news in brief
USA: Evangelicals not equipped to share faith
A survey has revealed that, while most American evangelicals believe it is their duty to share Biblical teachings, many feel unprepared to do so.
Conducted by the Institute of Faith and Culture, the 2024 Survey on Christian Cultural Engagement found that 92% of evangelicals agree Christians should share truths from God’s word with those who hold different views. But only 35% feel ‘ready for most opportunities’ to discuss the Bible’s stance on cultural and controversial issues. 18% say they are ‘ready for any opportunity’ to share Biblical truths, while 32% said they could only discuss a few topics.
Manchester: Vision for 30 new churches by 2030
Ralph Cunnington
Date posted: 30 Dec 2024
The Northern Gospel Project is seeking to see 30 gospel churches planted in Greater Manchester by 2030, through training, funding, and providing care for church planters and their teams.
So far, we have trained 15 church planters through the Incubator training course, cared for seven church planters through Planters Collectives, and raised £63,000 to seed fund church plants across the city.
The power of calling God 'our Father'
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 30 Dec 2024
In Matthew 6:9, Jesus says: 'Pray … like this, "Our Father in heaven."' These words open the floodgates of prayer — and heavenly blessing.
We live in a world where people believe they are self-sufficient. They don’t need to cry out for help. And Christians are swept along: we are becoming like busy Martha, doing our many tasks but failing to sit with Mary at Jesus’ feet. But without prayer, Christians are hollow. For prayer is the mark of Christian integrity.
A life remembered: Tony Campolo
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 30 Dec 2024
The outspoken American preacher and ‘Red Letter Christian,’ Tony Campolo died last month aged 89.
The evangelical speaker and author was a forceful influence in the American church and was best known for calling Christians to follow Jesus’ teaching by loving and serving the poor and vulnerable in society.
The Parthians are coming... to Matthew’s Gospel
Ray Porter
Date posted: 24 Dec 2024
The visit of the Magi recounted in the second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel is one of the more curious parts of the Christmas story.
First, that we find it in this Gospel which is written primarily for a Jewish audience, and secondly, that such pagan astrologers should be lauded as those who come from a distant land to worship the infant Jesus. And then we have the matter of the star, which has excited the imagination of astronomers down the centuries; and that is before we get the accretions of legends and the perversions of countless nativity plays. The symbolism that we attach to the gifts they brought and the echoes that we find of Old Testament prophecies take us away from a consideration of what we might be able to reconstruct from their contemporary historical setting and why their coming so alarmed not just Herod but the whole of Jerusalem.
Grace Baptists meet for mission
Jonathan Hoadley
Date posted: 1 Dec 2023
The Grace Baptist Mission (GBM) has held its Annual Mission Day in Euston.
Highlights of this year included welcoming missionaries to serve in Uganda, in the Netherlands (Abigail and Adrian Yeboah – see photo), and a new missionary to join the Radio Team based in the UK.
news in brief
Pakistan: Judge rules in Christian’s favour
A judge in Pakistan has overturned a ruling which had prohibited a Christian from correcting his name and religion on his national identity card after he was the victim of a fake conversion to Islam.
Morning Star News reported that the original ruling had said that 24-year-old Christian Sufyan Masih could not be listed as a Christian again due to his supposed conversion to Islam. His lawyer revealed that due to an inability to read or write, he had unwittingly put his thumbprint to the fraudulent form without knowing what he was affirming.
bridging cultural divides
Festive stress: an opportunity for grace?
Jason Roach
Date posted: 13 Dec 2024
Every year, as Christmas approaches, I find myself navigating the festive family diplomacy of our intercultural marriage. It's a delicate dance that starts with a seemingly simple question: 'So, where are we spending Christmas Day?'
My wife pulls out her diary. 'Right,' she says, 'let's work out the logistics.' For her family, it's straightforward - maximise the number of people, find the most convenient time, get everyone together. My family, though? Completely different story.
Makin Report: Key findings and conclusions
en staff
Date posted: 7 Nov 2024
Key findings of the Makin Report
The 'key findings' of the Makin Report (see news item here) are as follows and readers should be aware that some of the details are deeply distressing:
'John Smyth was an appalling abuser of children and young men. His abuse was prolific, brutal and horrific. His victims were subjected to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks. The impact of that abuse is impossible to overstate and has permanently marked the lives of his victims. John Smyth’s own family are victims of his abuse.
Fear and fervent prayer: lessons from South Korea's Christians
David (Sung Tae) Kim
Date posted: 12 Dec 2024
South Korea, long recognised as a symbol of democracy in Asia, now faces significant fear and uncertainty after President Yoon Suk-yeol's recent declaration of martial law.
This move included attempts to restrict civil liberties, suppress political activities, curb media freedoms, and grant the military authority to take control of the National Assembly. These measures have stirred widespread fear and protest across the country.
The Westminster Conference 2024: creeds, confessions and controversies
Jeremy Walker
Date posted: 10 Dec 2024
The Westminster Conference gathered for 2024 in St Giles Mission Hall, Islington. Though it has changed its place, it has changed neither its name nor its nature, for it remains an opportunity to consider theology through the lens of church history and so learn powerful lessons for the church of today.
The conference spans two days, each having three sessions, with questions and discussion following all but the closing session. The first two sessions on the Tuesday were given over to questions of the Trinity and Christology, as Stéphane Simonnin and Gary Brady walked us through the Council of Nicaea and the Salter’s Hall debates, showing us that both in the fourth and eighteenth century, men were wrestling with the doctrine of the Trinity, the relations of the persons, and the two natures in the one person of Christ — leaving us both with rich blessings to inherit and ongoing questions to answer in the face of continued drifting from truth.
