The Race

I've moved

2011-06-09T08:17:00.001-07:00

Now I blog here.

The Gospel and Community

2009-11-07T08:13:00.000-08:00

So, it's the thing today to emphasise the role of the community in reaching people with the Gospel. Hurrah for that emphasis; it is indeed the church that demonstrates God's wisdom, and it is also the love that we have for each other that makes people know we are Jesus' disciples. I agree with the Bible- big surprise.

However, I see people making a jump here that I'm not sure is in Scripture, and I think, actually, is making us all risk feeling like failures. Yes, it is our love, our community that backs up our witness. But is the unbeliever supposed to like our community (and want to join in?) I'm not sure I see that idea anywehere in the Bible. Should they even want to belong before they believe? Isn't the idea actually more that the unbeliever thinks our community is weird as it's made up of a random group of people who still love each other?

Discussing this with some friends the other night, I was sharing that, for example my housegroup, which is a lovely friendly group of people have been trying this for some time. Lots of emphasis on spending time together, bringing non-Christians along, sharing our lives. Now, not once has someone who isn't a Christian come along and joined our housegroup and thereby become a Christian. Are we doing it wrong? Should we be worried?

I don't think so. Many people have commented and chatted to their Christian friend about our group being friendly, but more than that, how they have found it weird that a group of Christians like us hang out together. To be honest, though, the 22 year old Chinese people who come along probably have no desire to come back and hang out with me, nearing middle aged guy. Why would they? But hopefully the group makes them also wonder why their Christian friend wants to.

The friends I was discussing with agreed that they would be far more likely to invite some non-Christian friends to their house for dinner with similar Christian friends than to their house group social where there would be such a huge range of people they aren't used to, that they would sit in a corner and the inviter would end up talking to them.

In short, are we putting pressure on ourselves by saying our love for each other makes non-Christians want to join our community? Is it, rather, that our love for each other, madly diverse and different as we are is really strange to non-Christians, and almost unattractive in its weirdness? And that is what makes them wonder about where this odd ball community comes from?

The Gospel: a good idea

2009-11-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

This rather thinly veiled attack on apologetics by Glen got me thinking. It didn't quite sit with me and I couldn't work out why.

And then I realised, it is, yet again, all about doctrine of creation. So, the Gospel is not a good idea, a "worldview amongst worldviews" (apparently) it is in a totally different spiritual category: "good news." A spiritual, other-worldly category, totally different from the ideas of this world.

My problem with this is that it is a diminution of the Gospel. Truly the Gospel is more than a good idea. But that doesn't mean it isn't a good idea. It is more than a worldview, but nevertheless it is the best worldview because it is God's very own view of the world. Surely the Gospel appears foolish to us, that does not mean it actually IS foolish!

This idea, that if you can only preach "good news" not the Gospel's worldview, is dependent on the wrong assumption that the Gospel works on us entirely in a different way to any other discussion. God works outside our normal way of thinking, of logic, of relationship to bring us to Jesus, rather like magic words the Gospel "good news" separate from everything else I think, brings me to God. One wonders why it is necessary to use sentences people can understand at all - may as well just insert the words "Jesus is Lord" anywhere into the following collection: pig, sheep, house, car, McDonalds. Sure people won't understand, but an appeal to their understanding is apparently intellectual pelagianism.

No, the Gospel is a message, revealed in words, that through the power of God's Spirit we can be persuaded of and understand. It truly does explain the reality that we see around us. It is much more than a good idea, but it is really a good idea too.

Local church - hope of the world

2009-07-23T01:08:00.000-07:00

Both my brother and Tim Chester have drawn my attention to this report on the role of the local church in sustainable development work.

It makes interesting reading, and is a wonderful commendation of God's Gospel community modelling his grace to the world.

Tim makes the suggestion that Tearfund's next logical step should be to start planting churches for the poor.

I admit to having several reservations about that. Church planting nearly always needs to be organic in my experience - resulting from believers being somewhere and meeting together. I'm not sure how a very corporate (in a good way) organisation like Tear Fund can faciitate that without being controlling. I may be wrong - it happens.

My other reservation may come from my professional status! But there does in many church circles at the moment seem to be an appeal to church planting as a panacea to all ills. I have come across a rather unappealing macho "how many churches have you planted?" approach to ministry.

My experience of local church is that even at its best it is not a brilliant driver to new and radical projects. Furthermore, I think the real risk of church planting for particular people is that church quickly becomes homogoneous - a church for the poor unchurched and a different one for he middle class churched.

I heard Tim Keller say recently that church is there to be broad (heterogeneously, not theologically) and para church is there to take us deep - to lend the church particular expertise in getting deep into a particular subculture, in the hope of drawing those people to being Christians who love others different than them.

I applaud Tear Fund highlighting the work of the local church which is, after all, God's expression of his wisdom. But I would, if they were to ask my advice (and they haven't!) counsel against churches being "set up" for particular groups of people.

Some thoughts about the law

2009-07-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

So, I have been having some thoughts about the law.

I have always been of the mind that stresses the differences between the way believers related to God in the OT and the way that they relate to God now. So, God promised to rescue his people, the law was "put in charge" to show us our sin, and then Jesus fulfilled the law and introduced the way that we can know God as sons.

I have had several prompts to rethinking this recently:

1) The long discussion about the Angel of the Lord on The Coffee Bible blog. Now, I'm still not convinced about TAOTL being Jesus and I am really not convinced that I have to believe that he is to avert myself from pluralism, but it did highlight to me that I do need to think through how OT believers were saved.

2) On another totally different tack, I have just attended a really excellent week of lectures on the topic of sanctification given by a committed Presbyterian. They were really inspiring, both in content and form and gave me much to chew on. I wondered though whether in my task of working out how OT believers and NT believers can be saved in the same way his approach to the law might help me. So, I have been thinking maybe my mistake is I have been thinking very flatly "people are saved by Jesus, so I must be able to find that in the OT". How about "people are saved by following the law, which is trusting God, and Jesus does that perfectly and we are in him"? You got to give me that it is snappy.

It has the advantage that I have always wondered why OT believers loved the law so much. It has the disadvantage of leaving me in a right old quandary about Galatians 3.

Hmmm. Lots to consider.

May he add...

2009-06-15T03:38:00.000-07:00

I kind of love it and kind of hate it when the Bible comes back to bite you.

A few weeks ago we looked at the tragic and farcical story of Jacob's two wives in Genesis in house group. It was tragic and yet great to see that fighting for the approval of someone, basing your worth on it, even someone whose approval you should actually have (your husband!) always leads to disappointment. It will never be good enough.

In fact, desperation for that approval on Leah and Rachel's part leads to all sorts of sin and mess: including getting their husband (who already had two wives = not ideal) to sleep with their maidservants.

Eventually God does listen to Rachel and gives her the son she has always wanted to prove she can be as good a wife as Leah.

And how does she respond? Well, she does give praise to God, but only because this child "takes away HER disgrace." Makes her look good in other words. And then? She calls him Joseph. "May he add." The moment of thanks ddn't long, and quickly became "I want more of that respect from others." God give me more of this lack of disgrace.

At the time I could apply that readily to all the silly people I know seeking the approval of others. "It will never satisfy" I tutted. "We should happy with God's approval, guaranteed in Christ" I preached.

And then, recently I was in a situation where I was desperate for others approval. And, in God's kindness I mostly got it. Very nearly. Almost totally. And all I can think about is the small bit I didn't get. "Praise God for his kindness" I thought "but why didn't he add the rest?"

People's approval, even where it is morally deserved, is not an idol worth chasing. It will never get you what you want, it may lead you down all sorts of dark alleys and you will always want more added to it. I say you - I mean I.

When you let it sink in, the Bible has teeth. It bites. Even a long time after you have turned the page.

We are over committed to modernism.

2009-04-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

I know - sounds riveting.

Recently I had to do some stuff for church about spirituality and words, which made me do some thinking on modernism, post-modernism and all that stuff.

It's almost a cliche in some circles that evangelicals are over committed to modernism: we can think it all out.
Well, I'm not sure about that: I think we are committed to words, and that they are a useful way of communicating meaning because we believe that God communicated, and continues to communicate through his words.

However, we could be too committed to the idea that we can think ourselves clear on things to do with God - perhaps we don't respect our fallen-ness enough there.

Let me explain: I was having a conversation recently about emotions in worship. Yes, that old chestnut. The person said something like "We just need to make sure we don't get carried away by our feelings." Maybe true. But I must say I have never heard anyone saying "I just think there is a danger we were going to think too hard about that talk." Far from it - being thoughtful, engaging our minds, struggling to understand are all seen as very positive things in my corner of the Christian world.

Why is that? I guess we could say that we should be suspicious of our feelings because they are fallen. But - er...isn't my intellect fallen too? And if I think the Holy Spirit has regenerated me and is enabling me to think from God's point of view, why not my feelings too?

It boils down to, I think, that we think that words are more reliable, somehow, than anything else. Thoughts are better than feelings. And I wonder, I just wonder, if that means we are, as people sometimes say we are, over-committed to modernism.

I'd like to have faith but I just can't.

2009-02-20T06:13:00.000-08:00

This was a very common question from people at Newcastle mission. I think in a sense it is a really good sign, as I think it comes from people seeing a real difference in the lives of their Christian friends and just thinking "I just don't think I can be like that!"
I tended to take 2 different tacks, and you can tell me what you think.

1) The assumption behind this question is that faith is a qualitatively different thing when talked about with regard to religion than it is in every day life. Having faith in your chair to hold you is different, in some way, to mustering up this moral quality "faith" within you to believe in God - that some people have that and some don't. In fact, the two are, if not exactly the same, then pretty similar. You examine the evidence for something, and you rely on it to help with your problem - whether that is not having somewhere to sit, or not knowing where you will spend eternity! This can then lead to an interesting discussion- because if you get into enough depth people can often see that they are relying on something to give them what the Gospel offers: "functional Saviours" as I have heard them called. The "front foot" nature of this reply is to say that "I'm just naturally cynical, and therefore could never accept this" won't wash as a reason. The real question is "Is there a reason to be lmore cynical about Jesus that whatever you are relying on at the moment?" The answer is, after some discussion, usually no!

2) This is slightly more offensive answer, but Jesus does say that people don't believe because they don't want to - they love the darkness. If we reject him it is not because the evidence is insufficient or unworthy of our trust but because we have an inbuilt predisposition not to want God telling us what to do. So this, "I can't have faith" can be a smokescreen for "I actually don't want to." A useful question here is "If I could prove 100% now that Jesus rose from the dead, would you admit that you whole life belongs to him and live that way from now on?" If the person says no, and you ask why then you have really unmasked the heart of the issue for them.

The latter approach I would take very gently and carefully, only after the person has themselves seemed to have some realisation that not being able to believe is not their only problem. At the end of the first conversation you just want to invite (firmly!) to look carefully at the evidence - both for Jesus and comparing what he says to their own experience of the world - and see if it is trustworthy.

Anyway, that's what I did, but I would love your thoughts!

Newcastle: Day Five

2009-02-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

So - it's all over - or rather, we hope, it has all just started!

Today we had good numbers at the lunch bar although not some of the individuals we hoped to see which was sad. However, good questions at the second one: I did a much more straight talk from Mark 8, so maybe it just didn't provoke as many questions.

An interesting group discussion afterwards with the naturalist again, a lapsed Mormon and a professing atheist who couldn't process that there is no value to humanity if we are simply a group of atoms, or that there is any rational thought behind Christianity or, indeed why she should consider Christianity as an adult because she didn't like Sunday school when she was 6. Great group dynamic! Interestingly she came because she was totally offended and affronted at one of her atheist friends becoming a Christian, and insisted that Christianity is intellectually totally unfeasible, and one should only make progress in the other diretion. I didn't feel I answered her at all well, and the other atheist and the Mormon weren't exactly being helpful. Please pray for C to have her eyes opened.

Last event was a jazz night with live band, dancing, and a talk on Mark 6 from me - about 2 parties. Talks in that setting are hard, but people seemed to listen.

And home we go. I guess I always feel a bit disappointed when people don't profess suring the week - but no point teaching Mark 4 if we can't believe it. Please pray for new life here, and for Mark and Ruth as they sort out the follow up: lots of expressed interest, it would be great if they came through.

I want sleep.

Please...

2009-02-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

...can someone write a book that is readable for non scientist Christians on explaining our views on evolution/ID/Genesis to non-Christians (NOT another tiresome, should Christians believe in a young earth book) and why evolution does not equal atheism PLEASE Lord Jesus.

Amen

Newcastle: Day four

2009-02-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

So - another good day, although in a covering of snow. A few snowballs at the marquee, and a big lot of snow hanging over the doorway threatening to fall on people - but well done to the CUGs for preventing any accidents!

We were on the Bible today, and I just tried to get people to consider the evidence for the Bible's accounts of Jesus being reliable, and then had a little sting in the tale saying that we don't believe because we don't want to, rather than because the evidence isn't good enough.

Great encouraging chat with a former atheist who became a Christian last week: asking me all the questions her housemates are asking about her conversion. Plenty of folks about - a bit less than yesterday due to snow - and good and serious questions. Some people who have come back every day - please pray that they will come through to faith.

Just considering with the CU now how follow up should work. Agape have been quite involved here, and were excellent at training students to do personal follow up alongside their staff, but have now decided to pull out to set up their own group. So I am hoping and praying that the vision for personal follow up will continue in the students: at least 30 people have signed up to say they would like to meet with a Christian to discuss further.

Finally, encouragingly, a group of guys decided in an impromptu way to run a grill a Christian this afternoon in the tent with a panel of students. Its snowing, cold and people are busy (Thursday is not an afternoon off for people here) and yet when I left there were 80 students in the tent, firing questions of all sorts at their peers. Two people on the panel not from Christian families answered about Hell in an incredibly moving way. It was the best of CU in action - students reaching students: showing them that it is possible to live as a Christian at uni.

Praise God for these brave young people and pray that they may have the joy that they long for - seeing their friends turn to Jesus.

Newcastle: Day Three

2009-02-11T07:50:00.000-08:00

Hey troops.

So, what an exciting couple of days. Last night's pub quiz was packed with lots of people and loads of CU peeps who had clearly brought friends - so thanks for praying. I always feel a bit like the talk is tacked on to this type of event, and feel a bit uneasy, but in fairness to the CU they had made the content very clear on the publicity. Everyone seemed to be listening, although, as one CUG said, it felt a little bit like people were enduring rather than engaging with the talk! Nevertheless, this is really important seed sowing stuff for people whom don't connect with lunch bar titles and we just pray that the CU members who brought people will be able to make the most of the ice having been broken.

Today was the best morning and lunch time so far. Ed the Relay Worker did a top job in organising surveys with people, and lots of interest, chats and visits to the tent because of links there.

The first lunch bar had about 70/80 with some great questions - including some quite detailed ones from one guy about Mark - which is great. The second lunch bar was absolutely packed out - abotu 130 and standing room only!

Today was on "I'm not a murderer or a rapist. Isn't it good enough to be good?" I really addressed it from the point of view of morality being totally removed from relatonship. Seemed to stir up a lot of questions - which all really lent themselves to re-explaining the message, the best type! S from yesterday was definitely back, although he didn't stay to chat. Pray that the Spirit is silently working.

A long and frustrating chat with an all out scientific naturalist - any clues on how to deal with someone who will only accept "scientifically verifiable" evidence? Interestingly, though, he keeps coming back because CU people are so kind generous and open with him. Great witness.

Please pray for fruit. A lot of the systems are in place, students are praying, working hard and loads of great examples of taking risks for their faith by asking friends, standing by the difficult stuff I am saying, and getting onto campus to chat to people. They would love the encouragement of new life. Please Lord, let salvation spring up from the ground!

Newcastle: Day Two

2009-02-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Last night's international event was totally awesome. It was co-ordinated by a local church worker but had CU "hosts" on every table to discuss with people. There must have been 150 people there - great meal, a talk on Mark 7 and then people sitting round chatting. At one point I looked round and every table was filled with people, Mark's Gospels open, having chats. Loads of students there from so-called "closed" countries, and a real privilege to be involved in.

Cold start again today in the tent for prayers and CUGs, then some work, and came back to find a gaggle of people around a laptop doing worldview surveys. That seemed to act as a good pull into the tent and both lunch bars were much busier (50 and 100 at a guess) with some great questions. Lots of questions about what to do if you don't "have faith" - so people claiming to want to be Christian but saying unable to believe. How to deal with that without accusing people of moral dishonesty I'm not sure!

Please pray for S, a Canadian student who can't believe that being good isn't good enough, another S from Mormon background, and a Muslim guy who asked a question about the trinity and said he'd read Mark.

Pub quiz with Mark 2 talk tonight!

Newcastle: Day one

2009-02-09T08:45:00.000-08:00

So day one began early in a very cold marquee! We prayed and then had a great CUGs meeting, where Lewis reminded us that evangelism is calling people to be included in the internal love of the Trinity. Awesome.

What's really interesting, and may be the shape of things to come, is that the university has been quite firm on the things CUGs can and can't do. A CUG can only flyer or do a questionnaire with a student, and the only CUGs allowed are on a list which has been previously approved by the chaplaincy. Gone are the days when one can just wander onto campus and do evangelism - which makes student led CUs more strategic than ever, I guess.

Anyway, after a bacon sarnie, a little bit of faff putting up a FREE banner outside the tent and getting the heater working, it was time for lunch bar round 1. Quite a small number in round 1 - maybe 30, and I rather barrelled through my talk as I was a bit nervous. No questions but some folk staying to chat.

Round 2 much better in lots of ways, lots more people, some great questions and I was a lot more relaxed.

The first talk was on "I'm not really bothered, what's in Christianity for me?" I tried using Buffy the Vampire slayer as a model of how we are fed the idea that if we don't get to choose our own destiny we are being limited, but actually how "what's in it for me" is not at all a useful question for running your life. Then how Jesus can free us from slavery to that.

I'm not sure if I quite got the balance of attacking secular worldviews and offering the Gospel right - but we'll see.

Tonight is an international event. Clearly this is a great onoging work that some people in Newcastle are awesome in their faithful commitment to, and I am just slotting in! So it's great to be in partnership with faithful folk who really have been putting in the hard yards. Mark 7 on the difference between religion and Jesus.

Its great to see some first year guys bringing loads of mates along - but so far not loads of inviting from the whole CU and it feels like little direct response after talks. Tomorrow is on "I don't like discrimination, why doesn't God accept everyone?" which has the potential to generate a bit more heat! Please pray that I would challenge people's wrong assumptions and clearly present the alternatives, and for CU members to feel confident in bringing folk along.

If anyone is still out there..

2009-02-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

I am heading North tomorrow - lunch bar in Durham and Saturday CU central, and then to Newcastle for a week of mission.

I'm going to try and "live-blog" the events each day in the hope that some of you out there will "hold the rope" and pray for God's righteousness to be known on their campus.

Paul went to Corinth to preach in great fear and trembling: I know how he feels!

If, indeed, there is anyone still reading this blog at all!

Zephy Zephy Zephy Oi oi oi.

2008-12-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

Good times in Zephaniah, both with Newcastle CU and now with my Relay Worker as we prepare for Relay 2.

It's amazing how a bok I know well now opens up new things each time. Some fresh things this time:
1) Everyone worships something. The people have ignored God (so much so, they had lost the Book of the Law and not noticed) but that doesn't mean they had stopped worshipping and being shaped by something outside themselves. Far from it - they became like those around them - following their stupid made up gods, and doing the things they did, instead of their lives being shaped by the amazing God of the universe and his truth. How stupid. How real! When we lose our respect for God's word, we think we are free - in fact we become pathetic apes of the world around us. Silly. And not at all surprising that it provokes God's anger.

2) The humble seek humility. Zephaniah addresses the nation, but calls the humble to seek humility. Eh? Weren't they humble already? Well indeed - its those who are humble enough to listen to God who are called to humble themselves repeatedly - the way in and the way on are the same. I don't want to read too much into this - but it seems that the hope of the nation is not that the whole nation will respond to Zeph's warning (although they should) but rather that those who do respect God seek to humble themselves before him even moreso, and seek Him and seek righteousness.

Let's not start applying the message of judgement to all and sundry first. True, they need to hear the message and respond. But first and foremost, let's see God for who he is ourselves and seek righteousness and seek humility, and seek the Lord. That's where the hope for the people around us begins.

I've been reading a bit about some of the evangelical awakenings recently. Isn't it stark that they began with the church seeing their own sin and God's holiness so clearly that they repented of their weakness of commitment, their love of money, their fitting in with the culture around them? Would that we would see God's holiness as Zephaniah shows us, and we would be renewed in seeking God and seeking humility. That is the hope for the world.

The Colossian Jesus

2008-11-25T04:06:00.000-08:00

That hideous thing "The Gospel conversation." For years it was the holy grail I pursued with particular friends, when I waited for the opportunity and the spilt two ways to live or the four spiritual laws out onto them. Looking for ways to "Get the Gospel in". Eeek.

That's not the way Paul seems to view it happening with the Colossians, as me and my lovely Relay Worker noted last week. We have had a great time as he has led me through and we got to the random bit at the end of chapter 4. Rather he says "let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt." What that means is, I think, not that we are looking for ways to get the Gospel in (although we should do that) but rather that there is something different about the way we speak all the time that reflects the grace of the Gospel.

And that isn't about merely trying to be different. Its believing what Colossians says about Jesus - that everything, that means everything, is created by him and for him. That means there is no topic of conversation to which Jesus is unrelated and no situation where it is impossible to give a distinctive Christian perspective.

Recently in church one of the other elders told the story of how his wife was chatting to another Mum about life and its stresses and said, quite naturally "there is a great sense of peace knowing someone you trust is in control." Discussing it afterwards the reaction of people seemed to be "I'd never have thought of that" or "I'd never have the nerve to say that". It seems to me the solution to those problems is simply to believe in the Colossian Christ - that all we talk about is made by him and for him anyway.

Grace becomes a work

2008-11-20T00:20:00.000-08:00

I am very into and have been much helped by the idea that our issues with sanctification stem from believing (or not believing) things about the Gospel. Much thanks go to Jerry Bridges who has been writing about this stuff for years, and also to Keller, Chester and others whose names end in er. So the issue is not "how to stop sinning" but "how to start believing and accepting the Gospel in a particular area of my life."

However, I see a problem developing in me, and in some of the people I work with. Not a problem with the theology, but a problem with its application. The issue is that this "apply the Gospel to your sin" can in itself become a work. Am I good at applying the Gospel to my pride? Have I been successful at applying the Gospel to my self esteem? Have I done well at applying grace to my temper?

For me, this theological stuff which truly is excellent can so easily make the Gospel of amazing grace into yet another technique to improve myself and either feed my self righteousness, or beat myself up for my unrighteousness. I was struck recently when I was with a friend discussing something I was struggling with. I nearly found myself saying "I don't want you to know how rubbish I am at trusting the Gospel!" (Yes Maurice, that would be the Gospel message that says that you are, y'know, rubbish.)

But the Gospel is not a self improvement technique. It is just good news that God loves me, and that the amazing generous and kind Jesus is my Lord, and that there is a new creation coming, and that God's Spirit dwells in me, and that Jesus intercedes for me in my weakness. Those things are TRUE, and to be rejoiced in, not simply USED to move on in holiness.

Heaven help us all when believing in grace becomes a measurable work.

Possessions.com

2008-11-19T01:38:00.000-08:00

What would Jesus say to Michael Phelps, plus a talk at Liverpool CU on the rich young ruler plus Zephaniah has got me thinking about possessions.

It seems to me that the Bible doesn't say that being rich is wrong but that it is dangerous. The thing is about having stuff is that it makes you feel like everything is ok. So, I wake up in a warm bed, I go to my lecture and have a coffee, I hang out with my mates, have a few drinks. It doesn't feel like I am in desperate need of forgiveness from the great God of the universe. I feel like if there is a problem then I can deal with it.

Isn't that what makes mission to students so difficult? Most people don't feel any need because their material comfort has made them immune to the message that they need God to be kind to them. They don't feel that they need God's kindness!

Zephaniah is very similar. I guess a question for lots of us, is why so strong on judgement? At least part of it is the recurring theme of the people thinking they are safe because they have money, vineyards and wine! It all felt pretty comfortable. And it takes God's shocking description of where we truly are before him to wake us up from our money-induced stupor. (In fact, for those people, even that didn't seem to work!)

