HUB NOV / DEC 2021 ISSUE 042
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES | JOBS CONFERENCES | TRAINING | EVENTS EVENTS
CHOOSE YOUR MIRACLE The scientific theory now known as the Big Bang was proposed in the 1930s by a Belgian Roman Catholic priest called Georges Lemaître. At the time, it was strongly resisted by some atheist physicists. Honestly, I get it: the idea that the entire universe had begun as a single, incredibly dense energetic point—what Lemaître called a “cosmic egg”—seems so implausible. In fact, his theory was first called the Big Bang by an atheist physicist who was mocking the idea. It sounded absurd. It also sounded far too much like the biblical claim that God made the universe out of nothing. The previous scientific consensus was that the universe had always existed, and this fitted more comfortably with atheism. Our knowledge of the physics of the universe has grown since Lemaître’s hypothesis first hatched. One thing we have learned is that our world seems to be incredibly fine-tuned. If the fundamental laws of the universe were even fractionally different, there would be no stars, no planets, and no life. The weirdness of this has led some scientists to hypothesise that there are billions of other universes with different laws, and ours is the one that just happened to work out. From a Christian perspective, there’s no problem with the idea that God made multiple universes. After all, he made billions of galaxies, and our tiny little planet is still central to his plans. But even if there are a practically infinite number of other universes, so that the fine-tuning of our universe is less implausible, we’re still left with the question of why reality exists at all? Why is there something rather than nothing? In his last book, Stephen Hawking claimed to have answered this question: “ Because there is a law like gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing … Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.” But if we read closely, we’ll see that Hawking hasn’t really solved the problem of why anything exists in the first place. As agnostic physicist Paul Davies points out,
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Hawking’s “spontaneous creation” depends on the existence of eternal, unchanging, transcendent laws “that just happen to exist and must simply be accepted as given.” Davies observes that these laws “have a similar status to an unexplained, transcendent God.” In other words, Hawking argues that physical realities depend on eternal, non-physical realities—which is what Christians have been saying all along! Yet there’s far more to the Christian view of God than that. According to the Bible, God didn’t just “light the blue touch paper” of the universe and step back, like my husband setting off fireworks for my kids on New Year’s Eve. God rules the universe from first to last. He cares about the world he’s made and the people he’s made—about you and about me. We know this because of what we celebrate at Christmas. Jesus was born to be “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:22-23). And when we contemplate that the eternal God out there—with the power to create billions of stars and planets—would become a tiny baby down here, born to live with us and die for us because he loves us, the only right response is worship. Like some scientists today, in Matthew’s Gospel a group of astronomers—or “wise men”—were led to worship Jesus by a star. Along with the virgin birth, this is the other scientific challenge of the Christmas story. How exactly did this happen? The short answer is: we don’t know! Various theories have been advanced about comets, supernovas, or alignments of planets (of which we have some record in the right time
frame for Jesus’ birth). But as with the virgin birth, if there is a God who made the universe, it’s not irrational to believe he guided wise men with a star. In fact, some of the top astronomers in the world believe in the Gospel accounts—not because of any scientific evidence about a star around that time, but because they believe in Jesus himself. Amusingly, one leading Christian astronomer who serves as Senior Project Scientist for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is called Jennifer Wiseman! If Christianity is true, we can look up and wonder why the God who made the galaxies also cares for you and me (Psalm 8:3-4). But if there is no God, we can only look up and wonder if our lives have any point to them at all. As Australian author and speaker Glen Scrivener puts it, “Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Atheists believe in the virgin birth of the universe. Choose your miracle.” This is an extract from Is Christmas Unbelievable? by Rebecca McLaughlin—a new evangelistic book which examines the evidence for the Bible’s account of Jesus’ birth. It’s short and cheap, perfect for giving away to unbelieving friends and family during outreach events or in personal evangelism.
Single copy £2.99 50 copies £1.95 each 100 copies £1.00 each
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JOBS | EVENTS | RESOURCES
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d e t o v e D esus to J
BIBLE BY THE BEACH
A Bible-centred weekend conference for the whole family!
E OUT D I S N I HE FROM T
29 APRIL - 2 MAY 2022 Eastbourne Congress Theatre Speakers include Christopher Ash Graham Beynon Linda Allcock John Stevens Helen Thorne Simon Vibert ...and others!
Book now!
