May you follow His path

May this be a blessing to you, as the New Year begins. That the road of Christ be found and walked upon. That you seek His presence and find it. For He is always closer than you realise. All it takes is sincere and genuine longing. And the light of his presence will come upon you, to lead you forward. May it be so, for you.

The endgame of Grace

In the season of Advent, it is good to reflect on the sheer beneficence of God's grace: His favour, freely and willingly bestowed, in love and mercy. Salvation and redemption brought to us in unmerited goodness gifted by God. The Kingdom of God and the wonder expressed and expounded into humanity in the coming of Jesus Christ.

This does not diminish the need for repentance, though. The gift of God's blessing upon us is not the end of the process. God blesses in order to ignite us in His love and mercy. To awaken us to His love and power. To immerse us in the reality of holiness.

But such refreshing and unmerited blessing is not, in itself, the endgame. The endgame is our restoration to effective living as the sons and daughters of God. Transformation and maturity into Christlike conformity.  This is what we hope and wait for.

For restoration to be ushered in, in the face of grace, there need be repentance. Just as Christmas must be followed by Easter, before Pentecost. Repentance leads to Restoration.

Enjoy grace at Christmas. But don't give up on repentance. If you really want to know and see God's full restoration. For that is the endgame of grace.

Another type of taster!

my old pals (and some not so old!) in the Edinburgh baptist fraternal.

Good to visit again for Christmas lunch together

A taste

A beautiful flight from Glasgow to Orkney,  looking down over the snow clad mountains and glens of Scotland. Visiting this weekend Stromness and Westray baptist churches.

I am enthralled with Orkney. This is my second visit within weeks, having earlier spent a wonderful weekend with the church in Kirkwall.  I am deeply attracted to these islands where community is both tangible and meaningful. Where people know on another. And where, living on an island, they can't escape from one another!

On Saturday afternoon and on Sunday morning, I was in Stromness, on the south west of the mainland of Orkney. A community of 2,000 people where the leader of our Union church, James, is also the community councillor. A growing community church that has been there for 10 years. Where the church people are part of the community and where there is an integral, missional presence in the life of the community. People see how you live. People see what you do. This is witness.

In the evening, I took the Ferry to Westray and visited Gavin Hunter and our church there. A community of 600 peole. Again, the same issue of life and witness. a committed community of born-again believers who are thoroughly involved and integrated into the wider community.

This is a different life from life in the Central Belt. And witness takes different form. To see interviews with both James and Gavin, visit my Facebook account or YOUTUBE and my uploads under 'drjimpurves'.

New book

Looking for a good read? My new book, 'How Theology Became Nonsense', is published today on Kindle by Amazon. All you need is a Kindle, or download a free kindle reader. Ideal present for Christmas? Enjoy!

Do you prefer big or small?

Here is a great way of seeing that, whether we prefer large or small churches, there is a way of building church that works with small, basic units. Here is a great presentation I saw by Andrew Clarke at a conference a week ago.

Click on the link below. You may need to load afree, 'prezi' reader; but it's worth it. http://prezi.com/dehsvoul2tm8/what-did-the-early-church-do-and-where/?auth_key=75efeac5f576773e8e7a7a3fa494e292de6ea22b

Orkney

It's been great to spend the last two days visiting here, in Orkney. These island are north of the Scottish mainland, visited either by flight or a 6 hour ferry journey. I've been the guest of Don and Maggie Currie and church in Kirkwall. A great time.

On an island of 8,000 people, church has to be done a different way than on the mainland, where there are millions of people. Witness and mission leads to an emphasis on an integrity, depth of spirituality and a level of intentional relationality that is demanding.

All of us have to ask the question, 'what are we trying to do?' before asking the question, 'how to do it?'.

Convictional or Inspirational - or both?

There is a difference between Convictional and Inspirational gatherings or communities. Convictional Community - in its essential simplicity, if it is to be Christian, needs to be small. This does not mean that there cannot be larger gatherings. Nor does it mean there cannot be gathered groupings of smaller units. But for Christian faith to find participational development in the lives of people, creatively rooted in Christ, it requires gatherings of people that are small enough for meaningful relationships and reciprocal accountability to be expressed, developed and realised through experimental Christian living. Only then can the essential, virtue indicators of Christian community - such as love, forgiveness and compassion - be  shaped and driven by the presence of Christ in the midst; and lead to practical and developed expression through intentional, relational living. 

Inspirational gatherings are  important. They confront and challenge, calling for decision and dedication. They can refresh and even reorientate. But they are gatherings where good preaching is performance and distinguishable from real teaching that always requires tutoring and evaluative feedback. Jesus embraced the inspirational. But his relationship with disciples in shaping the DNA of church was built through developing convictional community.

There was a time when formal, church gatherings could operate as essentially inspirational gatherings, with their praise songs, prayers and preaching. These resourced the intentional relationality of local communities that really were seeking to live out their lives in a Christian way. Accountable communities, where people knew one another well.

