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
Not All Glitz and Glamour – A Canadian Church Leadership Conference
J.H. (Hans) Kouwenberg reports on the principles and core values underlying the growth and success of Northview Church in Abbotsford BC, presented at a leadership conference attended by over 170 pastors and lay people … Read more
Which Way to the Oasis? – Reflections on Learning in Community
By David D. Stewart. It has taken me most of my adult life to come to the point of recognizing a bit of what was wrapped up in the words across the great arch high above the pulpit in Knox Church, Toronto, in my childhood: "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." … Read more
A Late-Victorian Minister’s Library
By John P. Vaudry. Dr. David Perrie (1857-1930) was a leader in the resistance to church union in 1925, whose expository preaching had depth and power. As a very private man, only the contents of his library give us a clue into his hidden personal life of prayer. … Read more
Living Churches: A Hope of Life and Growth
By George Anderson. “God specializes in graveyards.” This little church which had no Sunday School or Bible study groups and had about twenty adults attending seemed like a valley of dry bones. Humanly speaking the answer seemed to be “No” but the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Jesus said “Yes.” … Read more
Image & Chaos: The church and homosexuality
By William Duffy. Homosexuality is not in accordance with God’s creation of his purpose for our lives or our good. There is no question that in God’s eyes it is an abomination – a perversion of what he created which was, and is, very good. … Read more
Discovering Renewal – One Church’s Experience With The Alpha Program
By Jackson Clelland. The Alpha Course is an opportunity for an entire congregation to get involved in outreach, fellowship, learning, and growing in our faith. In a spirit of expectancy, God shows up to provide the resources for the program, to heal, and provide what is missing. … Read more
Encouragement – The Essence That Gives Us Buoyancy
By Esther Mcllveen. Children and adults alike blossom and grow when the atmosphere is full of encouragement — when we determine to seek to draw forth each other’s gifts and delight in them. … Read more
Designed for Holiness, by Peter E. Gillquist
Reviewed by Jack Charleson. As Christians we are ready to accept that we are made in the image of God and we are exhorted in Scripture to seek perfection in our lifestyle. … Read more
The Rev. Basil Edward Howell
By Jack Charleson. If it were not for Basil Howell, it is unlikely that the Renewal Fellowship would have been developed and formally constituted on May 8, 1982. … Read more
Learn to Discern, by R.G. De Moss, Jr.
Reviewed by Jim Walton. De Moss’s goal is to teach parents how they may help their children to develop a critical, Christian mind that is able to sift through the mixed messages given by the seductive and influential power of the television, movie, advertising, and music industries. … Read more
Letters
Readers correspond with approval for the ministry of Channels. Greg Dallimore responds with an update on his previous Review … Read more
New Community, New Lifestyle: A Look at Ephesians Four
By Michael Griffiths. Take the church seriously; It”s not a weekly performance to attend. The church may meet in plenary session only once or twice a week, but it exists all the time. We must work hard to make it real, credible and beautiful as God’s new community of the new humanity. … Read more
Suffering and the Search for Renewal
By Jack Archibald. The one great redemptive gift of suffering is renewal: in faith because suffering forces us to lean more on God, in hope, because suffering brings us face to face with our mortality, and in our love for God because we are more grateful for his grace. … Read more
Editorial – Prayer
By Calvin Brown. Prayer is more powerful than habits, heredity, natural tendencies, and even the forces that hold the planets in place, since it can suspend the laws of the universe, if such be God's will. No other power on earth does the enemy of souls hate and fear as much as prayer. … Read more
A People’s Guide to Our New Understanding of Mental Illness and Suicide
By George Nichols. Grief needs sympathy, problems need counseling, and depression needs medical care. Depression is a highly curable medical illness which ends fatally for about 10 to 15 percent of the people who have it and are not treated. … Read more
No Place for Truth, or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology and God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams, by David F. Wells
Reviewed by David Stewart. Professor Wells is at his very best when summarizing what has supplanted the passion for truth within Evangelicalism, making it clear what has crept into the center in place of truth. … Read more