PASSION FOR LIFE ON A ROLL
APFL
Date posted: 1 Feb 2014
Excitement is building as many churches across the nation gear up for A Passion for Life (APFL).
This is a nationwide mission initiative from gospel churches which had its first outing in 2010.
STUDENTS HEAR THE RUMOUR
Hugh Palmer
Date posted: 1 Apr 2014
Over 100 students responded to the gospel at a UCCF city-wide student mission entitled ‘Rumour Has It’.
The Prohibition Era-themed week of events, which took place in late January, saw around 20 CUs from across London team up with 15 churches to put on a week of evangelistic events.
Guatemala: oasis of hope
Latin Link
Date posted: 1 Apr 2014
Since the start of January 2014, a Christian group in Guatemala has begun meeting the practical needs of some of the young abused girls from Guatemala’s streets and introducing them to Jesus at the same time.
For a long time, the Oasis centre had received calls from Guatemala’s Child Protection Agency, as well as organisations like International Justice Mission, asking if they could provide help for girls as young as ten, who had suffered from systematic sexual abuse and were pregnant.
news in brief
Belgium: killing petition
The Bill to allow Belgian children of all ages to access euthanasia is being opposed by people all across Europe, via a petition organised just hours after the Bill was voted through in mid-February.
Although there are concerns that it will produce a constitutional crisis if the Bill isn’t signed by the Belgian monarch, the aim of the petition is to protect the vulnerable.
Crowding in to the house?
John Risbridger
Date posted: 1 Jan 2014
‘Life on life, together on mission’ lies at the heart of the NT vision for discipleship and it should therefore be at the heart of our vision for the local church. This has been the central conviction of the ‘Crowded House’ since it began in 1996, under the leadership of Steve Timmis.
But how could this conviction begin to shape the approach of churches with a similar theology and similar convictions about mission, but which have existing patterns of church life which may or may not facilitate this missional emphasis? That was the key question explored in a highly stimulating consultation in October facilitated by the Crowded House team, which brought together people from 11 churches (mostly, but not exclusively, from the FIEC but all conservative evangelical).
Anniversaries ‘14
Joy Horn
Date posted: 1 Jan 2014
Joy Horn with notable dates for the year ahead
EVENTS
Early in the year 664, the Synod of Whitby was held, summoned by the king of Northumbria. As a result, the ‘Celtic churches’, established through monks of Iona and Lindisfarne, accepted the practices of the ‘Roman churches’. This brought administrative advantages and theological dangers.
Indigenous v. cross-cultural mission day
Matthew Evans
Date posted: 1 Jul 2013
On May 20, Affinity held
its annual
Churches and Mission Day at Highbury
Baptist Church in London, discussing the
question ‘Is sending cross-cultural missionaries preferable to supporting indigenous
gospel workers?’.
John McDonald
of Grace Baptist
Mission urged churches to see that supporting a gifted national believer may be a far
better way of using
limited resources. If
encouraged to support an indigenous worker, churches may say that they cannot support or pray for someone they have never
met. And how will he or she send prayer letters if they do not speak English? Yet Paul
had never met the Colossians and was constantly praying for them (Colossians 1.9).
This is a challenge to our churches.
Culture of dependency
Do our mission strategies help or hinder?
Do we ‘use’ national believers in our strategy,
or do we serve them in theirs? If some level of
control and accountability
is
lost
in
the
process,
is
that a
sacrifice worth making?
Unless we let them lead, they may not escape
from a culture of dependency which will stunt
their maturity as leaders and churches.
Origins of black preaching
Bishop Samuel Thomas
Date posted: 1 Feb 2014
Bishop Samuel Thomas of the New Testament church of God explains the history
Black preaching, according to Cleophus J. LaRue, has a theological and a sociological influence that runs deeper than mere preaching technique.
Worth anything ... worth everything
Steve Cossack
Date posted: 1 Feb 2014
Steve Cossack, caretaker of Bridge Chapel, Liverpool, tells his story
Football and the Beatles have made Liverpool famous throughout the world.
South Sudan: eye-witness
As the news hit the media about atrocities in
Sudan, EN received a report on December
20 from a Christian living in Sudan.
‘We have
experienced heavy
fighting
between soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir
or to his former vice president, Riak Machar,
on December 15. The government called it an
attempted coup but it was actually a political
difference that arose over party meetings and
the president’s dictatorial
tendency
that
sparked the fight. The president wants to
eliminate all his political critics in hope of
becoming a full dictator. Unfortunately, the
fight turned quickly into tribal conflict targeting people that come from Nuer tribe in Juba.
news in brief
Labelled racist
Parents at a Staffordshire school were told their children would be punished for racism – using a ‘Racial Discrimination’ note attached permanently to the child’s school record – if they missed a trip to a workshop on Islam, it was reported in late November.
