Christ Church Balham

How do we know that God exists?

2010-01-20T11:29:00.001-08:00

This is the second in a series in which we try and understand the most common objections to the Christian faith. Last week we responded to the objection that it doesn’t matter what we believe. You can find that here.
This time we’re thinking about how we can know that God exists.
Once again we’ll think about the answer to four questions

What do people mean?
Why do they say it?
What’s wrong with what they say?
How can we make progress?

1. What do people mean when they say ‘how can I know God exists?’

In other words, where are they coming from when they say this?

They could be coming from a place of genuine ignorance. And so what they mean is ‘I honestly don’t know whether God exists. But I’d like to know. And I’m interested in exploring this issue to reach a place of certainty’.

They could be coming from a place of scepticism. And so what they mean is ‘We can’t know whether God exists. And I don’t want to know. I’m not interested in exploring this issue’. For whatever reason they are convinced that there can be no God, there is no supernatural and that this world is all that there is.

And so it could be a question asked by someone seeking an answer or someone avoiding the Christian answer. They could be open minded on the issue of God's existence and want to examine the evidence. Or they could be close minded on the issue of God's existence and want to rubbish the evidence.

2. Why do people say that they don’t know whether God exists?

I think the single biggest reason is that God is invisible. We can’t see him and that creates issues for us in terms of knowing whether he’s there. The Bible acknowledges this issue when in John’s Gospel chapter 1 verse 18 the writer states ‘no one has seen God’. But I also think that there are two other reasons.

People misunderstand faith. Faith is commonly understood as ‘believing something for which there isn’t any evidence’. Therefore people assume that there’s no evidence to examine. And so if we simply can’t be certain whether God exists or not, what’s the point of investigating something for which there’s no evidence. But faith needs evidence otherwise it stops being faith and starts being speculation or superstition. Faith as understood on the Bible’s terms is going where the evidence is pointing.

People misunderstand knowledge. We often get confused about knowledge and especially about how we know things. Most of us fail to recognise that there are different types of knowledge. We know different kinds of things in different ways. And so we can end up looking in the wrong place if we want to know something. If I can put it this way, ‘we need to know how we know what we know’. For example,

I know that 1 + 1 is 2 and therefore 2 + 2 is 4 from my mathematical knowledge. I can prove that to you using intuitive mathematical logic
I know that if I hit my hand with a hammer it hurts from my personal knowledge of the experience. I can prove that to you by hitting your hand with a hammer!
I know that Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister from the news reports on the television, BBC website and the Times newspaper. I can prove that to you by going online.
I know a bit about the Second World War from the Imperial War museum. I can prove that to you by showing you historical documents

How we come to know things is different depending on the nature of the things that we want to know. We assume that we do know things and are prepared to act on that knowledge. But different kinds of knowledge are required in different ways. And so, I don’t use a calculator to find out who’s the Prime Minister. I don’t read the Times to find out more about the Second World War. I don’t use a hammer to discover the square root of 42. You learn different kinds of things in different ways.

So when we say ‘is God there?’ we may not find the answer if we don’t use the right kind of knowledge. And so to find out whether God exists we have to know what type of knowledge we’re talking about. So how would we come to know that? We’d come to know of God’s existence through historical knowledge because the claim of Christianity is that God appeared on earth in the person of the historical character called Jesus Christ.

If God is there what would convince you that he is there. In the same verse I mentioned earlier the John goes on ‘but God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known’. In other words, someone other than God the Father namely God the Son has revealed what God is like. This person is none other than Jesus Christ, as verse 14 makes clear. And so if we want to know that God exists we need to look at the person of Jesus. And that makes perfect sense. After all, I don’t prove my existence to you with philosophical logic. I speak to you. God is not the conclusion of rational argument. He’s personal but he’s also infinite and the creator. We are finite and created and that limits how we can come to know him. The initiative must rest with him if we are ever going to be convinced of his existence. And he took the initiative when he came to earth in the person of his son, Jesus Christ.

3. What’s wrong with saying that God doesn’t exist?

There are two major issues with atheism, as I see it

i. It’s difficult to justify
The atheist assumes that God doesn’t exist. It’s a faith position built on the conviction that there is no God. It assumes that God is not there until his existence is proven. And so the onus of proof rests with the Christian. I don’t mind that and I’m happy to defend my position. But why should we assume that God doesn’t exist? Is that a reasonable assumption to make? Why not assume that God does exist? After all what evidence is there that God doesn’t exist? How can the atheist be so sure that God doesn’t exist? And if they don’t know why God doesn’t exist why do they base their life on the gamble that he’s not there? If we’re going to base our life on something that we don’t know, why not base it on God’s existence rather than his non-existence? There’s a bias there that we need to be aware of.

	Christian	Atheist
Assertion – their faith position	The God of the Bible exists	There is no such thing as God
Evidence – why they believe what they believe	There’s evidence for God’s existence	There’s no evidence for God’s existence
Conversion – what’s required to change their mind	Requires the Atheist to disprove God’s existence	Requires the Christian to prove God’s existence

ii. It ignores the evidence
Christians have characteristically responded to the question of God’s existence with a number of so called proofs. These include, but are not limited to,

the argument from creation which points to the existence of a God who’s a powerful designer order of the universe
the argument from experience which points to the existence of a supernatural God who explains the spiritual
the argument from conscience which points to the existence of a God who provides the basis for universal objective morality

They’re not bad. They can be helpful. But none of them is ultimately persuasive. But there is one argument that’s compelling; God has pitched up in person in human history. He has made himself known by appearing in person in Jesus Christ.

When Jesus was asked by Philip to give him a glimpse of God Jesus replied with these words, ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14). It was Jesus’ conviction that he made the invisible God known. He claimed to be God in the flesh. That claim is either true or it’s false. And the Christian claim that there is a God stands or falls on the identity of Jesus.

4. How can we progress the conversation?
We need to take this question seriously and acknowledge that it really matters. Encourage people not simply to make assumptions about this but to examine the reasons why they believe the things that they do.It’s not reasonable or responsible to not think about this issue.

And encourage people to recognise that we all come to this discussion with conclusions already in our minds. Someone said to me recently that she knew that the Gospels must be unreliable because she knew that God does not exist. She was prepared to accept that the Gospels establish the divinity of Jesus. She just wasn't prepared to accept that they were accurate in what they teach because her presupposition, from rational argument she would claim, is that there is no God. We need to try and suspend judgement whilst we examine the evidence.

So what do we do? There are questions to ask of the atheist that can lead to fruitful discussion.

What would God have to do to convince you that he’s there?
Who do you think Jesus Christ was and why do you say that?
Are you prepared to suspend judgment about whether God exist or not until you’ve re-examined the evidence?
Are you prepared to look at the evidence for Jesus?
Are you prepared to go where it’s pointing?

As we look at the Bible and especially at Jesus, he'll walk off the page and settle the question of God’s existence for us once and for all.

Food for Thought

2010-01-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

The All Age Church Lunch is a new idea. It's 'bring and share' but I can't bring myself to use the phrase! It conjures up mental images of inadequately heated wooden church huts, really bad coffee served in broken duck egg blue crockery and quiche. But enough of my issues.

There are two reasons for launching this.

1. It's just really good to enjoy each others' company in an informal setting. One of the biggest benefits of smaller churches like CCB is the community life. We see each other on Sundays, sometimes in our small groups and perhaps occasionally in social contexts but this is a once a term opportunity to enjoy the protracted experience of post church coffee. Whilst the kids run, stagger or sleep off their lunch we can chew the fat, catch up and encourage one another.

2. It's a really good opportunity to talk about some of the issues that concern us all in all age church. On occasions I'll be able to bring us up to speed on developments and news that affect us. Often there's insufficient time to deal with these in a normal Sunday meeting without attracting the understandable irritation of the creche and children's workers! This environment would allow me the chance to say a few words and welcome response from church members.

With respect to the lunch, we're not proposing anything too ambitious. All we're proposing is that everyone who's able to brings something to eat. We'll work out the specifics at a later date. But we know we can do it. We've done it before; at the hugely enjoyable baptism lunches. We'll move the chairs around and bring in some tables for the children. But if you bring a packed lunch for your own children that takes care of their specific eating requirements. This may not work for everyone. But let's do all we can, for the sake of others, to be 'can do' about this even though it may be a minor hassle!

The first Church Lunch is scheduled for Valentines' Day, Sunday 14th February. It would be terrific if you were able to join us.

Co-Mission Celebration

2010-01-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

Co-Mission got together yesterday to celebrate; not ourselves but our God. It was a terrific time. The music was uplifting, the video produced by the boys at Quirky Motion was awesome and the talk was a timely reminder of what God requires of us not only in the run up to A Passion for Life, but through all of life. Download it here.

Blueprint

2010-01-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

Do you work in the media, arts, or design? Or hope to? Blueprint is the forum especially for you. The annual gathering is on Saturday 13th Feb, 9.30-5.00, at the Factory. There'll be lots of opportunities to meet other like-minded Christians who work in similar fields. Plus there'll be first-rate, practical Bible-teaching from Ellis Potter and Jim Paul on the theme of Eternity in relation to our work. Also, seminars on: handling sexual themes in the media and art; comedy and offence; patterns of work for freelancer; beauty and redemption.

Tickets are £15 (£10 students) and include lunch. And if you book two tickets at a time in January, it's only £12.50 a ticket. Should be a great day, organised by Jam Cary, an elder at Emmanuel Church, Fulham, and a sitcom writer for the BBC. There's information and booking details at: http://creativechristian.wordpress.com/

Does it Matter what we Believe?

2010-01-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

This is the first in a series of posts over the next few weeks in which we’re thinking about engaging with the way non-Christian people think about life.

We’re doing this in preparation for A Passion for Life. We’re going to use them in church each week, including them in our five minute ‘thinking about an issue’ slot. Posting them online is part of the honing process. Exposed to the intense heat of the comment facility I’m hoping that the dross will rise to the surface so that I can cleanse it away to leave an argument of purer quality!

‘Half of them wouldn’t know the truth if it hit them in the face with a wet kipper’
Geoffrey Boycott, Test Match Special 4^th January 2010

Boycott’s epistemological musings were prompted by a discussion of Golf’s handicap laws. He may be right. But his comments come straight out of a modernist approach to truth. He thinks it exists, it can be known and that it matters. But increasingly people are saying that it doesn’t really matter what the truth is, whether it involves a wet kipper or not.

But where are people coming from when they say ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe?’

In other words, what do they mean when they say that?

They mean that they should be left alone to believe what they believe and that Christians especially shouldn’t bother them!
They mean that they’re not going to use up their time and energy thinking about something that in the end is irrelevant!

But why do people say that ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe?’

Probably for some of the following reasons

We’re fundamentally lazy and we just don’t want to think. We do that at work, why would we want to do that at rest?
We’ve unthinkingly adopted fervently held convictions. But Socrates said that the unexamined life isn’t worth living!
We’ve inherited a way of life that works. And so we think ‘if it ain’t broke why fix it?’
We’ve confused style for substance. We value the style or manner of belief over the substance of belief. We think that sincerity and tolerance is enough. The content of what we believe is irrelevant. In other words it’s more important that we’re accepting of others’ views than that they’re views are wrong!
We’ve swallowed the lie of relativism. We think that there’s no such thing as ‘true truth’ just ‘my truth’. And so, if we believe that truth is relative then this is the ideological foundation for the conviction that ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe’.

What’s wrong with saying that ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe?’

It’s unbelievably shallow!

1. When we say that ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe’ we’ve failed to recognise that at the very least it matters that we believe that it doesn’t matter!

2. When we say that we’ve failed to distinguish between the subjective and the objective. We’ve failed to realise the distinction between matters of truth and matters of taste. Let me illustrate. Here are two sets of three statements.

Set one

Chez Bruce is the best restaurant in London
Waggle Dance is my favourite bottled beer
You should never wear socks and crocs; ever

Set two

I was born on 20^th October
I have three sisters
I grew up in Northamptonshire

Which set are matters of taste and which set are matters of truth? Though there may be universal aggreement that no one should ever wear socks and crocs it’s still a matter of opinion. It’s not objectively true. That I was born on the 20^th October is. Whatever your opinion of that fact is, it remains a fact. You can’t change the truth by believing that I was born on the 19^th. You’re allowed to hold any opinion that you want. But just don’t go the next step and claim that it’s undeniably true.

When we say that ‘it doesn’t matter what I believe’ we fail to recognise the difference between opinion and truth.

3. When we say that we’ve failed to recognise that ideas have legs. What we think affects what we value. And what we value affects what we do. At a simplistic level if I think that money is more important than family then I’ll value cash more than children. That’ll mean that I’ll do all that I can to earn more money which may mean that we spend all our time at the office. It’s the same in spiritual matters; whether we think that there’s a God or not is going to impact the way that we choose to live.

It’s very easy to show that there are consequences to what we believe. For example, imagine a conversation with a bus driver on the 137 as he stops in Sloane Square.

Me: What are you doing heading to the West End? I’m supposed to be in the City.
Driver: Well you should have caught the 133 then, shouldn’t you?
Me: But I believed that the 137 goes to the City.
Driver: Well you’re an idiot, because it doesn’t.
Me: But I believed with all sincerity that this bus would get me to the City.
Driver: I couldn’t care less what you believed, the truth is another matter.

What we believe does have consequences. It has moral consequences in this life. It has eternal consequences in the next. Jesus said that he is the way the truth and the life. He was making a truth claim. It’s either right or it’s wrong. If he’s telling the truth it has consequences. It means that only he is the way to God for people who have lost their way, only he is the truth about God for people who are confused and only he is the life from God for people facing death.

What could we say to someone who said that ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe?’

If we want to advance the conversation a little bit further there are some things that we could say in response.

1. Do you think that applies to all of life? People seem happy to accept that what we believe does matter when it comes to the 137 bus and so why do they think that it doesn’t apply in the spiritual realm? Why do you think that spiritual issues are matters of taste not matters of opinion.

2. Are you happy for me not to believe in Henry 8^th? Is it OK not to believe in his existence? Because the truth of Christianity can be validated through empirical evidence. The nature of its claims is historical.

3. Given what I believe do you think that it makes a difference to how I live? This one is risky because it opens us up to the charge of hypocrisy. But at least it'll lead to a discussion in which we can clarify that what we believe should make a difference even if it hasn't yet!

Christianity Explored - Spring Course

2010-01-06T01:19:00.000-08:00

Next Wednesday evening sees the start of Christianity Explored.

Rosslyn and I are hosting the evening in our home. We'll eat together, look at a historical account of Jesus' life and talk about the implications of what he claims.

This course is ideal for two types of people

1. people who'd like to investigate Christianity, perhaps for the first time
2. people who'd like to brush up on the fundamentals of the Christian faith

We already have a number of people who've expressed interest in attending. It may be that you, or a friend, would benefit from coming. My advice is to come to the first evening and if you decide it's not for you then you're under no obligation to return! There are lots of people who came to events over the Christmas period. Now is the time to pick up on their interest and let them know that we're running this course.

We've run Christianity Explored for the past few years and it's been hugely popular. People have enjoyed the informal atmosphere provided by someone's home, the opportunity to consider spiritual issues and the relaxed environment in which to ask questions. You can find out more information about Christianity Explored on our website or on the official website here.

The course runs over six evenings. We aim to start at 8pm for food and to be finished by 10pm. It takes place at our home. We're within 5 minutes walk of the Telford Road bus stop in Streatham Hill, 10 minutes walk from Streatham Hill station and 15-20 minutes walk from Balham Tube. The course is free and all course materials are provided.

If you'd like to attend, or if you have a friend who would be interested in coming then please e-mail me on richardperkins@christchurchbalham.org.uk.

Dear Friends - January 2010

2010-01-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

What are you hoping for this year?

In amongst the resolutions to drink less, exercise more and live life differently I’d love to follow Jesus better than I did last year. Am I alone in wanting that? I suspect not.

But what does that actually involve? What does a life following Jesus look like?

Last term’s preaching programme afforded me the privilege of preaching on Luke 9, where Jesus said these words,

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Jesus does not describe the way to become a disciple. He describes the way to live as his disciple. And so, in his own words, Jesus explains what it means to live like him. He says it involves three things.

1. Being Jesus’ disciple means following him (23)

If any of us wants to follow Jesus we need to deny our self and take up our cross. When Jesus talked of self denial he didn’t mean deciding to give up chocolate, or caffeine. It means no longer thinking of ourselves as autonomous independent decision makers. It means an end to self determination, self legislation, self centeredness, self indulgence, self promotion and self preservation. And when Jesus spoke of taking up our cross he didn’t mean it literally. He meant it symbolically. It conjures up in our mind’s eye a man on a one way journey to death. And so when we take up our cross it means that we’re crucifying our sinful selfish desires. This is what Jesus modelled. That’s why, when we do this, we follow him. We’re simply going where he’s gone already. We follow his lifestyle. And his lifestyle was supremely one of self sacrifice out of delightful and willing obedience to His Father.

This is going to have a massive effect on what we do. It’ll affect what we do with our time. It’ll affect what we do with our money. And it’ll affect what we do with our abilities. We’re going to need to examine our own agendas. What we want to do may not be what we ought to do. The decisions we make about how we’re going to use the life that God has given us need to factor in God’s will.

2. Being Jesus’ disciple means losing our life for him (24&25)

Jesus puts two choices before us. We can try and save our lives or we can lose our lives. To save our life means to preserve it from self denial. It means to keep it for ourselves. To lose our life means to give it up for Jesus. Paradoxically if we try and retain our existence we’ll end up losing it when it most matters; at the end when we face divine judgement. But if we give it up; if we spend it and consume it for Christ, we’ll end up saving it for all eternity. It’s a clear choice. And if that wasn’t enough Jesus then adds a ruthless piece of logic. There’s absolutely nothing to be gained by trying to preserve your life. It makes absolutely no sense. Even if you gained absolutely everything that the world had to offer for all of your earthly existence it wouldn’t be worth it from the perspective of eternity. There’s nothing that this world can offer to compensate for losing yourself for ever. Jesus warns us not to make a very bad investment deal. ‘What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?’ Nothing.

This world has so much to offer us. Few of these things are wrong in themselves. And yet all of them can entice our hearts away from our obedience to Christ if we value them more than we value him. None of these things is so valuable that it’s worth losing your soul for all eternity. If we don’t factor in eternity then we’re in danger of making some very bad investment decisions with our lives.

3. Being Jesus’ disciple means identifying with him (26)

Those ashamed of Jesus words will face his rejection when he returns. The words Jesus has in mind are these words in Luke 9. The bottom line is that Jesus will not accept anyone into his glory who has not asked him to be a part of their lives. Being Jesus’ disciple means identifying with him. It means associating ourselves with him. It means aligning ourselves with him and his agenda.

Conclusion

I'd love 2010 to look like this, you? So let's remeber these following three things

This is an ongoing commitment; we’re supposed to be doing this daily. When we become a Christian we begin a life of daily self denial and cross bearing. This is the ongoing pattern of our lives.

This is an ultimate commitment; we really are giving up our lives. That’s not a small thing. And so don’t be surprised if your sinful nature rises up in rebellion at the whole idea.

This is a personal commitment; it’s for Jesus. We’re not doing this because it’s a lifestyle that works for us. We’re doing it because of our personal loyalty to Christ.

Dear Friends - February

2009-03-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

I love being taught, lectured or preached at. I used to have to attend conferences to hear the finest preachers, theologians and apologists, not any more. I can just download their materials. And I’m not alone. I know that many at CCB feast on the best of Keller, Piper and Driscoll, to name a few. And I’m all for it. But what do we make of this phenomenon? Is it all good? I’m not so sure.

I want to encourage people to grow in their faith through listening to the word of God and being built up in the faith. In that sense listening to online sermons is a little like reading a Christian book. But I have a few reservations. Let me try and articulate them.

1. We can’t see their lives
I have no idea how Don Carson treats his wife. I have no insight into the family life of Mark Dever. I don’t get to hang out in the pub with Dick Lucas. I have no reason to doubt that they are godly men. But I don’t get to see it. And that’s not enough. I don’t just need to know what godliness looks like on the page, I need to see what godliness looks like in the flesh. I need it modelled. Of course, even local church pastors can pull the wool over our eyes. We may have little idea of the secret sins that take place behind the front doors of the Vicarage. But if a man who runs his family well stands up and talks about how to discipline his children, I’m all ears. If a man who lives an evangelistic life offers a seminar on explaining the faith to others, I’m there. Many will have heard the sad news that Mark Ashton, the Rector of STAG, in Cambridge has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He announced to the church that he ‘counted it a great privilege to show them how to die well’. You can’t do that online. We need to see how our pastors live.

2. They don’t know our issues
As brilliant as he is, John Piper doesn’t know how my life needs to be reformed by the word of God. I’m sure he’d work it out, but he doesn’t know what it’s like to be a Dad of three small children, living in an aspirational inner city suburb in 21st Century London with a mortgage, some unbelieving mates and a church plant. And I’m not criticising him for that. He’s addressing his own church situation in Minneapolis. A friend nailed this issue for me when he wrote, ‘A sermon is not (or at least, it shouldn’t be!) some timeless exposition of a Scriptural text that is delivered irrespective of a particular group of hearers; it is a passionate and persuasive exposition of a Scriptural text that is aimed fair and square at a particular group of people, exhorting them to mature and active faith in Christ’. And so we need to remember that God is more concerned that we listen to our local church sermon than we do to something travelling through the ether from the other side of the world. And so when we’re downloading sermons make sure that the first sermon you listen to is the last one you missed at your local church.

3. No one can compare with ‘the greats’
I’m no Tim Keller. No really, I’m not! I’m an average preacher. I’m not the worst but I’m not the best. There are many like me. We’re just ordinary pastors who try and understand, teach and apply the scriptures to the local congregations in which God has placed us. But if we constantly compare the average with the exceptional then we’re in danger of disparaging the pastors God has given us. If God thought that I needed Vaughan Roberts he’d have given me the brains to get an education at Oxford or made him a pioneer church planter with a predilection for getting up the nose of the Anglican authorities. But He didn’t, because I don’t. And so let’s value the average pastor teachers that God has given us and beware of dissatisfaction because they compare unfavourably with ‘the greats’!