But real life is more complex today. People live in fluid, flexible communities. It is good to have inspirational gatherings that  inspire. That challenge. Even entertain.  Yet the heart of church? The DNA needs to be worked out in accountable relationships. This is what discipleship is really about. And without such discipleship, we reduce Christian gatherings to a charade and a parody of what church is meant to be.

To be real, it must be relational.

Scottish Baptist Assembly 2012

A joy to be at a wonderful Baptist Assembly in Dundee: highly inspirational for the work of the Kingdom. So valuable to be there and part of a network of Christians committed to our common values.

So inspirational to have Chris Duffett, evangelist and president of the baptist union of Great Britain, with us. As Stephen Holmes remarked to me, Chris really has reinvented Street evangelism! But more than that - Chris embodies the vital essence that there is no Christian truth without love for people. Love is the imperative that, if missing, causes all else to be defiled. Sterile truth is no truth at all.

If you haven't seen his book, 'Big Hearted', you can get it on kindle. A really easy but really important read.

ειρηνην διωκετε μετα παντων και τον αγιασμον ου χωρις ουδεις οψεται τον κυριον Hebrews 12.14

'Pursue after peace with all; and being holy - without which no-one will see the Lord'

I hadn't noticed this, before. I'm reading Bryan Stone's seminal work, 'Evangelism after Christendom', where he points out the importance of having our eye on the goal. And of course, the goal is is the Peace, the שלומ, that comes in with the Kingdom of God. Of which we, as disciples of Jesus, are the harbingers and instruments of its revelation and invasion of this present time and Age.

Evangelism is a holy thing. It is the bearing of a presence, not merely a message. It begins with holiness and a fresh vision of Jesus. Start there. Born in His presence, become a bearer of Peace. Then you will have something worth sharing in words too.

Sounding Board

This weekend, it was good to be with the leadership of the Garioch Church, again to meet with them as part of their 'sounding board'. A great idea - to have a group of outsiders to the fellowship come to be used as a 'sounding board' over against what has been happening, what is being undertaken and what is being planned. To allow voices to come from the outside, whereby God might speak into the context of a local church.

This is a brave move to take, for any leadership group. And a good one too. It ensures that there is opportunity for God to use a voice that speaks with love and challenge. To be commended for any local church to implement.

Inspirational book

I have, in this final week of holiday, just concluded reading one of the best pieces of critical, theological research that I have read for a long time; and moreover, written by a man 22 years my junior. But there is a maturity and commanding width of perspective in this work that excites and engages me in a way that few do. The work I refer to is that of a  Weslyan Pentecostal scholar, Matthew K Thompson, whose revised doctoral dissertation has been published in the Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series under the title, 'Kingdom Come: Revisioning Pentecostal Eschatology' (Deo Publishing, 2010).

Few contemporary Christian writers meaningfully grasp and present the hope that is held out to us in the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thompson masterfully demonstrates how that terribly misleading and ill conceived invention of J N Darby in 1830 - the 'pre-tribulation rapture of Christians' - tragically popularised in the Schofield Bible and the 'left behind' series of Christian fiction, has distorted both the Bible understanding of Salvation through Christ as well as our understanding of what it means to live by faith in Jesus Christ. But more importantly, Thomson outlines a simple and credible, whilst thoroughly Biblical, perspective which is insightful and helpful for those engages in teaching, preaching and reflecting on the nature of the end- times and the significance of biblical prophecy for today.

Don't be put off by the rather stuffy sounding title of the book. The content is food for your mind and balm for your soul. Buy it and read it carefully. The Bibliography and footnoted references are also excellent and a good resource for students of what the Bible can teach Christians about a future to hope and live for.

Get it through a library, if you can. Very expensive to buy.

Seeing Sinners

It is a great privilege getting to know pastors and congregations more here, in Bulgaria. The parallels with church life in Scotland are, not surprisingly, direct: for are not people everywhere those made by God to bear His image and reflect His likeness?

Men and women everywhere and anywhere are sinners who can be saved only by God's grace. And Christians are no exception: they are simply those sinners who have recognised that fact and who have also been told the Good News of Jesus Christ and gladly received it. How important that we don't lose sight of this. Pastors, elders, deacons, members: each one rotten to the core and capable of every sin imaginable, but that they find active support and aid from their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

If only we could keep this fact in focus. Christians so easily forget that not one of us has or will, in this life, completed the journey and process of transformational sanctification that carries us into complete maturity and Christlikeness. When we do lose sight of this, our perspective on ourselves and our expectation of others becomes warped. Christian living requires that forgiveness be unconditionally proffered by each one of us to others again and again and again. The pain that comes from struggling egos, disappointment, accusation, betrayal - this is all part of embracing and accepting others in love.

a wee look: keeking

In the past few days here in Bulgaria, I have had opportunity to be at rest and to reflect, read and pray. This morning I was able to read through the wonderful section of Isaiah 40 - 66, which is key in both our grasping the early Christian understanding of Jesus and Jesus' own self-identity and, indeed, the message of the 'good news' that he proclaimed.

