Church planting: is the old method best?
Deiniol Williams
Date posted: 1 Feb 2021
Church planting can sometimes seem like a relatively new phenomenon, but whether it is or not depends on what you mean by church planting.
A good friend and mentor of mine – who has planted two churches in France – believes that when Paul instructed Timothy to ‘do the work of an evangelist’ (2 Tim. 4:5), he was instructing him to plant churches. To evangelise – to make disciples of all nations (Mat 28:19) – is to see churches started. Church planting, in this sense of the term, is as old as the early church.
Skull plans to bring new life to Brighton’s dry bones
Association of Grace Baptist Churches (SE)
Date posted: 1 Feb 2021
David Skull (aka Skully) has been serving Grace Church Guildford for the past 13 years. In July he will be moving with his wife Naomi and their four children to lead Grace Plant Brighton. He explains how this happened.
Back in 2012, Montpelier Place Baptist Church sadly closed. It represented a community of Christians who had been gathering in Brighton since 1834. The building was demolished in 2017, but we don’t believe this is the end of the story. Grace Plant Brighton is sowing the seeds of a new church in central Brighton in 2021.
Bishop Pat Harris 1934 – 2020
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Feb 2021
Bishop Pat Harris, former Bishop of Northern Argentina and of Southwell and Nottingham, and onetime Secretary of Partnership for World Mission for the Church of England died peacefully in December.
His family write: ‘Patrick was a man of deep faith, with strong convictions as a Christian since his Army days as a young officer. From there he went to Oxford to study law (at Keble College) where he was President of the Christian Union. After attending theological college (Clifton Theological College, Bristol), he was a curate at St Ebbe’s in Oxford from 1960-63.
All Nations’ 90% IT cash boost
All Nations College
Date posted: 1 Feb 2021
All Nations College has announced an ambitious plan to invest in technology for the College after a loss of £170,000 in expected income due to the pandemic.
They are budgeting £51,000 for a two-person team of ICT personnel that they say is needed. The scheme includes an ambitious new ‘Student Management System’ which will help All Nations to track and to manage all student data more effectively.
New director for HOPE
Hope Together
Date posted: 1 Feb 2021
Dr Rachel Jordan-Wolf has taken over from Roy Crowne as executive director to lead HOPE Together in the UK.
Rachel has worked closely with HOPE Together since 2010, when she was the Church of England’s National Mission and Evangelism Advisor.
2021: LOOKING AHEAD
A variety of evangelicals reflect on what might lie ahead in the next 12 months
Innovative evangelism? Adrian Reynolds, Associate National Director FIEC
I hope and I pray that 2021 will see churches give evangelism its appropriate focus. In general terms, the lockdown has held us back: churches have often succumbed (understandably) to survival mode – let’s just keep going! Others have seen opportunities, but have not really known how to make the most of them. Others still have not known how to adapt to a changing environment and have simply mourned what they cannot do rather than explore what they can.
China: Preacher Pu climbs cliffs for the gospel
Bible Society
Date posted: 1 Mar 2021
It’s not very often a preacher has to scale a cliff to get into his pulpit, but that is the kind of terrain that Pu Zhidui must overcome as he oversees eight churches comprising 2,000 believers.
The area in which Pu preaches, Fugong county, has 360 churches and 80,000 Christians, but just 67 lay preachers and four pastors.
EMW hits the road in Wales
The Evangelical Movement of Wales writes:
‘Rather than holding our residential English language conference in Aberystwyth, we are making plans for the main speaker, Sinclair B. Ferguson, to preach in smaller venues around Wales in August. These meetings will also be live-streamed.
Safeguarding questions
Date posted: 1 Mar 2021
Dear Editor,
In the January John edition of en, Benton drew a striking parallel between the recent advent of safeguarding officers in the church and the introduction of video assistant referees (VAR) in English Premier League football. Provocatively, John chose to transpose the initial, lumbering use of VAR (seen as ‘petty’, ‘unjust’ and ‘dominant’) with the worst-case scenario of safeguarding officers subverting their roles to wrest authority from local church elders.
Contextualised gospel?
Date posted: 1 Mar 2021
Dear Editor,
I was bemused and saddened by Tim and Lois Wells’ article in the February edition the merits or otherwise of of en about contextualising the gospel.
Peter Anderson 1931 – 2021
John Blanchard
Date posted: 1 Mar 2021
On 21 January, the British evangelist Peter Anderson died in a care home in Leicester.
Born in Glasgow, he enrolled in the Army when he was 18 and was posted to Singapore, where he became a Christian under the ministry of a Chinese doctor. Sensing a call to full-time evangelism, he applied for a place at Redcliffe College – only to find that it was for ladies only! He then enrolled in Matlock Bible College (later called Moorlands) and on graduating, immediately began itinerant evangelism.
