In the heart of Manchester
Andy Paterson
Date posted: 1 Jan 2015
On 5 October around 300 people gathered to celebrate and witness the commissioning service for City Church Manchester.
Started in September with support from churches in Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester itself, this young church (already numbering about 80 people) met to hear preaching from Richard Cunningham (UCCF), prayers from supporting friends, and covenant challenges to themselves and their pastors, Ralph Cunnington and Matt Waldock. They meet in Central Hall on Oldham Street, in the heart of the city and are part of the growing family of FIEC new church plants.
From Houston to Hull
St John
Date posted: 1 Jan 2015
A team of 12 members of Champion Forest Baptist Church, Houston arrived at St John, Newland in Hull for a seven-day mission in November, with local church members led by US super lawyer, Mark Lanier.
Mark is one of the top ten trial lawyers in America and teaches an adult class of around 800 at his home church in Houston (biblical-literacy.org). He has recently published a book, Christianity on Trial (IVP) which has already sold 15,000 copies in the States.
Prepared to
preach
John Mollitt
Date posted: 1 Jan 2015
On 22 November, a
second
‘Certain
Sounds Seminar’ was held at Starbeck
Mission in Harrogate.
Last year the subject was
‘Basic Public
Speaking’ and this year ‘The Fundamentals
of Preaching’. Twenty five speakers/preachers
or potential speakers/preachers gathered to
hear Ron Collard and John Mollitt give
papers on the supremacy of preaching in a
multi-media society; motivation and inspiration; preparation of
self; preparation of
material; proclamation and examination.
LCM: planting in Samaria
London City Mission
Date posted: 1 Nov 2014
London City Mission (LCM) held its annual Thanksgiving Service on September 17 with guest speaker Andy Paterson, Mission Director with FIEC, inspiring and motivating LCM staff and supporters alike as he called on them not to lose their nerve or to give up on sharing the gospel verbally.
He also challenged LCM to: ‘Help plant and support indigenous gospel-hearted churches with some of the brilliant evangelists that you have. You need to work with those churches so that they effectively welcome and grow people who are coming to faith in Christ. Please use your expertise to develop a generation of working-class church leaders’. Thirdly, he impressed upon the LCM the role it has to play in helping to train and equip churches in London to cross cultural boundaries and create truly multiracial, multi-ethnic churches in London.
Portugal: a strategic work for the gospel
Stephen West
Date posted: 1 Nov 2014
It is 30 years since the Communist regime forced Fabiano to leave his home country of Mozambique with nothing. He was already serving the church there and was recognised by the African Inland Mission as a potential leader. They were his only contact on his arrival in Britain, knowing no English.
He immediately entered Moorlands College in Hampshire – learning Greek and English. Subsequently he obtained a degree at London Bible College and in 1988 married Suzana, who had emigrated from Mozambique to Portugal.
Directed conversations?
Reform / Christian Today
Date posted: 1 Nov 2014
On October
1,
the Reform Council
expressed its dismay that the objectives of
the
‘Shared Conversations on Scripture,
Sexuality and Mission’ had been changed.
As a result orthodox Anglicans had been, in
effect, excluded.
It has called on its members not to participate under these conditions.
The new wave of feminism
Karen Soole
Date posted: 1 Dec 2014
Karen Soole on the mistakes of the past and the biblical way forward
Injustice against women is in the news.
Abandoning crisis repentance?
William Wade asks if we are replacing definite conversion with a relational journey
The way we do evangelism has changed.
Harry Waite 1923 – 2014
Peter Dunn
Date posted: 1 Oct 2014
Pastor Harry Waite was called into the Lord’s presence on August 19, aged 91.
He was one of those men who came under the influence of Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel during the 1940s and 1950s and embraced the Reformed doctrines in a way that then shaped his preaching throughout his long ministry.
USA: Driscoll’s ministry suspended
Religion Today
Date posted: 1 Oct 2014
Megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll announced to his Seattle-based congregation, via a pre-recorded message in late August, that he is taking a six-week leave of absence from his position as lead pastor of Mars Hill Church while various charges against him were formally investigated. Driscoll said he would take the time to seek council about the next season of his life.
