The main quality/comeback characteristics they identified were: leadership, three faith factors (renewed belief in Jesus and the mission of the church, renewed attitude for servanthood, and strategic prayer efforts), worship and preaching, intentional and strategic evangelism, connecting people to spiritual maturity, motivating and mobilizing people out of the pews (helping people discover their spiritual gifts), and connecting people through small groups.

Leadership

Proactive Leadership: “Comeback leaders took the initiative for change” (praying Matt 9:37-38 regularly and passionately and model evangelistic passion). pp.39-41

Sharing Ministry: “Comeback leaders shared the ministry…made choices about those in whom they invested their time and how they invested their time…[and] quickly gave away nonministry tasks.” pp.42-43

Intentional Planning: “Comeback leaders intentionally used their time and the time of others differently…[and] intentionally planned to spend more time doing “people stuff.”” pp.44-45

Vision: “Comeback leaders agreed that having a clear and compelling vision was foundational in the transformation of their churches.” p.45

Developing Leaders: “Comeback leaders multiplied themselves.” p.50

Three Faith Factors

Renewed Belief in Jesus Christ and the Mission of the Church: “Comeback churches got back on mission” and grew “deeply in love with Jesus” and comeback leaders “helped churches grow in love with the community through their preaching, teaching, and praying…[and] helped their churches grow to love the lost…turned their churches outward.” pp. 58-61

Renewed Attitude for Servanthood: “Comeback leaders led their churches to develop the same passion, having a heart for service…comeback churches led people to care more about their communities than their preferences…comeback churches don’t focus exclusively on their own spiritual maturity or demand their preferences.” pp.63-67

Strategic Prayer Efforts: “Comeback churches are praying churches…Comeback leaders led their churches to pray, especially for their communities and then act on those prayers.” pp.68-71

[Extra factors: Goal Setting (comeback leaders made plans) and Valuing Relationships and Reconciliation (comeback leaders saw the value of reconciling relationships). pp.71-73]

Worship and Preaching

Worship: “Almost all comeback churches identified their mood of worship as celebrative and orderly…with a significant emphasis on being informal and contemporary.” p.78

Preaching: “Comeback churches practiced biblical preaching…” that is “more than just persuasive speech.” pp.90-93

Intentional and Strategic Evangelism

“Principle #1: The greatest motivation for evangelism is our own relationship with God, compelling us to love those He loves. Comeback pastors are able to case a compelling vision for outreach that is shared by the leadership and then the congregation.” p.100

“Principle #2: In order to train people to “go and tell,” we will need to teach them to live like Jesus-to live like a messenger of God in this world.” p.101

“Principle #3: Organize for evangelism using multiple methods.” p.102

“Principle #4: Comeback churches have learned that it takes a whole church to win a community, but it takes a leader to helm them do so.” p.103

“Principle #5: Comeback churches know that the whole church has to embrace the mandate for evangelism. Everyone can be involved as a prayer, bringer, and/or teller, and should be trained and mobilized in one or more of these areas.” p.104

“Principle #6: Comeback churches said that creating an environment in which spontaneous and planned evangelism can take place is a key.” p.105

“Principle #7: Comeback churches recognized, purposefully planned for, and utilized “doors of entry” [e.g. outreach events] to the church.” p.109

Connecting People to Spiritual Maturity

“Comeback churches used strategies that help people stay and grow…When a guest fills out a card, the first follow-up should include-at the very least-a letter and a call from the pastor or outreach leader. However, follow-up is not complete until the guest connects with a small-group leader.” pp.118-119

“People need to connect in community to consider the truth claims of the gospel…There really are two conversions – the first to community (“I like and trust these people and want to learn with them) and then to Christ (“I make a dangerous decision for Christ in a safe community of friends”).” p.121

“William Hendricks argues that new Christians are likely to leave the church within the first six months if they don’t develop at least seven significant relationships in the congregation during that time.” p.122

“Many comeback churches – 53 percent – raised the requirements of membership, challenging people to live out the privileges and responsibilities of the covenant community described in Scripture.” p.124

Motivating and Mobilizing People Out of the Pews

“For churches to be able to grow most effectively and reach their full potential, a change has to take place in the role of the pastor, and the people have to step up and use their spiritual gifts.” p.132

Create an Atmosphere of Expectation: “In many comeback churches, the people were taught that they were responsible for the ministry of the church.” p.139

Create an Atmosphere of Equipping: “Comeback churches utilize a strategy, or process, to identify and equip people for ministry as servant leaders. Part of that equipping is discovery of gifts…churches must help people discover their spiritual “equipment” and give them opportunities to use it.” p.140

Create an Atmosphere of Empowerment: “an environment where people feel empowered or enabled to do ministry. In many cases, empowerment occurs through preaching, teaching, and training. Don’t expect people just to “get it.” If you are like most of us, you want to ask people to do things and have them run off and to it. Comeback leaders understand that people have to be taught, trained, and encouraged to be effective ministers…Comeback churches understand that communication is a big part of empowerment…Comeback churches explain biblical guidelines, expectations for people in ministry, awareness and identification of gifts, and available training. They appreciate people in simple ways.” p.142-143

Connecting People through Small Groups

“Comeback leaders exemplified the power of small-group community.” p.147

“Comeback leaders multiplied their ministry through small-group leaders.” p.155

“Comeback leaders made it a priority to start new groups.” p.157

Other Comeback Factors

Facilities: “Comeback churches often changed their facilities to help facilitate their growth.” p.161

Marketing: “38 percent of comeback churches indicated that marketing had a significant impact upon their revitalization”. p.166

Staffing: “six of seven comeback churches experienced staff change prior to their comeback. It is an escapable fact that most comeback churches changed staff…63.6 percent of the respondents indicated that the church’s turnaround coincided with a change in the role of lead or senior pastor.” p.177

In 1994-1996 a major research project was conducted on the causes of church growth: 32 countries, 30 members from each participating church, 4.2 million responses (Schwarz, Natural Church Development Handbook, 1998). It enabled a “quality index” to be developed, based on 8 quality characteristics: empowering leadership; gift-orientated ministry; passionate spirituality; functional structures; inspiring worship services; holistic small groups; need-orientated evangelism; and loving relationships (see below for a summary). Schwarz argues that measures should be developed for each characteristic based on quality not quantity:

“The point of departure for natural church development is, therefore, not goal setting in the area of quantity (3,400 in church by 2002), but in the area of quality (By the end of November, 80 percent of all regular attenders at worship services will know their spiritual gifts). In this area, we dare not neglect setting challenging, attainable, time-bound, and measurable goals.”