Once at a Christian conference, I heard someone ask the speaker on the issue of poverty "should you give money to homeless people?" The speaker looked them up and down and said "I think it would be good for you to give some of your money away." There is wisdom there. I'm not sure I'm listening or teaching enough on not only the great things we can do with our money, but how our possessions are a danger to us.

Incidentally, Bish, if you are reading this, where is your resource on money for students? We need it!

Big Questions

2008-11-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

So - great week at Cumbria with lovely students who are doing a brilliant job of getting alongside the students on their campus. There was good attendance at events, but as it should be, it was the students doing the work not us, taking Gospels and giving them out in their lectures and getting stuck into campus life. It really felt like the events were part of the ongoing Christian life which these guys are living out amongst their friends on their small campus, which is great. Also, they gave us a nice plant, which we love.

Then it was off the Scottish borders for the Newcastle Houseparty. It was great to spend time with these guys, digging into Zephaniah in preparation for their events week which we'll be heading up to in February. It was great to get into the book, talk mission, pretend to be Louis Walsh and make a new group of first year friends, including hearing the other side of an hiilarious Word Alive story.

But it was also a weekend of disturbing questions: do we want to believe in the God that Zephaniah describes. Is it true that, as Zephaniah seems to say, human rights are less important than God being honoured for who he is? Can't we have the value of humanity, without the God of Zephaniah who judges and destroys? Why can't we simply agree that people have intrinsic value without the basis of the Trinitarian God?

I think we need the God who will judge, the God who is the centre of morality. It isn't just God who sets the standards, but God's purpose of glorifying himself that is the standard.

There is a real risk that we begin to read the Bible through cultural lenses. For any of us. My guess is that if you live in the world where the consequences of rejecting God are really obvious then Zephaniah doesn't seem so extreme - if you have seen a genocide or starvation or grinding poverty so others can be rich, then God's awesomeness in frightening people into the humility - which means that we don't enforce our rights on each other - that to me is the key to morality.

But hey - what do you think?

What I mean and do not mean

2008-11-07T01:58:00.000-08:00

A phrase I hear bandied about a bit these days is the phrase "the priority of the local church." I am happy to sign up to this, and am very clear that the Bible teaches it but I want to be clear what I think it means:

What I mean: The local church family is the vehicle by which God is demonstrating his wisdom to the world, the primary place for most Christians to receive teaching and care and God's major strategy for reaching the world with the Gospel. As such, any ministry that operates as a conglomeration of people from different local churches should have, as its ultimate aim, the building up of the local church, and should not even risk taking away from people's commitment to their local church family. The attitude of any ministry, denominational organisation or training institution should be "what can we do to serve local churches?" rather than "what can local churches do to serve us?"

What I do not mean: That any sort of Christian teaching, training, or Christian service has to take place with the explicit permission and "under the authority of" a local church. I do not need to ask for a local church's permission to preach the Gospel, serve as a Christian, encourage others in a particular place. It may of course be polite to do so, and it often will involve talking to local churches so I can live out the priority of the local church as I do understand it. But the local church's priority does not make it into the regulator of what is acceptable ministry somewhere, as, after all, I am an evangelical who believes in the authority of Scripture, rather than believing in the authority of the church.

Now we have that cleared up - in other news:
- we are off to Lancaster for a week to help at the University of Cumbria CU mission. It's exciting, with lunch bars every day on "What would Jesus say to..." different people, and evening events with talks on Mark. Jesus has come to the sick not the healthy - pray for his cleansing work this week, opening blind eyes, calling people to follow him and be clean.
- then we are both off to the Scottish borders for Newcastle Uni houseparty. Zephaniah - loving some time with my favourite book. Do please pray that it would be a brilliant time of firing us all up for mission as we get a small glimpse of God's greatness.

Busy week - but exciting times.

sweeter than honey

2008-10-27T02:21:00.000-07:00

I think I have blogged on this title before! My thoughts aren't ever original.

This week we went off to North Wales to do some training for the Welsh team - the third time we have done our Bible handling roadshow! It was fun as we looked at Psalm 19 again, I loved that description again - God's word is sweeter than honey.

It was great to experience it too though. On Thursday we went off to Lancaster for me to speak at the launch of the Free project for the universities there. It was SUCH as awesome time (I particularly loved the testimony from the gruff Yorkshire lad who became a Christian through reading the Bible last academic year: "If you don't think there's power in these words then you have got some serious thinking to do." Love it.)

To be honest, I struggled with this talk a bit, grappling all day to know how preach it - Mark chapter 7. But as I did preach it, the amazing sweetness of the words hit me: we are darker and more unclean than we ever could imagine, yet simply calling out to Jesus, wherever we are, wherever we are from, he will make us clean. It's SUCH good, sweet, awesome, generous, worthwhile, excellent, exciting amazing news. It's great to just be faced with the truth, dark as it is, that there need be no masks with Jesus. He knows that evil comes from inside me, and he is still willing, no, longing to help. And its so good to know that when people meet Jesus all they need to do is call out and he will make them clean.
Also encouraging was the fact that the Lancaster/Preston kids are so up for it. Please pray that for their clearly very deep conviction that God's word can change people shapes them to introduce Jesus to their friends.

This week: mission planning for Cumbria in a couple of weeks, and then off to Poland to plan for the IFES Formacion conference from Wednesday till Saturday. I'm so pleased that we are doing Mark there - please pray that all we do will help us to meet Jesus, to call out to him, to trust him and experience his amazing power to clean us up.

“It is finished!” O what pleasure
Do these precious words afford;
Heav’nly blessings, without measure,
Flow to us from Christ the Lord:
“It is finished!” “It is finished!”
Saints the dying words record;

Setting forth the truth plainly

2008-10-20T01:05:00.000-07:00

We're having a great series in 2 Corinthians at church at the moment (so is Bish apparently). I am struck by so many things - but yesterday in 2 Corinthians 4 I was so struck by how Paul carries around Jesus death in order to see the life of Jesus at work in others.
Andrew so helpfully pointed out that, far from Christianity being a way to fulfil one's potential (contra a sermon my wife was listening to on the internet), and far from non-Christians being brought to new life by people seeing how great our lives are, actually new life is brought by us carrying round Jesus death - dying so that Jesus looks great.
2 Corinthians is so counter-cultural and so contemporary. It's a brave book to teach trying to attract thousands of victims of "God wants you to have endless spiritual highs" Christian youth work to your church. For it says, not only is our weakness real, but it is the way that God displays his greatness. Not only is suffering and difficulty part of the Christian life, it is part of God's planned method for building the church.
And that people are led to Christ by plain speaking Christians and God's power.

So, with that in mind, if you are praying for us this week, please pray for:
- us to be content to carry around the death of Christ so that the life of Christ can be seen in others
- to maintain confidence in the truth spoken plainly to change people through God's power: especially as we go off to do Relay training in Wales on Wednesday and I speak at the joint CUs mission launch at Lancaster on Thursday
- for me and Anna, and all the members of Christ Church to speak the truth plainly to the people we know who aren't Christians.

Thanks!

When knowing "the word of God" is not enough

2008-09-30T05:36:00.000-07:00

Last week up in Scotland with the Relays (good times, and happy days) I related a story of a church I once visited. This church was publically committed to the Bible being viewed as the word of God.

It came that time in the service for the collection and the service leader asked the people there who were particularly struggling with some issue in their lives to raise their hands. You know, a relationship, money struggle, or looking for a new job. He then read this passage from Malachi :

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.

And then he said “so what the Lord is saying to those people with problems is, you should give the most generously to the collection, and if you do, God will open the floodgates of heaven and pour blessings out on you.”

Now, as I related this story there were (rightly) gasps of shock at the crassness of theology on display here. One could say many things about the man’s handling of Scripture, not least that he had failed to harmonise the passage with nearly everything else the Bible says about the Christian life.

But I think the real problem was this. The guy was committed to God speaking relevantly to people through his word, but was not at all committed to the doctrine that God’s word comes to us not by dictation but by incarnation. That is to say that God gives us his word that speaks to us powerfully today, but he gives it to us through particular people at particular times in particular contexts. Our theology is not Islamic, God dictated it, but rather that God perfectly revealed himself in human form. “The Lord is my shepherd” is no less God’s word for being David’s expression of his relationship with God. Malachi was spoken to people living under a promise made to them at a significant time in their history, not to me on a Sunday in August 2003.

You see, often the problem with Scripture is that people lower the God-ness of it. But sometimes the problem is (as with Jesus) that people reduce the human-ness of it too. The wonder of it is, as much as that the living God would speak to us at all, that he speaks to us through an epic story through human people in real situations. There is something inherently incarnational about how God likes to reveal himself – to understand the media properly we need to get that clear.

Gifts and stuff

2008-09-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

A very challenging sermon about what grace means in practice at church today. You can listen to it here
Great stuff - the Gospel frees me to love by absolutely making sure that I don't think of myself more highly than I ought! No more building my identity on trying to be better than others!

Almost as an aside Steve raised the issue of gifts and how the Bible doesn't really seem to expect us to spend time sitting round considering, going on courses or filling in questionnaires about our spiritual gifts. Rather, it seems to create an expectation that you just do it.

Someone asked a question about that, and Andrew helpfully added that we need to be careful not to impose our society's obsession with self fulfilment onto the word. You see there is a problem of definition here:
Our definition: a gift is something that God gives me, that I am good at and which I enjoy which can, if I so choose, be used for the benefit of the church.
Paul's definition: a gift is something God gives the church that you can do for the church. (As Andrew said, you might hate it, but it could still be your gift)
This isn't simply hermeneutics 101. It actually makes a difference.
You see, of course, if you think a gift is the former, you'l have to spend lots of time self analysing to find out whether it is, indeed your gift. AND, you'll be a total nightmare to any church that can't find a place for you to do what you're good at. Meanwhile Rome burns.
If its the latter, you won't think of yourself more highly than you ought, using the church as your tool on the journey to self fulfilment, rather you will see a need that you can fulfil, have a heart filled with sincere love with those who have the need, and serve them. That's Spirit empowered worship!
The Gospel is clever you see, it actually changes us so that we form the community God wants, by forcing us not to think of ourselves and our gifts more highly than we ought. Clever, innit!

ETA: I'm actually finding the way that this disgusting present picture clashes wth my blog quite pleasing.

And so it goes on...

2008-09-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

A week since Forum, and the mud is but a distant memory!

Since then I have had some time off, but despite that haven't quite got over the fluey feeling that has dogged me since then. My wife has been very patient with my sleepy grumpiness but now she has abandoned me to go and do some UCCF stuff in London. We didn't fall out, it was an arranged visit.

I've been trying to shake off my sleepy head and prepare a talk for my good friend Andy's wedding on Saturday. So we are off to Devon, and then from there, rather counter-intuitively, heading to Northern Ireland for a week.

It seems a little soon for a week of holiday, but the fact is that I really feel like I need it. We're going to spend some time up on the North Coast, and look forward to going back to Mussenden Temple where we got engaged 9 months ago!

So, if you pray, please pray for:
The Grace of God to teach me to say no to ungodliness. I have been so challenged by being immersed in grace these last few weeks, that real grace transforms.
Good rest and recovery time - do please pray that I would shake off this feeling of constantly being on the verge of a cold!
Christ Church as we (gluttons for punishment) put ourselves through yet more change by starting a new congregation in another suburb of Liverpool. It all has the potential to be quite stressful and turn church from a place of comfort to one of stress. Please do pray that we would love our church well in all the stresses and strains!

Big love.

Mo

What I loved about Forum

2008-09-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

There were lots of things. Other people seemed to enjoy the mud. That wasn't my favourite bit quite honestly. I loved the world mission emphasis, the enthusiasm for the Gospel, the uncomplaining love for each other, the Relay advert, seeing the Clarks/Wilson/Scullion/Petherbridge IFES clan.

But the thing I loved most was this. In a day when I have heard famous Christians (evangelicals apparently) scoff at the idea that people will meet Jesus in his word as students give it out and study it, when the mood of evangelicalism in Britain has (as we have seen this summer) been so obsessed with the so-called miraculous at the expense of simply testifying about Jesus, when the world and his mother seems to either think there must be some magic technique for winning people to Christ, or that we are due a wave of blessing to make it happen, I loved seeing a world renowned evangelical stand up and say well done to all the students who will be risking much to open the Scriptures with non Christians this year. "It will be better and harder than you ever thought!"

Thank you JP for travelling round the world to affirm that to all the small struggling CUs of 3 and 4, all the CUs who are scoffed at by uber-trendy servant evangelists and sophisticated chaplains, all the CUs where a couple of people and a Gospel of Mark is all that they have. Sometimes, its just good to know that someone you have heard of is with you.

You gotta have love...

2008-08-26T01:16:00.000-07:00

So. It begins.

Later this morning I am off to Relay 1. I love this conference. The reasons why are really made very clear by the lovely Steffy B in this post.

Please pray for us that we would see Jesus in all his gracious glory, and that would move our hearts, by God's Spirit to seek to reflect his awesomeness.

Please pray for me - it's a busier week than usual due to some staff changeovers. I'm sometimes snotty and bad tempered under pressure.

Pray that grace would sink in and change all of us.

Thanks!

The heartbreak of sin

2008-08-22T02:44:00.001-07:00

I hate sin. I hate the mess it makes of me and the world I live in, and all the tragic stories of people from Georgia to Tibet whose lives are swallowed up in their own sin and the sin of the institutions that control our lives. I hate the way sin is towards God - in Jeremiah in my quiet time this morning: "What fault did your fathers find in me that they strayed so far from me?" It suggests, wheedles and convinces that God is unkind, and cannot be trusted and won't give us what is best for us. It's stupid, it is horrific and it is based in blasphemy about the amazing God. I hate sin.

And yet I love sin. Sitting here now I don't love it, but I evidently do love it sometimes, or else I wouldn't do it so much would I? Something in me loves those things that are wrong. Something in me can see the starkness of the evil that ditches the awesome God for the dead idol, but loves the quick burst of comfort the idol promises. I love sin.

Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Stepping back

2008-08-18T03:19:00.000-07:00

So, the Christ Church Liverpool magical mystery tour (ooo, where will we be meeting this week?) continued on Sunday with me speaking on Psalm 82. I loved that Psalm and how challenging it was - what does true worship of the true God - that is, making the real God the centre and focus of all that you do -what does that look like in practice?

It looks like this: ceasing to show partiality to the wicked and defending the weak and the helpless. After all, that is what God himself is like: he loves, loves, loves to show grace to the weak, and he is opposed to the proud and wicked in all they do. Worshipping, honouring, and living for him will look like that!

Someone asked the practical question though - how do you "balance" that with doing evangelism? And I think the answer involves stepping back to see Asaph's unspoken but underlying theology in Psalm 82. You see, in the last verse, he makes it clear that his frame of reference is that God owns and runs the lives of everyone in the world. They are his inheritance, hence it is his right to judge them.

We are made by God our owner, for the display of God's character. We are not made to fulfil your own potential, or to fulfil our desires, or to do what we have to do to be ourselves (contra many churches' messages today!) but to show something about God. To display and honour and "glorify" his rule in the world. That's why he made us in creation, AND why he has redeemed a people for himself.

And that, at least a bit, begins to give some answers to the words vs actions question I think. Rather than geting myself into running my life myself, and then saying "oh right, how do I glorify God now -doing or speaking?" I think all if us need to consider every action, every interaction, every relationship as a means to display God's undeserved favour. At some points that will mean sharing the Gospel - after all, what is more compassionate than that?- but at some points making flat pack furniture or drinking tea, or watching a film and considering it Christianly, or driving non-aggressively and within the speed limit.

Let's step back. And say - with the person I am, in the situation I am in, how can I most display what God is like in his world? And let's ask that all the time. What we'd find, I think is that a lot more evangelism would happen, without us ever having to ask "what is more important?"

It will be hard work though. It will be almost like I'm not living my life for me any more, but living it as if it all belongs to someone else.

For those of you that pray -this week could you pray for:

- me to buckle down and get totally out of my holiday mindset into working mindset. Esepcially as we have both work related and just practical (mortgage, house insurance, car insurance) stuff to do. Pray for me to model God's kindness in all those small things
- diary planning - especially that we can prioritise good marriage time and contact with non-Christians
- for good and refreshing personal times with the Lord.

Ta!

Am I a charismatic yet?

2008-08-12T00:47:00.001-07:00

One of the things I love about working in UCCF is being challenged and taught to rethink and grow by sound Gospel people who think differently than me.
It has been the influence of good friends in the fellowship, giving me books, discussing things at conferences, reading their blogs and watching them live that have given me a more emotionally rounded view of faith - that it is not just grasping propositions (although it is not less than this) but wholly, emotionally entrusting myself to a person and his enormous claims. Not just accepting that grace is real but enjoying grace. Not just "teaching the Bible" but "enountering the living God in his word."

So, am I a charismatic yet? Well, it seems to me that the main practical difference between charismatics and nons is that the caros tend to think that their "inner leadings" are from the Lord, whereas nons tend to believe that their inner leadings are probably indigestion, lack of sleep or hormones. The former is a high view of the doctrine of our hearts having been regenerated, the latter a high view of the doctrine of total depravity. I guess the difference is a little bit eschatological - generally speaking, caros tend to believe we have more of the Kingdom right now than nons do.

Now, in my cynical moments I just think "that's what makes charismatics run after every fad that's going and then when they get tired of it, say the Lord is leading them to something else."

Maybe that's true sometimes. But one thing I love about the caros - they believe, really practically, that God is actually real, and is really involved in their lives, and might, you know, actually do something when they talk to him and ask him to act.

I love that. I guess my doctrine of depravity is too strong to totally be a caro by this definition as yet, but I really want that sense of a real, active God who, by his Spirit changes things. In that sense, I am as charismatic as the day is long.

Here I am

2008-08-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

So. Here I am, once again. I pour out my heart for I know that you hear every cry...oh no. Whoops, that was a flashback to the 90s we didn't need.

I'm wondering about the point of this blog, now that I have managed to ignore it so much that it has totally fallen off Bish's star list! Is it pointless? Maybe! However, I'm aiming now for at least one post a week, both my random thoughts and some news for those of you who want to use this for prayer. Hopefully there are some of you still out there.
First. I am married now. 4 weeks in, we are fans of the institution.

As I type my wife is in what used to be may spare room (now our spare room) clearing out all the old rubbish I don't need any more. We love each other and we love sleeping in our new enormous bed.

Second, August creeps on, meaning what it always means: Relay 1 prep. So I'm just working out what I need to rework for the conference, doing talk prep, and trying to learn who everyone is and where they are from.

Third, my church this year is doing an impression of the OT people of Israel and wandering around Liverpool, meeting somewhere new every week. Sadly there's no pillar of fire to attract newcomers.

Fourthly, isn't it funny the way that the Olympics makes you interested in all sorts of stuff youd never give a second thought to otherwise - like the canoe slalom.

Well, frankly, this post isn't going to bring me back onto the bluefish's starred list - but here's a number of things you can pray for if you are into that!
- Relay 1 -pray that God's amazing grace to us in Jesus would be refreshing, eye-opening, mind-blowing, and fire us all to praise him! Please pray for me especially as I prepare the talks - knowing what to do the same and what to do fresh would be great. It would also be great if you could pray for safety - we have a Relay Worker this year with a very serious nut allergy and we're having to take precuations to make sure that we keep her safe.
- 10 for Europe - this year we are hoping and praying for 10 of the Relay Workers to commit themselves to taking at least another year to work with IFES movements on mainland Europe. The needs are so great, and UCCF is in such a great position to become a great sending movement again as it was in the past.
- Me and Anna - that we would adjust well to living and working together, and that we would honour the Gospel with our marriage!

More deep thoughts later.

Questions about authority

2008-07-05T04:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, so at least in my small circle of UK evangelicalism there seems to be an endless and rather frutrating discussion about the connection between CUs and local churches.

No doubt as Bish says , this is related to another very healthy trend amongst a lot of conservative evangelicals and restorationist charismatic churches to work on developing a proper Biblical ecclesiology. (although Anglicans will always be a bit limited in this exercise;)) Bish chats about how that has helped develop a healthier attitude to local churches amongst CU members here.

However, a corollary of this has been, in my experience church leaders seeking to throw around theier "authority" - that is saying to students (and others) -church is important, therefore respect your local church leaders, that is us, therefore you need our permission before you do anything, and where you don't know what to do,you should do what I say.

As a church leader myself, I struggle with this, because there is a real significant move away from the great principle of the Reformation that it is God's word that has authority, and all people sit under that authority together, rather than authority being mediated through a church leader. In some places it has even meant church leaders "warning" their congregations against studying the Bible or doing evangelism outside of their formal church sturctures. I mean, has anyone heard of Tyndale?

What's more, it doesn't seem to me that this sort of heavy "leading" authority is what the Bible envisages for church leaders anyway - it seems that leaders in God's kingdom are supposed to serve humbly rather than enforce their opinions powerfully.

Recently I sat in on a group discussion where someone was seriously suggesting that they needed to ask a church's permission (permission I tell you!) before doing evangelism somewhere! Surely,what has started in an attempt to recover what perhaps had been lacking, a thought through ecclesiology, is beginning to mean adopting quite an unhelpful model of almost Roman Catholic leadership along with it.

The reason we think the church is important is because the Bible says it is. Because we all sit under its perfect guiding rule. Church leaders like myself would do well to heed what it says about what leadership means and be careful not to sinfully subvert and undermine its perfect authority over us.

Church teaches me grace

2008-06-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

Ok. This is terrible how much I have neglected my blog. I apologise blog. And readers if I still have any. And I'm worried that I'll get thrown off Bish's 2 starred list. So. Here's a thought.

More grace with the Relays last week. There's lots of it in1 Corinthians 12-14. Great stuff with lots of insight from all wings of the church!

In 1 Corinthians 12, the church actually IS the body of Christ. That's not just a picture - but Paul actually says "so it is with Christ" when he is referring to the church!

And how does the church show spiritually and really what Jesus is like? Its by the strong helping the weak (or rather, those who seem weak, which is a whole different issue). The strong and the weak working together, feeling each other's pain and struggle. Just like Jesus, who, in the Gospel, as the great strong man stoops to help and love the weak, taking our sins and sorrows and making them his very own, The church doesn't just talk grace, but it shows grace. It doesn't just say "Jesus", it is Jesus, and when those who seem to be strong painfully and sacrificially love those who seem to be weak, it shows it.

Back in the day, I used to get rightly narked with people saying we should "be Jesus" to people. I still do usually to be honest, as it usually means "being Jesus" in all the ways people liked Jesus and not "being Jesus" in all the ways that led to him being rejected and crucified.

BUT, ther's something in it. Together, not individually, as the strong give all that they have to honour and show special care for the weak in the church family, we do show Jesus. We ARE the body of Christ.

You know the fact that I am a right pain in the neck, and weak and stupid in more ways than I can count is actually good for my church. Gives them an opportunity to model what Jesus is like. They are also, I must say, very good at returning the favour!

Under-rated spirituality

2008-05-02T05:05:00.000-07:00

Challenging stuff at house group last night.

We began with a discussion about how different we look to the people around us. Not very, was the answer - because our motivations which are often different are often not able to be seen.

Then we looked at 1 Peter - aliens and strangers in the world. And there is one major mark of Christian spirituality that makes us different to the world around us: submission. Even the section for husbands, which is about wives submitting is basically saying - make her more important than yourself. Which is a similar thing to submission - just worked out a bit differently.

Now, I would not have chosen that as a way to impact society for the Gospel. Submission. Particularly, when it comes to working relationships, submitting to being treated unfairly. I was rubbish at that when I was in the workplace, and complained loudly when I thought I had been unfairly treated. And who can deny that, had I submitted to unfair treatment, I would have looked hugely different to the culture around me?

I guess the passage leaves me with lots of questions: when is it right to submit, and when is it right to stand up for your rights? Is it possible to do both - stand up for the right to preach the Gospel but in a submissive way? Where does this leave Christianity and politics and fighting against injustice, which is so much the trendy label of Christian spirituality today? Yet, 1 Peter seems to say Jesus shaped spirituality puts up with injustice and submits. I'm not sure what I make of that.

But one thing is clear. To be an alien, a stranger, a sojourner in the world means to be the least likely person to react to being treated unfairly. There may be a Biblical mandate for defending victims of injustice, but there is not one for kicking against being treated unfairly yourself. The fact is that the culture, which I have bought into, is likely to make me happy to live with injustice to others and get really angry about personal unfairness to me. Biblical spirituality is the opposite - and would certainly mark me out as a stranger round here.

