Publications
GEAR produces several types of publications as a resource for individuals and churches. Some of these are available online, and others can be ordered via the appropriate person. (Details below).
- In GEAR & PowerPoints - national magazine.
- GEAR Booklets - short, readable booklets each tackling a single topic.
- Miscellaneous! - Assorted items that don't fit the other categories.
- Students Resource CD - distributed automatically to all first-year ordinands and CRCW students.
"In GEAR" and "Power Points"
The in-house magazine of GEAR is published three times a year and has articles on aspects of evangelism, spiritual renewal, evangelical theology, personal testimony and book reviews.
'Power Points' is included as a pull-out prayer supplement with items for prayer, not only from GEAR supporters, but from many others including URC Moderators and the various departments at headquarters.
The magazine is distributed to all who request a copy as well as to Members, theological students in training, district secretaries and national church staff. No charge is made for the magazine although donations towards costs are welcomed.
Click this icon to send an email indicating that you wish receive the IN GEAR magazine. Don't forget to put your name and address in the email!
GEAR Booklets
Booklets cost £2.00 each unless stated otherwise, which includes UK postage and packing. Ordering details are shown on the left. The following topics are available:
Mission Enabled
Rev'd Paul Stokes
A look the essential role that the Holy Spirit has to play in enabling the Church's mission and evangelism. Beginning with Jesus' imperative that we should be engaged in evangelism, it then looks at his teaching on the Kingdom of God, his promise to send the Holy Spirit, and then activity of the Holy Spirit in the Early Church and in the Church today.
The booklet concludes with some helpful appendices. One offers a 'walk of preparation' which allows time and space for the Holy Spirit to lead. Another tackles what has been for some the contentious question of whether Christians are to be 'baptised' or 'filled' with the Holy Spirit.
Eldership in the United Reformed Church
Editorial Committee
In recent years there has been a lot of interest and study into the subject of leadership in the United Reformed Church. As part of the debate, GEAR produced a response to the leadership paper for the General Assembly in 1986, which was well received by many sectors of the Church.
This booklet is produced by a GEAR Editorial team, and is offered for use by members, elders, ministers, district councils and any other groups who would value its thoughts. It is not meant as a training document but more a starter for discussion.
Infecting the Neighbourhood with the Gospel
Rev'd Richard Church
The only reason you're blessed is because God has still got someone else to bless through you." (Vai'iga Tuigmala, former New Zealand 'All Black').
Christianity should be an infectious blessing, and this booklet looks at some of the ways in which Christian communities can beceome contagious communities, dangerously able to bless hardened cynics and weary materialists with hope in God. Especially helpful is the reflection on some key values that need to underlie evangelism - values such as compassion, courage, conviction and a dependence on the Spirit's leading.
Over the Horizon (What the Bible says about life after death)
Revd. John Proctor
What happens at death may be the most crucial question a person ever asks, yet also the one we all most avoid. It challenges us in our faith or lack of it and presents us with a mystery with many unanswerables. Yet it remains the one question to which we would all like to know the answer.
Revd. John Proctor's biblical insight and evangelical theology are combined with an obvious pastoral heart which gives clear teaching yet avoids the route of making judgements which are not ours to make. It will be of great help to the pastor seeking to care for the bereaved and dying as well as to anyone who asks this basic question of themselves or has it asked of them.
Renewal in the Local Church
Rev'd Dr John Hall
For those seeking to explore the life of the Spirit. John Hall draws on his considerable experience to answer the question "What is Renewal?" and goes on to offer advice to those who are in leadership trying to foster renewal in their Churches and to those who are themselves renewed, but who are in unrenewed churches.
A Decent Debate about Doctrine
Bishop Leslie Newbiggin.
The late Bishop Leslie Newbiggin, a URC minister, wrote this booklet in response to the Moderator's Address at General Assembly in July 1993 and examines the roots of the liberal theological tradition and its inherent inconsistency.
The common accepted dichotomy between faith and fact is also "weighed in the balance and found wanting" and the author sets out cogent reasons for basing life on a biblical faith.
Two Halves make One Whole
Rev'd Alan Dunstone
One of the charges laid at the door of evangelicals has been their inability to back up beliefs with scholarship and sometimes our dogmatic statements take no account of apparent discrepancies in the Bible. Alan Dunstone, attempts to try to answer both of these comments with a scholarly approach to apparent contradictions in scripture. Do paradoxes in scripture take away the Bible's power as God's Word?
A Touch of the Spirit
Rev'd Colin Bones
Recent decades have seen a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the church and many are hoping for revival in this country. Behind much of what is happening is an experience of the personal touch of the Holy Spirit God is meeting with His people again and bringing a fresh intimacy and experience of His power, life and love.
Many have relegated such experiences to a neo-pentecostalism reserved for fanatics. This booklet seeks to uncover what has become, for many, normal Christian living. It attempts to describe and explain something which can sometimes seem beyond words.
Homosexuality and the Gospel
Editorial Committee
This booklet is GEAR's response to the current debate about human sexuality that is taking place within the URC. It examines the biblical foundation for the Church's traditional rejection of the practice of homosexuality.
This publication can also be purchased from:
The United Reformed Church,
Church House,
86 Tavistock Place,
London WC1H 9RT.
Tel: 020 7916 8629
Fax: 020 7916 2021
e-mail: bookshop@urc.org.uk
Miscellaneous
Charismatic Renewal in Britain
Rev Dr David Hilborn
First delieverd at a Dunamis training retreat and written while he was Theological Secretary for the Evangelical Alliance, this booklet is an extensive overview of the various movements and streams of Holy Spirit renewal in the British Isles. Beginning with the Celtic tradition and tracing the influence of Catholicism, Medieval Charismatics, the Anabaptists, Puritans, Quakers and Methodists, David then finishes by looking at the 20th Century Charismatic Movement and subsequent developments.
This is a must-read resource for church leaders and anyone else interested in activity of the Holy Spirit in these lands.
The Faith We Hold
A commentary on the basic text of GEAR's 1992 Statement of Faith