23Apr 2019 by Nigel Ring

Short-Term Cross-Cultural Teams – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly pt 1

Equipping
I am delighted that David Lockyer accepted my invitation to write about the good, the bad and the ugly of short-term mission teams. He is particularly well qualified having not only been a member of such teams but subsequently having both sent and received them as a church leader. He knows about them from all angles! Good? Bad? Ugly? I’m a big believer in the benefits of taking teams on short-term ‘missions’ trips to connect with a church in another culture. 100 years ago travel would have rendered this impossible but now it is easy. I’ve been a part of short-term teams myself, both within the UK and Europe. Instrumental in my own involvement in cross-cultural mission was an Operation Mobilisation ‘Love Europe’ conference that gathered thousands of young people…
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17Apr 2019 by Nigel Ring

Book: Dictatorland – the men who stole Africa

News
Recently published, this fascinating, insightful yet sobering book is for anyone who is interested in Africa. Kenyon has thoroughly researched many of the extreme dictatorships in Africa over the past half century, also drawing on earlier history, and describes interviews with people from all levels of society. He also describes some of the events witnessed by himself and others into what are sometimes horrific human atrocities. Despite its length (400+ pages) I found this book compulsive reading as the author moved from one nation to another describing the antics and resulting consequences of dictators who have dominated so many African nations. Corruption, of course, featured prominently but he also reported on the repression to their own people groups and, in many cases, the willingness of the international community to ‘turn…
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10Apr 2019 by Nigel Ring

Hope at Home: A Church Response to Modern Slavery

Poor
On two occasions I have been involved in Christian ministries which have sought to help women who have been trafficked into prostitution. Accordingly I am pleased to use my blog, written by the visionary founders, to publicise a ministry which helps provide homes with a family to those who have been enslaved in some way as they get back onto the road to independent living. This is also a request for more people to open their doors to help. What is Hope at Home? Hope at Home is a hosting scheme for survivors of modern slavery in the UK.  We train and support Christians to welcome a survivor into their homes for an agreed time period. The size of the problem It’s estimated that there are 136,000 people in slavery in…
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03Apr 2019 by Nigel Ring

Conference – Empowering the Church to Empower the Poor

Equipping, Poor
I strongly commend this conference to you which is organised by Pathways from Poverty, an initiative of the Relational Mission apostolic sphere of Newfrontiers led by Mike Betts in the UK. Its purpose is to encourage and equip everyone to be part of a church that welcomes the poor and sees lives transformed, as people are empowered to walk on pathways out of poverty. The Need In the UK and across continental Europe, the church is finding itself coming face to face with an ever-growing tide of needs within its local community. From food and fuel poverty, to loneliness, isolation and relationship breakdown, and from debt, to housing insecurity, long term unemployment and addictions. These issues are robbing people of hope for the future, damaging the mental health and well…
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21Mar 2019 by Nigel Ring

Prayer for the UK

News
What a pleasure and privilege to gather with nearly 600 leaders in London for a day of prayer for the nation on March 20th. Westminster Chapel is not only an ideal venue but is also located near the Houses of Parliament – interesting at such a time as this. As leaders in the Newfrontiers family we used to meet for two days of prayer three times per year for several decades. But growth and the multiplication of apostolic spheres has made this impractical. However, we are a movement for which prayer has been a vital ingredient, so to gather together from time to time is still very important. Worship Ably led by Simon Brading and musicians, worship was a key part of the day, interspersing times of prayer and prophecy.…
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12Mar 2019 by Nigel Ring

Social Enterprise 6 – Reinvesting resources through Social Enterprises

Poor, Uncategorized
Nick Priggis concludes this series by considering how to reinvest the profits from social enterprises. Reinvesting Profit Some of the most interesting and innovative historical enterprises that Christians have been involved with have come from the Quakers. Due to their non-conformity Quakers were prohibited from much public life and service, save for the business world. Much of their creativity and faith was therefore focused on growing businesses with Christian integrity and ethics through peer-reviewing business proposals and, where needed, lending money to invest in those businesses. The tremendous social impact of Quakers such as Cadbury and Rowntree is well documented and provides an historic model for Christian Entrepreneurs today. What is less well-known is the story of the Moravians and Basel Mission Society. Both these historic missionary movements intentionally invested in…
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