CLAN Gathering @ St Andrews

CLAN in St Andrews has become the main Christian festival in Scotland, with some 1,500 people coming together for a week of activity. Our Baptist Union had a stall there this week, and many people gathered to speak to us and renew contacts as well as make enquiries regarding Mission and Ministry. A great networking event which - after all - is a large part of what we are all about. Its also exciting to see this major event focusing in in discipleship and mission, which is also what we are all about. Glory to God!

Pondering People

A great time of Prayer Retreat today for the Team at the Bield, in Perthshire. Three reflections to share:

1. For the pastor, there is a paradox in dealing with people. On the one hand people carry problems and pathologies. Their problems haunt and pathologies taunt.

But it is important to see people in the light of the cross and resurrection. That renewed in Christ and by the Holy Spirit, people renewed can flourish and all into the image of God in increasing beauty and splendour.

It is so easy for professionals,  used to working with and helping people, to become cynical and tired in the way we see them.  They can become problems to be managed and pathologies to be dealt with. But ultimately the best we can do is to bring people to the Cross of Christ, at a point that leads them through to Resurrection life.

We need to help people, in their barrenness, recognise the power of the Cross; to lead them into a remoulding and reforming to become those who flourish to the glory of God.

2. Transformation means the inevitable becoming of what we presently are not. This is the reality of metamorphosis: the caterpillar is transformed into the butterfly.

all that we see around us in the present age has a good purpose; but that purpose is regrowth, metamorphosis and flourishing and development into that which we do not yet see. As the place of God's rule grows within us, so too our ability to see temporality, transience and contingency in everything that is in the present.

3. Fulfilment lies in grasping the paradox of self-denial.

The greatest help we can be to one another is to encourage the search towards deeper obedience to God's rule; and to confirm the truth of the Scripture in what God is saying.

Yet disobedience is not the primary problem.  The greatest danger to ourselves is self-hate and the pathology of guilt. This we must die to, in order to find life abundant.

Whenever we lose this sense of paradox, there we lose something of the truth that is the way of Christ.

A good reason

Ovr the next few weeks I will be preaching on the value of being a baptist Christian. So here are some intitial thoughts.


I rejoice in the simplicity of baptism. The symbol of Christian baptism of the believer by full immersion in water, where the man or woman has come to recognise Jesus as the coming of God among us, cannot be overstated.


In some evangelism, there can be a great emphasis on the forgiving power of Jesus' death on the Cross. And this is absolutely right. With some others, the stress is on the Father's love for us. Essential. And for some , there is a stress on how Jesus can and does pour out the Holy Spirit into our lives. Amen!



But none of these, taken by themselves, is a sufficient explication of the Gospel of Jesus, which is the good news of the Kingdom of God come to earth. Each of forgiveness, love and empowerment is a 'primary colour' of the Gospel; but any one isolated from the others is less than the full Gospel. Something else is needed to bring it together. And that is believer's baptism.


The act of Christian Baptism of the new disciple by full immersion in water signifies and conveys, more than any other symbol can, what it means to be fully integrated into the life of Christ. We are called not just to believe about Jesus. We are called into Jesus: into His life through His death and resurrection.


This has certain implications for us. We believe in the responsibility and freedom of every person to make their own response to the invitation to belong to Jesus - the freedom to embrace Him or - tragically - to reject Him. 



But if a person embraces Jesus, we recognise that they are part now of something bigger than themselves, and that discerning the will and way of God together in Christ is very important for us. We believe in discerning and confirming the will of God together, not just individually, trsting all in the light of Scriptural truths and insights.


A resolution to be different by being Christ's ambassadors. Not defined by institution, or ceremony, or traditions, or buildings, or creeds. But walking together with Jesus in our hearts, the Bible in our heads, and our hands held together, embracing a full Gospel. It is good to be a baptist, facing the future with confidence and focussing on our hope through union with Christ.