The missing piece #2

2008-04-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

Being with OICCU bods this week also made me reflect on how a bad doctrine of creation used to affect me at university (and, I fear, for some time after that!)

You know Mark 4. You sow the word and "all by itself" the word grows into a plant that bears fruit. I really believed what I thought this passage was saying. That is - you just plant the word. Don't intefere with it as it beds down, and it might grow into something in the future. Who knows?

Like all the best lies this is nearly true. However, what it led me to do was this type of thing: ask friend to event, sit with them all the way through it, never mention it to them again. Or perhaps a token "what do you think?" Or, share 2 ways to live, and then on my way. Job done. No interfering, God's word will work. Just get the friend along. Just get them to hear. The word, for me, became some sort of magic spell - nothing to do with understanding, grasping, applying - nope just expose to the word and the magic happens. Conversion was a type of spell that "happens" totally separately to the person actually being, you know, a person. Whether they understand - almost irrelevant. Well, not irrelevant but a separate issue. And, of course, this theology was backed up by stories of people whose eyes were suddenly opened in later life to something they heard in their 20s, and it, handily affirmed me in just being able to get on with my life and avoid embarassing spiritual conversations.

Now - don't get me wrong - God miraculously saves through opening people's eyes. BUT, and this is what I failed to get - this doesn't generally happen through people having some experience separate to being a person (although, of course, it may) It comes about through God's Spirit acting on the person being a person: through their conversations, thoughts and emotions. Through the love of their friends, the Gospel "making sense" through the witness of creation and so on. I didn't do follow up well because I expected it to happen "magically" apart from me and my friend being friends - people.

I'm not explaining this well. But seeing creation as God's and people as in his image, although fallen, has also helped me think through the major debate of OICCU days - just words or actions too? In fact, it is all to do with just treating people as people: loving them, befriending them, sharing what is important to me with them, and loving them enough to push on a bit in getting them to talk about the Gospel.

People are made to hear the word of God. People are made to hear the word of God. God's word does his work in the lives of people. Grace isn't magic that happens separate to their humanity. Their humanity is made to see and accept God's grace.

The Grace Roadshow goes on...

2008-04-19T04:20:00.000-07:00

So - first of all an apology. I blog a lot about grace here, but as a nice friend pointed out to me recently, this blog has actually been a little bit ranty and..er..ungracious recently. So - I apologise. I'm still learning, and if I have offended you, I really want to say sorry. Sanctification, so far, incomplete.

Since I last blogged I have been travelling the country. Off to North Wales for New Word Alive which was awesome, and cold. Seriously, cold. I have never been so cold in bed in all my born days. Nevertheless, it was a great time to learn and be reminded (I love that Terry Virgo talk about Romans 7) to spend time with friends, and have the joy of seeing my parents, and discussing what they were learning too. The Relay Workers did an excellent job of stewarding, and I basked in their reflected glory, I had late night conversations, embarassed myself by not being funny, and thought about sovereignty. I also saw John Piper in the flesh: he's just a person! Who wears a tie! All the time!

After a recovery weekend spent under 2 duvets beside a radiator and trying to communicate through endlessly chattering teeth, it was back to North Wales for my speed awareness course. Coming back from Bangor a few weeks ago I was flashed by a speed camera - through roadworks - and the lovely North Waleians allow you to go on a course instead of getting points. We discovered "the reasons why people speed". Unsurprisingly it's because they want to get places quicker. 60 quid well spent.

Next - a return to Dyke House - I have now spent 13 nights there this academic year. It was great to hang out with OICCU reps and see how the Gospel still goes forward in that great university. I think what I was most encouraged by was how different the now undergrads were from me. I was a Christian at uni and lived for Jesus cos I thought I should - these guys really had a passion and belief that their friends, even the furthest away, could and should come to know Jesus. And I don't mean the college. Its a big mission year next year - and I'm praying that the Gospel of grace - so offensive to the Oxford mindset - knocks the university upside down!

Then off to Oxford - how I have quite got myself into this I don't know - to sit on a planning committee for an IFES Europe discipleship conference. IFES is a great movement. But man alive we are only scratching the surface of the Gospel need in Europe. An inspiring guy from Poland who pioneered the movement there when it was still illegal to be a Christian, talked to us about Ezekiel chapter 3 - talking to a people who will not listen - and how it is so like doing student ministry in Europe. We also had useful chats about Relay Homestart and how to make it bigger and better.

The mixture of visiting OICCU and IFES made me ready to pray for some of the excellent high calibre students of Oxford to throw their lives away to get the Gospel to the students of Europe. I'd love it( and am praying for it) if we had days like the first days of the movement, when the best and strongest committed their lives to students from other cultures hearing about Jesus and growing in him. I long for Homestart to be a vehicle for that more and more - please pray with me.

So - hopefully news and helpful thoughts will be the order of the day instead of ranting from now on: hope this helps you pray!

The missing piece #1

2008-04-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

One of the things I am so grateful to God for, is what I have learned from much valued UCCF colleagues about a doctrine I have never really through through before - the doctrine of creation.

This is basically the idea that while creation is fallen it is good and it is still God's and he, in fact, still works through it. It has all sorts of implications, especially as we think through what it actually is to be a human being, and what our role is in God's creation.

Before being challenged by my coleagues in this area, I basically bought into a theology that said, creation is fallen, God is redeeming it through the Gospel, therefore it is possible to simply prioritise "Gospel" work above "normal" work and order your life simply to provide enough "Gospel" opportunities. Now I am seeing that God actually has a role for us in creation, which the Christian, having been recreated in Jesus to be fully human, can begin to undertake. This does, of course, include evangelism. But life becomes a lot more interesting and complicated. More on that in another post.

When you begin to see something somewhere, you begin to see it everywhere, and I want to start a blog posting series on all the places I have now begun to see the importance of a solid doctrine of creation popping up.

And so, first, a relevant one to my last post: I have a bad doctrine of creation when I am not bothered about giving boring talks because "after all I am faithfully preaching the word." Now, dear reader, don't get me wrong here, I haven't had a huge paradigm shift - speakers must, please Lord, teach the word. But, it seems to me, we may have bought in so hard to the "God's words does his work" theology, we forget and separate that from the reality that we are speaking to human beings, and God's word speaks to them as such. A right viewing of them as God's good creation means that God word works not just in some mysterious separate spiritual way, but as humans are interested in it and understand it and think about it and apply it.

Some of the preaching theology I used to have- just get the words out there and something weird will happen - is to be honest "pseudo gnostic". We are not just teaching the Bible. We are teaching people the Bible, and we are not just waiting for something spiritual to happen to them outside their real humanity.

So next time I give a boring talk, less whining for me, and more doctrine!

Sad.

2008-04-02T05:40:00.001-07:00

It's a long time since I had the experience, although it brought memories flooding back of being a staff worker...recently for the first time in ages I spoke at a Christian event where quite a number of individuals sat and talked, laughed, left the room and came back and ignored me while I was speaking.

So I was offended - and I need to get over that.

But what I was doing was a kind of led Bble study from the front. And said-same people in the time they were supposed to be looking at God's word (ironically in a passage that itself describes God's word as more precious than gold, and sweeter than honey) messed about, some of them didn't even pick up the printed out text to read it, and talked about all manner of things except the Bible.

I mean, fair play if you don't want to listen to me - I can be boring and irritating sometimes - but to so blatantly ignore God. It makes me sad. Gutted really.

This makes me sadder: we then had a 40 minute "worship" time where the same people passionately cried out to God to change them, help them, grow them from the inside out. He's happy to. Through his word. The exact process the passage , Psalm 19, describes, in fact.

There was endless praying for anointing and blessings and all manner of things. But little respect for one of the greatest blessings God has given us - his precious word.

It makes me sad. I guess I'm a little cloistered these days, not having seen that "theology" in action for a while, I assumed it wasn't really out there any more. But it is. With a vengeance.

Passionate "worship" without a regard for God's word. It needs a modern day minor prophet.

It makes me sad. How many riches are there in God's precious word if we will only actually look at it, dig into it and treasure it. It is restoration for the soul, and light to the path.

So sad. Pray with me for a generation who will see that what God has to say to us is infinitely more important than what we will sing to him.

I need help!

2008-03-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Obvious to anyone who knows me.

Bish has been ruminating on the meaning of faith as demonsrated by Abraham. Great stuff - trusting God's promises even though you can't see the benefit.

Last night at House Group we were looking at Ephesians 1 and 2. And here is something that I had never seen before. God has given every spiritual blessing in Christ. But, that blessing is in the heavenly places. Which means that it's better than a blessing that's here now, but right here and now I can't see it. I have a guarantee of it now, a really great guarantee, the Holy Spirit, but it is mostly in the heavenly realms, a spiritual blessing, which we will inherit later, when everything is brought under Christ.

So what do I need? I need strength to believe, have faith like Abraham did - to keep trusting, and not to choose what looks better now. And that strength is exactly what Paul prays for in the next verses - for God to give a spirit of wisdom and revelation so we can see in our hearts this spiritual blessing.

That is the strength I need - to see with the eyes of my heart the glorious spiritual riches that God gives me so I don't give them up for what I can see. Isn't that the battle of the Christian life? Well, it is for me.

The good news - there is lots of strength to be had. God can answer this prayer - because he will give us the same strength to trust for our inheritance that he used to raise Jesus from the dead.

The more I live as a Christian, the more I understand that what I need to do is see things through spiritual eyes, to see the world through the revelation that God gives so I trust and base my life on what I can't see not what I can. To fear God (who I can't see) not men (who I can). To love the blessings of adoption, redemption, forgiveness (that I can't see) more than the blessings of friendship comfort and reputation (that I can). Its so hard to live that way. But God has plenty of strength to give. Great might to help me see the world that way and live in the world that way.

Subbing for deacons?

2008-02-26T00:55:00.000-08:00

Now, I’ll admit that this is something of a bugbear with me. But there are people who make me feel like I am constantly on the back foot recruiting Relay Workers because I am not a church. I’ve blogged about it before.

But, I was struck by a conversation that my parents had recently with friends of theirs whose son was thinking of working on a church apprenticeship scheme. The son said, “It will be some student work, some training and some practical work. “ “Great” said the dad, “what is the practical work?” “Oh setting out chairs, hymn books, folding service sheets and stuff”. “Oh”, said the dad “it’s just that, in our church, normal church members who have other jobs do those things. We call them deacons.”

Recently I found an old article in a Christian magazine where someone was asking whether it is really a strategic use of our resources to take people out of secular work, our most promising graduates in fact, to move chairs, stuff envelopes and cook food. Fair point.

But what we want to do in UCCF is train people to do mission work to our dying culture! I want to immerse them in the Bible AND in pioneering missionary work, mentoring and frontier mission on Britain’s campuses. I do not want to have a “theological upper hand” card played at me to trump that so someone who could be an effective campus missionary can move chairs, when I’m quite sure that taking a year off secular work for a year of training on Relay will not be wasted, whatever they go on to do.

Is it just possible, that apprentice-ships can sometimes be (not always, dear reader, lest you think I am over-generalising) a middle class way to deal with the deaconing that needs done in our churches – “we are all too busy to serve the church, so throw a bit of money to get a graduate in to do it”. Of course they learn to serve by doing it, I’m not denying that, but what does the church learn by paying someone (or not!) to do that stuff?

And does the church learn by releasing someone into campus ministry with a specialist ministry to students for a year? I think so.

So, by all means, recommend the church deal as the best thing for some people. But please don’t play that trump card with me. It is, in my humble opinion, a bad theology of deaconing.

The Grace Academy

2008-02-18T06:58:00.001-08:00

So. Grace is the Relay buzzword. Which means, as the Relay Co-ordinator, you'd think I'd kind of have it pegged. And yet, I feel like, even though I spend a lot of my life thinking on, teaching about and depending on grace it still feels like this picture, like I can just see a sliver of the amazing light dawning all the time!

This weekend I had a great time doing 4 talks on grace and chatting to CU leaders in the UCCF North East Region.
But getting the talks ready and teaching through them I had a bit of an epiphany.

Let me fill you in. I don't understand much about the New Persepctive, but at least part of the debate seems to be whether Luther got it right that "righteousness" in Romans is God's giving us his righteousness or God displaying his own righteousness. Ignorant amateur theologicans like me wondered why we had to choose.

Anyway, I started this weekend in Hosea 11. What a great passage for expressing God's grace: for it shows the the depths of the adluterous idolatrous behaviour we have adopted against our faithful, loving gentle and gracious Father, and yet the aching and emotional compassion He has for us. What's clear from the passage is that God's bringing his people back won't be any sort of weak begging of a cheated husband, but a terrifying roar that will bring us trembling to him. God demonstrates his righteousness in bringing us back. What's also clear in Hosea is that God considers this demonstration of his amazing character an alluring of his people to him: not only will he objectively bring them back, but they will subjectively want to come back when they see his greatness. When they see his acts of saving judgement, they will wonder why they were worshipping and serving such stupid dead things instead.

Fast forward to Romans 3, talk number 2 - where the righteousness of God is made known in the Gospel. Righteousness of God or from God?
Well - both frankly. God is just and the justifier - making us righteous and ALSO at the cross displaying his own amazing, superb, awesome mercy and justice. The Gospel is all about God being really seen to be who he really is - not only does he objectively make it possible for us to come back by the cross, he also woos us back by displaying how great he is. God did this, as the passage says, to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time.

When I see the cross, which allows me to come back to God, why would I worship anyone but the great God revealed at the cross?

Awesome - God opens the way, AND woos us back at the cross.

This explains much. Not least why the ultimate aim of the Gospel in the Bible is to glorify God - for it is in the Gospel God is revealed as he really is - glorified.

But more than that I feel challenged about my formulaic, what's in it for the listener, Gospel talks. God woos us back, allures us, by showing us his greatness in the Gospel. When I present it to people I want to be saying not only, you can be forgiven and justified but also, this God is so great, why worship something else. When I call Christians to full commitment to God, I'm not just preaching the cross as the place where you can be confident that your lack of commitment can be forgiven, I'm preaching as the place where you'll see that worshipping another God is just stupid and dead and swapping someone awesome and great and alive and righteous for things that are dead and cruel.

Grace rocks. For not only allows us to come back if we want to, when we see it moves our foolish sinful hearts to come back and live in covenant with a brilliant stupendous, too great for me to explain in words, Husband. And that, my friends, has set my heart a-singing today.

These things are CONNECTED!

2007-12-14T09:19:00.000-08:00

Well, my last post on Christian hedonism caused quite a stir. I'm not critiquing anything in this post - well only obliquely - so hopefully less controversial.
Anyway, I feel like I had a bit of a personal revelation when giving a seminar on godliness last week. It's BLATANTLY obvious, yet, I rarely hear people saying it.

It was this: the ways God tells us to be godly are connected to what he tells us to believe in the Gospel.
So - for example - lots in the Bible about not being proud. Great. Now I am a Christian, I must TRY not to be proud. No No No! If I am a Christian, and have believed that I am saved because of God and not me, and that all of us stand before God only on that basis (which I do believe, because I am a Christian!) I cannot be proud. I just can't. The things that God tells us to do as Christians aren't his wishlist for how he thinks people should live, as much as simply the applications of the the truths of the Gospel to actually living.
For too long I have heard (and believed, sadly) that godliness is some type of project involving effort and accountability that one gets on with after trusting the Gospel to become a Christian. It isn't. In fact, that's veering towards the Galatian heresy in my not so humble opinion.
Godliness is my battle to believe the Gospel. When I sin, I need to dig out the root of unbelief. The things he is telling me to do are related to the ways he tells me to act. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Why is no one telling people this? Grace is actually the power to live the Christian life. We have all we need to live for God in what he has given us in the Gospel. Can we all start telling that to each other please? Thanks.

Christian Hedonism - not quite there...

2007-11-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know it’s practically considered heresy to disagree with John "the magic" Piper in some circles, and I want to caveat what I am about to say by saying that there is no one Christian writer who has influenced me more over the last few years than that distinguished American gentleman.

Yet, on reflection, I find myself unable to totally wholeheartedly subscribe to Christian hedonism. My questions may be answerable, I don’t really know – but here are my objections.

1) Some of the examples used to “prove” that God is not glorified properly unless we give him what he deserves joyfully don’t really prove that. So Piper (and Sam Storms who I have been reading recently as well) makes a big deal about honouring one’s wife by loving her so much that you honour her, rather than because one feels obligated to. Not being married I can’t fully comment on that. But doesn’t it speak even more of her worth, and the worth of the relationship that I honour her, do what is best for her at my own cost even when she is doing my head in and getting on my nerves? Isn’t sometimes more honouring to God that I don’t feel the pleasure of obeying him and yet do so?

2) Scripturally I am not convinced. Experientially there is sometimes joy in obeying God. But sometimes not. Jesus expressed loud groans to God when facing death. Particularly, I don’t know how the command often expressed by Chrstian Hedonists to pursue one’s own joy as hard as you can fits in with the command to deny yourself, which is key to repentance. Denying yourself is sometimes not joyful, and surely actually means that the heart of Christian discipleship is NOT doing what will bring you most joy but denying yourself that.

3) Lastly, and this is a really major question, I’m not sure how one teaches Christian hedonism evangelistically without it being therapy Gospel: “These sins make you happy, but Jesus will make you really happy.” It’s actually been Sam Storms rather less complex presentation of Christian hedonism that has most raised this question for me, for that is what he recommends saying pastorally to people who want to sin. How is that not the therapy Gospel? I’m not sure.

So there you have it – perhaps I am a heretic, but that’s why I can’t sign up to be a full blown Christian hedonist.

Of course, it could just be that I am on a very delayed train home with a sore throat and so I don’t feel much like rejoicing in the Gospel at the moment…

Jonah vs Existentialism

2007-10-15T12:19:00.000-07:00

So - I've been reading The Universe Next Door

Shame on me for never reading it before!

And I've been learning about existentialism - 2 planes of existence, objective and subjective, and on the subjective level we create our own meaning. We create reality. Sire makes the interesting point that the assertions of existentialism read, to most people in our culture, like statements of fact that are so blatantly obvious that they don't even need saying.

Then this morning I was looking over some talks from Jonah to give at Leeds CU houseparty in a few weeks time. And I thought - the first couple of verses of Jonah are all about existentialism not being true.

Now, of course, one could speculate all day about why Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh, I personally think, from chapter 4, that it was largely because he didn't want the Ninevites to get converted. But I think at least part of it must have been that Jonah wondered what on earth God was doing wanting the Assyrians to repent. What business was it of theirs what the God of Israel thought? Yet God says that their wickedness (this totally pagan people group who had their own "reality") comes up as a stench before him.

You see God is the God of the whole world. Reality. We can't imagine him out of existence. What's more, he thinks something, feels something about the behaviour of people, even people who have created a reality wherein he doesn't feature. God doesn't buy our existentialism: he is the ultimate reality, no matter what existence I try to create without him.

It's when we buy into the existentialist assumptions of our culture, rather than making God's being and feeling about our sin the real reality , that's when we do a Jonah.

New shoes...

2007-10-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

This is my culture slot from this morning along with accompanying video.

I like this song a lot. And, like Paulo Nutini, I too have new shoes on today that I’m very pleased about.

So, this is not going to be a rant about how new shoes are evil. However, one of the things I like about the song is the way it really is the way that people live. I mean, it starts off like Paulo Nutini is going to be someone keen to hear about Jesus: I thought there was something missing in my day to day life – the solution: Jesus. No – new shoes.

Way our culture, especially twenty-something culture works. We know there is something wrong with the world, something wrong with me, feel the emptiness of life, but I can mask it, with new shoes, with a night out, with seeing friends, with getting drunk, with relationships. I’ve got some new shoes on and suddenly everything is all right. I love the song, but the sentiment it encapsulates is actually a sad one because it is so common: live with the knowledge everything isn’t all right, but I can cover it up, with new shoes, and then more new shoes, still something missing.

Christians know what is missing, is actually something a bit more serious than new shoes: it’s a relationship with the God who made us through Jesus: so there we go: easy. Addressing culture done. Or not.

Actually, what we often find for us as Christians is that we live the same way. Smug, relationship with God, but actually I’m living for the next pair of new shoes, and after that, the next relationship, and after that the next holiday, after the next house extension, using.=, kid myself, even more foolishly, acquiring those things will make me happy. So how can we tell Paulo Nutini and the culture he speaks for that there is more to life than new shoes, when we tend to feel all right when we have our new shoes on, and only then.

Real fact is this: that Jesus is what God offers us to know him in the relationship we were made for. Not happiness so much, as joy. Hear amazing image of it in the passage that we will read today: Jesus offers a spring of water that will mean we will never thirst, a spring of water welling up to eternal life So why are we still seeking satisfaction in other things, satisfaction that doesn’t last.

Good question – maybe it is because we just don’t actually believe what Jesus promises. We don’t believe satisfaction will be found by giving up pursuing our fixes, and trusting him, giving everything to him, and living in every area of life for him. It will not be easy, but the New Testament uses all sorts if ways of describing that life: joy, peace, rest, eternal life.

Cannot doubt: In terms of the New Shoes culture, knowing God seems like an obvious answer to the emptiness inside, one of the reasons that our culture doesn’t want to hear the message that that is the answer is that we don’t live that there is more. Jesus is not made to look like the answer to our culture’s question, is not made to look great, when we, his people, try and find satisfaction in other things.

Chivvy yourselves up – try to show Jesus is a bit better by sacrificing stuff like new shoes. Not the way it works – cart before the horse: love the shoes we will do what we can to get hold of them, if we really see Jesus in all his soul satisfying, amazing grace and love we just will stop living as if that can be found elsewhere. So we have got to pray, to seek to ask God that we will really see Jesus as he is, then living for the next pair of new shoes, the next promotion, more money or the next relationship will just stop. Undoubtedly if we really know and experience his goodness, attraction of other things will fade – cheating ourselves out of something great – knowing God. Unapologetic at Ch Ch that teaching to show greatness of Jesus, not 18 things to do tomorrow: point to him.

Is enjoying things wrong – possible to enjoy all good things God gives in a way that gives credit to Jesus, rather than trying to use them to fill the place Jesus would be, real enjoyment. One of the things church is for: you help me and I help you: buzzword accountability does your life show that satisfaction comes from Jesus or somewhere else?

Jesus would tell Paulo Nutini that real satisfaction is only found in him. But I think Jesus would know that Paulo might want to see it in action, and so he’d say, here’s a group of people whose job it is to model that real satisfaction isn’t found in the things God has created but in God himself. We are God’s plan for doing that. Essential part of the plan for reaching a culture living from one pair of new shoes to the next.

I love this:

2007-09-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is one of the reasons I love youtube. I loved this ad when it was out. I'm so pleased I found it!

Seven

2007-09-27T11:47:00.001-07:00

In tribute to Bish...
here's Seven:

1. Black Swan Green. The first book since Shining Like Stars to make me cry in a public place. What makes the real me come out? Why are their different "mes" pushed into shapes by what other people want? Heartbreaking questions.

2. Singing. And helpful conversations with Tom about how to make it better. Just cos all of life is worship doesn't mean singing isn't.

3. Photos of nice places in frames for my wall. Oxford and Liverpool - different places and I love them both.

4. Weddings and party. With my lovely girlfriend turning thirty and laughs with UCCF friends in Guildford. Lovely to see Roz get hitched. Long drive home.

5. Grace. From Zechariah with the Careforce posse. African passion for Jesus: awesome!

6. Love at house group. Learning about it from the Bible and experiencing it in the laughter.

7. Facebook. Inspiring my prayer letter and receiving messages from lovely ex-Relays to encourage.

Repentant...

2007-09-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Christ Church people. On reflection - while I do very much wish that you would sing louder (and hopefully this little Facebook ramble will make us all do that next week - I do actually love you all very much and I am very glad that you are my church family. So sorry for dissing you on the internet.

But do sing louder and more enthusiastically. Please.

Frustrated...

2007-09-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hey listen Christ Church, the Gospel is true ok. Seriously it is. All that stuff in John 2 about Jesus purifying us so we can celebrate? Yup, that is actually real.

So worth SMILING and SINGING about. I DO NOT understand how people who believe such great things can sing so rubbishly. Get over it.

Excited...

2007-08-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is this year. Maybe it's that I've done it twice before. Maybe it's because I've been at home these last couple of weeks, so I've been thinking about it. Maybe it's having so many shiny new staff. Maybe it's because the application process is taking nearly a year now so I feel like I have been getting ready for this bunch for ages.

