We support the many midwives who oppose Diana Johnson MP’s Ten Minute Rule Bill seeking to introduce abortion on demand, up-to-birth, for any reason, on Monday 13th March 2017.

The “decriminalisation” of abortion means the total removal of all legal restrictions on abortion. There would be no grounds on which abortion could not take place and no ‘upper’ gestational time limit.

This point has been acknowledged by abortion provider BPAS, the backers of this Bill, who’s CEO, Anne Furedi, at the launch of their campaign for decriminalisation stated “I want to be very, very clear and blunt… there should be no legal upper limit.”

I oppose Diana Johnson MP’s Bill for the following reasons:

• This is an extreme and radical legislative proposal.

  • The Bill in its construction and consequences is more extreme than any abortion Bill previously raised in British history, as it would allow for abortion on any grounds at any time throughout pregnancy.

• The proposal is out of touch with the views of the British people.

  • One YouGov poll showed that 88% of women in the UK either want to keep the current law and time limit as it is, or restrict it further. This contrasts with the 2% of women who wanted to see an increase in the abortion time limit beyond 24 weeks, let alone birth.

  • Last year, the Royal College of Midwives’ support for BPAS’ abortion-up-to-birth campaign saw a serious backlash from over 1,000 midwives who protested against the RCM’s position.

• The situation would allow for far greater abuses than have already occurred under the current law.

  • Already within our current legal framework we have seen doctors pre-signing abortion forms, gender-selective abortions being offered, live babies being left to die following abortions that have gone wrong and children with minor disabilities, such as cleft palate, being aborted. In this context, where the current law is supposed to be preventing such appalling practices, the thought of allowing abortion on demand up to birth is seriously worrying.

• The abortion industry have proven that they cannot be trusted.

• • In 2015, 98% of abortions were funded by the NHS. Of these, over two thirds (68%) took place in private abortion clinics (e.g. Marie Stopes International and BPAS clinics) under NHS contract.

  • In August 2016, however, the Care Quality Commission had to step in to protect patients from potential harm at Marie Stopes abortion clinics. The December 2016 report showed doctors had been bulk-signing abortion consent forms, babies remains had been left in open bins, women were left at risk of infection, staff were not trained in how to respond to deteriorating patients and post-surgery safety checks were being completed before the surgery started. If these kind of breaches in patient safety protocols were occurring under the current law and close inspection of clinics, what will happen when all legal restrictions are lifted from abortion practice?

The British public prides itself in being a reasonable, humane and tolerant society. Such an extreme and radical proposal has no place in the UK.

It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of biblical description has often led to amazing discoveries.

Dr. Nelson Glueck

I believe the most effective preachers in the future will be those who fuse the head and the heart in their preaching.

If you preach mostly to the head of your audience, start thinking about what connects with the heart.

Information alone doesn’t bring about transformation. Preaching to the head can lead to a changed mind, but not a changed life.

Amy Orr-Ewing

“Plenty & comfort in this life are not promised in the kingdom. Instead, those who are crying tears because they have been excluded and insulted as a result of a firm allegiance to Christ have this nearness to God within their time if crisis. This is a profound and mysterious truth.

I witnessed this myself when worshiping  with 250 leaders of the underground church in China. many had suffered beatings and persecution because of their faith in Jesus. Yet I never experienced such joy in worship.”

There is a direct , dynamic link between the persecution of God’s people and the church growing rapidly as God’s kingdom advances. this is a Biblical principle.

People don’t come to a small church expecting a scaled-down version of a megachurch experience. They expect a great small church experience.

Yes, there are principles that all great churches hold in common. But a great small church is not a miniaturized version of a great megachurch.

A great small church won’t have parking lot attendants and professional signage leading families to hi-tech, age-segmented children’s ministries.

Mum and Dad aren’t going to be handed a cup of finely roasted cappuccino from a smiling barista in the church lobby, before being led into a thoroughly post-modern worship space with form-fitting seats.

The worship team won’t be playing original songs from their best-selling album to tightly choreographed lights and video. The pastor’s message won’t be backed by perfectly-timed, custom-made graphics and video clips.

There are a lot of great megachurches that have all that cool stuff. But that’s not what makes them great. And if small church pastors try to duplicate that on a small church budget, you will fail.

Yes, I said it. Fail. I know that sounds like lack of faith to some people, but it’s not. Because failing at those things isn’t even the worst of it. The saddest part is that the time and expense you’ll waste trying to be something you’re not great at will be taken from the things you can be great at.

