January 2, 2006
LET’S REFLECT FOR A MOMENT, BEFORE WE RUSH INTO OUR NEW YEAR SCHEDULES, ON BOOKS. The Christmas-New Year break offers cosy warm evenings in front of the fire curled up with an exciting page-turner, at least in the northern hemisphere; or long sunny days stretched out on a beach-towel somewhere south of the equator, devouring […]
December 26, 2005
EVERYONE KNOWS THAT DECEMBER 25 HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ACTUAL BIRTH OF JESUS, RIGHT? And that the Church Fathers simply baptised an already pagan festival celebrating the re-birth of the sun as symbolic of the birth of the Son. At least. that’s what I understood – until recently. No intelligent person, I thought, […]
December 19, 2005
TURIN, HOST OF THE APPROACHING WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES, IS ALSO HOME TO A CENTURIES-OLD UNDERGROUND EVANGELISM MOVEMENT, WHICH BECAME MID-WIFE TO THE REFORMATION. For, nestled at the foot of the Italian Alps, Turin is a modern centre of the Waldensian Church, the largest evangelical church in the nation and perhaps the earliest ‘protestant’ church, with […]
December 12, 2005
DUTCH TELEVISION NEWS PLAYED OLD BLACK-AND-WHITE NEWSREEL FOOTAGE FROM THE 1930’S LAST WEEK, ANNOUNCING THE DEATH OF INDUSTRIALIST FRITS PHILIPS AT THE AGE OF 100 YEARS. Standing with evangelist Frank Buchman, founder of the Moral Re-Armament Movement. “Mister Frits” was seen urging a large open air crowd that listening to God, and living in honesty, […]
December 5, 2005
TEN YEARS AGO, TWO YOUNG YWAM WOMEN, RENEE AND SUE, WERE RESCUED BY HELICOPTER as civil war engulfed the West African republic of Liberia. As they caught their last backward glances of their adopted country from the air, it seemed all their efforts to establish a work of YWAM had just evaporated in the smoke […]
November 28, 2005
I NEVER DID QUITE FIGURE OUT WHAT ‘TORONTO’ WAS ALL ABOUT A DECADE OR SO BACK. There was a lot of excitement about bizarre behaviour in church, people making animal noises, falling on the ground, and the like, a phenomenon that first broke out in Toronto, Canada. Across Europe, churches were divided over ‘Toronto’. For […]
November 21, 2005
WHY ARE WE CHRISTIANS BETTER KNOWN FOR WHAT WE DON’T WANT IN SOCIETY, THAN WHAT WE DO WANT? We’re known to be against abortion, euthanasia and homosexual marriage, ecetera. But what are we known to be for – apart from a return to Pleasantville? Do we have a clear idea of the kind of society […]
November 7, 2005
‘EUROPE IS FILLED WITH BELIEVING UNBELIEVERS AND UNBELIEVING BELIEVERS’. So said Daniel Hari, a soft-spoken former Salvation Army officer from Switzerland, at the recent Evangelism in a New Age consultation in Basel. Hari explained that the disciples came to believe that Jesus was the Son of God because of his power for healing and other […]
October 31, 2005
WE ARE LIVING THROUGH ONE OF THE MOST TRANSFORMING MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGION WORLDWIDE. Yet western observers are blind to the most significant and revolutionary changes in today’s world. Consequently they misread the global future. Their myopic view of Christianity historically as a western faith distorts their perspective on what is yet to […]
October 24, 2005
HURRICANES, TIDAL WAVES, EARTHQUAKES AND PESTILENCES SEEM TO BE COMING WITH ALARMING FREQUENCY THESE DAYS. While scientists and politicians discuss the threat of global warming, televangelists speculate about end time signs. So to meet a group of Christians engaging with creation from a perspective of hope last week in Portugal was most refreshing. Prior to […]
October 17, 2005
ONE LAST TIME, BEFORE CHANGING THE SUBJECT! Andreas, a Hope for Europe colleague – and a sober German – wrote to me after a recent visit to the cinema: “While we were waiting for the main movie to start, the whole (and I mean the WHOLE) array of advertisements (from cars to cigarettes) and ALL […]
October 10, 2005
DID YOU GET RYANAIR’S OFFER THIS WEEK TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN IN SPAIN WITH “FIENDISH GHOULS, CHAINSAW WIELDING MONSTERS AND POSSESSED SOULS WHO WILL TERRIFY YOU TO YOUR VERY CORE”? “Located near Salou on the Costa Dorada, the PortAventura theme park becomes a haven for all things freaky between 1st October and 13th November, with scary […]