The information was given in a letter, which was in part later apologised for by the head. The County Council reminded her about the parental right to withdraw children from religious activities.
Growing a rural church
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 1 Feb 2014
Chris Sinkinson reports from deepest Hampshire
Town centre churches tend to get all the attention!
Five points of encouragement
John Piper
Date posted: 1 Jan 2014
John Piper explains how the doctrines of grace encourage and stimulate his Christian faith
The five points of Calvinism are not unimportant.
Three ways in Oxford
Ruth Moore
Date posted: 1 Mar 2014
Oxford can seem to be a place that meanders
along at snail’s pace; dreaming spires, etc.
But dig a little deeper, and you find that
Oxford life is hurtling along at a bewildering
speed: corners of land morphing overnight
into student accommodation, ever-growing
pockets of social deprivation, and waves of
new arrivals from all over the globe.
Bishops: double-speak on Pilling
Wallace Benn
Date posted: 1 Mar 2014
Wallace Benn comments on the recent consultation
‘No church can live in integrity if it proclaims loyalty to Scripture, but then ignores Scripture when faced with new proposals for her life.’ (Bishop Keith Sinclair)
Harrowing!
Mary Stolarski
Date posted: 1 Mar 2014
Book Review
THIS IMMORAL TRADE
Slavery in the 21st century
Read review
Shaping up!
Mike Wildsmith
Date posted: 1 Mar 2014
Book Review
GOD REDEEMING HIS BRIDE
A handbook for church discipline
Read review
Building for the gospel
Long Crendon
Date posted: 1 Mar 2014
Immediately after planting a new church
in the neighbouring town of Thame in
2008, Long Crendon Baptist Church
(LCBC) started making plans to redevelop
the church building.
During the weekend of February 1-2, the
church celebrated the opening of its new
£1.5m facilities. An Open Day was held for
the community on
the Saturday, during
which thanks were given to the architects,
builders
and various other
community
organisations who had offered use of their
facilities during the nine months in which
the church building was out of action.
Visitors were impressed with the transformation of the building.
Small churches
Priscilla Seidler
Date posted: 1 Mar 2014
Dear Sir,
In
‘Growing
a
rural
church’
in
the
February issue of EN (an interesting article),
Chris Sinkinson talks about ‘critical mass’
and needing a certain number within a
church to be able to do useful gospel work.
He says: ‘Less than [in the region of 30 people] and we may lack the critical mass to
really be an effective church’.
Russia: Olympic outreach
Crosswalk
Date posted: 1 Mar 2014
SOAR International Ministries, an Alaska-based organisation dedicated to missions
and outreach in Russia, has partnered with
local Russian churches during the Sochi
Winter Olympic Games,
to spread
the
gospel to tourists and communities converging on the event.
The ministry sent 40 volunteers to Russia
to establish a number of ‘fun zone’ hospitality centres in local church buildings. They
will also go out into parks and other public
venues to invite others to partake in their
activities.
news in brief
Mixed views
In a report published in mid-November, two thirds of GPs were shown to be in favour of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) dropping its opposition to assisted dying.
The survey found that 38% of 689 GP respondents favoured the adoption of a neutral stance on assisted dying by the RCGP, while 31% said the college should go even further and support a change in the law to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients to die in the UK. The article notes that the RCGP is currently opposed to a change in the law on assisted dying.
GBM: more new missionaries at annual meetings
EN
Date posted: 1 Dec 2013
This year was
the
turn of
the Renewal
Centre in Solihull to play host to the Grace
Baptist Mission (GBM) annual meetings.
On October 26, the venue was full with
750 or more Christians from across the country. The theme was ‘A heart for mission’. One
of the highlights of the day was the introduction of new missionaries who have come into
the work.
Mission - quo vadis?
Thorsten Prill
Date posted: 1 Aug 2012
In June 2005 Jonathan Stephen, principal of the Wales Evangelical School of Theology, published an article entitled ‘The Current Crisis in Evangelicalism’ in EN.
Stephen looked at a number of postmodern heresies which posed a severe threat to Bible-centred Christianity. Among these heresies in contemporary evangelicalism identified were Open Theism, the New Perspective on Paul, and the Emerging Church, as well as the rejection of the doctrine of penal substitution. Seven years on, these postmodern theologies have undoubtedly gained influence. However, they no longer pose a threat to evangelical churches in Europe and North America alone. There is another group in the evangelical constituency that is also affected: mission organisations and their partners overseas.
