Editor: Now is the time to get people starting to think about whom they could pray for and invite to come to church in September.... you may wish to discuss this with your minister. On the outside of our site, we are also offering material you could download for your magazine...look for the button on the left that says Back to Church Sunday.
Back to Church Sunday – who will you invite this year?
"Would you like to come to church with me?" That will be a questions asked hundreds of thousands of times this September, as Christians approach their families, friends and neighbours in the weeks leading up to ‘Back To Church Sunday’, 30 September 2012.
It has been found that millions of people who don't go to church would say ‘yes’ to a simple invitation from a friend. What if you were that friend? Who would you invite?
Back to Church Sunday has caught on in churches everywhere because it is so simple. Since 2004 a quarter of a million people have said ‘yes’ to the prayerful invitation of a friend.
Each year more churches take part and more people come back per church. In 2011 in the Church of England 20 more people came to each church - across all denominations that’s about 77,000 extra people altogether.
And at its heart it is the oldest idea of all, the one that made shepherds leave their flocks, fishermen leave their nets, and tax collectors climb out of trees. Someone invited them!
Of course you can invite your friend to church any Sunday and every Sunday. And if yours is the kind of church that wants to get better at invitation throughout the year, Back to Church Sunday can help. It offers high quality low cost invitation cards, simple service plans and positive media coverage through your diocese or denomination.
Back to Church Sunday can help you take the shortest step in evangelism: inviting someone you know to something you love.
Taking part is as simple as 1 2 3. 1 Register your church. 2 Order your invitations. 3 Prepare to invite! To get started, go to www.backtochurch.co.uk
Editor: How might your church reach out to families in your area? Rona Orme is Children’s Missioner for the Diocese of Peterborough, and this month continues a series offering your church members ideas that have worked in many other places. You may wish to discuss these ideas for ministry with your minister first.
Why our church should join the local fete... or garden party... or street market....
As the sun shines longer in the evenings, so many communities hold fetes, agricultural or village shows, street markets and open garden days. All of these provide great opportunities for the church to join in with community fun. If the event is taking place near the church building, make sure that your church is open and ready to receive visitors. Prop open the main door, have a board outside inviting people to come in, and arrange a rota of people to welcome them. The church may also be able to help the main event by sharing facilities. In one town a tiny ‘pocket park’, tucked between blocks of flats, staged a World Food Party to celebrate the different food cultures enjoyed in the area. The local church opened its doors to provide lavatory facilities.
Get involved at your local event by taking a pitch or stall. Provide pastimes for children (but do not take away income from commercial providers of bouncy castles or face-painting etc). Give away pots of bubbles to spread fun, and provide activity sheets on a theme linked to the event. Include some Bible teaching and details of any children’s activities that the church is organising. One church created a baptism display, complete with christening gown and photographs to remind the local community that they were welcome to consider baptism for their children or themselves. They gave away slices of cake and balloons to add to the fun. Three definite enquiries were received as a result.
Rona Orme is Children’s Missioner for the Diocese of Peterborough and author of Creative Mission, published by Barnabas/BRF £8.99.
Editor: Probably not many churches in this country pray for the churches in Japan.... this might help them to consider doing so...
Japan – still wounded
If you thought the tsunami that hit Japan last year was shocking, consider this; more people committed suicide in Japan in 2012 than are known to have died in the earthquake and tsunami combined. Japan remains one of the world’s least-reached nations for the Gospel, but new opportunities are opening up all the time, and Japanese churches are actively helping communities affected by the disaster. One secular journalist visiting Tohoku remarked recently: “everywhere I go there seem to be Christians doing things.” So please pray for Japan and for the recovery work, and for the Christians as they reach out to their families and communities. For details: www.jclglobal.org
Editor: Here is a heart-warming true story of what Christian outreach can mean to people’s lives....
Fire Of Faith Burns Bright In Bosnia
Murat and Amina were in urgent need of assistance when they arrived at an aid warehouse run by Operation Mobilisation (OM) in Bosnia. Amina’s husband was desperately sick and they had no means or money to heat their home. The OM Bosnia workers quickly added Amina and her neighbour Murat to their list of addresses for their firewood distribution project and visited them soon after. Having supplied the valuable fuel, the OM workers prayed for Amina, her husband and Murat, and left them with some Christian literature to read.