Empowering Leadership

“Leaders of growing churches concentrate on empowering other Christians for ministry. They do not use lay workers as helpers in attaining their own goals and fulfilling their own visions. Rather, they invert the pyramid of authority so that the leader assists the Christians to attain the spiritual potential God has for them. These ministers equip, support and motivate and mentor individuals, enabling them to become all that God wants them to be.”

Gift-orientated Ministry

“The gift-orientated approach reflects the conviction that God sovereignly determines which Christians should best assume which ministries. The role of church leadership is to help members to identify their gifts and to integrate them into appropriate ministries. When Christians serve in their area of gifting, they generally function less in their own strength and more in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Passionate Spirituality

“The concept of spiritual passion and the widespread notion of the walk of faith as “performing one’s duty” seem to be mutually exclusive…The nature of this quality characteristic becomes evident by examining the prayer life of the Christians surveyed. While the amount of time (quantity) a Christian spends in prayer plays only a minor role with regard to the quality and growth of a church, the question as to whether or not prayer is viewed as an inspiring experience, has a significant relationship to the quality and quantity of the church.”

Functional Structures

“One of the 15 sub-principles comprising the quality characteristic functional structures is the “department head principle”. I have chosen this sub-principle because it typifies the core of the quantity characteristic: the development of structures which promote an on-going multiplication of the ministry. Leaders are not simply to lead, but also to develop other leaders. Anyone who accepts this perspective will continually evaluate to what extent church structures improve the self-organisation of the church. Elements not meeting this standard (such as discouraging leadership structures, inconvenient worship service times, demotivating financial concepts) will be changed or eliminated. Through this process of continual structural renewal, traditionalistic ruts can, to a large extent, be avoided.”

Inspiring Worship Services

“The word “inspiring” deserves clarification. It is to be understood in the literal sense of inspiration and means an inspiredness which comes from the Spirit of God. Whenever the Holy Spirit is truly at work (and his presence is not merely presumed), he will have a concrete effect upon the way a worship service is conducted including the entire atmosphere of a gathering. People attending truly “inspired” services typically indicate that “going to church is fun”.

Holistic Small Groups

“They must be holistic groups which go beyond simply discussing Bible passages, to applying its spiritual message in daily life. In these groups, members are able to bring up the issues and questions that are their immediate personal concerns…The meaning of the term “discipleship” becomes practical in the context of holistic small groups: the transfer of life, not rote learning of abstract concepts…it allows us to infer the level of importance given to small groups in growing churches: they are not a supplement, like a nice but dispensable hobby. No, much of the essence of true church life is worked out in small groups. Our research confirms that the larger a church becomes, the more decisive the small group principle will be with respect to her further growth.”

Need-orientated Evangelism

“Our research shows that in churches with a high quality index the leadership knows who has the gift of evangelism, and directs them into a corresponding areas of ministry…The key to church growth is for the local congregation to focus its evangelistic efforts on the questions and needs of non-Christians.”

Loving Relationships

“…it can be demonstrated that there is a significant connection between laughter in the church and that church’s qualitative and numerical growth…Unfeigned, practical love has a divinely generated magnetic power far more effective than evangelistic programmes which depend almost entirely on verbal communication. People do not want to hear us talk about love, they want to experience who Christian love really works.”

In late April, a new baby daughter called Ruth was born to one of our young couples – Ezekiel and Sydillia. She was named after Ruth, my wife, so naturally we were thrilled with her arrival. But news soon broke while we were on holiday that serious problems had developed. Baby Ruth had severe liver damage leading to kidney problems, serious infection, a suspected brain tumor, possible liver cancer, severe dehydration, coma-threatening low blood-sugar levels, and possibly blindness. Medics on the Intensive Care ward were trying to keep her alive until a liver transplant became available. Many babies don’t last that long and the chances for Ruth’s survival were slim.

Upon our return my wife and I were keen to minister God’s help. We raced to the hospital. Baby Ruth was like a limp rag doll – weak, non-responsive, helpless and seriously ill with her liver INR levels at an alarming 4.9 (the norm is 0.8 to 1.2). Her parents were distressed, but trusting God. I gently took their child from them and held her close, feeling the stress of this sore trial along with them. But the Lord had earlier said quietly to my spirit as I approached the Intensive Care ward, ‘It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these my little ones should perish.’ Faith comes by hearing!

The Holy Spirit’s gift of ‘miracle faith’ had entered my heart. You just ‘know in your knower’ that God will do something great, no need to work something up. The laying on of hands with prayer was the turning point. From that moment on Ruth’s INR levels fell incrementally every day for three weeks until they returned to normal, confounding consultants, nurses and doctors who were all genuinely amazed. They had not seen this before. Daily tests showed the complete recovery of her brain, eyes, blood sugar levels, liver, appetite and strength. God had healed her and the Doctors sent Ruth home and were delighted to declare this to be a ‘miracle’, without any prompting from us.

