2010 was when....

• I had my first experiences of India (see here for more)
• I turned 40...
• Sheryl & I went to New York to mark both of us turning 40!
• The fun of 3 children at 3 different schools began to kick in
• I had the privelege of baptising an 8o year old man and 15 year old girl in the same service
• My brain and spirit were stretched by the HTB "Holy Spirit in the world today" conference
• I got a BlackBerry (!)
• Youthwork sped up the agenda at WCF, and we learnt a lot about not being able to control everything as we looked at taking on an Oasis Youthwork student
• The boiler at home nearly set the house on fire, meaning that we had to get central heating installed unexpectedly.

There was a lot more besides, but these are some headlines...here's to 2011.

Happy Christmas

Keep thinking that I ought to post a kind of review of 2010 thingy, best of bits etc; but as yet I haven't had the time and/or motivation! It might happen next week, though, you never know.

That being the case, I'll wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a great 2011....

Resolutions and readings....

As mentioned before, at the start of next year at WCF, as part of the national Biblefresh initiative, we are committing to read the Bible together. The programme we'll be using is now available online here, and there'll be plenty of ways of joining in, including thoughts and comments on this blog. You're welcome to join in with us even if you're not part of WCF!

Christmas - a great opportunity?

There's no avoiding it now, is there? Christmas really is approaching fast. I've been pondering Christmas over the last few weeks, and this often repeated assertion that Christmas represents a great evangelistic opportunity for us as churches, as people are somehow more open to think about Jesus at this time of year.

And I think my response is "yes and no". My initial response was "No", I have to say. In fact I remember saying at a joint churches' prayer meeting last month that for a lot of people their exposure to church and Jesus at Christmas is their spiritual equivalent of the annual flu jab - they'll put up with the discomfort of it then in order to avoid any more prolonged exposure for the rest of the year. But I'm beginning to wonder if that wasn't a little harsh. The fact is people are willing, for whatever reason, to go along to church services at Christmas. They may not be going with a great deal of spiritual openness or searching, but they are there. And that is an opportunity; maybe not on the whole, an opportunity to see them make commitments to Jesus, sadly. But certainly an opportunity to gently alter some of their preconceptions of what church is all about, of what Jesus' mission was all about.

So maybe, on balance, Christmas is a great opportunity, but not so much for evangelism but for pre-evangelism. Or maybe I'm just playing with words.

Matters of government...

Had a fascinating morning today. Along with 14 0r 15 other local church leaders I went to visit our local MP, Gareth Johnson, at the Houses of Parliament. Visiting Parliament was an experience in itself; so much history in the building, so many good stories. Truly it is an amazing heritage - with the twist that we don't often remember, that it all belongs to us, the British people. And we have the right to visit, to be part of it because it is our parliament.

Having said that, the heritage and the surroundings I think can be a mixed blessing, creating an illusion of significance for the UK which is maybe just not appropriate in the 21st century; and becoming a "bubble" for the politicians at Westminster, remote from everyday life in towns like Dartford.

But the point of the morning today was that our MP wanted to open lines of communication with church leaders - and that has to be a good thing. It will be interesting to see how things develop.

Keeping up....

Have just worked out that it's now nearly a year since I started this blog....and it has to be said that posting on here hasn't been very regular. Fits and starts is probably the right expression. But I've found it useful to have as a forum for random thoughts and reflections, so will keep going with it, most likely with the same (ir)regularity.

In the New Year, at WCF we are planning a whole church Bible reading programme to tie in with the Biblefresh initiative, and I've said I'll blog some thoughts on that as we go along. So that will force the issue, I guess. In the meantime, it will continue to be as and when I have a thought/get the time...

Hmm.....

Have only just seen this piece, so a bit behind I guess; but have to say it left me quite bemused! Any thoughts?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/09/insane-clown-posse-christians-god

Food for thought

I've been looking again at the writings of Blaise Pascal, probably best remembered now for Pascal's Triangle. I worked in a school in France for a year named after him, in the town of his birth. Interestingly, in light of the last post, he was a devout Roman Catholic, and he has some great insights on the relationship between reason and faith, amongst other things. Anyway, here's a quote for the day:

There is enough light for those who desire only to see, and enough darkness
for those of a contrary disposition.

Is Benedict's visit a blessing?

Ok, so this may be controversial....but I've been trying to ponder how to respond to the Pope's current visit to the UK and the media coverage it has excited.

It seems that evangelical Christians veer (publically at least) from an ongoing tendency to Catholic bashing in some circles, fighting the battles of 400 years ago as if they're still top priority today; to an uncritical acceptance that it must be a good thing that the Pope has come to the UK as it will raise the priority of Christian faith.

So far, Benedict's pronouncements about the dangers of secularism have no doubt struck a chord with many Christians of all persuasions, and probably others too. And there is much to commend and admire in the Catholic church's willingness to risk unpopularity in order to uphold traditional Christian teaching. But, for all that I've no wish to doubt the genuine faith in Jesus of many, probably most, Catholics, I can't help but struggle still with many aspects of Catholic teaching - not just the bits about condoms and the role of women, but more fundamenental things like the official (at least) Catholic view of how we're saved, what happens when we break bread, how authority is to be exercised in the Church, and where it comes from, the role of Mary and the saints...to name a few.

