pursuing faithfulness to the Word of God and fullness of the Spirit of God
Archive for July, 2006
New Wine 2006
Jul 30th
I’ve just got back from a thoroughly enjoyable week away at New Wine. Don’t worry, I’m not going to give a blow-by-blow account of all 30 talks I heard, but I’ll briefly list the highlights.
During the morning sessions, Derek Morphew, of the Vineyard Bible Institute spoke on the kingdom. He started off explaining the kingdom hope of the Jewish people from Old Testament passages, and stressed the importance of understanding Jesus from this perspective. He talked about the “traditional evangelical” Jesus as being basically correct but incomplete because it lacked this view. He went on the relate this eschatalogical tension to our present experience of healing and our personal struggles with sin. I had already heard Derek speak on this very subject before thanks to a recommendation from Ger. It is a subject that lots of theologians are writing about at the moment, and it is interesting to see a serious effort to explain it to Christians en masse, rather than leaving it in the realm of the Bible college.
Probably the highlight of the week for me was a series of seminars given by Paul Harcourt of All Saint’s Woodford Wells. He taught chapter by chapter through the books of 2 Peter and Jude, which are quite difficult books in many ways. He spoke very sensitively on how to counter false teaching and the need to contend for the gospel. I also went to a seminar by him on preaching, and as he clearly is a gifted Bible teacher, I was eager to hear his advice.
I also attended two seminars by Charlie Cleverly. The first was on the topic of his new book “The Passion that Shapes Nations”, which is essentially a book about martyrs and a call to recover their passion for Jesus. The second was on the Song of Songs, and in particular its allegorical interpretation although he indicated that he also embraces a literal interpretation.
Book Review – The Supremacy of God in Preaching (John Piper)
Jul 19th
I think many evangelicals would consider Piper to be one of the finest expository preachers in modern times, so if there was ever a subject he was qualified to write on, preaching would surely be it. But those looking for a practical how-to guide on effective public speaking will not find it here. This book is about the driving force that Piper believes must be behind all true preaching – a passion for the glory of God.
The book falls into two parts. First, Piper makes the theological case that what people need more than anything is a vision of the glory of God. It is the preachers task to give that to people. Piper is concerned that as preachers strive to be relevant, speaking on parenting, current events, AIDs, finances, etc, they actually become irrelevant as they focus on man not God. He contends that at the heart of all true preaching, whatever the topic at hand, is the glory of God. The gospel itself centres on his glory.
Piper moves on to demonstrate how the cross testifies to the worth of God’s glory and the immensity of our sin (as opposed to the popular idea that it shows how much we are worth). He reminds preachers of the need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit if God is to get the glory. He also makes a brief but impassioned plea for preaching that is expository and patently based on the Bible. The texts must be quoted not just alluded to. Simply telling people without demonstrating it to them from the Scriptures is just a case of pulling rank.
To close off the first section of the book, Piper argues that the preacher’s task is both joyful and solemn (“gladness and gravity”). The modern trend is for more jokes and “bloodearnestness” is out of fashion. But this is not to say we are miserable and angry. There should be joy in the ministry of preaching.
The second part is about the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards, whom Piper has already used in the book as a fine example of what preaching ministry should look like. He gives a brief biography, before going on to discuss some of his theological emphases. Edwards stressed the importance of the emotions – the need to delight in God, and he preached to call people to persevere. He was intense but tenderhearted, preached for a response, was willing to use warnings of hell, saturated his sermons with scripture.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to any preacher. It’s short enough to read through in a couple of days. It serves as a timely reminder of what the real issues that are at stake when we are preaching. As someone who has the occasional opportunity to preach, I need to be reminded that its not about whether people like me and congratuate me afterwards, or view me as clever or funny, but whether I have given them a glimpse of the glory of God.
TOAM – Penetrating Leadership
Jul 9th
OK, this is my final report on a talk from my day visit to Together on a Mission, unless I decide to write about what I hear in some of the teaching CDs I bought. I have actually found typing up my sermon notes a valuable excercise for myself, irrespective of whether any of my readers found it interesting.
I have already mentioned that Adrian Warnock has given us some excellent coverage of the conference. My friend Dan has now returned and got busy himself writing reports – there are five posts already on his blog.
The Thursday afternoon session was P J Smyth speaking on “Penetrating Leadership”, based on the story of Jonathan and his armour bearer attacking the Philistines. I’ll actually refer you to Adrian Warnock’s summary for the list of points, as the structure of three main points each with three sub-points is clearly outlined there.