That was back in 2005 and over the following years, as the OM team distributed copies of scripture on the streets of the town nearby, they often saw Murat. He however had little interest in what they were doing. On one occasion though, he accepted a Gospel tract and to the team’s delight, he rang them a few months later. They were even more overjoyed when they heard this man from an Islamic background ask if he could join their Christian prayer meetings. Over the next weeks, Murat became a regular attender at church and made a decision to accept Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.
His journey to faith in Christ involved numerous personal traumas and loss. After being abandoned by his wife and with his health deteriorating, he remembered the love the Christian missionaries had shown to Amina and her sick husband years before. He also recalled how the prayers the Christians said then were all answered and his neighbour’s life had improved dramatically.
Those realisations were enough to spur Murat into contacting the OM team and today he and his new Christian wife lead a Bible study group in their home. Murat can also be found distributing portions of scripture on Bosnia’s streets. “Most of my fellow citizens have never seen an open Bible—even less owned one. Yet they look for answers and hope, often turning to other spiritual forces,” he says. “They need God. God’s Word is powerful; it changed my life!”
Editor: Same-sex marriage is not a good idea – for the following reasons. This is a long article, but the issue is vitally important, as it will change the face of Britain forever.
Ten reasons NOT to legalise same-sex marriage in Britain
Britain is coming under increasing pressure to legalise same-sex marriage, and the Prime Minister David Cameron is determined to drive it through. Many people are asking ‘Why not?’ Now the chief executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship, Dr Peter Saunders, has set out ten reasons why same-sex marriage should not go ahead. Here is a shortened version of what he says:
1. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman Throughout history in virtually all cultures and faiths throughout the world, marriage has been held to be the union of one man and one woman. The UN Declaration of Human Rights (article 16) says the family, headed by a man and a woman, ‘is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State’. It is not up to governments to redefine marriage – but simply to recognise it for what it is, and to promote and protect it as a unique institution.
2. Same sex couples already have civil partnerships All the legal rights of marriage are already available to same sex couples through civil partnerships.
3. Redefining marriage without consultation is undemocratic None of the political leaders who are supporting the legalisation of same sex marriage announced it as a priority in their election manifestos. There is already a huge amount of opposition, and pressing ahead with legalisation will lead to considerable dissension and division. Legalising same sex marriage to appease a small minority is wrong and it should not be foisted on the British people without proper consultation about whether rather than how it should be done.
4. Equality does not mean uniformity In a free democratic society we accept that many human activities are not open to everybody. Not everyone is able to drive a car, buy property, attend university, visit Buckingham Palace. This does not mean that those who are not eligible for these activities are in any way denigrated , but just that there are eligibility criteria. Same sex couples do not fulfil the eligibility criteria for marriage, which should be reserved for the voluntary union of one man and one woman for life.
5. Protecting traditional marriage safeguards children and society Stable marriages and families headed by a mother and a father are the bedrock of society and the state has a duty to protect the uniqueness of these key institutions. Though death and divorce may prevent it, children do best when raised by a married mother and father.
6. Marriage is a unique biologically complementary relationship Marriage is the only legal union which can naturally lead to children. It takes both a man and a woman to produce a baby. The fact that there is a natural link between sexual intimacy and procreation is what makes marriage distinctive and different. Redefining marriage will undermine this distinctness and risks normalising the technological instrumentalisation of reproduction and increasing the confusion of biological, social and family identity.
7. Redefining marriage will be complex and expensive Redefining marriage could cost billions and involve amending hundreds of pieces of government legislation. The word ‘marriage’ appears 3,258 times in UK legislation, which underlines the central role the institution plays in national law. This is simply not a priority for government at a time of economic recession as it will confer no new rights.
8. Schools will be forced to teach about the new definition of marriage Under existing education law schools will be required to teach children that marriage can be between a man and a woman, between two men or between two women. Those parents who object could be undermined in their children’s eyes, stigmatised as homophobics and bigots and prevented from full involvement in schools.