So, while my starting position with individual Roman Catholics is to assume that they are my brothers and sisters, on the same side, and while I admire the sense of history and catholicity (note small 'c') implicit in the Catholic (large 'c') church, I have to be honest and say that I struggle with it as an institution. Hence, while I pray that there may be good things coming from the Pope's visit, my fear is that many secular people will identify what they see on their TV screens as what Christianity is all about. And for me as a Pastor, that is a concern. So, back to the original question: I think at best Benedict's visit is a mixed blessing; but I'd love to be proved wrong.

The Power of a Preposition

Just came across this article in the always stimulating Leadership journal. It's particularly talking about children's ministry, but, it seems to me, the basic point could equally apply to youth work, and to adult ministry in church. The big question: are we ministering to, for or with? And my slightly tentative follow-up: are there circumstances when each one of these would be appropriate, in which case the trick would surely be to know what is right in each situation?

Let's hear it for the BBC!

Well. it's nearly a month since I last posted anything, and now I'm going to post about the trivia of television. But it is August, so I'm sure you'll be understanding.

There seems to be a murmuring from time to time about the BBC; it's wasteful, biassed, dominated by a liberal clique etc. Well, maybe I'm just showing my true socialist tendencies or something, but I think the BBC is great.

Sherlock was a fantastic series - witty, clever, suspense-full, modernising an old text without ruining it. And Rev provided amusement on a Monday evening, was well researched and observed, and seemed to take faith itself with an unusual degree of seriousness for a sitcom (see Johnny's review here).

But for me the beauty of the BBC isn't even in programmes like these; it's in the simple pleasure of watching without advertisments, of not being bombarded by the market every 15 minutes. Yes, the TV License is basically a tax. But at least you see what you're getting for it. And it's a demonstration that there are ways of funding quality other than by market forces. I'm not naive, of course the BBC is under pressure to become more commercial; product placement no doubt still happens in some way, shape or form (I got perhaps alarmingly excited by the fact that in episode 2 Sherlock was using the same BlackBerry as me). But, even if there is waste at the BBC too, perhaps that should remind us of part of its significance - as a symbol of a world where the financial cost of something doesn't necessarily determine it's value. If that's part of what the BBC and it's funding system is all about, long may it continue!

Heart of the Matter

Came across this from Jack Hayford, American Pentecostal Pastor - unlikely source perhaps, but good point all the same:

It is almost unimaginable to most 21st-century followers of Jesus to think
that three-fourths of the history of the Church, believers had no copy of the
Bible. Even following Gutenberg's development of movable type, it was more than
two centuries before sizable portions of the population could afford a Bible.
Yet for all those centuries, the Church worshiped, the Person of Christ was
exalted and the testimony of salvation through His cross was maintained. It is
because New Testament worship had a center (sic) point - the Lord's table.

The accessible, readily available and mobile resource of
bread and wine - established by the Lord of the Church Himself as the
foundational ritual His people would observe - has, inherent in its elementary
simplicity, a...cluster of worship essential that, to this day, make His table a
universal gathering place...

Football crazy...?

Well, England are through to the last 16...and all through Jermain Defoe's goal, and he has, in the past at least been credited as having a Christian faith.

This piece from The Guardian makes interesting reading - apparently Wazza now can't do God publicly; is it because football is now meant to be our national faith? I'm tempted to say, heaven help us if so!

Discipling for disagreement...

Have been thinking recently about how full the early church was of disagreement; Paul confronting Peter to his face, or falling out with Barnabas over whether to take John Mark on his 2nd trip, the seemingly constant disputes between those of Jewish and Gentile backgrounds, Paul pleading that Euodia and Syntyche should agree and so it goes on.

Which all tends to fly in the face of the idealised picture of the early church we sometimes have. At a most basic level, the fact that the New Testament is so full of exhortations to love each other, consider others better than yourselves etc is most likely because it wasn't always happening. So, how do we accept and allow for the fact that we are likely to see things differently, get frustrated with one another and at times fall out like any family without diluting the high standards for relationships between Christians that the New Testament encourages us towards? Should we be discipling one another to get hurt and get over it, and keep loving, or is that an admission of defeat? It seems to me the reason that people at times become disillusioned with church life is because it promises so much - and it's right that it should. The challenge is to allow too for our humanity and weakness, without letting ourselves off the hook too lightly.

Fly the flag...?

Well, with only 3 days to go until the start of the World Cup I now have two England flags flying from my little Ford Ka, courtesy of my 2 sons. Can't say I'm delighted about it, but then, on the other hand, I didn't want to say no. What is fascinating is just how widespread these flags are; someone round the corner from us has handpainted his garage door as a St George's cross, which is maybe a bit extreme. I guess at one level it's all about identity and the need to belong; and let's face it we're not very good generally at generating anything like that sort of sense of community in 21st century Britain, so if football can do it in a positive way, why not? As long as we as Christians remember that ultimately our identity is formed around another cross, that transcends all national and ethnic boundaries.

