonstrates that his request was shut down by the headteacher.
Taking time out to Thrive
FIEC
Date posted: 1 Jul 2019
Every year, FIEC provides two retreats exclusively for women. Thrive is for women in ministry and the Ministry Wives’ Retreat is for those who are married to men in full-time pastoral ministry.
It’s an opportunity for women to spend time away from the busyness of church life and be encouraged in their service to Christ.
Gardner Helps Healthy Planting
2020birmingham
Date posted: 1 May 2019
‘How do we plant healthy churches that grow young disciples of Jesus?’ This is one of our questions within 2020birmingham.
2020birmingham is a collaborative church-planting movement in Birmingham. We began in 2010 with a vision to see 20 churches planted by 2020 and have grown to prayerfully seek another 30 by 2030. We exist because we believe that the spiritual need and opportunities for mission in our city are too big for us to meet on our own. We are evangelical churches seeking to be together for the city.
Mixing mission
John McLernon
Date posted: 1 May 2017
John McLernon, UK Director of People International, examines the relationship between mission agencies and the local church.
The Christian missionary community is approaching a pivotal point.
South America: Explorers
Christianity Explored
Date posted: 1 May 2019
Following
consistent
efforts
to
reach
Spanish-speaking
Latin
America,
Christianity Explored (CE) announced in
April that 1,250 people have been trained
in mission using the course.
That figure represents an average of 100
evangelists
in nine countries: Colombia,
Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina,
Bolivia, Uruguay, and Chile.
Church life
Why your church needs biblical theology
Joanthan Leeman
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
The discipline of biblical theology is just as important to the life of your church as systematic theology.
Biblical theology is the root of doctrine; systematic theology is the fruit. And we need to get both right if we want to know who Jesus is, what the gospel is, and how to guard and guide our churches.
Richard Bewes OBE 1934 – 2019
Justin Brierley
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
The Revd Richard Bewes OBE, the former rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place in London, has died aged 84.
Bewes was an influential Christian leader in the UK throughout his life. He was the rector of All Souls from 1983 until his retirement in 2004. He also served on the Church of England Evangelical Council in the 1990s and was on the British Board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for much of his life.
Abkhazia: beacon of light
OM
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
War-torn Abkhazia, a partially recognised republic of Georgia, has seen a number of children coming to Christ in recent months.
Many in the area are involved with crime and suicide attempts are frequent. Children also live under the spiritual oppression of the pagan traditions. In such conditions, the teenage club at the church is a beacon of light for teenagers in the town. It is a place for children to develop, learn new things, and spend quality time together.
Canny years
in Byker
Victoria Marsay
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
A church, situated opposite the Byker Wall
in Newcastle, celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Meeting
in
a
corrugated-iron
hall,
Welbeck Road Evangelical Church started
under Newcastle City Mission. Over 50
attended the Sunday School, many coming
from the surrounding estates which were
to be made famous by the BBC children’s
television programme Byker Grove.
history
1919 revival in Toronto
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Jun 2019
During and after World War
I, many
English-speaking Evangelicals were hoping
and praying that one positive result of the
horrors of that war would be a great awakening of men and women to their sin and
their need for the Saviour.
It was not to be; but there were local revivals,
a century on, that we should remember.
The Third Degree
Using media in CU mission
Joe Cook
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
More and more, meeting students where they are means meeting them online.
As a result media, and specifically video, is increasingly being used to reach students with the gospel.
IT’S A FREE CHOICE
Andy Palmer
Date posted: 1 Mar 2019
Christ Church Balham, in South West London, joined the Free Church of England denomination in January.
It is hoped that this move will help secure gospel ministry for generations to come and send many more people into full-time paid gospel ministry.
Transported to Australia?
David Robertson
Date posted: 1 Apr 2019
Evangelist David Robertson tells us why he is going Down Under
I was doing some research into my predecessor at St Peters Dundee, Robert Murray McCheyne.
Modern mission pressures
Luke Jenner
Date posted: 1 Dec 2017
The Grace Baptist Mission (GBM)’s Annual Mission Day took place on 21 October and proved to be an encouraging time.
It contained the usual mix of missionary updates, the chance to pick up high-quality resources to help us to pray, give and think more effectively, and treasured fellowship with hundreds of other globally-minded Christians from across the UK.
Experiencing The Underground
People International UK
Date posted: 1 May 2019
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to
meet in secret as an underground church?
Have you ever felt that it is almost impossible to imagine what it’s like to meet under
persecution? How do you meet? How does
it feel? How do you worship when you can’t
make any noise? What are the issues? When
challenged, what do you say and how do
you react?
A mission organisation in a Central Asian
region has begun to challenge Christians in
more comfortable surroundings to consider what it would be like to meet in secret.
The Gospel According To AI
Ben Clube
Date posted: 1 May 2019
Oak Hill Theological College student, Ben Clube, contemplates whether Artificial Intelligence is ‘good news’
The past century has seen explosive interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Pop culture has perpetuated the hype with The Terminator in the 80s, The Matrix in the 90s, and a deluge since the millennium with I-robot, Ex Machina, Black Mirror, Westworld, etc.
history
Reformers & missions IV
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
In seeking to re-evangelise
Europe, the Reformers made
powerful use of the latest
technology at their disposal,
namely, the printing press.
By Calvin’s death in 1564, his interest in
Christian publishing meant that there were
no less than 34 printing-houses in Geneva,
which printed Bibles and Christian literature
in a variety of European languages. In the
1550s particularly, Geneva was a hive of
biblical editions and translations.
SENT: when mission takes us to a holiday cottage
Keswick Ministries
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
If a holiday cottage could write, it would fill many a book.
Visitors come and go and the cottage is woven into the tapestry of life. More often than not, the cottage forms the centrepiece of the annual holiday highlight. It offers four walls of protection from the hustle and bustle of the daily slog, a much-needed haven. Depending on its setting, it will also serve as a door into another world, a world of beauty and escape.
Encouragement in Europe
Michael Ots
Date posted: 1 Feb 2019
Michael Ots reflects on ten years of the Fellowship of Evangelists in the Universities of Europe (FEUER)
The name FEUER is a slightly tenuous acronym, using English words to spell the German word meaning ‘fire’.
Why a northern seminary?
Jeremy Marshall
Date posted: 1 Mar 2019
Jeremy Marshall challenges the current evangelical status quo
In 1854 the novelists Charles Dickens and Mrs Gaskell each wrote best sellers (Hard Times and North and South).
South Park impact
Jason Freeman
Date posted: 1 Mar 2019
South Park Chapel in Ilford appointed Shenazzer Ephraim as evangelist and disciple maker at a service on 26 January.
The chapel was founded in 1906 and has been seeking to make Jesus known ever since. Times have changed and the demographic has changed but the gospel is still the same and is still the power of God to save people.
EFAC: successful re-launch completed
The Revd Richard Crocker
Date posted: 1 Feb 2019
The Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) held the second part of its 2018 international Council meeting in Nairobi in October.
The successful establishment of the Council heralds EFAC’s reemergence as a powerful international Anglican ministry. EFAC’s vision is to encourage and develop biblically faithful fellowship, teaching and mission, as well as to resource church leaders throughout the Anglican world. There were 22 participants, including those from existing, reviving (four) or developing EFAC national Chapters. Five continents were represented and 11 participants were bishops.