Then, the next Sunday evening our second sermon from Mark highlighted Christ’s kingdom work, especially in terms of his authority to preach, heal and deliver the demonically oppressed. With faith rising again, I called any sick people present to come forward for healing prayer. Two men in their twenties responded. Ben had continuous pain in both ankles due to chronic arthritis from early childhood. Pete had a sporting injury to his left knee with severe pain and ‘clicking’ that hadn’t let up for 4 weeks and made sleeping, walking and normal movement agonizing. So again, we laid hands on them both and ministered healing in Jesus’ name. Within minutes both men began to feel a tingling sensation in those damaged areas, then a new ease of movement, and finally freedom from pain and injury. Both were stunned and amazed. The next day, Pete was racing up five floors of stairs at his workplace after a great night of pain free sleep. Ben is also still enjoying his surprise reversal of the irreversible, in the easing of pain in his ankles and feet. God is so good!

Does Jesus really do healing miracles today? In the last 27 years since I started believing for this to happen, I’ve seen so many I can no longer doubt that he does. But then, Mark records Jesus’ final words to his people everywhere, promising them repeated and varied supernatural confirmations of his powerful presence and the truth of His Gospel as we preach and believe it: ‘And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons…they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well.” (Mk. 16:17-18).  So there you have it. If we go forth with Christ’s saving word, he promises to regularly back it up with his stunning wonders. Our preaching series in Mark is sure to be regularly interrupted with many divine surprises. Let’s be prepared to welcome them!

1) Audio Bible. You can look up any passage and click ‘play’.

2) Note-taking function. You can write your own thoughts and reflections on a passage and they are stored there for future reference (providing you register).

3) Study-Bible notes. If you own an ESV Study Bible, you can access all the notes on this new site, providing you either put in your reference number (which came with your purchase of the Study Bible), or if you have already done that on the old Study Bible website, then wait a couple of days and the ESV team will recognise your email address and make the Study Bible notes available on the new website.

Here is the link: www.esvonline.org

When you’re considering the debate over evolution and creation, there is a rather large problem for the evolutionists; how did life originate? How did molecules organize themselves into the first self-replicating organism?

People try to imagine what life might have looked like back then. But it’s important to bear in mind that they’re just imagining; the simplest life-forms we know of that are capable of autonomous survival are not exactly simple, and we have no reason to think that they ever were simple. In fact, the simplest life-forms still require about 1000 different proteins to survive, these being single-celled organisms (like e. coli).

With this in mind, read the following excerpt. It’s written by Dr John Baumgardner, giving us some straight-forward calculations on the probability of life arising by chance. It’s certainly worth the effort to get your head around what Baumgardner is saying:

“Let us first establish a reasonable upper limit on the number of molecules that could ever have been formed anywhere in the universe during its entire history. Taking 1080 [the number 1 followed by 80 zeros] as a generous estimate for the total number of atoms in the cosmos, 1012 [the number 1 followed by 12 zeros] for a generous upper bound for the average number of interatomic interactions per second per atom, and 1018 seconds (roughly 30 billion years) as an upper bound for the age of the universe, we get 10110 as a very generous upper limit on the total number of interatomic interactions which could have ever occurred during the long cosmic history the evolutionist imagines. Now if we make the extremely generous assumption that each interatomic interaction always produces a unique molecule, then we conclude that no more than 10110 unique molecules could have ever existed in the universe during its entire history.

“Now let us contemplate what is involved in demanding that a purely random process find a minimal set of about 1000 protein molecules needed for the most primitive form of life. To simplify the problem dramatically, suppose somehow we already have found 999 of the 1000 different proteins required and we need only to search for that final magic sequence of amino acids which gives us that last special protein. Let us restrict our consideration to the specific set of 20 amino acids found in living systems and ignore the hundred of so that are not. Let us also ignore the fact that only those with left-handed symmetry appear in life proteins. Let us also ignore the incredibly unfavourable chemical reaction kinetics involved forming long peptide chains in any sort of plausible non-living chemical environment.

“Let us merely focus on the task of obtaining a suitable sequence of amino acids that yield a 3D protein structure with some minimal degree of essential functionality. Various theoretical and experimental evidence indicates that in some average sense about half of the amino acid sites must be specified exactly. For a relatively short protein consisting of a chain of 200 amino acids, the number of random trials needed for a reasonable likelihood of hitting a useful sequence is then in the order of 20100 (100 amino acid sites with 20 possible candidates at each site), or about 10130 trials. This is a hundred billion billion times the upper bound we computed for the total number of molecules ever to exist in the history of the cosmos!! No random process could ever hope to find even one such protein structure, much less the full set of roughly 1000 needed in the simplest forms of life. It is therefore sheer irrationality for a person to believe random chemical interactions could ever identify a viable set of functional proteins out of the truly staggering number of candidate possibilities.” (John Baumgardner; extract from In Six Days edited by Dr John F Ashton, p.207-208.)

Baumgardner is not the only scientist to have made such calculations; in fact, I think Sir Fred Hoyle was the first (you can check out his calculations on his Wikipedia page).  Any honest person would read the above and say, it can’t happen – life cannot originate by chance.

But the real problem is that such an admission opens the door to larger questions too scary to handle.

Wow…what a GREAT service we had on Sunday evening launching our new, exciting series: Mark’s Gospel – What if God was one of us?

Great preach, great worship, real sense of God in our midst.

Last Sunday (for those not in the know) we changed our service time from 4pm to 5.30pm to provide more time for people (especially those involved in serving/ministry teams) to rest and relax and enjoy fellowship with each other before the afternoon service, launching a 12 month series (interspersed with Christmas, Easter, etc.) on Mark’s Gospel.

This is a response to our ever-increasing desire for the Gospel to be preached (and thereby for Christ to be exalted) at every Sunday service. We want all our services to be both edifying to the church and challenging to non-believers, clearly presenting the Gospel and providing opportunities for non-believers to repent and accept Christ. We are convinced that God wants to build Westminster Chapel on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we want to make this Gospel central to everything that we do. And what better place to start than in Mark’s Gospel, written by young John Mark who rose from obscurity to worldwide influence in writing an entirely new genre of literature – the first Gospel.  His aim was to racily describe what the world would be like if God became one of us.

