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iM 5 1983

Epistle from England A report from ministries challenging a

post- Christian nation with the claims of Christ.

E R D I N G T O N REPORT

A P R I L 1 9 83 V O L 1 N 7

R E L I G I O U S S U B S T I T U T E S

O R T H E R E A L T H I N G ?

If you visited British Churches of Christ, youwould immediately s ee their traditions. Youw o u l d b e a w a r e t h a t t h e r e a r e s o m e s u b

stantial ways in which their worship an d lifestyle is different from yours. You would then

assess whether you t ho ug ht t ha t these traditions were helpful or not. Do the songs help

people to worship? Does t he s tr uc tu re of the

c om mu ni on h el p p eo pl e to m e e t th e Je su s ofthe cross an d resurrection who is alive today?

If s o m e o n e from o u r British c h u r c h c a m e to

your church, he would see In t he s am e way. Hewould look at your traditions and assess them

according to their helpfulness. Bu t what hesees as your tradition, yo u m ig ht v er y well see

as a part of God s Word. This is because th e

passed-down traditions, that is the way weexpress th e Word of God in p ra ct ic e, o ft en

b e co m e c o nf u se d with th e W o r d of G od itself.

In fact, traditions often assume a greaterImportance in dally life than God s Word.

T h d O ne s W h o W e r e S e r i o u s A b o u t T h e Law

Even though we often identify them with theb ad g uy s, the Pharisees were really good people who wanted to s e e th e La w work out Indaily life. They want edto follow God so much

that they created theoral la w a s a fence to

keep them from fallingi n t o s in

T h e P h ar is ee s w e re

extrem ely afraid ofsin—too a fra id of sin.

Their fear of sin often

kept them from follow

in g w he r e God wanted

them to go. For exam

ple, If God wanted

a

them to walk between the fences, they couldnot. Their oral traditions kept them away fromsin, but it also kept them away fromGod. Theywere so afraid of doing wrong that they couldn ot d o rig ht.

Jesus never scorned the Mosiac Law. His

Father had given it to th e people to keep themfrom sin, but even more to reveal sin. Bu t

J es us could not follow all of th e oral la w

because some of it would have kept him fromGod s will—giving Life.

Religious WorriesJesus h ad t ro ub le with the oral laws about

the S ab ba th . T he profound point of th e Sa b

bath was that it was to help man to be refreshed after six days of hard work. But as theoral law grew, th e Sabbath rules grew to hun

dreds ofdetailed regulations. Instead of givingpeople rest, the Sabbath provided them withnew things to worry about. Instead of lookingforward to a day of rest and upbuilding, peoplenow looked forward to their m an ual la bor

during th e week when they were free of th eburdens of t he S ab ba th . Once so good an dhelpful fo r man, the Sabbath was no w an

oppressor, which even stopped people from

giving life an d help to others. (Donald B.Kraybiil s The Upside Kingdom gives helpfulinsight and background.

Jesus refused to support the oral laws when

they were killers (Mark 3 John 5). He cameto give Life while th e traditions of th e e ld er s

Mark7:3) often squashed all th e life ou t of thepeople.

The Problem TodayIt was Jesus failure to support the traditions of men which made him th e object ofattack by the scribes an d Pharisees (Mark 3:6,John 5:16). Within th e churches today it is th e

continued.on the back page)



HINCKLEY REPORT

Pete

Bo wen

J a n

Bowe/i

J ane t

Baines

TonyCalverl

DEVELOPING MINISTR IES

U nd er C hr is t s cont ro l all th e di f fe rent

parts of the body fit t ogethe r and the whole

body Is held together by every joint with which

it is provided. So w hen each separate part

works as it should, the whole body grows and

builds itself up through love.

I've noticed that numerical growth in our

church at Hincl<ley seems to ru n in cycles.

Sometimes we see many people baptized in arelatively shor t t ime, then we have a period

with few baptisms. I think of these t imes with

few conversions as periods God uses to con

solidate the growth that has taken place. Its e ems to m e tha t we a re in on e of t hos e

periods now.

What has the Lord been doing to prepare us

fo r another growth period? I believe He has

been helping us to develop ministries of indi

vidual church members. As He does so, some

of our corporate needs are being met.

For s om e tim e now we have been without a

piano or organ playe r. But we have discovered

that David Moore a teen-ager) can heip us inworship with his accordian. Mick and Don

Salter made the ir debut as guitarists only last

n ight , a ccompani ed by Don's wife on the

r e co r d e r .

Julie Salter is discovering that she loves toshare th e Gospel with people. She Is develop

ing an evangelistic ministry that includes dis

tr ibuting tracts in the market on Saturdays.

Janet Chamberlain is finding that she can

lead Bible s tud ie s for non-Chr i s t i ans and new

Christians effectively. God is beginning to confirm Mick Salter's gifts as a preacher. Angie

(Calvert) is finding she has a teaching and

evangelist ic ministry to mothers.

This is only the beginning of a process ofdiscovery fo r our members. As God continues

to answer our prayers. I'm certain we'll see

the whole body growing as each part works asit should .

TONY

MOTHERING: IS T IMPORTANT?

Does a mothe r have a real cont r ibut ion to

make to the life of her children, the church,

and the world? I believe she most definitely

does (and not just because I am a mother )

Because I see mothers and their responsi

bilities as very important, I have started amother-toddler group in my home. Mother's

groups are very common in England, but to

study what God has to say about BEING amother at such a group Is not During our

group meeting, we are going through a Bookcalled Mastering Motherhood. In the book theauthor (a Christian) covers such topics as

God's relationship to mothe rs , What kind

of parent is God? , and God's k ind o f love .

The re a re two mothe r s from ou r church who

attend regularly. The other three mothers live

locally, but thei r commitment to Christ is no t

certain. It is my desire that God will u se t he se

discussion times to help e ach mother see His

perspective on them and thei r parenting. But Ialso des i re tha t those who are involved and

need to accept Christ will do so as they learn

about His teachings and his love fo r them.Even though I am sure that I will have a

ministry in this group, I'm certain that Lynnand Janet (the two mothers from our church)

will get a better hearing from th e others.

Why? Because they are not the minister's wife

who is expected to think and act a certain way

Please keep us in you r p raye rs as we reach

out beyond our church to share Chris t w ith

t he se o t h e r mo t h er s.

ANGIE

WEST BROMWICH UPDATE

Pete, Jan and Gareth are awaiting thearrival of a baby in mid-April, if not

before Please keep them in your prayers



WEST BROMWICH REPORT

(West Midlands)

RELEARNING THE BASICS Pete

Jan Bowen

there Is no condemnation for those who and Gareth

are in Chr is t Jesus s t a t es Pau l in his l e t te r

to the Romans For one m an in our church

that is very hard to accep t. He has said on

a numbe r of occas ions tha t he is not s u r e If

he will be found among the faithful be- - j

use he m y die wit one un onfessed 1sin. Christ certainly died for his sins, he ^ . iwould say, but only those that are con

fessed. He fears th at h e does not know all of his s ins and th us he canno t confess them

al l

What makes this t ragic case even worse Is that of the twenty members of th e church

he has the most Biblical knowledge. In fact, he can r ead the Old Testament in the original language.) But, as too often is the case, just Biblical knowledge is not enough.

One outcome of this lack of assurance is a constant whipping of h imse lf . He has

created {and probably was taught) a legalistic framework into which grace cannotfilter. Examples: to say Christmas or Easter from the pulpit is a sin, or to purchase

a newspaper on Sunday (or Monday as it was p rinted on Sunday) borders on blas

phemy. To relieve his guilt, he punishes himself.

Despite a number of personal visits and Bible studies, the legalism continues and itIs ki ll ing him spiritually. As the rest of the church grows and steps out on faith, he Isleft behind. He has told anothe r member t ha t he feels the odd man out , a loner.

The question naturally arises: is he really a Christ ian? Has he accepted the atoning

death of Jesus as the covering for all his sin? I cannot answer those questions. But the

responsibility of the church is clear: we must set an example of the freedom which

Christ has brought .

CURT

SATURDAY JAM

We have a great bunch of kids at our Saturday morning club. At present there areonly six, bu t they are regular, eager and fun to be with. I d like to Introduce them to

you and ask your prayers on their behalf.

Allison~13, member of another church in town; she needs to learn to forgive herfather who deser ted her mother when Allison was quite young.

Roslta~12, the seventh child of ten. A well adjusted child who is seriously thinking

about making Jesus a part of her life.

Wendy~11, Ros lta s s is te r. Wendy is a nice child but very unaware of the worldaround her. She is in t he d reamy s tage and needs gentle dashes of reality from time

to t ime

Pat—12. Her bro ther and sister u sed to attend clubs at the church when younger but

outgrew them . Pat enjoys club and like Rosita is considering the claims of Jesus asher Lord .

Chrlstopher~a very intel ligent 10 . He is torn between the Church of England where

his parents think it would be proper for him to a tt end a t least through confirmation

(they are not Christians) and the Church of Christ wher e h e enjoys the club and our

friendship.

Gary—10, brother of Rosita and Wendy. He is eager for acceptance but not sure how to

go about jus t act ing natural and being h imself . He has potential and talent, but lacks

dr ive

GAIL



Erdington report continued:

failure to prop up the traditions of men whichcause the real problems. Traditions, unessen-tlals which are Identified as God's Word, are

what divides and causes conflict.This should str ike a common chord withinthe followers among the Restoration Movement. It does not because the traditions of themovement have become identified with the

Word of God. The Word of God Is often notheard because the tradit ions are assumed tobe the Word. We are not so unlike the

churches to whom Campbell, Stone and others

addressed their declarations.

Given Hearts

Perhaps most traditions in church lives areat some point a valid expression of God'sWord. But they are an expression, they are

man-created, they not God's Word itself.

And God wants our expressions-man-made

expressions He enjoys them~lf they are out of

our hearts (Mark 7:1-7).The way I pray or the times I pray are myexpression to God. That I pray Is the Word ofGod. The songs we choose together are ourexpression to God . The tunes are not sacred.

When leaders brought pub tunes Into th echurch in England, there was an almightyruckus among rel ig ious people. But now those

tunes are considered the most rel igious tunes

without which we could not worship. Newt unes a re considered by some to be Irreverant

while some consider them to be the essence of

God Himself. The truth is that no tunes are

God's Word. We must listen to the Word of

God and choose from the varieties of expressing Itwhen our hearts are given to him.