Oh, and for what it's worth I reckon England will make it to the quarter finals; maybe the semis at a push. But I guess we'll know before long anyway.

As they said...

Final thoughts on last week's conference at Holy Trinity, Brompton...or rather some quotes from some of the sessions:

"..the Spirit in us is God pressing us towards what we are made for" (Archbishop Rowan Williams)

"Either Christianity is fire or there is no such thing" (Mother Maria Skobtsova, as quoted by Rowan Williams)

"...the opposite of poverty is not property, the opposite of poverty is community" (Jurgen Moltmann)

"A presupposed spirit is certainly not the Holy Spirit" (Karl Barth, as quoted by Graham Hunter in Ecclesiology seminar)

"The presence of the church introduces a fissure in the citizenship of the state..." (Miroslav Volf)

"The Spirit enables us to see a new beauty in God that we couldn't see before" (Graham Tomlin, interacting with the work of Jonathan Edwards)

"The Spirit enables us to do for ourselves what we could not do by ourselves" (Tom Smail)

"The Holy Spirit hates stereotypes" (Tom Smail)

There were many more - I don't have all my notes in front of me now. But there's a bit of a flavour at least.

Holy Spirit in a material world...

Well, there's lots more that could be said about the Holy Spirit conference at HTB. Some others are providing in depth reports and reflections (here and here, for example). And there were some great quotes that I'll probably share in another post, too.

But for now, just some thoughts arising from the seminar stream I went to, on the Holy Spirit and Ecclesiology (doctrine of the Church). First thing to note is how overwhelmingly Anglican the attendees were, when we all introduced ourselves on day 2. Now that possibly reflects the conference as a whole; I fear it also reflects a general lack of interests that persists among us Free Church bods when it comes to anything perceived as churchy.

A lot of the substance of the discussion, both in papers presented and the discussion on Friday, focussed around the role of the "sacraments", specifically communion, but also baptism (intriguing concept in a room full of Anglicans, but nuff said about that). This is something that has been threatening to be a bee in my bonnet for a long time, probably since realising that in our churches, if we're not careful, communion can be seen almost as an "intrusion" into the worship time - by which we mean mainly singing. The fact of the matter, at its simplest is that Jesus never commanded us to sing, but he did command us to break bread and baptise. Simples...

But then you get into the question of what is happening in these human activities. It seems increasingly clear to me that they are more than simply symbols and helpful reminders; rather that God is active in the very materiality of bread and wine and water. I've been hugely helped in thinking about all this by 2 books in particular; The Gospel-Driven Church by Ian Stackhouse, and Promise and Presence by John Colwell. So it was encouraging to be with others whose thinking has moved/is moving in similar ways; as well as some starting from a more sacramental Anglican tradition looking to combine that with more direct experience of the Spirit. And that leads me to my final "Yes, but...". It seems to me that the genius of Evanglicalism initially (in terms especially of the doctrine/experience of assurance) and the Charismatic movment more recently has precisely been that they have allowed for and encouraged a direct, (apparently) immediate experience of God through the Holy Spirit. The challenge surely is to recover the value and priority even of sacrament, God meeting his people, often unspectacularly, through the everyday elements of bread, wine and water, while remaining actively open to His meeting with people in all kinds of other, surprising ways.

What God has joined together?

I've been trying to reflect on the HTB conference on the Holy Spirit that I was at for the last two days. I'm thinking there may be several posts that go back to different aspects of the conference; to describe it as content-rich would be a gross understatement. And, of course, there was the opportunity to "bump into" people who you don't see very often who are on a similar wavelength.

The one incident at the very end of the proceedings that epitomised what the conference was about was when Graham Tomlin, who was hosting the conference (and himself gave an excellent talk) invited those who were involved in academic theology to go to the front of the church, and then invited those invloved in local church ministry to pray for them and minister to them; and then vice versa. There's plenty more to say, but if the conference marks the fact that (seriously high level) academic theology and the real life of local churches can, in the Holy Spirit, bless and benefit each other, rather than being seen as separate worlds, that has to be a good thing.

And now...?

Thought I ought to post something on here in case it seemed I'd disappeared...The election is all done and dusted now, and it seems to me the new coalition government will either work well and herald the start of the new politics we keep hearing about, or else it will be a disaster. Watch this space.

I'm going to be spending Thursday and Friday at this conference on the work of the Holy Spirit at Holy Trinity, Brompton. Seems an intriguing mix of academic theological heavyweights and worship and ministry. Should be interesting.

Random reflections

Well, the message on Sunday was well received on the whole. We had a Q & A at the end and there were some good questions, with some interesting conversations afterwards too. It seems that dealing with these types of issues "works" if that's the right way to put it, because very often people do have questions that a lot of the time they just ignore, or try to anyway. Bringing them out into the open and seeking to address them seems a much more positive way of dealing with then.