But I am EXCITED about Relay 1 starting. Not stressed. Excited! Please pray that the Gospel sinks in and the Spirit does his great work of lighting up Jesus in all his glory for us. Pray for the nervous souls coming from all round the country that the grace of God soothes and calms. Pray for the cocky ones, that God humbles and prepares them to serve. Pray for me - that I would love them and the Lord more and more. Fight the fight. Run the race. Keep the faith.

Sweeter than honey...

2007-08-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

Well, despite the narky man in the Grauniad announcing that the Bible is bad literature, I've got to say that every now and then I come across something in Scripture that just "speaks to me" in a literary sense. Now, the Bible is all God speaking to us, but now and again something just gets you. It happened to me preparing my sermon on Psalm 77 last week (I'd link the audio for you, but a gap between ministry trainees means that it hasn't quite got onto the website yet.)

I'm not sure I had ever read it before and it's a heartbreaker. It describes the familiar experience for many of us, of asking God to help you, change things, make something better and it not happening. And so, even your Christian life becomes a negative thing, because God seems far away like he is ignoring you.
Inevitably, Asaph asks the obvious question: can I really believe that God loves me? Is God really as kind and generous as he says he is? Because it doesn't feel like it.

Asaph doesn't solve his problem as such - he just works out a way to keep going and that way is to rest assured that God is as good as he says he is because of what he has done. That's all we have got.

However, in saying that Asaph (the Holy Spirit) comes up with this amazing piece of poetry:
The waters saw you, O God,
the waters saw you and writhed;
the very depths were convulsed.

17 The clouds poured down water,
the skies resounded with thunder;
your arrows flashed back and forth.

18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
your lightning lit up the world;
the earth trembled and quaked.

19 Your path led through the sea,
your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.

20 You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

You see what is going on here? Asaph is recalling the huge storm that God used to help his people cross the sea when they had been rescued from Egypt. And he describes it as a terrifying supernatural experience. No Sunday school story here: the storm was huge and terrible, and the seas parted, the people had to "follow God through" even though they couldn't see him.

Can you imagine it? Moses and Aaron saying "God's leading us through - it's safe". And the people saying "er..where are his footprints then?" It can't have felt much like God was a gracious compassionate and merciful God at that moment in time - more like a scary monster! And yet, verse 20 tells us what was really going on: God was shepherding his flock through Moses and Aaron. It didn't feel like, but that was what was happening.

What a great poetic word picture of what difficult times in the Christian life: it doesn't look like what is going on round me demonstrates God's love and compassion for me but nevertheless, shepherding his flock is what he is doing.

God is looking after us, even when we don't feel like it, when we can't see him and we are following him through the storm, where we can't see his footprints. Good to know.

Being incarnational...or not.

2007-07-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

So, the IFES world assembly is over and it is time for reflection. I'm not going to blog about every little thing that I learned, or take you through the detail of the conference: Andy has done an excellent live blog already.

I just want to share some of the many things I was challenged on and learned about when I was at World Assembly. And the first is "being incarnational". Incarnational is a bit of an evangelical (and especially an emergent) buzzword at the moment. Basically it is usually used to mean becoming like people before you try and tell the Gospel to them, as that is what Jesus did: demonstrating God's commitment to us by becoming like us. Sometimes it is even expressed in a more extreme form - that becoming like people, "incarnating with them" is in itself a way of sharing Jesus with them.

Well, I have lots of thoughts about being incarnational. For example, it is rather unfortunate in its effect of creating a "what would jesus do" approach to the Gospels rather than encouraging us to believe and trust the Jesus of the Gospels. I often wonder if it simply what the missionaries of yesteryear would have called "contexualisation"?

Anyway, a dear brother from France, Jacques Buchold, opened my eyes to the fact that the New Testament DOES indeed call us to model ourselves on Jesus' earthly ministry. In one particular way - facing rejection from people. Try 1 Peter for starters.

Typically, I'd managed to consider being incarnational with spectacles on that allowed me to look over that particular aspect of how we are called to be like Jesus. Of all the ways that Jesus models our ministry to us, that's the one the NT highlights, and the one I'd least like to follow.

I love being loved. But being like Jesus in the world, incarnating my Christian faith as God incarnated himself means facing up to rejection by people. To love the world enough to be hated by the world.

This was made all the more powerful by being surrounded by brothers and sisters who face rejection by family, friends and state because they incarnate their faith into a hostile culture. People whose marriages are secret, whose job is illegal, who can't even risk having their photo taken at an international conference. The lady who went to take the Gospel to a people group her family so despised that they would not speak to her or approve of her work.

Those people, after all the emergent blogosphere armchaor theologising about incarnational, those are the people who model Jesus ministry in the way he commands.

Bono on Christianity and poverty...

2007-06-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

This week, I've really enjoyed sorting out a new elective study module for Relay workers about Christians and Society - specifically Christians and poverty. I have loved re-reading this book
which might actually be my favourite Christian book ever, and reading this one for the first time. Lots of interesting and very moving stuff in there.

Today, after much hassling from my brother and lovely John who goes to my church I watched this (this is part 2 of 7 parts). Bill Hybels interviewing Bono about the world's poor and the church.

It was very very interesting.

Things I liked (apologies to Cara - there's that phrase again)
"Celebrity up-ends God's view of things - why is a film star more important than a nurse?" But even better "It is currency to spend, and I want to spend it on this campaign."

"Who is your neighbour?" This, it seems to me (as in me, Maurice, not me, Bono) is the key question. Jesus really actually does command me to love my neighbour. And then tells the story of the Good Samaritan to draw those boundaries very widely. Even more widely today when people's faces are beamed into my home to show me their suffering - doesn't that make them my neighbours? Anyway, loved Bono's straighforward love theology.

"Stop asking God to bless what you are doing, find out what he is doing - that's already blessed". Yes - a trusim, axiomatic, some might say, but nevertheless true and a useful principle for life.

"The peace that passes understanding inside is good, that does NOT mean peace with the world." Amen. I am not at peace with the world. Or at least, I shouldn't be.

Ok, I have something else to say though - there was one major thing I didn't like. Before that - context. I come into contact with a lot of people who are convinced of a theology that basically says evangelism is so much more important than helping the poor that it basically eclipses it. I want to convince these people that generosity to those under the sun is part of applying the doctrine of creation, AND is a model of God's grace in the Gospel, AND is a direct command for us to follow.

So here's my gripe, and I'm afraid it's going to annoy some of you. Why do calls to help the poor have to be surrounded with sloppy theology and poor exegesis? All it does is convince the people you are trying to win over that what you are saying has nothing to do with them! That is not helpful! Misquoting Matthew 25, taking Isaiah 58 as if it is written to us today, not a Jewish nation in history, making snide comments about the church, as if as a Christian you are permitted to sit in judgement on the church is not helping make the point. Nor does it help if you make "ending poverty" equal "what God is doing", or confuse us about what actually "brings the Kingdom" or make it sound like we have a binary choice between "grace" and "atonement". It makes the people who most need to be convinced, think that social action really is connected intrinsically to liberal theology!

Maybe I just sound like a grumpy old man. But honestly, I actually liked Bono much more than I thought I would. In this I am, mostly, on his side, although I think there is great danger in the church aligning itself with popular figures, and, perhaps, playing down the unpopular aspects of what we believe. Nevertheless, I believe that he and Hybels are doing a good and right thing here by calling the church to act. Sadly, I think what they do is make it seem like you have a choice between evangelical theology and social involvement. And that, my friends, is the last thing we need.

Happy...

2007-06-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

...when we look along the sunbeams to see the sun at the source. According to CS Lewis.

Some sun beams recently include:

Grace. Repeatedly. "Not the year I would have chosen" from many Relay workers but "the year when I saw God's undeserved kindness, that I have a righteousness from Jesus outside myself" from many more. What a privilege to listen to that 62+ times! It's my job!

Joseph. What a great TV show that was. Even though Ben should have won.

Proverbs: the adventure of life, working out the world in the fear of the Lord. Guarding our hearts. Trusting our Lord. Nice.

Doctor Who: David Tennant is the best Dr Who ever. Period. AND he's my celebrity lookie-likey too. Tonight's return of the Master was awesome.

Transformation not withdrawal - talking to the lovely Dan Strange about Public Theology.

Nghia's Jedi outfit.

Skulls coming to stay: fun and nice to catch up.

Finally, Ed's version of my Proverbs 5 talk - actually better than mine because he talks about Jesus.

Why I love my employer...

2007-05-26T09:21:00.001-07:00

Well, it seems to be quite de rigeur to say all sorts of rude things about my employers on the old interweb at the moment. Fair enough I guess. However, reading one of said critics the other day ("in a post charmingly entitled "UCCF: a clanging cymbal") I feel moved to say something.

I LOVE UCCF! Well, you may say, you ARE UCCF, so that's hardly surprising. But what I mean is, I love the other people that make up the organisation I work for, and I want to share some reasons why. I'm going to say "they" not "we" partly so I look more modest, but also because I really am talking about the things I admire in the other people I work with and for.

They are grace people I didn't really understand grace until I worked for UCCF, despite being taught it verbally many times. Now I understand it because the people around me have put it into action.

They are not just simple gospel people What? Heresy! Nope, not really. UCCF, as we have seen, is an organisation that will fight tooth and nail for the Gospel, a but also a movement where I have learned more than anywhere else what it means to love God and serve him in all of life. There is no sense in UCCF that discipleship is about learning a Gospel outline and passing it on, unlike other models I have seen. Discipleship is thinking through what Jesus gracious Lordship means for every single area of life, throughtfully and deeply.

The are constantly self critical When I joined UCCF, my boss said to me "there's a way we do things round here, but it could be all wrong, so speak up while you are new, before you fall into our culture." I love that. UCCF is an organisation that asks for critique, and, in my experience is constantly and dynamically changing and refining because of what different people have to say.

They are risk-taking people Got a project that might work? Try it. Let's give it a go. Does it expand and assist student mission? Then it's worth a punt.

They are relational people That's what UCCF means to me really - friends. Instantly caring and loving people who are bothered about my work and life, and want me to be bothered about theirs.

They are people who drink from many streams That's the thing I love most about UCCF - the influence and stimulation from people from hugely different backgrounds and approaches within an agreed Gospel framework. Let's take good Bible handling, a high view of apologetics, a "whole-life" view of discipleship, a pleasure in God's glory, a high view of the Bible, a high view of the Spirit, a "conservative" love for expository teaching, a "charismatic" love for passionate worship, a free church emphasis on conversionism, an Anglican appreciation for covenant - let's have all of it! And no doubt some of the people who originate some of those things will think we're a bit dodge for appreciating the others: but we don't care. All truth is God's truth.

You know, call UCCF what you want - clanging cymbals or worse. But I, and many others, love it. I praise the Lord for the opportunity to serve God within it.

Why is church in black and white?

2007-05-21T05:25:00.001-07:00

Great session at Ch Ch with Steve last night (despite the presence of marauding pigeons) thinking about the view of spirituality presented by Velvet Elvis and Blue Like Jazz.

The verdict: we didn't like it. Although we think that they have very useful things to say, doctrine is not formed out of a conversation with ourselves, our stories or our culture. In fact, as Steve helpfully pointed out, doctrine is the far more exciting revelation of God's story and the call for us to join in and be part of that.

The question though: why are so many of the things that Bell, Miller et al say true about our churches? Where is the emotion and engagement? Where is the sense that we are operating in "full colour" in church, in the same way we do in the rest of life? Good questions, and ones we need to face up to.

2 punts at answers:
1) Sometimes, and I get the overwhelming impression that this is true of most reformed churches I have visited, I don't really want to experience the emotions that the truth is calling me to. I don't want to enter into God's anguish in Hosea 11, the valley of death in Psalm 23, the frustration of false doctrine in Galatians. It's easier not to. To be honest, church is a lot more straightforward when it's in black and white, and a lot more easy to deal with on a Sunday morning.

2) The second thing is that I don't really let church people into the full colour version of my life, and my sense is that they don't often let me in either. When did I last honestly answer the question "how are you?" When did I come clean about what a sinner I am to my church family? Much more likely I smiled, covered up my need for help, and went on my way. Easier for me and them that way - but ultimately black and white.

I guess that's not the whole issue - but it is part of the way there. The answer isn't to try and bring full colour into what was always meant to be black and white - the story God has revealed, but somehow, me and the raggedy bunch of people I call church need to find a way to experience the story in glorious technicolour. We can only do it together.

What a great night...

2007-05-21T01:01:00.000-07:00

I love going clubbing wiv ma church homies. Big Up. Let's do it again soon.

PS - this is actually va spiritual - a "field trip" to put into practice all I have been learning about the goodness of God's creation from Proverbs. Actually.

The PS debate, things to reflect on:

2007-05-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

I guess it's always been my experience in life that when someone criticises you, you want to defend yourself.

So you do.

But after a little time, you can see that, even if they were being very unfair there was maybe a grain of truth in what they said. And maybe it's like that with what people say about penal substitution.

To say that we believe in cosmic child abuse is a cruel, nasty unpleasant and vitriolic thing to say. We need to defend ourselves against that accusation. We don't believe in that.

But Chalkey and lots of other people I have come across who don't like PSA, the reason for their criticism of the doctrine is (they say) because of the people who teach PSA. Those people don't love well, according to the criticism. They don't love each other or the world well. They don't seek the good of those around them. And that's because, according to the critics, they believe that God hates the world; God feels violently towards the world, and it's only sweet little innocent Jesus who stands in the way of us being smashed by God's uncontrollable violent feelings towards us.

Well, we've managed to (or at least some people have like these peopledefend the doctrine theologically) to show that we do believe God loves the world, and that's why PS is so important.

But has the Chalkemeister got a point about our actions? I think he might do. Most of the Christians I know spend most of their time with...Christians. Me included. Which doesn't model brilliantly that God loves the world. Most of them, and by them I mean us, spend the time we are with Christians complaining about each other and allowing the way they do things to wind us up. When they, and really I mean we, engage with the world, maybe we often are all about winning converts, rather than loving the world like God does. Maybe we do, as I was challenged about in church yesterday, think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, rather than thinking that the point of the cross and PS is so that God can start reinvading the world with his glory, recreating it through the church. Through me. Through us.

Steve Chalke and your friends, wrong diagnosis, but good one for spotting the symptoms.

Thing is, it's a deep belief in PS that makes me think this stuff is important, if I really let it sink in to me. There is my God taking on himself the result of my sin, the result of the world's sin. How he must love the world. There he is humbling himself to the weakest and lowliest place for our sake. How he must care about the weak and lowly. There he is making a statement that justice must be done, that sin must be identified as sin, that the victoms of sin, caught up in it by their own guilt should be shown compassion. How he must love justice and long to see compassion.

You know, I can't speak for anyone else. But when I think about me, I think that maybe those PSA critics, wrong as they are about theology, might be right that there is some sickness in my spiritual life. Even after PS is, rightly, defended to the hilt, maybe there's still some things to think about.

Penal substitution and forgiveness

2007-04-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

This is a harder question philosophically I think. It's one that appears in the Lost Message of Jesus, and crops up again and again when debating with non-evangelicals online.

It goes something like this: Jesus taught that we should forgive our enemies without asking for anything back. Yet the heart of penal substitution says that God demands payment for sin - he won't forgive without it being made up to him! What's that about?

Well a number of answers:
First, I think it would be a mistake to say that we should expect God to give us commands which also apply to himself. In fact, there are plenty of things that God requires of us as creatures which do not apply to him as creator: not to worship ourselves, for example. When I demand payment or recognition or vindication for being wronged, that is inherently sinful, because, as a creature, I don't deserve or merit vindication. God, being God, does; the ultimate end of the universe is the vindication (or glory) of God.
But that's not satisfactory by itself, because this is, in some sense a moral issue, and we don't want to say that God expects us to be morally superior to him. However, I think penal substitution does, if we view God as Trinity, model forgiveness better for us than any other atonement model. If all three members of the Trinity are equally God (which they are, I believe) then God as a whole is, in punishing Jesus in our place, taking upon himself the hurt and pain and alienation caused by our rebellion. Isn't that exactly what God asks us to do in forgiving others? I think that's significant, because other models without penal substitution don't in any real sense model God's self giving, self substituting love. Christus Victor says that the atonement is all about God defeating his enemies. Moral influence is about God winning our hearts, moving us to repentance. But only penal substitution (or those other models with penal substitution as their centre) show us how to forgive - take the consequences of the sin of others on yourself. It, as a model of the atonement, shows us exactly what Jesus meant by forgiveness more than any other model.
Third, the whole argument is based on a false premise. It would undermine God's forgiving nature if he was demanding reparation from us, but the point is that the reparation is paid within the Godhead so that the Godhead's attitude towards us is one of forgiveness. In that sense, to set retribution and forgiveness up against each other is to set up the very problem the cross solves.
So what about forgiveness then? Should I only forgive because Jesus has taken the punishment for the sin that someone has committed against me? (Or that God will punish it in the future?) Well, no, I should forgive because Jesus tells me to, and I know what it is to be forgiven. But the great thing about penal substitution is that it does two things for me when I am trying to forgive.
It stops me ever later coming back and thinking that the sin committed against me should be paid for. It the safety net against bitterness, because that sin IS paid for. No more coming back to it. I have no right to dig up something that Jesus took away and buried with him in his tomb.
It also helps me with the "right" sense of "wrong" we have when someone sins against us: that sin was wrong and deserved punishment, and should be pronounced as wrong. The cross as the ultimate act of self revelation tells my troubled soul "God knew that was wrong and has publically, cosmically, wholeheartedly, at great cost to himself pronounced it to be so. You need not seek out a way to prove that sin is sin, for God, in simultaneously pronouncing his own glory AND saving you, has pronounced that it was wrong. Be calm and let it go, for God has already passed that verdict and served the sentence."

Questions about penal substitution...

2007-04-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

...the topic likely to make you scream and run away from the computer if you are following church politics in Britain at the moment.

I'm not going to say any more about Word Alive. I'm sick of "who said what to whom" discussions really, and sick of people writing books and then acting all surprised and "who, me?" when they say horrible things about other Christians and said Christians get upset.

Nevertheless, much as I hate all that is going on, I am committed enough to PSA to think it is worth it. In fact, the truth that Jesus died to take God's just punishment for my sins is one of the ones I'd die for. Gun to the head I couldn't (I hope) deny that one.

Adrian Warnock is blogging through an excellent series on the doctrine and I won't be able to say much better than him. More interesting still because his theological standpoint on other issues shows that this whole thing is miles away from being a conservative/charismatic battle.

But people have some real questions I have come across, and so I am going to post my answers.

Is the victimised Son placating an angry Father? Easy one to start. No. All members of the Trinity are acting together to save us from the wrath of God: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

Harder one next: Why can't God just forgive us? Now there's a standard evangelical answer to this, that I think is partially right. Because God is just, and hence can't just stick sin under the carpet. The (perfectly reasonable) reply, is "how is it just for him to find a totally random person and put all the punishment on him?" I think that's an excellent question, which we have been too slow to answer.
Several answers:
1) Depends what you mean by justice. Is justice just people getting what they deserve? It's more than that in God's terms, it's a cosmic proclamation that sin is sin, that wrong is wrong, that in a universe where the holy God reigns it is not right to rebel against him. Justice is defined by the crime - which is God being pushed out of his rightful place: God declares that is wrong in the horror of the cross. If God is God, God must declare (or rather act to declare, as God always revelas himself through actions) in the most graphic terms that wrong is wrong.
2) Jesus isn't just our substitute, he is our representative, to quote one of my favuorite pieces of literature, the UCCF doctrinal basis. Jesus just doesn't stand in our place as a substitute randomly chosen out of nowhere, but as the one able to represent humanity to God. Why? Well, union with Christ and the incarnation. No time for all that at the moment. Nevertheless the Bible teaches it: in the same way Ireland's rugby team represent me in rugby, so I can truly say "we won" when they won, Jesus represents me before God because, in the Gospel I am united to him.
Brain about to explode yet? We've hardly started.

To be continued....

The drama continues to unfold....

2007-04-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the text of the UCCF statement on why the Word Alive - Spring Harvest partnership has ended, and Spring Harvest's response saying the UCCF statement is lies. Nice. In the interests of fairness I'm blogging them both in case my readers haven't seen them. My only comment is that it isn't possible to see from reading the 2 statements where the accounts are incompatible, and that the Spring Harvest statement doesn't say whether there being "no room in the mix" for Word Alive was anything to do with Steve Chalke.

Response from UCCF to the SPRING HARVEST decision to end the World Alive Bible teaching week after 14 years

FOR the past 14 years, the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship and Keswick Ministries have been delighted to partner Spring Harvest in organising Word Alive, one of Europe's top Bible Study weeks with a vibrant student track aimed at young people. Widely recognised, orthodox Bible teaching has been the hallmark of the event.

In 2003, the Revd Steve Chalke, one of the Spring Harvest Event Leadership Team, and a member of their Council of Management (trustees), wrote The Lost Message of Jesus. In it, he promoted unorthodox views over the nature of the Atonement, and hit national media headlines over his controversial and graphic description of Penal Substitution.

The Word Alive committee, of which UCCF is a part, believed such views to be contrary to orthodox Biblical teaching and as such, decided that the Revd Steve Chalke could not teach from a Word Alive platform.

The Evangelical Alliance (EA) held a Theological Forum at which various theologians debated with the Revd Steve Chalke. As a result, that organisation decided to change its constitution to clarify where the EA Council of Management stood on the issue. In May 2006 Spring Harvest advised the leadership of Word Alive that the Revd Steve Chalke was able to sign up to the new and revised EA constitution and therefore requested he be allowed to preach from the Word Alive platform in 2007. This request was refused as Mr Chalke had publicly confirmed he had not changed his personal theological views.

In September 2007 the Word Alive Committee were called to a meeting by Spring Harvest and told that as they would not include the Revd Steve Chalke, the 14-year partnership was at an end. Spring Harvest said they regretted they were putting a personality ahead of partnership. Spring Harvest announced it would be promoting its own student-based week at Minehead in 'week one', resourced by Fusion, of which the Revd Steve Chalke is on the Council of Reference.

Our decision to allow only orthodox Christian teaching from Word Alive platforms, and Spring Harvest's subsequent decision has caused enormous pain and regret. However, UCCF believes it can no longer work with those whose understanding of the nature of the gospel and the distinctive of the atonement is so different to theirs, and mainstream evangelicals in the UK and across the world.

There comes a point when loyalty to the gospel, as we believe it to be clearly set out
in Scripture, and the drive for unity with others can come into conflict, and we have reached that point.

Meanwhile, a new 'Word Alive' event, organised jointly by Keswick Ministries and UCCF has been planned for 7-11 April 2008 at Pwllheli, where speakers already confirmed include John Piper, Terry Virgo and Don Carson. There will be an increased capacity and further details will be released shortly.

Rumours circulating that the break-up of the partnership was down to Word Alive's refusal to accept women speakers is totally refuted. UCCF regularly has women speakers on its platforms, and it is a matter of public fact that Keswick does too. The key issue is Spring Harvest's corporate support for one of its own trustees, the Revd Steve Chalke, over Biblical orthodoxy on such a central issue as Atonement.

And the reply:
Peter Broadbent’s Statement

Spring Harvest, Keswick, and UCCF (the three partners in Word Alive) agreed to go their separate ways. The statement we produced at the time reads as follows:

“2007 will be the last year of Spring Harvest Word Alive. The constituent organisations — Keswick Ministries, UCCF, and Spring Harvest — will be ending a partnership that has lasted 14 years, and have agreed to go their separate ways.

Word Alive was originally conceived as a distinctive event within Spring Harvest, drawing Christians from a more theologically conservative church background to Butlins for a week with a strong emphasis on expository Bible teaching and a major input for students. The partnership has been a fruitful one and we thank God for the way He has worked through this event over the years.

Of late it has been difficult to accommodate Word Alive as a separate week within the total mix, and after much discussion, the Spring Harvest Council of Management gave notice that Spring Harvest Word Alive could not continue beyond this year. “We’re looking to end on a high note,” said Pete Broadbent, Chair of the Spring Harvest Leadership Team. “Our theme for 2007 is One People — and we’ll be teaching and celebrating that reality throughout our programme.”

Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes and Chair of the Word Alive Committee, said the Word Alive brand would continue independently of Spring Harvest after this year’s event. Keswick Ministries and UCCF will continue their partnership and will announce very soon news of future venues and dates. Word Alive will continue its emphasis on lively, cross-centred Bible teaching, a full student programme, and fun and fellowship for all the family.

Spring Harvest wish the Word Alive partners well and we separate thanking God for the part the other plays in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the UK today.”

Various people have since attempted to "spin" the reasons why we decided to go our separate ways for their own purposes. That's their decision. It's not where I am, or where Spring Harvest are. Wallace Benn and I stood on a public platform at Spring Harvest Word Alive, wished our respective events well, prayed for each other, and departed on the best of terms.

This blog has already linked to the statement made jointly by Wallace Benn and myself (Pete Broadbent) on behalf of Spring Harvest Word Alive criticising Jeffrey John's inflammatory stuff on the atonement. So there is no way that anyone can represent Spring Harvest as being anywhere other than the orthodox biblical stance on the atonement. You comment on the style of my statement. Actually it reads the way it does because it's a verbatim transcript from a seminar I was giving on the continuity of OT and NT theology, during which I made the aside about Jeffrey John. So it isn’t necessarily theologically honed and polished — our Press Officer put it out as a press release reporting what had been said.

It’s terribly sad that UCCF are now coming out with an official statement that simply isn’t true to what actually took place. I don’t want to get into a public row with UCCF, whose ministry among students I support. But this is just simply to say that I dispute most of what is contained in the statement as being either misunderstanding (willful or otherwise) or total fabrication. I could hope that they would withdraw their statement and hold their peace. They seem to want to define themselves over against Spring Harvest, which I regret. We stand for the same faith and the same gospel.

Pete Broadbent Spring Harvest Leadership Team

New word - Lottish!

2007-04-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

Definition: like Lot. As in the Bible Character.
Etymology: Invented by Steve Palframan in a sermon on Genesis.
Meaning: to put your trust in God's promises, but not so much that it effects everything you do, and hence to end up in a mess.

I have been LOVING a series of great sermons by my good friends Steve and Jeremy on the chapters of Genesis following Abraham and his family after God makes his covenant with him.

And the person who has really struck me is Lot, not someone I had ever thought much of before.

Lot crops up basically twice in the story. First, he chooses to live in the land God hasn't promised, and ends up in the middle of a very complicated war. You see, while he is a believer (the New Testament tells us so) he doesn't really live that out by settling in God's land, and so, comes a mess.

Later on, we see him settled in Sodom. Bad idea. He puts up two angels (which is fair enough, I'd be kind to an angel if I met one) but when the people of Sodom threaten some pretty nasty things to the angels, he offers his daughters as bait instead.

Er..exsqueeze me? Baking powder? Your daughters!? You see, Lot is trying to do the right thing, but living in the evil city, influenced by its ways, he's become more like them than someone who really believes God's promises. He wants to protect the angels (er..yes) but tries to do it in the way of a Sodom-dweller (er..no) He is a believer (saved from the destruction) but is not letting God's promises really change his life (unlike Abraham). And hence. A mess. Lot's wife being judged by turning into a pillar of salt shows just how dangerous that is: she, unlike her husband, was just on the wrong side of trusting God's promises.

And me? Well, the challenge is to let God's promises shape the way I live: not just living in the world around me with a small nod to God's promises, but, unlike Lot, letting God's promises change the way I live - WHERE I live, how I react to my family and my surroundings. If I'm not doing that, if I'm being Lottish, then I am indeed playing a very dangerous game.

The drama...

2007-04-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

...of the sad (but Chalkeishly inevitable) Spring Harvest/Word Alive split has begun. It's so sad to see such influential people put an old friendship before the heart of the Gospel.

Here I am...

2007-04-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

...blogging on my mum's (I kid you not) new MacBook! Now I come home in the evenings and instead of finding my parents chatting about the day's events over cups of tea I find them sitting at separate laptops IMing each other and planning holidays in Alaska. The art of conversation is dying.

Well, blogland has been down the list of priorities for the last few weeks as I sank into a deep well of Word Alive preparation. The High School Musical themed Bible Overview went down well, as did the summing up the message with song titles. I particularly liked "Walk like an Egyptian" for the Exodus, "Oops I did it again" for Judges and "The Final Countdown" for the New Heavens and the New Earth. It totally reminded me of how great the Bible is: remember when you first saw how the Bible all points to Jesus - it was great to get some of that feeling again.

Word Alive was also great for freezing walks on the beach with Anna, waking up every morning with the lovely Pod, great talks on Hebrews from all the student speakers, but a special mention goes out to lovely Roger Carswell who did a great job on the last morning: let's keep running the race by fixing our eyes on Jesus. I also got my first taste of cyber-bullying, as the Relay workers, unprovoked, gave me the bumps: 30 is 2 to many for my current age by the way: and then posted the evidence on the internet: search on youtube for "Mo gets the bumps". They are very very bad boys, and Andy Shudall says I need to insist that I get more respect from them.

Now I am back in the province, seeing friends, watching rubbish TV and drinking tea with my mum. The ideal holiday. Excited about the Apprentice tonight, and Anna arriving tomorrow...

Big Up.

Something good from the government:

2007-03-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

I know. Most shocking. Here is what Meg Munn (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State) had to say when my MP forwarded my letter about CUs and SUs:

"We believe an organisation with a religious purpose, such as a Christian Union, should be able to resrict its membership to people who share that religion."

Good eh?

Creation...great servant poor master

2007-03-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

1 Timothy at the church weekend - me, Ken, and Jez, one talk each.

Lots to learn. There's something about learning together in a church family that is just special.

Anyway, interesting heresy in 1 Timothy, if such a thing isn't heretical to say. There are people saying that things in creation are bad in chapter 4: avoiding foods and not getting married. Then in chapter 6 we have people teaching wrong things for the sake of getting richer: materialism. Wrong approaches to creation. Saying it's too bad, and saying it's too good - both are problems.

So, what's the way forward tgo approach creation well? I think doing that has got to be a defining feature of the church as it seeks to live out its calling as a pillar of truth in the community: protecting the Gospel and showing it off.

Well, chapter 4 - accept God's gifts and be thankful. And chapter 6 - be content with what you have. You see creation is a poor master but a great servant. As a path to helping us worship God, thank him and give him the honour he is due, it's a great tool. As a master which calls for our loyalty it is a rubbish, a slave driver offering no comfort: it will lead us to be pierced by many griefs.

I think this also sheds a bit of light on the women stuff: which is all about the church modelling creation order: the right approach to creation - wanting to restore it's perfect model.

Someone this weekend rebuked us for not reading enough CS Lewis! Well, 1 Timothy reminded me of that quote about creation being like a beam of sunlight in a dark room - meant to lead us to look for the sun, not just admire the beam. When we see creation that way we can enjoy it the how we are meant to, as a path to God, without living under it's cruel rule which ends up hurting us.

How foolish we are to swap the rule of a loving father for the harsh coldness of a created idol. Maybe Christ Church's Project 2007 will help us learn that as a church.

Question: how can we model loving creation for how it helps us know God better, as part of our evangelistic task as a church? Any ideas anyone?

Sorry blog...

2007-03-09T05:41:00.000-08:00

..I bet you thought I had abandoned you again. I haven't, I have just been haring about the countryside. So what to share.

First: had a tiring weekend with the East Central Kids doing 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. Let me be honest, I have now given 3 talks on those passages and I still don't understand them. I'm quite sure that my confusion was evident to the lovely student leaders of that region. They were very patient. If you want to hear some GOOD talks on 1 Corinthians, try here or some done the same weekend by my good friend Mike Reeves, available here I'm looking forward to listening to those and having my eyes opened. The highlight of the weekend was no doubt the Ipod game, where we plugged mine into the sound system, put it on shuffle, and let the students name the tunes. Someone guessed Tupac and Puff Daddy or something like that. I was like, "er..sorry, totally wrong ballpark."

Second: lovely time with Anna going here The big slides are cool, but neither of us were quite cultured enough for the art. We also went to see "music and lyrics." It wouldn't be up Dave Bish's street, but I loved the sweet song they wrote together (pirated bit of the excellent piece of cheese in the film on youtube here)

Third: Leadership Team. Ho Hum. However, Tim accused me and 2 other Northern Irish compatriots of restarting the Toronto Blessing after a pre-prayer discussion of the Toll Trolls. If you are Northern Irish, you will find this hilarious. Otherwise you'll be mystified. There's nothing like laughing when you aren't really allowed to.

Finally: my dad told me today that a friend of his who is a pastor in Switzerland reads my blog. Big Up Swiss contingent: sorry this post wasn't quite up to Reformation standards.

Church weekend ahead.

A week of reading...

2007-02-16T01:14:00.000-08:00

...which possibly isn't the most exciting blog title ever: but there you go.

Several projects I have on the go at the moment have me reading and trying to understand 1 Timothy, 1 Corinthians and stuff on how the doctrine of creation calls us to develop a Christian mind.

It's all been very interesting: particularly how Paul's assertions against "wisdom" in 1 Corinthians 1 (and the theology that says the cross doesn't make sense to the world) fits in with the call to out-think the world we live in, in this book: Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. She is someone who confesses that she was "argued" into Christianity by people who intellectually convinced her. Hmmm, how does that work?

Well, I haven't found an answer yet, but I have 2 lines of thinking.
1) A very helpful conversation with Jason Clarke on Tuesday opened my eyes to the truth that what is wise all depends where you are standing. So the cross is foolishness to the world because it doesn't humbly accept the truths that make the cross necessary: sin, God's holiness and grace, the need for redemption etc. In the same way as something can look nonsensical when you JUST look at it alone, but makes sense when you see the whole picture, so the cross is ultimately wise, it does ultimately make sense of the world, but only when you humbly accept some truths about God and yourself. Thus the cross confounds the wisdom of the world (the world could never think it's way to it), but is the only real wisdom that makes sense of the world we live in.
2) Even Nancy Pearcey says that her being intellectually convinced was an act of God humbling her. So having her eyes opened to the truth that she couldn't function in an intellectually satsifying way without Jesus involved her falling down and admitting she needed God and couldn't do it alone. So it IS still God saying "you can't think your way to a solution without me", humbling the proud through showing them that only trusting him allows the world to be as it should be. "The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom." Indeed.

Personally, it's been challenging to not faff around, but work hard! It's also been hard to see again in 1 Timothy what God commands of the leaders of his people and repent where I don't match up. Lots to think and pray about.

"Serving the local church..."

2007-02-09T02:21:00.000-08:00

There's an argument around that goes a bit like this:

Q:"What should I do if I want to take a year out after graduation?"
A: "Work for a church. God works through the local church, so that's what you'd do if you were really wanting to see God work"
Q:" What about other excellent schemes, like ones run by dashing young Irishmen who love the colour orange?"
A: "They are for people who aren't really committed to the local church. But I know you are a godly Christian and so will want to do the local church thing".

Dashing young Irishman: " I'm flummoxed. Also, what type of names begin with the letter Q?"

Now, the dashing young Irishman is no longer flummoxed. As someone pointed out, sometimes people show their commitment to the local church by taking a ministry job outside the local church. A nice friend recently showed me that my personal commitment to the local church, to loving it, strengthening it and being committed to it as the Bride of Christ is much more effectively played out by doing what I am doing training, teaching and administrating outside my local church than it would be if I worked for it. Same is true of Archbishop Peter Jensen, of missionary Hudson Taylor and my friend Chris who works for IFES in Belgium. It's because these people love/d the local church that they didn't settle down in one local congregation and work for it - they saw an opportunity to resource and support and help the church by working outside it.

So, don't fall for the lie that working for a local church is intrinsically more godly. Make the decision that will help you, with the person you are and the gifts you have got, serve the church, by working for it or not working for it.

Blood Diamond and Malachi

2007-02-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday night I went to see this. Now, let me be frank - I didn't really like it. I generally don't like being preached at by films, and not only that, but this one, while making a worthwhile point, turned on the most ridiculously unlikely "bad person turns good and makes sacrifice" plot sequence I have ever seen.

However, I do generally find that films like this which graphically show us people doing terrible things to each other make me have existential crises of a sort. How CAN God let evil terrorist groups seeking their own wealth chop children's arms off to make their political point? How CAN people be that evil, and we still claim God is sovereign over it? I guess I'd be a rubbish Christian (or, an even more rubbish Christian) in a war zone.

Interestingly the day after (after, if I'm honest, not sleeping very well thinking about children being deliberately maimed in wars) I beetled off to Wales to do a team day on Malachi.

Now, Malachi is all about people who are going through the motions of being God's people but not with their whole hearts, and so God is pretty angry.
As you go through the book it appears one of the reasons that they are like that is because they don't believe that God is against the wicked. The evil prosper. Which is one of the reasons that I guess I'd doubt God a lot more if I had to witness real obvious evil outside of my middle class cocoon.
What's interesting about Malachi is that having those questions under the surface and allowing them to filter the way you serve God is disastrous. Don't trust God's love and promises? You won't really want to serve God whole heartedly. Don't think God cares about justice and honesty? You won't be just or honest. Don' t think God can really be trusted to run the world? You won't entrust him with your money or life.

So how does God answer? Well, pretty complicatedly. But he says, I will judge and I will purify. Evil WILL be dealt with, by my purifying judging messenger. The cross, basically is all we can look at and hold on to to believe God really is committed to judging fairly. I suppose, post-cross, I have more reason to believe that even than Malachi's hearers, who hadn't seen God's demonstration of justice and probably saw worse atrocities in real life than I'll ever see on screen. But God says it is enough, in fact, to say otherwise is to be "harsh against him".

I guess I can't just let my worries about justice and my sick stomach at child soldiers round the world just bubble below the surface until they suck the life out of my service of God. I have to stake the heart of those questions with a big wooden cross, and be as committed to justice as God is. And trust him with the rest because he is God, and has proved that he will deal with sin by judging and purifying.

Blood Diamond insists, despite all the evidence in the film to the contrary, that bad people can turn good. I'd rather place my faith in God who has gone out of his way to prove his justice. I pray I can hold on to that cross, standing their, cutting history in two when I'm seeing it and experiencing it away from the cinema. It's hard though.

Relay 2 - things people said:

2007-01-29T12:35:00.001-08:00

"God is still God and the Gospel is still true" Anna Mack

"God IS the real God - and the minor prophets are like a mountain range" Me

"The Gospel is that the King has come, and you need to trust him" Jason Clarke

"Let's get into small groups and pray for a very important event: Spurs playing Arsenal tonight [sic]" Anna and Nat

"You made it seem like God isn't really bothered if we accept him or not" (Cat Brooks on my real Gospel talk)

"I was SURE I had chosen the right one" Olly Hallett on one of my not real Gospel talks.

"You are an evil dictator" Jon Norwood on rich and poor day

"Being rich is fantastic, I didn't feel guilty at all" Conscienseless rich person

"We have so much, and it was good to be reminded" Poor person, with lots of conscience

"I think this day is REALLY not hardcore: we should be giving them less food and cold showers" Karen Humphris on the people's revolt.

"It's about LOVING PEOPLE" Tim Chester on social action

"We can put up with the persecution because someone somewhere in the world is praying for us" Cuban Pastor quoted by Karen.

"Ah, the boys session - self image and masturbation" Kenny just about sums it up.

"My lovely lovely horse" The Irish boys

"Follow McCracken and your dreams will all come true" The Scotland Team

"Yet again, I have planned a really BORING seminar" nameless staff member

"God is bigger than you think, change comes through trusting the promises, real joy comes like that" Zephaniah. Roughly.

"I DID learn something by being rich" rich person holding toilet cleaning materials.

"Just wanted to tell you, Anna are going out, have been since September" (me)
Silence
"They think it's a gag" Anna.

Thanks Lord. Mo.

We're coming out...

2007-01-29T08:21:00.000-08:00

This dancing boy...

...is going out with this dancing girl (the one looking at the camera, the other is married already)

In the words of the song, we want the world to know.

2007-01-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

Well, a quick blog in a week of madness to say 2 things.

1) This is THE FUNNIEST photo I have ever seen! It's of my friends Marc and Sarah doing their samba roll, that they learned off Strictly Come dancing. Fortunately, they don't do the whole blog thing, so they'll never know I posted it.
Every time I look at I smile. Which I need this week.

2) I have just discovered that somehow I had chosen the option to moderate comments! There was I thinking no one reads my blog any more, when in fact comments from as far back as AUGUST were waiting to be moderated. Sorry everyone. Big up.

But you got to have friends....

2007-01-06T02:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I have posted about my wonderful friends before on this blog, but I am going to do so again.

Back to Northern Ireland for Christmas brought me back into the sphere of some of my favourite people, for a lot of laughs, fun, food, and more shared experiences. One of which was my school 10 year reunion (10 years after leaving, not starting, sadly). It was great to see some faces I hadn't seen for some time, but it also reminded me that I am really glad that I am still friends with the people I still do see. The most amusing point in the evening was the putting of unleaded into dad's diesel car, having to stop in a dodgy area of Belfast, and the ensuing banter with Marc and Sarah. Althought it's one of those experiences that is really only amusing in hindsight, when we discovered I hadn't ruined Dad's car forever.

Props to Nicola, who is modelling to the rest of us what it really means to live out your Christian faith in the community, in politics, in your hobbies spending time with people who really don't like the Gospel, for taking us to the reunion you didn't really want to go to. Props to M and S for modelling Christian family life with a large dose of laughter. And the amazing articles for the Presbyterian Herald Props to Bron for doing what you think Gods wants you to do even when it is really hard and involves crying in a forest. Props to Chris for not coming on New Year's eve. Not. And props to Emma for having the rest of us singing at your wedding. Really, are you sure that you know what you are doing?

My friends are legends, Shloer-junkies, the kings and queens of rehashing old private jokes, and they show me the Gospel at work. Fair play.

And coming back to the pool late at night to a wamr greeting from a friend, milk in a bottle and the supply of much nice food reminded me that God has given me great friends here too. Big up to Little Mo's massif.

Jonah, Jonah, you bring me stormy seas with your deceit...

2006-12-16T14:33:00.000-08:00

Back in the 90s I had an album (on vinyl!) by a little known group called Breathe who sang a song with that line in it. It always goes through my head when I am teaching Jonah, as I was on Friday with the lovely Midlands team. As always when you study a book with brothers and sisters who love the word, people open your eyes to new and wonderful things: here's a few the lovely Midlands guys helped me with:

Chapter 1: I'd never seen as clearly before the rather frightening aspect of God's character that he will put us through quite literally anything to get our obedience from us. It's good for us: discipline - but frightening all the same. It also raises the very difficult pastoral question about "Am I Job or Jonah"?

Chapter 2: Thanks to etrangere for the insight that the covenant plays an important part in understanding the book. Jonah remembers the covenant (and rejoices in it!) while inside the whale by quoting the Psalms extensively, but still by Chapter 4 hasn't quite thought thropugh what it means for the rest of the world if God really is the way the covenant says he is. Interesting for us so keen, rightly, to celebrate the Gospel, but often so slow to think through the implications of the God revelaed by the Gospel for the rest of the world.

Chapter 3: Pray for revival. Here we have the largest most unlikely revival we have recorded for us in the Bible started by a rogue possibly unconverted prophet preaching less than half the Gospel. Yet the Ninevites believed God and their whole city was turned upside down and repented. Why shouldn't our gracious compassionate God do the same today, - weak as our churches and CUs are? Let's pray that he will!

Chapter 4: I rushed through. I'm sure they would have had some interesting things to say on that too had I given them time!

Thanks Midlands team for your wonderful insight and encouragement: it was worth my 4 hour epic journey home from Nottingham! Also, Phil Marshall give me a lovely back rub, which was not at all dodgy.

Bloggerama

2006-12-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

I'm back, back again, in the words of eminem. And with a brand new Relay inspired look and name, which was generously provided by Dave Bish Big Up and Thanks Bish!

I'm going to try and post more often, not just with my deep thoughts (which is why my posts have been more infrequent) but with all my exciting happenings in life. I'll try not to just fill you in on boring "I went to the shop" news though.

2 things that made me think this weekend.

I went to see my MP Louise Ellman about the whole CUs and SUs thing. She was supportive on that front. Not so on the Sexual Orientation Regaulations issues which I also raised with her. But, ever since I've been working with Richard Cunningham and listen to him harp on ad nauseam about worshiping Jesus with all of your life, I have tried to do that a bit - and one way is making what I believe are his views heard by the person who is supposed to represent me to government. Her PA looked at me like I was barking mad, and we were in a room with floorspace the size of a postage stamp, but I felt all liberated having taken my part in the democratic process.

I went to a 9:38 ( link here) conference Lots to think about there. But what I came away thinking about is this: give me a godly pastor who wants to humbly serve the Lord, over someone who preaches great sermons any day of the week in charge of my church. Make me like that too Lord. Both would be good...but if I have got to choose....

Finally, look at this video of my friend Steve's daughter telling the story of the three Billy goats gruff - cutest thing ever Weep with the cuteness if yopu click here.

Anyway blogettes - it's great to be back.

1 Corinthians 14 b

2006-09-15T05:20:00.000-07:00

1 Corinthians 14b

Main point: Gifts should be exercised in such a way to convict unbelievers that God is present and to reflect God’s character order: all gifts should be used in a way consonant with apostolic authority.

So, what have we seen so far – Paul’s vision of the church is not one where people who are good at one thing lord it over people who are good at another. Rather he says, God’s spirit gives the gifts, and church is a place where God’s Gospel of valuing and saving the weak is modelled, and where we work as a whole unified body with one another, sharing in one another’s joys and pains.
Then we saw yesterday that the way that works out in the local body is through everyone in the church striving to use gifts which build up the rest of the body – and we saw that the body can only be built up, and grow towards demonstrating this truth that they are the body of Christ through what they understand. So Paul says, since you are eager for spiritual gifts (which is a good thing) strive to excel in building up the church.

So, the church that shows the Spirit, the church that shows Jesus, the church that works like a church, and now the church that is like God.

The central verse, I think, looking at this section is verse 33.

We should use gifts in a way appropriate to the giver.
Think that is the idea here – we have seen that Spirit works to bring the conviction that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus is one body and so the church should show that together. Now we see that God is not a God of confusion, disorder, or tumult as some older translations put it, but a God of peace. Use the gifts he gives in a way that reflects him.

Paul in verse 20 makes a call to the Corinthians that he has made throughout this letter, he makes a call to them to be mature. The selfishness, the lack of moral sense, their strange almost Gnostic ideas that they put into their church life, their mad barking mad church meetings, they were signs of immaturity, and Paul repeats the call that he has said throughout the letter: don’t be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, don’t grow up towards evil, be as innocent as you like when it comes to sin, but in your thinking, in your understanding be mature.

A mature understanding is seeing that the gifts they have should be used in a way that is consonant with the God that they serve:

Evangelistically (vs 21-25)

Remember way back in 12:1 – the work of the Holy Spirit is to bring people to say and mean – Jesus is Lord, to quote the Reverend Bish – being spiritual is about being Gospel. And here we see the evangelistic heart of the apostle Paul shining through as he tells them prophecy is better for leading people to become Christians.
It may have escaped your notice but people talking nonsense isn’t really helpful for people to become Christians, which is basically Paul’s point here. Sadly, while there isn’t much tongues speaking going on in CUs they can be a very appropriate place to learn the lesson that people talking rubbish doesn’t help people become Christians.

But in terms of speaking in tongues, if an unbeliever comes in and you are speaking in tongues to each other, they will think you are out of your minds, which you would have thought would have been self evident.

But don’t you find that’s the way when we are so full of our own spirituality, God’s told me to behave this way, so you can’t question it. We so easily forget to think about what we are doing in terms of what unbelievers will think of it – which is surely what the Holy Spirit who brings people to see that Jesus is Lord would want us to consider?

Don’t want to be cynical about CUs and students, and I’m sure a lot of it goes in churches too, but people do the most ridiculous things because apparently the Holy Spirit told them to: you think, the Holy Spirit wants people to come and say Jesus is Lord, and all this will make people say is, those Christians are out of their mind.
But Paul the evangelist would encourage us to evaluate everything that we do as a church body in terms of what the unbeliever will do when they come in, and that makes sense doesn’t it in terms of all we have seen about what God, Christ and the Holy Spirit do in the church – bring people to say Jesus is Lord, model the truth of the Gospel, show the power of the Spirit.

Challenge for us is the expectation that there will be unbelievers in normal church meeting – and that they will understand and experience enough to become a Christian.