Greg has also written an outstanding guide to Mark’s Gospel (I’ve had a sneak peek and it is not to be missed) that will be available for free on our website soon!

There is rising faith amongst us as a leadership and staff team, as well as our members, to see many come to faith, recommit to God and to pray for the sick and see them healed at all our services, so please be bold in inviting friends, colleagues and neighbours to attend. Let’s pray, pray, pray and believe God to do amazing things in our church in the season ahead!

There is an obsession in the world today with getting popular approval, mass support, and adoration.  I sometimes wonder just how much this desire has infiltrated the church.  Some pastors (not all) want big churches because big churches mean big popularity.  Some church members want their church to be big because that means we look credible and impressive in the eyes of the world.  It’s nice to tell your friends or colleagues how many hundreds or thousands of people are at your church.

I’m not against big churches or the very deliberate effort to grow churches.  On the contrary, I believe that is the very definite plan of God.  I’m convinced the Bible predicts a very, very impressive picture with regard to the future of the Church.  As one preacher put it, “Jesus is coming back for a massive bride…” (an unfortunate turn of phrase, I’ll admit.)

However, despite this very definite trajectory that the Church of Jesus Christ is set on – unstoppable growth – it is nevertheless equally true that the crowds we call churches may be deceptively big.  Not everybody in a church is necessarily in the Church.

What do I mean?  It’s obvious when you think about it that size does not equate to success in any direct sense.  If it did, then the Catholic Church is clearly doing quite well… Jesus isn’t interested in gathering crowds if the individuals in that crowd can get the wrong idea that they’re part of Jesus’ Church, when in fact they’re not.  There may be a feeling of safety in numbers that actually stops people getting saved.

For this reason Jesus does some very interesting things when he’s faced by crowds in the gospels.  On the one hand, there are many, many occasions when Jesus is surrounded by crowds and he enjoys a good rapport with them.  He teaches – they listen and are amazed.  But there are some very significant moments when Jesus sees the crowds and then proceeds to say things that he knows will turn them away in dismay or disgust.  He deliberately cuts through the mass hysteria and whittles down the mob to allow true faithfulness to emerge.

On one occasion he tells his followers that unless they eat his flesh and drink his blood, they won’t inherit eternal life (John 6).  The immediate effect is that a good deal of his own disciples abandon him, because he sounded more than a little crazy.  Here is another example: ‘When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation…” ‘ (Luke 11:29 ESV).  I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon open with that line.

Here is one final example, and it’s worth quoting in full:

‘Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” ‘ (Luke 14:25-26 ESV)

My point is simple, but important.  If preachers are softening their messages in order to grow bigger churches, then they are not preaching like Jesus preached.  Instead, the truth should attract and repel; it should woo and it should come down like a hammer on anything resembling half-hearted commitment.  To fail to do this is simply unloving, since it perpetuates the confusion people have that there is safety in numbers.

What would Jesus say to so many ‘successful’ churches where the numbers are up, but truth is down?

I thoroughly recommend you work through these 35 questions, and journal your answers. I have found this process very helpful. It doesn’t provide a quick-fix solution, but at least it sheds light on those dark corners of your heart that rarely get attention. This, in turn, helps you to repent and change.

So, to see the questions, check out this blog post by Scott Thomas.

“There is nothing more difficult to to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” (Machiavelli, The Prince)

“In building a great institution, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, our research showed that it feels like turning a giant, heavy flywheel. Pushing with great effort – days, weeks and months of work, with almost imperceptible progress – you finally get the flywheel to inch forward. But you don’t stop. You keep pushing, and with persistent effort, you eventually get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You don’t stop. You keep pushing, in an intelligent and consistent direction, and the flywheel moves a bit faster. You keep pushing, and you get two turns…then four…then eight…the flywheel builds momentum…a hundred…moving faster with each turn…a thousand…ten thousand…a hundred thousand. Then, at some point – breakthrough! Each turn builds upon previous work, compounding your investment effort. The flywheel flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum. This is how you build greatness.” (Collins, Good to Great and the Social Sectors)

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” (Roosevelt, Speech at Sorbonne, Paris, 1910)

“People don’t resist change, they resist being changed” and “See managing change as akin to steering a boat across turbulent waters – work with the wind.” (Beckhard and Harris, Organisational Transition – Managing Complex Change)

Change formula (created by Beckhard, Harris and Gleicher and improved by Dannemiller and Jacobs):

Change = (A x B x C) > D

Where:

A = dissatisfaction with the status quo (evidence of the need for change)

B = a desirable future (painting a picture/vision of how things could be)

C = a practical pathway (confidence in the likelihood of getting there, concrete steps that can be taken towards the vision)

D = the cost of changing (resistance)

Thud, the mail dropped through the letter box, and so began a surprise happy day in the Thorneycroft house…let me explain.

A number of years back I made a couple of foolish decisions that ended up in me committing a serious driving offence. I was stopped by the police, summoned to appear in court and punished with the loss of my licence and a very hefty fine.

But hasn’t the punishment been paid?
After I had paid the fine and served the time of the driving ban, I received my driving licence back and was keen to get behind the wheel again. However, I was quick to find out that I now had a record, that this offence that I so readily wanted to put in the past, forget and put down to experience, was constantly before me. It was even listed on my licence. This very record of wrong would start to affect me going about my life as freely as I had previously.

Affected by a record of wrong
Due to my driving ban I sold my car, and upon moving to London had decided I had no need for regular use of a car. When it came to occasionally needing a car I would find that because of the endorsement on my licence I couldn’t hire a vehicle, as I was seen as a major risk. I wouldn’t even be considered by insurance companies as a named driver on a friend’s insurance, etc. This record followed me around and restricted what I could do in many ways.

So can you imagine what a surprise and happy day it was when today, due to a recent address change, my re-issued licence arrived in the post, and the record of my offence was no longer recorded on it!