We have no trouble seeing that the Phari

sees traditions were not the Word of God. Andwe can see that the traditions of other denominations (e.g. dog collars, incense, genuflecting are not the Word of God~although tothem they mayexpress something special. Butwhat we fail to see is our own attitude to ourown traditions. They are not pure gospel -and some of them are killers

Preachers speak ad nauseum of being in

the Lord's house on the Lord's day , but areoften the upholders of the t radit ions of menwhile the Word of God goes unspoken. Even IfIt is successful , God may not be in it. Jesusdoes not fit into many of our traditions becausehe knows that religion is a substitute for theREAL THING.

T ho u A rt T he Man

What I am realizing is that I am the Pharisee. I am the man too afraid of sin to enterGod s love. I am the upholder of religioussystems which deny th e Life of God. And if Icarryon, Imaybe found to be fighting the veryGod about whom I am preaching (not unlikethe Pharisees).

Ourchurch wants the realthing even thoughsomeofour comfortablesubstitutes may haveto die with It. Death is always painful, butresurrection comes in the morning ...

ROGER

EPISTLE FROM ENGLANDNorthwest Chri st ian Church

1700 Anthony DriveChampaign, IL 61820

U.S.A.

TUNBRIDGE WELLS MINISTRY

c/oGtrden Cottage,

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Tunbndge WelU, Kent

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HINCKLEY MIN ISTRY

1 Che uhe r Street

Hinckley. Lciceatenhire

LE 10OAH England

ERDINGTON MINISTRY

144Gravelly LaneBirminghatn 823 6LT

England

WE S T BROMWICH MIN ISTRY

2S Oiford Road

West Bromwich,

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Non Profi t Org.U.S. Postage

PAID

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AMERICAN CORRESPONDENTS

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JUL 5 98


post- Christian nation with th e claims of Christ.

E RD IN G TO N R E PO R T

(Birmingham)

Roger Michille

Edrington

JUNE 1983

TRAVELLING NORTHTO TH E EXTREMITIES

I don t travel to other churches very

much. But in the past few weeks, I have

been serving (and hopeful ly helping) fouro t h e r chu r che s

My wife Michelle is the creative, musi

ca l type, so she led a group of us fromErdlngton in an hour of musical items inStoke-on-Trent (known as The Potteries

and home of Wedgwood, Royal Doulton

and many others) . The church there washosting a Festival of Music to which out

siders might come to hear the gospel in adifferent way. We hoped that our songs

(many written by Michelle) would hit at thecore of people s being and urge them to

get to know Jesus. Two police inspectors,

one of them th e head of th e local Chr is t ian

Police Fellowship I didn t know there was

one), were sandwiched between our songsand words. It was encouraging to see anumber of people who had recently

becortie Christians there, although a few of

th e o ld er c hu rc h had lef t becaus e of th e

changes. Their minister is a West Indian

who trained in the U.S.A., married an

Australian, and had his la st m in is try inKorea

VOL. 10 NO. 9

The nex t weekend took us to a sma l l

church j us t out side of the Lake District,

one of England s beauty spo ts . The moors

and fields of Kirkby-in-Furness make it adelightful spot to visit, but my contributionwas to preach God s Word in such a way

that they would be challenged to step outIn faith. It was their 175th Anniversary,

but t he re a re only 15-20 a t normal Sunday

meetings. A retired minister from theU.S.A. is now with them fo r a year s mini

stry.

The final weekend was spent on the wetand windy northe rn coast of Scotland.

These two North Sea fishing villages have

churches which were full In the past, butnow average 10-15 for morning commu

nion services. The congregations are

mainly elderly and wonder how they can

car ry on

In Buckle, two American families have

now joined for a team ministry, hoping toaid in bringing the life of God afresh. The

church there needed encouragement tha t

there were others in the country who

cared. The o the r church, in a small village

dubbed by other villages as The Holy

City , needed strong words to make them

realize that religion without love fo r Jesus

is useless. (In ten years living in Britain, Ihad never seen so many people in hats and

carrying Bibles, walking to various even

ing church meetings.)

Many churches in Britain are In thes ame s ta te as these s trugg ling ones . WeAmericans, who come from a cu lture more

akin to the last mentioned village, are not

messiahs. Yet we do offe r them an oppor

tunity fo r leadership—or often just youthfulzeal for God~that may help them on theroad to chur ch e s whe r e J esus is lived ou t

and proclaimed.

ROGER



HINCKLEY REPORT

Pete

Bowen

J an

Bow e n

J a n e i

Baines

Tony

Calver t

WE VE GOT A PROBLEM

I had fun when I wrote about baptizing

eighteen people in 1981. It was enjoyable

to report more growth in 1982. I'm not hav

ing much fun writing this, because I have

to write about some serious problems we

are having at our fellowship in Hlnci^ley. Itis hard to strike the r ight balance: I don'twant to make the si tuation more ser ious

than it is and cause undue concern, yet Idon't feel I can hide the realities from you

our friends and supporters .

So what's up. Maybe I should say,

What 's down? , because both member

ship and attendance at worship are. Agradual loss of momentum through thecourse of last year culminated last month

in disagreement and conflicts between

some church members. Five members including two married couples) have decided

to leave the church: many others are re -

evaluatlng their committment to Christ

and His church. There is still a core of

concerned, committed Christians atHinckley, so we do not despair. Jesus isstill Lord—even Lord of our mess es . Th er e

is no despair, but we do have cause for realconcern. And cause for some self-

Inspection. I 'd like to share may analysis ofwhat caused our problems:

1 I th ink we have rested on p ast accom

plishments. 1know I was proud of the fact

that our church grew from six to fortymembers in three years. 1 tried to tell myself there wasn't really any pride involved,

but there was. And 1 wasn' t t he only one.

Our pride led to contentment, a willingness to accept things as they were. We forgot that no forward movement in evangelism and maturi ty is backward movement.

Repentance and renewed committment isin orde r .

2 Many members were content to

know each other in a very superficial way.

They neglected their responsibility todevelop deep and lasting friendships with

fellow Chris t ians who were di ffe rent from

them. Because they did not know each

other, they misunderstood and suspectede ac h o th e r.

3 Old and new clashed. The Chris t ians

who had been at the church for many years

were used to their traditions; those who

had been Christians for a few years (or

less) saw no sense in those traditions.

Older Chr is tians said, They're trying totake over. ; newer Chr is tians counte redwith, They're spiritually dead.

4 Most important of all the reasons forour set back is this: Everyone tr eat ed the

one another of God s Word as added

optional extras to the Christian life. Love

one another ; Accept one another as

Christ has accepted you ; Fo rgive one

another ; Encourage one ano ther ; Do

not judge one another ; Serve oneanother : Everyone knew about them. But

far too many failed to do them

We've got problems. We have failed insome important ways. But God is an expert

at producing His successes from the aftermath of our failures. I believe that. I hope

your prayers will help us demonstrate it.TONY

We are hard pressed on every side, but

not crushed; perplexed, but not In despair;. . Corinthians 4.8



^

THE JOY OF PREACHING

I have a lways been committed to the

priority of preaching. To hear the Word ofGod procalimed effectively brings no

greater joy But, a t times for me to preach

effectively was very difficult Preparing asermon was a real chore and often preach

ing it was very difficult (especially when

the worship service was about as victorious

as a non-Christian burial service).

But recently I have found a new joy inmy preaching, a new freshness which

apparently is coming through in the sermons. Recently a lady said to me that shedoes not like to hea r a nyone else but me

preach a s th ey al l sound empty.

I have to ask myself what has caused this

change. Up until a week ago I could no t

answer tha t question except with the trite

and perhaps superspiritual answer of theHoly Spirit working in me. But then itdawned on me~the r ea son my preaching Isso different is that I really love the people Iam working with and th ey love me. This is

not to say we agree on every f ine poin t oftheology. We do not. But because of love

those differences do not cause problems.

At times I have had to say some hardthings, but because of the love which Ispresent those difficult teachings can be

said in all humility and received in humil

ity. This means tha t I am not threatened

nor are those who are l is tening. Ins tead of

saying, You have done this or caused

that I can now say Look at the mess we

a re in bec aus e of what w e h av e d on e

Now I look forward to 11 .45 on Sundaymornings as preaching God's Word is an

absolute joy.

CURT

Ri ta

Ide

Gal lBurns

Linda

Nordh ie lm

Cur t

Nordh ie lm

THE FUN OF CHILDHOOD

Take fou rteen children, as many par

ents, a Sunday aft ernoon , a chapel room

with all the pews and chairs pushed to the

walls, cakes, s andw iche s and tea waiting

in the back Sunday School room, and

electric excitement radiating from the chil

dren and you have a mixture which just

cannot fail to be hilariously funAnd that is what the Parent 's Apprecia

tion Tea was . Ins tead of a progam, It was

decided to have games and fun with theparents. Try it sometime for a bit of something different with a youth group or one

Sunday School class. It's good for theparents to let themselves go and play thefun games of childhood. It's good for the

children to play with and watch their parents willingly (mainly) play the games, too.

The relay races may leave all bu t the kids

breathless, but wha t fun.

At the conclusion of the games, the par

en t s were a l lowed to res t whi le th e chi l

dren set the food out (some of which they

had made t hemselves) . Then each child

escorted his parents to the table to eat andlaugh about the past hour. The afternoom

closed with the children reading a shortpoem of appreciation for al l t he ir pa ren ts

had done for them. It was a lovely after oo

GAIL



W E ST B R OM W IC H REPORT

West Midlands)

Pete

J a n Bowena nd G are th

L I G H T SALT - BOTH NEEDED

B I

SALTY

The church ove r th e cen tu r i es has of ten

swung to extremes in it s emphasis co n

cerning what th e gospel is. At times th ec hu rc h h as b een oniy concerned fo r man Int e r m s of his ex tern al destiny an d h as

n eg le ct ed is su es of m a n s physical and

social needs in this life. Such an emphasi s

eats away at the credibility of the gospel.For when people look for a practical

expression of th e love of God through His

Church in th e world, it is lacking. At t h e

ot her e x tre me , th e church a t tim es get s so

involved in issues of social justice that itfails to speak about man In his relationship

w ith G od an d His external destiny.

J e s u s clearly dealt with th e whole man.

H e cared for people centrally in terms oftheir relationship to Go d but flowing from

that, He cert ainl y did not ignore their other

needs. He was full of c om passion a ndaction for the poor, sick and outcasts ofsociety.

Go d seems to be dealing with His church

In this n atio n o n this whole p ro bl em . H e is

moving us both In terms of evangelism and

socia l c a r e As t h e c hu rc h c on tin ue s to

m ov e f or wa rd in living out an integrated

gospel - both proclaiming Christ and livingout the life of Christ as Light and Salt insociety - so I am confident t hat people willbegin to take notice of th e church and Itsmessage about J e s u s in a way It has not

d o n e fo r years.