Anyway, Paul says, if an unbeliever comes in when you are speaking in tongues they will think you are mad – however, the effect of prophecy is entirely different: if you are prophesying, and remember we said yesterday, we musn’t have too narrow a view of what that is, the unbeliever will be convicted by all, called account by all and the secrets of his heart will be disclosed.
Tongues will lead people to think that you are crazy, prophecy will show people that God is real, and lead them to get converted, because it shows them that God is really among you. Now, how prophecy does this I don’t know, because as I said yesterday, I’m not entirely sure what it is, but it is something that the unbeliever understands, and convicts them of their guilt. So it must have some sort of Gospel content, and it is clear enough and applied enough that the unbeliever understands it, and understands it applies to them.
(some people think prophecy is preaching – not convinced, why does Paul refer to prophecy and teaching as different gifts?)

The main concern, however, is clear: the way we behave in church should not be so as many people as possible in the church get to use their gifts, rather that as many people as possible outside the church repent and turn to God:

Carson: “Calling the unbeliever to moral renewal is something that distinguishes genuine Christianity from all the fake spiritualities. Paul’s concern is not to maximise the number of people using their gifts, but to maximise the number of sinners on their knees coming to know God.”

Again, I think this is a very helpful test to apply when you think you have a gift that you want to use, or something you want to do in the church – is my desire to see people saved, and is that ruling my motivation, or is it my sense of needing or wanting to be used. When I do this, whatever it is, does it help bring non-Christians to repentance?

The difficulty is with verses 21 and 22 where Paul quotes a bit of Isaiah and then says tongues are a sign for unbelievers, and prophecy is for believers.
Well, this is all complex, but I think what’s going on: Paul quotes a bit of Isaiah which talks about foreign languages being heard in the temple as a sign of God’s judgement on his people: an unintelligible message from God still didn’t make the people repent, in fact it showed or proved their unbelief.
It may be some of the Corinthians were extolling the value of tongues for evangelism, it’s a great sign to show them God’s power. Paul says, the history shows, yes it is a sign, but a negative sign. In Isaiah the message being in the tongues of Assyrians, Assyrians in the temple speaking their own language should not be viewed as a good thing: it was a sign they had rejected God’s message and that judgement had come. So tongues can be a sign for unbelievers, a sign that they are under judgement – because they reject the church because of them, saying the church are mad. Not something we want to be happening in church. Lots there and complex, but come to it later if you want.

So, the God is a God of evangelism the church should lead to people becoming Christians because they hear a message they understand and that applies to them, not think Christians are mad.

Orderly (26 – 35)

Yet again, there is complex and controversial stuff in this passage but yet again the thrust of what is going on, I think, is relatively clear.
First, Paul’s banging an old drum again: everything should be done for the building up. The new aspect here is that he is absolutely everything that is contributed should be done for building up when we are gathered together. No sense of, well I’ll just do this bit for me, because I really need to. No hint of, well this is my gift so I’ve got to use it, even if it won’t help anyone else, it will make me feel better. This is the way I feel helped, so I’ll just do a bit of that.

In fact, that type of – “I’ve got a gift and so I have got to use it” thinking is what he addresses next. Far from spiritual gifts sort of bursting forth uncontrollably as a sign of the spirit’s work, a sign of a spiritual meeting, a meeting that according to Paul in v 37 is run according to the Lord’s command is not uncontrollable ecstasy, but a self controlled definite aim to build others up.

So – only if you must speak in tongues (and I think Paul’s been quite clear he’d rather you didn’t when we’re gathered together) but if you do, then two or three and someone interpret. If there’s no one to interpret then hold your peace. I’m not sure how you are supposed to work out whether there is an interpreter present before you start (someone from a charismatic church might be able to tell us at the end)

Same for prophets, 2 or 3 at the most, and “the rest” which is, I think the rest of the congregation, rather than the rest of the prophets can weigh. And a prophet is speaking for the benefit of the church not to blow their own trumpet – all in love remember, so if someone else has a prophecy to share you won’t mind steeping aside so that they can go. One by one, so everyone can hear and be encouraged.

Next, confusion and chaos is not a sign of God’s presence – quite the opposite – v 33, God is not a God of confusion not of peace. That does not justify boring, stuffy and joyless worship, after all God is none of those things either, but we do not represent the God we serve when our meetings are chaotic.

Well, just to add to our collection of controversial secondary issues, and to get the complete boxed set, we have here one of Paul’s sterner commands about the role of women in the gathered church.

Now, to us and out culture, the shock here may well be that Paul would dare to such a thing at all. However, I think the real puzzle here is not that, but rather that we are here talking in the context of prophecy, and Paul in chapter 11 seems to make it very clear that both men and women are allowed to prophesy (whatever prophecy is)

People deal with that mystery in various ways. There are some people, including Gordon Fee who I otherwise think has written the most helpful commentary on the book, say that this is so incongruous with what surrounds it, that it must have been added by a later editor. Paul just wouldn’t be that contradictory in his thinking, and anyway, this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the issue of tongues and prophecy.
Obviously some very faithful learned Bible people who take that view, I have to confess personally to not being able to understand it, or how we can with integrity take that view, especially as Gordon Fee and people like him admit no evidence in manuscripts that it is a later addition – every copy we have has it here in this form. So, while there may be very good reasons for taking that view, I have to confess I don’t get them.

I think the other reason that it isn’t likely to be a later addition is, despite it being generally about prophecy and tongues, is that these women, whoever they are, are the third group of people asked to stay silent for the sake of the order of the church meeting.

So, amongst people who do accept this is really part of the text, views tend to fall roughly into two groups, and the two groups tend to be defined largely by what you make of the other passages talking about gender roles in the church.
So, if you take a view that broadly stresses the equality of men and women, you are likely to see that this is referring to some sort of specific prohibition to Corinth in a particular part of the church service that was culturally limited. This may be helped along the way if you take the whole two verses to be talking about wives and husbands, and it is wives yelling out to interrupt their husbands prophesying, which would have been a scandal in Greek society.
If you take a view that broadly stresses the complementarity of men and women (differences between them) you may well think that the Bible generally instructs the whole overall leadership of the church should be male, and so while the (male) leadership is weighing the prophecy women (not in leadership) should be silent, and thus preserve the order of the church.
Well, I would encourage to search the text and read the books yourself, as Don Carson says, the solutions that have been advanced are, like devils in certain instances of demon possession, legion.

Church order probably isn’t something we hear mentioned and get excited about to be honest, is it. But we should – because I wonder do you see what has been going on here in these chapters. I had never seen this, and was amazed by it – the church shows Spirit in chapter 12 by the declaring Jesus is Lord through a variety of gifts. Second half of chapter 12 church shows Jesus by being his body and acting as one, weak caring for the strong. And here, the church shows God, the father by being a place of order. That is the nature of God –bringing order out of chaos. We have a chance in church to model the whole Trinity – but it is by doing what to us may seem very boring unspiritual things – declaring Jesus is Lord, loving those who seem to be weak and respecting the order of the church.
You know I struggled long and hard to think about applications for this passage, because we aren’t a church and so I can’t instruct us that we need to follow these commandments about church order. But I think it challenges us at a deeper level:

1) Church itself is a prophetic sign of what God is like! Have that attitude to church as you go into it – how does God instruct us to show him? Not, what do I bring to the party, what have I got to give, but what is God like and how can we show that. We can be especially like Corinthians, annoyed with church because trying to relive the intense experience of the past and church isn’t giving me that.
Better way to think about it is: how can we as a church model the nature of God, and what is my part in that – through variety in giftings showing Jesus Lordship, and through caring for those who seem to be weak, and now respecting the order of the church. Sometimes, like Corinthians, seem to be looking for special super spiritual ways to do that – but that’s not what we need, simple, real, everyday – do things in church we are showing the amazing nature of God. Attitude of “how can we together model God as we meet?”
2) What about order? Well, church government is a tangled knot, but fact that church you attend will have some way of ordering itself, and responsibility to respect and live within that order. Gifts – I have this gift, and you need to make an opportunity for me to use it, church may not do that. God is shown by you respecting that order, living within it, not saying I have this gift. God is shown Paul is saying as people control and order their gifts, not when they insist on using them.

As ex Relay workers, you will have so much to offer the church. But we must offer it with the heart of our missionary God, who is a God of order, not of chaos.

Letting it all sink in

2006-08-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

Again, I have been ages: and this is a sort of break from my 1 Corinthians talks, but I have been busy/away.

Currently I am in the states, Ohio to be exact coming to the weddings of a couple of friends, who have conveniently decided to get married a week apart from each other in the same place!
I spent Sunday catching up with a good friend, which got me thinking...

I think if I was to sum up what 1 Corinthians 12-14 was teaching me, after a couple of months reflection, it wouldn't be that the gifts are there to teach us Jesus is Lord, or even that love is more important than gifts (true as these things undoubtedly are) but that the body of Christ is there to teach me and to model to each other, the nature of God himself. Every command in those chapters, it seems to me, is rooted in the trinitarian understanding of God, and the things we do are to reflect and help us understand that, to model and grasp the way God has acted towards us,

Just now and again I guess you really experience that. Like I said, I spent Sunday catching up with a great friend who used to be part of my church. As we talked about grace, about struggles, about what we like about each other and also what we see needs to change in each other; as he affirmed me as a friend and brother, I found myself overwhelmed with gratefulness. I am incredibly grateful for our friendship, but as we spent time together, my heart started welling up in praise for the Gospel: because in this friendship with this Christian brother, different as we are, I experienced and grasped a small bit of the way God has treated me in the Gospel. I found myself thinking "this friendship is making me more into the person that God wants me to be, it is making me love, it is making me put Jesus as Lord". THAT is what 1 Corinthians 12-14 is all about. I think. In my humble opinion.

Recently I had a small and friendly bit of argy bargy with a colleague who told me I was being too reductionistic in my view of discipleship in saying it is all about teaching and learning grace. Well, depends what you mean by teaching and depends what you mean by learning. Discipleship is not just about listening to talks about two ways to live and trying to put them into practice by being good and doing evangelism. It is, however all about learning and living grace. But that happens in so many ways, as the Bible's truth sinks in to us through it's demonstration in the life of others. Learning grace and trusting it happens in our shared life together.

I really miss my friend Brodie - as we talked in the park in the pretty university town in South West Ohio we both shed a few tears (big men that we are - sorry Brodie to publish your weeping ways on the internet) The challenge I came away with was to see this level of modelling the nature of God and the Gospel happen with Christians I see all the time, and especially in my church. We have a long way to go. Praise God for teaching getting it to sink in through the blessing of my good friend.

PS. I wrote this on a mac - what cool computers they are: I am really tempted to christen my credit card by getting one here!

1 Corinthians 14a

2006-07-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

Well done if you are still reading this, and can decipher my notes! I hope they are helping someone out there!

Main point: it is better to desire prophecy than tongues because it edifies the church through understanding.

The church that works properly or “We’re just a love machine”

Pursue love: main thing to aim for is loving each other – rules over everything in this passage. When it comes to whole area of exercising our gifts, much better instruction to follow than “I have this gift, so where can it be used?” – rather pursue love

It is in that context that Paul says, desire spiritual gifts, in the context of the command to pursue love. So it is good to desire spiritual gifts (again spiritual things possibly), it is good to want the work of the Spirit in your life: but in the context of that command to pursue love.

Do everything in your power to love other Christians; and so desire spiritual gifts, especially Corinthians need to desire the gift of prophecy.

Build the church (vs 2-5)

Why is it better to prophesy in church than to speak in tongues?

Because if you are speaking in tongues, you are talking to God, what you are saying are mysteries in your own Spirit, but if you prophesy you are speaking to people for their upbuilding and encouragement.

Someone speaking in tongues may be doing good to themselves, but they aren’t doing good to anyone else.

Pretty simple and straightforward, despite all the controversy that surrounds this chapter what Paul is saying. If you speak in tongues it may be a very intense and personal spiritual experience which helps you, but it doesn’t help anyone else. If you prophesy, you help other people – they can understand what you are saying and therefore be encouraged, built up and consoled by it. If you speak in tongues, they can’t.

That’s pretty clearly just an application of what Paul has said so far, isn’t about what the church is supposed to be like and what it is for. If the church is supposed to be a body, with many different parts working together, valuing each other, and particularly helping those who seem weaker, when the church gets together, what you contribute to the gathering should be understandable to the rest of the congregation.

I think it is pretty clear that Paul isn’t against speaking in tongues, and he does seem to say that it has some value for the person who is actually doing the tongues speaking – in v 4 , the tongues speaker does build him or herself up , but the one who prophesies builds up the church because people understand it.

Verse 5, on the first read can seem confusing at first. Hasn’t Paul been at pains in Chapter 12 to say no one is greater per se than anyone else so why is now saying that the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues?

Well, it’s partly I think, playing the Corinthians at their own game – they clearly thought tongues was better, and so paul is saying –actually it is the opposite of what you think – it is the person prophesying who is greater than the person speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets so people can understand.

I think what he is saying here is: gifts which build up the church are better than those which don’t. When it comes to prophecy and tongues, prophecy is better than tongues, because as we have seen in chapter 12, the point of manifestations of the Sprit is for the common good, and prophecy achieves the common good much better than tongues.

So, the point of the first section: pursue love, which means building the church. So want gifts, like prophecy which do that.

Prophecy builds better than tongues (vs 6-19)

- no one can understand tongues

This may seem slightly repetitive – it is! Paul is really banging the drum hard here.

If even a musical instrument is played without trying to hit distinctive notes, how will anyone know what is being played?

Try singing King of Kings majesty, without actually attempting to hit any notes. See if anyone recognises the tune!

If you say things which don’t involve actually using words, no one can understand what you are saying. As Paul quite sharply puts it in his own inimitable style, you are speaking into the air.

(it seems to have been quite a central part of their worship services, so he’s not pulling any punches!)

- tongues are isolating for individuals

That’s what verse 10 and 11 says. Paul says – it may well be that someone speaking Japanese is making sense to themselves, but if I talk to someone at church and they only talk back to me in Japanese, then I am a foreigner to them and them to me.

Again – not what the church is - a body where the strong help the weak – but instead divided because people can’t understand each other.

- tongues aren’t using your mind

we’ll come to this in a second, but this is the biggest hint in the passage I think that speaking in tongues isn’t speaking in other languages – but some type of ecstatic experience where you aren’t really conscious what even you are praying for. Paul says, if you are going to do it, pray that you will know what it means as well, pray with your mind as well as your spirit

- tongues aren’t fair to those who don’t understand

If you are praying in a tongue, how can someone who doesn’t understand say Amen to it. How can it be a corporate gathering if there are people who can’t say Amen to the prayers?

Paul finishes by reiterating that he is not against speaking in tongues per se, but in church he would rather speak five intelligible words than 10000 words in a tongue, which is equivalent, surely to saying he will basically never speak in tongues in church.

Apps:

The point of church gatherings is building up others

- whole attitude and approach to church – not going because won’t get much out of it. Go, sit and listen, leave (way we do church) not thinking over what point of gatherings are.

No - Pursue love – the time when the church is gathered together is when the amazing ontological, real reality that we are one body working together to show Jesus as Lord actually happens, as we pursue love, and eagerly desire spiritual gifts which will help us build up others. Change in church nationwide if everyone who went thought like that!

Building up happens through intelligibility

- importance of the mind in spiritual growth. Divorcing of mind and experience in common practice – but I should want my mind to be fruitful, and other people only grow if they understand what is going on

- talking and praying in a way people will understand and be helped dave Bish “my faith is not strengthened by hearing an unintelligible spiritual language or someone speaking drivel in my own language” implications for us if we are to welcome internationals/those from unchurched backgrounds?

- Unhelpful “emergent” emphasis in increasing mystery – ie, it’s good if people don’t really understand but just experience.

Well, to be honest, I think for all of the controversy surrounding the passage that we have just looked at those two points are fairly easily seen and non-controversial. Build up the church by telling people things they understand – way the gathered church models the reality that we are brought into one body. In other words, love each other. Basically, all that passage is saying, love each other when you gather together as a church. Not rocket science.

However, have you spotted the elephant in the room. Rather 2 big elephants, 2 big issues, that are huge questions for us but we haven’t mentioned yet.

1) What are prophecy and tongues?

2) Do they still happen today?

Well, I’m going to have a go at those 2 questions briefly now, but 2 things to note. First is that, as I said at the beginning on Monday, we come to this passage with those questions, and they aren’t the questions Paul is answering here, so I’m not sure you can give a definitive answer from here, or in fact from anywhere. So I’ll try and present the evidence as I see it. Secondly, on the issue of whether these gifts still exist today and how they function, that is, what we call in the fellowship, a secondary issue. People who believe and apply the authority of the Bible who take a number of views, I will try to be fair, discussion. Thirdly, important we don’t use the controversy to ignore the question and answer that Paul is addressing here – can be a subtle but very theological way of ignoring the actual message of the Bible, which is what we do not want to do obviously.

What is prophecy?

- it is intelligible speech that people can understand

- it is for the benefit of the church, and builds them up

- it can have evangelistic content and lead to people being converted v 24

- it is under the control of the prophet v 29

- it is NOT like Old testament prophecy – it can be controlled and must be weighed

- it seems to be one of the main ways the church was taught

- men and women are allowed to do participate in giving it (11:5)

- it is subjected to the authority of the apostles

Not necessarily a spontaneous “thus says the Lord” type pronouncement.

What is tongues?

- V2 an ecstatic utterance that isn’t exclusively Christian

- May be viewed as some sort of heavenly language

- Does not involve using the mind

- Is not to be used in public gathering of the church without interpretation

- It is a good gift that does benefit the person using it (just not anyone else!)

As much as I think we can tell from this passage: ok do they or how do they continue today?

Main historical issue we are dealing with here, even though in our context today some sections of the church that talk about these gifts all the time, fact is, for about 19 centuries of the church’s history prophecy as a spontaneous revelation from God, and tongues as an outpouring of a non-human language didn’t really have any part in mainstream Christianity (fringes that soon became unorthodox on core things), and all of the views are attempts to explain or deal with this.

Cessationist: the view that revelatory and miraculous gifts ceased after the era of the apostles, usually argued because they were signs to attest to the truth of the Gospel before the canon of Scripture was closed.

Now, I grew up in a church that was basically cessationist, went through a time of thinking it was rubbish, now while I don’t think I agree with it, I can see that there are least persuasive arguments in its’ favour.

Because I heard: if we have extra revelation it threatens the authority of the Bible. Does it? But not argued from the Bible, self refuting if claim the point of believing it is to protect the authority of the Bible! The strongest argument against it by a writer with whom on most things I almost totally disagree: just read New Testament come to conclusion gifts don’t exist any more? Unlikely

3 arguments think are quite useful persuasive:

1) Not saying God doesn’t do miracles or even speak outside the Bible today, (criticism that closed to God’s working) but rather saying that there are not specific people with miraculous revelatory gifts to build the church. Clear – not a God limiting argument.

2) Seems Biblical Christians have to say that the gift of apostle, in the sense of someone commissioned by Christ with ability to give commands which have authority of Scripture, have to say that gift in that sense has ceased (although many churches do still say someone has apostolic giftings) but that gift has at least altered, so not a huge leap to say that the signs that accompanied it have too.

3) No matter what you think of the Corinthian church, it does seem clear that prophecy was the main way they were taught in their meetings. The later pastoral epistles (1 Tim, 2 Tim, Titus) make it clear that the job of the church leader or teacher is to guard and teach the deposit, by then, given, and specifically not to seek new things from God.

Of course the weakness of cessationism is that the Bible nowhere clearly says it is the case: it is all the outworking of some other doctrine.

Pentecostal/Charismatic/Third Wave

View that the full range of gifts mentioned here and elsewhere in the New Testament are functioning and alive today.

No one, it seems can deny, that there did seem to be a long gap in the church’s history didn’t experience the gifts in the way that these type of Christians say we should today. So most would hold with the idea that God withheld the gifts for some time, but re-blessed the church with them, Pentecostals at the start of the century, charismatics through a renewal in a lot of the main denominations, and Third Wave, again in 80s and 90s especially through the Vineyard churches.

Great advantage of this view is that it does seem to accord with the way the church is described as working in the New Testament. Textually, it is very convincing, particularly if you take the book of Acts as showing the church as it should always function. Furthermore, real sense that God is alive, real, living and active in the church which the NT encourages, and which non-charismatic churches often seem to miss.

Couple of difficulties with it: that about apostles and about the pastoral epistles I have already mentioned, as well as historical difficulties (although not insurmountable)

- Main difficulty, sometimes experience becomes very important, and self authenticating – and some have even taught that speaking in tongues is a necessary sign of Christian maturity, and doctrine can become sidelined and less important than it should be: in short charismatic churches have sometimes been very Corinthian (commentators would agree) They may well respond, the solution in Corinth is never to tell them to stop using gifts but to use them properly, and that, ISTM is a pretty convincing argument against anyone saying that the gifts musn’t be real because they distract from the Gospel.

- Why did God remove gifts and bring them back?

- Other is, I just don’t see how you can be sure: 4 views, and definition of prophecy how do you know, certainly not like OT prophecy – how can you know what Paul is talking about – enough to strictly define it and say that you are using it?

Continuationist:

The gifts actually never really stopped, and they just happened a lot less in the early church than we thought they did, and people still use some of them without realising.

I can’t quite decide, this is definitely where the church I go to is at, insofar as we are anywhere.

So, these people would say, a small number of people in the church probably always did obey 1 Corinthians 14 and use tongues in private, miracles did and do still happen now and again – even if you average out the number of miracles in Acts it wasn’t that many. Prophecy is much more of an insight and application of truth type thing, and churches have always done that, type of thing that happens in all churches now in homegroups and personal discussion, someone has amazing practical insight, that’s prophecy. God may well do something miraculous and revelatory through one particular person.

I think this has a lot to commend it – not least it’s definitely the peacemaker option as you can nod and agree with nearly everybody who says anything. It is a genuine attempt to be fair to the text, that says these gifts are good things, and should be used, but the job of the church is to protect the apostolic deposit.

You’ll tend to find that churches that take the continuationist view tend to be “open but cautious” when it comes to revelatory and miraculous gifts – as in, it might happen, but probably not.

It’s downfall I hold up my hands and admit, is cautious is not something that the NT writers and particularly here in 1 Corinthians , Paul, advise when it comes to God working through gifts. Got the gift, use it all the time for the benefit of the body. Nevertheless, I think that the great advantage of it, and the reason that it is the view I come closest to, is that it does allow you to follow the instructions in the pastorals about church leadership and the guarding what is entrusted to us, while not saying that God will or won’t do what he wishes through particular individuals, and that he hasn’t substantially altered the way he works since the NT canon was completed.

Well, the point of all of that is this: in UCCF we work together with people who take all of those views and hope we gain from each other’s strengths.

No matter which gifts you think operate to do, God is much more concerned about what you do with the gifts you have got, rather than which ones you have, or think operate today.

What God through Paul here commands (and everything else we have done is speculation, not Bible teaching) is that we strive in our churches to do whatever builds up and encourages others, and what builds up is what we understand.

The church works how God wants it to.

1 Corinthians 12 - the second bit

2006-07-12T02:53:00.000-07:00

Main Point: Jesus is one, so as his body we all belong together in different parts doing different things, so don’t feel superior or inferior

How the church shows Jesus - "I'm in the middle of a chain reaction"

No matter how much we might wish it to be different, we are not all good at the same things. Temperamentally we all deal with that fact of life in different ways.

Those of us here who look at how we are different from others, and spend our time wishing we could be like them. Thinking, because I can’t do what they can do, I’m rubbish. Maybe feel like that at Relay conferences.

Then there are those with slightly bigger egos. We look at people who good at different things that us, and we think, well I’m really glad I am good at this and not at what they do. In fact, secretly, I’m not really sure what people like that add to the mix at all to be honest.

Hope what we have done already in 1 Corinthians has showed you that in the local church that will never be the case. It is never the case that either I am not needed, or that someone else isn’t needed. God hasn’t short changed anybody, nor has he specially privileged others because there are many gifts all given by the same Spirit. God loves the variety of the local church in gifting so that they can be one in creed. God through his one Spirit gives many gifts so the one message can be proclaimed and shown.