So now I am free to go about life, hire, insure as if this offence had never happened! Sure, it doesn’t remove the event, lessons learnt, but now that past wrong can no longer have impact on the here and now or my future.

A far superior “Happy Day”
But this happy day pales into comparison to a far superior “Happy Day”.

The bible tells us of how we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 2:23). My sinful nature and willful rebellion was an offence to God as I traded his glory for complete and utter non-glories. This sin did not just deserve a fine & ban, but punishment of death!

So why such a happy day? You see God, by giving Jesus to die in my place, provided a way that not only the penalty for my offence be paid, but that the offence also be removed completely! His precious blood that flowed not only purchased my pardon, appeasing God’s wrath and restoring me to right relationship with Him, but also washed my sin and shame away!

In psalm 103 the psalmist declares “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” Now my life is free from any shame or hinderance from my past!

I don’t know about you, but why do we so often walk around as if this wasn’t true? We claim the truth that we are now of right standing with God in Christ, yet live life being affected by our wrongs and failings of yesterday. There’s no need!

So let’s be quick to remind one another, when we have come to God asking for forgiveness of our sin, trusting and leaning on our Saviour alone, we can be confident that God will “remember our sins and lawless deeds no more”. In light of this, let’s live every moment here on earth in the fullness of the freedom that has been given to us in Christ.

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

Let’s worship!

Excellence on the other hand is: giving your best efforts; going beyond (your) mediocrity; motivated by God’s grace (Romans 12:1); about learning from mistakes how to fail forward (Proverbs 24:16; Psalm 42:5); learning from criticism (Proverbs 9:8-9); deriving our value as people from God (not performance); doing all things well for God’s glory; each believer reaching his/her greatest potential; being better tomorrow than you were yesterday; matching your practice with your potential.

As we pursue excellence together, let’s try to avoid the perfectionist trap by drinking deep from the wells of God’s grace.

Some beliefs are totally destructive to Christian faith and culture for they are denials of it. Christ charges us to change the world for the better, not bed-down with its shallow-rooted ideas! This legislation is akin to enforcing the freedom of British National Party members to join the Labour Party and hold office, or a radical Socialist revolutionary’s right to work as an adviser to David Cameron and the Conservative Party since we’re all ‘equal’. Thankfully, this ain’t going to happen, for reasons fairly obvious to people of common sense! Sadly, this highly valuable commodity – common sense – once thought essential in decision making and public discourse in Britain, is increasingly hard to find.

I recently re-read a very old letter from a wise and highly respected thinker, who voiced uncommon wisdom on some very important issues that relate to this legislation and should concern everyone who’s worried about the erosion of the foundations within our culture. He urges us to embrace uncomfortable truths and make a stand for them, due to their importance to us all. Here’s an extract:

“I feel very strongly about this huge obligation to tell the truth to all kinds of people across the whole spectrum of human ethnicity and beliefs, even if I’m mocked as a fool for this. The fact is I’m not remotely embarrassed about the life-changing truths I feel compelled to pass on. I’ve already seen their power to transform countless human lives for the better. God can fix anything and anybody up. He plans to rectify everyone who believes this, and then everything else around them.

“This remedy is essential, because God is righteously indignant and opposed to the God-defiant and rebellious lifestyles of anyone who willfully suppresses his truth for self-serving private moral agendas, because it suits then to do so. It’s not as though God is in hiding as many assert, for he’s made his power and benevolence plain for all to see. First, in the way nature itself has been marvelously designed, then within our own consciences as we see his signature in even our body’s  human cells! It’s obvious that although unseen, God’s awesome power and capabilities have been on full display from the very beginning – creation itself.  You have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see this!

“The tragedy is that though we’re all aware of this, we work overtime to suppress it. We thus rob God of honour, failing to give credit where credit’s due. Why, we’re rarely ever even thankful! As a direct consequence, moral blindness shrouds our thinking and we become confused in our minds, refusing to face up to the plain facts. All the lights go out while, ironically, some claim they’re pursuing a path to greater insight and intellectual superiority. A few of these call themselves ‘The Brights’! I see this delusional thinking everywhere. People first deny the truth, then swap it for ‘tin-pot’ gods and crazy ideas of their own making that inevitably debase them.

“Eventually, God reacts strongly to this in a last resort.  He gives people up to their defiant choices, abandoning them to the consequences of rebellion. How else could they ever discover that they’ve bought into the Lie, and realize that ‘The Emperor has no clothes!’? It’s as though a kind of madness seizes hold of them. Shameful lusts are willingly permitted to master them. God-ordained natural relationships are replaced with unnatural ones that enslave people to insatiable cravings for illicit sexual practices. They abuse not only themselves, but others also. It’s not just the men who do this, for even women fall into these vices too, as everyone forgets what God actually gave us sex for.

“As God’s norms are overturned, the foundations for solid moral thinking disappear too, resulting in the ‘domino-effect’ of unleashing a ‘Pandora’s Box’ of countless evils. Whole societies marginalize God then go insane in the pursuit of freedom without limits. This virulent plague of ‘truth decay’ triggers the implosion of whole civilizations into anarchy and lawlessness in their insane flight from reason. They race to invent new ways to commit social suicide! The fall-out includes idol- worship, pandemics of deception, broken promises, slanderous dirt-dishing, paedophile child abuse, rape, brutal killings, massive frauds, anarchic violence, and vice-grip addictions, all symptoms of their hatred of God and love for de-humanizing evils. They interpret all of this as proof of their new-found ‘freedom’, then angrily silence all protests and pass laws to permit even worse things.”

