Ubicumque et semper
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Dec 2010
Setting up a new Pontifical Council is not something that happens often in the Vatican, given the conservative nature of the institution.
Yet Pope Benedict XVI has just released the motu proprio document entitled Ubicumque et semper (‘Everywhere and always’) that establishes the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.
'Go to the people'
John Nicholls
Date posted: 1 Oct 2010
It became known that a group of foreign extremists — ‘terrorists’ to most people — had re-grouped in London after being imprisoned and tortured in their own country. A City Missionary who spoke their language was anxious to find them, so he quietly sounded out some of his contacts, and after several unsuccessful attempts, met with them in an area that had become almost totally populated by ethnic minorities. He told them that he had come on behalf of the Christians of London to offer advice and sympathy. He spoke of God’s love and of his justice. Most of the group were antagonistic, intent on violence, but the City Missionary went back repeatedly to talk with them.
In one of London’s poorest areas a City Missionary walked through an overgrown garden to knock at a door. A man opened the door, but would not let him in. He was suspicious and troubled. After a short conversation, the missionary offered to return and tidy the garden. The work was done — and the missionary was invited indoors. A friendship developed, and the man began attending the local mission hall to play pool, and joined a Bible study. He began attending Sunday services at a local church, whose members regularly helped with his garden.
The Third Degree
Introducing students to Jesus
Pod Bhogal
Date posted: 1 Nov 2010
UCCF loves it when students hear, engage with and respond to the love of God expressed in Jesus Christ. We want students to ‘live life to the full’ — that is, to know that Jesus loves them and see that life with him is the best way to live.
Here are some testimonies from students, UCCF Staff Workers and Relay volunteers from this last year for you to enjoy.
Welcome home?
Missionaries on home assignment have many responsibilities. They talk to their mission, report to churches, reconnect with their home church, contact supporters, deal with health issues, see family and maybe get some holiday. This article is not addressed to them!
Supermarket halal
Patrick Sookhdeo
Date posted: 1 Dec 2010
All over the UK today, supermarket chains, shops and restaurants are selling halal meat.
We may find it on the menu at our children’s school or the local hospital, or be offered it when we go to a sporting event. If we go for a meal with Muslim friends, any meat we are served will probably be halal. It can be hard to avoid eating this meat, especially as it is often not labelled and little information is available to the consumer.
Tumbling pulpits
John Brand
Date posted: 1 Oct 2010
Book Review
WHY JOHNNY CAN’T PREACH
The media have shaped the messengers
Read review
Missionary kid!
Heidi Sand-Hart
Date posted: 1 Nov 2010
Being a child of missionary parents is not easy. Heidi Sand-Hart has written a book on the subject and spoke to EN about it.
EN: Tell us about your background. Were your parents missionaries?
God set to use London?
John Benton
Date posted: 1 Sep 2010
Does God have a plan for London? People from all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds from across the globe pass through or have become part of Britain’s capital city.
The world is in London. This means that, even apart from what might happen as people come for the Olympic Games in 2012, London has enormous potential in God’s purposes for worldwide mission and it seems that many Christians have begun to understand this.
A 21st-century Reformation: recovering the supernatural
Hwa Yung
Date posted: 1 Oct 2010
One of the big surprises of the 20th century was the dramatic growth of the churches in the non-Western world.
A bigger surprise was that, as Philip Jenkins asserts, those churches growing fastest are all strongly supernaturally oriented. ‘In this thought world, prophecy is an everyday reality, while faith-healing, exorcism, and dream-visions are all basic components of religious sensibility.’
Daddy cool
Stephen Trump
Date posted: 1 Oct 2010
Book Review
FATHER FICTION
Chapters for a fatherless generation
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Fund nationals!
Graham Went
Date posted: 1 Aug 2010
Book Review
REVOLUTION IN WORLD MISSIONS
One man’s journey to change a generation
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A pattern for evangelistic missions
Roger Carswell
Date posted: 1 Mar 2009
In 1983 I left teaching in a large comprehensive school to work full time as a travelling evangelist.
Before then, evangelism had been my life, so that when God called me into this work, it was a natural progression from what I had been doing. In the last quarter of a century there have been huge changes not only in society and church, but also in methods of evangelism. Some of this has been rapid.
Turnaround churches need older ladies?
Julian Mann
Date posted: 1 Sep 2010
A fresh influx of old ladies converted to lively Christian faith in their 80s is now sorely needed to revitalise small local churches.
An influx of old gentlemen of that generation would also be wonderful but an old lady born in 1930 brings the following benefits to a local church that is in urgent need of major spiritual surgery:
The Third Degree
Charlotte Petra
Date posted: 1 Jul 2010
The summer holiday is definitely one of the perks of student life; months without coursework deadlines or exams, but does student ministry take a break too? With many students going home, travelling or working, it may appear that there isn’t much opportunity to reach the student world with the good news about Jesus. But things aren’t always what they seem...
This year six UCCF-led teams of students are going overseas, to Lithuania, Bulgaria, a country in the Former Yugoslav Republic, Russia, Paris and an East European country. Each team is made up of students from Christian Unions across the UK and led by Christian Union Staff Workers.
Maximum miracle church
I have been in Western Kenya over the summer. Each time I visit the country there are invariably advertisements for big ‘Christian’ rallies promising the most extraordinary divine interventions.
One that sticks in my mind from a previous trip was the ‘Holy Spirit Explosion’ crusade. This time a certain well-known health and wealth preacher who frequents London was plying his trade among the poor of the city of Kisumu promising ‘financial breakthrough’. It was the usual approach. People are assured that, as they give their money to finance his ministry (and luxurious lifestyle?), the Lord will take them out of their poverty and make them wealthy.