On another matter, it is interesting to see discussion becoming a little more pointed on Facebook, Christian blogs etc about who to vote for this coming Thursday. For all the debates, hustings etc. it seems to me that the decisions are becoming predictable; those Christians most likely to emphasise personal morality, "family" issues and freedom of expression for Christians are most likely to vote Conservative (although I'm not convinced as yet that they will really make a major difference in these areas), while those who would stress justice, the needs of the poor and oppressed and the envirnonment are more likely to vote Labour or Lib Dem (although the former's record in these areas is far from faultless, and the latter do remain an unknown quantity in terms of government). In a few days time, we'll know, I guess.

Thinking required...

Tomorrow we are starting a new series at WCF, based around our purpose statement, which is:

To experience, demonstrate and proclaim

• The love of the Father
• The grace of Jesus
• The friendship of the Holy Spirit

I'm hopeful that it will be a positive series in all kinds of ways. My immediate worry, though,is that to start it off I'm going to be speaking about the Trinity tomorrow. Not the easiest of subjects for a whole church Sunday morning slot, but nevertheless incredibly important. But in a church which, in all honesty doesn't really do doctrinal preaching in a big way, this feels like quite a challenge. Oh well, watch this space.

Church and state...?

Yesterday evening saw the main 3 parliamentary candidates for Dartford taking part in a hustings organised by the local churches. It was a very good event, well supported, and all the candidates will have done their chances no harm, it seems to me. They all came across as genuine, passionate about the area, committed to public service and prepared to give honest answers to questions even when they knew they might not be saying what their audience wanted to hear. Which I suppose brings it back to a choice about policies, which isn't a bad place to be.











The questions (that had been submitted in advance) were interesting. They focussed for the most part on issues that aren't party political; issues, that you could say cynically, are stereotypical issues of concern for Christians - life issues, conscience issues (wearing a cross to work etc), social disorder issues (alcohol, prostitution). In one way that was disappointing, particularly as there were no questions around global poverty and justice (the, admittedly unscientific, very small sample poll on the WCF website makes this Christians' number 1 concern). The answers were interesting, too, and underlined that Christians' views on many of these issues are simply out of step with the rest of society nowadays. Maybe now, more Christians will realise that, and we can begin to order our lives as an alternative society, rather than trying (unsuccessfully) to impose our way of living on everyone else. That doesn't mean we give up on the rest of society, as if God's ways are only relevant for those who profess to know Him. But it probably means that our primary means of persuasion needs to be the quality of our life together. Now there's a challenge for post-christendom.

Westminster Declaration

Well, I have now added my name to the Westminster Declaration. Despite a few misgivings that I mentioned in my last post, overall I think this gets it about right. It's not about imposing Christian views on anyone else, but on making sure that the right of Christians to hold those views is acknowledged. Have to say that it may not make a great deal of difference in the long run; and that our duty as Christians is to be faithful to our understanding even if it's not widely accepted or understood, and to do so in a gracious and positive way. But, taking the declaration at face value, I felt it was valid to support the other Christians involved in this, even if their agendas might not always be identical to ones I'd feel comfortable with. So why not have a look?

And they're off

So, at long last, the election race has officially begun. After months of thinly disguised campaigning, the masks are off. It will be an intriguing few weeks. No doubt frustrating too, and by the end of it we might very well all have had enough of it. And it means that, if you're as undecided (and generally unimpressed) as me, then we now have 4 weeks to make up our mind.

On a related note, I've just come across the Westminster Declaration. Not sure yet what to make of this. On a first read through it all seems very admirable at face value. And maybe that's the level it should be taken at. But I just have this suspicion about some of these things, that it's another attempt to turn back the clock almost and re-assert Christian influence in a confrontational, "let's defend our rights" kind of way; which I struggle to reconcile with the way of Jesus. But maybe I'm being paranoid in this case. Something else to think about carefully.

Biblefresh

Went to the London launch yesterday of Biblefresh, the name for an initiative aimed to tie in with the fact that next year is the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible, with all the influence that has had on English language, literature and culture. The aim of the initiative is partly to re-enthuse Christians for the Bible, and partly to provide a platform for others to engage at a variety of levels with the Bible too. The beauty of it is that the outworking will be locally-driven; it's not about following a centrally dictated programme. It all has potential certainly. How it works will depend on what individual churches make of it.

Telling stories

Flashforward is back on Monday evenings, and just as confusing as ever. What was interesting last night was how the episode worked. In terms of new events, happening in the "now" of the story my guess is there was probably about 20-30 mins of action. Take out the inevitable adverts and the full 5 minutes recap of previous epoisodes and the rest of the episode was flashbacks to events in the past which have a bearing on current plotlines; or even, flashbacks to people's memories of their visions of the future, which is a fairly mind-boggling concept.

What the whole concept does, and is underlined by the structure of last night's episode is to heighten suspense by altering the normal straightforward chronological sequence of stories. Of course, this isn't terribly new; lots of stories do that in many different ways, and have done for years. And in doing so, they highlight that the present moment, the now, does not exist in isolation from either the past that has led to it, or the future that will follow, however unknown that is to us.

In one sense, Christians should get this more than anyone. The events we remember this week in particular, of Jesus' death and resurrection, are events in the dim and distant past. Yet our claim is that they shape us now in a more significant way than anything in our personal history, at least in theory. And they point to a future that shapes us too in the now, even though we don't know all the details. As one of the characters in a previous episode of Flashforward put it, "I've seen the future and it's changed my life". I guess we should add our "Amen".