If this is so, then God help us! The blindness of our legislators lies in their systematic dismantling of our culture’s once strong theological roots sourced in a Biblical life-and-worldview that once secured Britain’s freedoms and true greatness due to our fear of God and respect for his Law. Now, in the name of ‘tolerance’, ‘equality’ and ‘justice’ we are jeopardizing all three by framing laws that are discriminatory, intimidating, and restrictive to free debate on issues that lie at the core of what it means to be truly human – true beliefs and sound ethics. Both seem to change like the wind, but this is surely an ill wind.

NOTE: Most readers will have guessed my correspondent’s identity. It’s Paul the Apostle, the new name he acquired once his murderous fanaticism was removed and his boundary-free mission to the nations was well underway. The above echoes Romans 1. If anyone’s inclined to arrest, fine or imprison Paul for his ‘inflammatory talk’, you should know he’s already ‘done time’ for this. He’s presently beyond all attempts to silence or punish him.

Greg Haslam

Back in September 2009, I was invited to participate in this programme by preaching a sermon on Genesis 1 at Westminster Chapel, then being interviewed for 90 minutes by Howard Jacobson. Both would be filmed as material to be included in this hot debate about creation. Howard wanted to find out how ‘fundamentalist’ creationists explain and defend the theology of Genesis. Most ‘fundamentalists’ usually appear not much ‘fun’, slightly ‘dumb’, and occasionally ‘mental’ to me, but I was willing to take the risk and participate.

I found Howard Jacobson to be charming, witty and incisive in his questions. A Mancunian Jew who drifted away from the faith of his fathers and lived a secular lifestyle, he now hovers indecisively somewhere between wistful longings and strong scepticism on the God-question. This was reflected in the whole tenor of the programme.

Howard’s personal uncertainties, speculations, poetic imagination and eagerness to glean abstract insights and mythical morsels from his guests was plain. His witnesses were as diverse as A.C. Grayling and Mary Midgley, comic Dara Ó Briain, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Israeli thinkers and archaeologists, and theistic evolutionists like John Polkinghorne. Even The God Delusion polemicist Richard Dawkins appeared, but Howard’s contempt for Dawkins was evident from the grainy old footage he showed of his nemesis in a full tirade against God and religion! The overall presentation was fair but unsatisfying. As one blogger remarked, ‘Howard Jacobson spent the next three quarters of an hour showing his dislike of people of conviction and his desire for an almost fantasy world where things could be both true and untrue, and where you could reject the creation story and believe it at the same time.’ Sad but true.

Biblical creationists like myself were given a voice, but not really permitted to present their case. My 90 minute interview and careful overview of the ‘In the beginning…’ historical narrative of Genesis 1, was honed down to 3 or 4 sound-bites. That’s television I suppose, but it’s not serious argument. Most of the evidence for the defense ended up on the cutting-room floor. Sometimes, not even God is allowed to get a word in edgeways.

Jacobson seemed more comfortable and at home in the poetry and mythology of speculative ideas, and more eager to accept inaccurate archaeological conclusions or the speculations of liberal theologians in their cavalier de-bunking of scripture, than he was prepared to pursue substantial theological accuracy, careful historical study, and scientific facts.

Science and religion don’t meet in his thinking. But can such a strange idea be right if ‘All truth is God’s truth’, as philosopher Arthur Holmes affirms? Biblical faith is meant to be founded on historical facts, or else it’s a probably a lie (see I Corinthians 15:12-20). Jacobson’s confusion on this matter is a great pity, since no subject is more important a priori to our thinking than God and the Bible’s teaching on his creation and control of all things. Alone among all alternative worldviews, this perspective offers us satisfying and reliable answers to all of life’s most important questions: Who are we? What are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? How will it all end? How long have we got?

But then, from ancient Greek thinkers to post-modern sceptics, mankind has always pursued the secret agenda of making a bid for autonomy from God by denying his existence in a self-imposed wilful blindness that refuses to see the truth of his ‘eternal power and divinity’ which is ‘clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse’ (Romans 1:18-25).

Harvard biologist, Richard Lewontin, candidly admitted the paucity of scientific evidence for Darwinist macro evolution, whilst simultaneously revealing his real moral and spiritual reasons for still embracing, in blind faith, its unproven speculations, ‘We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs…because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.’

Philip Johnson, retired Professor of Law at Berkeley, in his book Reason in the Balance comments on the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 1:20-23, ‘What these words mean plainly is that those who turn away from God towards naturalistic philosophy give up their minds in the process and end up endorsing sophisticated nonsense and nature worship.’

Let’s give credit for creation where credit is due.

—-

Please click here if you would like to hear the sermon, ‘Now a Word from Our Creator’, preached for this programme.

Context
Although we cannot be sure precisely where Exodus 18 fits chronologically in Israel’s first year of freedom from Egypt, the significance of it being placed after Exodus 17 (whether in chronological order or not) by the writer is important.

Exodus 17:1-7
Water from the rock. Moses angry and frustrated with the people. Moses told by God to take some of the elders with him and strike the rock.

Exodus 17:8-16
Amalekites defeated at Rephidim. Moses’s arms being held up by Aaron and Hur crucial to victory.

Both of these stories illustrate the heavy leadership responsibility Moses had (a nation composed of nearly 2,000,000 people (600,000 men, cf. 12:37)) (and in the early part of chapter 17, some of his frustrations) and hint at a move towards sharing this leadership burden with others.

Outsider?
Jethro was a “priest of Midian” – not an Israelite. He had not lived under oppression in Egypt and taken part in their miraculous escape. He was not steeped in Israelite culture and history. He was, in this sense, an outsider.

But when Moses was on the run from Egypt, Jethro was the friend and father-in-law (for c.40 years) Moses needed. Sometimes Godly advice can come from unlikely sources – (‘unqualified’) outsiders – are we ready and willing to receive it?

Prelude
Jethro listens and investigates, verses 1-8.
Jethro praises God, verses 9-11.
Jethro gives thanks to God, verse 12.
Jethro observes, verse 13.
Jethro questions Moses, verse 14 (to help him identify the issue).
Jethro challenges (somewhat bluntly), verse 17.
Jethro explains (his previous statement) and identifies the issue, verse 18. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.