Christians in Sport reaches 70,000 in Covid and launches new evangelism resource
Jonny Reid of Christians in Sport writes: In the first lockdown, Christians in Sport encouraged sportspeople to Pray STAY Say – encouraging Christians to stay in the lives of their sports mates. As part of that campaign we delivered five online sports quizzes with a short talk explaining the Christian faith. We’re thrilled that over 70,000 people joined in.
In November, the second lockdown saw elite sport able to continue, but for competitive amateur sportspeople, sport halted once more. However, the guidelines gave opportunities for sportspeople to do something outside with one other person, so we launched Train 1-2-1. This brand-new resource encouraged people to go for a run or cycle with friends, and then ask them three questions about Jesus’ identity, mission and call.
Awr i blant? Syniad gwych!*
Two encouraging pieces of news from the
Evangelical Movement of Wales (EMW).
Steffan Job writes:
A group of officers and leaders from the
camps and conference work have produced
some online videos to fill the gap left by the
summer cancellations, and so began Awr i
blant (An hour for children).
history
Of Bede and birds
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Last month we looked at the life of Bede
(c.673–735),
the Anglo-Saxon historian
who is best known for his Church History
of the English People (Historia Ecclesiastica
Gentis Anglorum).
Why does this historical work – which
traces
the history of England
from
the
Roman occupation to 731, the year that
it was completed, as well as detailing the
conversion of
the Anglo-Saxon peoples –
merit calling Bede a model historian?
90% of pastors lack proper theological
training, major conference is told
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
90% of pastors have no formal theological
education,
a
specialist
in
theological
education in the Global South has told an
international consultation.
Dr Manfred Kohl, who has experience in
supporting and financing ministry training,
explained
that
for
this
reason he
funds
only people – and not buildings. He also
challenges institutions and their funders to
think
radical
thoughts about
theological
education.
Two-day-old Barako saved in ‘miracle’ flight
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Even though the number of flights MAF made in 2020 was reduced because of coronavirus, its planes were still able to bring hope, help and healing to 26 of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable nations.
In Kenya, where overland travel can be dangerous by day and treacherous at night, Pilot Daniel Loewen-Rudgers flew a baby boy from Dukana, on the Ethiopian border, to Kijabe Hospital, when the condition of the newborn became critical. According to Daniel: ‘It was a miracle we could fly to a good hospital like Kijabe during the pandemic.’
Leatherhead: church lockdown launch
Joel Murray of the FIEC describes how God
has been answering the prayer of a church
in Leatherhead:
How often do we really pray Ephesians
3:20, asking God to do immeasurably more
than we ask or imagine?
Scots Free Church
planting push
Freechurch.org
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
With
the
aim
of
planting
30
churches by 2023,
a Church Planting
Director has been
announced by
the
Free
Church
of
Scotland.
The Revd Neil
MacMillan
said:
‘Planting new churches
is a vital part of our mission
in secular
Scotland. As we sustain and nourish existing
congregations,
the gospel also drives us
outwards to new places and new people. The
most
important element of this challenge
is prayer, so pray for a movement of God’s
Spirit in our nation so that we can do all this
and much more.’
C of E orthodox fight on as new Anglican group set up
EN
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Evangelicals in the Church of England have been preparing to contend in the wake of the launch of Living in Love and Faith – while a new Anglican network has also been set up.
At the latest General Synod, a presentation was given on the new Living in Love and Faith (LLF) resources on issues of sexuality and gender.
Revealed: untold story of students in Covid
Milla Ling
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Many of us are aware of the difficulties that students have faced this year; Covid outbreaks on campus, intense loneliness and even protests against extreme restrictions – it is becoming a sadly familiar story. But underneath and alongside this, runs another, lesser-known story of the innovation and passion shown by the Christian Unions.
Faced with a tough and completely different context, the CUs courageously rose to the challenge and tried exciting new ways of sharing the hope of Jesus within the universities.
A safe church is a transparent one
Carl Chambers
Date posted: 1 Jan 2021
Carl Chambers argues that victims of abuse have been failed by churches too easily covering things up
In 2015, Matthew Syed published a book called Black Box Thinking. He contrasts the culture of the airline industry with the health service in the US and UK.
What are you like at wrestling in prayer?
Wrestling is a strange image of prayer. If you read some of the pieces written about prayer today, it seems even more strange.
They tell us (rightly) that prayer is about intimacy and relationship, about knowing God. The Bible’s image of wrestling suggests instead conflict and hard work. It may be an intimate way to fight, but it isn’t sweet. This kind of fighting is sweaty, painful – and all about endurance.