And so Paul in a very pastorally wise manner deals with those two issues diversity is likely to raise in turn – inferiority and superiority. But this section begins with an assertion, and it’s a rather surprising assertion. Paul’s been saying, all of the gifts are given by the Spirit as he wills. Verse 12 begins for, or because, just as the body (the human body) is one and has many members, and all the members of the body are part of one body so it is with - expect him to say the church, wouldn’t you? But he doesn’t, so it is with Christ.

Quite a remarkable thing isn’t it – but this thing about all the members of the body, the local church, working together doing different things, it is important because Christ himself considers the church so highly that it is himself – we are as Christians, in Christ, all of us one in him, and so it is desperately important that the church shows that. In some sense, we are him. We are all one in Christ because we, as Paul has already said have been baptised by the Holy Spirit, whoever we are, wherever are from into one body, a body that Christ hold so highly and so dearly that he includes it in his very self.

So I have called this talk “how the church shows Jesus” – because it seems to me that this idea that we are all the body of Christ, and therefore we must be one is central to it.

And bodies, Paul points out in verse 14, do not consist of one member but many.

All sorts of different bits of bodies, but none of them make any sense without the others, and so it is with the church, the body of Christ.

And using that picture, Paul addresses both sets of people, in the Corinthian church – people who felt like they couldn’t do what someone else could do, and people who thought they could do without everyone else.

The Inferior: “It doesn’t really make any difference”

Look at v 15 – the foot feels bad that they are not a hand. Hands are so cool, they have opposable thumbs, so much more useful than silly old feet which smell, and grow mould, and look slightly strange. Or an ear saying, I am fed up with being waxy and being taped to the side of the head for playing rugby, eyes are so much better than me, I musn’t properly belong.

V pastorally aware, not so much wanting to be the other part of the body, but saying I don’t properly belong because I am not this part of the body. There is difference here, I should be with people like me, not people who aren’t like me.

I am not needed because I am not like them. Totally out world’s culture’s and sinful nature’s reaction to a situation – where people are not like me, that means I don’t fit in. I should be surrounded by people like me. Way world works – fill my life with people I am comfortable with – people like me.

In the Christian worldview, that is not the case, certainly with church. I should not choose a church, or frame my feelings about church simply on the gauge of how many people there are like me. No, we saw in first part of chapter 12, everyone is different, it is that way on purpose – it’s because we are different that we do belong.

Paul says, well that may well be true, but you’re still a part of the body. Doesn’t really matter how you feel about it, you are part of the body. No ego massaging for you really if you feel inferior so say you don’t belong – whether you like it or not, you do.

After all, how would the body function if it were just one big eye?

Body wouldn’t actually work if it was just one body part.

God, according to verse 18, has arranged the members of the body just as he wants them, as he chose. It’s not up to the parts of the body to say, I don’t really belong here because I’m not like that part. No, it’s not your job, the body wouldn’t work otherwise, and God has arranged it as it needs to be arranged for it to work.

You may feel like you aren’t really part of the body because you aren’t the same as someone else, but it doesn’t really make any difference what you feel about it – you are part of the body and God has made you this way and placed you where you are for a reason. Not a Christian response to the church to say I am different from everyone here, not as good as them, therefore I don’t belong.

You know, I was talking last week with a team leader about doing these passages at Relay, and after registering the initial controversial shock, he said, I actually think that is a brilliant bit of the Bible to do with UCCF people. In fact, it’s probably something that we should all look at all of the time.

Why? Because much as UCCF is a brilliant ministry, strategic and important it, and its CUs are not churches. But often they become a place where people who feel like they don’t fit in to the local church think – well I can have ministry here, it doesn’t matter so much about my church commitment. I feel like a bit of a foot, and everyone is a hand. In UCCF everyone is a hand, I’d fit in much better there.

That’s not a good enough response. The fact is, that if you are a part of the body, the church, no matter how much you don’t feel at home in it, and God doesn’t expect you to say, oh I’ll find a place where everyone is more like me. He expects you to say, it’s great that everyone here is different from me: it’s the great work of the Spirit that has brought variety to the church, it would be totally useless if the whole church is like me, and God has me here for a sovereign reason.

Using CU and UCCF that way? Maybe – well it’s got to stop now, the body needs you – God is sovereign, and has a job for you in the church, and the glorious truth is – you aren’t the same as everyone else there, that’s the point. As Paul says, as it is, there are many parts but one body. If you have been using CU and UCCF to run from that, because everyone is more like you here – well, time to stop.

So person, who thinks they are inferior, well it really doesn’t make any difference, you are a part of the body no matter what you feel like, and God has arranged to have you there, and that’s his choice. Paul sort of say – erm..suck it up.

The Superior: you have forgotten the Gospel

How did I get that out of verses 21 to 26? I’ll tell you in a second.

Look down at the issue read vs 21.

This time we have a body part thinking that they don’t need another body part. And it’s part you might think were more important, are more visibly important, saying to the weaker part, I don’t need you.

Now, I think while a lot of us may, temperamentally lean towards feeling inferior, and like we don’t belong in the church, I do think leaving Relay this is the real risk for us.

We’ve had some pretty good training, you guys have worked alongside some of the most gifted and godly people I know in Christian work, and there are loads and loads of people in churches around the country and around the world that just haven’t had that privilege. People who know less, have had less opportunity than you guys to discover and hone their gifts, just less gifted.

And Paul is addressing those types of differences in church life: people who are eyes and hands, people who heads and feet, people that seem to be weaker, and seem to be less honourable, less flashy or outstanding.

For people like us, there will be loads of people in church life who seem weaker. In a spiritual sense, perhaps they don’t have the priorities of evangelism and discipleship that we have been so clearly taught. Maybe they are weak emotionally, and find it hard to do anything visible in church life. Maybe they are old and their public ministry is more or less over, maybe they can’t even get to church. Maybe just less gifted.

I think Paul is very careful here, because he does say seem weaker, sometimes those who seem weak are often the strongest

Addressing those who may feel others weaker than them, especially with regard to gifts.

In most churches you might go to, apart from a few large well resourced places, having done something like Relay you’ll be viewed as strong, and a lot of you are very strong, and, as I have said, very gifted, but guard yourself against ever beginning to think about those who seem weak, I don’t need you.

Why? Paul uses quite an amusing metaphor here: genitals. I think that’s what he is getting at: those bits seem pretty sort of embarrassing and unmentionable but actually they are pretty darn important, and in fact, we show we think that by taking, erm…special care of them.

Hardly believe he uses that image – but Paul makes it clear, God has composed the body with parts that seem weak so that they can be honoured and cared for.

The point of having weak and seemingly embarrassing bits is so that they can be cared for – so that all the members can look after each other.

Surprising answer – we think – no the weak do useful things too!

Weakness, is good, we need it, so the weak can be cared for.

The Christian community that God wants to create through the Spirit could not exist without those that seem weak, God has composed the body in this way so that we can care for each other. The point is so that the body can be a body, suffering together as a body and rejoicing together as a body: for that we need the weak and the strong.

If you ever find yourself doing a Corinth, and saying look at me I’m strong, don’t you wish you were like me, missing the point, that we are those who seem weak and those who seem strong together on purpose, so that there can be care for one another.

The thing is, as Paul has been showing the Corinthian Christians this truth about the Gospel all the way through the letter.

1:26-29

You see what Paul is saying, the point of the Gospel is that God chooses the weak to shame the strong, so the last thing you need in the church is an environment where you say no, I’m strong, you are weak I don’t need you here, than in itself is totally counter to the truth we base our life on – Gospel is about the one who is strong helping those who acknowledge we are weak – the community that creates should not model the opposite of that.

God has put the body together to model that great truth of the Gospel that we need each other, in the words of John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, we go together like ramalamama a dingidy ding de dong.

Sometimes when driving, think if everyone was as good as me it would be ok – but I must never begin to think like that in church.

True in any Christian relationship – hope you have been that way, not thought, you should have been more like me, staff worker, me and Roz. Lots of times we have been weak in lots of areas, hope you have seen it as a chance to model the Gospel.

But it seems to me that local church is God’s vehicle for that specially to be modelled as a community

Cf 12: 1 – one of the ways the Holy Spirit works to show Jesus is Lord, by his body. God has organised the body that way so that there won’t be division, but so that the members will care for each other, and that shows Jesus.

Man, we have come a long way from Corinth in this one chapter. Gifts, far from being something stand on, boast about, and focus on, become a way and a means to model the fact that we are one body. If we use them as a way to try and distance ourselves from each other to separate the body, instead of feeling joy and sorrow as one, we have totally missed the point.

List of gifts, Answer to all of those questions in Paul’s mind is no. We are not all the same. But we are all one.

1 Corinthians 12 - the first instalment

2006-07-11T00:41:00.000-07:00

Hey - some people asked me to blog my talks on 1 Corinthians 12-14 that I did at Relay.

I don't use full script notes, so there's a fair bit missing from these, especially illustration and application, but I hope they'll be helpful. This is my first one on 1 Corinthians 12 a - it has a rather long introduction!

Main Point: It is the content of the proclamation, not the gift used which shows spirituality, because the Spirit sovereignly gives different gifts to whom he wills to show Jesus as Lord.

Why do 1 Corinthians 12-14?

I suppose the real question for me is, why not do it? Many of us will be used to being asked by students about some of the issues in this part of 1 Corinthians and saying “whoops, secondary issue” and moving on. Now, in the context of a mission team where the discussion could be needlessly divisive in a particular situation that may be the wisest thing to do, but we don’t want you to get the impression that issues like the role of women and so-called charismatic gifts are totally off the agenda. The point of a secondary issue is not that we never talk about it, but that we say that the truths of the db provide us with gospel unity, and we agree to have different views on secondary issues. In saying that, even on the most contentious issues in this passage, there is plenty that we can all agree on, and that we really need to know, so the fact that secondary issues are mentioned does not, it seems to me, mean that we need to ignore the passage.

However, before we get into it, and just as a note of warning, we do need to be careful with passages like these ones, not to ask lots of questions of it that Paul just isn’t answering.

Reading the letters is Like one end of a phone conversation – we aren’t at the other end, so we can’t ask all of our interesting questions – so we want to say Paul, just exactly what do you mean by using the word prophecy?– He doesn’t answer, because the Corinthians knew what he was talking about already!

Also, “saying this must equal that thing I see in the church today”.

There are also a couple of very good reasons to do it. The first is that after Relay, for all of us, our main sphere of service and using what we have learned on Relay will be the local church. Now, it may well be that is a new thing for us, because CU has been so much part of our lives for the last 4 or 5 years, fact is, all of us have got to make a solid and positive commitment to a local church from here on in, and I think these chapters have a lot to say about what that looks like in practice. Body here means local church.

Secondly for positive reasons and more importantly, my prayer is that Relay workers will go off round the country and the world, and make a really positive contribution to their local churches, but what we see in 1 Corinthians is that young Christians who have had a very intense spiritual experience, and have a sense that they have a bank of knowledge about the Christian faith, can end up being an absolute pain in the neck in the local church.

You see, part of the problem going on in Corinth was that the young, full of life, enthusiastic Christians, who didn’t lack any spiritual gift according to Paul, had made their giftedness the source of their confidence that they were spiritual. The fact that they were good at one particular thing, and that it was accompanied by a particularly intense, clearly supernatural spiritual experience meant that in their thinking they were, or at least the ones that had shared this experience were, on some sort of spiritual plane. People who had this gift were valued much more in their church family than anyone else.

Because, as we can see in Corinth, young Christians who know a lot, who are very gifted, and have had something profoundly experiential happen to them in their Christian life can easily become superior, think that their giftedness makes them pleasing to God, develop a nauseating super-spirituality, and be a source of grave disunity in the church family, and it is that which Paul has in his sights here in these 3 chapters.

After a year of building up a bank of knowledge though core and I am sure equally diligently elective study. You are all young bright gifted people, lots to offer the church. This year I’m sure will hear over the next few days, will have been a profound and real spiritual experience for many of us.

I do hope and pray that Relay has been a very significant spiritual experience for you. But I hope it has been a path to real Christian spirituality – my worst nightmare is that it turns into a path to Corinthian spirituality, where it becomes a spiritual achievement you stand on to justify yourself before other Christians, and look down on other people in your church who haven’t done Relay.

I am constantly amazed by the giftedness of people on Relay, and reading your reports each month blown away by the quite remarkable things that you seem capable of, but as you leave Relay, I think it’s important that we spend some time thinking through how God wants to use those amazing gifts in whatever church family you end up being part of.

For the Corinthians, it does seem like the gift of speaking in tongues was the one that they were using as having special significance in marking out spirituality – and Paul gets to talking about that particular gift and how it should be used in Chapter 14, but before he gets to that, he needs to give them some basic lessons in what the church is for, and in that context, what gifts are for, why they are given, and how they can tell if they are being used properly. That’s how he begins Chapter 12 – I do not want you to be uninformed:

And that’s what Paul does in this first bit of chapter 12 which we are going to look at this evening (apologies for the long introduction)

When the church has the spirit: (or, spice up your life)

The Spirit acts on us to bring Lordship of Christ: (vs 1-3)

Paul begins by saying that he doesn’t want the church to be ignorant about spiritual gifts. Well, actually, that may well be what he is saying, but the word here, pneumatikon, could equally mean spiritual people, or just spiritual stuff, spirituality, things of the Spirit. I think for various reasons, that is probably more likely, as Paul himself uses a different word for gifts later on for a particular reason I think – but the interesting things is that he writes to the whole church saying I don’t want you to be unaware about spiritual stuff. To some of the Corinthians, that in itself would have been a surprising thing – because they had this whole, special group thing going on.

Paul says, this knowledge about spirituality, it is a message for every person in the church. I don’t want you to be ignorant and unaware, I want you to understand.

And Paul’s base camp for the whole discussion is that the Spirit is all about Jesus being Lord.

He says, I don’t want you to be ignorant about these things, and once upon a time you were totally ignorant, led astray to totally mute idols, however you were led, or more literally acted upon. There’s a real sense in those words that in the past, a spiritual force external to yourself did act on you, but it led to you worshipping Gods who were, in fact, mute and not real. It seems that the Corinthians, many of them, had a history of pagan worship which seemed very real, which felt very much like they were being led and acted upon. It may even be that the prophecy and tongues speaking, and other sort of ecstatic experiences that they loved so much in their church meetings were things that had actually happened when they were pagans, and Paul is saying, you know, these things can hardly be measures of Christian spirituality if they happened to you when you were worshipping a pagan idol, can they?

No, it’s not the way it happens, it’s not the spontaneity, the experience that authenticates the Spirit’s work, it is what you say when you are speaking.

The content of your utterance or speech won’t be Jesus is accursed if you are speaking by the Spirit, and if the content of what you say is that Jesus is Lord (and that you mean it, I take as read) then that must be the action of the Holy Spirit.

Debate – who had said Jesus is cursed - I can’t believe someone had actually said that in the Christian gathering and Paul addresses it so lightly – maybe it was something they had said in their pagan past. The point is though that the Spirit’s work can be heard in what people say and in what they do by looking for the Lordship of Christ being proclaimed and believed.

All sorts of questions – what does that mean, what does it look like in practice to exercise your gifts in such a way that Jesus is proclaimed as Lord?

Well, I think the next 3 chapters are an exposition of that, especially as Paul finishes the section at the end of chapter 14 by reiterating that what he has said is the Lord’s command. 1 Cor 14: 37

Worth pausing. Not likely any of us going to a hear a sermon that says Jesus is anathema and terrible, and say “What an amazing spiritual sermon”. As, I don’t imagine, there are loads of us obsessed with ecstatic experiences to the point where the experience is more important than the content (although may well be true of the church culture we end up in) still think this applies.

But, the fact is that if the Corinthian problem is selfishness and self focus, and standing on their own gifts and abilities this is a very telling test.

Jesus being proclaimed as Lord and meaning it, is in fact, incompatible with the selfish self glorifying focus of the Corinthians isn’t it? I cannot genuinely be proclaiming Jesus as Lord and pushing and glorifying myself can I? I cannot have the conviction that Jesus is Lord and live it out, while simultaneously be using my gifts to show that I am brilliant and better than anyone else.

Still a useful test when we are serving the church – is my aim that Jesus should be confessed as Lord, that I and other people accept his authority over their lives – if it is, then the Holy Spirit is working.

Terrible important in the Corinthian context – seemed to have lost a grasp of the fact that normal day to day holiness is Christian spirituality (great gifts but bad attitude to other Christians) It’s living with Jesus as Lord – that is what Christian spirituality is!

The Spirit acts in the church to bring variety (vs 4-11)

That’s what we see very clearly in vs 4-6 isn’t it? Varieties given by the same. The same God, gives lots of different gifts and abilities.

The words Paul uses to describe gifts also get wider and wider don’t they?

So we start with Paul’s preferred word for gifts: charismata – which we musn’t let ourselves get coloured with the way we use the word charismatic – it means grace gift – any good thing given by God’s grace. The same word he uses for salvation elsewhere in the letters – Paul’s conception of a gift given by the Spirit is much wider than the Corinthians – for him it is any good thing given by God’s grace.

In verse 5, it’s not the gift at all, but what it done with it which is in focus – in every type of ministry or service, the same Lord Jesus is working. Jesus isn’t just working Corinthians when you can see one of the visible gifts that you value so much – but when anyone is serving the church it is Jesus working.

Word gets wider again – different types of working or activities, all the work that people do in the church, but it is the same God working all of that out.

Paul says, it is all God, the Trinity doing the same thing in lots of different ways through different people.

All of those things – God’s grace gifts, people serving one another in the church, the whole work of the church being built, they are all manifestations, visible signs of the Spirit for the benefit of everyone in the church. They are give to each one for the common good of the church.

Then in verses 8-10, Paul gives a list of the different types of gifts that might be used. Read.

Question – what are they? Word of knowledge or wisdom etc.

Who knows? One commentator, a Pentecostal commentator interestingly, says he’s not even convinced that Paul was sure that he was referring to a list of specific different gifts.

The point is the repeated use of one and the same Spirit, doing all of these different things, and distributing these things as he wills.

No far from one particular gift or set of gifts being the mark of Christian maturity, all of the gifts, given by the same Spirit as he wills, are given to attain the common good in a huge variety of ways

A couple of things to note:

First, it does seem that Paul means to flatten the distinction between so-called charismatic and non-charismatic gifts (more on Weds about use of that word!) but he does seem to saying to the Corinthians – it is the Spirit working whenever anyone does anything to build the church. Where you build the church, God the holy Spirit is working in your life.

Second: Easy to feel superior or inferior, next bit of the passage is about. Talk about that tomorrow, but if that is you at the end of Relay, feeling like you should be good at something someone else can do, or that you are better because you can so something someone else can’t do, doubting what God says here – it is one and the same Spirit working if we are doing anything for the common good of believers. What you can do for the common good is as spiritual as what the next person can do for the common good.

God hasn’t short changed anybody

Way to measure the spirituality or Christian maturity of what you go on to do isn’t really very much to do with what you do at all – how you do what you do and why you do it – is Jesus Lord 1 Cor 7: 17-24. Do whatever you were do it with Jesus as your Lord. Implications for after Relay.

Practice thankfulness that church is common in creed – Jesus is Lord, but hugely diverse as the way God works that out in and through us. (Cf – cloning)

Point is not to say – I can or can’t do that – if I trust Jesus then the same Spirit works in me doing what I can do as works, in that person doing what they can do, all of us helping each other so Jesus is seen as Lord. The church showing the Spirit, by having one creed but many gifts, is a great place to be.

Questions:

What does living with Jesus as Lord look like?

How does us working for the common good show Jesus as Lord?

Ephesians and the Homogenous Church Issue

2006-05-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Phil Evans asked for a Biblical defence of my position on homogenous church.

I think the main place that I would go for my understanding on this issue is Ephesians 2.

First - an important issue to get clear, is that of "the fulness of God". In Ephesians 1, Paul says that the fulness of God is to be found in his people, the church. So even though God "fills everything in every way" his fulness is to be found in the body of Christ, the church.

Paul makes another reference to the fulness of God in Ephesians 3 - he prays that the Ephesians would grasp the love of Christ, so that they may be filled to the meaure of the fulness of God.

What does it look like for the church to become, or be filled with the fulness of God? Paul tells us in Ephesians 4: 13 - we attain to the measure of the fulness of God when we reach unity and maturity.

The upshot of all of this is that the church displays the power of the Gospel, and the very fulness of God himself when people are brought together in unity under the Gospel. So - displaying unity in the way that Ephesians describes (and we'll come to that in a second) is an important issue: because astonishingly, the fulness of God himself can be shown in the church. Amazing.

So: what is unity in Ephesian terms? It is the bringing together of Jew and Gentile into one man through Christ. Spiritually, he himself is "our peace", he has made the two one and destroyed the barrier between us, so that we can be built into God's house - that is, so the fulness of God can be displayed, not just to the world, but to all the spiritual powers in the heavenly realms: Ephesians 3: 10.

I suppose the question is, then, does the principle extend beyond this particular Jew/Gentile divide, or is it specific?

Now, it seems to me that the principle must extend to the church crossing ethnic barriers. It must have a mixture of ethic backgrounds, or at the very least be open to those of a majority of ethnic backgrounds; if it doesn't then we are failing in our task to display the fulness of God, God's huge wisdom isn't being displayed how it should be. All white churches, or all black churches are not right - in setting up churches that are for only one ethnic group we are failing to do the work of the Gospel justice, and the church fails in its' task to display the fulness of God. Now, I imagine most of us would agree with that: although some of the homogenous churches set up that I have read about are specifically because two ethnic groups are unable to get on together and so couldn't reach each other with the Gospel. That cannot be right.

Does that theological reason stretch to other types of groups as well? Well,it seems to me, it must do. Why? Because the actual practical instructions Paul gives for how this is to be worked out in Ephesians 4-6 aren't just Jew/Gentile things - they are just the normal bread and butter of different types of people getting on together in a church family.

So, the upshot: churches should be aiming towards diversity in every area - and where that makes life difficult and we have to be humble and patient and gentle with each other, speak slower, have a translator, or put up with music that we don't like, where we have to be friends with people who aren't like us, where we have to submit to decisions we don't necessarily agree with; that's when we show the fulness of God who fills everything in every way, and display his manifold wisdom to the spiritual authorities. And if we aren't doing those things, well, then we don't. Which seems to, according to Ephesians, defeat the purpose of there being a church at all.

Homogenous church

2006-04-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I have no wish to start a mudslinging dogfight between parties of people here.

But recently the august organisation for which I work has come under some criticism for supplanting and doing the work of the local church when it really shouldn't be.

Thus the argument says: the local church is the place for mission and maturity, it is the vehicle of God's blessing to the world, and parachurch organisations are therefore unbiblical and worse, have the effect of weakening the local church because they encourage the individual to have a spiritual commitment above and beyond that of the local body.

Now, I have, actually, some sympathy for that argument. I am a big fan of the local church, and think it's precious standing in the sight of God should, by no means, be undermined.

However, some of the people who are making these criticisms are offering a very strange alternative model. What they want is basically a group of students meeting on campus under the authority of the local church but still gathering as a group of students. Thus they would do away with the CU and set up an homogenous church. Where a churches like this already operate that's often what they do they have a "student congregation" and a "family congregation". They run student Bible study groups, have a student worker who runs that side of the operation and encourage mixing only with other students. If a student should go to the other congregation's prayer meeting, Bible study or family service eyebrows are raised left right and centre.

I believe that this concept is called "homogenous church"; running a church aimed at a particular dmeographic so to reach that demographic particularly. It has lots of advantages; indeed I benefitted hugely from such a student Bible study when I was an undergrad. However, I'm beginning to question the wisdom, and even the Biblical nature of it. This is not just because that group of people has had a go at my organisation, although that has led the whole issue has to come under consideration.

You see, it seems to me that one of the defining marks of the local church, is supposed to be that the barriers set up between people are, in the church, broken down. If a church isn't travelling towards diversity of social background, race, sex and educational status, it seems to me that the local church isn't actually fulfilling it's God-given role in Ephesians 2 of modelling the effect of the Gospel - homogenous church is church done badly.

The real issue, it seems to me, with the critics, is that what goes on in CUs is not under their authority, not that it isn't a proper church (as their alternative model, in my humble opinion, isn't a proper church). It isn't enough, it seems, that CUs operate under the authority of the Bible, but we seem to be heading down the strange pseduo-Catholic route of things not being done properly unless they are under the authority of the church. Weird for the children of the reformation.

Whatever the reasons, it seems to me that the critics are right that CU shouldn't pretend to be a church. But frankly, I can also very much do without the church pretending to be a CU.