ph 07958 047140 www.biblebythebeach.org
2022 Residential Conference – 21–23 March
Talking Church How personal conversations grow local congregations
+ 23-24 March: Conversations from the edge – optional post-conference workshop
biblicalcounselling.org.uk/talkingchurch
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JOBS | EVENTS | RESOURCES
We are seeking to appoint a full-time pastor or assistant pastor to lead us as we seek a deeper relationship with Christ, to foster a genuine love and concern for one another, to take the Gospel to our community and to support world mission. We are looking for someone who: • loves God’s Word and can faithfully preach it; • loves the church and can provide leadership, pastoral care and discipleship; • loves the lost and can lead the church in evangelism; • will be involved with our regular activities and develop new ones, in accordance with gifts; • will work with our existing Community Worker. The church has a desire and opportunities for growth. It is in the centre of a council estate in Swansea. We are a congregation of around 50 on a Sunday morning and slightly fewer in the evening. Details of our church meetings and regular activities in the community can be found at www.townhill.org.uk. For more information please contact Sarah Bunce: 07806724197 or s.bunce.sb@gmail.com
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REDEEMER QUEEN’S PARK Children’s Worker Redeemer is a new church community being planted in the Queen’s Park community in north-west London. Redeemer is presently composed of a 25-person launch team with 9 children. Redeemer enjoys partnerships with a number of networks including Co-Mission Network and The London Project. We have a fantastic opportunity for a full-time role (35 hours pw) to oversee our children’s ministry (0-11s), while building up ties with and building discipleship among young families and the primary schools in the area. The start date is negotiable and subject to coronavirus restrictions, but early January 2022 at the latest. Salary circa £30,000. Contact Thomas West for an informal chat or an information pack: Telephone 07932-048867 or email him at thomas@RedeemerQP.com
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JOBS | EVENTS | RESOURCES Chalmers Church Edinburgh: Ministry Associate Programme
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Do you have a vision for student mission?
At Chalmers Church we are committed to helping train the next generation of gospel workers. Our desire, under God, is to grow:
We’re looking for a Communications Team Leader.
Christ-like servant leaders, who proclaim Christ, not themselves, by rightly handling his Word.
You may come with Communications experience. But we are more interested in finding someone with the right instincts and a desire to work through others. We need someone who can energise and work with a broad range of suppliers and volunteers – eg writers, designers, editors, digital and social media coordinators, videographers – to produce the resources you think we need.
We are looking for: • Godly Christians who love Jesus and people, • With some prior experience of Bible-teaching ministry (e.g. one-toone/small group/Relay), or encouragement from others, • With a desire to grow towards long-term ministry. We pray that Associates will grow in five core areas: To that end, our Associates participate in Cornhill Scotland (or equivalent), as well as the dedicated weekly training sessions we run in-house. Each Associate also receives regular personal mentoring and feedback on their ministry. Applications are now open for our September 2022 intake. For an application form or more information, please contact: naomi@chalmerschurch.org
Will you join our senior leadership team to help us tell stories of God at work in the student world, and produce vital training resources for students?
In all this, we’re looking for someone with a passionate desire to build a broader team of students, staff and supporters; to deepen our engagement with them for the sake of vital mission on campuses across Ireland. And someone with a vision to multiply themselves and our media output through others rather than do it all themselves. You will be part of a strategic ministry that will impact the lives of students today, build the church, challenge our culture, reach this island, and awaken the world with the life-changing news of Christ crucified. You will need to have: » A vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ » A commitment to gospel ministry and evangelism amongst students » An ability to bring change, lead people, and be a self-starter » Experience of managing suppliers and working with others to achieve your strategic goals If you think that God may be prompting you or someone you know to explore this, we’d be delighted to send you more information and an application pack. Please contact Sally by email (sally@cui.ie), phone (+44 28 9066 7672) or via the web (www.cui.ie). The closing date for receipt of all applications is 5pm on Monday 22 November 2021
REACH – BUILD – TRAIN – SEND Chalmers Church Edinburgh is incorporated as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation Scottish Charity Number SC044674
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Job opportunities at The Christian Institute The Christian Institute is a registered charity, committed to promoting historic, biblical Christianity in the public arena. We are seeking new staff members to join our team. Candidates for the posts will be Christians who are highly motivated to apply biblical principles to the family, the world of work and public policy. The roles demand considerable commitment. The posts are full time and will be initially based at the Institute’s headquarters in Newcastle upon Tyne. There is potential for the Researcher role to be based in the Republic of Ireland. Please contact The Christian Institute for more details. The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Wednesday 5 January 2022. Interviews are expected to take place in February 2022. The Christian Institute, Wilberforce House, 4 Park Road, Gosforth Business Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE12 8DG 0191 281 5664 judi.coulson@christian.org.uk
RESEARCHER Candidates will be educated to graduate level, highly accurate and with good communication skills. Applicants must be able to analyse, evaluate and summarise, from a biblical perspective, information from a wide variety of sources, including statistical data. Requires an understanding of law and public policy in the Republic of Ireland.
FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR We are seeking candidates who can apply their biblical faith to operating the Institute’s financial systems with the integrity our donors expect. The successful candidate will be organised and computer literate. An understanding of bookkeeping and financial systems is desirable. The post also involves written and verbal communication with supporters and the public.
CHRISTIAN.ORG.UK
Exciting new resources for Advent NEW
Sinclair Ferguson £7.99 £6.79
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NEW
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Ed Drew & Alex Webb-Peploe £6.99 £5.94
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/thegoodbookcompany
The Good Book Company Blenheim House, 1 Blenheim Road Epsom, Surrey KT19 9AP
@thegoodbookuk thegoodbook.co.uk/blog
New three-week evangelistic course Try it for FREE! Looking at the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel in just three sessions, this new evangelistic course from Christianity Explored Ministries shows how Christianity offers real hope, peace and purpose. Presented by Rico Tice, this video-based series will be released in January 2022, but you can sample it for free now! It’s also available for pre-order. Why not take a sneak peek to see if this might be a great help for your evangelism after Christmas?
Go to thegoodbook.co.uk/he and sample Session 1 FREE
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