As predicted, a noticeable pause

Posted at 9:15 PM

As predicted in my previous entry, the “next few days” I was going to posting entries in vanished rather quickly. Term begins officially tomorrow, and I’m exhausted after three weeks of overtime and some late-minute music organising. Before normal service resumes (always an interesting phrase with this blog, where I haven’t made it into double figures of entries since November 2006), a couple of things I’ve picked up over the past weeks which are well worth a perusal, and an event I’m looking forward to!

My cousin Mark quotes Martyn Lloyd-Jones on emotion, which I’ve written about too (longer quote at his site):

Many of us are afraid of emotions. Our whole training and upbringing, the whole attitude to life, is one that curbs the emotions. We feel that it is not quite respectable, it is not nice. We are steeling our emotions, curbing this God-given thing… This is not a plea for emotionalism, which I have denounced, it is a plea for emotion.

Even better, his entry on differences between conservative and charismatic evangelicals (which I’ve also written about) contains a fantastic John Owen quote. But as Mark writes:

Alas, because he’s John Owen and obtuse (and because he’s living in 17th century England) in explaining all this he doesn’t make the obvious analogy; Charismatic Evangelicalism is biscuits, Reformed Evangelicalism is cake.

The whole thing should be read!

Finally, the event: the Co-Mission Media Forum has been announced, which sounds like just the kind of thing anyone with any creative thought or inclination should do their best to get to! Looking forward to Matthew Mason on music, having heard him speak on Song of Songs at a church houseparty.

Freshers arrive tomorrow. Crazy. This summer has been very peculiar in different ways (being properly unemployed for the first time, as well as living in Bristol, not with my parents) and while it feels like years since I was last working towards my degree, the term has sneaked up too quickly.

Back from Forum

Posted at 6:42 PM

I didn’t manage to get back online during the week, so over the next few days (hah!) I’ll be writing a bit more about what happened. As ever, Dave Bish is worth reading, and Mo McCracken, Rosemary Grier and Dan Hames have more.

For me, the highlight of Forum was the family feel of it all – and I mean far more than just homeliness! I’m sitting with my Bristol family, but in the rest of the marquee there are near a thousand of my relatives, all united with the same love of God, the same passion, the same mission. It was exciting! I can only imagine what that must have felt like for those from a small CU with just a few members.

I loved spending time with the Bristol guys; getting to know the small group leaders whom I didn’t know so well in particular. My understanding is that in the past, our small groups have felt quite separate from the rest of the CU, so I loved that so many of their leaders were there with the committee.

After the World Service on the Wednesday night, we had conversations about long-term cross-cultural mission, as well as short-term trips. Having been encouraged to all study Mark’s gospel with our friends, we then prayed that this might be the case. At every step, all of us, from different churches in Bristol, studying different things, with all sorts of different views on everything, felt a unity beyond words. This is what Christ died for – to bring together a people to worship God for ever – and here and now it’s wonderful to see.

Going back to Bristol we’re not going to spend this amount of time together – we’re going to be meeting once a week centrally, as well as a prayer meeting and small group meetings in halls. The temptation is to band together in a clique and become inward-looking when we meet. This mustn’t happen. When we meet, it should be like a mini-Forum: we meet to encourage each other to live and speak for Jesus the rest of the week; we sing because the gospel is worth singing about, and God made music excite emotions for a reason; we hear about what’s going on because we want to be involved, at the very least by our prayers; we spend time together so that our lives lived in the university are changed ones, in which we’re supported, encouraged and prayed for by each other.

Back in Bristol, too, the temptation might be to get irritated over little issues, and start dividing, even in small ways (for example, whether we refer to the CU by saying “we” or “they”). This mustn’t happen either. We still believe the same gospel, and still want it to go out to our university, so when issues come up we all (and that means me too, even if I’m convinced I’m right!) put aside secondary issues and love each other enough to give up our ideas sometimes.

Forum is great because it’s our own CU meetings done right, writ large. The challenge now is to keep the focus and get out into the university as a united witness! May the Lord let it happen.

Currently listening to Jon Foreman – The Cure For Pain

Liveblogging Forum – Days 1 and 2

Posted at 11:27 PM

So, it turns out internet time is limited to fifteen minutes here, so liveblogging may be more problematic. We’ve heard two messages from John Piper on Ruth, which have been inspiring. A few points that have hit home:

• Naomi’s thoughts of the future are darkened by depression about her situation, so that she doesn’t spot her hope for the future in Boaz, a close relative. So often we can let discouraging circumstances discourage us completely. God is still sovereign though, and is working through the circumstances. If we can’t see light at the end of the tunnel, we need to be reminded of this; that’s one reason why we need Christians around us, and in a CU this is particularly relevant. In the face of opposition, or apathy from our friends, or even doubts about whether it’s worthwhile, we need others in the CU to encourage us to keep going.