PETE

EPISTLE FROM ENGLANDN o rt h we s t C h ri st i an C h ur c h

1700 Anthony Drive

Champaign, IL 61820

AM BHICAN C O R R E S P O N D E N T S

Ti m ti N a n cy B a r be r

603 Cutlc lon

Champaipi, IL 61820

U .S .A .

T U N B R ID G E W E L LS M I NI S TR Y

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H I N CK L E V M I N IS T R Y

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Hinckley, L eicetter ahir e

LF. 10 OAH England

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Birmingham 823 6L T

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P \ DG Jt L 5

Epistle from England A report from minist ries challeng ing a


•.•lV t l i i S

E R DI NG T ON R E P O R T

(Birmingham)

Roger Michille

Edrington

Hash >flUST

fiMc

VOL. 10 ,

that God had met with them, but i t was very important.

STEVE HILLARY S V G (both 36) had been believers inour Lord, working with the Church of England for some time.

Serious about Christianity fo r many years and wanting moreof God, they moved to our fel lowship eighteen months ago--only after much prayer, consideration, and talking witho the r Ch ri st ia n s and t h e i r vicar . They readi ly f i t i n t o

our group of Christians who want to grow in th e Lord.They were overwhelmed with the newness of God they were

gaining.

They had considered being baptized a number of times,

but didn t see the point. They saw that i t was normal atth e point of becoming a Christian, but they had already experienced the conversion promises of ou r Lord. They were

not willing to be baptized j u s t to be members of our

church—inadequate motivation fo r anyone, in my view.

Bu t a few months ago, the is su e arose again. On a

Sunday, Hillary privately concluded that God wanted herto be baptized. On Monday, Angela came with a word thatGod wanted them both to be baptized. Steve objected.

For weeks th ey debated and argued. I t b rought out issues

in their lives and marriage that needed healing.Hillary had a burning conviction , Steve finally had

the cer ta in ty tha t i t was right bu t no feelings to accompany i t . They were both baptized into Jesus in orderto obey what our Lord says--an example to all of us toobey in those areas where God convicts. The blessings

of obeying ar e yet to be revealed.

ROGER

The follot-nng ie an evangelistiaallyoriented art icle for Birmingham s

EVENim MAIL EXTRA I t appeared duringB r i t a i n s n a t i o n a l w a te r w o rk e r s

s t r i k e . Please excuse th e paper s

l iberal use o f Rev.

We re very fearful of losing ou rwa te r supp ly these days. We us e ilfo r so many things that it s

u n t h i n k a b l e to be w i t h o u t it . One

thing we can t do anymore Is to goout and get it our se lv es . We r e so

hygiene consc ious tha t most of us

w o u l d n t e v e n d r i n k o u t o f a

sprlngwater stream . We re

dependent fo r our water onsomeone who we rarely see. Wetrust him to have carefully puHfied

o u r w a te r which Is o u r m a in

necessi ty of life.

d e s u s of N a z a r e t h t a l k e d to a

woman whose soc ie ty said that sh^s h o u l d n o t t r u s t h i m . B u t h i s

complete knowledge of her life

c a u s e d h e r to l i s t e n t o h i m

c ar ef ul ly when he made a claimthat he could give her life-giving

w a t e r — a n d f r o m a s ou rc e n ev e r

jeopardised by strikes, drought,w ea r, o r malfunct ion .

Of course, he was t al ki ng abou t

a dif ferent kind of s u b s t a n c e b u t

something all of us n^ed in orderto have real life rather t he n Just

existence. If you re l ike thi s woman

(and most of us), you ll probablyiiave plenty of questions about how

t hi s supply can really link up with

you a nd whe th er it can be trusted— just like th ey ha d when that first

water b oa rd laid the fir st pipes. Soyou ll nee d to talk with someonewho is already linked up .

Bu t one thing is certain. When

you se e it, you ll recognise it as th ereal thing.



MEETINGS

YUK?

Many times af te r Christmas I find mos t peopl e

tend to fal l into a slump. The big rush is over.

After working hard on part ies , plays or programsof some kind, there is nothing to work towards.

Easter is too far away to make us busy. But Ihave se en h ere l i t t le sign of th e post-holidayslump. We ve no time to slack off. The partiesand programs are over, but there is s t i l l too muchto be done

had a meeting of church members in January

to discuss what to do about evangel ism, f inanceand th e building. The meeting was a vivid demonstra t ion of how God can draw Christ ian together

to work toward a conmon goal with love and unity.Since we have been ministering here we have

noticed evidence of bi t ter resentment, pridefulspir i ts and self ish desires. Unloving disagreements h av e occur red None of th i s was ev iden t in

the meeting. People li ste ne d to each other.Ideas were discussed unt i l they were e i ther ac

cepted or discarded by unanimous decision. Thed is cu ss ion o f finance showed a growing t rus t ofeach o the r

But as much as God was seen working in peopledur ing the meeting, it is s t i l l only a small

glimpse of how e is moving these people towarda more mature and meaning ful witness of God slove in th is coimunity.

RITA

WHAT DO WE DO

Ue would like to share with you our dilemmaabout our church building, especially as wewish for your prayers while we gather informa

t ion about i t s condition and expectancy. Theinformation already received i s not good. The

building has rising damp, dry rot , woo worm andage—all of which in varying degrees will destroy a building. One of our builders has saidthat our floor has 5-7 years before it collapses. The building i s functional although inno way is it adequate fo r th e church s needsespecially when grov/ th comes. The heating is

no t adequate and is expensive due to lack ofi n su l a t i o n

Does that give you a good idea of what weface? Our church meeting discussed these facts,along with others in trying to decide the future of our present building. The following

opti on s a re on the table:1 1} Raze and rebuild. Building regulationswould mean t h a t we would lose much i n t e r i o r

space—if they would allow us to build at al l

2 Resite. This is possible, bu t half-an-acre s e l l s for about 45,000.

3 Minor remodelling. must t reat woodworm, dry rot , etc. I t is possible to addclassrooms for Sunday School by creat ing a

second f loor i the founda t ions can withs tand

it

4 Major remodelling. Completely gut thei n s ide and rebu i ld from the foundations This

would allow for the second f loor . Costly, but

probably cheaper than resiting.The church needs to make a dec is ion soon.

And it needs to be a dec i s ion which wi l l re

f lec t good stewardship of w ha t God providesfor us . Your prayers will help us in thatma t t e r



HINCKLBY REPORT

funMary a pseudonymn) is a middle aged nurse

who, unknown to her f ri ends and acquaintances,was fil led with grief and seething with bitternessand hatred. One of our church members spoke toher about the joy of being a Christian and as aresult she began to attend services. Hearing

and reading God's Word convinced her tha t shemust t e l l me abou t he r s e l f . But she was af ra id

to do t She was convinced I would no t want

someone l ike her in my church.

The story was Ugly. Ugly because of what hadhappened to her and ugly because of what she hadbecome. Mary had been betrayed in th e most devious and hurtful way any wife c ou ld be deceived.

Five years ago she had discovered her husband

was having an affair--with her favorite s i s te r .

nd she discovered that the affair had been goingon for twelve of th e th i r ty years they had beenmarried. She had been total ly and cotrpletelydeceived. I cannot really explain how deeply she

was wounded, but I'm sure you can imagine. Fiveyears had done l i t t l e to alleviate the pain (timeis no t always a great healer).

Though she and her husband remained together,they were jus t two people living under the sameroof. Mary fe l t destroyed—and angry. She be

came very bi t te r . She took every opportunity topunish her husband; she threatened bodily harmto her sister . So the story was doubly ugly :ugly because of the deception Mary suffered; uglybecause she l ea rned to ha t e .

Mary was desperately looking fo r some joy.Her growing fai th convinced her that Jesus could

supply that joy. She longed to be accepted by im and His people. So she asked me i f someonewith an ugly story like that , with ugliness all

aroundher an d ins ide he r

couldbe

aChr i s t i an .

I don t think I v e ever had so much funi

As she began to ee that the Gospel was designed e sp ec ia ll y f or h er , the worry andfear began to leave her face. I thoroughly

enjoyed telling her that only sinners who

admit their sins ar e acceptable to God;that God was graci ous, a ccep ting the undeserving; that she was acceptable to theChurch of Christ because she was acceptableto C hris t ; tha t Jesus Chris t ha d died to take

away her sin and give he r the joy she longedfor. I had so much fun I could hardly s i tst ll in the cha i r to t e l l her

Mary prayed aloud in the presence ofanother person fo r the f i rs t time tha t day.

She confessed her own s in and asked God tohelp her forgive her s i s t e r and her husband.

are studying in th e Bible to find ou t

what she must do to complete what God hass tar ted in her l i f e . Her baptism is i imi-nen t . This i s funl

I must confess I don't always ge t thatexc i ted about Jesus an d His Good News.

That's a mark of my imperfect fai th. But

t h i s k ind of fun could become add i c t i ve

- - I hopeTONY

JVoie

I want to take this opportunity

to say Thank you to a ll those

back home--family, friends, and th e

churches t h a t I was able to v i s i t .

The time went so quickly that I didno t have a chance to t a l k wi t h

eve ryone a s I wou ld have l iked.

Thank you for your friendship,

generosity, and many prayers. I t

was hard to sa y Good-bye even

though I wanted to be back here inEngland.

Thank you again. God bless you

JANET BAINES



W E ST B RO M WIC H R E P O R T

West Midlands)

Pete

Jan B o w e n

a n d Gareth

E P I S T L E F RO M E NG LA N DNor thwes t C h r is t ia n C h u r ch

1700 Anthony Drive

Champaign, IL 61820

U . S . A .

AM E RJ CAN C O R R E S P O N D E N T S

Ti m N a nc y B a rb e r

60 3 C oa lle ton

Champaign. IL 61820

U . S . A .

PIUMBLINE PREPARATION

When God is wanting to do some

thing big in human h i s t o r y , it us u

ally takes a while to prepare Hispeople an d the s i t u a t i o n fo r His

actio n . F or e xa mp le , God was a t

work in Egypt an d in th e l i fe o f

Moses fo r many y e a r s preparing fo rthe Exodus. Moses spent forty years away from Egypt as od prepared himfo r h is task o f l e a d i n g I s r a e l to freedom.

Many Christians in B ri t ai n feel t h a t God is preparing for somethingbig in this n at i o n . Hi s desire is fo r people to be saved and the nation

as a whole need s to be turned around from i t s path of d estr u ctio n . InGod s preparation to move one thing He is concerned about is q u a l i t y .