I think a reading of and reflecting on this 'mini-gospel' in Isaiah should be mandatory for the Bible student; for the person who seeks to grasp what God chooses to reveal to us in His Word and how we are to understand it. Both the prophecies of the Old Testament and the visionary teaching of Jesus and, indeed, the message of the Book of Revelation, are largely defined by what is here presented.

The first thing we are faced with  is what it is that God wants us to understand: that the height of knowledge for us in knowing more of Jesus. And after that? Still more of Jesus. This is why there is no 'keeking' over Jesus' shoulder to see what is really going to happen next in world history. For the answer is: yes, the final word from God for us to grasp is His Word is life in and with Jesus. Every prophecy, every pointer, wherever we look between Genesis and Revelation, takes us to gaze forward from the Old Testament times or backwards from the New Testament or in these present times towards the focus of our Saviour's Cross and Resurrection. The victory and resolution that is found in him and Him alone.

When God touches the lives of men and women, it is like a stone skimming across the water, jumping across the waves before it reaches its terminus. We sense the touch of God taking us forward. And then that taste, that foretaste, always takes us to gaze afresh of the mystery revealed to us through our being drawn to participate more in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Here isthe true understanding of biblical prophecy. When we grasp where it always leads us - and not to spurious timetables and convoluted theories of end-time scenarios - then we truly grasp the deeper meaning and power of its mystery made effective and outworked in our lives now.

Truth ain't always simple

Speaking to Ian Randall this morning, he managed to find me a wonderful quotation from C H Spurgeon (Sermons Vol 18, 1872) . In expounding the passage 2 Timothy 1.6, Spurgeon opines, 

'when we can find anyone who can confer some spiritual gift upon us, we will be glad to have their hands laid on our heads; but we don't care for empty hands ..... empty hands it seems to me are fitly laid on empty heads; but we don't care for empty hands'. So much for Spurgeon's thoughts on ordination!

Now, this is not a polemic against ordination. Although it is one reason why we don't promote ordination for all. Nor would I would follow Spurgeon here, but that is not the point. The truth out there is complex. Spurgeon was Reformed in many ways; but was complicated. This is what reality is like. This is why truth is met with us incarnate, in Jesus Christ

This is one of the important reasons for continued professional development for those who would lead others in the paths of Jesus. Not that they they become arrogant, but remain humble when faced with the reality of apparent paradox and deep, interpretative problems. Our Baptist Union must hold onto this reality: truth ain't always simple.

תּוֹרַת יְהוָה תְּמִימָה מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ

 תּוֹרַת יְהוָה תְּמִימָה מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ    

 Psalm 19.8 - The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul

One of the most damaging legacies of Darby's idosyncratic interpretation of Biblical prophecy, his consequent misreading of Paul's writing on 'Law' and his bifurgated distinction of dispensations of 'Law' and 'Grace', is the contradiction found among some in both stressing the authority of the Bible yet, perversely, dismissing the ethical teachings and imperatives of the Lord Jesus as irrelevant to the present dispensation - the 'dispensation of grace'.

This is so contrary to an integral reading of the Old Testament and the New Testament as complementary in presenting the full Word of God. 'Torah' is not simply rules and regulations now redundant in the face of God's mercy. It is 'instruction' in the full sense. Jesus gives full expression and realisation to all Torah, being the very embodiment of all that it is and represents for humanity. We need to hold on to all the precepts of God's Word. Grace unseasoned by Godly imperatives and instructions is not God's grace at all.

Discerning the Seasons

It is good to be back in Prague, mixing with colleagues and friends from across the world. It is good too that I can find access to the magnificent Christian library of IBTS, taking time to read and reflect.

I was struck by the devotions this morning in chapel, centring on Luke 5.33-35. There are times of 'feasting and drinking' in the Christian life, when the sheer joy of the Lord's presence and fellowship are overwhelmingly rich and abundant. But these do not last forever - nor should we seek to make them do so. If we do, we will create somethings false, which may well detract us and divert us from the path of faith.

There are also seasons of scarcity and difficulty when we must fast and seek the favour of the Lord again. 

The wisdom lies in discerning which season we are in. 

Mission Statements

I struggle a little over 'mission statements' for congregations. When people feel the need to mimic the commercial or business realm in the life of church. Honestly, I sometimes wonder why people can't just hold to the vision that Jesus calls us to! Here is a nice statement that comes from our church in Cumbernauld. Seems to hit the point.

Tuning in?

At CLAN, I had a very helpful chat with one of my long-standing friends who is a Church of Scotland minister, both a godly man and a very able theologian. He commented to me that all of us, as human beings, are like radio receivers in the spiritual realm. It’s all a matter of what we choose to tune into. What we focus upon. What our goal is.

I find this really helpful, not least because of its simplicity. A Christian is called to focus on Jesus. Tune into the Holy Spirit. Have as their goal the complete and full expression Kingdom of God among us. Hoping for the New Heavens and New Earth.

Nice and clear, eh?

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!