• Ruth’s example of initiative, humility and industry from Ruth 2:1-7 are great examples of Christian living. Take risks (chapter 3), take the initiative, be humble about it and work at it! For CUs, this should be a great thing for us to aspire to.

Just two of the things John Piper mentioned, and this is before any of the stuff on Jesus, our own kinsman-redeemer! (For those unfamiliar with Ruth, hopefully more on this some other time.)

I’ve also made it to a track on worship, which deserves more in-depth writing another time. As my fifteen minutes are up, I’ll leave it here. Maybe more soon…

Off to Forum!

Posted at 10:25 AM

Not to always be linking to him, but Dave Bish has a great summary of what Forum is and says that he’ll be liveblogging the conference. I may attempt to do something similar, but it all depends – he’ll probably be far better at it than me.

Forum is great because, like New Word Alive is shaping up to be, it’s a mix of those across the Christian spectrum meeting with the same purpose. The CUs across the country are groups of Christian students who want to “live and speak for Jesus”, and regardless of church background, public speaking ability, public or state school education, or anything else, they’re all at Forum to be better equipped to do just that. By Christ’s death we become a family, a family that’s always looking to include others, and Forum is there to help and encourage us to do that better. Above all, Forum exists to excite us about Jesus, the one who died so that we could know God, the one who will return to bring justice to a world crying for it. We’re often lukewarm, not sure whether we want to tell people about him, but at Forum our prayers is that as we get into his word, his Spirit will work in us to change us, encourage and excite us, so that we return to homes across the country better able to be his ambassadors.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21, NIV.)

Learning from the charismatic movement

Posted at 10:10 AM

Here is Dave Bish’s summary of Dan Edelen’s analysis of the needs of the charismatic movement. I’ve seen charismatic theology accompanied by Scripture being ignored or misused, a selfishness shown in seeking emotional experiences with little internal change, a very Old Testament view of Christian worship and Christian meetings (namely, the two are far more connected than Romans 12 and Hebrews 10 would have us believe) and a lack of discernment (shown most clearly in ignoring or expressing irritation at the testing and weighing of teaching by others). Two things to say, then.

Firstly, praise God that these problems are by no means universal! It’s years since my first encounters with the charismatic movement, and since then I’ve read and listened to many, many charismatic speakers who have all helped instil in me a deeper love and a better understanding of God, a greater day-to-day experience of God, and a greater love of the Bible, but more importantly, Christ. It’s brilliant to hear that those in the movement are as concerned about parts of it as I am, as there’s no way I’m ever going to be listened to! It’s also brilliant that those in the charismatic movement are effectively shaking up many conservative Christians and getting them excited once more about God’s sovereign plan for the world. Conservative authors and speakers like Jim Packer have been calling for deep relationships with God for years; in my case, at least, it took the charismatics I know to get through to me! Recently, it’s mostly through charismatic writers and bloggers that I’ve grown to love God more and love Scripture more, and learnt to be more discerning, more loving and more accepting of those different from me.

Secondly, the striking thing is that each of Dan’s points has to do with a loss of focus on Jesus and his importance. This particularly hit home because I recognise that I can do exactly the same things. Very easily can I slip into a pattern of life that sidelines Jesus, or make the things I read all about abstract issues and not about Jesus. Rather than over-emphasise the Spirit, I can over-emphasise the Bible as an end in itself, and theology as a pursuit for its own sake, rather than both as a way to know and love Jesus better. I may not make the mistakes as publicly as some in the charismatic movement, but I make them all the same, in my own, quiet, conservative evangelical way.

In summary, these problems are by no means universal in the charismatic movement, and they’re not specific to it either. So let’s all throw out dry and boring theology and teaching; let’s recover passionate preaching about Christ from his Word, and let’s live whole lives for God’s glory, enjoying his presence with us, through good times and bad. Let’s not expect things to be easy; let’s not forget our flesh is sinful; but let’s remember that God has given us new hearts, and he gives us the grace we need for each day. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus, and remember that both the Spirit and the Bible point to him and help us to know him and love him more.

Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth. (Hosea 6:3, ESV)