4. They can’t lead us from afar
We’d never go online and ask someone on another continent to be our virtual Dad and take over the running of our family, no matter how good they were at parenting. Neither should we allow any of these terrific preachers to become our virtual pastors. But that’s often what happens when we begin to be influenced by and submit to the leadership of others. They become our de facto leaders. Be wary of inadvertently seeking to undermine local church leadership with an ever growing allegiance to someone else.

5. Nothing replaces reading God’s word
When I’m tired it’s easier to listen to a sermon than it is to read the Bible and pray. Occasionally that’s fine. Trouble is I’m often tired. And so the regular healthy habit of listening to God’s voice in the scriptures and responding in prayer can easily get ditched in favour of a much less demanding activity. That can’t be good. Somehow I need to carve out time in order to diligently study the scriptures and feed on God’s word. So if I’m going to listen to online talks I need to make sure that I do so with an open Bible and an open mind. I need to test what’s said by the scriptures and ensure, as I should with all teaching, that I believe only what can be substantiated from the text.

Generally speaking I’m enthusiastic about the wealth of online evangelical talks, sermons and theology. Of course, if you really want to have your life shaped by the brilliant men whose sermons we download then move! But just in case you miss my sermons you can find them online!

Dear Friends - March

2009-03-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

Confidence is a funny thing. Not funny as in witty but funny as in peculiar. Semantically it’s got a range of meaning. Sometimes it’s a good thing and at other times it’s not. It all depends on the context. Spiritually speaking; self confidence is misplaced. It’s known as arrogance. And that’s bad. Jesus told a story to warn of the dangers of spiritual self confidence. It’s called the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. It’s one of my favourites!

It was my privilege to speak to some of the pupils at Cranleigh School this last week, as part of their Lenten Addresses. It was essentially a school mission. This parable got more leverage than any other talk that I gave. I think that’s because it’s so unexpected. No one really thinks that God works like this. We assume that God makes friends with the religious types. But we may have taken for granted the wonderful surprise of the gospel.

Jesus told this parable because there will always be people confident of their own righteousness and therefore their own standing with God. He told a story about two men; one was an upstanding member of the community and the other was a disgrace. Both went to the Temple to pray. One returned home God’s friend and the other left as God’s enemy. But it wasn’t the way round that we’d expect. It was the man who’d made a mess of his life that walked away confident that God would accept him. Why is that?

It’s because there were three things that were true of the tax collector that were not true of the Pharisee.

1. He recognised his sin
The Pharisee thought much of his exemplary religious performance. Not so the tax collector. In his heart of hearts he knew that he’d lived life in God’s world without any reference to Him. He knew that he’d treated God with contemptuous disdain and so he couldn’t even approach him or even look up to the heavens. And he was right. In the same way, we need to recognise that we too are sinners. We’ll get nowhere in the Christian life until we own up to the fact that we have not lived the way that God would have us do. He’s not been number one in our lives. He’s not directed the way we live, the things we say and what we allow ourselves to think. Unless we admit this truth, Jesus Christ will never amount to much in our lives.

2. He relied on God’s mercy
The Pharisee prayed but didn’t think he needed anything. He was supremely self confident. Not so the tax collector. His plea was that God would not give him what he knew he deserved. What he deserved was God’s punishment for the way that he’d treated Him. But he threw himself at God’s mercy. In the same way, we need to rely on God’s mercy. But will we throw ourselves at His feet and rest on nothing else but His compassion. What other option do we have? How else do you propose we persuade God to overlook our sinful rejection of His rightful rule? Do you really want to rely on your good works? Do you really want to tell Jesus that he was wasting his time dying on the cross because you don’t need his help?

3. He returned home justified
The Pharisee left the temple God’s enemy. Not so the tax collector. He returned home justified. God decided to think of him ‘just as though he was Jesus’. That’s incredible. This sinful man who threw himself on the mercy of God was declared righteous. Every time God thought of him He thought he was morally perfect. Every time God looked at him He looked at someone pure and holy. He knew his life was a mess but God thought he was blameless. How? Is God stupid? No, but He is gracious. He gives us what we don’t deserve. And what we don’t deserve is Christ’s righteousness. But on the cross an exchange took place. Jesus took our unrighteousness and gave us his righteousness. God regarded Him as a sinner and punished him accordingly. God regards us as holy and treats us accordingly. When God thinks of us, even at the moment of our worst sin, He thinks of us as though we’re His perfect Son.

Conclusion
Jesus concludes his parable with these words, ‘For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted’ Luke 18:14. God will humiliate the arrogant but praise the humble. That’s the way it is. So what will you do? You’re of age; make up your own mind. How do you fancy your chances going down the merit route? Jesus says that there’s a better way; mercy. If we’re prepared to recognise we’re sinners and if we’re prepared to rely on God’s mercy then we can be confident that we’re God’s friend. Is that not the single best thing that you have ever heard in your whole life?

Dear Friends - January

2009-01-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends

Church has been cancelled. Not for ever; just February. And a bit of March as well. But why? What on earth could justify taking such a drastic step? Evangelism; that’s why! We’re so committed to helping enquirers get to grips with the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that we’ll do what we can to get them to hear it. And so, as much as we love Sunday Evening Church, we’re prepared to suffer a bit of mild personal inconvenience just so that others might be able to join us.

Personally I’m very excited by the initiative to run Christianity Explored in place of Evening Church. The last time we did this, one of our elders got converted! What I mean is that one of our current elders, [who wasn’t an elder back then], came along on a Sunday evening, heard the gospel and was converted. Who knows what the Lord might decide to do this time? I’d love to see the same sorts of numbers of guests that came to the Bedford Carols at Christianity Explored, wouldn’t you?

I guess some of us might be asking, ‘what can I do to get ready for February 1st?’ Let me suggest that there are three ways that we can get involved so that we take part as a participant rather than simply as a spectator.

1. We can pray!

That great first century evangelist, the Apostle Paul, knew that the success of his missionary activity depended to a very great extent on the prayers of others. So in Colossians 4:2-4 he pleaded with his friends to pray. He wanted them to ask God to open the way for the gospel and to help him be clear in his explanation. He might have been in possession of the finest evangelistic course ever written and could have had the best gospel opportunities afforded to man. But that’s not enough. On their own that won’t produce a single conversion. He needed God to be behind his evangelistic endeavours. And so do we. Evangelism is ultimately God’s activity. He has chosen those whom He will save; we don’t know who they are. But He uses our prayers coupled with our evangelistic efforts to bring to saving faith those whom He has chosen. And so we’re partners with God in one of the most exciting responsibilities given to humanity. So lets’ pray; as a church, in our congregations, in our small groups, in our triplets and on our own. Let’s ask God to give His backing to our Christianity Explored project this year. In particular, why not think of two or three people whom you would love to invite so that they might follow Christ as you do. And pray for them every day.

2. We can pitch up!

The church remains the single best apologetic presence to challenge the sceptical assumptions of a secular world. In Matthew 5, Jesus said that we’re a city on a hill. And so it’s by looking at us and observing how we live that people will be drawn to the lifestyle with Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Christianity Explored provides a wonderful opportunity for our friends, colleagues and neighbours to come into the city of God, walk around and meet its inhabitants. They can chat to us, ask us questions about why we believe what we do and enter into lively debate about the big issues of life. But if we’re not there then they’ll assume the city is deserted and they’ll have no one to talk to. We’ll look like the Square Mile at the weekend! Of course, not everyone will be able to come every week. I imagine it’ll be problematic for some from the All Age Congregation to join us because someone’s got to bath the kids, do Bible story and put them to bed. But I suspect that some of us will be tempted to take a few weeks off. That’s human nature. The sinful bit! We need ‘all hands on deck’. There are lots of things that need doing even if none of our friends were willing to join us. And so, do come, I want my friends to meet my church family. Collectively we may not be that impressive but we are attractive. God has brought together a very ordinary group of people who love Him and love one another, and that’s powerfully persuasive to those who otherwise might normally be very dismissive of Christianity.

3. We can pull out all the stops!

In Matthew 25:26f Jesus berated the wicked slothful servant who’d done nothing with Jesus’ investment. He cast him out into the outer darkness to experience unparalleled torment. For my money this servant was a servant in name only. He showed what he thought of the Kingdom of God and its’ ruler, Jesus Christ in his refusal to do anything with Jesus’ investment in him. He went to hell because he didn’t belong to Jesus or believe the gospel. The Bible is clear that no genuine Christian is going to lose their salvation, so don’t panic. Our ungodliness will not undo the work of Christ in securing our salvation. But let’s not be functional unbelievers. Let’s not be guilty of doing nothing with the responsibility that Jesus has given to every single one of us to be using our resources, abilities and opportunities for the growth of the gospel. Of course none of us will go to hell for failing to bring anyone along to Christianity Explored. But imagine how wonderful it would be to hear from Jesus those words of affirmation and appreciation when he says, ‘well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master’. So let’s really pull out all the stops. We may never have tried to invite anyone to church before but let’s get hold of an invitation, think about what we’re going to say, pray and then step out and see where God takes us. We may have had little success with our friends in recent months but let’s pray and give it a go once again. If we brought friends to Christmas events let’s see whether they want to follow up on that. Let’s invite everything that moves because the good news of adoption by the Father, forgiveness of sins through the Son and transformation of life through the Spirit is too good to keep to ourselves!

With best wishes in Christ

richard

Advertising Christianity Explored

2009-01-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

This is the text of the CE advert from last night's pub quiz. Feel free to cut and paste and use it with friends.

Christianity Explored is an informal course for people who would like to investigate Christianity, or just brush up on the basics. It explored who Jesus is, why he came and what it means to follow him.

You don't need to know anything about the Bible
You won't be asked to read aloud, pray or sing
You can ask any question you want

The course runs for six consecutive weeks on Sunday evenings, 6.30 - 8.00 pm, from 1st February at Chestnut Grove School.

I wanted to give you three irrefutable reasons to come. But I couldn't think of any. So let me give you three unanswerable questions to ponder!

1. what else is there to do?!
Sunday evening is dead time. It's an entertainment black hole. I chcked the schedule and the highlights are the Antiques Roadshow and Dancing on Ice. On the other hand CE promises to be an enjoyable and stimulating time of lively discussion. So prolong your weekend and come along.

2. What have you got to lose?!
The worst case scenario is that you come to the first one, decide it's rubbish and choose not to return. That's 90 minutes of your life you'll never get back again. That's about the length of a pants film and we've all made that mistake. We got over it! But this is a fabulous opportunity to investigate the single most influential individual in all of human history. And to do it by looking at one of the best preserved historical documents available to us. Most of us haven't done that as adults. But we can now.

3. What are you afraid of?!
No one's going to be manipulated or indoctrinated. We don't expect everyone to tow the party line. In all honesty if we all agreed it would be a pointless exercise. But this is a chance to chew over the big issues of life. All the bad bits of Christianity have been banished; the incoherent sermons, incomprehensible liturgy and ritual and the embarassing singing. This is Christianity stripepd bare so that we can consider it.

If you're keen to get to grips with who Jesus is, why he came and why he continues to be significant in a 21st Century world then come and join us.

Perks

Christianity Explored

2009-01-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

CCB is so committed to helping enquirers get to grips with Jesus Christ that we've taken the decision to 'cancel' Sunday Evening Church and run Christianity Explored instead! Not for ever, just for six weeks. We start on February 1st.

Christianity Explored is a hugely popular course used by churches up and down the country. You can find out more about it here. It's my preferred course for helping people keen to investigate Christianity. Using Mark's gospel, it concentrates on who Jesus is and why he came. Those are two critical questions when exploring Christianity!

In the way we run the course, there are six sessions in total

1. What is Mark's Gospel?
2. Who is Jesus Christ?
3. Why did Jesus come?
4. Why did Jesus die?
5. What on earth is grace?
6. Why did Jesus rise?

Within each session there'll be time for the following things

1. a look at a passage in Mark's gospel
2. a talk from the front by Perks, Pete or Alex
3. a time for discussion and debate in small groups
4. a chance to hear from others with interviews

We'll meet in the hall around small tables. One of the Knowing God group leaders will host the discussion and keep things moving along, though we all have a responsibility to make others welcome. There'll be no congregational singing and no corporate prayer. This is an evening for non-regulars.

It may sound a little radical cancelling church. We're not really cancelling church, we're just making some concessions. But rest assured, this is something that we tried, with great success, a few years ago in Wimbledon. We found that the great strengths were as follows

1. We were able to provide the large group setting that produced a great atmosphere for stimulating discussion and also allowed people to enjoy a degree of anonymity.

2. We found that people were more enthusiastic about coming out on the weekend than giving up a weekday. After all, have you seen what's on TV at that time?!

3. We found that it was helpful to be doing this together. There was real benefit to meeting one another's friends so that they could discover that Christians weren't the unhinged, brain dead bigots that they'd anticipated! But the different areas of expertise and different perspectives people brought to the discussion meant that the group times were hugely productive.

4. We found that we got very excited about Jesus Christ and explaining his significance to others. And that's no bad thing!

We start on 1st February. What can you do? Four things.

1. pray for its success - ask God to bring enquirers along and to help them find answers to their questions
2. invite your friends - this is a fabulous opportunity for people we hold dear to investigate things a little further
3. pitch up regardless - we need 'all hands on deck' to make the evenings work, please don't take six weeks off from church!
4. read Mark's gospel - we'll be looking at this together over the six week period

Christmas Pub Quiz

2008-12-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

A great pub quiz needs the right ingredients, and last week's CCB Christmas Pub Quiz had all of them. It was a resounding success. Here's the tried and tested recipe:

A good atmosphere
People wanted to win, and that was before they saw there was a stack of DVDs in the offing. The Blithe Spirit on Balham High Road gave us their whole top floor and we had well over 100 people, and at least ten teams of church regulars and friends who'd come along for the night. One team came off the back of a flyer, vindicating the hard work put into telling Balham about what the church is up to over Christmas.

A solid quiz
If the questions are too hard or the topics are too boring, everyone heads to the bar and a quiz will die on its feet. But the boys at QuirkyMotion put in a great effort, as always. Segments included Name the Fish and Match The Historical Figure To How They Died, along with the traditional quick-fire rounds on General Knowledge, History, Christmas and Arty Farty. Despite what some die-hard sports fans might say, there was general acclaim at the lack of a Sports round, given its irrelevance to real life.

A purpose
Senior Pastor Richard Perkins got up to invite people to the carol service in the Bedford pub the following Sunday. The outline: come along to hear about why Jesus is important. If we hate Christmas, we'll find out what's good about it. And if we love Christmas, we'll find out why it's far better than we thought.

The quiz was a resounding success. Lots of people came; they had a great time; they heard a little bit about Jesus; and they were invited to hear the really important stuff about Him. It couldn't have been much better than that.

Phil Craig

Dear Friends - November

2008-11-17T03:43:00.000-08:00

In the early 1990s a survey of expenditure revealed that Americans spent twice as much on cut flowers as on overseas ministry, twice as much on women’s tights, one and a half as much on video games, five times as much on pets, one and a half times as much on skin care, seven times as much on sweets, seventeen times as much on diet related products, twenty times as much on sports activities, twenty six times as much on soft drinks and 140 times as much on legalised gambling [C.L. Blomberg, Neither Poverty Nor Riches, Apollos, Leicester, 1999, p19].

It’s unbelievable isn’t it? Who’d have thought they spend that much on diets! I may also have found new ammunition for my argument that Christians shouldn’t own dogs! But I’m aware that I probably come undone on the sports category.

But I wonder what an analysis of our spending patterns would reveal. What do we do with our wealth? And what should we do with it? Given the current financial position of the church and the current economic climate you can understand why we need to address the issue of what we do with our wealth.

There are, I think, three broad principles to bear in mind.

1. We need to learn to be content

On the whole scripture has a positive view of wealth. It’s a covenant blessing that comes from God, often through the means of human effort (Deut 29:9, Job 1:21, Prov 10:4). The Apostle Paul reckons that if we’ve got food and clothing then we’re sorted (1 Tim 6). He doesn’t quite put it in those terms, but that’s his drift. What he does say is that ‘there’s great gain in godliness with contentment’. And he’s right on the money! If only we believed it. We’d then be liberated from our relentless pursuit of acquisitions that so often drives our working ambitions. The Bible also puts it the other way round when in the Ten Commandments God says ‘Do not covet’. Coveting things or experiences is the opposite of being content with what we have. We’ll never know what it is to be happy until we learn to be content with what we have. God would rather we live within our means than spend our time dissatisfied with what He’s given us. He’s given us what we need. If He thinks we need more then He’ll give us more. He isn’t sovereign for nothing! And so we ought to pray like the writer of Prov 30:8 who said, ‘give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God’. That sort of contentment is a rare and precious thing. And we need to learn it.

2. We need to learn to be thankful

Wealth is a gift from God and because of it we’re able to do so many things that our predecessors on this earth could only dream of. We have a more comfortable sofa, a better TV, a softer bed, a more permanent house, better transport, more interesting places to visit and so on. Compare our standard of living compared to that of our parents’ generation, and it’s astounding. It’s not simply that we’ve financed a life on easy credit and that they were more frugal than us, though there may be something in that. We live in wealthy times. And for that we ought to thank God. We’re immensely wealthy compared to people in former times and compared to people in other parts of the world. We have much to be thankful for. We ought to be overflowing in thankfulness for all the things that God has given us in this life. We should thank God for all the material blessings that we enjoy. We must never be ascetic. Scripture doesn’t condemn the use of our money for relaxation, entertainment or the consumption of luxuries. The denial of physical pleasures is demonic and so should be resisted at all costs.

3. We need to learn to be generous

One of the remarkable things that characterised the early church was their radical generosity and extravagant compassion (Acts 4). Paul tells us that one of the fruits of repentance is willingness to contribute to the needs of others (Eph 4). The wage we earn, the savings we’ve amassed, or the property that we own is simply part of God’s creation that He’s entrusted to us. It’s under our control but He expects us to use it responsibly. And one of the things He wants us to do with our wealth is give it away; to others, for their benefit. Phillip Jensen once told his congregation, ‘it’s about time we saw our abundant wealth as a resource for addressing needs rather than for increasingly enslaving our lives to the meaninglessness of materialism’ [P.D. Jensen, ‘A Reason to Work’, By God’s Word, (Kingsford, Matthias Media, 2007)] But how generous should we be? At one level it’s a crass question but for people new to the Christian faith it’s a reasonable question to ask. Churches sometimes encourage people to think in terms of the Old Testament tithe. Though it’s nowhere mandated by the New Testament it seems a sensible place to start. In the Law of Moses, God placed on His people the obligation of a 10% tithe. It’s not repeated in the New Testament though there’s loads of material on the subject of financial contribution. In passages like 2 Cor 9:7&8 the emphasis is on generous, voluntary and cheerful giving. It’s hard to believe that God had in mind that we’d lessen the response to His redemptive grace shown in Christ and so the tithe is the starting point. So what’s a good ball park figure to start off with? Let’s say 10% of our gross income [the one they promised to pay you when they hired you!].

Wouldn't it be a terrific thing if, with the wealth that God has given us, we were genuinely content, really thankful and sacrificially generous?

Other Credit Crunch articles here, here and here.

Christmas Gift

2008-11-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

For those of us able to contribute to the 1% Christmas Gift you'll find this an easy way to go about it.

Dear Friends - October

2008-10-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends

Despite the nonstop coverage, I guess that most of us struggle to make much of the BBC Business Correspondent, Robert Peston’s illuminating analysis of all things economic! Some of us may even be under the impression that the ‘Credit Crunch’ is what Alistair Darling has for breakfast! But for many of us, the words ‘derivatives’, ‘hedge funds’ and ‘sub-prime mortgage’ have now become familiar, if not welcome, additions to our vocabulary. Joking aside, few of us will be left unaffected by the economic recession. And sadly some of us may have to face the harsh reality of unemployment. What’s certain is that none of us is immune from recent events in the world’s stock markets. But what are to think about the current financial crisis?

I think the biblical concept of idolatry is as good a way as any to make sense of things. An idol is essentially a God substitute. It’s a created artefact that’s taken the rightful place of God in our attention and affections. It’s the thing we believe can provide us with the experience of our version of heaven for which we so long. And so it becomes our functional saviour and the thing to which we offer worship, obedience and sacrifice. Associated with whichever idol we’ve chosen is a religious system involving the holy places and those who conduct the rituals of worship, the High Priests. Underpinning the whole thing is an evangelistic mission that seeks to keep our love of the idol on the agenda. And so, I wonder whether the following four observations might help us chart a way through the treacherous waters of financial analysis?

1. The functional saviour that we believe can deliver the heavenly experience is the free market economy. We might not express it in those terms, but that’s what’s going on. In the past, people used to regard God as the self sufficient, inexhaustible, mysterious, benevolent and all-powerful source of what we need for an abundant life. But that old religion has now been displaced by the worship of the capitalist economic system. And so, as one person put it, ‘If people in the ancient world worshipped sticks and stones, today everywhere can be found the worship of stocks and shares’. And so the economy is revered and afforded sacred status and any criticism of the capitalistic ideology is regarded as blasphemy. Many are absolutely convinced that capitalism is the thing that can save us.

2. The heavenly experience for which we so yearn is material wealth. To be wealthy is to have attained salvation; poverty is hell from which we must be delivered. The purpose of life is simply to be wealthy. In plain denial of Jesus’ words in Luke 12, many are committed to the idea that salvation is found in the abundance of our wealth and possessions. And so the meaning of life is described in economic terms. We’re valued only to the degree in which we participate in the economy system. This means that the stay at home Mum, the unemployed, the unemployable or the homeless are viewed with sympathy, at best or derision, at worse.

3. The high priests are the only people that properly understand the intricacies of the financial markets. They gather together in the financial institutions where they pour over their sacred writings in the financial press, like the Financial Times. Laymen might try and get our heads round what’s going on by reading the popular literature like the supplements in the Sunday papers, but for most of us it‘s nothing more than incomprehensible mumbo jumbo! If it’s true that many have yet to find someone who can explain the truth of the gospel in language they can understand, the same could be said of the financial world!