Multi-voiced?

I've been thinking quite a lot recently about the practise of open or "multi-voiced" worship. It's very much part of our practise at WCF, arising from a mixture of both charismatic and (in the dim and distant past now) brethren influence. And while there are "risks" involved and issues to handle, there are some wonderful examples of things being shared from the body of the church that have far greater impact than the official voice of the pastor. But sometimes the best bits are when not much seems to be happening. This quote from Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days, reflecting on his (fictitious?) childhood in the brethren, says it all:

There was a lovely silence in the Brethren assembled on Sunday morning as we waited for the Spirit. Either the Spirit was moving someone to speak who was taking his sweet time or else the Spirit was playing a wonderful joke on us and letting us sit, or perhaps silence was the point of it.

Song and dance...

Have somehow ended up watching Glee on a Monday evening recently. We've decided that it's basically High School Musical for adults; or maybe not adults but the post-pubescent anyway. Which isn't to say that it's not entertaining in a slightly odd way. What it does illustrate quite well is the value system that dominates the media and the generation a little bit younger than me....

There are some very positive features to this; not least it's commitment to being inclusive of all, non-discriminatory etc. The only downside to that (and this is hardly a new insight) seems to be the inability or lack of desire to ever make a value judgement about certain lifestyle choices, particularly in the area of sexual ethics. But this isn't a whinge. It seems to me that's just the world as it is now, and highlights one of the challenges to Christians who are living a different way.

All that being said, it's fascinating that some of the basic themes explored in Glee are all the things I remember writing about in 'O' Level (yes, that dates me) English essays about Shakespeare. In particular the whole thing of appearance and reality. "Nothing new under the sun", as someone once said.

The narrow way?

We've been using the Just People course at WCF over the last few weeks. It's a joint effort between TEAR Fund and Livability, and focusses on justice, compassion and integral mission. And it's been very good, has "grabbed" people and moved conversation along in the whole area of church, community and mission.

Last night we had a couple of guests who I interviewed as part of the evening; the local PCSO and a local councillor. It was an excellent time, eye-opening, challenging and practical. But at one or two points it also raised questions with me. It comes down to this, I think: It would be easy, in a predominantly middle-class community such as ours for the church's community involvement to be co-opted into becoming part of the overall "Let's keep a nice village feel to the area"movement. That may or may not be a good thing; and also may or may not reflect the values of the Kingdom of God. The challenge for us is to walk the tightrope of getting involved without finding that the agenda we are working too is basically someone else's other than Jesus'.

"People are strange"

That's a phrase I find myself using a lot, or something like it. The thing about cliches is, they're so often true. Anyway, I found myself thinking about this phrase - why do I use it? What does it really mean?

On one level, maybe it's a failure of empathy - to describe someone's actions as strange might just mean that I can't (or can't be bothered to) attempt to put myself in their shoes. Another worrying thought is that it could mean that I'm setting up how I react, feel, my attitudes and thought processes as some kind of norm. Anyone who doesn't match up to that is somehow odd. But, of course, it could just as easily be the other way round, I could be the odd one...

At the end of the day it's simply a way of describing the glorious unpredictability of human beings. There's so much going on inside all of us, and so many external factors influencing us, that we simply don't function in a machine-like way, where predictable inputs produce predictable results. That is both wonderful and frustrating at the same time. More incredible still, is that the God who made the universe with all its regularity and order became a real human being in Jesus, subject to all the vagaries of real human life. And has chosen to carry on working through people with all their randomness and unpredictability. Now, to my mind, that really is strange.

Twists and turns

I spent a good part of yesterday taking a small tree out of our back garden...all seemed a bit of a shame in some ways but it needed to come out. Anyway, it was fascinating to see just how twisted the trunk and branches were, and how all the branches seemed to cross over and intertwine; and it didn't exactly make taking it out any easier! But it was a vivid reminder of the power of life. While that tree was alive it would grow, and if there were obstructions in the way it would grow round them; be shaped by them, yes, but keep growing. Life and growth are two sides of the same coin. Where there is spiritual life, whether at an individual or congregational level, we should expect to see growth. But that growth won't be in neat straight lines - it will be twisted and hard to untangle, and won't look like it's going anywhere at times. Let's hope I remember that.

Inspiration

Funny how ideas come when you're not obviously looking for them; how inspiration strikes about things that you're not consciously thinking about...

Maybe that just proves we need more time not doing very much or thinking too hard. The value of washing up and other such exciting tasks lies here, I suspect (not that I'm volunteering...)

What we've inherited...

Heard yesterday of the death of Michael Harper. Michael Harper was the leading figure in the Charismatic movement in the Church of England (and through the Fountain Trust, in other historic denominations in the UK) in the 1960s and 70s. Later he became an Orthodox Priest, which is probably a tale in itself.

I always find reading and hearing about the early days of the charismatic movement both exciting and fascinating. There was such a sense that God was on the move, that something new was happening. There was also a lot of immaturity, wrong attitudes and opposition as well; and much of the opposition from very genuine Chrsitians who simply didn't "get" what was going on.

