Curate’s Chronicles

Our daughter Hannah has an operation on Friday at the John Radcliffe in Oxford.  For those who don’t know, she was born basically without fingers on her right hand, and about 18 months ago had an operation to transplant two toes onto her hand to give her digits.  This next operation should be much shorter (a few hours instead of 11!) and is to increase the functional use of these new fingers.  She is 3 1/2 years old.

We’d value your prayers on Friday and for recovery afterwards.

I’m preaching on 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 on Sunday and wrote this parable / story as part of the sermon.  It’s no Booker-prize winner but it might be a helpful way of understanding what Paul is saying.  I admit the body illustration is pretty straightforward, but sometimes it helps having two metaphors for the same idea.  I was especially trying to make sense of why Paul refers to baptism in verse 13.

Read the rest of this entry »

I heard this quote from Miroslav Volf (a theologian who is also a pacifist) from a Tim Keller sermon a while ago, but thanks to Michael Jensen I now have a reference for it.

Some liberal theologians hate the idea of God’s vengeance.  Volf argues that the only way we can avoid resorting to violence is if we believe that vengeance is the LORD’s:

My thesis that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many Christians, especially theologians in the West. To the person who is inclined to dismiss it, I suggest imagining that you are delivering a lecture in a war zone…Among your listeners are people whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit. The topic of the lecture: a Christian attitude toward violence. The thesis: we should not retaliate since God is perfect noncoercive love. Soon you would discover that it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence corresponds to God’s refusal to judge. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die. And as one watches it die, one will do well to reflect about many other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind…

Exclusion and Embrace, p. 204

“When they hurled their insults at Jesus, he did not retaliate; when he suffered he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23)

If any of you have been following the Lakeland Revival and Todd Bentley, whether as a fan, critic, or simply because others are talking about it - we need to pray for Todd and his wife Shonnah.  On August 12th it was announced that the two were separating.  I think his public ministry has ceased for the time being, which was the right thing to do.

As you might expect there is all sorts of analysis and “I told you so“.  Actually, that “I told you so” article is a good read.  I think he’s right.

J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine, wrote an extremely good piece asking some hard questions:

Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues from the beginning?

Why didn’t anyone in Lakeland denounce the favorable comments Bentley made about William Branham?

Why did God TV tell people that “any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic”?

Why did a group of respected ministers lay hands on Bentley on June 23 and publicly ordain him? Did they know of his personal problems?

Can anything good come out of this?

Over at Cerulean Sanctum (which I linked to the last time I mentioned Todd Bentley) there are some excellent posts about what needs to happen now in the Charismatic camp.  Although I don’t self-identify as a charismatic, it is my background (sort of, don’t ask!) and I certainly believe the charismatic movement has brought to the fore some things that were missing from the Christian scene.  Have a read of the articles yourselves; here (in summary) are a few of the problems and solutions Dan writes about:

From “Cleansing the Charismatic Crackup - Part 1″

Problem: In our rush to regain a proper pneumatology, today’s charismatics abandoned a proper Christology.
Solution: We need to get the focus back on Jesus.

Problems: Too much of the charismatic movement is self-centered. People rush around looking for a spiritual fix for selfish reasons. Too many are obsessed with more power. Too many leaders lack even the most basic humility.

Solution: Get the cross back into the picture.

Problems: Discernment of any kind is sorely lacking at all levels within the movement. Many charismatic teachers craft entire theologies from disconnected or lone passages of Scripture.

Solution: Build a holistic worldview by teaching the Bible from cover to cover, not from topic to topic.

From Part 2

Problems: Too many charismatics are more interested in what they can get than what they can give. Also, we love to talk about taking dominion over the kingdom of darkness, but we forget the primary means by which we cripple the Enemy’s purposes.

Solution: We need to be drilled on the Great Commission.

Problem: The charismatic movement is a cult—of celebrity.

Solution: Time for the old guard, who failed to guard what they were entrusted with, to get off the stage.

Problem: We let the miraculous enthrall us.

Solution: We need to be more discerning and less surprised by the miraculous.

Problem: The charismatic movement is obsessed with novelty.

Solution: We must understand that there is nothing new under the sun.

Problem: We continue to tolerate the aberrations of the past, the worst excesses of the charismatic movement, digging them up repeatedly for each new generation after they were long buried.

Solution: It’s time to grow up and face today. In many cases, the good old days weren’t all that good. Wrong doesn’t get right over time.

These are good solutions even if you are not Charismatic at all. Keep it focussed on Jesus.  Preach the Word.  Keep the gospel the main thing.  You might not end up on God TV, but you will hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” from the one who really counts.

A few weeks ago I was preaching on James 5:13-20.  In these verses James seems to be drawing some sort of connection between sin that needs forgiveness, and physical healing.  It is not a direct connection - verse 15 (”if he has sinned…”) makes that clear.  But verse 16 encourages us all to be confessing sins to each other and pray for each other “so that you may be healed.”

