Mission Ireland

Jesus is Lord

I have been alarmed this year by how much Halloween is being ‘celebrated’

Houses, shops, and other public places  decorated with   displays of  all kinds of material to mark this  evil occasion.

 

How as believers in the Lord Jesus we need this timely reminder from  the late John Stott that 'Jesus is Lord'

The two-word affirmation *Kyrios Iesous* [Jesus is Lord] sounded pretty harmless at first hearing. But it has far- reaching ramifications. Not only does it express our conviction that he is God and Saviour, but it also indicates our radical commitment to him.

The dimensions of  this commitment are intellectual (bringing our minds under Christ's yoke), moral (accepting his standards and obeying  his commands), vocational (spending our lives in his  liberating service), social (seeking to penetrate society with his values), political(refusing to idolize any human institution) and global (being jealous for the honour and glory of his name).

The Daily thought is taken from Authentic Christianity © 1995 John Stott and Timothy Dudley-Smith. Used by permission of Inter-Varsity Press UK, Nottingham. All rights reserved.

 

THEY THINK IT’S ALL OVER... IT IS NOW!’

 

Welcome to the first E-zine of Transformission: The Missional Church Network.

 

This E-zine picks up the vexed question of how to bring some existing elements of church life to a necessary close. This is one of the big issues arising from the Mission Planning process in which many congregations realised they could not take on anything new because they were already fully stretched in just maintaining everything they already did. In many cases there was an awareness that something had to give but bewilderment about how to bring about the hard reality of closing something members of the congregation cherished.

 

Ongoing effectiveness in mission in a rapidly changing world will always demand difficult choices. Failure to make them in a wise and timely way will result in us being left behind. The basic pattern of the Christian life is dying to live. So, how might we bring about good endings in church life to enable mission? What follows may not be the last word on the subject, but it provides a few pointers with which to start. Perhaps you will find it useful as a guide to personal conversation, a way of opening up a discussion at Kirk Session or the basis of an article in your Church Magazine.

 To read the coplete ezine  click the link below.

Download Transformission - 1.pdf (2544.3K)

 

PRAYER FOCUS: 26 October – 1 November 2011

 

Download Prayerfocus 26Oct-1Nov2011.pdf (301.2K)

 

Information in relation to mission and outreach in Ireland for Prayer Focus can be emailed to prayerfocus@presbyterianireland.org

WEB ADDRESS:  www.missionireland.org

 

Putting the ‘urban’ back into Urban Mission

What is Urban Mission?

Download Oct201UrbanMissionezine.pdf (1818.1K)

Urban mission is one of the headline themes of conversation around the world Church today. It is a huge subject with many and varied aspects. What contributors to the disscussion mean by urban mission often differs depending on the particular urban setting in which they are working. It is not easy to generalise about the characteristics of the urban challenge. Often when we enthusiastically import solutions to ministering in urban areas in Ireland from other parts of the world they fail to live up to the hype when we get them home and take them out of their packaging. Equally, working in a Presbyterian system with inherited models of church, what seem like the best ideas of entrepreneurial church planters often don’t seem to fit easily into the places in which we find ourselves. While others are designing, from scratch we find ourselves trying to refine what we are already doing and re-aligning congregational mission to meet the challenge of our rapidly changing urban settings.

 

PRAYER FOCUS: 19 - 25 October 2011

Download Prayerfocus19-25October2011.pdf (300.1K)

Information in relation to mission and outreach in Ireland for Prayer Focus can be emailed to prayerfocus@presbyterianireland.org

WEB ADDRESS:  www.missionireland.org

Memorial Service for the life of John Stott

 

In Lisburn Cathedral on Tuesday 18th October 7.30pm

 

Hosted by: Bishop Ken Clarke

 

Speaker: Rev Dr Chris Wright  (Langham Trust)

PRAYER FOCUS: 12 - 18 October 2011

 

 

Download Prayerfocus12-18October2011.pdf (302.3K)

Information in relation to mission and outreach in Ireland for Prayer Focus can be emailed to prayerfocus@presbyterianireland.org

WEB ADDRESS:  www.missionireland.org

Training of Evangelists

 
As followers of Jesus, we are all called to play our part in his mission to the world to make him known in every way, in every place.  There are many ways to contribute to the mission of God, but perhaps you sense that where you particularly fit is in sharing Christian faith with others in evangelism.

Perhaps you have experience in evangelism through the work of your congregation, with some other Christian agency or just have found yourself gossiping the gospel in your everyday life.  Maybe you sense God’s calling upon your life to further explore and develop an evangelistic gift that is beginning to emerge.  Alternatively, perhaps you are already an experienced evangelist who is finding that you need to sharpen your thinking about what it means to really engage with unbelievers today in our rapidly changing society.

The Board of Mission in Ireland are pleased to offer you an opportunity to do all of these things through their new Course for the Training of Evangelists.  The course will be held at Union Theological College over a period of ten weeks.  Meeting on Monday evenings throughout January and March, each session will last for two hours (7.30pm – 9.30pm) and will bring together a team of experienced teachers and practitioners to help us consider together what effective evangelism might look like in a range of settings across Ireland today.

Click link below to download the application form.

 Download BMIEvangelistTrainingAW72dpi.pdf (402.0K)

Hope and a future: Off the Street

Download Off the Street-output.pdf (202.8K)

Peter Cheney finds out how one church’s work with local young people is creating hope in inner East Belfast and being recognised for the difference it’s making.

  

Church volunteers are working at attempting to turn round lives in the heart of East Belfast.

‘Global Insight Conference’ With Martin Goldsmith

‘Global Insight Conference’ With Martin Goldsmith Saturday 15 October 2011,

7pm Lisburn Baptist Church

We are delighted to have as our special guest, Martin Goldsmith who will bring Biblical ministry and mission insight at our Conference event. This Saturday evening conference is designed to be of interest to those who do not know us at AIM already. We wish to provide some level of global insight and understanding of current mission matters, as well as to be informative on Africa. It will be a particular pleasure to welcome home Steve and Lynsey Auld, just returned from their ‘TIMO Team’ in Madagascar.