WEST in Union
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 1 Feb 2016
There are big changes afoot for one of the UK’s independent theological colleges
On 12 January, WEST (Wales Evangelical School of Theology) announced that it is to transform into Union.
Five years after Cape Town
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Feb 2016
Julia Cameron brings us up-to-date with the Lausanne Movement
It is five years this month since the Cape Town Commitment was published. In that time it has spread out widely, and down deeply, across the continents, in major and ‘minor’ languages.
Knowing God Better
Longing for blessing
Jonathan Lamb
Date posted: 1 Feb 2016
It spans 140 years and crosses cultures and continents.
It’s a remarkable story. It has revolutionised hundreds of thousands of lives. It has had a radical impact on churches and communities. It has launched new mission movements and pushed forward the frontiers of the gospel. And it continues to expand, not through formal organisation or slick marketing but, we believe, as a movement of the Spirit.
Serving as a single woman
Rebecca and Eleanor investigate the joys and challenges of the unmarried Christian worker
Biblical Christianity values singleness like no other world religion.
Tanzania: 100 trained
Church Mission Society
Date posted: 1 Feb 2016
In a country that is beginning to see stirrings of opposition to the Christian message, a new initiative to inspire people to evangelise resulted in more than 100 Tanzanian Christians being trained to share the gospel, it was reported in December.
Hundreds of people from the local community attended a two-day open air mission of prayer, healing and preaching.
When pastors play power games
Marl Meynell
Date posted: 1 Mar 2016
Mark Meynell says there is an urgency for the church to reflect on its use of power as much as on its teaching of truth.
You can’t see or even detect them… but that is precisely why riptides are so lethal.
Evangelism in our DNA
Peter Baker
Date posted: 1 Mar 2016
What began as a pastor’s hunch about the
lack of conversion growth in the local church,
turned
into
a
full-blown
24
hour
Consultation on Evangelism in late 2015.
Evangelists and
leaders partnered with
Lansdowne Church Bournemouth to organise an event which brought together local,
regional and national leaders of churches,
theological colleges and Christian agencies.
‘What is the Gospel?’ conference
Victoria Vinet
Date posted: 1 Mar 2016
On 29 January, Christian Concern hosted a
conference – ‘What is the Gospel?’ – at the
Emmanuel Centre in London. The speakers
addressed some of the sociocultural issues
faced by the Church.
Christian Concern is a non-profit organisation campaigning for a nation once defined by
the Christian faith. The UK is now largely a
secular, humanistic, morally relativistic nation,
the fruits of which can be seen in widespread
immorality and social disintegration.
Jerry Bridges 1929–2016
Jerry Bridges, who died on 6 March in Colorado Springs, was a leading light in the work of the Navigators and the author of over 20 popular Christian books on discipleship.
Gerald Dean Bridges was born on 4 December, 1929 in a cotton-farming home in Tyler, Texas to Christian parents, six weeks after the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression.
Using ‘Risen’ over Easter
Epic Biblical stories often become blockbuster movies. In 1956 it was The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston and in 2004 it was Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
18 March saw the UK release date of a film based on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Starring Joseph Fiennes, Cliff Curtis and Tom Felton, Risen is a fictional story about a powerful Roman Military Tribune tasked with discovering what happened to Jesus after the crucifixion (see review in March en).
Legal eagles
Gemma Adam
Date posted: 1 Apr 2016
Gemma Adam of FIEC Practical Services helps churches embrace legal responsibilities for the sake of the gospel
The legal system and the Word of God can sometimes seem entirely contrary.
Nigel Sylvester 1929 –2015
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Feb 2016
Ghana’s First Lady, Ernestina Mills, described Nigel Sylvester as ‘Ghana’s Wesley’. His influence was to spread across English-speaking Africa and then across the world.
Nigel Sylvester professed faith in Christ as a fresher in the Cambridge 1949 Barnhouse mission; shortly afterwards he lost both his parents in an aircrash. As a very young Christian, Nigel followed Mike Griffiths as CICCU President. With a First in Maths, he entered Ridley Hall with Mike Griffiths (later General Director of OMF) and Michael Allison (later PPS to Margaret Thatcher). Breaking with precedent, none was ordained.