Man alive...

2006-03-25T04:02:00.000-08:00

...I am sick to death of my sinful heart.

Ok, so I have been busy recently. I feel like I have had far too much to do, and also making huge decisions about where people should be placed, and throwing my hat into the ring on discussions of import and ALSO having to be godly and love my church and do evangelism like normal.

How can God possibly expect me to do all that? I mean really, it's just too much for Him to expect me to do things like read the Bible and pray every day, apply everything I am teaching to myself, and care about world mission. Where does he get off - I AM ALREADY DOING CHRISTIAN WORK ALL DAY LONG! (quite literally on some days)

You know, I spend a lot of my days teaching and applying grace to other people. But note, it goes right out the window when i am busy? Life isn't about knowing God - it's about me "doing stuff" for God and therefore feeling like he expects the clock to be running 24 hours. Man alive, my cold sinful heart just won't stop bugging me.

Thoughts about worship. Again.

2006-02-20T07:34:00.000-08:00

Ok. Was doing some seminar stuff for our lovely group of musicians at Christ Church Liverpool yesterday on this whole worship thing. (I blogged on this before - after reading "Stop Dating the Church".) I was much helped by the Blue Fish's excellent notes on this - so thanks Bishy.

Now basically I said, church is about encouraging each other, not specifically meeting with God. In the Old testament the people gathered to meet with God on one-off occasions - now we are permanently and really in heaven with Christ, brought to God and secure in him because of the death of Christ. Church becomes a means for us to encourage one another to hold on to these promises, address issues of sin in each other's lives and hear God's word.

Ok - so God ministers to us through his word, we minsiter to each other through our gifts.

Here's the thing I've been pondering since though - and sorry music team if this is confusing for you, I don't mean to cloud the issue. But gifts are spiritual gifts, right? They are the outworking of the Holy Spirit who is God in the life of the believer. What's more, the Bible makes a big deal about the fact that God can't be seen, but some of his character can be experienced through the church. I thinkthat's what the apostle John means when he writes:
"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

So, in fact, if I go to church and I encourage other believers and they do everything they can do to encourage me in the power of the Holy Spirit, and hence God's love is being seen and experienced in a way that I can't experience it when I am on my own - well maybe I am "meeting with God" in more than just the "God ministers to us through his word" type of way.

True, this is miles away from the individualistic and trancelike "manifest presence of God" I was encouraged to expect at the mass meetings of my youth when we thought we were provoking God's glory to fall "as on that ancient day". Nevertheless, if we are going to say that God dwells by his Spirit in the church (not just the individual believer) then I think I should perhaps expect to meet Him more manifestly when the church is together.

Just to clarify - this is not, I don't think, mysticism - that God is somehow mystically "more present" to me in church. Rather that as we genuinely are church together, God's presence amongst us as his people is shown as we serve each other in the power of the Spirit. Hmmmm. Maybe we need to have another session music bods so you can help me clear up my position on this!

Give me neither poverty nor riches....

2006-01-31T08:25:00.000-08:00

Well, back from Relay 2 where we tried an interesting social experiment making some people rich and some people poor, just for a day. Coupled with a great talk on money at a church I was visiting on Sunday night it made me think...

First of all - poverty is hard and it is nasty. On our rich/poor day, it was amazing how I, full time Christian worker and all round professional Christian had my sin revealed. It really helped me understand how mob mentality can take over when there were seconds of chilli at the evening meal. It showed me how likely I am to be jealous and dissatisfied. How impatient I was with people when I was tired and hungry. The majority of the church in the world lives in much less affluence than I do day by day yet remain a goldy upright pillar of truth to the community around it, often the place where people look for compassion and help, and a place where justice will be sought on behalf of others. Fair play to those Christians who deal every day with not having eaten enough, having no caffeine and sitting on the hard ground, and still honour the Lord Jesus in the way they behave.

Secondly - the injustice of the world is so much more clear when it is demonstrated in front of your eyes. One of the rich people said "I felt guilty - but it is what I do every day - I just can't see it." Who cares about social action vs evangelism debates, the way I behave every day adds to the inequalities of the world, which, if I could see them in front of me, I couldn't live with. I have got to change.

Thirdly - I spent all of the day being "poor" praying for strength to go on, taking comfort in the encouragement of others, and being so grateful for what I usually have. It really is true - being rich, as most of us are most of the time makes us arrogant as 1 Timothy warns. Money is dangerous.

My I have strength to pray the prayer of Proverbs 30:8 and mean it -
"Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise. I may have too much and disown you, and say
"Who is the Lord?"
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonour the name of my God."

Incarnation people

2006-01-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I spent more time than ever before actually thinking about the incarnation. One would think after 27 of them I might have got round to that before...but what can I say? I'm slow.

The incarnation has become much more important for evangelicals recently, because of the fevered rantings of Rev Chalke et al about penal substitution. As has been said many times his criticisms are undermined if one has a strong doctrine of the Trinity etc etc etc.

Well not wanting to rehash that whole argument, but I wonder if our weak doctrine of the Trinity, coupled with a very strong doctrine of the atonement has negative effects, at least on me. I am rubbish at spending time with non-Christians (I am going somewhere with this) and I am rubbish at having compassion and getting down into the mess with people who have messed everything up. I would love to be better, but my first reaction to non-Christians is to either shut up or think self righteous thoughts. And my first reaction instinctively (although I am working hard to control and develop my character) to people who have messed up is often irritation not compassion. I hate that about myself, and I have been really convicted about it seeing a female colleague at my church do her work so kindly....

But anyway. I wonder if my problem is/was a weak doctrine of the incarnation. (as`well as that of my own sin, but that's another story) I had a wrong view of God, which I was trying to copy of JUST being the one in heaven judging. But God is also the one on earth taking the judgement, the one rescuing us by being in the mess, the one compassionately stooping to help
the one taking the pain of my sin on himself. I wonder if a weak doctrine of the incarnation - not seeing that Jesus really was human - is what led the evangelicals of yesteryear to become to pietistic and withdrawn from society (despite all of their strengths). Well I don't know about them, but as always, believing things or not believing things in this case, was not turning me into a very nice person. Belief and behaviour people - they are totally linked. I want to be an incarnation person.

7 things....

2005-12-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

I don't usually do stuff like this on here, but a Relay worker has asked me, so I feel under obligation.

7 things to do before I die:

1) Understand the Relay budget.
2) Go to theological college
3) Write a novel. I have the plot in my head, I just need to write it.
4) Star in a proper professional musical production of something
5) Parachute jump
6) Live in Northern Ireland again
7) See a really good friend come to Christ

7 things I can't do

1) draw
2) sport of any nature
3) hide what I am thinking from showing on my face
4) Keep to 30 miles an hour on Aigburth Road
5) Play my guitar by plucking/ play bar chords
6) Ask people out - like girls I mean. Seriously, I just can't do this; if I ever get married it will be because some feisty young lady asks me.
7) Live in London. Sorry, but I am not going there, even for the Gospel.

7 things I say most often

1) I can't be having that/doing with that
2) I was loving it
3) I love you, but get lost
4) I forgot.
5) er...eh...um...
6) Thanks for coming. Goodbye.
7) Sorry, I did that wrong. Again. Even though you asked me not to. Sorry.

7 films I watch over and over

1) Evita
2) Shrek
3) The Sound of Music
4) The Muppets Christmas Carol
5) Dead Poets Society
6) Top Gun (although not for years)
7) Moulin Rouge

Gosh - what a girly list - how embarassing!

7 Books I love (the Bible is taken as read I'm afraid)

1) Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
2) The Shadow of the Wind by someone Spanish
3) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4) Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
5) Good news to the Poor by Tim Chester
6) Future Grace by John Piper
7) The Secret History by Donna Tartt

7 Songs I listen to the most

1) Can't get you out of my thoughts by the Dum Dums
2) Don't stop Movin' by S Club 7
3) The Message by Nate James
4) Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols
5) Change your world by Martyn Joseph
6) Car Wash by Rose Royce
7) Break Me by Jewel

There. Now don't get your hopes up - there isn't lots more personal stuff coming, that's it.

Woah....

2005-12-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

Two in one day. But this spurred me...

Mind blowingly awesome and humble post on evangelical outpost today about people fighting with other Christians.

Serious dudes and dudettes - read it.

I must say, it's very flattering...

2005-12-12T04:09:00.000-08:00

...when people come to your blog asking you to post. One feels most appreciated. Sorry I haven't blogged in a while - I suppose it is because I have been doing a lot, and not thinking much.

Anyway, I was at a conference this weekend giving a seminar on prayer. The irony.

And the thing I learned, and the thing I said (although I think it was a rather garbled myself) is that prayer is just trusting the Gospel. That's it. If we are trusting the promises of the Gospel, we will pray.

You know, so often we live the Christian life as if God has said, trust grace to be saved, but follow some rules to keep going. When in fact that is the Galatian heresy. God says, trust the Gospel to become a Christian, and trust the Gospel to stay a Christian. So when Jesus says "pray" - he's just saying; live out your trust in me. If you trust that by grace God has made you a Christian, raised you to new life in Christ, planned out an eternity of perfection for you, if you believe that God in his grace has done these things, do you think that you should...er...um...talk to him?

You know, sometimes people ask - does prayer "work"? The more I think about prayer, the more I think it's a slightly rude question, and indeed, one that I am not surprised the Bible really doesn't address. "Does it work?" is a question you ask of a machine - a car or a toaster. Not of a person. I don't say "does talking to you work"? That's just a bit rude - "do I get what i want from talking to you?" would be a pretty ignorant question and indicate something of a dysfunctional relationship with you.

No - God says, I'm your father, I love you - trust me. And if you trust me, you'll talk to me. It seems to me that, like so much else, prayer is all about grace.

talking to deviants....

2005-11-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

Acts 8 @ Liverpool CU last night - actually, I've spoken on it already and it's only now blowing me away.

Acts 8 - all about The Holy Spirit working to bring the Gospel to the nations. And the first Gentile convert; the ethiopian eunuch.

Eunuch. Think about that for a second. What a twisted life this guy must have had. Even the concept raises all sots of questions... "how do you become....", "how does he....", "why would you....."
How would we deal with someone at church today who wandered in, who was a eunuch - a sexual deviance more severe than one we are ever likely to come across? Probably be a bit awkward. All the "lads" would likely assume he was gay and steer clear. All the girls, probably find his job working in a hareem a bit creepy and back off a bit.

What does the Holy Spirit have his servant do? Snuggle up beside him in his chariot and explain the Gospel. And he becomes the first Gentile to accept the Gospel, and goes on his way rejoicing. When God opens the Gospel up to people like me (Gentiles) he opens it up to people like...everybody. When the Holy Spirit works in Christians lives, they share the Gospel with everyone. I was about to say even those who are totally and (in the eunuch's case) irreparably messed up physically and socially. I don't mean even, though, I think I mean especially.

Lord - when was it that the church started socially sifting who the Gospel was for? Holy Spirit move us to share it with those who WE put beyond the pale, but who you have opened it up to.

Grace is grace.

Talking about God.

2005-10-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

Especially working ye olde CUs one occasionally gets into a conversation that goes a bit like this.

A(vaguely heretical but nice): we should talk about God's love. People needs to know that God loves them because they have low self esteem/need to love him back/other platitude

B (not heretical but a tad self-righteous): er...no. People need to know that God is holy and angry at their sin so they know they need to be saved.

A: weeps

B: smiles beatifically while not intending to tell anyone who isn't a Christian anything about God at all.

Well, last week we tried this new thing at church. We had an excellent talk on Isaiah 6 at church in the morning. If you aren't aware, Isaiah 6 is the passage where Isaiah has an amazing vision of God's holiness and suddenly realises what a sinner he is.
In the evening, we then just sat round with coffee and discussed the talk, applied it, worked out what it means for us. I was in an excellent and lovely group of peeps who helped me to some great insights.
The thing I noticed is this. The response God wants from us in the Gospel is repentance and faith; that is to say - to realise that he is God and I need his help, and then take his help. As soon as Isaiah sees what God is like that is exactly his response - at least that is my paraphrase of "Woe is me for I am a man of unlcean lips". And so God's cleanses him with the stone from the altar.
No one explains to him what repentance and faith is. No one goes through two ways to live or knowing God personally with him. He just sees who God is and his response is "I am sinful, I need help".
Which means A is wrong. But so is B probably. The whole conversation stems, I think out of a wrong presumption - that my job is to tell people the route map to becoming a Christian - the steps. And then we disagree about what order the steps come in.
Rather it seems to me, we'd be better just talking about God. And cleverly, the way God has set it all up to work is that when we see who he is and what he is like (and I mean really see that - in such a way that he himself must have opened our eyes to it) our "knee jerk" reaction is to say "oh help" - which is exactly the response that the Gospel requires.
So much of my own sin and lack of repentance doesn't come through lack of effort, weak will and no self discipline - although those are certainly factors in my life. Those things, and my sin all come from on a lack of reflection on who God is. For if I reflected on that and God's Spirit opened my eyes to it as I reflect on it, then my reaction would be - well it would be to repent and believe.
It isn't cruel or nasty or cold to talk about the holiness of God. Because if people really get it they will knee jerkily think "help me". Exactly what God is looking for. Genius.

Evangelical = no head on my shoulders.

2005-10-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

Weird? Well about 350 years ago it would have been true.

Serious. I have been reading a book this week that I found, in all places, in Ben Mandley's filing cabinet at the Leicester office, called "The story of the church." And I really didn't realise before that it wasn't all that long ago that people like me - ie people who don't find a via media between Protestant and Roman Catholic an acceptable expression of faithfulness to Jesus -were being put in prison, not allowed to own property or get a job, being starved to death, and yes having their heads chopped off. That's why they mostly moved to America. then some of them had a nice time under Cromwell, who went a bit mad and chopped everyone else's heads off, and then the Scots managed to get Charles 2 on the throne and he was even worse to the Puritans. Another great gift from the Scottish.

You know, sometimes I wonder whether all of our 21st century western Christianity is just so sanitised. Our, " I need God's guidance - should I be a lawyer or a pilot," theology is miles away from the majority of Christian history where it was "I need God's guidance, should I back down from what the Bible teaches, or should I get my head chopped off?" - so far away, it almost seems like a different religion. For these people, they didn't just say that the Gospel was life and death stuff, it actually was that for them. And it wasn't that long ago. And those times weren't that different from these times.

I suppose what I'm saying is, let's not shape a theology that "works" for times of comfort. Our heritage was forged in the fires of burned martyrs, beheaded Puritans, jailed preachers. Our idea of God shouldn't revolve around "what should I do with my life" as much as "thank God I get to keep my life for this long". Our forefathers didn't.

Genius

2005-10-08T03:48:00.000-07:00

Ok - I reviewed a lot of books a bit negatively recently. So time for an extremely positive one. This book is total genius.

Joshua Harris is author of such titles as "I kissed dating goodbye" (maurice=NOT a fan) and "Boy Meets Girl" (maurice=a bit more of a fan). This is by far his best book, as it challenges the post-modern approach to church, and says "you may believe you are geting the best deal by dipping in and out of church, but you are only missing out."

There are loads of great things about this book - excellent advice about choosing a church, brilliant practical stuff about how to get the most out of it when you go, fantastic stuff about using Sunday to it's best potential.

But the best thing is that Harris takes what Jesus thinks of the church as the basis of what we should think of it. IE, this book is not legalistic (like some of his dating books have tended to be in my opinion) but grounds our commitment to church in relational, Gospel, grace terms. Church matters to Jesus more than we realise.

It's also immensely readable, short, and theologically clear without being at all heavy. You could easily give it to people who don't read much - students and teenagers and they wouldn't be bored or intimadated. And people who don't read Christian books much are the people, in my experience, who most need to hear the message of this one.

You know, I felt challenged by this working for a para-church movement. Often we can think, in my line of work, that we do the exciting pioneering stuff and the church is like the backstop or beneficiary of our missionary zeal. But the church is the point of it all. Jesus loves the church - the universal church represented by the local congregation, and our aim must be to be a resource and supporter of the local church.

One thing I'm not sure about, and I'd be interested in your views. Harris says that "corporate worship" is a special time, when we "worship" uniquely and differently to when we are alone. "Something happens" that can't quite happen when we are alone (or even gathered together with Christians outside the local church body.) I'm not sure what I think of this. My school of thought (heavily influenced by the conservative evangelical theology of Sydney Anglicanism, to which I owe much) says that the special presence of God with the gathered congregation is an Old Testament thing. Church is now about learning and encouragement to worship with our lives the rest of the time. Obviously Joshua Harris (and other people he is influenced by who I respect a lot, like John Piper and Mark Dever I think) don't agree with this sort of binary qualification on this. What do you guys think?

Oh - also, Joshua Harris has a subtle but definite dig at Blue like Jazz in this book - which also made me smile.

This made me want to cheer....

2005-09-29T01:21:00.000-07:00

John Piper's books have immensely helped me, even though I often don't agree 100% with what he says.

I get his "fresh words" emailed to me, and this one, about minimising the Bible made me want to stand up and cheer! Let's have faith that the word explained forms God's church.

Reading: Blue Like Jazz

2005-09-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my blog posted the pciture twice, I dunno why.

I will confess, after I read the first chapter of this I was expecting to hate this book. Really. A lot. When someone starts off their book by saying "I never really got on with God as father because my father wasn't so good" it is not likely to win me over. Strangely, I don't think we're at liberty to say "that idea of God doesn't work for me." I had a very nasty encounter with a shepherd once....

Anyway, I warmed up to it a lot. I think we need more books where people tell us how being a Christian "works" and doesn't work for them. And that is exactly what Miller does. There is an awesome chapter on grace, which reminds me of the lesson we all need to learn - that grace is grace, and that means you don't have to pay God back for it. There is a great chapter on being cool and the emptiness of it, which is great, because I think a lot of "cool" people will read this book. After all, I'm reading it. And a great chapter on loving people - even people we don't like and who we disagree with - we love.

However, while there was some great stuff, there was other stuff that worried me. I think this book is interesting, but there is more in it that would stop me giving it to people to read than would get me to recommend it. Let's start small and head toward the biggy -
1) He uses Gandhi as an example of Christian love. Philip Yancey does this too, and always find it very confusing. Gandhi was a Hindu. No doubt a very good person in wordly terms, but a man who followed false Gods, and said that Jesus was not divine. He is NOT therefore an example of Christianity, whatever other good things he might be. Ok, that's a little one.
2) the chapter on worship and mysticism is so skewed as to be actually misleading. A little bit, dare I say it, dangerous. Miller says that we need to learn we can never understand God, so basically says stop trying. Just experience God. "The wonder of God happens above our arithmetic and formula". Now, sorry to be a stuffy old fuddy duddy here, but isn't the Gospel about knowing God? Isn't it about truth? Yes, God cannot be fully understood, but Miller seems to say that means we should stop thinking. Just let God ignite the kingdom life within you - forget about understanding it. In fact, he equates seeking to understand "the kingdom" as "empty ritual". Which I' sure is very nice for all doctrine professors at Bible colleges. And people who seek to teach the Bible like me, and those of us who discuss predestination till 3 in the morning. That's not an attempt to map God so I can tie him down, it is an attempt to get my wonder and experience to be defined by his awesome truth. Not, as Miller suggests, to just stare into the sky and let God touch you. Mysticism without truth is emptiness. And dangerous emptiness if it leads people away from wanting to know the truth.
3) which leads on to my 3rd and biggest criticism. This book is all about the faith Miller has worked out by the way he feels. He says on a number of occasions "I know this is true because I felt it." Admittedly he has a token pop at an experientially led religion in one chapter, but the whole book rests on what he has worked out from what he experienced. There is hardly any Bible at all, if any. Now, Miller seems to have a good enough grounding and good friends who tell him truth and to obey it. But sadly, this method of "it works for me" could lead us anywhere. I think we need more books telling us how Christianity works for people, but in the end, if it's not about submitting God's word which is outside me, rather than following my own instincts, it's not Lordship.

Miller, doesn't like Christianity. He likes Christian spirituality. But a spirituality is not Christian that is not clearly guided by the truth of the Gospel outside and beyond what works for me. Which is why, ironically, this book doesn't "work for me" in the end.

I've been away

2005-09-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all.

Still reading that Campolo book - more on that to come.

Christy asked me - what is the emerging church? Answer - good question. Actually getting an ECM practitioner's answer to that question is well nigh impossible.

The best description I have found is included in this quite intellectually highbrow critique of the ECM from Reformation 21

I didn't want to start with a critique, but I couldn't find a better description of the movement.
More on the emergent stuff I am reading in time....

Missing the point?

2005-08-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so time to read some emergent literature for myself. And I thought this would be a good one to start with - a critique of the (mostly US) evangelical church by Campolo who I have a lot of time for, and McLaren who is a key ECM figure. Now, I must confess I come to McLaren with some innate prejudice. "A New Kind of Christian" seemed to be something of a misnomer to me for one of his books, because quite frankly liberal Christianity has been round for years. I get irritated with people who dress old ideas up as their own new ideas - McLaren it seems to me feeds largely off the 20th century liberal theology movement which is in no way new. That is not to diss liberal Christians - there are lots of them around, but McLaren didn't invent that "new kind of Christian."

Now I was just going to read this book and review it but I think there's going to be lots of stuff in it - it's going to need more than one post. The book is a series of articles by one of the authors and then a reply from the other - very conversational and emergent I must say.

So first - McLaren starts with "Salvation." His argument, as I follow it, goes like this - we think salvation is about a ticket to heaven. It isn't. In the OT it is largely about liberation from enemies for the people of God. During the exile when this seemed like it was never going to happen some people called the Pharisees came along and said that it was because of the people's sin. McLaren specifically says that this is "the first time" sin comes into the equation. Jesus came and said this wasn't so. Salvation is about being rescued from the cycle of violence, our pattern of hatred and fear, to be a blessing to others. It is about giving us permission to participate in God's mission right now. Plus "of course" the gift of assurance of being with God forever. Jesus does save us from our sins, but by giving us a better way to live.
Campolo agrees that Jesus preached that salvation was primarily for the here and now, but points out that death is an issue we need to address as is the reality of Satan.

There is something very appealing about this. There is something seriously wrong with a Christianity that thinks a prayer prayed is a free ticket to heaven and then doesn't live as a sign of the kingdom each day afterwards. So thumbs up Brian there.

However, something was troubling me. I thought perhaps I was getting defensive as the prefeace to the book warns me not to, because I'll be missing the chance to learn. (The gentle but definite arrogance underlying that warning rubbed me up the wrong way slightly I must admit)
But I kept coming back to the idea that the idea of needing rescue being linked to sin came from the Pharisees. On reflection - it just doesn't. It comes from the Bible - Deutronomy says the exile will happen for that very reason, the prophets make the link in nearly every sentence, sin is the problem. And the REAL problem isn't sin - ie sin=oppression, but rather God's reaction to sin, which puts his people into exile, into the hands of their enemies. The problem of oppression by enemies comes from God's reaction of punishing the people's sin - this stands out of the Old Testament on every page.

Thus when Jesus comes to save us from our sins, it is not merely to get us out of the cycle of wanting to beat our enemies, but to deal with the root problem, God's judgement, and (this is where McLaren is right) for those people to live as God's new community won back to him, their sin dealt with. The emphasis on Hell, which may or may not be missing the point and leading to Christians who are all other worldly, comes from this idea that the central problem Jesus solves is relational; between God and us. It isn't simply that we aren't quite fulfilling our potential as God's blessing to the world. Seeing salvation primarily as the lifting of oppression - the oppression of a power hungry system to live in a new way - leaves God and his feelings about sin out of the equation altogether.

Frankly, evangelising by saying "have an adventurous life where you are part of God's plan" IS very culturally appealing, but talking about salvation in those terms is, it seems to me, missing the point of our far more serious problem.

Now, as I said, I think Brian is right to say that the Christian profession is transformative. But if we make that the central hallmark of salvation we end up saying - "choose a better way of life." The relational, Godward, aspect of salvation is sidelined. That, it seems to me, is to miss the point in a very serious way indeed.

NOT an intellectual.

2005-08-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

I'd love to have some deep thoughts to post. Maybe soon.

However, I don't have any at the moment, because time I could have been thinking and reading I have been doing other stuff.

Like last Saturday I watched 10 episodes of Alias in a row. They are each about 40 minutes.

To be honest, it's surprising I can think at all after that.