From the vicarage Nov 2009

From the vicarage November 2009

Dear All

One of the great heroes of modern British history is Scott of the Antarctic. His goal to be the first man in the world to stand on the south pole inspired millions. His tale of failure to return, dying hungry and exhausted in extreme cold is legendary.

There are two lessons the church can learn from Scott. First, it is very easy for a church to drift without direction or any sense of purpose, to have no mission. Scott had a single minded goal and sense of purpose which took him and his colleagues to the south pole. He had to plan, provision and prepare for his journey. His goal gave him and his men energy, enthusiasm and bravery. He had a vision of what could be achieved and how. In much the same way, God has given a goal and purpose for his church. We must know God’s goals if we are to live and be inspired by them.

Second, Scott failed to appreciate the scale of the task and so failed to prepare adequately which led to his failure to return. It is easy for a church to have grand visions where we don’t fully appreciate what might be involved and so we fail to prepare and fail in our mission.

On the Saturday 14th November, the church council will be spending a day in Brewood, Staffordshire, seeking God’s will and purpose for Holy Trinity church. We hope to enjoy our time away together, engage with God’s word and will for his church and so envision Holy Trinity.

Please pray for us that day, for God’s direction, guidance and a common sense of God’s call. Please also give some thought to God’s purpose for us as his church. At church last week I gave out an information sheet on the vision and asked the congregation to think about two questions:
1.What does God tell us in the bible about His purpose for the church?
2.What is the church to do?

If you would like to contribute to the vision setting day, and if you are moved by God, do let me know what answers you have to these questions.

Lastly, you might ask, why are we doing all this? Can’t we just carry on as we have, doing what we do? Yes we could, but the wisdom of God calls us to prophetic vision:

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish

I am looking forward to the day and expecting great things.

With love, Neil

Samson and paedobaptism

I’ve preached two series on Samson in the last 12 months, at two different churches. It has occurred to me this week that Samson’s life is a good model for paedobaptism:

• God made a Nazirite vow (see Numbers ch6) with Samson before he was born and God would prove to be faithful to Samson as long as Samson kept his vows.
• Samson broke the first vow, not to touch a dead body, when he scraped honey from the guts of a rotting lion. But God remained with Samson and faithful to him.
• Samson broke the second vow, not to drink wine, at his wedding feast.  But God was still with him, as Samson killed 30 men with his bare hands.
• Samson was hanging by a thread, two vows down, one to go.
• Samson slept with a prostitute and God was still with him as he used the strength God gave him to rip up 3 or 4 tonne city gates and heaved them up a hill.
• God only left Samson when the last of his three vows was broken. Samson’s hair was cut.
• God walked away from Samson, but that is not the end of the story. The suffering which Samson then endured led him to repentance.

How does this support paedobaptism?

• God makes vows with children shortly after their birth.  And God will remain faithful to these children as long as they keep their vows.
• The vow of baptism is to repent of sin and believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
• The vow is not a vow never to sin, only to repent of it, as Samson eventually did.  Children should be encouraged to repentance as they grow.
• More importantly, the vow is never to deny Christ.  Children should be taught what it means to be in covenant relationship with Christ and never to renounce him.

He who is not with me is against me,
and he who does not gather with me scatters.
And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men,
but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
(The words of Jesus in Matthew 12:30-31)

What is blasphemy against the Spirit? Living as if Jesus never lived.
Living as if Jesus never died on the cross for our sins. Blasphemy against the Spirit is to publicly deny Christ.

Just as God was faithful to Samson until he publicly renounced his last vow, made before he was born, so God is faithful to baptised children until they publicly renounce their baptismal vows. Parents of baptised children need to remind their kids of what their baptismal vows mean; that their baptism points them to Christ and seals them in a covenant relationship with God, that they should practice repentance and never renounce Christ.

How, then, do children break their covenant vows? They renounce Jesus, saying something like; “I once believed that Jesus was the Son of God.  I once believed he  lived and died on a cross because he loved me before I loved him, he died for my sins. I once believed that by not any more.” That’s when God walks away from his baptised children.

Has Piper ever read Erskine?

I’m really interested to know if John Piper has ever read Ebenezer Erskine. Compare the following extract from Ebenezer Erskine’s sermon on the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”, with an article from John Piper’s church website:

This commandment requires us to believe and be persuaded, that this glorious God is the chief good of the rational soul; that as his glory is to be our ultimate end, so our chief happiness lies in the enjoyment of him alone; Thou shalt have no other gods before me”; i.e. Thou shalt place thy chief happiness in the enjoyment of me, who “am the Lord thy God.” So that, when God commands us to have him as our God, he commands us to be happy for ever in himself, and to say with David, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none in all the earth that I desire besides thee.”