There was an illustration I wanted to use - one John Piper used in connection with the value of small groups.  Only problem: I couldn’t remember where on the web I’d found it, and in the end had to give up searching.

But now I’ve found it.  It’s from a John Piper sermon reproduced here on the Resurgence website.  The illustration is as follows:

A visiting pastor in Auckland, New Zealand was asked by the pastor of a church to come to a small group to help it understand its function. He came early for dinner and the husband was not there. The wife was embarrassed and explained that the husband owned a construction company and worked late.

The group arrived after dinner and the visiting pastor taught for a while on how to use spiritual gifts to build each other up. Then he asked them to get alone for a few minutes to seek God for how each one might channel God’s grace to the others for their upbuilding.

When they came back together he assumed they knew each other’s needs because they had been together for several years. The husband came home, showered and joined them in a few minutes. When the opportunity was given to speak or to pray for each other there was an awkward silence. They had never done anything like this before—seeking the Lord for how he might want them to minister to each other in that moment to build each other up.

The visiting pastor felt a fiasco was on his hands and turned the meeting back to the pastor to close. The pastor asked if anyone had a special problem they would like prayer for. The hostess said yes and showed the group the rash all over her arms. She said that the doctors had prescribed medicine but it hadn’t helped. They invited her to put her chair in the middle for prayer. And as they prayed, Christ, the head of the church, did his ministry. The pastor said, “I sense in my heart the Lord is telling me your problem is the result of great anger.”

She was silent for a moment then began to cry softly. Then she confessed, “I am so angry at my husband. He promises to be home for dinner , but night after night we eat without him. . . . He’s broken his promises to me over and over, and I feel I am a widow as I raise our children.”

There was an awareness that something had just been revealed that two years of small group meetings had not revealed. And the husband was blushing with embarrassment.

To make the story shorter, several of the men began to speak about how they had wrestled with the same problem in their homes and had almost ruined their marriages. One in particular spoke of a deep meeting with God in such a crisis and how God had made everything new.

By the grace of God the husband knelt down in front of his wife and wept into her lap, as the group prayed for them more earnestly than they had ever prayed. The visiting pastor commented later, “The Lord had invaded His Body, and the gateway into the supernatural world had been crossed by us all.”

The following Sunday the visiting pastor was to preach and saw the small group gathered on the parking lot outside the church. When they found him inside the woman pulled up her sleeves and said, “Look, no rash anywhere!” The husband approached and said, “I’ve cut back my workday to eight hours. I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. We have a new home.” (Ralph Neighbor, Where Do We Go From Here? p. 161-64)

While at Wycliffe college I became very interested in ideas of the “self” and what the gospel says to our identity.  The tower of Babel was an attempt by man to create a “name” for ourselves (Genesis 11:4); the LORD soon put a stop to that.  But, and this is sheer grace, a few verses later he comes to Abram and makes a promise: “I will make your name great…” (Genesis 12:2).

Whenever we try to create ourselves, forming our own identity, we find ourself enslaved to idols.  Jesus calls us to die to self and receive Himself.  Our true name is found in Jesus Christ.

Melanie Phillips has just written a very good review of Look at Me: Celebrating the Self in Modern Britain by Peter Whittle.  You will find it here.  It is about the excessive narcissism in our contemporary culture.  She writes:

[The] modern cult of fame derives from a culture in which the individual has become the centre of the universe: the sun around which everyone and everything else must revolve. With external authority now considered an affront to the self along with the religious doctrines that imposed it, morality and culture have been systematically privatised and relativised so that no one’s values or lifestyle can trump those of anyone else. Every individual is thus a hero to himself.

This is nothing new.  The description of sin in Psalm 2 applies to every culture and time:

“Why do the nations conspire
and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the LORD
and against his Anointed One.

3 “Let us break their chains,” they say,
“and throw off their fetters.”

God laughs at such foolishness.  In response, he enthrones Jesus christ, his Anointed Son, as King - and calls us to take refuge in him.

(For a good sermon on Psalm 2, head to Christ The Truth here.)

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of things you could read about the Lambeth Conference, and it could take you hours.  This 35 minute interview with Archbishop Greg Venables will be far far more useful.  Take some time out and watch it all.

There may be a few things you don’t understand unless you’ve been following the whole affair.  In particular:

The reference to Sudan is about a statement the Sudanese Bishops put out, a few days into Lambeth, making clear that the actions of The Episcopal Church (i.e. USA) was very wrong, and calling for Gene Robinson to resign.  It caused a helpful shock to the system.

The reference to Bishop Mathes (prounounced “Mathias” in the interview) is a reference to the fact that Greg Venables has taken oversight of several Dioceses who feel unable to remain within their Province.  It would be a bit like Bishop Jonathan (Diocese of Lichfield) coming under the authority of an Archbishop of another country, rather than Rowan Williams.  Very controversial, but arguably a necessary step with The Episcopal Church is in such a mess.