The nation needs Christ but it does not need the lukewarm C h r i s t i a n i t y

tha t i s p a r t an d parcel o f so much o f the church h e r e . So God is a t workto p u ri fy an d to renew. God wants a church on f ire fo r him, a church tha t

is ready fo r Him.

here a t West Bromv/ich along with many o t h ers , are experiencing od sorting us out. In the Old Testament od showed mos a plumbline

and spoke of s e t t i n g the l in e ag ain st the house of I sr ael and then knocking down what was o u t o f l ine .

So od is setting a plumbline among us , revealing and knocking downwhat is crooked. Further, He is revealing i na de qu at e f ou n da ti on al work.

He wants to get us firmly founded in Christ so that He can build a peoplewho will glorify Him and a p eo ple t hr ou gh whom He can achieve His pu r

poses. The process is p ain fu l b u t our d es i re is to be His and to share

in H is w o r k .

T U N BR I DG E W E L LS M I NI S TR Y

c/oCarden Cottage,

S t o ne S t r ee t

Tonbridge Wella. Kent

TN I 2 Q T E n g la n d

HINCKLEY M I N I S T R Y

I Cheuhe r St ree t

Hinckiey. Leicestershire

LE 10 O A H E n gl a nd

E RDI NGT ON M INIST RY

M4 Gravelly LaneBirmingham 823 6LT

England

W E S T B R O M W I C H M I NI ST RY

i i O x fo rd R o a d

Weal Bro mwi ch .

W e s t M i d la n ds 8 7 0 8PE

England

C o

Hon P r o f i t Org.

U.S. PostagePAID

Pe m l t No . 28 6

ChMpaIgn 111.

h rlotte R a y

M i s s io n S e r v i c e s

B ox £ 4 2 7

K n o x v i l l e IN 379.





ERDINGTON REPORT

(Birmingham)

Roger MichilleEdrington

July, 1983

NO TURNIN G BA CK

It began with her husband Phil. Healways wanted something more In life; hewas one of those rare truth seekers . He

studied with the Jehovah 's Witnesses, was

the one white member at a black-led

Pentecostal Church; he even sold his houseand spent two months travelling In theUSA So when JEANNY (29) heard him

say, I've finally found what I'm lookingfor, her response was a to-the-point, Oh,

no Not again

Jenny went on a weekend away with our

chu rc h and found we were o rd inary peo

ple. She thought tha t she could never be as

good as we were {little did she know . . .),but our ordinariness surprised her andsomething happened inside.

A few months later, she became our

church cleaner—and a jolly good one at

that An old friend h ad c om e back Into her

life and she found that his antagonism

toward God, as hard as It was, prompted

her to find that she was beginning to be

lieve. As she cleaned one Saturday, shereal ised for the f irst t im e t ha t J e su s was a

real person and she began to talk withH im

Vol. 10 No. 10

A series of lovely events (Including her

delivered food being stolen of f her door

step and later the culprit returning ) andInformal teaching by Phil and others made

It cer ta in tha t she wanted to be a fol lower

of Jesus. She was already witness ing to

others, including her very hurt and hard-

ened-against-God dad before she was

baptised into Jesus.

As Jeanny stood dripping wet from the

baptismal waters and her own tears, manyothers were in tears singing, God forgavemy sin In Jesus' Name. I've been born

again In Jesus' Name . . . Freely,

freely

God has put His hand on Jeanny in such

a way that she'll never be t he s ame again.

Very calmly she says, I could never turnback now. I just don't see how people turn

back when they get to love Jesus.ROGER



HINCKLEY R E P O R T

Pete

Bowen

J a nBowen

J a n e t

B a i n e s

Tony

C alver i

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

Our summer camps. Many of us are

once again involved in these and we long tosee the young people come to know Christ

in a real and personal way and to trust Him

to make t hem into al l He int ended th em to

b e a t crea t ion

The teens in our church. Many are going

through difficult exams and studies andfacing difficult decisions about the future.

Dan and Amy Yarnell Angie Calverts

sister and brother-in-law. They have

arrived in England to begin ministry workwith a church in Birmimgham. They are indesperate need of a house. At present theyare living with Tony and Angle and com

muting several days a week.

DISCOVERING THE MYSTERY

OF FORGIVENESSIN THE COMMUNITY

Community is the place of forgiveness.

In spite of all the trust wemayhave in eachother there are always words that woundself-promoting attitudes situations wheresusceptibilities clash. That is why l v ntogether implies a certain cross a constanteffort an acceptance which is daily andmutual forgiveness.

If we come into community without

know n that the reason we come is todiscover

themystery

of forgiveness, wewill soon be disappointed.

POST OPERATIVE SHOCK?

I have never been seriously ill or Injured

to a point where I had to have surgery.However I know tha t a fter major surgery

such as an amputation, there is a long

period of therapy before there is totalr e c ove r y

During this period of recovery I imaginethe patient must face and deal with theconflicting emotions bewilderment Insecurity and must begin to face life with thehelp of family and of course the doctor.

Even the family will have to make somere-adjustments in their lifestyle and in

dealing with the problems a physicallydifferent you will have. But all mustwork and need the support of each other toachieve a normal and healthy lifestyle.

I think this is where we are at in Hin-

ckley. After the difficulties hurt conflicting emotions and pain we are now beginning to come out of our post operativeshock . We are beginning to come to terms

with the past and are moving into a periodof therapy to help us along. We have hadthe choice of just pretending the past

didn t exist and going on as though nothing happened but we know that wouldleave open wounds which make it impossible to get close to each other. We havedecided to risk instead. We are al l facing

doubts and pain in doing so there is some

st iffnes s and r ese rve but, there is underneath adesire for deep healing.

We long to see God at work. We long tos ee the church fully alive and a witness toshow just what God can and will do in our

lives today.

After all we ve been through we still

have a trust in the Physician and the

hope He gives us for the future.J N E T



PROBLEMS,PROBLEMS

PROBLEM ONE: Somebody arrives fora short time to work in a church and exper

ience the ministry in a foreign culture;

what is th e best and quici<est way to help

them to meet the people of the church?

PROBLEM TWO: The church members

tend not to spend much time togetherexcept for Sunday worship and a few other

scheduled activities. How can we get themto spend some time together in an informalsetting?

SOLUTION: Have a barbeque.

RESULT: Debbie Tice, after having

arr ived from the States for a summer in

ternship with us and another church got aquicl< introduction to the church members.She could later refer back to people she

h ad seen an d with whom she had t a lked.

And in the t ime Gail and I have been

here I do not remember any t ime when thechurch membe rs were so relaxed. Every

body seemed to enjoy just talking and fel-lowshlpping together. Of course, it was

also good to share the food, though a fewd id ea t an awfu l lot

RITA

A THOUSAND PARDONS

W e are not the masters of our own

feelings of attraction or revulsions, whichcome from the places in oursleves over

which we have little or no control. All we

can do Is try not to follow inclinationswhich make for barriers within the commu

nity. We have to hope that the Holy Spiritwill come to forgive, pur ify and trim therather twisted brandies of our being . Ou r

emotional makeup has grown from athousand fears and egoisms since our

infancy, as well as from signs of love andthe gift of God. It is a mixture of shadow

and light. And so it will not be straightened ou t in a day; this will take a thousand

purifications and pardons, daily efforts andabove all a gift of the Holy Spirit whichr enews us from within .

. f rom Jan Vanier .

Community and Growth.

Rita

Id e

Gall

Burns

Linda

Nordhie lm

Curl

Nordhie lm

GOING SOFTLY

You might remember reading in a pastEpistle that the parents of our SundaySchool children are not Christians. Theyjust send their children to Sunday Schoolbecause they think it the good thing todo .

You might have read In a January issueof Christianity Today an article on Life

style Evangelism . If you haven't, I wouldrecommend it.) It suggests fostering

freindshlps with non-Christians to chal

lenge them in a ore natural way with theclaims of Chris t .

In light of both above Rita and I decided

to invite three of the Sunday School mums

to our home for coffee one morning. Nothing heavy . . . just chatting, drinking

coffee, eating our way through a warmbundt cake and looking at some slides ofthe children the mums had not seen be

fore. It was very enjoyable and as we werein a relaxed atmosphere the mums did not

feel as if they were being lured into thespider's parlor.

Our des ir e is to show that we are nor

mal people, yet different in a splendidkind of way. We des ire to give and receive

friendships—whether Christian or not. Ifwe do not reach out into the world with our

lives and the loving concern Jesus givesus, what good is our clustered Sunday witness to a wary and weary world.

GAIL

PRAYER, PLEASE, FOR:

House-to-house survey being done this

summ r

Barbara and Hugh Jagelman who are fear

ful of talking about Christ.

Allen Stovell as he contemplates the re -dedicating of his life to Christ.




(West Midlands)

Pete

Jan Bowen

a nd Gar et h

THE NEED TO QUESTION

So much of what we do as human

beings, even as Christians,we do without

questioning or considering why we do it orwhether it is right. And of course, we

would never get anything done If every day

we questioned everyth ing. Shoutd I getup? Should I put on some shoes? Should Iwash? Should I clean my teeth? Some

things we do regularly out of habit and tha tis alright. We don't need to question themall th e t ime .

However as Christians, it is right thatwe do spend t ime questioning our lives tosee if the things we do really are th e things

that God wants us to do--whether we are

really moving with Him or whether we arejust doing our own thing.

How we spend our time, our money, howwe tr ea t tho se with whom we live or work,

EPISTLE FROM ENGLAND

Northwest Chri st ian Church

1700 Anthony DriveChampaign, IL 61820

U.S.A.


Tim Ntncy Btrtwr

60 3 Cut l e l on

Chtmpsign. IL 61820

U.S.A.


c/oGardcn ColUge.

Scone Str««l

Tunbridge Wells. Kent

TNI 2qT England

HINCKLEY MINISTRY

I Chessher Street

Hinckley, Lcicestmhirt

LE 10 OAH England

ERD INGTON MIN ISTRY

144 (iravetly LaneBirmingham 823 6LT

England

W E S T B RO M WI CH M I NI ST R Y

'25 Oxford Rotd

West Bromwich.

We « iM i dl am U B70 8P E

England

who we t reat t hose who are in need, whereour life is going. These and many more

things we need to regularly assess before

God so that we might be truly walking inH is will.

So often we find a s we ask quest ions tha twe are really doing what we want. Or we

may be doing what we've always done

even before we bec ame Christ ians. W e

may have never even considered that

God's way on this or th at was d if fe rent . O rwe may be doing something because that'sthe way our parents did it or because

that's what everyone in our society (even

our church) does.Sometimes as we questi on our lives inthe light of God and His word, we are quiteshocked. But it is better to question, be

shocked, and change to walk in God's willthan to drift merr il y on our way and then

when we face God to be shocked by the

words, Inever knew you.We need to question

PETE

P LEAS E NOTE :

Our next i ssue will be a combined August-September Epistle.