Empowered

Commissioned

Loved

Forgiven

Identity

Tales from churches 1

This is the first of many quick interviews with pastors, as I travel around Scotland. This one is with Steve, the pastor of Wigtown Baptist Church

Full faith

As I travel around Scotland, I am aware of something. There is, Biblically, a real fullness to faith that has four aspects:

•   Repentance 
•  Knowledge of God's Forgiveness
•  Experience of God's love 
•  Empowerment in the Holy Spirit 

  But often, most noticeably in the hymnody  used, mention of the first is missing. It is good to know and to emphasise both forgivess and love, although there can sometimes be much said about one and not the other. And how can there be any sustained sense of victory without empowerment in the Holy Spirit? It would be good to see a healthy grasp of these four aspects of faith throughout the churches in Scotland. For where any one of these is missing there is something less than full Gospel.

Full Atonement

Propitiation and expiation: the difference. I remember once watching a young Christian cry in anguish on not being able to understand a sermon explaining the difference. That was 35 years ago. Well, I've preached some difficult sermons myself, I suppose. But these days, I'm concerned that people I listen to can occasionally betray a true, but narrow and limited grasp, of Scriptural understandings of the Atonement, and the way Christ Jesus has brought us back to God. Suppose it comes from reading more about what the Bible says than actually reading the Bible. That brings me back Not to propitiation and expiation. But to how Jesus paid the price and took the penalty; AND healed and made whole our humanity that we might be changed in Him; AND sets a path and a pattern for us to follow in a life of ministry that joins us to His Cross and resurrection. And all of this is woven into the Biblical picture of Atonement. Got it? If not, ask the preacher to explain.

Carte Blanche

A clean sheet. A good exercise now that summer's coming. For our lives as people and in community with others – especially in where we're going in life and where we are going as church. I was speaking to a younger colleague, not long into pastorate. Really committed and full of energy. And as I listened to him describe his life, it struck me how much of this highly gifted person's time and talents were channelled into keeping the show on the road. Now, that's no bad thing. As long as the show is going somewhere. It's true for all of us involved in the life of church service. It is absolutely right that we invest ourselves, as Christians, in serving the life and ministries of the church. But at the same time, we have a responsibility, both individually and as congregation, to stop and ask, 'where is this going and what is it doing?'. We all tend to go 'off track' every now and again. Lose the plot. That's when we need to sit down with a Bible, talk and pray together, asking how the Holy Spirit would lead us deeper into the name and path of Jesus Christ. To look again at the life and calling we have as disciples of Jesus, and ask ourselves, 'Are we going in the right direction?'. Don't assume that the answer will be 'yes'. Rather, look for the correctors that are true to the path of missionary discipleship that we are called upon, in the witness of lives possessed of holy integrity, serious service of others and joyful readiness to explain this 'God rule' that has come into our lives.

Sounding through

I've been thinking a bit about three dimensions. Three seems to be so much part of the DNA life. There are 'persons'  - per - sonare - 'sounding through' as dimensions of the One God in His dynamic reality and revelation.  Light itself, which is an instrument in carrying life to us, has three primary colours. And it leads me to reflect on how there're three primary dimensions to our life with God. Through the cross of Christ we're faced with the reality and an experience of the forgiveness that Jesus brings to us. Through the Holy Spirit touching our lives we meet with the embrace of Father's love. But there's something more than forgiveness and embrace, whilst these are central and essential. There is the command of Father and empowerment for discipleship living. Forgiveness leading to freedom. Embrace releasing into love. Command and empowering for mission. Can we try to get the balance right?

Discipling Discovery

In conversation with a colleague the other day, he put it to me that there was a clear difference in two forms of educating and developing people. On the one hand, there is education through discipleship, where we believe that faith is caught and not simply taught; where development comes by copying and discovering how to live on the basis of another's life. But this system at its worst can lead to sectarianism and bigotry. It is limited by the inspirational abilities of the person who is leading.

On the other hand, development through education built on discovery and freethinking has attractions. It allows a man or woman to develop and explore new areas and new thoughts. But education through discovery can, if left to itself, lead to 'I'm unfettered' and 'I'm not answerable' in living and attitude.