Jethro saw and foresaw: Moses and the people over-stretched. Burnt out (consumed by the tyranny of the urgent?) and the mission of God derailed.

Advice
The heart of Jethro’s advice was relinquishing control to empower others to lead. To engage, equip, and disciple the people of God in order to further the mission of God. There are five pillars.

One: Prayer
Verse 19: You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him.

Disputes is also translated cases and causes or questions. Jethro told Moses to pray for the people. To do this effectively he needed to be amongst the people, to listen to their needs and understand their issues (disputes, cases, causes, questions) in order to bring them to God.

Moses, by bringing their disputes to God, was to rely on God’s strength and wisdom (not his own). Moses, by representing and interceding for the people, would increase his love and empathy for the people. It would help him to take his eyes off his own frustrations (with them) and be other-centred.

Two: Teach
Verse 20a: Teach them the decrees and laws…

Provide (intellectual) knowledge (through expounding, preaching, etc.) about what it means to live in right relationship with each other and God (since this is the summary of the Law). Explain what righteousness means in words.

Three: Model
Verse 20b: and show them the way to live…

Live the Godly life (the cruciform life) before (in the midst of) the people. Be the model and example they can follow. Help people to see what righteousness means in actions.

Four: Demonstrate
Verse 20c: [show them] the duties they are to perform.

Demonstrate the duties the people are to perform. Help them to visualise their role and responsibilities, their tasks and obligations. Provide goals and a clear job description. Good leadership shows people what is expected of them. Demonstration should come before delegation.

Five: Delegate
Verses 21-22: But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.

Select people in accordance with their capability and character, with more emphasis on the latter: trustworthy (faithful), honest, wise (fear of God). The presumption is that Moses (leaders) should be able to identify other leaders. Leaders recruit others. Appoint leaders in accordance with their ability (over 10s – 50s – 100s – 1000s).

First, take all of God’s gifts with thanksgiving.  There are plenty of people who feel guilty enjoying rest and food.  That’s sad, because God has given them to us.  It’s worse than sad when they try and put their guilt on other people – in fact, it’s downright wrong.  Paul knew this, and that’s why he described such people as devoted to the doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1-2).  In contrast he tells you, Christian, to enjoy everything God has given with thanksgiving.  ”For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4-5).

Second, maintain discipline even in your feasting and your resting.  It’s very obvious as you look at the festivals for the Israelites in Leviticus 23 that they involve much enforced rest, but their feasting also contained rhythms and rituals designed to draw the worshipper’s attention to God their Redeemer.  So also at Christmas, I encourage you to rest well and eat well, but also to take up the opportunity to worship well, and to approach God daily in prayer and listening to his Word.

There are bad ways of feasting which involve the extremes of either pious legalism (and its accompanying false guilt and self-righteous pride), or flabby licentiousness (leading to the New Year blahs and a long recovery process).  As you seek to feast well this Christmas, take God’s gifts with thanksgiving, and return to him daily for the true rest that he alone can bring to your soul.

But wait. God took only some of the human components and genetic make-up from the ovaries of Mary his mother, a virgin Jewish maiden of royal lineage. From them he then cloned the embryo of Jesus, bypassing the normal intervention of male sperm and its chromosome complement, presumably through a creative miracle which subsidised the lack in Mary’s ovum. Matthew says ‘She was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit’ (1:18), and notes that Joseph’s suspicions were quelled by the explanation, ‘What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’ (1:20). Many struggle with the apparent naivety of believing this.

Mary did too. In answer to Mary’s query of the angel as to how she could be pregnant when she was still a virgin and had never ‘played around’, she was told ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God’ (Luke 1:35).  The actual physical processes involved in this are not explained medically, but the activity of the Holy Spirit is clearly credited as the source of the resulting miracle child. The most obvious reason for this is that the child should be holy, and that Adamic sin and corruption should not be inherited by Jesus. Male paternity was bypassed to ensure this.

If rational scepticism raises hard questions beyond those already voiced by Mary and Joseph themselves, the response of the angel is as terse in its rebuke as it is in its brevity: ‘For nothing is impossible with God’ (Luke 1:37). No further explanation seemed necessary. The process from that point onwards was normal in every way and concluded in Mary’s labour and painful delivery, as happens with other newborns. Both Matthew and Luke attribute a human family tree to Jesus, affirming that Jesus inherited genetic traits from his forbears as we all do, ancestors that included the prostitute Rahab and gentile Ruth (Matthew 1:5). Theologically, the virgin birth of Christ is crucially important. Why?

1. We are told it occurred, and the integrity of scripture is at stake here. This truly is ‘Good news, good news for all mankind’. And God himself announces it!

2. The whole of human life had to be redeemed, not just part of it. Early church theologian, Irenaeus (b. 130AD), wrote ‘He came to save all through himself; all that is, who through him are born unto God, infants, children, boys, young men and old. Therefore he passed through every stage of life: he was made an infant for infants, sanctifying infancy; a child among children, sanctifying those of this age, an example to them of filial affection, righteousness and obedience; a young man amongst young men, an example to them, and sanctifying them to the Lord. So also amongst the older men; that he might be a perfect master for all, not solely in revelation of the truth, but also in respect of each stage of life. And then he came even unto death that he might be “the firstborn from the dead, holding the pre-eminence among all” (Colossians 1:18), the Prince of Life, before and preceding all’   (Adv. Haer. II. xxii. 4).

3. Transmission of sin is related to the father. Not because a man is more sinful than a woman, implying we would all be sinless if we didn’t have a male parent. Nor because sex is the source of sin. But because God held Adam primarily responsible for sin’s invasion, though Eve sinned first chronologically (Genesis 3:6; I Timothy 2:14). It is ‘in Adam all die’ (I Corinthians 15:22). Adam was more responsible, not more sinful than the woman (I Timothy 3:14).

