16Aug 2017 by Nigel Ring

Happy 40th Birthday TKC

Church Planting, Kenya, Newfrontiers, News, Terry Virgo
Terry Virgo's first church plant On August 21st 1977 sixty-five of us met in the Bar Lounge of Clair Hall, Haywards Heath, at the launch meeting of the Mid Sussex Christian Fellowship, the first church that Terry Virgo planted. House groups had been meeting in five locations around Sussex for the previous few years. These started in Janita’s and my home in Scaynes Hill in May 1973 (photo). Others soon followed in David and Margaret Coak’s home in Balcombe, John and Joan Salmon’s in Uckfield, Ken and Audrey Dalgleish’s in Burgess Hill and Phil and Agnes Ball’s in Henfield. (Sadly John died recently, Joan having died several years ago.) So, in a few days the re-named Kings Church (Mid-Sussex) – there have been several other names en route - celebrates its 40th birthday.…
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15Jun 2017 by Nigel Ring

Freedom Movement – book recommendation

Books, Equipping, News, Reformation
Are you radical? Radical is a word that gets a bad press these days yet taken back to its origin it is a good word – roots (Latin - radix). Do you know your roots? 500 years on On October 31st we will be celebrating 500 years since Martin Luther posted 95 theses for debate on the church door in Wittenberg. This was the root of the Reformation. Following his striving to please a righteous God, whom he saw with increasing dislike and as a god of anger and hatred, he discovered in the Bible that God does not wait for us to be attractive in order to love us but loves us first! Others were discovering the same truth. One, William Tyndale, was burdened that people could not easily…
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17May 2017 by Nigel Ring

Swallowed by life – book review

Books, Equipping, Healing, Health, News
I was a member of Church of Christ the King in Brighton for over 30 years. A few years ago one of the members, Liz Woodgate, was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the oesophagus hence the title of this recently published book, Swallowed by Life. It is the story of what happened over the following two years at which time she was declared healed! I am not going to spoil the wonder by telling you the whole story but it is very remarkable and brings great glory to God. It is certainly a sign that will make you wonder! The book can also be something of a workshop for us as it teaches us much from the many steps that brought Liz to that wonderful result: Her transparency in her honesty…
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29Mar 2017 by Nigel Ring

It is not death to die – book recommendation

Books, Equipping, Hudson Taylor, News
In his book ‘It is not death to die’ Jim Cromarty shares the story of Hudson Taylor, the story of a man of faith. Arguably one of the most effective missionaries of all time Hudson Taylor’s heart was set on taking the gospel to China from a young age. To this end he trained in medicine, having to overcome his poor background and the lack of finance to achieve this, and learnt how to share the good news of the gospel with the poor in the area in which he was training. China Inland Mission founded At the age of only 21 he first travelled to China and made several more visits in the next 12 years before God called him on Brighton beach to found the China Inland Mission…
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21Mar 2017 by Nigel Ring

The roots of Newfrontiers – a personal reflection pt 6. A Team is born

Baptism of the Spirit, Coastlands, David Holden, Downs Bible Week, Newfrontiers, News, Team, Terry Virgo
Wise counsel One of our speakers at the first two Downs Bible Weeks in 1979 and 1980 was Bryn Jones, visionary and apostolic leader of Harvestime, later to become Covenant Ministries International (CMI). He had pioneered much through the ’70s and had taken a lot of ‘flack’ for his stance on the baptism of the Spirit, teaching about the five-fold ministries of Ephesians 4 being relevant for today, and so on. To some extent we were caught up in his slipstream.   During Downs 80 Bryn told Terry how he had been observing his ministry and was concerned on two fronts: first that he was in danger of ‘burning out’ and second that he needed complementary gifting around him to share the burden of ministry. He advised him to follow what…
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14Mar 2017 by Nigel Ring

The roots of Newfrontiers – a personal reflection pt 5. Bible Weeks

Dales Bible Week, Downs Bible Week, Newfrontiers, News
Gathering momentum Something was happening across the nation. The ‘charismatic movement’, which rooted back to the early sixties in the UK, was now gathering momentum and house churches were springing up in many places. Through the seventies a new phenomenon was taking place in the UK, summer Bible Weeks. The Keswick Convention had, of course, been blessing people for many decades but now something fresh was happening in the charismatic wing of the church. This new phenomenon drew hundreds of people to gather with tents and caravans on some large tract of land – an agricultural showground or a racecourse perhaps – and meet daily in marquees for a week’s teaching. Personally, we attended the Capel Bible Week (successor to the Abinger Convention), on the land of the Elim Bible College, from…
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