This extract is from the Bethlehem Baptist church’s article “Quest for Joy”

God made us to magnify his greatness – the way telescopes magnify stars. He created us to put his goodness and truth and beauty and wisdom and justice on display. The greatest display of God’s glory comes from deep delight in all that he is. This means that God gets the praise and we get the pleasure. God created us so that he is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

5 Christian Leadership Types

Last week I summarised chapter 2 of Knowing God by Jim Packer. In that chapter he gave 4 marks of Christian living which result from a deep knowledge of God:

1. Great energy For God
2. Great thoughts of God
3. Great boldness for God
4. Great contentment in God

Packer suggests reflecting on where we are weak so that, having made an assessment, we might ask God to strengthen us in those areas.  This venn diagram is designed to help us reflect on these four inter-related areas of Christian leadership.

A – the clamorous crusader
Energetic, bold, with a big picture of God but lacking peace and contentment.

This leader exudes everything except the peace of God through faith in Christ (Romans 5:1-8). This lack of peace leads to frenetic leadership which often lacks humility.  As C.J. Mahaney writes, anyone in this situation needs to spend a season soaked in the doctrine of adoption. I’d add the discipline of  meditation on what it means to be united to Christ and his imputed righteousness.

B – the timid teacher
Energetic, with big thoughts of God, content but timid.

This leader does all things well at church. He’s a great teacher, who runs programmes with enthusiasm and does it all with a sense of shalom. What’s missing is boldness in mission, evangelism and a lack of directness in challenging individuals and the congregation to live for God.  This leader is not quite sure of God and His word.

This person needs to spend a season memorising the great promises of God in scripture. “Fear not, for I am with you” Isa 43:5, “be strong and courageous for I the Lord your God am with you” Josh 1:8 and so on. These verses need to be planted deep in the heart so that when faced with tough choices, he’ll do or say the bold thing.

C – the blinkered builder
Energetic, bold and content but with a small view of God.

This person comes across as totally sold out for God but the God which he follows is unattractive because He is small.

Ways to expand our view of God include the disciplines of systematics and biblical theology. There are no short cuts to getting a big view of God. John Frame’s The Doctrine of God and Goldworthy’s According to Plan are good places to start, then we must keep reading to expand our knowledge of God.

D – the lethargic leader
Bold, content, big thinking but demotivated or just plain tired.

This is perhaps the default position for present day church leaders; burnt out by being busy. It is easy to get tired and when tiredness creeps in, lethargy follows, contentment wanes and boldness evaporates. Time for God and with God is used up by work and so God becomes small in our view once again. I’ve written on avoiding ministry burnout which gives symptoms and strategies to avoid this slippery slope.

But tiredness and burnout is different from lethargy. Life can be fairly quiet and still the Christian does little work. And so, the antidote to lethargy is also found in knowing God. It is the cross which makes all the difference to the lethargic. If a Christian is demotivated, he has probably lost sight of the cross, and the pain Christ was willing to suffer to make peace between God and sinners.

God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. Colossians 1:27-29

E – the complete Christian leader
Energetic, bold, content and with a big view of God

Lord, give me the wisdom to order my days here on earth that I might be all things through the knowledge of Christ my Saviour and Lord. Amen

Also see similar posts on this subject:
8 biblical personality types
13 Christian personality types

Why should all people acknowledge Christ as Saviour?

In our human rights based, multi-cultural, individualistic society, most people function with a highly pragmatic view of faith; “if it works for you, that’s great” or “I’ll try anything which might make my life better.” Many churches recognise this view of life and faith and so approach evangelism on this basis. These churches use personal testimony based on transformation towards a better life: “it worked for me, it might work for you.”

In the second of his five points on God’s commandment “you will have no other gods before me” Ebenezer Erskine shows why all people should acknowledge Christ as Saviour, not for individualistic, pragmatic reasons, but because God is there, he has commanded us to acknowledge, worship and obey him alone and supremely because he is the redeemer God:

This commandment of the law, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” narrows and extends its obligation on the children of men, in a suitableness to the revelation that he makes of himself. When God reveals himself only by the works of creation and providence, as he doth to the hethen world, then his commandment obliges us to know and acknowledge him as God, Creator and preserver; but when he superadds to this revelation of himself as a reconciled God (I am the Lord thy God), a redeeming God in Christ, then the law superadds a new obligation, namely, to know and acknowledge him as such, and to claim him as the God of salvation, a saving, pitying, pardoning God.