9. Redefining marriage will not stop with same sex marriage In Mexico same sex marriage was followed by two year fixed term marriage. In Canada legalising same sex marriage has led to supporters of polygamy demanding in the courts for their unions to be recognised. The best defence against this is to keep the legal definition of marriage unique and distinct – ‘one man, one woman, for life’.
10. Redefining marriage will lead to faith-based discrimination If same sex marriage is legalized, faith-based adoption and fostering services that place children exclusively with married couples would be required by law to place children with persons of the same sex who are civilly ‘married’. Marriage counsellors from faith backgrounds would be denied their professional accreditation for refusing to provide counselling in support of same-sex ‘married’ relationships. All these moves would place faith groups in the invidious position of being forced to act against their consciences or face marginalisation, exclusion and litigation and would further fuel social fragmentation, sectarianism, antagonism and civil unrest.
Posted by Dr Peter Saunders, chief executive of Christian Medical Fellowship. For the full text visit: http://www.cmfblog.org.uk/2012/02/18/ten-reasons-not-to-legalise-same-se...
Editor: All the members of your church will enjoy the media in some way on a daily basis: through newspapers, radio, TV, etc. Now here’s the chance to pray for the media... please contact the Church and Media Network via info@churchandmedia.net if your church or organisation would like to get involved. The prayer, and resources to go with it, are available on the Church and Media Network website. If your church decides to do this, why not let your local newspapers, radio and other media (e.g. news blogsites) know that you will praying for them on the day? Ask them what they would you to pray for them – and be ready to use those topics on the day. You might also wish to invite a local newspaper editor or station manager to speak at your church on that day, or at a midweek event near to it.
Network calls on churches like us to pray for the media in May
The Church and Media Network is asking local churches across the land to pray for the media on Sunday 20th May. The call is a response to the rapidly-changing media environment and the challenges thrown up by revelations of phone-hacking and other media ‘bad news’ over the past year.
The day has the support of the mainline Christian denominations, and also the Sandford St Martin Trust, the Christian Broadcasting Council and the 24 -7 Prayer Network.
The British media is under scrutiny as never before. Some national newspapers have been guilty of phone-hacking, bullying and poor journalism. Local radio stations struggle for funds. Many local and regional newspapers are closing. TV is changing as the internet transforms the face of broadcasting.
As Church and Media Network says, “Christians need to affirm the media’s vital role in our society. At its best the media gives a voice to the voiceless, holds the powerful to account, keeps people informed, and tells stories to entertain us. In difficult economic and social times, we need a strong and courageous international, national and local media, working to the highest ethical standards. We want to play our part in ensuring that we have a thriving media, committed to truth, and in affirming – and challenging – those who work within it. “
Christians flee Sudan
Thousands of Southern Christians have been fleeing Sudan since the government removed their citizenship rights last year after the South voted to secede. Last month, Khartoum set a deadline of 8 April for all people of Southern origin (who are mainly Christian and mainly African) remaining in the strongly Islamic and Arab Sudan either to leave the country or to be treated as foreigners.
Many of those entering South Sudan are taking shelter in camps set up for returnees from the North and elsewhere. In the Hai Salam camp in Malakal, people are living in desperate conditions. They lack proper shelter, medicine, food and clean water. Every day the women have to walk two hours each way to collect water from the River Nile.
Families are seeking help from the Church in South Sudan, but it is overwhelmed by the need. Barnabas Fund is helping by providing emergency supplies, including sorghum (grain), mosquito nets, blankets, water drums and cooking pots. It costs approximately: £10 to feed one person for a month; £40 to supply a family with plastic sheeting; £50 to equip a family with essential items including jerry cans and cooking pots; and £70 for water storage per family.
As Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, said: “South Sudan is completely overwhelmed by the influx of people effectively forced out of Sudan. The Church in the South is doing all it can to extend Christian love and practical support to the thousands of families entering the country, but it is struggling to cope. Working with trusted church partners, Barnabas Fund is taking some of the strain. But the need is great, so please help us ... “ For more details and how to give: http://barnabasfund.org/UK/News/Latest-emergencies