Driscoll, along with Mike Gunn and Leif Moi, planted the church in 1996. Mars Hill grew to more than 13,000 people and stretched across 15 locations in five states: Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Arizona. Attendance has slumped over recent weeks to between 8-9000, and the church has announced the closure of at least three of its locations, and staff cuts of 30-40%. This leave of absence has come after a series of events which found Driscoll being confronted with significant questions about his character and leadership.
On the beach for Jesus
Alan Pibworth
Date posted: 1 Sep 2014
‘He made the stars to shine, He made the rolling sea, He made the mountains high and He made me’ has been sung this summer by thousands of children who have never heard about the death and resurrection of Jesus and whose families never attend a church.
United Beach Missions teams have been sharing the good news of Jesus for a total of 60 weeks at beach resorts in England, Wales, Ireland, as well as in Spain and Portugal. With members as young as 15 but with some in their sixties and older, they have been motivated by a love for the Lord, a love for each other and a love for the lost.
Conversion of an archbishop
Andrew Atherstone meets the man who led Justin Welby to Christian faith
The convert is now a global religious leader.
The Third Degree
Forum for CU leaders
Daniel Stafford
Date posted: 1 Oct 2014
If you change the university, you change the world.
The world around us today is being shaped by the students of yesterday – nearly every business person, politician, academic, media presenter and opinion former started out as an undergraduate, their worldview formed and shaped by their university experiences. It follows logically that to shape tomorrow’s world, we need to shape tomorrow’s leaders today. That is why the witness and ministry of Christian Unions is so vital.
To train young Africans
Andrew & Julie Carter
Date posted: 1 Oct 2014
Isaac, James and Peace (left to right) are all graduates of the African Bible University (ABU) in Kampala, Uganda.
James’s father was the village witchdoctor and James was raised to follow in his footsteps. Miraculously, he was called out of darkness and into the light of the gospel. The Lord opened the way for him to study at ABU. James now works as an evangelist amongst young people in villages across Uganda, a nation where three quarters of the population are under 25.
news in brief
Bangladesh: threats
The congregation of a church in Boldipukur has been threatened by unknown parties warning them not to pursue legal action against attackers who carried out a violent robbery in early July.
Around 50 Muslim attackers rounded up and attacked workers at the church and seized valuable items. They attempted to rape female church workers. Police arrested 12 people in connection with the robbery. It is thought that the robbers were trying to find and steal land ownership documents for the site.
Letter from America
Light on gay marriage
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Nov 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court has just decided to not decide on gay marriage.
As anticlimactic as a non-decision decision is, this was nonetheless of great significance. Effectively, the Supreme Court has legitimated the decisions of States to allow gay marriage by refusing to intervene (one way or another). Commentators have wondered whether this was motivated so as not to be tarnished with a Roe v. Wade like stigma which the Court has carried ever since its decision on abortion in the eyes of the conservatives.
ReNew
Mark Burkill
Date posted: 1 Nov 2014
For evangelical Anglicans who grow weary
of the vital battles over women’s ministry
and sexuality in synods and elsewhere, the
2014 ReNew conference (22–23 September)
was a great encouragement and inspiration.
It is not that the necessary task of contending for biblical truth was ignored, but
that this was seen within a bigger context.
That bigger context is the work of pioneering, establishing and securing healthy local
Anglican churches.
Somerset’s spiritual milk
Andrew Paterson
Date posted: 1 Nov 2014
On September 27, Edington Chapel in Somerset held a welcome and commissioning service for Matthew Edwards, as a pastoral church worker on a part-time basis.
Matthew worked for ten years with the Open Air Mission. The chapel is rejoicing that God has guided them to this new venture of employing Matthew to help in outreach to the community, re-starting children’s work and building up and encouraging the church fellowship. Matthew and his wife, Sandra, have been living in central Cardiff and have now relocated to a small village in Somerset and are living in a converted milking parlour.