Roger Michelle Edrington are in theUSA from June 24 to August 21 . Friends

who wish to contact them may phone:816-699-3496 or 816-679-5698

fo r the i r whereabouts

Non Prof i t Org.

U.S. Postage

PAID

Permit No. 286

ChMpaIgn, 111.

Sha r l o t t e Hay

Mission Se rv i ce s

Box 2427KnoxviUe, 37901



Epistle from England A report from mimstries challenging a

post- Christian nation with t he c la im s of Christ.

J l J O

August/September 1983 Vol. 10 No. 11

T U N B R I D G E W E L L S R E P O R T

K e nt )

lL*n o rifKll

L i n d a N o r d h i e l mCur t N o rd h i e l mi

D o n e i t a N o r d h i e l m

Ga il B u r n s

R ita Id e

A D R ES S R E H E A R S A L F O R T H E L A S T

C H A N C E T O W I T N E S S

Paul not hi s real name) is a very quiet

and t hought ful man. He is much respected

by his fellow Christians fo r hi s faith and

depth of spiritual life.

I too, respect him and dearly love him,

but i always had an uneasy feeling that hi s

o utw ard sh ow of religion often did no t

touch hi s inner being. That t he or y w as pu t

to the test not long ago.

The phone rang e arly o ne morning and

the lady on the o th e r en d said t hat Paul

was in some type of physical trouble; couldI c o m e quickly.

Upon arriving at Paul s house I found

h im in bed a n d in a ter r ible swe a t I a ske d

hi m what w as w ron g to which he gave no

response. His lips w e r e , h ow e ve r, m o vi ngand I finally realized th at h e was pr ayi ng.

I left th e house to find the lady who had

phoned m e and s h e said th e doctor had just

been and that s h e w as going to call an

a m b u l a n c e W h e n I told P a u l tha t a n

ambulance was com ing his p ra ye r e nd ed

immediately and he said he would havenothing to do with that. He t ri ed t o get out

of bed but his physical condition w as su chthat he c ou ld n ot lift his head v er y h ig h. Bythis time a n ot he r m e m b er of th e c h u r c h , a

n ur se , h ad a rr iv ed . Toget her w e were able

t o c on vi nc e him to rem ain quiet and rest.

H e r e tu rn e d to his prayer.

The hospital ran four h o u r s of tests, but

could find n ot hi ng w ro ng . They sent hi m

hom e, but a s k e d m e to c he c k on him a

couple of t im e s d ur in g th e remaining partof the day.

By the next morning Paul was feeling

much b et te r, b ut was still a long w ay from

being hi s old self. He did, however, want

to talk. During our talk I learned that hi s

prayer the day b e fo re w a s a plea fo r God toforgive hi s sins. He w as a fr ai d of dying and

ju d g e m e n t.

Wh y , we w ould ask, is a m an w ho

appears to be spiritually deep s o a fr ai d ofdeath a nd m ee tin g God? A partial answer

to that question came a fe w days later.

I went by Paul s h ou se ju st to check onhi m he does no t have a phone so I usuallymade th e journey once a d ay ) w he n he told

m e that I did not need to come any more.

He clearly had no t fully recovered.) WhenI told h im t ha t w e wer e c onc e r ne d a b o u t

hi m and we had a b r oth er ly r e sp o ns ibility

to hi m he opened his hear t and began to

pour out his feelings about th e church.

W h e n he w as a t eenager his s t ep- mot her

died leaving him an d hi s step-father interrible financial straits. D es pi te m a ny ofth e church member s being quite wealthy

no o ne offered a ny a ss is ta n ce . H e decidedr ig h t t he n and there he wa going to make itin the w or ld o n h i s o w n. This a t t i tude of

rugged individualism then sw ep t th rou gh

his entire life. He created a legalistic

f r a m e wor k f o r h is ow n s al va ti on A n d t o

r e ce iv e h e lp during a time of trouble from

another Chri st ian was out of th e question.

He was going to make it on his own. And

using th e world s s t andar d h e h as m ad e it.When I told him that bearing one

a no th er s b ur de ns w as ju st as Biblical as

believers baptism he becam e upset. An y

Q ^ ^tkuIeL oi ba



H I N C K L E Y R E P O R T

(Leicestershire)

Tony Angela Calvert

Just in Gillian

DIFFICULT BUT NECESSARY

Every missionary and min is te r has to ask him

self, Am Ithe r ight leader for this church at this

t ime? Effective and fruitful min is tr y c an con

tinue as long as th e answer is affirmative. But

Vi/hen any servant of the Christ and th e Church

honestly believes that he or she is no t th e best

person to meet the Church's needs, that minister

should s tand a si de fo r someone e lse . In the past

few mon th s Angle and I have gone through the

agonies of making a very difficult and painfuldecis ion. W e h a v e decided t h at t he t im e h a s come

for us to finish ou r ministry in Hinckley and

return to the S ta te s. We will return t o I nd ia napo

lis on August 31, and after a few months with the

East 38th Street Chris t ian Church , I will be pre

paring for future ministry by entering a Master

of Divinity program in a Restoration seminary.

Angle and I feel a great debt to everyone who

has supported us with prayer and money. TheEast 38th Street Christ ian Church in Indianapolis

a n d t h e Bluff C re ek Ch ris ti an Chur ch in Green

wood. Indiana h av e b ee n ex tr emely faithful in

supporting us. There are so many individuals who

have helped that I can't mention them all. We

give our heart-felt thanks to all of you. Words are

inadequate to express our appreciation, but

they 're ail I've got

Please pray for the Church here at Hinckley as

it changes from one minis te r to another. Andplease pray for our family, as we change from one

country to another

Many thanks to all who have served us as we

have attempted to serve Christ. May God bless

you all

TONY

IS IT ANY WONDER?

I began a series of Bible s tudies and di s

cuss ions with Frank and Kay Snell after renewing

contact with them through door-to-door calling.

Their son had attended our Sunday School and afew years ago Pete Bowen had met with them to

discuss the Christian faith. It didn't take l ong tose e that Kay was an a ng ry unbeliever. I had the

dist inct impression that had she believed God was

there, she would like to have liked t o punch him in

the nose. One evening we talked about two events

that helped make her so angry at God. Both

involved school teachers who professed to be

C h r i s t i a n s

Kay recalled an experience in her early years atschool. During a religious lesson, the children

were asked to explain how man originated. Theteacher obviously expected the children to

respond, God created man. But Kay didn't

respond that way - she said people happened

like mold on strawberry jam . To her young (and

unconventional) mind it was a very myster ious

thing, no t to be explained in a pat religious

answer. Her teachers r esponse was to call her to

the front, administer punishment (slaps on the

palm wit h a tennis shoe), and make her repeat

several times, God created people .

Later in her school experience Kay ha d a

teacher who used the Bible as a tool fo r punish

ment. When a student needed discipline the

t eacher made them get thei r Bibles out and copy

passages of Scripture over and over again -s o m e t i m e s for m o r e t h a n a n h o u r T he n t h e

offenders were r equi red to file past the wastebasket, tear up the sheaves of p ap er , a nd r etu rn

to their desks. I ga thered that Kay was often on

that teacher 's black lis t, so she spent a lot of t ime

mindlessly copying Scritpure verse s. She learned

from that teacher that God's Word was something

t o b e l o a t h e d

Is it any wonder Kay hates God? I ts clear she is

responsible for he r own dec is ion to rebe l against

her C re at or . H er hatred fo r God is sin, and s h e

is u nd er G od s w r a t h b e c a u s e of it . B u t a t l e a s t

two professing Christians stoked the flames of her

anger by their unloving and clumsy attempts at

discipline. I doubt if Kay is the only on e who has

something to answ er for. It makes me wonder

what my actions make people think about God

T O N Y

(Anyone wishing t o contact the Calverts in the

w United States should write in care of t h e Eas t 38th w

* Street Christian Church, 6 9 East 38th Street,Indianapolis, IN.46226)



A CALL TO PRAYER

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against theauthorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces ofevil in the heavenly realms.

Howeasily we forget this truth because our eyes do not see these evil powers. YetGod s word clearly shows us that they exist and tha t we as His church are involved inconflict with them

In the light of this truth God has been showing us our need for deeper prayer toattain the breakthrough we long for In seeing the West Bromwich Church move forward. Whateve r el se we might do in other ways - if the Lord does not build the

house, its builders labor in vain.

Satan s grip on the area is strong but the Lord reigns and says to us ask and youwill receive. Please join us in praying that the Lord will add to His church here and

that those who are His will grow deeper in their walk with Him becoming increasingly fruitful in His service.

PETE

Pete, Jan, Gareth, and avid will be in Canada and the nited States during September and October. For contact from September 15th - Telephone: 918-682-3812.


(West Midlands)

Pe t e &

J an Bowen

and Gare th

ERDINGTON REPORT

(Birmingham)

Roger & MichilleEdrington

EXPERIENCE-HUMAN & SPIRITUAL

He had known something of Christianity before—through his wife and otherChristians—but only lately had DAVE FRETTINGHAM (33) begun to put together

the last four years. Since Christianity is very much about experiencing God as well asbelieving Him, Dave spoke at his recent baptism about three important experiences

o f G od

Firstly was his experience on the road to Bradford. As he was driving, he was hitby an incredible experience of the peace of God. Secondly, his experience of thechurch In South Africa where he went for a vacation to look at the country where he

was born. Dave is a social worker and hi s sense of God s justice and help fo r theoppressed was heightened by his first hand sight of apartheid. Thirdly, the fellowship of our church. He had mainly experienced this through our mid-week Share 'n

Care, where he had been moved by the reality of movement of God among us.In the week following his baptism, Dave said that he felt very human and not very

spiritual. Now he sees that he needs to get down to a systematic study of God s wordand to see how God would so rt out some of the relationships important to his life.God works in those human a re as a s well .

ROGER



?

talk of anyone helping him was very threat

ening to his individualism.

No wonder, when he was on what hemust have thought was hi s death bed, he

was pleading for forgiveness. He was hop

ing to achieve it by himself through longand pious prayers.

As I reflected on this tragic event itcalled to mind th e thoughts of John WhiteIn his book Daring to Draw Near. He

makes the point in relat ion to death that

w e h av e a cho ice on how w e will d ie Ei the rwe can be dragged off stage begrudgingly,

shaking our fist and fearful of what lies

ahead or by giving glory to God for provid

ing us withasure salvation.

