A publication of the Renewal Fellowship

A publication of the Renewal Fellowship

Channels

Introducing Channels Magazine

The Renewal Fellowship within The Presbyterian Church in Canada was founded in May 1982, and during the next year, plans were made to begin a magazine to reassure isolated and sometimes discouraged Presbyterians in Canada who wanted renewal that they were not alone. Word associations with media, communication, and television channels resonated with the old hymn, “Channels only, blessed Master”, and suggested the name Channels. And so, Channels – intended to be an instrument of blessing for The Presbyterian Church in Canada – debuted in the fall of 1983.

Over the next 23 years, some 66 issues were published. Channels succeeded in placing the Renewal Fellowship within a broader national and international context. Publishing articles written by internationally known authors such as Eugene Peterson, James I. Packer, Michael Green, Darrell Johnson, and John G. Stackhouse Jr. helped members of the Renewal Fellowship to realize that they were a part of a much wider movement.

Recognizing the high quality of this magazine prompted a desire to make a digital archive of all 66 issues. Each article is presented in text format, and at the bottom, a searchable, downloadable PDF copy of the issue opens at the page where the article originally appeared. Enjoy!

Worship

Magnifying the Lord

By Roy Bell. Worship in the New Testament was liturgical, charismatic, and spontaneous. In most mainline churches, worship is sterile, it is inhibited, it belongs to the 19th century, and it lacks joy. A first step in renewal would be to experience the work of the Holy Spirit … Read more

Editorial

Name-Calling

By Calvin Brown. Labelling people is not good when it is used simply to write others off or to demonize them, but it is helpful when we want to have a beginning point for conversation. Avoid stereotypes, and use the words only as descriptive of points of view. … Read more

Theology

Call It What It Is

By John G. Stackhouse, Jr. Every year as I teach my survey course on world religions at university, I dread having to teach the Christian faith for two main reasons. First, all religions have difficult and complicated features. But Christianity has inexplicable mysteries at its very heart that simply have to be discussed even in an introduction to its teachings. … Read more

Worship

Open to God

Calvin Brown explains that in all varieties of religious expression that he has experienced where he has been open to receiving God, His Spirit has ministered to him. The congregations that are alive and hopeful all have a desire to be open to God. … Read more

Daily Faith

Wait Training

By Liz Birnie. To engage in spiritual disipline, we need to choose a place that will reduce distractions; stick with a schedule that's right for us; be prepared with an easily understandable Bible, a notebook, and a pencil; and keep going with obedience to His Word, even through those struggles with our human failures. … Read more

Health

Breaking Free

By Bruce Twining. Dr. Archibald Hart modelled personal sharing, encouraged creative habits, and valued openness to the Holy Spirit's renewal work of breaking us and transforming us into greater Christlikeness. Healing comes from dealing honestly with our wounds. … Read more

Biography Reviews

Two Books on John Stott

Reviewed by Ian S. Rennie. At Rugby boys' school, John Stott was led to Christ by E.J.H. Nash, an evangelical Anglican clergyman. Stott spent much of his time, energy, and ability on the renewal of the Church of England and of the historic Protestant denominations of the Western world and the developing world. He had a global influence. … Read more