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.