Latin America: ‘evangelicals’ and spiritual abuse
Ian Darke
Date posted: 1 Mar 2016
What images come to mind when you hear of Latin America? Exotic places, spicy food, salsa and tango dancing, football or drugs?
The region consists of 20 sovereign states, stretching from the southern border of the United States to the icy seas of Cape Horn. Its geography includes the Amazon jungle, glacier-covered mountains and some of the driest deserts on the planet, as well as huge megacities.
Charles Dickens
Rev Ian McNaughton
Date posted: 1 Mar 2016
Dear Editor,
Thank you for the book review by Ann Benton if Charles (February en) asking Dickens can be regarded as a Christian? I notice that Ann did not commit herself to the book’s thesis. But let me add a few things.
LONDON’S QUESTIONS OF LIFE
Naresh Mistry
Date posted: 1 Mar 2016
With 140,000 people working and 40,000 living in London’s Canary Wharf, how are they going to hear the gospel?
It was this challenge that occupied the thoughts and prayers of working Christians and members of St Peter’s Barge as they met to hear Rico Tice explain the vision for ‘Questions of Life’ (www.questionsoflife.org.uk). This outreach aims to give everyone in the Wharf a chance to engage with the gospel – specifically through a week of talks arranged for 14-20 March.
news in brief
New co-ordinator
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical
Churches (FIEC) has appointed a Church
Revitalisation Co-ordinator who will be
responsible for spearheading a revitalisation
initiative among the churches of the FIEC.
Phil Walter, currently pastor of Brixworth
Christian Fellowship near Northampton,
will work part-time in the role before joining
the FIEC staff team full-time in July 2016.
He will work alongside
struggling
local
churches to help them recapture and renew
their gospel vision.
news in brief
Algeria: vandalised
Unknown ‘thugs’ who wrote a jihadist slogan on a church building in the centre of Tizi-Ouzou, a city on the Algerian coast, on the night of 7 January, looted and damaged the property.
The assailants vandalised or stole furniture, worship items and money worth about £5,500 from the Light (Tafat) Church during the night, pastor Mustapha Krireche said. The church, which has about 100 members, is surrounded by upmarket houses that would be more profitable for thieves interested solely in material goods and money.
Dateline Christianity
As we start 2016, Joy Horn has been discovering some significant anniversaries in Christian history for en
Events
In AD 66, after years of frustration under Roman rule, the Jewish Revolt broke out in Jerusalem against the occupiers. The desperate and bloody strife culminated in the sack of Jerusalem four years later by Titus, son of the Emperor Vespasian.
Spend it, save it, give it
Graham Beynon
Date posted: 1 Jan 2016
Graham Beynon on how to review our finances at the start of the new year
How is your bank balance?
South Africa: a vision for new freedoms
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jan 2016
South Africa witnessed
two major campaigns in October and November. Tens of
thousands of students protested against a
rise in student fees, ‘Fees must fall’, and the
Anglican Archbishop, Thabo Makoba, and
the Director of the Evangelical Alliance of
South Africa, the Revd Moss Ntlha, led an
anti-corruption march of 6000 people.
These protests against the government by
churches which had
supported
the anti-apartheid struggle marks an important step
in the development of South Africa since
freedom from apartheid came in 1994.
A new church planned for Ilford
Simon Arscott
Date posted: 1 Jan 2016
Ilford is in the London Borough of Redbridge, in north-east Greater London and, like most of London, it is booming.
The effects of the 2012 Olympic Games can be still felt, with improved transport links; trains get you from Ilford to Liverpool Street station in 18 minutes. In the next five years Crossrail will arrive, promising even more regeneration. Ilford town centre has a shopping centre which acts as a hub for the wider area and the schools are strong academically. For many people, it is a popular place to live. Being east London, property prices are cheaper than other parts of London.
