From the January-April 2012 Issue
NORTHERN IRELAND NOTES
Tom McKendry
I have to confess that writing articles for the Vision for Europe is no easy thing for me. In addition to my own natural problem in this area, I find that negativity is all too often too prominent in what I write. Yet in giving an overall and honest report of the current evangelical scene in Northern Ireland I find it difficult to be otherwise. It seems that, for the most part, “marking time”, “keeping the doors open” and “plodding on” are now fixed terms in our common evangelical language. Now of course faithfulness is a basic hallmark requirement of any Gospel Church to authenticate the claim, but there is always a subtle danger of keeping faithfulness locked in-house. As most readers will know, scriptural faithfulness is no hothouse principle, but one that lives and prospers best in the hostile environment of the outside world where it has to fight to maintain its very existence.
Media influence on society is certainly rapidly increasing in terms of boldly pushing the atheist agenda and all that it stands for. This is no new phenomenon, but it has certainly taken on a more aggressive nature in recent years. Matters of morality which in the past while not heartily endorsed by common media are now blatantly glamorised. Any objection or resistance to this popular media agenda is instantly branded a fundamentalist rant, and as such readily dismissed.
One reason for the increase in media confidence to speak in such a derogatory way against Christians/Christianity is the failure to assert our evangelical distinctiveness.
We alone are Christian in the truest sense of the word. We alone are the true Church of Christ. Roman Catholicism is not Christian, nor is liberalism which denies the very essentials concerning the true nature of Christ; His deity, His perfect humanity and the way of salvation. We are not part of a broad church body as is propounded by a secular driven media, whose agenda is the total removal of God from the minds of our people. Vagueness and ambiguity are great evils when it comes to the all important matter of what it is to be Christian. We need as never before for clarity and assertiveness to be at the top of the evangelical agenda, in order to let the world know that our Gospel alone is the power of God to save sinners from a certain eternity of Hell.
Representing the European Missionary Fellowship in Northern Ireland, for me, is a privilege, since I know that our core objective and that of the men we support is this everlasting Gospel of Christ. I am personally very much encouraged by EMF policy to support Gospel work in parts of Europe where I have never been, and might never be. To witness first hand, when giving hospitality to visiting missionaries, their desire to take the Gospel to their fellow country men is such a blessing. While many of those supported by EMF have difficulties of which we here know very little, one problem they do not have is that they are easily recognised as distinct from the common religious systems that surround them. Our missionaries are very appreciative of the prayers and practical support they receive.
Please make use of the EMF website, the Vision for Europe and prayer letters to keep up to date with this great work. Please pray for our missionaries, especially those in Greece, Spain and Portugal at this time of economic difficulty.