There's lots that could be said about this - I almost ended up starting a PhD on the history of the charismatic movement about 12/13 years ago. Not sure it would really have worked then, so glad I didn't with hindsight. But I'm reminded that so much of what we take for granted in church life nowadays builds on what a previous generation of leaders and ordinary believers discovered and taught, often at some cost to themselves. I guess we need to be careful about what we're passing on to the next generation too.

Roots

Fascinating evening at church yesterday, led by a bilingual Israeli tour guide, who usually leads study tours for Christians around Israel. She focussed on the person of Jesus as a real human being in a real historical context. It was certainly eye-opening, and made you re-think preconceived ideas - e.g., it would appear that it's highly unlikely historically speaking that Jesus was more than 5ft2" in height. Hardly crucial to salvation admittedly, but it highlighted for me at least some of the stereoptypical images of Jesus that linger in our subconscious. And if that's true for his appearance, how much more true is it likely to be for our understanding of his teachng and mission. Again, there were plenty of examples where, historically, the way our English New Testament has been translated has effectively "de-Judaised" it (not sure if that's a word but you know what I mean). She was careful not to suggest that was all deliberate and anti-Semitic, though some may have been; more worrying is the effect of all this. You end up with a vague, spiritualised Jesus rather than a real man who lived a real life in a real context. And chances are then you end up with a vague, spiritualised faith as well.

Back to the election build-up...

Just thought I'd highlight a couple of useful links to go with the post last week about the forthcoming election....The Jubilee Centre always has useful stuff on social and political issues, and they have here a video quiz to help you to vote ethically! And Care have launched a special election website, with what looks like it will be a series of responses from Christian leaders as to what the key issues will be from their point of view in the election campaign.

It ain't what you say...

At the moment at church we're working through a series on the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation. Every week I've been wondering if this week, what we're looking at might be a slightly "easier" message to bring, but 5 weeks in and each week has been challenging at a deep and sometimes uncomfortable level.


One interesting thing, whatever I'm speaking on, is when people comment on the way I've preached, both at WCF and when I'm speaking at other churches. And I guess that, while there is undoubtedly a basic Leveson style that is just how I am when I'm preaching, there are variations in delivery too. The interesting thing is that these genuinely aren't premeditated in any way. It's not like I decide in advance that today will be more passionate or whatever. Reflecting on it a little, I'd like to think that what determines not only what I say but how I say it, is the Bible passage in front of me. Because at the end of the day my task as preacher isn't first and foremost to bring strategic direction to the church (might be my task as leader but they're not necessarily the same), or even to bring a prophetic word (it might happen, and hopefully what's said will have a prophetic edge) but above all, to act as a kind of microphone that makes the Bible speak more loudly and clearly to those who are listening. No doubt there are all kinds of issues with that understanding of the task, but if you start to deviate too much you end up with the preacher's spiritual thoughts. And that's a high risk strategy, at least where I'm concerned!

X marks the spot

Well, there's going to be a general election this year, and already I've found myself willing the politicians to just announce the date and get on with it. Interesting post from Simon, another Pastor in SE England, about some of the issue for Christians as they consider who to vote for.


At the moment, I honestly don't know who I'll vote for when the time comes, and the process of trying to work it out doesn't seem straightforward either. Maybe things will become clearer as time goes on. It struck me though that there are all sorts of reasons why people vote in the way they do, including Christians. But many of them seem increasingly inadequate as the pace of change in society continues:

• Family/personal history: we've always voted Conservative/Labour/whatever and to do anything else is a betrayal of some kind.
• Ideological commitment: only trouble with this is that the gap between the parties ideologically is hardly huge at the moment. There are differences but, on the whole, they seem to be about how we develop a certain kind of society, not what kind of society we want.
• Issues perceived as "fundamental": Could be pro-life issues (abortion, euthanasia, embryo experimentation); or maybe family and morality issues; or indeed issues of justice and poverty. Two problems here it seems - first, no mainstream party seems to tick all the boxes for many Christians on these issues, and second, how do you prioritise among them?
• Personality: There are various twists on this - so and so seems a good bloke, hasn't been caught with his trousers down or fiddled his expenses too much - to the more "spiritual" one where you vote for a Christian even if they're not from a party you'd normally support.
• Working through policies: This sounds like it should be the right answer, and does have a lot to commend it. Reality is, however, that most of us don't have the time or the expertise properly to compare manifestoes, check alleged costings etc
• Self-interest: For many, including I suspect many Christians, it maybe comes down to this, crass though it is. But even then, of course, our choices might backfire in any case...

Any thoughts on how we work our way through all this? One thing I am sure of is that easy answers are likely to be wrong ones. I'm guessing we'll need to pray, think, discuss, argue even. Then make our choice and trust God with the outcome.

O...