The passage was treated as a lesson in leadership, with special focus on the type of risk-taking faith needed for church planting ventures. Killing Philistines was a metaphor for taking territory for the kingdom (no hand-wringing apologies for the nasty, mean and unkind bits of the Old Testament here!). He took time to specifically pray for prophets and preachers, and remind them of the need to be bold in proclamation. Overall it was more of an inspirational rather than informational message. The commitment to church planting cannot just be mentally assented to, it requires leaders to get out there and take bold steps of faith.
Having recently read his book critiquing churches such as those in newfrontiers, I wonder if Ian Stackhouse would have taken issue with last year’s message from P J which called for the building of some mega-churches (“juggernauts”). And maybe he would have considered this year’s message too ‘militant’. But I think that it was a timely call at what was after all a leaders conference, not to sit back and congratulate ourselves for the progress already made, but to be willing to take risks of faith to see the kingdom extended.
Book Review – The Gospel Driven Church (Ian Stackhouse)
Jul 9th
There seems to be no shortage of books about the church at the moment. Each one provides its own critique of what the typical church is doing wrong, and what it should do to rectify this. What makes Ian Stackhouse’s contribution unique is that it comes from a charismatic, criticising charismatics, with particular reference to the UK revivalist / renewal / restorationist scene.
It does not make for light reading. The style of writing is academic and targetted at students of theology. It certainly had me reaching for the dictionary on occasions.
His main thesis is that the contemporary charismatic church has capitulated to the “numbers game” – the all-consuming quest for getting more people to attend your church. This has resulted in at worst compromise, and at best pragmatism, where they simply try to mimick ’success’ stories elsewhere. This can be seen in the way that churches are so quick to embrace the latest “fad” that promises growth, whether this be Alpha, Strategic Spiritual Warfare, Seeker Sensitive or even Toronto or Pensecola Revivalism. These fads, he argues, have diverted attention from discipleship. Many churches have even embraced a contradictory mix of theologically incompatible fads in their eagerness to grow numerically.
Although he approves of a ‘catechesis’ for new believers, Stackhouse is critical of Alpha, which is viewed by many as a panacea. He also cautions against the excessively experiential focus of charismatic worship, with the need to “get something out of it”, which has led to “performance driven worship with its cult of the worship leader”.
So what is the solution? He argues for a return to preaching, sacrements and prayer. This will result in growth that is intrinsic to the gospel – organic and not merely mathemematical.
So first he calls churches back to preaching from the Bible, which has been displaced in charismatic circles by an emphasis on the prophetic. Where there is preaching, the trend is to preach for a decision rather than as a call to a different way of life. There is also the desire to be “relevant” which again can draw us away from the true demands of the gospel. He also cautions against the trend of preaching visions and ideas, and insists that we let the Biblical text speak. As in other areas of church life, Stackhouse calls for a fidelity to the basic metanarrative of the gospel as our benchmark for success, irrespective of numbers. The gospel, not the church’s relevancy or contemporaneity determines its identity and mission.
Drawing on the insights of P T Forsyth, he argues that a romantic religion of affection and temperament has obscured the religion of will and conscience. We need to believe in the gospel as an agent of renewal.
His next chapter on the sacrements I found a little harder to follow. He contrasted the holiness revivalism of Pensecola with the passive spirituality of Toronto, both of which he sees as missing the mark. Charismatic worship has emphasised musicianship above communion and liturgy resulting in a loss of transcendance. He highlights the importance of remembering what God has done in Christ, which is celebrated in the sacrements of communion and baptism. He rejects the “belonging before believing” model of church growth, which circumvents the scandal of the cross.
In a chapter on ‘pneumatological concerns’ he critiques the “Toronto blessing”, arguing that it represents a step away from a pentecostal Spirit baptism to a focus on manifestation. He calls for a return to an appreciation of the sacrement of the laying on of hands – the gift of the Spirit is not normally unmediated.
As he moves on to consider prayer, he notes that in renewal circles, prayer is almost exclusively conceived as intercession – a tool to be harnessed for church growth. He thinks we would benefit from returning to a “daily office” and a systematic praying of the Psalms, rather than the ad-hoc approach to reading and praying through the Scriptures that most charismatics take. He also laments the lost art of “contemplative prayer” understood as us listening to God as he takes the initiative.