New Director for European Mission Fellowship
Rev Scott Moore has been appointed as the new European Mission Fellowship (EMF) Director.
Scott will take up his role in early 2024, replacing current Director Andrew Birch, who will remain with EMF in a new role of Field Director. In a message on the EMF website, Andrew shares: ‘I am looking forward to working closely with Scott… We would appreciate your ongoing prayers that, with the Lord’s help, we would work together for the building of Christ’s Church all over our needy continent.’
disability & accessibility
Which 'diversity' do we forget to talk about?
Kay Morgan-Gurr
Date posted: 31 Oct 2024
We often joke about women being the better multitaskers. It’s a sweeping statement, but not without a nugget of truth. So how is the church at multitasking?
When it comes to patterns of looking at who is missing from our churches, in our leadership and in the mission and ministry we do, we often look at one thing at a time. And then, having looked at some other things, we have to revisit what we’ve done before. Again, this is a sweeping statement, but not without a nugget of truth.
Why is our Christmas crackers?
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 4 Dec 2024
As we approach Christmas, our minds turn again to images of a baby in a manger, an undisclosed number of Magi, sheep, shepherds and heavenly messengers, Jesus’ faith-filled mother Mary and his selfless father Joseph.
But is the season as simple and straightforward as it at first appears?
news in brief
New rural ministry focus in Scotland
The Free Church of Scotland has launched a Centre for Rural Ministry in a bid to boost rural congregations and modernise rural ministry across Scotland.
The denomination revealed that more than £8,200 has been raised since the start of August, enough to see the project spearheaded by the Skye and Wester Ross Presbytery come to fruition. Twenty per cent of Scotland’s population is based in rural areas and, while the centre will be based on the Isle of Skye, it will support rural ministry across the whole country. Ivor MacDonald, minister of Hope Church, Coatbridge, has been appointed as the Free Church Director for Rural Ministry. He has previously served as a minister in rural congregations on Skye and is a graduate in agriculture and theology.
Assisted suicide vote – evangelical reactions
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 29 Nov 2024
Evangelicals are processing the news that assisted suicide is a significant step closer to being legalised in the UK.
Following its second reading, MPs voted 330 to 275 today in favour of Kim Leadbeater’s bill –The draft Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – to legalise assisted suicide for people who have six months left to live, and who have mental capacity to make the choice.
'Dynamic' Gospel Coalition UK could help 'Reformed complementarians', says Nicholls
en staff
Date posted: 24 Oct 2024
A new Gospel Coalition for the UK and Ireland could help those with ‘broadly Reformed and complementarian convictions’ develop ‘new and dynamic partnerships,’ Affinity’s Graham Nicholls says.
Speaking to en, and in the wake of the most recent meeting of the advisory council of Affinity – an evangelical umbrella group uniting 1,200 evangelical churches and organisations which succeeded the old British Evangelical Council founded by Martyn Lloyd-Jones – Nicholls said no other organisation was quite filling that gap at the moment.
Niall Dunne to be new Team Leader for Creation Fest
Creation Fest
Date posted: 28 Nov 2024
After ‘prayer and deliberation,’ the board of Creation Fest UK is pleased to announce the appointment of Niall Dunne as the charity’s new Team Leader, it reports.
Niall is a familiar face in the organisation, having been a member of a band that performed at Creation Fest’s annual event during its early days in Devon, and more recently serving as the organisation’s Pastoral Lead for the past seven months. As Team Leader, Niall will oversee all aspects of the year-round charity, including the annual summer festival in Wadebridge, Cornwall.
everyday theology
Whose glory do you love?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 27 Nov 2024
Underneath every mistake the Pharisees made lay a root problem. Jesus put it simply: ‘They loved the glory of men more than the glory of God’ (John 12:43, my translation).
Jesus’ words cut like a scalpel through to their fundamental motivation. They would not confess Him because of what they loved. But what exactly did Jesus mean? Did He mean that they loved the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God? Or did He mean that they loved the glory of men more than the glory that belongs to and is due to God?
‘The baby was struggling to breathe...’
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 18 Oct 2024
Thanks to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship), three vulnerable infants received urgent medical attention in Papua New Guinea.
‘One Monday afternoon,’ reports MAF Pilot Tim Neufeld, ‘I was thinking it was time to wrap up, but was asked to do a 15-minute flight to Nomane. A small baby was struggling to breathe, and recent heavy rains had caused several landslides, making it impossible to reach the nearest medical centre.’
Sex 'only for heterosexual marriage,' says possible Welby successor
en staff
Date posted: 21 Nov 2024
The Church of England’s lead bishop for the controversial ‘Living in Love and Faith’ (LLF) sexuality discussions – tipped by some as the next Archbishop of Canterbury – says he continues to believe sex is only for heterosexual marriage.
Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester, who is being touted as a possible successor to Justin Welby, answered ‘yes’ when pressed on the point in an interview with en. And he said Church of England evangelicals in the Alliance (the umbrella group of orthodox believers in the denomination) should not yet despair about their wishes for alternative structural provision being met.
How did it come to this? Welby in retrospect
Just over 12 years ago, on 9 November 2012, I walked down the wooden stairs from the Archbishop's flat, towards Lambeth Palace’s largest function room, the wood-panelled Guard Room, which was heaving with journalists. We were about to announce who would be the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.
With me walked Justin and Caroline Welby. Justin made his oft-repeated joke, that he felt like the eyes of the figures in the paintings on the Palace walls were somehow watching him. He was full of energy, enthusiastic, almost tigger-ish at the task ahead of him. And he was evangelical.