Paul, even though it was a dress rehear

sal, was being dragged off stage and

because of that his witness was lost and

perhaps it made a mockery of everything

he had ever said about the grace of Jesus.Fur the r ref lect ion made me wonde r

about my death. How would I choose to

die? Can I say with another Paul For me

to live is Christ, to die is gain ?CURT

EPISTLE FROM ENGLANDNorthwest Chris t ian Church

1700 Anthony Drive

Champaign, IL 61820U.S.A.

AMERJCAN CORRESPONDENTS

Tim & Nancy Barber

€0 3 Cutl tcon

Chitnptign, IL 61820

U-S-A.

TUNBRIDCE WELLS MINISTRY

c/o<i<rdcn Colltie,

Slon< S t rMl

Tunbridgc Welli, Ktnl

TN I 2QT En f land

HINCKLEY MINISTRY

1 Chnche r St ree t

Kinckley, Lcicnterehire

LE 10OAK England

ERDINGTON MINISTRY

144 (jravtlly LaiMBirmingham 823 6LT

EnjUnd

WEST B R OMWIC H MIN ISTR Y

25 Ox ford Ro ad

Wnt Bromwich.

W n t Midlanda B7 0 8P E

Enfland

ANOTHER STRANGE ANSWER

After five years of door-to-door callingyou would think you had heard every

answer possible. The following answer Icould never have predicted.

When I asked a middle-aged woman ifshe would be interested in some type ofserious discussion about Christianity shewaved her hand an d said no. But then she

continued: If you ever want to sell yourbuilding let me know. I want to buy i t.

Not only did thiscome

asa

shock tome(someone really wants to buy our building)

but it presented a whole new problem. Uptill then the church was only going to refur

bish the inside because we didn ' t think we

would be able to ge t a good price for thebui lding. But, this little event made us

th ink again .

We had the bui lding valued the other

day at about 27,000. Unfortunately thatwill not buy us much land nor a very large

building, but it at least telis us t ha t thoseIn the bus iness th ink it will sell

CURT

h rlotte Hay

M i ss io n ervices

Box £427

Knoxv i l l e TN 379.

Hon Profi t Org.U.S. Postage

PAIO

P e n l t Ko. 28 6

Chaapalgn, 111.



Epistle from England A r epor t f rom minis tr ies challenging a


P O^ o

CkTunS K f f i S Vol.// fo f

A D EC DE O F T H E L O R D S PROVISION

Some things have changed greatly since five single people s et ou t on a mission in1973 with an average annual salary of 3,366. It cost 2.44then to buy a British pound

sterling compared with our lowest ever annyal average of 1.61 this year to purchase

usable currency. The rate of exchange has tes ted our faith and increased our thankfulness through its many fluxuations.

When we wen t to our local chippie in 1973, we paid .50for more fish and chips than

we could eat out of its newspaper wrappings. We now pay about 1.30 for a similar por

tion. In early 1974, we exhorted you to stop complaining about gasoline prices because

ours were over 1 pe r US gallon. A year later , gasol ine had jumped 50 to 1.49 with

inflation roaring at 27 . The better exchange rate now disguises the 450 decade increase of gasoline (and all these prices) to th e present 2.37per US gallon.

Of course, th e price of gasoline in those early days was no t as important to us as th e

price of bus fares and shoe leather. Some of us still rely on th e pretty good public transportation system available in most parts of Britain. The highest car prices in Europe and

a 130annual ca r licensing fee (whether Rolls or banger) added to gasoline's cost makeus rather more careful in using cars than our American counterparts. Only 45 ofhouseholds in th e city of Birmingham own a car.)

With th e UK inflation rate down to around 5 now, a good exchange rate, and ou r

incomes mainly up over las t year, it has been a pretty good financial year for mos t o f us.The figures on th e back page still show quite a variation in provision for which one never

knows how to account. Imight surmise t ha t the variations reveal responsibility levels ofsupporting churches, our own abilities to inspire confidence, and perhaps a bias toward

married couples. (Our churches have ye t to truly encourage the celibate or unmarriedministry while other traditions have yet to encourage the married minis t ry . ) On our e nd ,

they provoke the need to share resources for survival and the British churches ' desire tohelp some in financial difficulties-quite helpful things really.

Amidst a changing economic world, some things are cons tan t. We are certain that th e

Lord has kept His promise to provide all ou r needs-and more. In t en years , these pageshave never requested money and n eve r int end to. Most of us have determined not to

reques t money from anyone bu t God. And when you give, we give Him the major thanks

and you, thanks for listening to Him. There is no credi t to either of us. We have become

partners in God's service and need no praise from each other-only thanksl In every

a re a t ha t we know, we've denounced decep tion o r cunning methods t o induce your

giving. Our records are open to anyone who wants to see more.

W e are no t super-servants. All of us are very aware of our failures in mission and

ministry. I shou ld think al l of us have felt that at t imes we have wasted your money or

beeninadequate fo r th e confidence you've placed

inus .

We probably won't get rich from the money you send us. But we are grateful fo r the

richness of our experience of living in another culture—where God must be found and

communicated. In that way, we are very fortunate indeed. God has shaped our lives insuch a way that we cannot but give Him thanks.

We close our ledgers now for another year, remembering to give thanks to th e Godwho cares fo r twelve Americans in Britain through you.

ROGER EDRINGTON



WHY DO THEY LEAVE?

Being involved in both the 10-13year oid camp & the Teen camp (14-18year olds) is just plain tiring-not tomention being extremely wearing onthe throat and voice box. But it Is also agood time There's a chance to playgames and do dumb things you couldnever get aw/ay w/ith back at home.

The re a re classes and discussions in avery relaxed atmosphere—and if youreally listen you w ll hear the samebasic things from both age groups:

Why does God let awful things happen? and Why are church membersso stuck in their traditions? Loaded

questions.

With both these questions came thecomplaint that they could not get theadult church members to listen to them

as they asked questions or made suggestions. The passage from Colossians3.21 about parents not irritating theirchildren lest they become discouraged

came to my mind several times during

these two camps. There were 32

campers In the 10-13 year old campbut only 13 In the Teen camp. Realizing there are many reasons why kidsdrop out of Sunday School, clubs andchurch, I wonder just how many

dropped out due to discouragement.

Not being able to take the indifferencethey felt, they just decided not to

bother anymore-anyway, where wasthe joy which was supposed to be apart ofChristians gathering together?

Through these years, emotions tend

to rule pre-teen and teen thoughtsmore than logic. They need thoughtful,tender care if they are to be nourished

and helped to grow into members andstrong leaders of Christ's Church.

Anyway, that's what I learned fromcamps this summer. Now I only praythat 1 retain what I've l earned and gain

wisdom from it .

IL

Not only did the campers throw waterat the staff, but, alas, the staff threw

w ater at the staff Here Shawn Machin

of Hinckley Church of Christ emptysthe mop bucket on mel Yuckl

Some of the campers and staff at thecampfire.

O



\MP 1983EPORT

ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE DORM

Camp memories probably are thegreatest indication of what really gotthrough to the campers. I must be honest - when I was a camper the biggest

memories were the jokes, the funny

sketches, the pranks, the camp ro

mances - and the campfire times. t isonly as I got older that I saw deeperbenefits from the classes and dis

cuss ions tha t w e n t on

Well, ask any camper here about thebits they enjoyed most and it would bethe water balloon and squ ir t gun -cum-buckets-of-water fights; the funny

sketches and seeing the staff doing

daft silly) things; the pranks - eventhose which misfired {or perhapsespecially those which did misfire );the camp romances and crushes on theteen-age staff members; and the camp-f i re t i m e s

That last quiet event of the eveningis sitting around a roaring or not so

roaring ) fire. Singing songs somehowsets an atmosphere which make us feelcloser to each other and more open to

listening to someone sharing the truthsof God. We allow light to shine onour darkness. We want to keep thatwarmth and good feeling, that glimpse

of God all the back do the dorm.However, back at the dorm the mood

rapidly changes and chaos reigns andfor the while it will be the fun times ofthe camp that will be remembered.

J NET

NOT AGAIN

Whenever I am asked to help at the

summer camps I always dread it. Thelate nights, sleepless nights, keeping adozen or more teens under control

makes me wonder why I ever said Iwould help.

However, once camp starts (thoughthere are still the sleepless nights) andI see young people wrestling with God,I become excited. There is nothing

which brings more joy to me than seeing the reality of God descend uponsomeone. It happened again this year.

But, as I see these young peoplegrow in their understanding of God Iface another fear. Since there are so

few teens who have made any type ofcommittment to God, fellowship for

those who have is almost non-existent.

And when that is combined with thegap which exists between the teensand the older generation Christians inthe local church (as Gail implied in her

article), it becomes very serious. I hurtfor these people trying to follow Christin a difficult si tuat ion

And yet, follow Jesus they do. Oh,they are not perfect saints are any ofus?) and they still have much to learn.

But their searching, hungering forrighteousness was very encouraging.

It was just a couple of days aftercamp when I heard that one of theyoung men was considering the ministry. When you stop to realise that veryfew Churches of Christ here can sup

port their own ministers, you see whatfaith that is. I am sure that God willhonor fai th of tha t nature

Next year, if I am asked to help at

camp, I wilt dread it. But once againGod will show me that He is bigger

than the s itua tion we find ourselves in .C U R T



EVANGELISM S IMPLER

LIFESTYLE

by Gladys M. Hunt

THE MONEY YOU GAVE

Fiscal Yea r

September 1982 to August 1983

We can fund a g reat a rmy of thosewho will preach the good news. Why Isthe church of Jesus Christ allowingyoung people to Itinerate the length

and breadth of the land with a tin cup,

as it were, pleading for support to allowthem th e privilege of going to share themessage? They have been trained;they are ready to go. What delays theirgoing? They have not raised their support. Why isn't the church out looking

for those who will go, ready with funds,

already having prayed that the Lordwould s end for th l abo re r s ?

(in Living More Simply edited byRonald J. Sider)

Curt, Linda Donnetta Nordheilm willbe In the USA from 10 October to 30

November. Friends or anyone wishingto con tact them may ring: 309-444-2113o r 219-762-2567.

RECEIPTS

Erdington

Roger MichelleEdrlngton

Tunbridge Wells

Gail Burns

R ita I de

Curt Linda Nordhielm

Wes t Bromwich

Pete Jan Bowen

Gift

HInckley

Jane t Baines

USATEAM FUND (EPISTLE)

Balance September 1,1982Receipts 1,051.73

Expenses 968.84Balance August 31,1983

15,280

6,275

5,598

17,546

13,500

1,300

7,490

622.46

705.35

EPISTLE FROM ENGLANDNorthwest Chr is ti an Church

1700 Anthony Drive



c/oGsrdtn Cottage.