4. The evangelistic mission of this false religion is propagated through advertising. This marketing endeavour could simply inform us of the merits and benefits of a good or service. If that was all that it did, it would serve a valuable purpose. But advertising seeks to tap into our insatiable appetite for more. Apparently the average American watches about 85 different television advertisements every day! Every single one of them has one unrelenting message; you’re life is imperfect until you accumulate the good and services that we’re promoting. Cultivating contentment and thankfulness against such a barrage of unhelpful visual stimulation requires godly determination.

Conclusion
And so, given recent events in which this idol has been stripped bare, it ought to be apparent that worshipping the economic system is an exercise in futility. The free market economy is nothing more than the creation of human hands and therefore it cannot save. We don’t need to get rid of it; it’s still the best way of doing things. Just don’t expect it to do what we hope that it will; provide salvation.
Some of us may have become secret devotees of materialism, worshipping at the altar of the economic system. And so, this is a good time therefore to do the following two things; first, to repent of our willing greedy participation in the perpetuation of this senseless idolatry and secondly, to redirect our trust and hope for the future to the God who has promised to save us.

With best wishes in Christ

richard

Reform Conference

2008-10-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

For those interested to disocover some of what took place at the recent Reform National Conference, you'll find a summary of Jonathan Fletcher's opening talk here, Vaughan Roberts' talk on Unity, Co-Belligerency and secondary matters here, a copy of the Reform Conference Resolutions here and my reflections here.

Dear Friends - September

2008-09-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends

So that was the summer. Didn’t last long, did it? How was your holiday? We had a great time as a family in our ‘canvas country residence’ on the Atlantic Coast of France. Don’t worry, I’m not about to promote the merits of the camping holiday. I thought I’d think about work. No really! Most of us have started back at our place of employment and I suspect that we’re feeling cheesed off with that state of affairs. Of course, some of us never really stopped working because our work is our family. And so, even on holiday, we carried on working because presumably we took them along with us!

I don’t wish to be irritating, but I’ve got a renewed appetite for work fuelled by my recent studies of the subject for the CCB Autumn Bible School. I thought I’d share the fruits of my labours in the hope that you might enter the workplace this September with a spring in your step!

Let me give you four motives for your work.

1. We work so that we don’t scrounge from others (2 Thessalonians 3:7&8)

When he was in Thessalonica Paul worked hard as a tent maker so that he wouldn’t be a burden to the church. If he was to survive then either he needed to work or someone else needed to work to support him. He wanted them to receive the gospel from him rather than him receive support from them. Love demands that we don’t sponge off others. Where possible we should avoid being dependent on anyone else. We’re to work so that we can survive and provide the food, clothing and shelter that we need. On the whole, if we’re not prepared to work then we shouldn’t expect to have any of those things. So when we work we’re making sure that we’re not being a free-loader.

2. We work so that we can serve the community (Galatians 6:9&10)

As Christians, God calls us to do good to everyone. And so, we should serve the local community and not just the church community. Sure, we’re especially concerned to look after our Christian brothers and sisters but we’re not to be exclusively concerned for their welfare. God expects us to love our unbelieving neighbours. And so we ought to find a job where we can make a contribution to the common good. The odds are that we already have one but we might not have worked out how it fits into the bigger picture. It’s worth doing. How does your job make the community more a more habitable and enjoyable place to live?

3. We work so that we can support our families (1 Timothy 5:3&4)

God reckons that families and not principally the state ought to be caring for one another. I guess that most unpaid work comes under this heading. For those of us that are stay at home Mums this attaches great importance to our work. It may be doing our heads in, but as we nurture and discipline our awkward toddler or we change yet another dirty nappy we’re bringing pleasure to the Lord because we’re doing what he’d have us do. We’re looking after our families. One of the things that struck me is that God’s creative work was unpaid. And whilst we may think there’s a strong correlation between the significance of someone’s work and the financial value that’s attached to it, God doesn’t agree. The free market isn’t always right! God was an unpaid volunteer craftsman and yet you’d be hard pressed to think of a more skilful and valuable work than God’s efforts in the creation of the universe!

4. We work so that we can share with the needy (Ephesians 4:28)

Instead of stealing, the thief is told to put his hands to good use so that he can have something to share with others. Our work therefore, is an opportunity to be generous to others. Whatever our views about the size and role of the Government, the principle of taxation is a right one. One way of looking at taxes is that the Government is ensuring that we fulfil God’s requirement to share with the needy! Does that help? We’re supposed to be working so that we can either earn something or produce something so that we can be generous and contribute to those who need our assistance.

Conclusion

Of course, I’ve said nothing about God’s role as a worker in which He dignifies work. I haven’t said anything about our role as God’s representatives trying to bring order out of chaos. Nor have I said anything about the frustration brought to our work by the effects of God’s condemnation on our sin. You’ll get that if you come to the sessions. But for now, I just want you to appreciate the work that God has given you to do.

I have no idea how you’re feeling about your workplace at the moment. But I hope once you start to think about these principles and apply them to your own job you might feel a lot more positive about what you spend over half your waking hours doing.

With best wishes in Christ
richard

CCB AGM Pastor's Letter

2008-09-04T03:56:00.000-07:00

A ’short’ reflection on the year just gone for our annual general meeting.

Dear Friends
When we stop and think about it we’ll realise that it’s been an incredible year for us at CCB. As you read your way through the AGM reports, as I have, you’ll realise that God has enabled us to accomplish far more than we might have hoped or imagined. We have much to give thanks for. And we will. That’s what this AGM is really about.
At last year’s church dinner three new and surprising items appeared on the annual calendar; a church mission, a park party and a holiday club. We’d never tried those things before. The plans were ambitious. In all honesty I thought that we may have to pull at least one until the following year. Under God I was proven wonderfully wrong. The stressful sleepless nights proved unwarranted and the anxiety unfounded. Through the wonderful organisation of Christian Fielder and his team for the Park Party, the Mission Action Group and Polly MacLachlan and her team for the Holiday Club they all came off. And they were brilliant events. Not perfect, but brilliant.
But I don’t want the review of our year to be an exercise in verbal back slapping and self congratulatory sentiments. Make no mistake about it, I am absolutely thrilled that we did what we did and I’m very grateful to God for answering our prayers and enabling us to do what we did. But as we reflect on the past 12 months I wonder whether there are four dangers of which we ought to be aware. These are trends that I think I’ve spotted that we ought to be aware of. Let’s not overstate them. Don’t panic. We’re not in imminent danger of wholesale repudiation of the gospel. But if left to develop, these pitfalls could prove our undoing.

1. Let’s beware of undervaluing training in godliness

Training programmes are terrific. I’m a big fan of providing specific instruction tailored to a particular goal. They’re a way of ensuring that certain key things get covered. Last year we began to address this issue across the Co-Mission Initiative through Prepare, because we were aware that more should be done. It should be noted that within CCB we already equip people for local church leadership through Ministry Matters. We provide training in the necessary skills required for small group leadership in Christ Church Kids, Knowing God, Women’s Bible Study and Home Groups. And we’ve continued to help our musicians use their God given talent in their word ministry. Occasionally we provide input for evangelism, parenting and marriage. As the Lord grows CCB we should be able to provide an ever increasing array of training courses intended to equip us for a whole life of Christian service. But as we do this, we must be wary of thinking that the task of growing in Christian maturity is exhausted by attendance at training courses. It’s not. Any idiot can attend a course. That doesn’t mean you grow. And let’s not fail to distinguish between growing in ability and growing in godliness. Growth in Christian maturity surely means both. Therefore, in our commendable desire to be trained and equipped, we must seek to develop our godliness as well as our skills. In an age that values talent more than character we need to remember that godliness is in fact far more valuable to a church than ability. If you gave me the choice between a godly inexperienced man with few Bible handling skills and an ungodly but really able expositor, I’d take the former every time. So let’s not undervalue the informal and unstructured opportunities that church life presents to be trained in godliness.

2. Let’s beware of forming exclusive church relationships

In the early days of CCB I can remember trying to encourage a newly formed congregation to get more involved socially with one another. We saw each other on a Sunday evening but that was about it. We were all a little unfamiliar and disconnected. It dawned on me that we could hardly expect anyone to want to join a church if the people who were already there didn’t socialise together! Wonderfully I don’t need to say that any more. If anything we may need to be reminded to focus a little less on some of our church relationships. No doubt the Lord will provide us with friends in church with whom we get on brilliantly, and that’s fantastic. We ought to pray that everyone will find a home at CCB and will find a Christian friend with whom they really connect. We want a whole range of friendships in our church, our congregations, our small groups and our prayer triplets in which we can give and receive support and prayerful encouragement. And we’re getting there. But we may be in danger of developing a cliquey exclusivity that newcomers find intimidating. That’s perhaps overstating it, but I’m sure you can feel my concern. I’m convinced that most of it is unintentional. Most of us are simply unaware that it’s an issue. And we’d all be horrified to discover that our behaviour may in fact be contributing to it! And so it’s always worth looking around and asking ‘who’s new?’, ‘who’s not being looked after?’ and ‘who should I be making an effort not only to welcome but also to include?’ And I’m not simply talking about Sunday meetings. We know that being involved in church life is much more than pitching up once a week.

3. Let’s beware of withdrawal from the public square

As our country drifts further from its biblical heritage the church will find itself increasingly at odds with prevailing opinion on a number of issues. We’ve begun to see this codified in recent legislation. How should Christians respond? Like an ostrich with its head in the sand, we could just deny that it’s happening. But the difference between the Christian and the secularist world view is now so obvious that no one can really do that. We’ll be tempted to run for cover, especially when the attacks get personal and uncomfortable. But withdrawal is not the answer. Engagement is. We need to rediscover our prophetic voice and continue to engage with what’s going on outside the walls of the church community. God’s word is true; not simply for His people but for His world. Many of us rightly prioritise our personal spiritual disciplines like Bible reading, prayer and meditation. We must not neglect those. But our responsibilities towards Christ go beyond simply paying attention to his word. They extend to believing his word to the degree that we’ll act on it. And that means we must learn to contend for the truth; graciously but firmly. We mustn’t simply withdraw and disengage and think that we’re honouring Christ. I’m anxious that our reluctance to stick our heads above the parapet may reveal that in our heart of hearts we’re ashamed of Christ and his words. And so let’s encourage one another to do what we can to get involved with our community and make sure that the predominant secularist agenda at least has a Christian competitor. We may lose but at least we’ll face Christ knowing that we gave it our all.

4. Let’s beware of increasing isolation from unbelieving friends

I think it was a Campus Crusade for Christ study that discovered that after two years of being converted most Christians had lost 80% of their non Christian friends. That’s frightening. I don’t think it was because all their non Christian friends were being converted. It was because newly converted Christians were being submerged in church culture with all its alternative activities. We must be wary of this trend. I still think that one of the most valuable contributions we can make to church life is an evangelistic passion, priority and practice. But lots of us aren’t there. It was very interesting reading the feedback forms from people after The God Confusion mission. The honesty of some concerning their lack of local friends to invite was humbling. We’ve long been sympathetic to those whose primary source of friendships is at work and whose friends live in other parts of London. For them the workplace ministries are vital and their evangelistic contribution to CCB probably won’t be inviting friends. But lots of us have also expressed concern at not knowing people nearby. I think we need to give serious thought to how we can be more involved with people locally. There are lots of ways to address this and adult education courses at Chestnut Grove, reading groups at the library and local sports clubs are good places to start. But whatever we do, we must not become isolated from the thousands of unbelievers who live around us. We must remain a missional congregation who intend to send missionaries across the world and also send church members across the street.

Conclusion

In my opinion these four concerns are things about which we ought to be aware. They ought not to be our only reflection on church life at CCB in 2008. In fact they ought not to be the foremost thing to remember. But they are worthy of our consideration and repentance. Our overriding response to what God has done in us, through us and for us in 2008 ought to be gratitude. There’s so much that you’re about to read that’ll stimulate your thanks and appreciation. We have a great and gracious God who continues to give us so much more than we deserve or ask for.
To God be the Glory
richard

Co-Mission AGM Report for CCB

2008-09-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

'It's been another quiet week in Lake Wobegon'

So begins the weekly radio address by Garrison Keiller concerning the fictional community in America's mid west. Those words could never be applied to church community life South London's finest suburb, Balham. I’m sure some in the congregation would like it to be different. Occasionally I’m one of them! It's been a busy year. But it's been a great year and we're very grateful to God for His resurrection power that has sustained us throughout this time. We’ve worked hard for Christ and his gospel. And, in our best moments, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Sure it’s been costly but nothing of value comes without a cost. And we value gospel ministry at CCB because we know the transformation that it brings.
Our two congregations have been united in a renewed attempt to bring the great news of the gospel to our local area. In all honesty, we've done so with mixed success. The three new events in our busy church programme were

1. The God Confusion Mission at which we provided a wide range of events to which church members could invite friends. The foil for our mission was Richard Dawkins’ popular and influential rant against Christianity. It was intended that this would a starting point for more fruitful discussions about faith. It was. Recognising that people were a long way back from commitment to Christ we designed a programme so that everyone could invite someone to something. Though there were lots of engaging conversations at the various events regrettably it’s not translated into genuine enquiry through our Christianity Explored course.

2. The inaugural Balham Park Party at which we sought to engage with the local community and promote the work of our church. The highlight of the day was the open air service at which huge numbers of families thought about Jesus’ parable of the heavenly party. Wonderfully one Roman Catholic family has started coming to church as a result of the Park Party. Christian Fielder and his action group planned and implemented the day’s events to perfection.

3. The Going Bananas Holiday Bible Club at which a brilliant team of volunteers gave up their holiday and gave themselves to the kids for the sake of Christ. We had nearly twenty children who came along and only five of them came from CCB. Polly MacLachlan and her team of helpers put on a brilliant programme over three mornings in the May Half Term. We continue to pray that our links with Telferscot School parents and kids will prove fruitful.

If you wanted to pray for us please give thanks for
a. Jenni Prosser and our children’s workers who do a great job week in week out in Christ Church Kids
b. The loyalty and unity of our congregations to one another and to Christ
c. The ministry of Gavin McGrath who left to plant Christ Church Earlsfield

And why not pray for
a. Our courage to keep proclaiming Christ and his gospel of transformation
b. Our intention to plant a new church at some stage in the future
c. Our new Assistant Pastor Pete Matthew and his wife Nicki

Dear Friends - August

2008-08-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends

Which book have you earmarked for holiday reading? Is there a cheeky little paperback that you’ve got your eye on? Me, I thought I’d take a Ludlum to the coast; nothing too demanding, lots of plot and very little characterisation. I want a page turner not a tear jerker; I’m a bloke!

But, the closing words of Paul’s letter to the Romans warn me about being exclusively secular in my holiday reading habits. He reminds us that there’s real value to earmarking the Bible as one of the things that we might read as we lounge by the pool. Look at his words in the 16th chapter of that book.

25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

These closing words are often called a doxology. The ESV even has that as the heading. That unfamiliar word comes from the Greek ‘doxa’, meaning glory. So, Paul concludes this magisterial letter by ascribing glory to God. In this outpouring of praise he gives credit where credit’s due. And in particular Paul praises God for four things.

1. Paul praised God for His strength
Paul began by praising God for His ability to strengthen and establish the church. The word he uses, which in English is translated ‘strengthen’, is a normal one that might be used to describe securely fixing a loose floor board! But when Paul uses the term it takes on a technical meaning which implies securely fixing new converts by nurturing them in the faith. Paul recognised that no Christian and no church would be spiritually secure apart from this strengthening activity of God. And so, we need to remember that if we’re to keep going in our Christian lives and keep going as a church, then we depend entirely on the power of God. We will not do it on our own. Wonderfully, we don’t have to!

2. Paul praised God for His gospel
Paul knew that the way in which God strengthens His people is through the gospel. He describes this gospel in three ways. First, he described the gospel as His, in the sense that God had entrusted him with it. Secondly, he described it as concerned with Jesus Christ, in the sense that he is the substance of the good news from God. Thirdly, he described it as a mystery now revealed, in the sense that it was previously hidden but had now exposed by the New Testament perspective on the Old Testament prophetic writings. But his point was that this gospel of which he was a servant, Christ was the substance and the New Testament provided the interpretation is what strengthens churches. And so, even though there are few things as disappointing as an evangelistic event to which no unbelievers come, even then there’s a silver lining to that particular dark cloud. Believers benefit from hearing the gospel as well. It’s the means by which God grows our faith in Him and establishes us in maturity. Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, unbelievers still need to hear the gospel and we still need to try and persuade them to come along and listen. Nevertheless, even if no one but the regulars pitches up we know that God is at work building and toughening us up for the challenges that we’ll face before the New Creation.

3. Paul praised God for His mission
Paul realised that the only fitting stage for the salvation accomplished by Christ was a worldwide one. He recognised the divine design behind the apostolic evangelisation of the nations. And he praised God that this momentous news had gone overseas. God had removed the limits on the spread of the gospel. In the Old Testament era it was clearly not His intention to save many outside of Israel. But in the New Testament era all that had changed. The gospel was to be taken to the ends of the world. God had bigger plans. Paul’s reason for writing the letter was to seek support for his visit to Spain so that he could bring the news of the righteousness of God to an unreached people. We not only need to praise God for His evangelistic passion through which we’ve become the beneficiaries, but we also need to share it so that others might be on the receiving end of His glorious salvation.

4. Paul praised God for His wisdom
As Paul reflected on the events of salvation history it blew his mind. Behind everything that was happening in the world he saw the wise plan of God. In sending His Son to take on human flesh, die on a cross, be raised to life, send the Spirit and start the world wide spread of the gospel through the church planting ministry of his Apostles, the wisdom of God was writ large. Paul stood back and allowed the existence of the extraordinary phenomenon of a group of obedient followers of Jesus Christ to sink in. Though the world may look at the church and mock, Paul saw things differently. He saw, not through rose tinted spectacles [his experience of churches saved him from that] but he saw with the eyes of faith. God is doing a remarkable thing through the gospel. He is saving hell deserving sinners like us, from eternal condemnation in hell, for everlasting life in glory. And He’s doing it through the gospel. This gospel offers the perfect righteousness of Christ for all who’ll believe.

It’s no wonder that when Paul thought about these things he was moved to spontaneous praise. He gave credit where credit’s due. And God is to be credited with strengthening the churches, revealing the gospel, saving the nations and all in accordance with His eternally wise plan.

Though our words may not be as carefully crafted or as theologically precise as the great Apostle why not put this down for a moment and praise God with the language that immediately comes to mind for all that He has accomplished. We have much to praise the Lord for. So in amongst the latest offerings from Grisham, Rowling and Hosseini why not do yourself a favour and pick up a bestselling classic and read a thrilling true story from the greatest author of all time?

With best wishes in Christ
richard

Street Pastors in Balham

2008-08-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

Balham now has Street Pastors. A team of volunteers essentially from the Ascension Balham Hill, Bedford Hill Baptist, Balham Baptist and Balham Community Church have been out on the streets for the past few months.
If you're interested to learn more about what's involved then go to www.streetpastors.org.uk. It may be that you have the capacity and ability to be involved in social activism late at night on the streets of Balham.
Ben Goodyear, the Curate at the Ascension and the driving force behind the implementation of Street Pastors in Balham is looking for volunteers as they continue the growth of the Wandsworth Street Pastors Team. His definition of Street pastors is, 'a Christian with a concern for society – in particular for young people who feel excluded and marginalised'. According to Ben there's been a huge reduction in street crime in the following areas as a direct result of Street Pastors as the following statistics show:

95% reduction in Camberwell
74% reduction in Peckham
30% reduction in Lewisham within the first 13 weeks

The Wandsworth teams are going out in Wandsworth Town on weekday afternoons, and in Balham on weekend evenings.

We could get involved in one of two ways.

1. we could become a Street Pastor and receive free training before joining one of the teams out on the streets.
2. we could become a Prayer Pastor and join with other Christians praying for the Street Pastor teams when they're out and about.

For more information contact Richard Perkins on richard.perkins@christchurchbalham.org.uk

GAFCON - Richard Coekin's Reflections

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

Richard Coekin, the Senior Pastor of the Co-Mission Initiative of which Christ Church Balham is a part has written his personal reflections on our time in Jerusalem at the Global Anglican Future Conference. You'll find his observations here.

Dear Friends - July

2008-07-10T01:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends

In recent weeks the media has been awash with stories of the further disintegration of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. As is often the case, the carefully worded statements of principled biblical leaders are presented as the bigoted ranting of schismatic homophobic militants at the lunatic fringe of mainstream Christianity. Not by everyone, admittedly. Rather wonderfully some of the press reporting, particularly by the BBC’s Religious Affairs Correspondent Robert Piggott, has been very fair. One of the newsworthy items has been the Global Anglican Future Conference [GAFCON] held in Jerusalem at the end of June.

I had the privilege of attending with the Co-Mission Senior Pastor, Richard Coekin. It was more enjoyable and encouraging than I ever imagined it would be. Though it was hard to be separated from church and especially from family, it was wonderful to be among old and new friends from all around the world. There were so many highlights that it seems miserly to limit them to a few. But chief amongst them must be the private tour of the biblical sites of Jerusalem by Australian historian and theologian Paul Barnett, conversations on the bus with Archbishop Josiah Fearon from Kaduna, Nigeria and relaxing by the hotel pool with the great and the good from the English evangelical church scene!

One of the key things to come out of GAFCON was the Statement on the Global Anglican Future. For those of us who are cynical about such things or overly pedantic about the precise details of statements of faith you need to remember that when the draft statement was read to a room of approximately 1,200 people, grown men whooped, wept, jumped for joy and hugged one another. The British did it on the inside. One senior clergyman said to me, ‘this is the best thing to come out of Anglicanism in all my years of ministry’. Another said, ‘for the first time in my ordained life I’m not embarrassed to be an Anglican!’
Let me suggest that this is a great statement for at least these three reasons.

1. It’s a reassertion of authentic Anglicanism
Opponents of GAFCON are already suggesting that the motivation behind the movement is schismatic separation. It is most definitely not that. These orthodox Anglicans are going nowhere. Though the statement launches a Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, the document states that ‘our fellowship is not breaking away from the Anglican Communion’. Instead they are committed to the preservation, recovery and growth of authentic Anglicanism. This is defined not by recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury but by a doctrinal commitment to the authority of the scriptures as expressed in the Creeds and the 39 Articles. This ought to be music to evangelical ears. It means that the Church of England belongs to people like us and not the liberal revisionists who currently wield so much influence. In actuality they are like a parasitical cuckoo that has flown uninvited into the biblical nest of Anglicanism and is in the process of forcing out the rightful heirs to the denomination. It’s a deliberately provocative metaphor, but it’s accurate.