Packer on Knowledge of God

I am reading “Knowing God” by Jim Packer with my ministry trainee. These notes from chapter 2 show the essence of Packer’s faith; the knowledge of God must make a real difference to the way we cope with life situations.

Lots of orthodox evangelicals can state the gospel clearly, and can smell unsound doctrine a mile away. If anyone asks us how men may know God, we can at once produce the right formula – “though Christ, his cross, his word and promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, personal exercise of faith.” Yet the gaiety, goodness and unfetteredness of spirit which are marks of those who have known God are rare among us.

A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about him.

Can I say “that because I have known God the unpleasantness I have had, or the pleasantness I have not had, through being a Christian does not matter to me.”

1. Those who know God have great energy for God. (i.e. Daniel)

2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God. (i.e. Daniel)

3. Those who know God show great boldness for God. (i.e. Daniel)

4. Those who know God have great contentment in God. Full assurance in the completed work of Christ for believing sinners.

We must take time to ask God how impoverished we are.

Do we desire such knowledge of God? Then-

First, we must recognise how much we lack knowledge of God. We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. Many of us, I suspect, have no idea how impoverished we are at this level. Let us ask the Lord to show us.

Second, we must seek the Saviour. When he was on earth, He invited men to company him; thus they came to know Him, and in knowing Him to know His Father.

I’ll blog next week on how this affects Christian leadership types.

The Crisis in British Masculinity

There’s more evidence in last week’s Daily Mail of discontent amongst British women due to a crisis of masculinity in British men. Liz Jones writes “Who created this generation of feeble ‘Hotel Mum’ men? Er, I did”

Jones is scathing in her criticism of the British male:

men under 40 today are, without doubt, feeble, infantile and feckless.

They don’t have the self-confidence to ask women out except when paralytic on cheap blue vodka…

They never attempt to get out their very low-limit Electron debit cards when the bill turns up…

And they have all been raised on a diet of internet porn and ridiculous men’s magazines (in the male glossy world you are either a ponce or a pervert – there is no middle ground) so that all of them, to a wimp, are useless in bed.

No wonder all these big babies have scurried back home to their football-appliqued duvets – their girlfriends have long since chucked them out.

I’m glad I turned 41 last week!

The blame, says Liz Jones, lies at the feet of British women:

The real culprits are women just like me. Bossy, over-achieving, high-maintenance madams who mistook the notion of being equal to men for a scenario in which we completely took over, infantilised them, cosseted them and ultimately castrated them.

The shift in the power-dynamic between men and women has resulted in men giving up:

I’m afraid the result is that we’ve turned our husbands and boyfriends (and now, I’m perfectly sure, our sons) into perpetual Little Lord Fauntleroys – spoilt, spurious sperm donors still wet behind the ears.

Should women blame themselves like this? The suffragettes did set a precedent in the workplace and modern women took it into the home. Eighties material girls and the nineties girl power brigade continued the trajectory set by their grandmothers’ fight to vote and their mothers’ fight to work and equal rights in the workplace by taking the fight into the home. First male politicians were the target, then male bosses and then husbands and boyfriends.

But women should not be too quick to blame themselves for the decline in British masculinity. Men have a responsibility to live as men in God’s world. Men did not have to react passively or reactively to the demands of bossy women. If anyone is to blame for the spinelessness and ineptitude of modern men it is not their mothers, wives and girlfriends but their fathers and grandfathers. When men stopped fearing God and paying attention to God’s wisdom, the only way their sons could behave is, as God says in the bible, like fools.

Romans 1:21-23 although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man (pornography)

According to the wisdom of God, this is what men should do:

Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path.

Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.

The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him.

Proverbs 23:19-24

If men were wise by God’s standards, fearing him and so listening to him, they (we) wouldn’t get “castrated” by bossy women. Men would love the women in their lives as they should by behaving wisely. Women, if you want your man to behave like real man, encourage him to seek God’s wisdom, but don’t boss him into it.

For other posts on this subject see:
Generation X men
Madonna and Generation X women
Jordan and Peter, Gen X again
From the vicarage July 2009
For men only: overcoming porn use

The difference one line makes: changing Anglican prayers

One of the benefits of having a ministry trainee who is steeped in all things Anglican, which I am not, is having someone to remind me about the church calendar, which I knew existed but didn’t think anyone used. I had done two services yesterday before I knew it was All Saints day.