What interests me is that Jesus seem to believe both in discipleship and discovery. Combined with real accountability. I'm content with that.

Basic baptism

There's a little thing that's bothering me. The practice of baptism in Baptist churches. We've really got to work at keeping it in focus at the centre of our life. We need to remember why our forefathers insisted on the practice of the baptism of believers. 
Focally, the baptism of believers represents three themes: 
1.  Focus on embracing the substitutionary  and atoning death of Christ for us
2.  A conscious act of repentance and renunciation at the very outset of our Christian discipleship
3.  Christian faith involving our participation and entry into the very life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ himself.


To me the biggest in-house threat to the gospel is 'decisionism' as an alternative to 'discipleship'. Lets not forget what Baptists stand for: the pursuit of holy living that is biblically focused Christian discipleship as participation in the life of Christ.

Experiencing Truth

Today, attending churches in central Scotland and north Glasgow, it impacted me that people do need to be told that they can experience truth. That is, when they invite in sincerity Jesus to be their Saviour and open themselves thereby to the Holy Spirit. This is where Gospel Hall preaching and Pentecostal worship meet together -  and in truth they are in this one and the same. It's easy to lose sight of this and become simply religious. Don't. Remember that God wants you to be changed through a real experience of Him. God wants you to experience the truth, to experience the truth of Jesus in your life. When that is real, in repentance and faith, it changes us.

Please don't package

To understand Jesus and the purpose of our life requires a big picture. It strikes me that some Christians get the big picture wrong. Although many would deny it, I find that many often start with theory and abstract ideas. Wrong place.

The key issues are nothing to do with whether you are conservative or liberal. Calvinist or Arminian. The real question is whether you believe in a product or in participation. Packaging the Gospel?

When I listen to some of my brothers and sisters it strikes me that they think of the Gospel in terms of product. It's something to offer. Something to encourage others to take. Something that people need to

be persuaded that they need or want. Sell it to them and once they are hooked, reel them in.

I just can't begin to think of the Gospel that I know and read of in Scripture in this way. The gospel I believe in begins with being, leads to doing and ends up in telling and rejoicing - real evangelism.

How do we get there? Perhaps the best place to start for people who are already Christian and in church is to stop asking the question, 'how can we attract people to our church?'. That's a question about selling a product. Better starting with the question, 'How can we meaningfully serve people and show them Christlike love?'

When you and the people you gather with begin to ask this question, then you're on the way to becoming a church that is addressing the big picture. Please don't package the Gospel.

Apostolic Genius

What makes Alan Hirsch so Good is that he is so readable. But he has good insights. His take on the 'Apostolic Genius' and the idea that the basic DNA of missional ministry is latent, there inside us by the Holy Spirit is, I believe, right on. Whilst firmly rejecting the utility in perpetuating a Christendom church model, he offers real alternatives and encouragement to look back into the Bible and meaningful

engagement with our culture.

But, as it hits me again and again in reading folk when they speak of 'mission', I don't yet find him clear enough in distinguishing what he actually believes that 'mission' is. What is more clear to me than ever is that the simple triad of 'marturia-diakonia-euangelia' is the key to a holistic perception of mission, brought into profile by the drivers that arise from our identity in God together with the eschatological foci of the Christian life.

God is a Verb

Well, it is so if you are a Spanish speaker! In his recent theological monograph, Divino Companero Sammy Alfaro, a Pentecostal, Spanish-American theologian, makes some very insightful comments. The monograph, in the Priceton Theological Monograph series, presents an innovative but very tenable attempt in shaping a Hispanic Pentecostal Christology. But back to the main point here. John 1.1. Spanish translates the Greek 'Logos' - rendered in English as 'Word', as 'Verbo', which is a verb. Think of God as verb instead of a noun. His 'Being' is in His 'becoming' towards us. The God who says, 'I am who I am'. Which language you start with affects your perspective. Changes the way you see things, eh?

A nice definition of Mission

At last, I've found it! By the American Society of Missiology. Nice and succinct: 'By "mission" is meant the effort to effect passage over the boundary between faith in Jesus Christ and its absence'.