2. It’s a potentially divisive statement
Though lots of faithful Anglicans may agree that things are a mess at the moment, not everyone will like what’s been suggested. And therefore self proclaimed evangelical leaders like the Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright, who has written many useful things and with whom we would agree on a whole range of issues, have come out strongly against what’s been proposed. But over the last ten years there’s been a growing consensus that evangelicals cannot simply stay in the Church of England and accept further compromise. For the sake of Christ and his gospel we must contend, graciously but firmly. And in so doing we’re not doing anything un-Anglican. Anglicanism ought to welcome evangelical Christians. And yet in some dioceses the central structures are opposing gospel work and even persecuting gospel churches. Courageously, the leaders of GAFCON have decided that they cannot stand by whilst others preach another gospel, whilst principled Anglicans are forced to seek alternative Episcopal oversight and whilst no effective disciplinary measures are taken against the liberal revisionists. In my view, GAFCON is realistic about the mess that we’re currently in and it promises help in those situations.

3. It’s a distraction from the job of ministry
I’ve deliberately overstated that in order to make unmistakably clear that though this is a political statement of real substance it won’t bring anyone to faith and it won’t grow anyone in Christian maturity. That’s our job. It will be tempting for us to become distracted and forget that Christ commissioned us to make disciples of all nations not make us familiar with the endless round of opinions expressed in the ‘blogosphere’. Let’s be informed on the issues but not sidetracked by them. The Jerusalem statement is significant, please don’t misunderstand me. It’s especially encouraging and supportive of the gospel ministry that we’re trying to do in launching new congregations and raising up future church leaders. But it will not do it for us. We must encourage one another to keep going in the demanding but rewarding work of gospel ministry. Of course, we still think that the Church of England is worth fighting for. We’d like there to be Anglican churches up and down the country in years to come so that our children and grandchildren can hear the gospel in them. But the battle for the Church of England will not be won on pieces of paper, but on the ground. If Anglican Evangelical churches like ours keep growing and producing informed and godly mums, dads, workers, pastors and kids then we’ll have a massive influence on the direction of the Christian faith in this country. Ultimately that’s our aim. We seek not simply the preservation of an ancient denomination but the glory of Christ through the salvation of sinners. It’s just that we think the Church of England is still a great place to do that from.

Conclusion

If you’ve not already done so, why not read the Statement on the Anglican Mainstream web site. You’ll find it so encouraging. And if you sign the petition and express your support, you’ll encourage others.

With best wishes in Christ

richard

Dear Friends - June

2008-07-08T07:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends
At the holiday Bible club, Going Bananas, we looked at the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus. Jesus’ determination to pursue sinners provoked outrage amongst the religious elite. In their opinion if Jesus was a godly man, as he claimed to be, he shouldn’t be found amongst the ungodly. It seems logical. But that doesn’t make it right. Jesus explained that his behaviour was entirely consistent with the ministry that God had given him. To explain what he was about, he used the words, ‘the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost’. When we came to teach the kids we really struggled with explaining the concept of ‘lostness’. What does it mean for a person to be lost? How would you articulate it? We realised that when something is lost, it’s not where it’s supposed to be. The keys ought to be in the key plate and when they’re not, they’re lost. In the same way, people are lost when they’re not where they should be. They should be living lives in glad and obedient submission to their loving Creator. But they’re not. And so they’re lost. Jesus came to find these people and put them back where they belong. He’s done it for us. And now we’re keen that he should do it for others. This is one of the most important convictions that underpins church life at CCB. We’re not primarily about looking after those of us who’ve been found, we’re primarily about seeking the lost. In fact, we’re prepared to leave the found to seek the lost, just as Jesus was. Not every church accepts this. But wonderfully this is not a battle that we have to fight at CCB. The month of May was largely taken up with trying to share in Jesus’ mission. The three major events in the church calendar all had the intention of seeking the lost.

1. The Away Day

This was held at the Factory, the new church building in Raynes Park. It was planned and implemented to perfection by Anna. It was attended by a huge proportion of both congregations. Dan Strange, a lecturer at Oak Hill Theological College, helped us with a subject he described as, Cultural Apologetics. In essence it’s a way of describing Peter’s command to defend the reason for the hope that we have [1 Peter 3:15]. It means that in interacting with our society, we’re trying to do two things. In the first place we’re trying to remove distortions to the gospel and thereby clarify people’s understanding. And secondly, we’re trying to remove false assurance and thereby convict people of the truth. It has value for both unbelievers and believers alike because we both share idolatrous heart commitments. In other words we worship things that aren’t God. What we worship or love manifests itself as a worldview, a framework of assumptions through which we understand everything. A worldview always takes shape as we create a culture in which those things are given significance. Cultural Apologetics helps us to identify, understand and evaluate these idolatrous influences. It’ll help us deal with idolatry in the hearts of unbelievers and in our own hearts. If we want to seek the lost we need to be able to critique the culture and work out what it tells us about what’s replaced God in our affections.

2. The Park Party

In essence The Park Party was a glorified Church Fete, though I’d never want to hear it called that! It conjures up unhealthy stereotypes that we’re keen to leave behind! The intent behind our inaugural Park Party was to try and connect with the local community. Most people in Balham have no contact at all with CCB. In a small way, we wanted to address that. But though we sought to promote CCB, what we really wanted to promote was Jesus Christ and his gospel. We were able to do this especially through the children’s talk from Luke 14. Wonderfully a huge number of people stayed on and came to the church meeting. At that event, loads of people heard that God has invited everyone to his heavenly feast. Christian and his team of helpers did a wonderful job of planning and implementing the event. The teams from the various Knowing God groups made invaluable contributions on the day. The band provided a wonderfully varied musical programme. And we are deeply indebted to those who cooked cakes and biscuits. There will be lots that we can learn from our first attempt at this scale of event but above all, it was a tremendous success.

3. The Holiday Club

We took a bit of punt pitching Going Bananas at Primary School aged children. CCB only has two kids in that age range! But if we always let reason win over risk we’d never get anything started! Alright, we let their slightly younger siblings come along as well, so that boosted numbers. But even that concession meant that only 6 of the 20 children who came are part of Christ Church Kids. Wonderfully through our involvement at Telferscot, friendships with parents at Henry Cavendish and the regular Christ Church Kids’ Parties we were able to promote the holiday Bible club wider than we’d hoped. We even had one family who came as a result of The Park Party. Polly did a fantastic job in planning the three mornings and running the team of willing and talented volunteers. Many took time off work to be involved. It was a great team effort and a reminder that as a church we are one body with many parts [1 Corinthians 12:12]. As with many of the things we’ve done, if we start small, pray and back it the Lord will use our efforts for His glory. God willing, this will be the first of our Holiday Bible Clubs and an integral part of a growing children’s ministry. Conclusion It won’t always be easy ‘seeking the lost’. It cost Jesus his life. We’ll find it’ll cost us as well. But as we know personally, the experience of salvation is worth every sacrifice that we could possibly make.
With best wishes in Christ
perks

Park Party

2008-05-12T01:35:00.000-07:00

Park Party
Location: Adjacent to the One O'Clock Club and all weather sports pitch on Tooting Triangle, Tooting Common
Date: Sunday 18th May
Time: 2-5pm
Bouncy Castle, Face Painting, Biscuit Decorating, Games, Family Church Meeting, Refreshments & Home Made Cakes
Evening church meeting @ 6.00 pm

Free Admission.
There will be a small charge for activities.

For more information contact Anna on 020 85434411 or anna@christchurchbalham.org.uk

Human Fertilisation & Embryology Bill

2008-05-12T01:20:00.001-07:00

Back in the mid 1980s, the Radio 1 DJ Steve Wright and his posse wrote a song about a character known as Llama Man. I can still remember the lyrics that used to belt out of the school bus radio. ‘He can bleat. He can trot. He’s got everything that a llama’s got!’ What was a joke back then could now become a reality. No seriously, I’m not winding you up. And more importantly, neither is the Government. As you'd expect I'm overstating it a little. But in a raft of horrific ethical decisions what used to be a laugh is about to become legislation. This time, we’ve really lost the plot.
In case you’d not realised, we’re talking about the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. It’s already been debated and voted in the House of Lords where sound common sense gave way to powerful political lobbying. Well financed scientific institutions and some medically qualified peers trounced the voices of reason seeking sensible amendments.
But before I really let loose in a fresh tirade I ought to substantiate the strength of my feeling. There are in essence three main objections to the proposals. But before I enumerate them, it’s worth saying that I understand and identify with the compassionate impulse that underpins the motives of some who support this Bill. The noble aim of much scientific research is to reverse the effects of human disease; especially debilitating illnesses with which some of our friends are afflicted. Anyone who’s seen someone struggle with Cystic Fibrosis, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s to name but three will sympathise with the impulse to do all that we can to rid this world of such horrors. But the end does not justify the means. And the means are ethically very dubious, especially when viewed through a Christian ethical framework.
Therefore fuelled by the helpful material produced by Christian Concern for our Nation, the Christian Institute and CARE these are my objections.
1. The Bill undermines the biblical view of the species
The existing legislation will make it permissible for scientists to create animal-human hybrid embryos for research purposes. In a classic piece of spin doctoring they’ve renamed these embryos, which are part human and part animal, ‘human admixed embryos’. Others who are closer to the mark have decided to call the process ‘in vitro bestiality’. There are three types of animal-human embryos that scientists seek.
First there are Cybrids in which the nucleus from an animal egg is removed and replaced with a human nucleus.
Secondly there are Chimeras which are created by bringing together a set of human cells and animal cells during the early stages of development.
Thirdly, there are Hybrids in which animal DNA and human DNA are mixed with the resultant embryo being a new part-human species.
Scientists want these hybrids because they produce a large number of embryonic stem cells and there are insufficient numbers of human eggs. And so, in each of these hybrid ‘creations’ the stem cells are harvested and used for research. The embryo is then destroyed. A fully fledged llama man may have been averted but we’ve just killed a person made in God’s image in the process. And that’s not funny in the least. In response to these proposals, it’s been argued that
a. The process is unnecessary. Adult skin cells can be reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells. Stem cells from sources such as bone marrow and umbilical cord blood have now been used to successfully treat a number of conditions.
b. The process is unsuccessful. Human embryonic stem cell research has failed to produce any treatment or cures in the last 17 years. Some scientists maintain that since these embryos will not develop in the same way as human embryos they are unlikely to yield knowledge of the process by which human stem cells develop.
c. The process is unethical. The issue with this proposal is that the legislation blurs the distinction between animal and human. If we erode the boundaries between the species we destroy the basis for the uniqueness of the human race. There is the world of difference between a rat and a human. It’s on this basis that we have things like human rights. But the foundation for human dignity is about to be obliterated.
2. The Bill undermines the biblical view of the significance of families
This Bill opens the door to three things that are potentially destructive to the family.
a. The creation of Saviour Siblings. When I was a child my father drove a Fiat. It was always breaking down, he was frugal and he was an engineer. And so very often we’d spend a Saturday morning at a ‘wrecker’s yard’ scouting for spare parts to keep the car on the road. Dad was brilliant at taking an old distributor, alternator or thermostat and transplanting it to give new life to our sick vehicle. It’s that image that we need to have in mind when we think about ‘saviour siblings’. Under new legislation scientists would be allowed to create sibling children for the purpose of using them for spare parts. As we might expect with such a controversial proposal there are consequences. This process involves pre-implantation testing of IVF embryos so that those that are a match for the sick sibling can be chosen and those that are not a match can be destroyed. A child that’s a tissue match can then be created for the purpose of seeing his or her body parts removed in order to patch up the sick sibling. In addition, no one has any idea what the anticipated psychological consequence will be for the child as it grows up and realises that it was created principally to resource his or her brother or sister.
b. The removal of Fathers. Whilst many wives lament that their husbands have become emotionally absent fathers and regrettably many women struggle under the burden of raising children as sole parents, this Government wants to enshrine in law the principal that fathers are no longer necessary in families. The Bill removes the need for IVF providers to take into account the child’s need for a father when considering an IVF application. The House of Lords amended the Bill so that it was deemed sufficient for the child to have ‘supportive parenting’. This obviously means that lesbian couples can have their ‘own’ child by IVF. This is undoubtedly going to have a detrimental effect on the development of a child. Apparently studies already confirm this. But you don’t need to be an educational psychologist to work out that being the kid at school who grows up with two mummies is going to have issues. And quite apart from that it simply doesn’t match up to God’s ideal of a father and a mother making their different contribution to the child in the context of a family.
c. The threat of cloning. The Bill allows the Government to introduce regulations in the future which permit a specific form of human reproductive cloning. Previously, any cloned human embryo had to be destroyed at 14 days. But in some circumstances this new Bill could change that. It allows cloning techniques using cell nuclear replacement to be used to prevent the transmission of some genetic diseases from the Mother to a child. The process will create a child with three parents since an egg cell from a second woman would be needed to develop the child. The child would therefore have two mothers and a father. It would also essentially be a clone of its ‘diseased’ mother. The moral and legal issues alone are bewildering let alone the likely psychological effects on the child. Worryingly, the Bill does not introduce regulations that limit this practice being extended beyond the avoidance of mitochondrial disease.
3. The Bill undermines the biblical view of the sanctity of human life
At the Marie Stopes Centre not far from our house a giant banner proudly proclaims, ‘Celebrating 25 years of reproductive healthcare’. I ought to complain to the Advertising Standards Agency for an utterly misleading promotion. It’s worth noting that there’s very little healthcare being offered to the unborn child. As a result of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, the law on abortion is up for grabs. Both ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-abortion’ groups will table amendments. Rather perversely, given the underlying presupposition that it’s ethically acceptable to destroy human embryos, the Bill provides opportunities to improve the law on abortion and lessen the damage that it causes. This could be the case in the following three areas.
a. Reducing upper limits. At the present time the upper limit for a legal abortion is 24 weeks. However, there’s overwhelming public support for a reduction. In 2005 two thirds of the public, 63% of MPs and three quarters of women supported a reduction. In addition, a 2007 survey reported that 65% of GPs would welcome a reduction. Three factors have contributed to this. First, recent ultrasound images of the embryo in the early stages of development in the womb have made people realise that the embryo is simply an unborn child. Secondly, the bizarre juxtaposition in hospitals of neo-natal units preserving the lives of pre term children and abortion units where pregnancies are being terminated at the same gestation period. And thirdly, there’s mounting medical evidence that the foetus may be aware of pain at less than 20 weeks.
b. Ending abortion for disability. Currently the law allows abortion up to birth if there’s a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from physical or mental abnormalities such that the child could be classified as handicapped. Not only is this an outrageous devaluation of the value of human life but it discriminates against the disabled. Within the current legislation incredibly there’s no definition of what constitutes abnormalities. There’ve been reports of abortions being performed on children with minor medical conditions like a cleft lip and palate, webbed fingers and extra digits. It’s outrageous that these should be regarded as disabilities, especially when medical science can deal with them. We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that we’re destroying a person for having an extra toe.
c. Providing independent counselling. The Royal College of Psychiatrists recently warned that having an abortion can damage a woman’s mental health and they should be told the risks before proceeding. Not all women are aware of the facts about abortion, the consequences of abortion or the alternatives to abortion. In order to protect the women who proceed to abortion under pressure from others, it’s imperative that they receive the guidance they need to make an informed decision. Criticism has been levelled at the accuracy of the advice provided by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Accusations have been made that much of the counselling advice originates with proponents of the abortion industry. Therefore in the presence of vested interests it seems wise to provide statutory independent guidance for all women seeking an abortion.
Conclusion
Our country is not in a great place. Morally speaking. We can’t stand by and do nothing. I know that we're busy and we've all got slots on our plates. But this is our holocaust. Since 1967 6.7 million children have been terminated. It's genocide. In years to come our Grandchildren may ask us how this could have happened. They'll ask what we did and what the churches we belonged to did. And what will we say? Will they be satisfied with our comments about busyness. I hope not. We have an opportunity to speak the truth and stem the tide. So what should we do? There are three simple things that we could do that won't take too much effort. We could pray, pester and protest.
1. We should pray because God has not stopped ruling His world. He alone has the power to reverse the downward trend into immorality that this country is witnessing and participating in. Pray that there’s widespread media coverage of these issues and that the dissenting voices are heard loud and clear. Pray that God would have mercy on this nation so that evil is restrained. And pray that the pro-life Politicians and pro-Life groups working to oppose this Bill have the courage, wisdom and resources necessary to do so. Stop reading this now and pray.
2. We should pester our MP and bring him or her up to speed on our issues with this Bill. We can write a letter, send an e-mail or pitch up in person at a surgery to voice our displeasure at the liberalisation proposed in this Bill. Details on how to do this are available here.
3. We could protest outside Parliament on 14th May from 12.30pm onwards. The events is being organised by the All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group. It’s being supported by organisations like CARE, Christian Medical Fellowship and Christian Concern for our Nation. Details are available here. We could also take a few minutes to sign the online petitions at http://www.aliveandkickingcampaign.org/.

Dear Friends - May

2008-05-07T01:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends
Ever since I was converted in the early 1990s I’ve been part of a theological tradition that has looked somewhat suspiciously at church involvement in social concern. It’s not always been articulated in such negative terms. And in all honesty many of the fine Christian people I’ve known have been gloriously inconsistent in their approach to these matters. They warn of potential distractions to gospel ministry and yet have been wondrously generous with their time and money. In actuality even the conservative evangelical theological constituency that I so love and identify with are more involved in social concern than we profess to be. We send our letters of to our Member of Parliament, we sit as School Governors and we set up Crisis Pregnancy Centres.

In recent weeks three things have made an impact on me. They’ve been very helpful in thinking through how to develop a social conscience.

1. An article by the American theologian John Frame called, ‘In Defence of Christian Activism’.
In this article Frame argues that there is a solid biblical rationale to reject the fundamentalist argument that the church should abandon its social responsibility and simply preach the simple gospel. He cites Galatians 6:10 as chief amongst our reasons to be involved in ongoing social activism which he describes as ‘any Christian attempt to improve society’. He makes the observation that we are to show concern especially not exclusively for the household of faith. In other words, though the church is our primary concern it’s not our sole concern. That’s a helpful corrective. I‘ve also heard it argued that since this world is going to be destroyed then what we should be doing at the moment is not fixing society but rescuing a few souls from the fiery furnace. There’s a compelling logic to it. Please don’t hear me to be saying that we must lessen our evangelistic priorities in our personal lives, or in our church programmes. I have much sympathy with the slightly overstated fundamentalist caricature. However, God clearly expects us to be involved in other things than simply telling people the gospel. In his Great Commission Jesus told his followers that they were to make disciples of all nations. And he also told them to teach everything that he had commanded them. Jesus had a lot to say on a lot of issues. For example, he had much to say about the pursuit of mercy and justice amongst individuals.

2. A lecture and question and answer seesion with David Field from Oak Hill Theological College.
At the start of his lecture David made the point that there are both negative and affirmative ethical duties. A negative ethical duty is something that we must obey all of the time. For example, ‘Do not steal’ is a command from which we’re never exempted. It’s a 24/7 non-negotiable moral obligation. However, an affirmative ethical duty is something that we should pursue as much as we’re able to. It would be really good to do all of the time but since we’re finite people with limited opportunities and abilities we simply won’t be able to pull it off. For example, the command to ‘love your neighbour’ is something that we’re encouraged to do. But it’s not something that we can do all of the time because there are times when I must cease from loving my neighbour to take care of myself. This need not be selfish. We need to eat, sleep and work. God does not expect to keep all his affirmative ethical duties all of the time. We can’t. He knows that. We need to prioritise what we can do. And so we don’t need to feel guilty for what we’re unable to do. This is liberating. This perspective has been helpful as I’ve thought about what we should be doing as a church. There are so many things that we ought to be doing and that we’d like to be doing. But we can’t just yet. It wouldn’t be wise to attempt them because we don’t have the opportunities or resources to manage. And so we shouldn’t be beating ourselves up for the things we can’t do at our stage of church growth. But it also means that as God grows CCB we’ll need to keep revisiting the issue to find out whether there’s any spare capacity for expansion.

3. A sermon on the Good Samaritan by Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York.
Keller argues three surprising things from Jesus’ story. First, he argues that showing mercy is a mandate that Jesus has given to his church. He assumed that his people would meet basic human needs through human deeds. When he affirmed the religious lawyer’s summary of the requirements of God he affirmed the requirement to love our neighbour. Whereas the lawyer assumed that obedience to the law was a way to life, Jesus assumed that the law was a way of life. And so loving our neighbour is a sure sign that Jesus has put his Spirit in our hearts. Secondly, he demonstrates the vast magnitude of Jesus’ command to love our neighbour. We tend to regulate Jesus’ command by wanting to restrict the category of neighbour, by limiting the circumstances in which we’re to show love and by inhibiting what we’re required to do. Thirdly, he argues that the motivation for loving our neighbour is not duty but the gospel. It is only when we’ve experienced undeserved, self sacrificial love from an enemy that we’ll be moved to show it to others. As Keller persuasively points out this is what every Christian has experienced through Christ. Jesus refused to put limits on his love when he came to die for us. It is the gospel that drives the kind of radical ‘neighbour’ love that’s exemplified by the Good Samaritan.

There are still questions to be asked about what this means for our personal lives and for our church programmes. How this is worked through in concrete terms is a matter of prayerful reflection and taking wise counsel. At the very least we need to recommit ourselves to praying for and supporting Options and we should seek to be informed on the legislative issues that the Christian Institute or Christian Concern for our Nation send out. But perhaps the first thing to do is to seek to be a good neighbour where we live. Imagine what it’d do for the house prices if there were a couple of Good Samaritans in your street. That’s infinitely more influential than having a Waitrose in the High Street!

With best wishes in Christ

richard

Friday Night Socials

2008-03-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

Celebrate the last Friday of the month in style! Starting on Friday 28th March, and continuing every month thereafter, come and join a bunch of people from across the Co-Mission congregations for probably some drinks, possibly some food, and definitely some fun!

