Search results for .riv
Inside out
I identify with Richard Foster in his book Prayer, when he wrote: “We believe prayer is something we should do, even something we want to do; but it seems as if a chasm stands between us and actually praying.” So, here I share practices that I have found helpful as I have grown in intimacy with…
Pressing into God’s calling
I’m just not very target-orientated. So new year’s resolutions are always a bit hit and miss for me. Last week I read back on my end-of-year reflection from 2017 and it turned out that I’d committed myself to some faith-related goals which I had promptly forgotten about. I did manage to get all the…
Alexandra Davis
This must be what family looks like
Liz Grier shares Unlimited Church's story of how food and faith can change lives in an extract from Simply Eat, a collection of stories about meeting Jesus around food. Food has always been central to our church. In fact, Unlimited Church in Exeter has never held any form of church service or…
Liz Grier
Siân Rees joins the Evangelical Alliance as director of Wales
The Evangelical Alliance is delighted to welcome Siân Rees as its new director of the Evangelical Alliance in Wales and to the UK-wide leadership team. Siân joins the Evangelical Alliance having most recently led a performing arts faculty at a secondary school in North Wales. Siân brings to the…
Andy Murray: lessons from a sporting great
In the depths of winter, amidst the frosty mornings and shortened hours of daylight, it can be difficult to remember the feel of the British summer. But, if you close your eyes for a moment, you can take yourself there, to the smell of burgers sizzling on a barbeque, the sight of morning sunlight…
Phil Knox
Confusion and chaos, or a country crying out for hope?
Within 24 hours over Tuesday and Wednesday, the government’s proposed Withdrawal Agreement, which would see the UK leave the European Union on 29 March, was defeated by a historic majority and Theresa May’s government survived a no confidence vote triggered by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn after the…
Danny Webster
Deputy First Minister reaffirms importance of “valuable contribution” of churches across Scotland
John Swinney MSP will address delegates at Scotland’s National Youth and Children’s work conference in Aviemore, to highlight the value of constructive partnership between the Scottish Government and Christian communities The 350 delegates attending the Deep Impact conference in Aviemore will…
#HereAndNow: how YEC is equipping workers to see lives changed
Joel Preston, director of evangelism and mission at Youth for Christ UK, shares the vision for this year's Youth Evangelism Conference. “Wow! That’s so weird! It’s like… it’s all sort of… gone!” This is what Matt told me as we were praying together. He, a 14-year-old boy, had just said he’d like to…
Joel Preston
Marie Kondo and the charitable giver
Anecdotal stories suggest that charities have seen a great upswing in donations this month, partially due to a Netflix series from tidiness expert Marie Kondo. Kondo’s show apparently encourages people to ask whether their possessions are giving them joy and if not, they’re advised to give them…
Abi Jarvis
Friendship
We were created to connect, crafted for community, designed with unity in mind. With God and with others. It is central to our understanding of the gospel, to the way we follow Jesus and has profound implications for our physical, emotional and spiritual health. And yet, we don’t seem to talk about…
Fyre Festival: The boundaries of the impossible
The phrase ‘the boundaries of the impossible’ was part of the PR campaign for what has been dubbed the “the greatest party that never happened”. The Fyre Festival happened, or didn’t, back in April 2017 and is back in the news again this week, following the release of a new documentary on…
David Smyth
Call to back the persecuted church in China this Chinese New Year
Last year, 20 million Christians in China experienced persecution. Open Doors estimates it is now 50 million – that’s half of all Christians in China. In fact, China has jumped dramatically on the Open Doors World Watch List – the ranking of the top 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a…
Erin James
Prayer amid political disagreement
Some would say that the road to unity is apathy; if our political, or indeed theological, differences are trivial, then working together is easy. But this is an unreal response to the real world: cheap unity like cheap grace. Significant political decisions have a real impact, particularly on the…
John Coleby
Disagreeing well
Ever since the garden, as God declared “it is not good”, conflict has been part of our story and has driven us forward. Without opposition, there can be no momentum, no dynamism. God acknowledged the problem of Adam’s loneliness, which led to the creation of Eve, and the diversity of God’s nature…
Jo Frost
Love. Go. Teach.
In the mid-1990s I got a job with Evangelical Alliance member Scripture Union in Birmingham as a schools’ worker and I started to meet many Muslim young people. I didn’t feel a sense of great calling to work amongst Muslims; I found myself having to relate to the Muslim pupils I was meeting. For…
Dr Andrew Smith