For the evening service, I came prepared, by including the collect for All Saints. I had to change a line from Common Worship (even though the prayer is the same as the one in the book of common prayer), just for clarity:

Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in true repentance, Christ-centred faith and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Church budgeting

Holy Trinity is small church in an urban priority area, so we have a small church budget. Financial priorities and regular monitoring are crucial. I wrote the following briefing paper for our PCC and thought it might be of help to others. The principles apply to all churches, regardless of size.

A guide to budgeting

What is the aim of budgeting? We can put the aim positively or negatively:
1. We want the money we spend this year to equal the money we receive.
2. We don’t want to spend money we don’t have.

Or, in other words: We aim to have no deficit at the end of the year.

How can we achieve that aim? We need to ask three simple questions:
1. How much money do we expect to receive this year?
2. What are our priorities for stewarding that money? (giving as well as spending)
3. What will we agree to use this money for in this coming year?
4. Are there new initiatives we seek to start and are they affordable?

The questions are simple but the process is more involved and may involve making difficult decisions. There will be items of expenditure which are worthwhile but which we simply cannot afford. To find out what these items are, we need to ask the following questions:
1. What did we spend our money on last year?
2. What have been the trends for the past 3 or 4 years.
3. How much will these things cost this year?
4. Is there any money we don’t need to spend?

It is possible that, even after cutting costs as far as possible, the expected spending will exceed expected income. If that is the case, then we need to ask some more questions related to raising extra funds.

1.Can we ask the congregation to increase their giving at this time?
2.Are there external sources to which we could appeal?

Once we have set the budget we need to try and stick to it. To do this, we need to do two things:

1. We need regular updates showing actual income and expenditure compared to the budget.
2. We need to base our decisions for fund-raising and spending on what we agreed at the start of the year.
3. If unforeseen items of expenditure arise, we must review the budget to find if savings can be made elsewhere before committing to spending the new money.

With priorities and budget amounts established at the start of the year, PCC are simplified “yes it’s in the budget” and “no we didn’t budget for that”. If some extra funding is required we can say “it’s not in the budget but it is important”. We can then do one of three things to raise the extra money required:
1. spend our savings
2. appeal specifically to the congregation
3. apply for external funds

By budgeting in this way, we will keep on top of our finances. Budgeting also assures people that the church is stewarding their resources well and so encourages generous giving.

Why Christ’s love is better than wine #2

I was a binge drinker between the ages of 17 and 23, regularly getting wasted for the buzz. I was drawn to Christ at the end of that time and simply stopped drinking. Old friends asked “why don’t you get drunk any more?” I’d say, “because I now know the love of Christ and it’s much better than beer.” Here’s a second excerpt from CH Spurgeon’s sermon on Song of Solomon 1:2, “your love is better than wine“:

II. CHRIST’S LOVE IS BETTER THAN WINE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT IS–

Let me remind you of some of the uses of wine in the East. Often, it was employed as a medicine, for it had certain healing properties. The good Samaritan, when he found the wounded man, poured into his wounds “oil and wine.” But the love of Christ is better than wine; it may not heal the wounds of the flesh, but it does heal the wounds of the spirit.

Wine, again, was often associated by men with the giving of strength. Now, whatever strength wine may give or may not give, certainly the love of Jesus gives strength, and strength mightier than the mightiest earthly force, for when the love of Jesus Christ is shed abroad in a man’s heart, he can bear a heavy burden of sorrow. …The love of Christ enables a man to do great exploits, and makes him strong for suffering, strong for self-sacrifice, and strong for service.

Wine was also frequently used as the symbol of joy; and certainly, in this respect, Christ’s love is better than wine. Whatever joy there may be in the world… the love of Christ is far superior to it. Human joy derived from earthly sources is a muddy, dirty pool, at which men would not drink did they know there was a stream sweeter, cooler, and far more refreshing.

It is better than wine, once more, for the sacred exhilaration which it gives. I have already spoken of this; the love of Christ is the grandest stimulant of the renewed nature that can be known. It enables the fainting man to revive from his swooning; it causes the feeble man to leap up from his bed of languishing; and it makes the weary man strong again. Are you weary, brother, and sick of life? You only need more of Christ’s love shed abroad in your heart. Are you, dear brother, ready to faint through unbelief? You only need more of Christ’s love, and all shall be well with you.