The venue for Friday 28th March is the very stylish bar at The Grosvenor Hotel, Buckingham Palace Road, next to Victoria Station, SW1W 0SJ, kicking off at 7:30pm. Contact Olivia Dunigan (07813 099229 / via Facebook) or Tim Doyle (07866 491983 / tim.doyle@canadalife.co.uk ) for more information. Hope to see you there!

Worship to the Glory of God

2008-03-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

This three evening course for musicians and music leaders will run in the Factory, Raynes Park on Monday 12th, 19th and 26th May from 8:00 – 9:15. We will be in the Ridley Room.
Though focussed on musicians and music leaders, it will also be of use to those who lead Sunday meetings, and others interested in understanding why we gather, why we do what we do when we gather together, and how music & singing fits into that.
Andrew Towner, the Director of Music at The Bible Talks and Christ Church Mayfair, who will lead the sessions hopes also to get towards a practical theology of music in the final session.The format will be interactive, including talks from the front, Bible Studies, discussion in small groups, and question times.
For more information see the contents in the Prepare book, on page 6. The 3 week structure will basically focus on Worship, Church and Music.
If you're interested in attending please e-mail Peter Judkins, who will co-ordinate our involvement on peter@peter-clairelise.co.uk.

Dear Friends - March

2008-03-18T04:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends
In the second week of February we embarked on a mission we called The God Confusion. The main foil for the week was the recent, popular and influential atheistic book by Richard Dawkins entitled The God Delusion. In assessing our mission these are my three concluding observations.

1. It was a bit of a stretch
When we last ran a mission we had a series of three talks on two Sundays and midweek on a Wednesday. That was two years ago. It would be fair to say that the schedule of events this time around was a little more ambitious!! Behind the scenes many people were ‘flat to the boards’ making things happen. Lots of people made the mission a priority and invited their friends. Many others turned up at events to express their support and provide the all important ‘rent a crowd’! And many were occupied with that essential unseen work of asking the Lord to do His work of bringing people to faith in Christ.

2. It was a qualified success
Although we may have stretched ourselves a little more than we have done before, we achieved the following things. The quality of the events was high, the range of events was varied, the number of guests was encouraging, the level of participation was high and the idolatry of unbelief was exposed. The main talks sought to prosecute unbelief. Our intention was to identify, evaluate and critique the case for atheism. The other events sought to engage with culture from a Christian perspective. That’s a legitimate exercise for a church and a relatively new thing for us. It doesn’t mean that we’ve given up preaching the gospel. We do that frequently throughout the year and in Christianity Explored. It means that we took a step back to engage the culture and expose the futility of idolatry. This assessment prompts the question ‘why then consider the mission only to be a qualified success?’

3. It was just a start
This was not the mission we wanted to run. The mission we wanted to run would have been a series of Bible talks where the gospel was clearly expounded and applied to a heaving mass of unbelieving friends. But the culture is not where we’d like it to be; Christianity is regarded as irrelevant. The events we ran provided alternative ways to connect with an otherwise sceptical and dismissive culture. Our church is not where we’d like it to be; when we planned the mission we were aware of our track record. How can I put this? We’ve not set the world alight with our evangelistic prowess! We’re not where we’d like to be; a number of people have realised that we’re disconnected from non-Christian friends. Some have begun to address this in characteristically adventurous ways. Even though this wasn’t the mission we didn’t want to run it was the mission we felt we could run.

But we’re not too disheartened; we’ve remembered that though we’re not where we should be, we’re not where we were. And that’s a good thing. God has enabled us to make significant strides forward since our last mission two years ago. This mission was just the latest in a long line of events that we seek to provide to bring unbelievers under the sound of the gospel. It’s just a start which means that there’s more to come. And we’ll get better. But we’re going in the right direction.

Prayer Triplets

2008-03-18T03:44:00.000-07:00

In general, as you would imagine, prayer triplets are three people who meet to pray. The clue is in the name! The specifics of how you run your triplet are down to you. In the past people have found that meeting fortnightly for an hour in the morning before work has been a great way to get started. Yes that means an 0630 start for some but for some of us that's a lie-in! Some prefer to meet for longer and some more frequently. Usually, it's the fairer sex who go down this route. Some enjoy meeting for a meal first and then spending an evening together during which time they chat and pray. Most of us face pressures of work and family life and so it's important to be realistic and make what oughto be a terrific time of encouragement into an unnecessary burden. An hour every two weeks tends to work well.
If you'd like to be part of a prayer triplet then contact Ed Drew if you're male and Audrey Nelson if you're female. They will then co-ordinate names and liaise with people. You can get Ed on edward.drew@btinternet.com and Audrey on nelsona@parliament.uk.

April Women's Breakfast

2008-03-18T03:36:00.001-07:00

Audrey has been able to recruit Carrie Sandom for our Women's Breakfast in April.
Carrie is currently on the staff at The Bible Talks in Mayair. Prior to being employed by the Co Mission Initiative she's been the Women's Worker at St Andrew the Gerat in cambridge and St Helen's Church in Central London.
She'll be speaking on 'Lessons for Life from the Prayers of Hannah' from 1 Samuel 1.
It'll take place at the usual venue, Lil Houghton's house 27 Downton Avenue, Streatham Hill, SW2 3TU.
Starts at 9.30 am and finishes by 11.30 am. Contact Audrey Nelson for more details on nelsona@patliament.uk.

Christian Summer Camps

2008-03-18T03:26:00.000-07:00

Following on from the recent doctrine slot on Christian Summer Camps a number of people have expressed interest in volunteering. If you're keen to be involved with the Pathfinder Camps [aged 11-14] contact Ed Drew on edward.drew@btinternet.com. If you're keen to be involved with CYFA Camps [aged 14-18] contact Richard Perkins on richardperkins@btinternet.com.

Every year thousands of children and hundreds of young adults go off on residential Christian summer camps. They are usually about one week long. They often take place in the public schools of this country and so the word camp is misleading. Only the very hardy continue under canvas!

Christian camps are different from many other worthwhile camps that operate over the summer because of the gospel priorities that underlie their organisation. They exist not only to give teenagers a great summer holiday but to help them engage with the bigger issues of life.

They support the work of the local church and do not replace it. Overall camp leaders should go to great lengths to work in consultation with the local church youth group leaders. They work with the kids all year round and know them better than we do. They have organised teaching programmes and a wide range of exciting activities.

Over the last half a century they have had a significant impact on the evangelical churches in our country. Many of our senior church leaders were recruited, converted and trained on camp. The recent leaders of All Souls, St Helens and HTB were all involved with camps as young men.

Why do camp?
Every year church leaders encourage their congregations to volunteer, camp leaders send out requests for help and friends commend the wisdom of doing so. But why would any right thinking individual give up a week of their holiday period, sleep in a dormitory of teenagers and return to work less rested than when they went away. Let me give you three reasons.

1. They reach children with the gospel
This is the primary reason for organising camps and therefore the most important. Children are not innocent and therefore if they are to be saved they need to hear the gospel and combine that with repentance and faith. It’s often hard to persuade teenagers to go to church or perhaps to a school Christian meeting but it’s easier to recruit kids to a Christian camp. The kids are at a stage in life where their readiness to listen to the gospel has yet to be tarnished by the cynicism that often comes with age. On a residential camp, whilst we want to distance ourselves from anything that whiffs of manipulation, teenagers are away from other distracting influences, they will experience a Christian community and can ask their questions free from unhelpful peer pressure.

2. They provide opportunities to serve
Summer camps are like a much more intense experience of church. The priorities are the same since Bible teaching, personal evangelism and encouragement to holiness are at the heart of both. However, the audience at camp is much more focussed in terms of age.
Camps, like church, have lots of different opportunities to serve. We can often think that the only useful people on camp are Jason Robinson or Natasha Beddingfield. But the kids at camp come in all different shapes and sizes with all sorts of different interests and so we need a variety of leaders. Camps need people with technical expertise, with sporting ability, with culinary flair, with artistic talent, theatrical tendencies, with financial acumen and with administrative gifts, to name a few. They need ‘up front’ people who can run games but they also need ‘behind the scenes’ people who make it all happen. It’s very unlikely that we’d be unable to make a useful contribution to a summer camp.

3. They equip us to be useful in the church
Church leaders will often say that the people that are of most use in their local church setting are those who have had some experience of camp. There are things that we can learn on camp that are immediately useful in church.
We can learn how to understand and teach the Bible and so we can help run a small group. Or we learn how to participate usefully in a small group because we know how valuable it is to have people who contribute.
We can learn how to lead a meeting or run a seminar and so we can take on teaching in Sunday school, doing a kid’s spot or speaking at women’s breakfasts.
We can learn to explain the gospel and respond to people’s questions and so we can begin to grow in confidence in talking to our friends and colleagues.
We can learn how to personally encourage a teenager in their Christian life and so we can begin to be of help to others in our congregation perhaps reading the Bible with them one to one.

Who could get involved?
The NT requirements for leadership are giftedness and godliness. So if you could contribute something useful to a camp, your lifestyle will not bring the gospel into disrepute and you’re willing to get involved then why not commit to it.

There are some camps represented at CCB. Pathfinders are camps for 11-14 year olds and CYFA are camps for 15-18 year olds. They happen at various locations throughout the country and they are spread over a range of dates. Most require attendance at a training weekend and at a reunion. It'll be the best week of your year.

Good Friday Tea

2008-03-18T03:06:00.001-07:00

This Good Friday come and join members of the All Age Congregation and the Evening Congregation for a time of reflection as we consider together the death of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We'll eat a simple tea, share the Lord's supper, pray, sing and think about the events of that first Good Friday.
We'll be meeting and eating in the Theatre at Chestnut Grove School from 3.30pm till 5.30pm. It'll be very informal and child friendly. Tea will be sandwiches, lite bites and cakes. It's intended to 'fill a hole' for the adults and be sufficient for the children. You'll probably still need to eat an adult meallater in the evening! The talk will be intended for adults but will aim to include the children present.

Loneliness

2008-02-26T03:59:00.001-08:00

The short article supplementing Sunday evening's doctrine slot on the issue of loneliness can be found here.

Telferscot School Assembly

2008-02-26T02:26:00.000-08:00

The Cornhill team took Valentine's Day as their theme for the school assembly at Telferscot.
With a giant card arriving by 'special delivery' Tom Hart explained that God has shown His love for all people be sending His Son to die on a cross so that we could be friends with God.
The kids loved the mixture of role playing, huge visual aids like the verse banner, the gentle humour and the riotous crowd interaction. The teachers often look nervous, perhaps anxious that we'll never get them back under control again! They're not alone in that fear!
This is a great school and we're delighted to be welcomed in to run Christian assemblies.

A faint whiff of Philosophy

2008-02-26T02:15:00.001-08:00

As anticipated the pub quiz was a massive success. Crammed into the top floor of the Blithe Spirit were over 120 guests gathered in their teams.

The Quirky Motion team had put together four magnificent rounds of questions. My personal favourite was the 'name the dog breeds picture round'. [I still maintain it was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier]. Ed hosted the evening with characteristic wit and aplomb. And the Cornhill Team worked tirelessly behind the scenes to process the 'cosmo style' world view survey. Round four was the world view and philosophy round. In preparation for the round the contestants needed to listen to a short talk describing and analysing the six major world views. We watched some film clips, read some quotes and the arguments began! I'd always thought that the Matrix was written out of an existentialist world view. But apparently not. In all honesty, it didn't make a whole heap of difference to where we came. We were way off the pace!

These pub quizzes require a lot of hard work from a dedicated team but they remain one of the best things we put on. Our thanks must go to Colin Munro and his able helpers.

Does it matter what we teach our children?

2008-02-26T01:52:00.000-08:00

Richard Dawkins in his book, The God Delusion, quotes with approval the following saying from Victor Hugo, 'there is in every village a torch - the teacher: and an extinguisher - the clergyman'. It heads his chapter on childhood, abuse and the escape from religion. The quote highlights the increasing suspicion with Christianity is viewed. But can it really be that simple? Our education evening with Ian and Nina Fry sought to explored that uneasy relationship and shed some light on the contemporary debates.
Ian is currently the Director of Youth and Children's Ministry at Oakhill Theological College having been a secondary school teacher for 13 years and a schools worker for another 13. Nina has been in primary school education for 26 years. They brought a wealth of experience and wisdom to our evening.
Ian kick started our evening with a short talk drawing our attention to the difference between schooling, which ought to be the responsibility of the teachers and education, which ought to be the responsibility of the parent. He suggested that state education is increasingly replacing the role of parents rather than supplementing that role. This is perhaps most evident in the PHSE curriculum. Ian analysed a secular world view which predominates and contrasted that with the Christian world view which is increasingly being marginalised. He challenged us not to put our faith in education as though it was the solution to all our problems. Instead he encouraged us to continue to maintain the value of having faith as part of the education process.
After a coffee break we reconvened for questions. In Parkinson-esque style written questions were submitted to Ian and Nina and supplementary questions came from the floor.
The evening was a great success. It would be fair to say that the numbers of non-Church visitors was not what we'd hoped for. But the format of the evening with extended time for questions meant that those that came had a thought provoking and valuable evening.

Dad's Weekend Away

2008-02-26T01:44:00.000-08:00

CCB's inaugural Dad's Weekend Away passed off without incident! Seven of us went away for two nights at the beginning of February to think about our roles as Christians, Husbands and Fathers.
We stayed in a great house in rural Sussex, close to Pulborough. Friday night was spent travelling, arriving and consuming curry. Saturday was spent studying the Bible, listening to talks and reading articles. We also managed a stroll along the beach and took in England's debacle against Wales. And early start on Sunday enabled us to get back for morning church and to spend the day with our families. We're very grateful to our wives and families for letting us go. We hope you spot the difference as we delight to fulfil the various responsibilities the Lord has given us.

Welcome to - The God Confusion

2008-01-30T01:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the information page for the The God Confusion. This is a week of events organised by Christ Church Balham to which people of all faiths and none are welcome. This page will take you to details of our other events.
During this week we're putting on a range of events at which we intend to interact with some of the ideas and objections against religion raised by Richard Dawkins' bestselling book, The God Delusion.
For details of our services on Sunday 1oth February go here.
On Monday 11th February we will be showing the award winning film adaptation of Ian McEwan's book, Atonement. For more information go here.
On Tuesday 12th February Ian Fry, an experienced ex-teacher and currently Director of Youth & Children's Ministry at a Church of England training college will be speaking on 'Does it matter what we teach our children?' For more details go here.
Our popular Pub Quiz returns on Wednesday 13th February. This time there's a faint whiff of philosophy in one of the rounds. For more information go here.
During the day on Friday 15th February there's a Women's Coffee Morning during which an 'express' Colour Me Beautiful consultation is available. There'll also be a short talk entitled, 'Would Jesus Wear Prada?' For more information go here.
Two events dominate Saturday 16th February. The Women's Brunch will hear from Jo Richardson how a Doctorate in Cell Biology from Cambridge University need not be an obstacle to Christian faith. She'll give a short talk entitled 'Miracles or make Believe'. More details are available here. In the evening the guest speaker at our Charity Dinner will be Matthew Frost, the Chief Executive of Tearfund, a Christian relief and development agency. For more details of that event go here.
On Sunday 17th February we're delighted to welcome Christian Philosopher, author and speaker Peter Williams from the Damaris Trust, who will respond to Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. Find details here.
You would be very welcome at any of the events. For additional enquiries please contact me the CCB Vicar, the Rev Richard Perkins on richardperkins@christchurchbalham.org.uk or 020 86786157.
with best wishes
richard

The God Confusion - Sunday 17th February

2008-01-30T01:11:00.000-08:00

Date: Sunday 17th February
Time: All Age Meeting at 10.30 am & Evening Meeting at 6.30 pm
Venue: Chestnut Grove school in the morning and the Bedford Pub in the evening.
At the all age congregation in the morning Peter will give a ‘Rough Guide to Creation and Evolution’.
At the evening meeting in the Bedford Peter will speak on ‘Is God a Delusion: A Response to Richard Dawkins’.

I am delighted to confirm that Peter Williams will be speaking at The God Confusion. Peter is a philosopher with a number of books to his name and a particular expertise in working with students. He professes a love of progressive rock [1970s rock in the style of Pink Floyd et al], science fiction and The Muppets! He is experienced as a speaker in Universities, Colleges, schools and churches, and has participated in debate with a number of atheists, including American Philosopher Professor Michael Martin (cf. 'Head to Head: A Theism Debate') and British secular humanist Peter Hearty of the national secular society (cf. 'Evolution vs. Intelligent Design').
After studying philosophy at Cardiff (BA), Sheffield (MA) and The University of East Anglia (MPhil), Peter worked as a 'Student Assistant' at Holy Trinity Church Leicester for three years, before moving to Southampton to join Damaris, where he is managing editor of The Quest.
Peter is author of three books: The Case For God (Monarch, 1999), The Case For Angels (Paternoster, 2002) and I Wish I Could Believe In Meaning: A Response To Nihilism. He has co-authored Back in Time: A thinking fan's guide to Doctor Who and contributed chapters to Damaris' Talking About books and the Matrix Revelations: A thinking fan's guide to the Matrix Trilogy.In addition to writing for Damaris web-sites (such as CultureWatch.org), Peter has been published by several magazines, journals and websites, including Philosophy Now, The Philosopher's Magazine, Healing & Wholeness, Themelios, Third Way, Christianity & Renewal, http://www.bethinking.org/ (the apologetics website of UCCF), CASE, C.S. Lewis Society of California, Quodlibet Online Journal of Christian Theology and Philosophy, Leadership University, ISCID and the Intelligent Design website Access Research Network, where he is one of their 'featured authors'. You'll find some of Peter's writings, talks and so on here and the Damaris web site was the source for much of what's here.

Women's Brunch

2008-01-30T01:04:00.000-08:00

Venue: 27 Downton Avenue, Streatham Hill
Date: Saturday 16th February
Time: 10.30 am

Come and enjoy a relaxed and sociable brunch in the company of the Christ Church Balham women.
Jo Richardson, who studied Biological Sciences and has a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Cambridge will give a short talk entitled 'Miracles of Make Believe?' She will draw on her own personal experience to explain why she thinks that believing in God is intellectually credible in 2008.

Women's Colours Coffee Morning

2008-01-30T00:51:00.000-08:00

The Women's Bible Study are running an 'express' colours coffee morning on Friday morning, 15th February from 10 am till 12 noon.

Liz Barnard is running the event at the Church Centre, Trinity Road Chapel on Trinity Road. Details here.
Rachel Grange will provide an 'express' Colour Me Beautiful consultation for those who are keen.
Jo Richardson, one of the Cornhill students will briefly reflect on the provocative and somewhat cheeky question 'Would Jesus wear Prada?'
Children are welcome and there is a creche available.
The cost is £3.

The CCB Pub Quiz

2008-01-29T11:36:00.000-08:00

Hosted by Ed Drew, the Philosophy Quiz Night will happen on the Wednesday 13th February at 8 pm in the Blithe Spirit. Map here.
We've been able to secure the upstairs floor so that we won't be disturbed and won't disturb anyone else. Once again the tried and tested and, dare I say, brilliant combination of Colin Munro and Ed Drew will provide a quiz with a mild philosophical twist.
The very successful World View Survey will be available for groups to take so that they can discover what their view of reality is called. I'm told it's like a cosmo survey but having never read Cosmo I'm in no position to comment. I have however, done the World View Survey and was delighted to discover that I'm not a nihilist.
The team of Cornhill experts will be on hand to analyse the classification with personal consultations! CCB's Vicar, the Rev Richard Perkins will briefly address the significance of world views and inform people about other events during The God Confusion.

Does it matter what we teach our children?

2008-01-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

Date: Tuesday 12th February
Venue: Telferscot School, Balham
Time: 8 pm -9.30 pm
Cost: Free

Ian Fry is the Director of the Youth and Children's Ministry Cource at Oak Hill Theological College. He will address the issues of faith and education. You can find out about him here. Ian's worked in both teaching and ministry. For 13 years he was a school teacher. He left that to become the Kingston Schools' Worker.

For further details contact CCB's Vicar, the Rev Richard Perkins on richardperkins@btinternet.com or 0208 678 6157

Film Night - Atonement

2008-01-29T11:10:00.000-08:00

Date: Monday 11th February
Venue: The Exhibit, Balham Station Road
Time: 8 pm
Cost: £7

For bookings contact John Lumgair on john@quirkymotion.com or 0208 696 6510.

Tony Watkins will be given a pre-film talk and post-film analysis.

Tony is the Managing Editor of Culturewatch.org, produced by Damaris. Tony is passionate about films. You can find out about him here.

He joined Damaris at its inception in 1991. Tony is the author of Focus: The Art and Soul of Cinema (2007) and Dark Matter: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Philip Pullman (2004), co-author of Back in Time: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who (2005) and a contributor to a number of other books including Matrix Revelations: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to the Matrix Trilogy (2003) and the Talking About series of books, of which he is the editor.

He is also responsible for the Culturewatch courses and Culturewatch groups, and is an experienced speaker in a wide range of contexts. For more about Tony Watkins, visit his website.

Welcome to - The God Confusion

2008-01-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

The God Confusion is a week of events organised by Christ Church Balham to which people of all faiths and none are welcome.

For details of our services on Sunday 1oth February go here.

On Monday 11th February we will be showing the award winning film adaptation of Ian McEwan's book, Atonement. For more information go here.

On Tuesday 12th February Ian Fry, an experienced ex-teacher and currently Director of Youth & Children's Ministry at a Church of England training college will be speaking on 'Does it matter what we teach our children?' For more details go here.

Our popular pub quiz returns on Wednesday 13th February. This time there's a faint whiff of philosophy in one of the rounds. For more information go here.

During the day on Friday 15th February there's a Women's 'express' Colour Me Beautiful consultation and a short talk entiled, 'Would Jesus Wear Prada?' For more information go here.

Two events dominate Saturday 16th February. The Women's Brunch will hear from Jo Richardson how a Doctorate in Cell Biology from Cambridge University need not be an obstacle to Christian faith. More details are available here. In the evening the guest speaker at our Charity Dinner will be Matthew Frost, the Chief Executive of Tearfund, a Christian relief and development agency. For more details of that event go here.

