Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Church

How will the world change with respect to religion over the next 30 years?  What will the map of world religions look like in 2050? A link-up between the Global Christian Database in Gordon-Conwell University and Operation World staff on the Lausanne website suggests the following trends in relation to population: A third of the...

Two words that do not occur in the Hebrew Old Testament – adolescence and retirement.

Can you be married in church? Signs & Symbols:  Why do we cross ourselves? CMS launches new mission workshops for churches Nigerian Christians under relentless attack Do you have spare room in your home? The Bible verse of 2018 Child slavery Historic churches share in funding payout **  Editor:  In this month of romance, here...

Can you get married in church? Yes. Even if you are not baptised and never go to church? Yes. Even if you are already living together? Yes. And if you have been divorced? There are some circumstances in which divorced people can marry again in a church.  Christians believe that marriage is for life, but...

    Do you ‘cross’ yourself?  Do you literally make the sign of the cross over or upon your body? People do this in different ways: some with certain fingers joined together, some touch their right shoulder before the left, some do small contained crosses on their head, lips and chest whilst others do an...

Church Mission Society has created new workshops designed to get churches thinking in a mission-minded way, and how they can better reach their local community through living out God’s mission. Workshops can take the form of a whole day or half day training. They are for all members of the congregation to take part –...

Release International relates the following true story: Gyang, a 27-year old Nigerian Christian is a student at the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Jos.  A few weeks ago Gyang saw a post on Facebook about how his village had come under attack from Fulani militants. Almost immediately he called home to speak...

Could you offer temporary shelter to a victim of human trafficking? Helen and Jared Hodgson have started the only charity in the UK which provides a home to the victims of human trafficking, and they are seeking churchgoers across the UK who will help, by providing temporary accommodation. So far, the Hodgson’s Hope at Home...

A Bible app, YouVersion, has named Isaiah 41:10 as the most popular verse of 2018. That verse has been posted, bookmarked, and highlighted more times than any other on the app (which has been downloaded more than 350,000 times around the world). Isaiah 41:10 reads: ‘So do not fear, for I am with you; do...

World Vision’s new programme to help stop child slavery in Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is to receive £12.4m in funding from the UK aid budget over the next four years. The programme launched late last year and is aimed at supporting and bringing justice to 12,000 children suffering...

77 churches and chapels in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are sharing in a recent £430,000 grant payout from the National Churches Trust, the charity supporting church buildings of all Christian denominations across the UK. Broadcaster and journalist Huw Edwards, Vice President of The National Churches Trust, said:   ‘The UK’s historic churches and chapels...

Caring for the Vicar New exploration of the ethical boycott of animal products  Signs & Symbols:  When is a Nod not a Yes? Coping with rising violence in prison – how chaplains can help Christmas attendance at highest level for more than a decade Help for your family’s eating disorders How far away is your...