S i on * S t re «

Tunbridge Wells. Kent

TN I 2Q T England

HINCKLEY MINISTRY

1 Che tahe r S t r e et

Hinckley. Leicestershire

LE 10 OAH England

Non Profit Org.U.S. Postaoe

PAID

P«ni1t Ko . 28 6

ChMpaIgn, 111.


Tim Nancy Barb«r

603 Cu> l l s (on

Chimpaifn, IL 61B20

U.S.A.

/

ERDINGTON MINISTRY

144 Gravelly Lane

Birmingham B236LTEngland

WEST ROMWI H MINISTRY^ RSy 5 Oxford Road Miss loH S e r v i c s sWest Bromwich.

West Midlands B7 P BOX

• Knoxv l l l e , IN 3 7 9 v l

E 2 0J l OC



Epistle from England A report f rom minis tr ies challenging a


E R D I N G T O N R E P O R T

(Birmingham)

Roger Michille

Edrington

November 1983 Vol. II . No. 2

/ have read far too many church newsletters inthe USA whose minister s columns and cute car

toons incessantly speak of attendance. Attendance, attendance, attendance until it is comingthrough my eyeballs andoutmy ears. As one whohad a nineteen year perfect attendance pin when/ was twenty-one, / speak as an authority.

And yet, meeting together can be a problem. /recently succumbed and wrote this article for our

monthly newsletter/ Shalom , but please notethat it is in th e larger context of THE WHOLE.

When a baby is formed, it is from two cells. These cells divide and subdivide and add on new cells

which eventually become other parts of the body. The body continues to reproduce itself until the

day it dies. And it always functions-no matter how tiny or large--as a whole body. The parts ar e not

capable of functioning in isolation.

This is also true in the church. The church is one organism and must function as a whole. The

church is not th e leaders gathering together, it is not a few people relating deeply to one another. Itis not th e acts of service or evangelism which we do. THE CHURCH ISTHE WHOLE.

Sometimes I hear people talking as if they can be committed to a few individuals and that is their

commitment to the church. Actually, that is commitment to a few of the parts-the healing, serving,

caring for a few that is absolutely essential-but is only of utmost value as it relates to th e whole.Our acts and individual commitments probably will be of great aid to the whole, but may, in fact,

work agains t the goals of the whole.

For example, my stomach almost always wants the comfort and care which feeding brings. But tolisten to its exaggerated needs is to make my body big and sluggish so that is doesn t work verywell. However, if my stomach would get his needs in touch with the goals of the whole, I would be amuch more comfortable and able person.

The whole is very difficult to work out in th e practice of th e church because the par ts of a church--

us—sometimes seem to work easier in isolation or smaller groups , where the whole is forgotten or

reduced to those who see like t do . Eventually, the direction of the whole gets lost. The individualt rees are so c lose that they blur our vision of the forest.

We need to step back to s ee t he whole.

The very practical and observable expressions of the whole are our Sunday morning meetings

with various sub-whole meetings like Share n Care, Bible Study, Ladies Meeting , etc . Many ofus seem to be neglecting the Sunday morning Whole Meetings lately-perhaps for a variety ofre sons

I think that we are all aware, however, that we don t feel a ll together there when people do not

come to that expression of communion/worship/prayer/teaching. And that begins that downward

spiral of others thinking that it is not really important either. And so, some come one Sunday andothers come another. The whole is never together. You know the rest

Some might say, If th e service was better, people would come all the time. There is some truth

in that, but what each of means by better is different. We shall have to sacrifice a number of our

personal preferences, even spiritual preferences for t he sake of the whole. But even better, if we

can ge t real participation of th e parts into th e whole, we shall t ru ly have a situation where THE

W H O L E IS G RE TER TH N T HE SUM OF TH E PARTS .



TUNBRIDGE WELLS REPORT

(Kent)Let s do a comparison: between teen-

agers of Britain and teenagers of the

t tes in reg rd to their rel tionship nd y nda^ordhielWhere do they fit in What kind of « Curt Nordhieln

help do they find? Where are their • Donetta Nordhifriends What encouragement do they jR Gail Burnsreceive? What are some of the social fac Rita Ide

to rs w hic h a ffe ct t h e i r invo lvement

church? There will be difficulty due to

c u l t u ra l d i f fe r e n c e s B u t I w i s h to s h o w a

problem wich we have that you might nothave recognized in your church.

in a church as small as ours th e problems are magnified making them eas ie r to s ee. Our te en

agers come from non-Christian families so they very seldom find encouragement from parents tocont inue to learn of God. They receive no or very little teaching at home. Their fr iends are non-

Christ ians. Because it is so small, the church has no companions for them within the church.

Their non-Christian friends go to the pubs and walk the streets looking for the opposite sex. And

at this age getting to know the other sex is an important relationship building process, ft is hard

going on their own.

The generation gap is evident. The older people who have been in the church for a long time

don t know how to relate to these non-Christian teenagers who don t understand them either.

The older ones have forgotten or never knew these problems. They try to put th e young people

into a pre-set mold. The teenagers say Why? Why must we do this or that to be part of th e

church? It is hard for the youth to see much relevance in the church to the problems they see.

How is it with your church? Most of your young people come

from Christian families. They may get teaching at home receive

encouragement to go to church. It is usual ly big enough that they

have several of their own age group with whom to relate and share.

They can have fun with Christian friends, which relieves some of

need for non-Christ ian influence. They can build their relation-ships within the church instead of on th e street. Since they grow upin th e Christian atmosphere, they have less change to make to fitthat mold which has developed in the older members. The teen-

agers also have comfort in numbers to give them support in their

This Is by know means an in-depth comparison. And in reference

to th e churches in th e States, it can only be a general ity. But even

with this , le t me ask some quest ions. Do you have so mahy Christ-

Ian families and teenagers to mix together that you forget thosenon-Chris tians who are without Chris tian partents to encourage

them? Do they get lost in the crowd of unreachables because it is sohard to Integrate them? Do they have to fit a mold to belong? Dothey find their questions answered in th e church? Do those not

raised within a Christian atmosphere find it impossible to relate tothose who have known nothing but a Christian atmosphere? Just abit of food for thought.

RIT

P.S. What brought this on? We have jus t started a new teens study

group for ou r four young peoplel



When you are running a race it s good, tohave a goal-either immediate (the 500 yarddash finishing line), long range (training forthe London marathon), or a constant challenge

(getting upat 6 a.m. to jogso the flab doesn t

catch up with you). Ifthere is not a goal, thenthe heart goes right put of the race.I could make any number of great obser

vations from this, however, I only want to

relate one significant happening in the churchwhich took place in the middle of September:The Church Goal Meeting.

Last year we set goals for all areas of thechurch program. Thisyear wewanted to evaluate and reset last year s goals i.e., to see whathad changed and what needs to be changed.The goals for children s clubs, Bible studies,and workingwith contacts were reached. Thegoals for SundaySchool the Ladies meeting,and organizing committees weren t quitereached. Andother goals just were not applic-able-because God chose to work in a com

pletely different way from what we had inmind l

This year we set goals In most of the sameareas as last year, but we also added a few,some of which wi|l be difficult to meet. But weneed goals. We need to have something to setour sites on rather than the nebulous: Helpthe church grow.

On thewhole, everyone had the general attitudeofwanting the goals and seeding growth.At the same t ime, around the fringes of th e

desiring growth were volatile feelingstowards change. Change within a firmly established wayofdoing things or inmost cases, ofnot doing things, almost always causes discomfort and unease. Yet, goals were seen asneeded by thewhole church membership.

And so at th e end of th e day, when discuss

ions were finished, the closing chorus of theservice of commitment was sung , the lunchcontainers washed and ready to go home,

there were goals set and offering their challenge. We have goals that have an immediateeffect (establishing clubs, visiting parents, re-juvinating the Sisters Committee); we havegoals that are long range Bible studies withcontacts, making new contacts, building upmemberships in clubs, ladies meetings andSunday School, and begin a church buildingfund); and we made goals to keep us from get

ting flabby and unable to hear what God is saying to us (Church Biblestudies, fellowshippingwith other churches, church socials and be

coming better known in Tunbridge Wells in

a £

tU c

general).The heartwill no t go out of our race because

we know th e race to be more than worth i t~and

oh, the prize for finishing IGAIL

(Erdington continued)

Our problem, o f cou rs e, is a common one

that had origins very early in th e church ofJesus Christ. The writer o f H ebrews e nc ou r

aged those who are giving up the whole

habit : Let us not give up meeting togetheras some are in th e habit of doing, but let usencou rage one another-and all the more as

you see the day approaching. (10.25)Some of us perhaps have a fear of legalism,

so we don t want to say too much. But If we

follow th e biblical precedent when others are

beginning to neglect the meetings of thewhole, we can with confidence encourage one

another. I think that we will besurprised

whatGod will do in our meetings when we are thereregularly as a WHOLE family.

ROGER

TO BE OR NOT TO BE A HYPOCRITE



J.B., I'm so bad. Jonathan Payne 18 wasworried about being baptized and then failing. don't want to be a hypocrite.J on at ha n h ad a realistic view of his w eak

ness, hi s sin, hi s need fo r God. What was no tin perspective was the grace of God and justwhat is really hypocrisy.

I talked to Jonathan, who had been goingthrough studies with our previous minister,Tony Calvert, for quite some time, telling himas long as he recognized his sin in the light ofhis need for God, he would never be a hypocri te. A hypocrite is self-righteous, his 'religion' is all mapped out, hi s 'God' is in a box.

He must work and strive and at all costs hemust never let himself look inwardly and befaced with his s ins, weaknesses, and failuresbecause then he would have to admit that he

can never earn God 's app rova l. He wou ld have

to let go of his religion and begin developing arelationship with God. I pointed out th e Pharisees of Jesus day - their religion was flawless,but their self-righteousness meant they hatedJesus a nd wha t he s ai d.

Then I sh ow ed J on ath an

what Paul ahd to say in Romans 6, 7, & 8. All about dying and no longer being amember of Satan's party,

about grace and the struggle

betw een our flesh and our

spirit and about the forgiveness and life in Jesus .

Jona than unders tood hecould go to God with all of himself and kno\*'that God had already provided for his need

through Jesus. Jonathan was baptised at ourWednesday evening church fellowship-whatbetter reason to gather togetherWe have a lovely, humble new brotherl

J ANET

EPISTLE FROM ENGLAND

Nor t hwe s t Ch r is t ia n Chu r ch

1700 Anthony Drive


AMERICAN COHnESPONDENTS

Tim & Nsncv Ba rbe r

60 3 Castleton

Chsmpaisn. IL61820U.S.A.