On Sunday 17th February we're delighted to welcome Christian Philosopher, author and speaker Peter Williams from the Damaris Trust, who will respond to Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. Find details here.

You would be very welcome at any of the events. For additional enquiries please contact our Vicar, the Rev Richard Perkins on richardperkins@christchurchbalham.org.uk or 020 86786157.

The Charity Dinner

2008-01-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

Venue: The White Eagle Club, Hamilton House, 211 Balham High Road
Time: 7.30 pm for 8.00 pm
Cost: Tickets are £25, of which £5 will be donated to Tearfund.
Speaker: Matthew Frost, Chief Executive of Tearfund; a Christian relief and development agency.

Matthew started the job in 2005 having gained extensive experience working in the business world. He is married to Katherine and they have four young children. They attend St Mark’s Church in Battersea, South West London. You can read a little more about him here.

Order of Events

7.30pm Drinks available in the Bar
8.00pm Guests seated and Dinner served
22.30pm The Bar will remain open
2.00am The Bar closes

Menu

Starter
Creamy Leek & Potato Soup
A Selection of Polish Sausage & Meats

Main Course
A choice of the following:
Salmon on a Bed of Spinach in Saffron Sauce
Chicken in a Creamy White Wine & Mushroom Sauce
Vegetarian Option: Pancake Stuffed with Spinach, Red Onions & Oyster Mushrooms with Cream Sauce

Dessert
Chocolate topped Cheesecake or
Apple Crumble Cake

Coffee & Mints

A proportion of the cost of all bottles of wine will also go to Charity.
Please purchase your tickets and order your choice of food from Anna Hartridge (anna@christchurchbalham.org.uk) by Friday 8th February. Payment can be made in cash or by cheque made payable to CCB.
Tables will be arranged for groups of 6 (small table) or 8-12 people (large table). Please see Anna for your requirements if you are booking for a group.

Cornhill Mission Team - in their own words!

2008-01-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

Jo Richardson
I studied biology for a long time before living in China for two and a half years teaching and studying Chinese. I’m now doing the Cornhill course part-time, working with the Chinese ministry from St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, and teaching a bit of biology. I am privileged to have godly parents, under whose influence I became a Christian when I was young. I may not be an eminent scientist but “studied biology a long time” includes undergrad natural sciences and a PhD in cell biology at Cambridge. I currently live in Bow, East London. For your info, I’m 28!

Cornhill Mission Team - in their own words!

2008-01-14T08:46:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Tom Hart, and I am currently working for St. George’s Church in Dagenham, whilst studying part time at Cornhill. I am 20 years old, and am constantly reminded by the other cornhillers that I am the baby of the course! Prior to Cornhill I did a gap year working for the London City Mission (LCM), doing some youth work, and limited open air evangelism. I grew up on a farm in Suffolk, and over the past few years since leaving school, I have worked on the farm and travelled across Australia. I am engaged to be married on 31st October to a beautiful Scottish young lady called Rachael, who I met on my gap year at LCM, and is currently working for them full time.

Cornhill Mission Team - in their own words!

2008-01-14T08:44:00.000-08:00

I'm Josh Mills. I'm 23, got married to a local croydon lass - Priscilla - 18 months ago. I was brought up in New Zealand, left my folks to move to the UK when I was 18. When not studying at Cornhill I work as a Care Worker in East Surrey for a supported living service with adults who have learning disabilities. When I'm not working I love photography (got a new camera for christmas!). I play rugby, though i'm off injured at the moment with a torn collar bone ligament. Love playing/watching sport too.

Cornhill Mission Team - in their own words!

2008-01-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

I am Jimmy Joo, a South Korean born Australian. I am an ordained pastor (RCA—Reformed Church in America), began my theological training in Toronto, Canada 1997, had a bit more study in Gordon-Conwell in Boston US, and spent several years in New York and New Jersey, pastoring a couple of Korean Ethnic churches until May 2006. I am married to Esther with two daughters, Rachel(6) and Chloe (2 and half), who are currently residing in Sydney Australia. I am now staying with Simon Smallwood, the vicar of St. George’s in Dagenham.

Cornhill Mission Team - in their own words!

2008-01-14T08:40:00.001-08:00

Charlie Fadipe
I'm 37 and married to Rachel with two children, Hannah (8) and Jacob(3). I'm originally from Lagos, Nigeria and although brought up in a Christian home, I became a Christian aged 11 at boarding school. I made a living in the City as a computer programmer and attended Bromley Baptist Church. Just prior to doing this course, Rachel and I served as short-term missionaries in Cyprus for the last two years (taking our kids!), working for SAT-7, a Middle-Eastern Christian Satellite company that broadcasts a whole range of Christian programs all over the Middle East and North Africa. I am now training for the Ministry.

Cornhill Mission Team - in their own words!

2008-01-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

Barney Jones
I'm 29 years old and have been a servant of the Lord Jesus for 15 of those years. My wife Beth and myself are members of the church that meets at Trinity Road Chapel (TRC) near Wandsworth Common. At TRC I am involved in helping with a number of bible-teaching groups for teens, young adults and a home group. I grew up on the western fringes of London (Ickenham) though Beth is a South West Londoner born and bred.
We have 2 lovely children, Zak (2yrs) and Carys (1yr). I studied English Literature at university (Oxford) and moved to Tooting when I left (2000). I worked for most of my time since then at the London office of a little-known internet startup called Google. I left Google almost two years ago to study preaching at Cornhill and I now work as a self-employed internet consultant in my spare time.

The God Confusion Mission Events

2008-01-11T07:25:00.001-08:00

We're just putting the finishing touches to The God Confusion mission. We're about to publicise the final events, venues and speakers. It's a very exciting programme. Here's a sneak preview of some of the highlights. Get these details in your diary, PDA or whatever.

Tony Watkins is the Managing Editor of Culturewatch.org, produced by Damaris. Tony is passionate about films. You can find out about him here. He will be speaking on the Monday night, 11th February at the Clapham Picture House when he'll provide commentary for either Atonement or The Golden Compass.
He joined Damaris at its inception in 1991. Tony is the author of Focus: The Art and Soul of Cinema (2007) and Dark Matter: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Philip Pullman (2004), co-author of Back in Time: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who (2005) and a contributor to a number of other books including Matrix Revelations: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to the Matrix Trilogy (2003) and the Talking About series of books, of which he is the editor. He is also responsible for the Culturewatch courses and Culturewatch groups, and is an experienced speaker in a wide range of contexts. For more about Tony Watkins, visit his website.

Ian Fry is the Director of the Youth and Children's Ministry Cource at Oak Hill Theological College. Ian will be speaking on Tuesday evening, February 12th, at Telferscot School at 8 pm. He will address the issues of faith in education, whether it matters what we teach our children and whether there's such a thing as a non-faith school.
You can find out about him here. Ian's worked in both teaching and ministry. For 13 years he was a school teacher. He left that to become the Kingston Schools' Worker.

Matthew Frost is the Chief Executive of TEARFUND. Matthew has agreed to speak at a charity Dinner on the Saturday evening, 16th February.
He started the job in 2005 having gained extensive experience working in the business world. Matthew is married to Katherine and they have four young children. They attend St Mark’s Church in Battersea, South West London. You can read a little more about him here.

The Philosophy Quiz Night will happen on the Wednesday night, 13th February at the Blithe Spirit. We've been able to secure the upstairs floor so that we won't be disturbed and won't disturb anyone else. Once again the tried and tested and, dare I say, brilliant combination of Colin Munro and Ed Drew will provide a quiz with a mild philosophical twist. The very successful World View Survey will be available for groups to take so that they can discover what their view of reality is called. The team of Cornhill experts will be on hand to analyse the classification with personal consultations! Richard Perkins will briefly address the significance of world views and encourage people to come along to the remainder of our events.

During the week the Cornhill team will be involved with the boys from Quirky Motion in street work, leafletting and interviewing the people of Balham. They'll help with the children's work on the two Sundays by leading the children's slots. Telferscot school have also kindly invited us in to take their Thursday assembly.

The Women's Bible Study are running an 'express' colours consultation on Friday morning, 15th February from 10 am till 12 noon. Liz Barnard is running the events at the Taylors. Jo Richardson, one of teh Cornhill student will respond to the question 'would Jesus wear Prada?'

As you've already discovered Peter Williams will be speaking on Sunday 17th at both congregational meetings. You can find out more about him here.

We're waiting on details of a few extra things but when the loose ends are tied up we'll let you know.

The above details are of course subject to change, but we'll endeavour to do all we can not to alter the programme.
Please diarise, pray and invite.

The God Confusion

2008-01-11T04:33:00.000-08:00

I am delighted to confirm that Peter Williams will be speaking on Sunday 17th February at ‘The God Confusion’ mission.
Peter is a philosopher with a number of books to his name and a particular expertise in working with students. He professes a love of progressive rock [1970s rock in the style of Pink Floyd et al], science fiction and The Muppets!
Peter is experienced as a speaker in Universities, Colleges, schools and churches, and has participated in debate with a number of atheists, including American Philosopher Professor Michael Martin (cf. 'Head to Head: A Theism Debate') and British secular humanist Peter Hearty of the national secular society (cf. 'Evolution vs. Intelligent Design').
After studying philosophy at Cardiff (BA), Sheffield (MA) and The University of East Anglia (MPhil), Peter worked as a 'Student Assistant' at Holy Trinity Church Leicester for three years, before moving to Southampton to join Damaris, where he is managing editor of The Quest.
Peter is author of three books: The Case For God (Monarch, 1999), The Case For Angels (Paternoster, 2002) and I Wish I Could Believe In Meaning: A Response To Nihilism. He has co-authored Back in Time: A thinking fan's guide to Doctor Who and contributed chapters to Damaris' Talking About books and the Matrix Revelations: A thinking fan's guide to the Matrix Trilogy.
In addition to writing for Damaris web-sites (such as CultureWatch.org), Peter has been published by several magazines, journals and websites, including Philosophy Now, The Philosopher's Magazine, Healing & Wholeness, Themelios, Third Way, Christianity & Renewal, http://www.bethinking.org/ (the apologetics website of UCCF), CASE, C.S. Lewis Society of California, Quodlibet Online Journal of Christian Theology and Philosophy, Leadership University, ISCID and the Intelligent Design website Access Research Network, where he is one of their 'featured authors'.
At the all age congregation Peter will give a ‘Rough Guide to Creation and Evolution’. At the evening meeting in the Bedford Peter will speak on ‘Is God a Delusion: A Response to Richard Dawkins’. We’re hoping that Peter will be available over Sunday lunch and throughout the afternoon to take additional questions.

You'll find some of Peter's writings, talks and so on here and the Damaris web site was the source for much of what's here.

Book Review - Questioning Evangelism

2008-01-07T01:50:00.000-08:00

Ahead of the forthcoming 'the God Confusion' mission I asked Phil Craig to review the following book. It's 'Questioning Evangelism' by Randy Newman published by Kregel Publications, 2004. Here's what Phil wrote.

Telling people about Jesus is a central part of the Christian life, but often we don't know how to go about it. We either don't know what to tell people, or how to answer questions, or we think that while most people might get it, our friends or family or colleagues just won't.

We know they need Jesus, but how can we tell them about him while remembering that they are real people with their own thoughts and concerns? I often assume that my friends will struggle with the same questions and issues that I do, and then they come out with a question that I'd never thought about.

It's all down to God, of course. He is in charge of all things. And so ultimately he determines how people respond to the gospel. But when it comes to understanding our part in this process, Randy Newman's book Questioning Evangelism comes in incredibly useful. Newman worked with Campus Crusade in the US for over twenty years, telling people about Jesus and encouraging students in their Christian lives.

According to Newman, there are three factors in telling people about Jesus. The first is declaring the gospel. We need to tell people the actual message!

There are some great tools to help people understand the basic message about Jesus. Nothing beats good knowledge of the Bible, but tools like Two Ways To Live (have a look at http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/2wtl/) and The Four Spiritual Laws (see http://www.godlovestheworld.com/) have been used for years by thousands to get the basic message clear in their own heads so that they can pass it on to others. At Christ Church Balham, we studied Two Ways To Live a year ago for just that reason.

The second part is defending the gospel, answering questions about it and defending its plausibility. An example of this might be when we ourselves get to know some of the history behind the New Testament and its reliability, or when the philosopher Bill Craig came to the UK last year and debated with some well-known academic atheists.

But someone sent me an email about evangelism recently. They said: "A few of my atheist friends have complained to me that sometimes they feel the 'religious' are always trying to shove faith down their throats."

Now, the atheist friends could have any number of reasons for complaining about their religious friends. But it highlights a difficult issue. How do we get from declaring and defending the gospel to relating it to the lives of our friends? Do we even need to think about it in that way?

This is where Newman's book comes in. Building on the first two factors, the third factor in evangelism is what he calls dialoguing the gospel. Newman writes: "Often neglected, difficult to master, but absolutely essential, this skill of giving and taking--asking questions and bouncing ideas back and forth--might be just what our postmodern audience needs."

That's where the title of the book comes from. He questions our tendency to focus on declaring and defending the gospel without actually talking to people about it, and listening to what they have to say and asking questions about how they see the world. But more importantly, he's talking about evangelism that uses questions to work out the truth about things.

Most of the chapters are framed around specific questions people might ask, such as why Christians seem to be so homophobic, and why marriage is a good thing. While he criticises some possible answers and suggests a few others (many of which surprised me), throughout the book he encourages us to think about how we talk about the world.

For example, Newman pulls out four lessons from Proverbs. We should avoid arguments; spot when someone isn't actually interested in finding out the answers ("a fool" as Solomon calls it); remember that people are people; and remember how influential words are. "Ideas have legs," as Francis Schaeffer put it. His book is full of examples as to how we might actually apply these principles.

I think Questioning Evangelism should be read by every Christian who has already got the hang of the gospel message, as it builds on that essential basis. It is thought-provoking in its answers to big questions. It is inspiring in showing how we can share the news about Jesus in ways that respect people. I have actually found it helpful in thinking about how I relate to people in conversation, entirely apart from how I talk about those issues you might refer to as 'gospel matters'.

It's a very different book on evangelism to the majority on the market at the moment. This is clearest in Newman's own words: "My...fear is that some people might view Questioning Evangelism as a technical handbook. If so, they might be tempted to use its approach to evangelism in a cookie-cutter, mechanical way...I hope that readers will develop a different way of thinking about people, their evangelistic conversations will sound less content/persuasion driven and more relationship/understanding driven. They'll be more like rabbinic dialogues than professorial monologues. They'll be an exchange of ideas that lead both participants to the truth of the gospel. For one participant, it will be the first arrival at that point; for the other participant, it will be a rediscovery and a new appreciation of the message of the Cross."

Dear Friends - January

2008-01-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends
Amongst the chaos of the Christmas season I managed to find some time to read three essays by one of my favourite Christian authors, J.C. Ryle. I love Ryle because he makes those spiritual giants, the Puritans, accessible. Writing when he did, in the 19th Century, he was strongly influenced by them. But writing as he did, in recognisable English, he makes them understandable!

The three essays that captured my attention were those on the subject of Regeneration. I guess I wanted to be reminded that missions, like our forthcoming ‘The God Confusion’ are worth the hard work. I wanted to know that the end result for which we’re hoping is worth all these sleepless nights, meetings, admin, early morning prep and last minute praying!

It was time well spent. Here are four of the essential things that I learnt about regeneration

1. the necessity of regeneration is our human depravity
The Bible’s teaching is unequivocal. We are depraved. Not one ounce of our being is unaffected by our sinful inclinations. In fact, we’re so pervasively depraved that regeneration depends entirely on God’s intervention. We simply cannot bring new spiritual life to ourselves. Ryle explains why this new birth is absolutely necessary in these words, ‘it is because of our sinful hearts, our inbred corruption; we are born from the very first with a disposition towards that which is bad; we have no natural readiness to serve God – it is all against the grain; we have no natural insight into the excellence of Christ’s spiritual kingdom, no natural love towards His holy laws or desire to obey them, no natural fitness for heaven; an unrenewed man would be miserable in the company of Jesus and the saints’. Unregenerate man cannot save himself.

2. the nature of regeneration is radical change
Regeneration or being ‘born again’, as Jesus described it, is essentially an instantaneous, supernatural implanting of new spiritual life that radically changes the whole person. Ryle says this change is, ‘a change so thorough, so searching, so radical, so complete, that he who has gone through it may be called born again, for he is to all intents and purposes a new man’. Regeneration isn’t turning over a new leaf; it’s receiving a new life.

3. the agent of regeneration is the Holy Spirit
We can no more bring this change upon ourselves as a dead man can resuscitate himself! We need God the Holy Spirit to be at work wielding the sword of His word to pierce our unbelief and kill it. As Ryle puts it, ‘the Spirit alone can make the seed that we scatter bear fruit: the Spirit alone can lay the first foundation of that holy kingdom we want to see established in your hearts’. And so we need to pray and ‘preach’.

4. the result of regeneration is new life
If we’re Christian we know what it is to be regenerate. But we may have forgotten. Perhaps Ryle will remind us, ‘to be born again is as it were to enter upon a new existence, to have a new mind and a new heart, new views, new principles, new tastes, new affections, new likings and new dislikings, new fears, new joys, new sorrows, new love to things once hated, new hatred to things once loved, new thoughts of God and ourselves and the world and the life to come and the means whereby that is attained’.

Regeneration is a truly wonderful thing, isn’t it? On balance I think ‘The God Confusion’, God willing, will be worth the effort!

Our Missionary God

2007-12-31T01:10:00.000-08:00

The whole concept of holding a mission like 'The God Delusion' is pretty offensive to modern sensibilities. The idea that we should be persuade people to become followers of Jesus Christ is, at best unpopular, and at worst, obnoxious. That’s what our opponents think. And there are quite a few of them.

Our opponents may accuse us of intolerance. They think that we should just let people believe what they want to believe. It’s not our job to try and correct them. But we want to create a culture where we're free to discuss those issues openly. The accusation that we're being intolerant is ridiculous. We’re not the ones campaigning to quash the freedom of religious expression through legal means. We don't want to make it illegal to hold religious views different from ours. We want to treat other people with respect regardless of their views. But because God has revealed himself and his way of salvation in his Son, Jesus Christ, there is right and there is wrong. Therefore there are religious views that are profoundly wrong, which if believed are eternally dangerous. It's not intolerant to discuss these.

And our opponents may accuse us of arrogance. They think that we’re being arrogant because we think we’re right and we think that they’re wrong. Presumably our opponents think that they're right and we're wrong otherwise they would react as they do. But somehow we're the bad guys! Now, of course we want to repent of any proud or patronising behaviour that we may have been guilty of. But it would be arrogant to know what we know about Christ and withhold it from others. For us to have understood God’s truth and think that we’re the only ones who should have it is really arrogant. It's worse than that, it's discriminatory.

Nevertheless, our opponents may accuse us of being intrusive. Like the Coalition forces in Iraq, some think that churches are sticking their noses into places where they’ve not been invited. The complaint is that we’re invading private territory and doing so aggressively. Where the gospel is not welcome we have a biblical precedent for shaking the dust from our feet and moving elsewhere with the good news. But our motives are pure, our method is not deceptive and our message is love. That's the kind of intrusion most of us would welcome!

But given this opposition why do we do it? Why is evangelism such a priority at CCB?

It’s because mission runs through the Bible. As I hope to show, all the big events in salvation history are accompanied by an impetus to mission. That shouldn’t surprise us given what we know about God. He is merciful and forgiving. He has accomplished a great work of salvation in his Son. And he has sent His Spirit so that His church can share the gospel with the nations.

Here are six events in salvation history.

1. The nations were created to know God
Genesis 1:27 says,

‘God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and
female he created them’

God is therefore the creator of all humanity, both male and female. All the people of the world owe God their allegiance because they belong to him. He made us and we’re His. Acts 17:26 records Paul’s speech to the Greek Philosophers of Athens in which he said this,

‘God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way towards him and find him’.

Therefore, the reason why God created the people of the world was so that they might know Him. If we were to consult an atlas of the world we’d normally find different areas of the world in different colours according to the majority religious convictions within that geographical region. This is misleading since it suggests that the peoples of the world are apportioned to Allah, Buddha or Krishna. But the whole world and its entire people belong to God and He has claim over it all. Therefore when we’re involved in mission we’re not going anywhere where we shouldn’t be going. God has the right to send his people wherever he wants in his world, even into the multi ethnic melting pot that is south London! But it’s not only right to go to the peoples of the world, it’s loving. We’re giving people the opportunity to be introduced to their creator.

2. The nations were promised God’s blessing
It would be fair to say that the early history of mankind was not promising. Adam and Eve rebelled and Cain was a murderer. The people of Noah’s world were described by God as continually evil. And the nations of the world co-operated in a grand building project to assert their independence from God. God acted in judgement in every case. But in Genesis 12 God made it clear that judgement would not be his last word. Blessing would be. Listen to these words from Genesis 12:1-3,

‘Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred to the land I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’.

In the first place God’s promise to Abraham focussed on his immediate descendants and the nation God would create from them. God promised that Abraham’s descendants would receive the blessing of a place in His Kingdom. However, this promise wasn’t only intended for Israel. God intended that He would extend the offer of this blessing to the nations. The New Testament makes it clear that the descendants to whom the promise of a place in the kingdom applied were not Abraham’s physical descendants but his spiritual descendants. People from every nation who shared Abraham’s trust in the gospel would receive God’s blessing. Therefore when we’re involved in mission we’re simply letting people know that they have an inheritance of which they have previously been ignorant.

Imagine being approached by someone with the news that someone had died but their death had meant that we stood to receive an absolute fortune. Without wishing to be insensitive we'd be delighted to receive that news wouldn't we? We'd be pretty cheesed off if they decided to keep that news to themselves. I know we'd be devastated if the person was well known to us, but that's not the point of the illustration! The inheritance is. Focus on that if you can!

If people hear what we have to say but then subsequently decide to reject it then we can’t coerce them. Nor should we attempt to. But Christians feel that the offer, like the inheritance, sells itself!

3. The nations were included in God’s people
There are three major players in the Old Testament; God, Israel and the nations. When God entered into a unique relationship with one tiny nation He always had the other nations in view. At Mount Sinai Israel became a unique nation. But God constituted them with a definite role in mind. Listen to these words from Exodus 19.

