Dear subscriber,

… “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations ….." -  Matthew 26: 18-19

Jesus’ Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel gives us all the mandate we need to cross borders with the great news of His salvation. And yet we still need the discernment of His Holy Spirit, as we go, if we’re going to be truly effective in our communication of that great news.

For quite a while we’ve been considering how best we can serve the Church in North America with Christianity Explored. And after helping the Good Book Company launch their US operations in the last couple of years, we believe the time is now right to establish our own ministry there as well.

You’ll see an article on our recent Founders 24 Hours in this edition of the Newsletter. The vision, as in the UK, is to maintain just a small staff team. Their role will be to harness and co-ordinate the enthusiasm for CE of Churches and Church members and build extensive volunteer networks and communication channels.

The first step is to appoint a North American Executive to head up the operation. You’ll soon find the Job Description available on our website. Clearly it’s critical to make the right appointment. So we’d be very grateful if you could pray for us as we go through the process. And if you believe you know someone who may be suitable – particularly if it happens to be you – don’t be shy in following it up!

Meanwhile it’s almost a year since our first international employee, Cam Gracey, started working in New Zealand. We thought you’d like to hear how he was getting on, so you’ll read about his progress here as well.

And of course none of this would be possible without the generous financial support that so many of you provide. I’ve included a separate article to keep you abreast of our situation. And the good news is it’s been a fantastic start to the year in spite of the economic gloom. But the international growth is bringing added demands, so if you’d like to support us as we “go to all nations” we’d be extremely grateful.

Ian Roberts
Chief Executive CE Ministries
May 2012

Christianity Explored in the blogosphere

As our CE community continues to grow online, we thought we would share a few exciting stories and helpful videos from our online friends:

• 10 Reasons I Love Christianity Explored

• Evangelism as a Mum

• Would you like to Read the Bible with me?   A brilliant 20 minute evangelism training video made by Moorlands Church.

• Philippians - The Good Book blog asks Barry Cooper about the inspiration behind writing Discipleship Explored.

North American ministry update

There was much excitement as a group of 20 or so gathered on the outskirts of Washington DC on 20/21 April for the inaugural North America Founders 24 hours. Given the presence of Eric and Elaine Kalmbach from Toronto, it was probably inappropriate to label it as the US Founders event, so we’ll try and learn from our mistakes when we re-convene again next year!

After a Friday evening hosted by Paul and Judy Chelson and their family, Saturday was spent hearing from Rico Tice, Craig Dyer, Ian Roberts, and the US Board on CE Ministries’ developments and plans for future employment in North America.

The plan described was for the recruitment of a North American Executive to build and lead the team. This will be swiftly followed by an Operations Co-ordinator to provide support on communications and administration. Then as funds allow, a third appointment of a North American Trainer will follow.

Those present agreed that there was huge potential for the expansion of the Ministry, and there was great enthusiasm for the task that lay ahead and the plans outlined. So before parting there was an extended time of prayer. Then people left considering both their commitment to financing the operation and whether they knew of people suited to the roles required – and looking forward to meeting up again in 12 months time to hear how things progress.

Rico in the Dragon's Den

Christianity Explored was one of five Christian charities, all specialising in evangelism and discipleship, which benefited to the combined tune of nearly £50,000 at a Dragon’s Den-type fundraising event in the City of London in March.

In a format similar to that of BBC2’s popular Dragon’s Den programme, the five all made short presentations about their work to an invited audience and were then quizzed on various aspects of their business plans and strategies.

The evening was organised by the Kerygma Fund, which encourages Christian philanthropy towards innovative and effective charities. 

Kerygma Fund Chairman Matt Bird commented "In an age of austerity and cuts it is inspiring to see God's people reflecting his character through generous and sacrificial giving in this way.”

New Portuguese Translation launches in Brazil

With a total of 236 million speakers, Portuguese is the sixth most spoken language in the world, the third most spoken tongue in the western hemisphere and the most spoken language in the southern hemisphere.

These are four good reasons for Portuguese to be the first language into which the third edition of Christianity Explored has been translated.

To celebrate, Craig Dyer, CEM’s Training Director, will launch the new translation in Brazil through a series of events taking place from 2-14 July this year.

CLICK for MORE….

Funding Update

We’ve been thrilled and privileged to see a significant increase in donations in the early part of this year.  So if we follow our normal trends we are optimistic that we will cover the planned increase in our general fund costs for the full year.

However, there are three areas where we are looking to increase revenue:

1) USA

We hope to raise at least $200,000 to support our proposed US operation. We have money in the bank to kick start things, but we are looking for one off donations and regular standing orders to sustain operations longer term. And if we raise more we will be able to employ a North American Training Director sooner rather than later.

2) New Zealand

We committed to raise £26,000 in the UK to fund Cam Gracey in each of the first two years of operation. Currently we are only running at £10,000 per annum.

3) Translations

This year we are planning to sub-title the CE DVD into many languages. We hope this will enhance multi-cultural and international student ministry, as well as provide a basis for publishers when producing new translations. We are in the process of finalising costs and languages. We anticipate this project will cost approximately £30,000.

If you would like to help support one of these projects financially, please click here for more details.

Letting the gospel tell the gospel in New Zealand

Here is a quick update from Cam Gracey, New Zealand National Coordinator for Christianity Explored.  Cam has been running courses in New Zealand for 10 years now.  This past year he has been travelling all over the country talking to Kiwi pastors and church leaders and helping them get going with their own courses.

CE Universal: Coming this summer!

This new edition of Christianity Explored is designed to be universally accessible with a special emphasis on clear and simple English, making it suitable for use with anyone who is learning English or who appreciates simple language.

This new resource will soon be available through the Good Book Company in both UK and North America in time for your Autumn ministries.

More ways to get involved with Christianity Explored Ministries…

Typists needed! If you have basic computer skills and enjoy listening to sermons online, we could use your help transcribing sermons for our library.  Details here.

Homes wanted: It has been a year since launching the beautiful 3rd edition of CE, but we still have some copies of the 2nd edition materials taking up space on our shelves.  It isn’t doing any good there, so we want to get as much of it into the hands of people who could use it - at a very minimal cost.  If that is you, or someone you know, please contact us here.

Internet Evangelists: For many people, the internet is the first place they go for answers to questions- even BIG questions.  If you enjoy sharing your faith, especially online, then we would love to be in touch with you about an exciting new ministry.

If you can help us out, please email:  info@christianityexplored.org

Adventures of a travelling Christianity Explored table leader

When Lillian Tang, a Christianity Explored table leader from London volunteered to serve as an unofficial ambassador for Christianity Explored during a trip to Toronto, Canada and Hong Kong this Spring, she had no idea of what adventures would be in store.

For a story with a difference read here.

Five pictures that sum up the Christian Message

We would like to introduce the latest evangelistic booklet which uses five dynamic pictures to explain the gospel—who Jesus is, why he came, and what that means for each one of us.

Links to an online animation at www.christianityexplored.org

Now available from the Good Book Company.