Yes, keep the place clean and uncluttered. If you own a building, strip off the 1990’s wallpaper and slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Make sure everything and everyone are well prepared. But put your main efforts into people, not programs. Friendliness, not facilities. Worship, not entertainment.

Give people the space and time to meet with Jesus.

Then do something small church pastors can do that megachurch pastors can’t do – hang out in the lobby after the service. Build relationships. Pray with and for people. Tell dumb jokes. Hug, laugh and cry together. Be a church family.

That won’t lead you to greatness. That is greatness.

Karl Vaters is the author of The Grasshopper Myth: Big Churches, Small Churches and the Small Thinking That Divides Us. He’s been in pastoral ministry for over 30 years and has been the lead pastor of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, California for over 20 years. He’s also the founder of NewSmallChurch.com, a blog that encourages, connects and equips innovative Small Church pastors

Ethical objections to embryo research can trigger genuine progress

Life is not about comfort – suffering is part of our Christian life. Hearing stories of persecuted believers encourage us to pray and addresses our individualism. It gives us a heavenly perspective on our own lives that we can lose easily.  Anne Coles    (Release may-june 16)

 Lee Strobel offers his defense of Easter.

It was the worst news I could get as an atheist: my agnostic wife had decided to become a Christian. Two words shot through my mind. The first was an expletive; the second was “divorce.”

I thought she was going to turn into a self-righteous holy roller. But over the following months, I was intrigued by the positive changes in her character and values. Finally, I decided to take my journalism and legal training (I was legal editor of the Chicago Tribune) and systematically investigate whether there was any credibility to Christianity.

Maybe, I figured, I could extricate her from this cult.

I quickly determined that the alleged resurrection of Jesus was the key. Anyone can claim to be divine, but if Jesus backed up his claim by returning from the dead, then that was awfully good evidence he was telling the truth.

For nearly two years, I explored the minutia of the historical data on whether Easter was myth or reality. I didn’t merely accept the New Testament at face value; I was determined only to consider facts that were well-supported historically. As my investigation unfolded, my atheism began to buckle.

Was Jesus really executed? In my opinion, the evidence is so strong that even atheist historian Gerd Lüdemann said his death by crucifixion was “indisputable.”

Was Jesus’ tomb empty? Scholar William Lane Craig points out that its location was known to Christians and non-Christians alike. So if it hadn’t been empty, it would have been impossible for a movement founded on the resurrection to have exploded into existence in the same city where Jesus had been publicly executed just a few weeks before.

Besides, even Jesus’ opponents implicitly admitted the tomb was vacant by saying that his body had been stolen. But nobody had a motive for taking the body, especially the disciples. They wouldn’t have been willing to die brutal martyrs’ deaths if they knew this was all a lie.

Did anyone see Jesus alive again? I have identified at least eight ancient sources, both inside and outside the New Testament, that in my view confirm the apostles’ conviction that they encountered the resurrected Christ. Repeatedly, these sources stood strong when I tried to discredit them.

Could these encounters have been hallucinations? No way, experts told me. Hallucinations occur in individual brains, like dreams, yet, according to the Bible, Jesus appeared to groups of people on three different occasions – including 500 at once!

Was this some other sort of vision, perhaps prompted by the apostles’ grief over their leader’s execution? This wouldn’t explain the dramatic conversion of Saul, an opponent of Christians, or James, the once-skeptical half-brother of Jesus.

Neither was primed for a vision, yet each saw the risen Jesus and later died proclaiming he had appeared to him. Besides, if these were visions, the body would still have been in the tomb.

Was the resurrection simply the recasting of ancient mythology, akin to the fanciful tales of Osiris or Mithras? If you want to see a historian laugh out loud, bring up that kind of pop-culture nonsense.

One by one, my objections evaporated. I read books by skeptics, but their counter-arguments crumbled under the weight of the historical data. No wonder atheists so often come up short in scholarly debates over the resurrection.

In the end, after I had thoroughly investigated the matter, I reached an unexpected conclusion: it would actually take more faith to maintain my atheism than to become a follower of Jesus.

And that’s why I’m now celebrating my 30th Easter as a Christian. Not because of wishful thinking, the fear of death, or the need for a psychological crutch, but because of the facts.

“But the Bible’s language is clear that Adam and Eve were real people. Their historical existence and fall into sin are foundational to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In addition, the science of genetics—including human and chimp comparisons, mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA, and human genetic variation—confirms and is consistent with the fact that all humans have descended from an original couple specifically created by God as described in Genesis,” it added.