13 St . James Park

TunbridgeWells, KentTN 1 2L G

England

HINCKLEY MINISTRY

49 Cl a r endon Road

Hinckley , Leics ,

LE10 0PJ

England

EFtDINGTON MINISTRY

144 Gravelly Larte

Erdington, Birminghain

B236LT

England

WESTBROMWICH

2 5 O x fo rd R o ad

West Bromwich, Wes t M i d la n ds

87 0 BPE

England

HINCKLEY

J ane t Baines

TO SERVE OR NOT TO SERVE

Since Tony left, we have depended heavilyon guest ministers to fill th e gaps he left.

When plans were being made for the bapt ism, we contacted Bob Hartman from nearbyLeicester. First we had it planned for the Sun

day, but at the last minute Bob was unabl e t o

get away from church. So we planned It for theWednesday fellowship. Wednesday morningwe heard that Bob was very ill with flu and

cou l dn ' t mak e it .

I sa t down and thought about the people Inour church. We had a few of Jonathan's mates(friends) involved in th e service, but who couldbaptise him? That's when I thought of EddiePayne (no relation to Jonathanl) Ed has been amember of our church for a few years, alongwith his wife Jane. He is a quiet, humorous,and gentle man, bu t not a public speaker. I

rang him up and said, If 1do the talking, willyou do the baptizing? He said, Well, whynot A nd h e d id .

It awakened me to th e fact that we h av e t o

be aware of areas where each of us can s er ve .

We s ee the areas and let God fill them where

and how He will-minister or no minister

JANET

Non Pro f i t Org.U.S. Posta9e

PAID

Pe r a l t No .

Chmpslgn, Ml.

Sh a r l o l t e Ray

issijn ervices

Box 2 4 2 7

Kn jxv l I I e , IN 379s^i




post- Christian nation with th e claims of Christ.

DECEMBER 1983 VOL. 11 NO. 3

THE BABY ISTHE PROOF

This day in David's town your Saviour wasborn - Christ the Lord What will prove it to

you is this: You will find a baby wrapped inclothes and lying in a manger. Luke 2:11-12

He came down to earth from Heaven,

Who is G od and Lord of all.

Veiled in f lesh the God head see

Hail th e Incarnate Deityl

He is Alph and OmegaHe the source, th e ending He.

Carols of ten make very clear uncompromis

ing claims for th e Baby of Bethlehem. Noidentity problem exists for the writers of carols

as they seek to identify the baby Jesus.

He is God and Lord o f al l

He is the Godhead

He is Incarnate DeityHe is Alpha and OmegaHe is the source, the ending He.He is the King of all CreationHe is t h e make r of the ear th and sea become a

little ch il d f or me

The claims made in the carols are no greaterthan t ho se made in the Bible and in the creeds.

The Bible wi tne ss es t o Him who is the Wordby whom all things are made. He is the waterof life, th e breath of life, th e resurrection and

the life. He is the way the truth, the l igh t ofthe world. Through Him a new creat ion iscoming into being: a new Heaven and a new

earth. The Son of God, the Son of Man is atwork in cosmic rene wa l. He will b ri ng an end

of weeping and warfare . He will introduce the

Peace which passeth all understanding andwill g iv e u s life fo r evermore.

These are great claims: none could be

greater fo r they claim that he is the Lord

Almighty. But then the inevitable: And is itt rue? And is it true? This most t remendous

tale of all? We Inevitably ask, is it true?

It is no t true if you assess the claims with the

words a nd ways of men . If you begin with the

human end with humanity no t divinity.Anthropological confidence does no t lead to

theological certainity. How c an h uman sc ale s

weigh God? And how can our foot-rules

measu r e th e Ruler o f All?

We live in a world turned in on itself and

therefore in darkness : a darkness all the more

intense because it is seen as enlightenment.

How can this darkness illuminate a Heavenly

light? We live in a wolrd whe re o ur wisdom,

not our insanity or evil, p lans tot al dest ruc ti on

in order to preserve Peace. How can this

wisdom validate the Prince of Peace who

passeth all understanding? Can impurity testpu ri ty ? Can injustice measure justice? andunt ruth t ruth?

Light can expect no support from darkness.

Darkness cannot prove light; its whole natureis to overcome the light. The light can only

shine in the darkness. It is its own and only

proof.

This very day in Dav id s town your Saviourwas born - Christ the LordI What will prove itto you is this: You will find a bab y wrapped inclothes and lying in a manger .

A baby in a manger is th e proof. A childlying in clothes somehow validates the great

es t claim e ver m ad e: tha t God had become

man. The world laughs - inevitably, and condemns such a s ta tement a s nonsensical , irra

tional dangerously subjective. The worldwhich cal ls a lways for evidence and for many

witnesses , thereby confirming i ts own expecta

tion of falsity, can offer no proof of this child

and if it could the pr oof wo uld be unproof.A God proved by th e world's p ro of w ou ld be anidol. The world can only prove the worldly.

All proof has to begin with something true.Proof of the Truth can only begin with the

Truth Himsel f

The Carols, the creeds and the scriptures

point to Jesus th e T ruth and in doing so they

(continued on page 2}

TUNBRIDGE WELLS REPORT

Kent)



<L*n (o hfhll

L inda No rdhi elm

C u r t Nordhielm

Doneita NordhielmGai l B u m s

R i t a Ide

2 CORINTHIANS 2:17

Preachers make good insurance salesmenafter they leave the ministry. Ever hear that?

Think It must have something to do with sermon deliveries, Bible studies and boardmeetings.

However I am very quickly realizing thatthe sales job does not belong in the one-to-one Bible study. Hard facts fast, convincingtalking and a routine delivery can never takethe place of careful listening and relatingBiblical truth to a person's life Christianity

practical ). Bible studies are as individual asth e individual.

Karen is studying with me once a week. Shehas a belief in God, but because she is not athinking person, she has trouble assimilat

ing new facts (especially if It clashes withsomething she already has firmly in hermind-christening/baptlsm for instance). Theprocess slow but rushing her is no good.Time and much more discussion, often overthe same topic, is essential. . . .

For It still remains, I am not a salesman Icannot sell her Christ.

GAIL

SIX MILES

F O R

HELP T H E HANDICAPPED

HOLIDAY FUND

Exciting.

Long and dangerous.

Rivers, locks and sluices.

F u n .

Exhausting and wearing.

Children , a d u l t s a n d a mom.

Misty.Beautiful and tranquil.

Cows, pheasants and a mink.

Crazy.

Purposeful and relaxing.

T r e e s fie lds a n d f i shermen.

R I T A

N

MAY YOU H E A R T H E B A B Y S BELLS T H I S

C H R I S T M A S .

Love,

Your friends In Ministry in England

(continued from front page)

echo the voices of the angels. He who is thebeginning and the end of all things demandsthat we begin with Him. Jesus the beginningof Truth is also the beginning of proof Including the proof of Himself. All that light can doto darkness is to shine in It. Only the Child can

prove th e Child.So we follow the angels bidding and follow

the shepherds to Bethlehem, to the child whois God and Lord of all - who measures us andfinds us wanting, who proves us needful andliving In darkness, but offers us all He Is andhas. He justifies us our unjustice and validatesour invalidity. This child can expect no proof.He can only ring bells.

Dr. Dan Beeby, PrincipalSt. Andrews Hall

Selly Oak Colleges,Birmingham



SOME OF THE HILLS ARE ALIVE




(West Midlands)

Pete

Jan Bowenand Gare th

AN OLDER NEW CREATION JOINS US

lain is married with four children. He has

been a Chris tian for a long t ime and has had arich and varied experience in Christ. Part ofthis experience has been being the minister ofa church fo r s e ven ye a rs .

Having read some of the writings of the

Campbells , lain wondered if there where anychurches stiil in existence who held to their

ideals. After making some enqui ries, he metsome leaders in our churches and over a year

ago began to attend the West Bromwichchurch as this was t he nea re st to where hel ived.

lain had recently placed his membership

with us and we expect his wife, Janet, will be

doing so soon. Though lain has other ministrycommitments that take him preaching to many

churches in th e West Midlands area, we willcertainly appreciate the contribution he andhis family will make when they are able to bewi th u s .

PETE

EP ISTLE FROM ENGLAND

Nor thwes t Chr is t ian Church1700 Anthony Drive

Champaign, IL 61820

U.S .A .

r


Tim Nancv Barber60 3 Castleton

Champaign. IL61820U.S .A.


13 St . J a tDes P a r k

TunbridgeWells, Kent

TN I2LG

England

HINCKLEY MINISTRY

49 Cla rendon Road

Hlncklev, Leics.

LE10 0P J

England

EROINGTON MINISTRY

144 Gravelly Lane

Erclin9(on. Birmingham

B236LT

England

WEST BROMWICH

25 Oxford Road

Wes t Bromwich , Wes t Midlands

B7 0 8PE

England

RETURNREQUESTED

During our recent trip to the States Jan and Iwere excited to receive news of response to the

gospel back here in West Bromwich. On our

return it was confirmed that both VALERIE

HILL and her daughter JOY (14) had been bapt i sed into Chr i s t .

Joy and he r sister Kim had attended meet

ings s ince the Fall of 1980 short ly after the

work here began . Their mother, Val, beganattending after being invited to the children's

Christmas party that year.

Kim gave he r life to th e Lord in the Spring of1981 but both Joy and Val have hesitated fo r a

long time. Recently they came under conviction to not keep putting of f a response to

Chris t .

Having talked with Valerie this week it was

very evident t ha t here indeed was a new crea

tion . H er questioning and eagerness to talk

about the Lord were evidence of her hunger fo r

God and des ir e to go on with Him.

From what I heard th e meeting at which

they were baptized was quite an occasion.

Having no building of our own it was arrangedto use the baptistry of one of our Birmingham

churches . At th e s am e t ime another of our sis

ter congregations at Redditch (south of Bir

mingham) had three people ready for baptism

but they, like us, have no building.

So it was on a joyous Sunday afternoon that

the Great Francis Street Church building was

packed to see five people responding to

Christ 's call on their lives and being baptized.Alt of the Hill family were p re sent and our

prayer is that Reg (Val s husband) and therest of the family will be drawn to our Lord

Jesus a s they see Him more and more revealed

in the lives of Val, Joy and Kim.

PETE

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Pem l t No. 286

ChiMpiIgn, 111.

h rlotte Ray

Mis s lDn S e r v i c e s

Bo 2 4 2 7

Knoxv i l l e TN 37901

epistles from england team-1983-england

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