In a chapter on leadership he notes that the focus now seems to be managerial, rather than providing “cure for souls”, hence the senior leader is no longer a “pastor-theologian” but a CEO. He argues that we have lost sight of the pastor’s important role of personally knowing and caring for the members in his church. This is not the same as the pastor becoming a contemporary counsellor, and a commitment to this care for souls will of necessity result in a mega-church model being rejected, as the pastor simply cannot personally relate to more than 300 or so people. Theologians such as Peterson have advocated this necessity of smallness for pastoral ministry to operate correctly. Stackhouse doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace this idea, but admires it. He sees the “Jethro principle” that attempts to compensate for this in large Cell Churches as inadequate.
The final chapter deals with the Ascension gifts of Eph 4, a favourite passage of renewalists if ever there was one. He argues that these are specifically intentioned for qualitative growth, not quantitative. However, he believes that if communities of mature believers are created, the quantitative growth will follow naturally. He calls on those with apostolic ministry to call the church to stay within the theological boundaries of historic orthodox Christianity. This includes a restoration of the doctrine of sin to the attenuated gospel that is being proclaimed. He also takes a swipe at the “militancy” of a post-millennial revivalist mindset, arguing that such an attitude is bogus as a way of constituting the people of God. In conclusion we are urged to forget about effectiveness and focus on fidelity to the Jesus narrative.
What are we to make of this book? Anyone who has spent some time within the UK charismatic scene will have seen first-hand examples of most of the attitudes and practices that Stackhouse criticises. His analysis is insightful, especially the observation that a fixation with numeric growth has been allowed to set the agenda far too easily. I expect that many will react strongly to his criticisms of Alpha, Cell Church, Toronto and so on, but I think it is worth seriously reflecting on what we are doing and why. In the present culture, if a church is large and growing, it can easily assume that it is getting everything right. We must not content ourselves with having a few strengths that the traditional churches do not share. We need also to learn to emulate their strengths. As Stackhouse says, “the necessary iconoclasm of the first generation of any renewal movement ought not to prevail into the second generation.”
I hope to move on now and read some recent books that present the vision from a restorationist perspective of the life and mission of the church – including Dave Devonish’s What on Earth is the Church For and John Hosier’s Christ’s Radiant Church. It will be interesting to see whether any of Ian Stackhouse’s criticisms (and other similar voices) have been recognised and responded to in either of these books.
TOAM – Worship
Jul 8th
I thought I would now write a bit about the worship at the Together on a Mission conference. I’ve even included a 12 second video clip for you to get a feel of it:
On the day I was there we had two times of worship led by South African Evan Rogers. Many songs were in an African language (Afrikaans?), and involved a lot of dancing and actions. The antics of those on dancing the platform got increasingly extravagant, culminating in them diving off the stage into the arms of the worshippers below towards the end of the evening! I wonder what Chuck Colson would say about Bambelela?
When Terry Virgo recommended a book on the cross that defends the doctrine of “penal substitution” a stifled ripple of laugher went round the room, presumably because people thought he had accidently said something rude. I noticed a lot of the new songs included lines affirming this view of the atonement, which shows an admirable intent to ensure that our songs are theologically instructive, although in places singing about the wrath of God to such upbeat music did seem somewhat incongruous.
I think that there are three key groups of newfrontiers worship songs at the moment:
1) Church Songs – there are loads of new songs being written about the church as the agent of God’s kingdom purposes. These are serving to remind us that we are a people on a mission, rather than worship focussing entirely on my personal salvation / relationship with God.
2) Modern Hymns – people such as Stuart Townend and Keith Getty are writing some good new hymns with real depth to the lyrics, which I think is a much needed addition to charismatic worship, as most of the older hymns have been long forgotten.
3) Multi-cultural songs – We are learning songs from other cultures, usually with a ‘celebration’ theme. People from all cultures dancing together in worship is a good expression of the unity in Christ.
TOAM – Calling the Nations to the Obedience of Faith
Jul 7th
OK, here’s my next report from the Brighton Together on a Mission conference. Dave Devonish was speaker at session 7 on Thursday morning. His text was Rom 1:1-15; 15:17-24; and 16:25-27. You can read what Adrian Warnock made of this session here.
He wanted to focus on the way Paul begins and ends the letter of Romans – parts that can get missed as there is so much good stuff in the middle. The key verse he picked out is Rom 1:5 -
through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.
The Gospel of the Kingdom
Through his apostolic ministry, Paul wanted to bring the gospel of grace to every nation – bringing people to the obedience of faith. Dave had clearly been reading some N T Wright, as he contrasted Christ’s kingdom with that of Caesar’s. Our King is claiming the whole world – but his kingdom is brought in not by brute force, but by grace and apostleship. All this is done for the glory of Christ – which according to Stott is the highest missionary motivation.