I had the joy of being interviewed by an Ofsted inspector yesterday afternoon. It was all painless enough in the end, it was a "monitoring visit" to make sure the school where I'm Chair of Governors has made sufficient progress since the last full inspection. And the feedback was positive, which was encouraging. The overall process is still dominated by statistics, proving with data that the children are making progress etc. Seems to reflect the obsession of some parts of our society with measuring things, then labelling them. "If we can't put a number on it, how can we know it's really happening" seems to be the attitude. And there's a danger that creeps into church life too. Not just in the obvious ways (bums on seats), but in subtle ways too as we try to "measure" where we're at spiritually and assess it against others. This approach definetely has value and can be helpful; but let's get it in a bigger perspective, in education and in church!

Throw those curtains wide...

Nothing profound to say here; just enjoying the clear blue skies and sunshine in the crisp cold of a sunny winter's day. There's definetely something to be said about for stopping and enjoying basic stuff like this....

"Books are Fun"

That was the name of a song by Barney the purple dinosaur when Toby was very small. But anyway, that aside, the long hours travelling to and from India (and in India) and some bits of down time while there did give an opportunity to read some bits. Here's a summary:

Divorce and Remarriage in the Church - David Instone-Brewer: A helpful look at a potentially difficult subject; it made, for me at least, a compelling case that the "traditional" way of reading the New Testament on these issues may not be the most faithful.

Home - Marilynne Robinson: This is the "follow-up" to Gilead (see my earlier post) and in many ways tells the same story but from a different point of view. Once again it is wonderfully written, and I could imagine myself re-reading it without any trouble at all. It somehow manages to be sad, regretful and yet strangely hopeful all at once.

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins: Well, I figured I had to read it for myself at some point. Inevitably, there's a lot of rant I suppose you'd call it. But Dawkins does write well, is witty, and makes some fair points. That said, the main point of his argument seems to be a (only slightly) more sophisticated version of the question every child asks: "Who made God, then?". The saddest bit for me was the venom that some "Christians" have poured out on Dawkins...not helpful in any way at all as far as I can see.

The Believers - Zoe Heller: This novel is actually about a family who have strong Socialist values, that starts to fall apart. An interesting enough way to spend a long flight, but didn't really compete for my attention with the others!

India report

The report on our time in India I mentioned in the last post is now available online here.....

India Photos....

At last, as promised some "colour" to fill out the updates I've posted here:

The "Abundant Life" church on the Liberty Children's Home campus; where Hezekiah is the Pastor. NB the loudspeakers on the corner of the roof (see last post)...

And here's Doug sharing in church with Hezekiah translating...
Meanwhile a little sign (in every sense) of the affection that Doug is held in there:

And some of the children from the Liberty Children's Home, with a warm welcome for me too, though not sure about the designation!

Now a couple from COTR, including some of the students in the class I taught for two sessions:

I'm planning to do a written report for Sunday for WCF. If you're not from WCF then let me know and I'll email you a copy if you're interested.

Summing it all up...

Well, having been back in the UK around 24 hours now, I'll attempt to sum up the last couple of weeks in India. Allowing 3 days for travelling, I worked out that I spoke 16 times in 9 days - to children at Liberty Children's home, two church congregations, bible college students and Pastors. And there was time to read, have an encounter with a barber, visit cities, play and watch cricket, go on an outing with the children....so all in all it was a full couple of weeks. The best I can offer by way of summary are the bullet points that follow. If you know anything about India some of them are almost cliches, but true all the same from what I saw.

• India is huge. And wildly diverse. Andrha Pradesh, the state where we were, is bigger than the UK in both size and population I think. The languages are different from state to state and I was surprised how few in Andrha spoke Hindi or English the national languages. To be honest, how the country hangs together seems a mystery to an outsider.
• You get a kind of sensory overload when you first reach India. Distinctive smells, bright colours. And noise, noise everywhere. Driving around with cars, trucks, rickshaws and motorbikes hooting constantly. Churches fitting loudspeakers on the outside so that all the neighbours can hear what's going on (and to let members know the service has started) seems to be the norm. Not a quiet place.
• Wealth and poverty exist side by side in extreme forms. There is money in India; the very wealthy, but also a growing middle class with disposable income (around 200 - 300 million people fall into this bracket according to one estimate). But there are also many people who only just get by, as well as many who don't even manage that.
• Spiritually again India is diverse. As far as Andrha Pradesh is concerned, Hinduism dominates, but there is a sizeable Christian community. Here at least the two co-exist peacefully (not always true of political issues though - see here). It raises issues though as to what the heart of the gospel is here. The key issue seems to be "Who is God?" in all honesty; Hindus almost seem to need to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord before they can go onto see him as Saviour.
• How does the church make an impact in this culture? Well, from what I saw, the two keys seem to be when Christians are practically caring for those in need, and when the power of God in healing is seen. Works and wonders, that then lead on to the Word...Probably lessons for us all there.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more to say, but that will do for now. And I will upload some photos soon, honest.

India Update: the last one

Well, the trip out with the children on Saturday was very good, they all seem to have had a great time. Yesterday was church service, where again Doug shared and I spoke. It seemed to go well. Interesting that some things seem to be features of church life the world over; some of the folk we had met the previous week weren't there, but others were. Encouragingly, they are getting a regular stream of first-time visitors to the services, many from Hindu backgrounds (and one last week from a Muslim background). Afterwards, and after lunch. I had the unique experience of a haircut, shave, beard trim and massage by an Indian barber. Unforgettable!

