How do we know that God exists?

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

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

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

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?

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

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

Set two

1. I was born on 20^th October
2. I have three sisters
3. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'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