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

Israel had a priestly function in which they were to act as a mediator between God and the nations. With a few exceptions, like Jonah who was hardly an enthusiastic evangelist, Israel failed. But there were glimpses of what God had in mind because people like Rahab and her family, Ruth the Moabitess, the inhabitants of Nineveh and Naaman the Aramite all joined the people of God. In the prophets the writers take up this theme and look forward to a time when the nations will stream into the future kingdom. So listen to these words from Isaiah 2,

‘it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’’

Therefore when we’re involved in mission we’re not doing anything novel. Mission isn’t a new innovation, which is hard to establish from the Bible. God has been joining the nations to his people since He first called Israel to himself.

4. The nations were sent God’s saviour king
At the incarnation God sent his promised saviour king into the world. However, Jesus did not embark immediately on a mission to the nations. It’s striking that the gospel accounts are dominated by Jesus’ priority to reach Israel. However, Jesus’ own people rejected him and his response to this was to offer the Kingdom to the nations. None of this came as a surprise to Jesus. The prophets clearly anticipated the worldwide spread of the gospel and he foreshadowed it in his own ministry. It’s as though God did that in sending his Son to the nations. He made it clear where the nations featured in his plan to save people. Therefore when we’re involved in mission we’re not doing anything that Jesus didn’t do. In other words he gives us divine precedent for crossing racial and territorial boundaries to reach people with the gospel of the Kingdom. It’s part of following Jesus.

5. The nations will be reached by Christians
Matthew 28:16-20 records the Lord Jesus’ mission statement to his church. It’s sometimes called the Great Commission.

‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Since the risen Lord Jesus possesses all authority he requires obedience to him from all nations. Therefore his followers are required to make disciples from all people. As we go out to the nations the Lord Jesus promises us that he will be with us for all time. And so the plan of the risen ruler of this world is that Christians should reach it with his gospel. Therefore when we’re involved in mission we’re simply doing what we’re told. The Lord Jesus has authority over everything and his instructions are pretty clear. I’m not aware that he has rescinded this command and so it remains binding on us today.

6. The nations will be gathered in the new creation
In Revelation John is given a glimpse of the future kingdom. There is a distinct international flavour to things. Listen to these words from Revelation 7,

‘I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation
belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb!’’

No one will be worshipping Allah, Brahma, Buddha or Krishna in heaven. Jesus Christ is the only person who can readmit us to the paradise that our representative was thrown out of.
Therefore when we engage in mission we’re offering people the opportunity to be part of an international peace gathering. It'll be the world’s largest international rock concert as we sing our praises to the Lord who sits centre stage. It’ll make Live Aid look like the Bedford Bandstand. And if you hadn’t realised, just as there was no evangelistic work to be done in the Garden neither will we have to worry about that in eternity. That’s when we stop, and not before!

Conclusion

As we’ve seen each of the main sections of the Bible is dominated by this missionary theme. In fact we could put it like this.
· The God of the Old Testament is a missionary God, who called one family in order to bless all families.
· The Christ of the gospels is a missionary Christ who commissioned his church to make disciples of all nations.
· The Spirit of Acts is a missionary Spirit who empowered the church and drove them out to witness.
· The church in the epistles is a church that supported missionary activity and undertook it themselves.
· The population of the new creation is a missionary population who has been gathered from every nation.

Where does all this leave us?
We all need to pray for our evangelistic work in our meetings, in our congregational prayer meetings, in our small groups and also privately. Are you praying about your evangelism and for those you're longing to become Christians?

We all need to take every opportunity we can to say something about the gospel even if we make a complete hash of it. Are you someone who goes quiet and says nothing for fear of looking an idiot or are you someone who says something in the hope that the Lord will use it for His glory? Some of us need to rid ourselves of our fear of man. We need to think less about what our peers think of us and more about what the Lord makes of our excuses!

We all need to orientate our lives and our priorities to incorporate God's missionary plans for the world into our working week. Of course that will look different for different people. The life of the city worker is different from the life of the student. The challenges of the stay at home Mum are different from those of the working Mother. The point is not to compare ourselves with others and think that they ought to be doing more. The point is that we ought to be trying to do something as best as we're able with the abilities and opportunities that God has given us.

But as we do so we can trust that our God is a missionary God whose passion and ability in evangelism far outweigh ours! But we can also rejoice that He has invited us to share with Him in the task for which He has delayed His Son’s return.

Christmas Day

2007-12-19T03:59:00.000-08:00

We're not the first believers to have struggled to find a venue for Christmas Day! But you'll be pleased to hear that it's not a stable. It's a scout hut. Our Christmas Day meeting can now go ahead. Many may not have been aware that behind the scenes there's been much wringing of hands and scratching of heads. We've chased up every possible lead for a venue that's been willing to open up on Christmas Day. We're now well acquainted with most of the establishments in the SW12 area!
The scout hut in question is to be found on Lyford Road, Wandsworth Common. The address is the Romany Scout Hut, 22a Lyford Road, SW18 3LG. Put that into google and it'll pin point it on a map for you. We start at 10.30 am. We'll sing a few carols, pray and have an extended kid's slot. If you have a collapsible chair you may want to bring it!

The Bedford Carols

2007-12-18T03:31:00.000-08:00

Sunday evening's 'Bedford Carols' was a great success. We had lots of guests who enjoyed singing and listening to an explanation of the first Christmas events. The music was especially fantastic. Thank you to all who played and sang for us. Tom Clarke's new arrangements worked brilliantly. I'm sure he'd want to single out Simeon Lumgair and Colin Hall for their help. Well done to everyone involved in transforming the room and creating a festive atmosphere. Our thanks to Claudia Demuth and her team. Thanks also to Phil Craig and his group of 'techies' who lifted and shifted loads of kit and set it all up to make sure that we could be heard. It was a terrific event and we're very grateful to God for everyone who volunteered, invited, attended and prayed.

Nativity Tableau

2007-12-18T03:18:00.000-08:00

The Nativity Tableau passed without incident on Sunday, though Mary was perhaps a little aggressive in the way she placed Jesus in the Manger! In our interpretation of the events of the first century we had two kings, two shepherds and more angels than you could shake a crook at! We need some boys to be born otherwsie we're going to have casting difficulties in the future! Well done to Jenni Prosser and Polly MacLachlan who co-ordinated the nativity with a deft touch. The whole thing was filmed and should be available to those who'd like a copy at some stage in the New Year.
We must extend our thanks to Helen Fielder & Zoe Isaacs and their team of 'decorators'. The stage area looked wonderful and not at all like a school dance studio. Thanks also to Lee Taylor who oversaw the refreshments and provided us with festive fair at the close of play.

Christ Church Kids' Christmas Party

2007-12-13T01:52:00.000-08:00

The Christ Church Kids' Christmas party was a great success. We had over 30 children who came along after school and nursery for some games, singing, craft activities and tea. Polly did a terrific job in teaching the kids that the most important thing about Christmas is Jesus Christ. To do so she recruited the help of the church administrator, one of the elders and the vicar! The sight of three of these three dressed as Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, a Christmas Tree and a Christmas pudding will long in the memory. Some of the adults seemed visibly traumatised by the experience! Thank you to all who helped and to all who invited friends. We're especially indebted to members of the evening congregation who left work early and 'tweaked' their schedules to help set up and clear up after the event. These events continue to be a terrific success and a wonderful way of being involved in the local community.

Nativity Tableau

2007-12-12T01:29:00.001-08:00

CCB's annual Nativity Tableau happens this Sunday morning, 16th December at 10.30 am. We meet in Chestnut Grove School. You can find further details on the Church web site http://www.christchurchbalham.org.uk/.
We've encouraged the children of Christ Church Kids to invite their friends to come along and actually take part. The brilliance of a nativity tableau is that there are no words to learn! The narrator does it all. The genius of this nativity is that there's all the fun of dressing up without the stress of learning any lines! The kids can just turn up, get dressed and walk on to adoring sighs of appreciation from doting parents! They'll be fine as long as they can handle the flash of digital cameras. All of our kids are 0-7 so it's ideal for that age range. It's probably worth saying that having more than one Mary, Joseph and Jesus might get confusing. But there's room for an unlimited number of animals, shepherds, kings and angels. Come along and join in our Christmas celebrations. You'd be very welcome.

Bedford Carols

2007-12-12T01:11:00.000-08:00

Our annual Christmas carol event is back at the Bedford this year http://www.thebedford.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=InfoPages. It's this Sunday, the 16th December. It starts at 8 pm and we're downstairs in the Shakespearean Globe, home of the Banana Cabaret. We can't promise that the gags will be as good but if you're at a loose end and fancy adding a 'spiritual' dimension to your Christmas celebrations you'd be very welcome. We'll sing many of the old favourites, hear a few familiar reading, listen to a short Christmas talk and all in the familiar setting of one of South London's best public houses. Come and join the regulars and a large number of visitors.
For more information about Christ Church Balham see our website http://www.christchurchbalham.org.uk/.

Bob the Builder at CCB

2007-12-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

We love having visitors at CCB. But no one expected a visit from Bob the Builder!
As part of her ongoing desire to help the children understand the importance of Jesus Christ Pollyanna MacLachlan, the CCB Children's Work Apprentice, recruited the assistance of the C-Beebies tradesman. She explained that the only way we'll ever get to know someone is if we can meet them. Bob entered from stage left to whoops of delight from parents and children alike. The lone dissenting voice declared, 'I hate Bob the Builder'. What can I say? We allow all views to be aired but not shared at CCB!
But, Polly went on to explain, as exciting as it is to meet Bob the Builder it's so much more exciting to meet God through the birth of His Son, Jesus. You can expect more of the same engaging teaching at the forthcoming Christ Church Kids Christmas party on Wednesday 12th December from 3.30-5.30 pm in the library hall.

CCB Carol Singing

2007-12-10T09:18:00.000-08:00

Come and warm the hearts of exhausted and depressed commuters as they step off the train at Balham and have an invitation to our carol services thrust into their hands! We've got musicians, we've got singers and we've got more enthusiasm than's good for us. But there's room for more. Come and swell the happy throng and spread the seasonal spirit. Sign up on the CCB Facebook group or contact Richard if you're keen.

Christmas Party

2007-12-04T02:47:00.000-08:00

A message from Deanna Holmes, organiser of 'London Christians: Parties and Social Events'

Hi there - I would just like to ask if you would consider flagging up the London Christians Christmas Party at Corks Wine Bar (nearest tube: Bond Street) on Saturday 15th December, to those in your congregation that are single. There will be music, dancing, ice-breakers and a generally merry time to be had by all! All the details can be found at: http://www.londonchristians.co.uk/.
Thanks very much,

Deanna

Healthcare Forum

2007-12-03T11:08:00.001-08:00

Tuesday February 12th, 8pm at the Factory, 577 Kingston Road, Raynes Park. An opportunity for those working in the healthcare sector to discuss work-issues with other Christians. Brief interviews with those from across the healthcare sector on their perspectives of working life as Christians, followed by plenty of time for discussion and prayer. Contact Michael Perkin at m.perkin@sgul.ac.uk to book your place.

Business Forum

2007-12-03T11:07:00.000-08:00

Wednesday January 30th, 7pm at The Bible Talks, Down Street (near Green Park tube). Brief interviews with a lawyer, a banker and a property developer on their perspectives on working life as a Christian. Then an opportunity to break into industry-specific groups to discuss the issues you face in the office with other Christians. Contact Paul Dawson at paul.dawson@dundonald.org to book your place, with details of which industry sector you work in.

Financial Update

2007-12-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

The financial situation at CCB was outlined in both meetings yesterday. Anyone interested in reading the full text should e-mail Richard on richardperkins@btinternet.com.

Mission Action Group

2007-11-26T02:09:00.000-08:00

As I’m sure that you’re aware our mission statement is 'growing disciples of Christ in London for the world'. As part of our disciple growing ministry let me tell you about our plans for the February Mission. We have a mission planned for the week beginning 10th February. It’s on the fridge posters, but you knew that already didn't you?! It’s a great opportunity to make the good news of Jesus Christ known in Balham.

Wonderfully, we’ll be joined by a group of eager enthusiastic volunteers from the Cornhill Training Course who will form part of a mission team. Cornhill students are typically young adults who spend one or two years learning how to teach the Bible in different contexts. They're coming to us to help out and to learn how a local church does mission.

In previous years the mission has been quite ‘top down’ in terms of ideas. In consultation with the apprentices and staff we’ve thought of ideas that might work and then tried to sell them to the congregation. There’s been a mixed response to this approach! Lots of the events have worked really well but that's not always been the case. Therefore I think we ought to take the risk of seeking a more ‘bottom up’ approach.

Integral to this approach is the convening of a ‘Mission Action Group’. It's not a committee. Committees never get anything done. This is an action group! They're different! The purpose of teh group is threefold

1. to confer and consult with the ‘troops on the ground’,
2. to generate ideas for mission events that will receive widespread support and then
3. to promote those ideas and events in the congregations.

The advantage of this approach is that this ought to engender and encourage ownership and participation of the mission. After advice from the management consultants amongst us we've sought to bring together a blend of the ‘ideas’ people who think out of the box, the ‘completer finishers’ who make things happen and the 'black hat wearers' who bring a touch of realism to our discussion. You can work out who fits which role within the group! We’ve got people from both all age church and evening church. We’ve also got people who already have key specific responsibilities within the congregation. Whilst some of us will be those who make things happen it’s not anticipated that we’ll be the only ones doing the work!

The group will be chaired by me and consist of
Gordon Reid
Phil Craig
Lucy Dalby
Lynda Davies
David Mayland
Liz Barnard
John Lumgair [audio visual]
Anna Hartridge [administator]
Polly MacLachlan [children's work]
Peter Judkins [music]

I’m still awaiting answers from one or two others who've been asked onto the group.

You can participate in three ways

Please pray for us as a group. We’re meeting for the first time on Monday 26th December and we'll meet a handful of times next term. Pray for the group dynamics and a real passion for mission.

Please provide us with ideas. We need suggestions. You know what your friends might come to better than we do and so let us know. You could e-mail any of the people above.

Please prepare for the mission. This will be an unusual time for us during which the spiritual needs of our friends, colleagues and neighbours will be uppermost in our hearts and minds. Though every Sunday is a terrific time to invite someone to church these events out to be especially useful in helping us reach out to Balham with the gospel.

Dear Friends - December

2007-11-25T07:34:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends

The Christmas period presents us with unparalleled opportunities for the gospel. That could be our church run events like our Carol Events on the 16th December, our Christ Church Kids party on 12th or the Christmas Quiz night on the 6th. It could also be the informal conversations with colleagues or friends over lunch or at the school gate. This is a time of year when spiritual realities are allowed on the agenda. Whilst it can sometimes feel that the secular media is largely antagonistic towards the Christian faith it’s not always the same with our secular friends. Many of our non-Christian family, neighbours and colleagues, though they don’t share our religious convictions, are nevertheless willing to engage on a personal level with some of the deeper spiritual issues. That’s perhaps especially true at Christmas. The big questions are not always permitted to be front and centre but people seem to soften under the influence of ‘twinkly’ lights, presents and mulled wine! We’re committed to helping people to hear and understand the message of Christmas.

Of course, we’re all pulled in one direction or another. It can feel as though everyone wants a piece of us. There are work, family and church commitments that compete for our attention and loyalty. But I’m eager that we don’t look back on these years and regret the opportunities we wasted. We need to be doing all we can, accepting our limitations, for God and His glorious gospel. The writer of the book of Hebrews encourages church members to ‘consider how to stir up one another to love and good works’ [Hebrews 10:25]. With that encouragement to think about how to incite, provoke and agitate one another ringing in our ears can I ask you to do three things this year?

1. Would you pray?
God will not share His glory with another. When we pray we recognise that we are dependent on the Lord to give us the success for which we hope. If we don’t pray we’re exercising independence from Him and we have no reason to expect His blessing. We need people who will pray that God will bring people to hear and understand the salvation that He provides in His Son.

2. Would you invite?
Every year I sit in the Carol events and regret that friends aren’t there. The reason they’re not there is sometimes because they’ve said ‘no’. But often it’s because I failed to ask them. That’s just foolish. And it’s my fault. We need people who will invite their friends.

3. Would you attend?
Events sometimes fail because they lack a critical mass of people. Social dynamics mean that we’re put at ease when there’s a bit of a crowd around us. Is it overstating it to say that no one should miss these events? Whatever you’ve got in your diaries, cancel it! We need everyone there.

With grateful thanks for your partnership in the gospel. To God be the glory this Christmas.

perks

Welcoming our new Administrator

2007-11-15T07:20:00.001-08:00

Dear Everyone

Let me take a moment to introduce our new administrator, Anna Hartridge. Anna has joined us from her home town of Southend having heard of our need through a friend on the Cornhill Training Course. She’s a real answer to prayer. And we’re very grateful to God for the way He provides what we need to resource the ministry at CCB.
Anna comes to us following time as a UCCF Relay Worker and more recently as a Research Technician at Queen Mary College. She’s working part time initially and hoping to supplement her CCB ministry with finances from teaching foreign language students.
It’s my intention to allow a period for Anna to ease her way into the job and into the church. She’s new to our church and our established ways of doing things. She needs our help to settle in and grow familiar with my idiosyncratic ways of doing things! To do this can I ask therefore that you direct e-mails and requests through me and I’ll better be able to monitor what needs to be done, by whom and by when!
I’ll let you know when I’ve lifted the administration embargo!
Thanks
Richard

Operation Christmas Child useful information!

2007-11-12T00:58:00.000-08:00

The following is an update from Polly

This is a little video showing what Operation Christmas is all about
http://www.samaritanspurse.uk.com/occ/_video_2007.asp

You'll also find the following link useful http://www.samaritanspurse.uk.com/occ/filling-a-box.asp

What to Pack- Gift ideas
All items should be new. Please include items from each category. Remember to make your box both FUN and EDUCATIONAL!

TOYS - something to love

Bear, soft toy, tennis ball, fi nger puppet, jigsaw, yo-yo, building blocks, small musical instrument, (for boys – trucks and cars, for girls – doll, clip-on earrings, make-up or hair accessories) etc.

EDUCATIONAL SUPPLIES – something to do

Felt pens, pens, pencils, pencil sharpener, rubber, colouring book,notepad, picture/puzzle book, chalk, pencil case, stickers etc.

HYGIENE ITEMS – something to use

Toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, comb, hair clips, bar of wrapped soap, flannel etc.

OTHER ITEMS – something to eat or wear

Sweets (sell-by date to be at least March of following year), gloves, scarf. sunglasses, cap, hat, bangles, necklaces etc.

DO NOT INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

FOOD Chocolate, crisps, biscuits, tinned food or cakes (or any other food)
MEDICINE Medicines or vitamins of any kind
WAR RELATED ITEMS toy guns, soldiers or knives
CLOTHING (other than listed above)
FRAGILE ITEMS Glass containers; mirrors
LIQUIDS of any kind including blow bubbles, shampoo, bubble bath, toiletry sets or aerosols
DANGEROUS ITEMS Marbles or sharp objects – scissors or razors
NOVELS ANYTHING OF A POLITICAL OR RACIAL NATURE

Packing Parties

2007-11-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

Lee Taylor is involved with a project based in Kibera, Nairobi. It's reputably the largest slum in the world and was the location where John Le Carre's novel and the film 'The Constant Gardener' was based. The local banks in Nairobi provide the project with shredded waste paper and women from the slums, often with their children in tow, create their own paper and then make greetings cards to sell in the UK. The project is Christian based and the women are encouraged to get involved in bible study. Lee writes,

'The cards are sent to us in large batches and we then tart them up a bit for the UK market (nice envelopes/wrapped in cellophane) and sell them to various trade and retail customers. This is a very busy time of year for us as we sell a range of Christmas cards and we have several thousand cards that still need packaged'.

The plan is to host an evening or two known as 'Packing Parties' where people are welcome would meet up of an evening, sip some wine and nibble some pizza whilst packing up the cards.

If you're keen to help Lee contact her on taylor@post.harvard.edu

Operation Christmas Child

2007-11-08T05:51:00.000-08:00

A message from Polly, our Children's Work Apprentice

'Operation Christmas Child is the world's largest children's Christmas project, run by the a Christian relief and development charity Samaritan's Purse International. Every year they send Christmas presents and goodies in a shoe box, to desperately needy children all over the world. Last year 1.247 million children in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Africa received shoe boxes and for many, it was the only Christmas present they received.

This year, the Co-mission is taking part and it would be brilliant if we at CCB pulled out all the stops to bless as many little ones as possible. Simply take an empty shoe box, wrap it in gift paper (lid and box separately) and fill it with toys, educational supplies, hats and scarves and other items that will bring joy to a child's life. Stick on a label indicating whether it's suitable for a boy or a girl, and then bring it to church on Nov 18th along with £2 to cover transport etc.

If you have any questions, then do contact Pollyanna on pollyannmac@yahoo.co.uk or 07779 60318, and do feel free to fill more than 1 shoe box!'

Education Forum

2007-11-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Education Forum – the first of our new Faithworks forums, for those working in the education sector, will take place on Thurs 29th November from 8.00pm-10.00pm at Dundonald School, Dundonald Road SW19 3QH. Alistair Harper, a former teacher and Kingston Schools Trust worker will speak on how to maintain Christian integrity in a multi-faith education environment. A great opportunity to meet other Christians involved in education, with plenty of time for discussion, feedback and prayer. Contact Paul Dawson (020 8432 4036) paul.dawson@dundonald.org to book your place. Forums for those in healthcare and business coming soon!

Hallowe'en

2007-10-17T01:30:00.000-07:00

Halloween is just round the corner. I thought I’d give you some of my thoughts on this event. They’re offered as a starting point in an ongoing discussion.

1. Halloween is commercially significant

In the US it’s the 2nd most popular holiday and it generates 4-6 Billion Dollars in revenue. In the UK it’s the 3rd behind Christmas and Easter. Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny are holding Freddy Krueger at bay for the moment. But it’s changing.

2. Halloween is historically significant

The origins of Halloween date back over 2000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain [sow-in], a word that means the end of summer. This festival celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of the Celtic New Year on November 1st.

By 43AD the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic regions and in the following 400 years the Roman festival of Feralia was incorporated into it. This was day in late October when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead.