Anyway, we will shortly begin the first leg of the journey home. An 8 hour car ride to Hyderabad, then flying home via Dubai tomorrow. When I get back I will upload some photos, and maybe try and sum up with some overall reflections, though I'm not at all sure where to start with that for now...

India Update (4)

Well, we're just waiting for a truck to arrive to take the children from Liberty Children's Home for a picnic on the hills nearby, so I thought I'd use the time to give a quick update. Yesterday we went into the city of Eluru to a clothes store, which was again an intrigiung experience. Followed by a visit to a Hindu family who are friends of Hezekiah's, and who Doug & Jeannette have visited before. They were very hospitable, plying us with food and drink, and were delighted with the photos Doug gave them that he'd taken on his last visit to them. And they wanted us to pray for them...

One sad piece of news is that the father of two of the girls at the home died this week. He was an alcoholic who drank away all the money the family ever had. Their mother is unwell (with TB I think) too, and before the girls came to the home last September they were living in effect under a lean-to, eating whatever their neighbours could spare to share with them. Sadly, their Dad went out one evening in the week, and basically drank himself to death it seems. I guess it poignantly illustrates the value of what Hezekiah is doing here. Please pray for these girls, and their mother too.

India update (3)

Well, I'm now back with Pastor Hezekiah, after a fascinating few days at COTR in Vizak. It was certainly busy, and I enjoyed teaching 3 classes in their theolgical seminary, as well as speaking at 2 services in the College chapel, and speaking at the church that WCF helped to build a few years ago. There was a lot to reflect on during the visit too; it was great for example this morning to sit in on a class taken by a visiting lecturer who is an expert on the history of Christianity in India.

On a less serious note, a 6 hour drive in a car with a driver whose English was only slighty better than my Telugu was also and experience that I won't forget in a hurry!

India update (2)

Well, the last day or two have been intriguing in all sorts of ways. Today I was speaking at a conference for 40 or so Indian pastors, all translated into Telugu. They were a fascinating mix of ages and denominational backgrounds, and I genuinely felt it to be a privelege to be able to share something with them. Interestingly, when I suggested they break into groups and pray for each other they seemed a little out of their comfort zones. And these are the pastors. But, all in all it was a postive time.

We've had a fairly prolonged power cut today. All quite normal it seems. But interesting inso far as in many ways Indian society seems quite reliant on technology; maybe "reliant" isn't the right word, "at home with" is better. Certainly more so than Kenya when I was there. But they also seem very accepting of the fact that the electricity sometimes goes off for hours at a time, and goes off for a short while most days it seems.

I've also seen first-hand just how passionate they are about cricket, they play it very seriously and very well. And it catches the imagination of all ages in a similar way to football in the UK, and seems to attract similar amounts of money. Before the power cut today I watched a few overs of a One Day International between India and Bangladesh with some of the older lads, and there was no shortage of advertising and sponsorship...

One final reflection on the adverts. If the people we seen in ads in some ways represent an ideal of what a society considers beautiful or attractive at least, it's interesting at least (and possibly worrying?) that the characters in every ad I saw were very fair skinned, many barely recognisable as Indian.

Anyway, tomorrow I go to COTR in Vizak for a few days, and may not be online while there. But I'll update this when I get back if not before.

India Update...

Well, it's certainly been a fascinating couple of days. Yesterday Doug & I went to have a look at the plot of land that has been purcahsed to provide grazing for buffalo and a paddy field to support the work of Liberty Children's Home. It's all being prepared well, the one delay now is waiting for a transformer for the water pump and then things will start moving in earnest. Then into the "village" of Chintalapudi to get a feel for the sights and especially sounds of cars, buses, bikes cattle and people all competing for space on the roads, as well as stopping by the clothes shop for a bottle of "Thums Up" (Diet Coke to us Brits!) with the owner. Then we've already had a church service this morning which was a great occasion. I'm discovering so many hidden talents of Doug's; not only did he share a brief word, but he was given a microphone to lead a song in Telugu. He didn't seem keen to join the worship group at WCF though for some reason. Anyway, there's talk of a cricket match in a few minutes so I need to conserve my strength....more soon.

We're here...

Well, amazingly enough, given all the snow and ice at Gatwick and the problems that went with that, Doug & I landed at Hyderabad airport only 1 hour late in the end yesterday evening (or early this morning Indian time). Then a 7 hour drive to Chintalapudi; a chance to sleep a little as well as to sample the sights, sounds and smells of India. Now we're getting settled with Pastor Hezekiah, and looking forward to what the next few days has in store. Watch this space!

Not long now...

Just one more day of last minute preparations and tidying up of loose ends to go, and then it's off to India Thursday morning early (snow and ice permitting!). Updates here, internet connection/power supply permitting...

Avatar

Went to see Avatar on Saturday night, and was generally impressed. It would be easy to criticise one or two characters as stereotypes etc but on the whole it was incredibly well done, and visually stunning. The presentation of the Na'vi religion was fascinating - why is it that "good" religion in the movies rarely looks much like Christian faith? But a great film, and inspiring in its way too...