A successful mission week
With prayer and planning a church can get a good number of people to hear the gospel
From June 23-30, Cowplain
Evangelical Church in
Hampshire held a week of
mission.
The Third Degree
38,000 attend CU missions
Pod Bhogal
Date posted: 1 Jun 2014
UCCF Staff Workers report that around 38,000 students attended a Christian Union (CU) mission week in 2014.
The 2014 figures represent a 19% increase from 32,000 students in the previous year. The figures include both CU and non-CU member attendance at lunchtime, evening and small group evangelistic events spread across 115 university missions.
The Third Degree
Messaging that matters
Daniel Stafford
Date posted: 1 Jan 2015
Social media is a relatively recent phenomenon.
According to an ONS report the number of adults accessing the Internet every day in Great Britain more than doubled between 2006 and 2012, largely driven by social media.1 Mention the phrase ‘social media’ and I suspect most people fit into one of three broad categories: willing participants, uneasy users, or steadfast refusers!
Keeping the bookshop sailing
en staff
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
The high street still provides tremendous opportunities for the gospel
The double award-winning Manna Christian Bookshop in Streatham, South London, opened in 1981.
London: a new church for the whole world
FIEC
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
A new church is being planted on the South Bank of the Thames in London during 2015, and just in case you were wondering about the reasoning behind this, the FIEC have put together a very valuable Q&A about the real need for another Bible-centred church in the metropolis that is the UK capital city.
Q: Aren’t there already lots of gospel churches in London?
Carey: too comfortable?
JEB
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
‘Afflicting the comfortable’ could be taken as
the keynote of this year’s Carey Conference
held at the Hayes, Swanick, 6-8 January.
The main
speaker was Professor Greg
Beale of Westminster Theological Seminary,
Philadelphia. He is the author of a landmark
and voluminous commentary on the Greek
text of the book of Revelation and he treated
the participants to a magisterial introduction
to John’s apocalypse. The book is meant to
be understood symbolically, according to its
opening verse. The dramatic word pictures of
the apostle will sedate the nominal Christian
but shock God’s true people
into action.
There are seven churches addressed in the
opening chapters of which only
two are
faithful. The others must change or be
judged with the world. Hence John’s writing
is addressed
first
to
the whole professed
church, but only the faithful remnant will
ultimately benefit.
GBM: real fruit
EN
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
There was a glossy feel to the annual meetings of the Grace Baptist Mission on Saturday 27 October.
First of all, the venue, the Friends Meeting House in Euston, London had been refurbished – new seats, new stage, flashy data projector equipment and perhaps best of all new loos!
FIEC: moving forwards together
John Risbridger
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
The first week of November saw over 460 delegates meeting on the Norfolk coast for what is fast-becoming a key gathering for gospel-focused leaders in the free churches. It was this year’s FIEC Leaders’ Conference. Julian Hardyman (Eden Baptist, Cambridge) described it as ‘unmissable’ and ‘one of the highlights of my year’!
By any standards it was an outstanding time with spiritually nourishing, expository preaching, excellent seminars, encouraging reports of developments within the FIEC family of churches, well-led corporate worship and many informal opportunities to encourage one another in ministry. In the final session, John Stevens (FIEC national director) said simply: ‘I think we met the Lord Jesus together’. It would be hard to find a better or truer description of the week.
Out of black shadows
Stephen Lungu, from South Africa, tells his story
I had no premonition at all. I didn’t even know it existed: the final missing piece of the jigsaw of my life.
Out there
Matthew Benton
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
Book Review
DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT:
Stories of gospel advance in the world’s
difficult places
Read review
Opening up in Coventry
Paul Watts
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
A service of thanksgiving for the new building of Lower Ford Street Baptist Church (LFSBC) in Coventry was held on 11 October.
The official opening had already taken place on 14 September when the Lord Mayor of Coventry, the local MP, and those involved in the construction attended. The previous building, strategically located on the edge of the city centre near to Coventry University and opened in 1857, was no longer fit for purpose. Rebuilding started in 2013. Hillfields Evangelical Baptist Church and Durbar Avenue Evangelical Church kindly shared their services/buildings while LFSBC were ‘homeless’.
EMF: return to HQ
David Butler
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
‘Great are the works of the Lord; they are
pondered by all who delight in them’ (Psalm
111:2), were the words with which Martin
Leech, director of the European Missionary
Fellowship (EMF) opened one of the sessions
at the mission’s October Autumn Conference.
EMF missionaries
came
from Belarus,
Belgium, Czech Republic, Romania, Spain
and
the
UK
to
stay
at
Guessens,
Hertfordshire – the Mission’s HQ – for a long
weekend of Bible ministry, reports, prayer, discussion and fellowship. Public meetings were
held at Guessens on the Friday evening at
which Matt Hill, the new director of Spanish
Christian publishing house Editorial Peregrino and István Salánki from London’s Hungarian
Reformed Church spoke of their ministries.
Is personal evangelism dying?
Mike Mellor
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
Mike Mellor challenges us all to become soul-winners
I am burdened to bring to our attention a greatly endangered species in the UK church.
Locating Lambeth?
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
Transition of leadership is always a testing time for organisations.
This is certainly true for the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which came into being in 2009. Following the consecration to the office of bishop of a man who was in a samesex relationship, those who could not accept this within a Christian church formed a new church, faithful to Anglican teaching. It was recognised by the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON), which first met in 2008 in Jerusalem.
Word Alive – worth the effort
Two church leaders tell us about why they make it a priority
Over the Easter holidays next year thousands of Christians will gather at two Word Alive events in North Wales.
Interrupted by hope
Esther Bennett
Date posted: 1 Jan 2015
Esther Bennett explains how a deeper understanding of being a child of God transformed her Christian life
It’s New Year’s Eve 2011.
Who was Pharaoh?
Ian Cooper
Date posted: 1 Jan 2015
Ian Cooper investigates
After 17 years in the Police Force I understand what is and is not ‘evidence’.