He then went on to list some enemies of this vision, which result when we preach a gospel that is not truly the gospel of the kingdom. For example, where Christ is promoted as an alternative therapy for felt needs. Or the western consumerist gospel plus a private ambition of going to heaven when I die. Other examples include churches in Africa where tribalism and sexual immorality is not renounced despite claiming to be Christian.
Where Christ is not Preached
Dave then spoke of Paul’s desire to preach where Christ was not known. Even though the areas already evangelised were by no means Christianised, Paul had left reproducing churches behind. They could be entrusted to plant more churches. Paul’s own ministry was pioneering, and others were called to fill in behind him. He wanted to reach “Greeks and barbarians” – he was not limited to those who were culturally reachable. Dave then gave some space to giving examples of unreached people groups – defined as peoples without an indiginous, witnessing (i.e. reproducing) church.
Why are we involved in this mission to the unreached?
1) Prophetic Promise
2) Apostolic Passion
3) Eschatological Necessity (Matt 24:14)
4) Contemporary Urgency
What is stopping us reaching them?
1) Non-missional churches. We need everyone involved, not just the keen few.
2) Culture-bound instead of culture-challenging churches
3) The Muslim identification of Christianity with the west. The only way this is overcome is by planting small communities of believers who demonstrate that Christianity is something different.
4) Cultural and linguistic challenges
Practical Outworking
We need to keep preaching this message of reaching the nations, and give practical help to those going – more than giving money, this includes strategic support. Pray continually and give generously. Encourage people to go and support them.
My thoughts
I thought this was an excellent message, and underscores some of what I feel is best about newfrontiers. There is a real desire to bring the gospel to the nations, and work to build cross-cultural churches in our own cities. It would be easy for a group of churches like newfrontiers to settle for just having some large churches in major UK cities that thrive simply on Christians moving in from other churches, but here a strong commitment reaching the unreached was articulated passionately.
I am glad for the emphasis on the gospel of the kingdom. It is clear that Tom Wright has been influencing many of the newfrontiers leadership team, and informing their understanding of the proclamation of Jesus as King as politically subversive.
I think it is also interesting that the word missional is being liberally used this year (I suspect in a few cases by those who aren’t quite sure what it means). Missional is a buzz-word at the moment, speaking of a church that doesn’t see the church service as the main connecting point with unbelievers, rather we meet people within their culture by expressing the gospel through the way we live. It is about living out a Christian counter-culture and not retreating from the culture around us, but bringing the gospel to it in a way that is contextual.
I personally welcome newfrontiers embracing the concept of being missional. However, I am not too sure that many churches are entirely thinking along the same lines as those who write about being “missional”. In particular, I think the “church growth model” has also been widely embraced, which is often-times at odds with a missional approach (see my posts on the principled missional church and the results driven church). Sunday services especially focus less and less on equiping Christians to live out the kingdom lifestyle and try instead to be enjoyable for unbelievers. I know there were some other seminars at the conference that included the word “missional” in their blurb, so hopefully I will get a chance to listen to them and see if there is any more clarity on exactly what is understood in newfrontiers by the word “missional”.
TOAM – Prophetic Untimeliness
Jul 7th
Adrian Warnock has been ‘live blogging’ from this week’s Newfrontiers Together on a Mission conference. I only got to attend one day (yesterday), and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I hope find time to post a few reports of my own of the talks and seminars I heard. First up was Thursday mornings seminar on Prophetic Untimeliness by Philip Greenslade of CWR
Philip Greenslade is not actually from a newfrontiers church, but has become a regular guest speaker at conferences over recent years. Personality-wise, he comes across as an intellectual – a deep thinker who presents his message humbly and clearly.
Prophetic Untimeliness
In this seminar, he borrows his title from a book by Os Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance, which although I haven’t read, seems to have been well received by most reviewers (see Tim Challies, David Wayne, Douglas Groothuis). Guiness’ main thesis is that the church has been so desparate to be ‘relevant’ (i.e. to be seen as having a relevant message by secular society) that it has actually become irrelevant through compromise, and in fact what the world needs to hear and see (i.e. what is truly relevant) is a church faithful to the gospel.
Philip Greenslade chose Jeremiah as an example of a prophet who was ‘untimely’ – his message was what people needed to hear, rather than what they wanted to hear. The false prophets were simply echoing popular culture, speaking “peace, peace” when there is no peace – the right message but at the wrong time.