Do watch it.  Greg Venables loves the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be encouraged by this, even if you share his opinion that the Anglican Communion is in a very unhealthy state.

I come across a lot of useful links as I wander the web.  But I’m never sure how to keep track of everything I like.  I’m going to start posting more of them here, which may bore you (who wants to read a blog full of “hey, this is interesting” posts) but at least it keeps me organised.  Well, a little less disorganised.  And you never know, you might like them!

On the topic of children in church here are two from Doug Wilson and his wife.

Asking “what does the Bible say about children in worship” Doug answers “something like that whilst it is not a sin for the church to gather without the children and there are times when age specific teaching / addressing male heads of households / those who can understand etc. might be appropriate, as a norm the kids should we welcomed and included.” (taken straight from Marc Lloyd)

Nancy Wilson gives a description of what goes on at Christ Church, Moscow (Idaho).

Two things come to mind:

It is hard work keeping young children in church, especially for mums on their own (for whatever reason, e.g. husband is the curate!)

Many evangelical churches want the Sunday morning service to be accessible for newcomers / guests / visitors etc.  Having groups for children is very attractive to such people, whose children are unlikely to have been trained to sit still and pay attention for the duration of the service.  Having the whole family together for the service is a noble goal, but is it too much of a hurdle for those who don’t share such convictions, and would this make church alienating?

And on the same topic of challenging the status quo, over at Google Books you can read (in entirety) a short 22 page book called “Critique of Modern Youth Ministry“.  It argues that the idea of splitting people into age groups and tailoring activities especially for each, especially in church, is a very recent phenomenon.  It has contributed to the terrible situation we now face in which many parents leave their children’s spiritual growth to the Sunday school / youth worker.  This may be an odd thing to post, given that I’m extremely excited for Adam Rushton to be arriving as our Assistant Minister for Youth, but I know he shares pretty much the same conviction.

Well, I missed the Dwell Conference in  London (as mentioned here) and as soon as I disover if any audio or video is available, I’ll mention it here.  “As soon” being a very loose term for “sometime, maybe, perhaps” in keeping with the general laxity of this blog!

Oh, here’s one: a video of a Q and A session at Adrian Warnock’s site.

Another conference I can’t go to is the Total Church conference in San Diego starting 12th August.  To see what sessions and seminars will be taking place, Drew Goodmanson has them here.  Looks brilliant, and I’m hoping this too will have media available for us who can’t attend.

Drew Goodmanson (church planter in San Diego) mentioned a course called “Sonship” and “Gospel Transformation” published by World Harvest Mission.  Go take a look at the material, or check out the comment by my friend Glen.  These courses look great because they realise that the gospel isn’t simply what we believe when we become Christians, it is what we go on believing to grow as Christians.  To anyone out there running courses, here’s one called “Gospel Centered Life” which is currently available as a free pdf download.  Actually, even if you’re not running courses go grab it.  I promise its contents wills be extremely helpful.

Contents:

Week 1 – The Gospel Grid
Leader’s Guide
Article: “The Gospel Grid”
Supplement: Six Ways of Minimizing Sin

Week 2 – Performance
Leader’s Guide
Article: “Shrinking the Cross Through Performance”
Exercise Handout: Orphans vs. Sons

Week 3 – Dishonesty
Leader’s Guide
Article: “Shrinking the Cross Through Dishonesty”
Exercise Handout: Right and Wrong

Week 4 – The Law Drives You to Christ
Leader’s Guide
Article: “The Law and the Gospel”
Exercise Handout: Tim Keller’s Gospel Grid

Week 5 - Lifestyle Repentance
Leader’s Guide
Article: “True Repentance vs. False Repentance”

Week 6 – Transformational Faith
Leader’s Guide
Article: “Heart Idolatry”

Week 7 - Mission
Leader’s Guide
Article: “The Gospel Propels Us Outward”
Exercise Handout: Getting to the Heart of Mission

Week 8 - Forgiveness
Leader’s Guide
Article: “The Gospel Empowers Us To Forgive”
Exercise Handout: Getting to the Heart of Forgiveness

Week 9 - Conflict
Leader’s Guide
Article: “The Gospel Helps Us Fight Fairly”
Exercise Handout: Gospel-Centered Conflict Resolution

If you are using Firefox 2, now’s the time to go upgrade to Firefox 3 for all your interweb browsing needs.

If you are using Internet Explorer, repent!

Firefox 3 has just been released.  It shows pages faster and uses less memory than both Firefox 2 and IE.  There are some fantastic add-ons to be used (I’ll maybe mention a few some other day).  It is more secure than IE.  Finding pages you visited before is a breeze.

Download it for free here.  Do it NOW and help set a world record!

Read about the new features here.

Some great tips and tricks here.  And for power users, try here from Lifehacker.com.