By the 800s Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the 8th century Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st All Saints' Day to honour those saints that didn't have a special day of their own. You wouldn’t want anyone to feel left out!
The Pope hoped to put a Christian spin on the pagan Celtic festival with a church-sponsored holiday [after all it had worked with Christmas]. Over the years the festival became known as All Hallows and the night before was known as All Hallows Eve or Halloween.

3. Halloween is spiritually significant
I have no wish to be reactionary but I’ve got issues with Halloween. I’m not about to mount a campaign. I’m aware that Christians have a reputation for the ‘spot it and stop it’ routine and I have no desire to strengthen that conviction. But to use an old Naval saying let me run these up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes them!
I’ve got issues with Halloween because

1. Halloween has become a time when wickedness is domesticated

Evil is portrayed as innocent. I think the Bible allows a place for imagination, pretence and fantasy but Halloween allows elements from the dark side of spirituality to be accepted in mainstream culture. It’s become a holiday of cultural fascination with evil and the demonic. Evil is portrayed as innocent and fun. And it’s neither. We need to remember the wickedness of evil. The devil and his demons are real. We have a real spiritual adversary who seeks our destruction. Of course through our identification with Christ we have nothing to fear from an enemy that he’s already defeated. But nevertheless wickedness and evil ought to be exposed, opposed and loathed. But our approach may actually be encouraging fascination with something that’s ultimately damaging.

2. Halloween has become a time when we celebrate what scares us

Out of love for the vulnerable, particularly children we ought to protect them from things that frighten them. Walking into Woolworths to be confronted by hairy spiders, a witch’s mask and a giant bat is not most young children’s idea of fun. At least our films have classification guidelines that allow parents the freedom to make a decision but no such restraint is exercised at this time of the year. We may be strong enough to cope with the associations with evil without being tainted and we may be brave enough to cope with the frightening images but not everyone is and as Christians we should therefore limit our freedom in love for others.

3. Halloween has become a time when we teach our children that extortion is acceptable

What else is trick or treat? We give people in our neighbourhood a choice between a rock and a hard place. It’s either ‘give me a treat’ or ‘I give you a trick’. Isn’t that what organised crime does?!

So, what could you do on thenight when the local children come to your door escorted by their elder siblings or their parents?
The following advice needs to be adapted to our personality and the age of the child on our doorstep!

1. Comment on their outfits and say something positive about how much time and trouble they went to.
2. Ask, ‘who do you think is the most powerful spiritual being in the world?’ and say no to all of their answers. Then ask them, ‘who do you think the devil is really scared of?’
3. Tell them that God once sent a baby from heaven to earth and when he grew up he scared the living daylights out of every evil spirit that he met. He even engaged in face to face combat with the devil and won. The devil thought he must have won when he was killed on a cross but it turned out that this was the killer blow that led to his complete and utter defeat and will lead to his future destruction.
4. Give them a sweet, hand out a tract like the one entitled ‘Halloween … What a Scream’ from the Good Book Company and tell them to come to church if they want to find out more!

Sources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/halloween.shtml
‘Halloween … It’s A Scream’ The Good Book Company
‘Matters of Opinion: Hallowing Halloween: Why Christians should embrace the devilish holiday with gusto – and laughter’ A. M. Rearick III, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/october2/29.79.html
R. Mouw, ‘Making Real Decisions About Halloween’, http://www.beliefnet.com/story/47/story_4761_2.html

The Book of the Term: Autumn 2007

2007-10-14T07:56:00.001-07:00

'Prayer and the Voice of God' Phillip D. Jensen & Tony Payne, Matthias Media

I am not someone who instinctively prays. I’m someone who acts not someone who prays! There have been times when I’ve attributed this to temperament and training. But really, it’s unbelief. That’s why I need to keep reading books like this one from Tony Payne and Phillip Jensen. For all of my Christian life I’ve been a fan of their work. I can’t think of a single resource of theirs that I’ve used that hasn’t benefited my Christian life. The same could be said for their book on prayer.

One of the great strengths of their books is that they’re clear and simple. This one is cast from the same die. In one sense it’s is nothing special. It simply collates and rehearses much of the useful biblical teaching that we’ve heard on prayer over the years. But that’s its value. What it offers is not new techniques but a convincing biblical presentation of what prayer is and why we should do it.

The book consists of ten Chapters spread over a little less than 200 pages. It costs £7. The chapters are short enough to be read on a tube trip up to town or accompanying a mocha latte!

In chapter 1 entitled, ‘Prayer and God’s Voice’ the authors argue that prayers is the most naturally unnatural thing for us to do. It’s natural because anyone can do it and often everyone does. It’s unnatural because it’s seeking an intervention from the supernatural. And so they define prayer as essentially 'asking God for something'.
The central premise of chapter two, ‘The God of Prayer’, is that prayer is determined by who God is. Given that God the able, willing, personal, holy and merciful God is also our Father we should have massive confidence to approach Him and ask Him for things.
The topic of why we should pray at all is tackled in chapter three, ‘Why Pray?’ We should pray because it’s very great privilege, it expresses the relationship of faith we enjoy with Him, it’s not an optional extra in the Christian life and because God has promised to hear and to act.
Why we don’t pray begins to scratch at the reasons why prayer is not the feature that it ought to be in our Christian lives. Jensen and Payne suggest that the reasons can be traced to a faulty view of God, a wrong understanding of our relationship with God and the presence of a real spiritual enemy.
The fifth chapter tells us ‘How to Pray’. The authors argue that prayer is not a time to hear God’s voice, it’s a time to respond to God’ voice. They speak to the essence of prayer and do not present a step-by-step technique, emphasizing the importance of both novelty and regularity in this task. They say rightly that prayer is not a matter of technique but of relationship.
Chapter six, ‘The Desires of God’ and chapter seven, ‘the Anxieties of Life’ deal with what ought to occupy the content of our prayers. Chapter six is a longer chapter but it includes a helpful summary of the Lord ’s Prayer. There’s some overlap with Don Carson’s brilliant book on prayer entitled, ‘A Call to Spiritual Reformation’. But this is the place to begin. Chapter seven touches on what to pray and what to expect when we pray in the midst of situations where we have no idea what to pray.
‘What Happens When We Pray?’ is the title of chapter eight. It explains the mechanics of prayer. The authors answer two questions. The first is ‘does God actually listen?’ The second is ‘does anything actually change?’
The brief chapter entitled, ‘Fellowship of Prayer’ is an encouragement to meet up with others in order to stimulate one another as we struggle in prayer. Any of us who've been in a prayer triplet ought to be nodding in agreement throughout this chapter!
The ‘Seven Common Questions’ of chapter ten are the standard queries raised by an audience. The answers are gentle, clear and explain the biblical text. Whether they’re our questions or not they’ll be right on the money for someone in our small group.
The book then concludes with a brief summary chapter and a chapter by chapter discussion guide with questions.

Why not buy a copy and read it this term? If you’re part of a triplet you could arrange to read a couple of chapters before you meet each week, answer the discussion questions and chat about what you’ve learnt. You could team up with someone, perhaps someone in your KG group and agree to work through the book and e-mail each other with some surprising observations, a few implications and a couple of resolutions. To get a copy of this book e-mail John Lumgair on john@quirkymotion.com.

The real value of this book is that it improved my praying. It was a real shot in the arm. I think it’ll help everyone else whether we’re frequent prayers or whether it’s been quite some time since what we had might be described as a routine. If that's a description that you recognise, can I suggest that it’s been long enough? Don’t waste any more time in prayerlessness. Get a copy, get reading and get your Christian life back on the rails.

Free Audio Bible

2007-09-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Listen to the Bible being read by David Field, Tutor in Systematic Theology at Oak Hill Theological College here
http://www.davidpfield.com/audio-bible/AudioBible.htm

School of Prayer IV

2007-09-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

Why don’t we pray?
This is an article stimulated by and borrowing heavily from D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, ‘Excuses for Not Praying’, chapter 7, pp 111-122. It’s intended to expose our excuses for not praying. What follows are the six most common excuses Don Carson believes we give to justify our prayerlessness. In places there’s a bit of expansion from me!

1. I’m too busy to pray
London life is frenetic. Our lives are filled with activity. Some of that activity is unavoidable. But not all of it is, surely? In reflecting on the hectic nature of our lives Don Carson writes,
‘We are not living in a contemplative age. When we stop rushing and performing and doing, many of us park ourselves in front of a television, possibly a television attached to a video recorder, and simply absorb what is dished out. The result is that we seldom take time to think, to meditate, to wonder, to analyze; we seldom take time to pray’.
I wonder whether we’re already feeling the intense heat of the spotlight? God’s response to our busyness is found in the account of Jesus’ time with Martha and Mary. Martha chose activism over pietism. She ended up indignant that her kingdom activity wasn’t being noticed and supported by the king. Jesus told her in no uncertain terms that Mary’s decision to sit and learn at her Lord’s feet was the better choice. I’ve written on this elsewhere http://richardperkins.blogsome.com/2007/06/08/cultivating-our-relationship-with-christ/ and I’d encourage you to chase that up. Consequently Carson says what we might struggle to say to one another,
‘It matters little whether you are the mother of active children who drain away your energy, an important executive in a major multinational corporation, a graduate student cramming for impending comprehensives, a plumber working overtime to put your children through college, or a pastor of a large church putting in ninety hours a week: at the end of the day, if you are too busy to pray, you are too busy. Cut something out’.
Cut something out. There’s an idea! Why not write down what you think you could cut from your week to make time for prayer.

2. I feel too spiritually dry to pray
It’s hard to do things when we don’t feel like doing them. That could be a tax return, an essay or the washing up. If we don’t feel like doing it we lack the impetus to do it. And in all likelihood we won’t. We’ll put it off. Sometimes, it’s like that with prayer. Some of us may already have experienced those times when discouragement, unbelief, emptiness and dryness strangle our prayer to within an inch of their lives. What triggers these feelings may be any number of things. If we’re tired we tend to see the dark clouds and not the silver lining! If we’ve been on the receiving end of some critical flak then our spirits may be a little low. If we’re anxious and stressed that takes its emotional toll. But whatever the cause, the challenge to pray just seems like one mountain climb too many. Carson suggests that there could be one of two presuppositions that lurk behind the excuse of feeling too spiritually dry to pray. The first presupposition is that we feel we can pray only when we feel good. But when we remember that Christ’s death is the sole basis of our acceptance before God we’ll recognise that we’re not thinking straight. True, we may not feel like praying. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t. The second presupposition is that we feel we should pray only when we feel good. The obligation to pray is not diminished because we don’t feel like it. This is a profoundly self centred way of thinking. How I feel is not the determinant of what I ought to do.

3. I feel no need to pray
Few of us would ever be so blatant. If we were, others might see the arrogance of our logic. Because at its root the logic runs ‘I am too important to pray. I am too self confident to pray. I am too independent to pray’. But we’d never be so obvious would we? But, as Carson observes, what happens is this,
‘Although abstractly I may affirm the importance of prayer, in reality I may treat prayer as important only in the lives of other people, especially those whom I judge to be weaker in character, more needy, less competent, less productive. Thus, while affirming the importance of prayer, I may not feel deep need for prayer in my own life’.
When we have a high opinion of our own capabilities, prayer seems a little beneath us. It’s for emergencies and is a terrific contingency when all else fails but it’s not the first port of call. In response Carson writes,
‘If Christians who shelter beneath such self assurance do not learn better ways by listening to the scriptures, God may address them in the terrible language of tragedy. We serve a God who delights to disclose to disclose himself to the contrite, to the lowly of heart, to the meek. When God finds us so puffed up that we do not feel our need of him, it is an act of kindness on his part to take us down a peg or two; it would be an act of judgement to leave us in our vaulting self-esteem’.
It’s very easy for us to come to critical points in life, career and family and precisely because our judgement has led to success in the past we repeat the error and plough on without inquiring of the Lord. We love our independence and as a result we may repeatedly stumble and fall because we’ve exercised our intellectual ability but have not sought God’s opinion and his wisdom on the matter.

4. I’m too bitter to pray
Perhaps some of us feel that life has left us with the short stick. When we compare our existence with those around us the decisions that God has made can feel chronically unfair. We feel like the victims of injustice. We may respond with disappointment, bitterness and resentment. This is hardly conducive to a healthy prayer life, especially when we’re meant to be praying for others. Carson observes,
‘Life itself is consumed by the petty assessment of how well you are perceived by those around you. In the morass of self-pity and resentment, real prayer is squeezed out. In other words, many of us do not want to pray because we know that disciplined, biblical prayer would force us to eliminate sin that we rather cherish. It is very hard to pray with compassion and zeal for someone we much prefer to resent’.
On the other hand, Jesus taught that forgiveness ought to characterise our attitude to others. In both Matthew 6 and Mark 11 he explained that those who want to experience his Father’s forgiveness will be those who extend forgiveness to others. It’s this approach that reveals that our repentance is authentic.

5. I’m too ashamed to pray
We’ve all been there. Our sin shames us. We feel so guilty. And proximity to the Lord makes our failure feel so much more acute. Carson puts it this way,
‘shame encourages us to hide from the presence of God; shame squirrels behind a masking foliage of pleasantries while refusing to be honest; shame fosters flight and escapism; shame engenders prayerlessness’.
We’re fools to run from a God who is determined to seek us out and bring us home. The perverseness of our decision to run away and seek exile is the very thing that Christ died to prevent. The place of exile is the place of misery. The place of absolution, freedom, acceptance and forgiveness is to be found in his presence.

6. I’m content with mediocrity
Would anyone in our constituency ever be so bold as to state this publicly? I suspect not. But, this is what we settle for when we spurn the offer of fellowship with the Lord. We may want to own the name Christian but we’re not interested in the increasing spiritual maturity that ought to come with the territory.

Conclusion
No doubt there are other excuses that we could muster for not praying. But most of these nail me!

School of Prayer III

2007-09-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Why should we pray?

The following is a summary of chapter three ‘Why Pray?’ in their excellent book on prayer by Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne. It’s a terrific chapter because it provides us with motivation for speaking to our Father and making our requests known.

1. we should pray because we can
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf we can talk to God as Father. As Philip Jensen and Tony Payne put it,
‘this almighty, all-powerful God, who by rights should destroy us as his enemies, has instead reached out to us in love, wiped away our sins and adopted us as his own children. He has become our Father, and He allows us to approach Him and pour out our requests to Him at any time, promising that He will hear us and give us every good gift’.
The first reason that we should pray is that we can. We have the immense privilege of being able to walk into the throne room of heaven and speak directly with the King. Familiarity with this truth must not be allowed to develop into contempt for this truth.

2. we should pray because we must
Prayer is not an optional extra in the Christian life. It expresses the essence of our Christian life. To be a Christian is to be a dependent child of God. To not speak with our Father in heaven makes suspect our profession to know Him and trust Him. Listen to Jensen and Payne on the reality of our faith,
‘We are no longer rebels who snatch the Father’s gifts but refuse to honour or thank Him. We are no longer pagans who run after food and drink and clothes; as if our lives were entirely in our hands, or as if these things were all that mattered in life. We are now the grateful recipients of His incredible grace and forgiveness who have come crawling back to Him in repentance, and we now look to him to provide us with all that we need. We want to give Him honour and glory in all that we do, and God is never more honoured and glorified than when we humbly ask Him for things, when He grants them in His mighty power and generosity, and when we pour out our thanks to Him for His kindness’.
We pray because we are children who speak to our generous father. This is the relationship that we have with the Lord. And so we should pray because we must!

3. we should pray because we’re commanded to
Prayerlessness may be bizarre, perverse and wrong but we’re very capable of such folly. As Jensen and Payne acknowledge,
‘We find ourselves lapsing back into the self-centred, self-sufficient mindset of our neighbours who think they don’t need God, and who neither ask him for anything, nor thank him for the many blessings he showers upon them anyway’.
What is God to do with us? In His kindness, He helps our prayerlessness, and He commands us to pray. This is a repeated exhortation in scripture. Like an encouraging Father He urges us and directs us to do what we sometimes don’t want to do but is in our best interests. There is a less sympathetic side to this. God commands us to pray and if we don’t pray then we’re guilty of sin. It’s not therefore something that we can shrug our shoulders and say ‘hey whatever’ about. We all fall into sin throughout our Christian lives. As with all sin, it is not to be entertained but to be confessed and repented of. God is a God who permits and encourages new beginnings. It may be that some of us here need to repent of our disobedient, rebellion demonstrated in our prayerlessness and provide some substance to our profession to trust God as our Father.

4. we should pray because of God’s promise
We pray because God has spoken and promised to hear our prayers and answer them. This is a powerful motivation. Not only does the death of Christ grant us access to God as Father but our Father promises that He will listen to us and grant us every good thing. We respond to those promises in trust and demonstrating that trust by praying to Him. Jensen and Payne put it this way,
‘Every time we open our mouths in prayer, we are saying, ‘I know you are able, I know you are willing, I know you are my creator and Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, and I know that you have promised to hear me when I call to you in prayer’.
We pray because of God’s promise.

Conclusion
Why do we pray? Because there’s the opportunity to do so, because there’s a necessity to do so, because there’s an obligation to do so, because there’s every good reason to do so. These four reasons to pray are worth remembering, pondering and above all else believing.

School of Prayer II

2007-09-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

Prayer is speaking to God and asking Him for things. There are three main Greek words that are used and they all include refer to the act of asking, requesting or seeking for something from God.

In his 1662 book entitled simply, ‘Prayer’ John Bunyan, the author of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ defined prayer in the following way,

‘Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to His word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God’.[1]

As definitions go, I think that’s a pretty good one. Bunyan identifies seven key components in his definition. Let’s look at those in turn.

1. Prayer is a sincere pouring out of the soul to God

Prayer that is sincere is honest and genuine. When we pray sincerely we simply open our heart to God and to talk with Him plainly about the issues at hand. We need to be warned that the Lord will not be taken in by pretence. He won’t listen to the prayers of hypocrites. So we need to beware of praying to be seen, to be admired and to be applauded by others. Bunyan writes,

‘Sincerity is the same in a corner alone, as it is before the face of all the world. It knows not how to wear two masks, one for appearance before men, and another for private use. It must have God, and be with Him in the duty of prayer. It is not lip labour that it regards, for sincerity, like God, looks at the heart, and that is where prayer comes from, if it be true prayer’.[2]

Sincerity matters in prayer because it’s what we really are and it’s not something that can be manufactured. It comes from the heart.

2. Prayer is a sensible pouring out of the soul to God

Authentic prayer Bunyan writes, ‘is not, as many take it to be, a few babbling, prating, complimentary expressions, but a sensible feeling in the heart’.[3] His point is that prayer is a sane, level headed and rational response that comes from the heart. It’s caused by a deep conviction of sin, the wonderful experience of God’s mercy or excitement at the anticipation of what God has promised for us in the future. We don’t need to worry about working ourselves into a frenzied and heightened emotional state. We just sensibly respond to what we’ve heard in God’s word, what He’s laid on our heart or what we’ve found ourselves pondering.

3. Prayer is an affectionate pouring out of the soul to God

But lest we think that the affections are to be emotionally disengaged Bunyan continues. He writes, ‘when the affections are indeed engaged in prayer, then the whole man is engaged, and that in such a way that the soul will spend itself, as it were, rather than go without that good desired, even [namely] communion and solace with Christ’.[4] In other words, unless we’re emotionally involved in the activity of praying, we won’t pray. And so, in his view, ‘There is in prayer an unbosoming of a man’s self, an opening of the heart to God, an affectionate pouring out of the soul in requests, sighs, and groans’.[5]

4. Prayer is through Christ in the strength and assistance of the Spirit

We can only pray to God through the cross work of Christ and the work of His Spirit in applying spiritual life to us. Bunyan writes, ‘Christ is the way through whom the soul has admittance to God, and without whom it is impossible that so much as one desire should come into the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath’.[6]

5. Prayer is for those things that God has promised

Bunyan is clear that when we pray, the content of our prayers is to be guided by our knowledge of the scriptures. He writes, ‘Prayer is only true when it is within the compass of God’s word; it is blasphemy, or at best, vain babbling, when the petition is unrelated to the book’.[7] But before we panic we must be reassured that unrelated to the word allows a bit of leeway.

6. Prayer is for the good of the church

According to Bunyan we’re to pray for, ‘whatsoever tends to the honour of God, Christ’s advancement, or to His people’s benefit’.[8] Therefore we ‘must pray for the abundance of grace for the church, for help against all its temptations; that God would let nothing be too hard for it; that all things might work together for its good; that God would keep His children blameless and harmless, the sons of God, to His glory, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation’.[9]

7. Prayer is in submission to the will of God

‘The people of the Lord in all humility are to lay themselves and their prayers, and all that they have, at the foot of the their God, to be disposed of by Him as He in His heavenly wisdom sees best. Yet not doubting but God will answer the desire of His people that way that shall be most for their advantage and His glory’.[10]

Conclusion
Prayer is in essence speaking to God and making requests of Him.

[1] ‘What True Prayer Is’, Prayer, Banner of Truth Trust, pp 13-22
[2] Prayer, p14
[3] Prayer, p14
[4] Prayer, p16
[5] Prayer, p17
[6] Prayer, p18
[7] Prayer, p20
[8] Prayer, p21
[9] Prayer, p21
[10] Prayer, p22

School of Prayer I

2007-09-18T04:16:00.000-07:00

Preliminary Bible work

5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This is one of those two point parables from which we’re expected to learn something from the man in bed and something from the man in need.

The man in need represents us, and we’ll come to him in a moment. The man in bed represents God.

Jesus is not trying to teach us that God goes to bed, shuts the door, can’t easily rouse himself from sleep and doesn’t want to be bothered. The point if comparison is that like the sleeping man God will give to those who ask him whatever they genuinely need. The reluctant attitude of the man in bed contrasts with the eagerness of God to give good gifts to his children. No one would turn down a friend in these circumstances even despite substantial initial inconvenience. Therefore God will provide for the needs of his people even more generously and willingly. God is not a distant monarch who can’t be bothered with his subjects and their concerns. He’s interested in even the most trivial and insignificant needs of his people.

From the man in need we learn that we should practice unabashed, shameless forthrightness in prayer which does not hesitate to request the good gifts which God has promised to his people, if they ask him.