Emotional Untimeliness
He went on to argue that not just Jeremiah’s message, but his emotions were untimely:
a) He feels God’s grief over his people’s sin. The people were unfeeling and presumptuous (Jer 8:18-22), with no idea they had grieved God. God is looking for those who will join with his grief over sin (Jer 9:10,17)
b) His experience of prophetic ministry was bittersweet. He could not join in with the shallow party crowd and their hollow laughter. His joy was too fierce for an over satiated society to understand, and too intense for those suffering from terminal blandness to appreciate (Jer 15:16). He was emotionally out of sync with the prevailing mood.
c) He felt what the people didn’t – a sense of sin (Jer 17:9). He had a deep realism about the human heart, living in a society where sin had become blatant and public (Jer 17:1,2). As we get to know the heart of God, we will develop a deep humility as we discover the deceitfulness of the human heart.
d) He feels the scorn and hostility against God (Jer 20:7-9). God’s word is invasive – it claims territories in our lives that we don’t want to surrender. This is the cost of discipleship, and yet Jeremiah feels as though the overwhelming force of God has overcome his resistance and set him on fire.
We see two extremes of emotion juxtaposed in Jer 20:13,14 – extravagant praise to self-loathing – Jeremiah was learning to think more of God and less of himself. Bonhoeffer commented on “blessed are those who mourn” saying that “they see that for all the jollity on board, the ship is beginning to sink”. The early church fathers noted that the chief problem of the pagans was insensitivity – no contrition over sin.
Jesus told us that we will weep and mourn while the world rejoices (John 16:20). Our emotions will be out of sync with those around us, because the world knows nothing of our grief or our joy.
God’s Untimely Word
To illustrate the theme of prophetic untimeliness, Philip recounted three Biblical stories:
1) The story of Josiah in 2 Chron 34, rediscovering the law. Amazingly, though the law had been lost, they were working on the temple. There was much economic and even religious activity, but the word of God had been lost. Josiah learned that God must have the first word in everything.
2) The story of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim in Jer 36. Baruch wrote down all of Jeremiah’s prophecies and read them to the people. They were then heard by the king’s “think tank” and finally by the king. Jehoiakim tried to destroy the word, but discovered that God always has the last word. The Jehoiakim church is a church that cuts bits out of the word of God to tame it, and make it culturally acceptable. But is the Josiah church honouring the word? Do we simply assume that people know the “apostle’s teaching” or are we giving space to expository teaching. This is central and vital – so we need to do it, and do it well.
3) The third story is of Jesus being handed the scroll in Luke 4. He pointed out that Jesus himself chose to expound scripture, rather than telling his feelings, vision or his life story. This seemed to me to be a word of mild rebuke to charismatic churches whos sermons are less and less likely to be expository and instead focus on explaining plans and vision for the future, or testimony from recent missions etc. He quoted William Willimon, arguing that we too need to “take up the scroll” and be confronted with the “stories of God”. God’s first and final word is Jesus, and opening the scrolls speeds the momentum of God’s story and provokes a reaction. The Bible is like dynamite (Leonard Sweet), so open the scrolls, let God’s word consume you and affect your emotions.
Greenslade closed urging newfrontiers to “stay faithful to the written word of God as you follow the Spirit wherever he leads”.
My thoughts
It is interesting that Philip was invited to speak on this topic to newfrontiers as the emotion of “mourning” over sin and acknowledging of the depravity of the human heart is not a major emphasis of our group of churches. The worship is increasingly focussing on being extravagantly joyful, and only quietens down to be intimate. Songs of lament, crying for mercy are not to be found in our repertoire. Similarly, sermons strike a consistently truimphant tone, and the Puritan emphasis on the soul’s war against sin is rejected in favour of emphasising the power of the Spirit.
As I have already mentioned, while not overtly critisising newfrontiers, Greenslade seems to be concerned that though a church may believe that it is honouring the Scriptures, in fact they are being neglected, as less and less space is given to “opening the scrolls”. Ian Stackhouse sounds a similar warning in his book “The Gospel Driven Church”. I tend to agree with them on this point – I am concerned at a growing biblical illiteracy as young
people grow up hearing many motivational talks but few biblical expositions. Any reminder of the importance of letting God speak to us through the Scriptures is in my view a timely
one.
Ironically, Greenslade may himself be “prophetically untimely”, as a call to lament and a call to expository preaching are not exactly top of the agenda at the moment in renewal / restorationist circles. Topics such as church planting, increase in signs and wonders, church growth, and leadership are perhaps more in vogue. Greenslade asked “was Jeremiah a melancholic?”, and concluded that perhaps he was, but he still had a message from God that needed to be heard. Is Greenslade himself a melancholic? Perhaps, but again, does he also have a message that we need to hear in these days?