4. It has great value in symbolizing the incarnation. God became man. If Christ had been born in the normal way, then his beginnings would have been unexceptional and non-miraculous to human observation. But ‘the Word became flesh’ here! The virgin birth serves to authenticate his claims to a unique divine status, whilst identifying him totally with us in our plight, due to sin’s universal fallout.

5. It illustrates many truths concerning  salvation. For example, we see that (a) Salvation is clearly supernatural. With Christ God began a completely new prototype humanity (John 1:12-13). All subsequent ‘born again’ or regenerate people in Christ since then are also supernatural products, because we are termed a ‘new creation’ in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Humans are helpless when it comes to salvation. We cannot initiate the first step in the process, nor even introduce the Saviour into society. Salvation belongs exclusively to God. He saved us from the de-humanising of mankind, corruption and death. (b) Salvation is a gift of grace. Mary herself was undeserving, and needed a Saviour too (Luke 1:38; 46-55). She had nothing to offer, not even a husband. So God moved in grace. (c) Christ is unique. He was a highly unusual child and man, as evidenced by his conception. His existence preceded his birth, and he was the only child in history who chose his own mother. (d) God has total sovereignty over nature. He is its creator, and is regularly interventionist within it. Christ is not a product of ‘natural evolution’ but a completely new beginning involving the fiat creative handiwork of the Father, who works the totally improbable to prove that ‘nothing is impossible with God’ (Luke 1:38).

Robert Clarke once observed ‘Christ was God, not because he was virgin born. He was virgin born because he was God.’ Here then, is the real ‘reason for the season’, and why we should all recover from our spiritual amnesia and make merry throughout it!

I’ve been at WC for more than 6 years serving in a number of different ministries, hosting, 20:20 Vision, and the Change Team. I thought I knew WC fairly well…and in some ways I did…but in some ways I didn’t.

For example, I didn’t know that one member of staff frequently burps at his/her desk and that two male members of staff are closet Celine Dion fans (in the interests of safety, that is my safety, all shall remain anonymous).

In 24 Redemption, in response to a critic, President Noah Daniels says: “Let’s talk after you’ve been sitting in my chair for a while.” He has a point. It’s easy to be an armchair critic. I become one every time England plays a football match. Armed with only half the facts (and despite appreciating the difficult task that various England managers have had) I sometimes think that I could do a better job, when in reality, I would be terrible!

In the same way that we can be football manager armchair critics, we can be church leader armchair critics too. Let’s be honest, we’ve all done it.

But as the chess player Robert Byrnes said: “Until you walk a mile in another man’s moccasins you can’t imagine the smell.”

Sweaty
Well, I think I’ve walked that mile now (as an insider) in the corridors of WC and I can reliably tell you that the smell is sweaty indeed. Everyone, especially our boss, works really, really hard to build the church God wants here. I certainly put in more hours than I did when I was practising as a barrister.

There’s a lot happening back stage; a great deal of which it’s not appropriate to share because it’s quite sensitive. But rest assured we are listening to issues raised and ideas proposed as plans take shape for a very exciting 2010. But in the meantime please be patient with us.

Sweet
The smell of sweat, however, is thankfully balanced by a beautifully sweet aroma. I’ve been so encouraged by the energy and enthusiasm of our staff and members in recent weeks. For example, the servant hearted way that so many people helped out with Antony and Rebecca Hart’s wedding on 21 Nov was awesome! Not to mention the faithful way that so many people serve at the Chapel every week. You really are a fantastic group of people!

As a church we are pregnant with the promises of God. We are expectant to see God move both in and through us, affecting the lives of our friends, family and colleagues in a way that we will see our church family grow as people come to faith in Jesus.

Here are a few thoughts out of my recent experience that I trust will stir us to ask God, by His grace, to enable us to honour Him in the way we prepare for and react to growth at Chapel; to receive grace for growth.

Preparations
Arriving a month earlier than expected, Gideon caught us somewhat off guard. We had fortunately spent the days leading up to his birth moving furniture, washing baby clothes and packing Charlotte’s hospital bag. The essentials were in place, but ideally we would have sorted many other things in advance.

At Chapel we have already experienced much change and there is a sense that this change is preparatory for the unfolding of the promises that God has spoken over us. God is leading us, establishing the things He wants to be in place, in His time, in order to fulfil His purposes. We may expand in ways that we don’t expect, or to a different time scale than we had thought. Yet God’s grace is readily available to us, that we might flow with His plans and trust Him to provide for all our needs.

Although there were initial concerns with Gideon’s early arrival, there was such peace with us in the labour suite. This was God’s perfect timing! At Chapel we need grace to know that same security as we see God’s promises outworked in our life together. There is grace for growth.

Expectations
Isn’t it strange how we often carry unspoken expectations. When Gideon was first handed to me by the midwife I was somewhat surprised that he looked different from our eldest, Josiah. It is not that I expected another Josiah, but somewhere in the mix my expectations had been shaped by previous experience.

As our church family grows we need to receive grace to welcome and love people who are different from the current family that we have grown to know and love. New converts, like babies, are likely to bring a level of mess and noise that we have not been accustomed to. Maybe the new additions might even include the “more demanding child”.  Whatever we think, we can be sure that God will move both beyond and outside our expectations. There is grace for growth.

Adjustments
As a family the biggest challenge has been to help our son, Josiah, adjust to having a new member of the family around. Josiah had grown used to our undivided attention, but now little bro is muscling in on the action.

We have had to pray for grace to understand how Josiah is feeling and to meet his need to know love and security, whilst at the same time establishing and embracing the changes that a new addition has brought to our family.

In the coming season at Chapel there will be adjustments for us all in our life together. We will need to draw more readily upon God’s grace to stay in the flow of His purposes. We may need grace to see others reap quickly where we have sown faithfully over decades, grace to sit next to and share our lives with different people, grace to know how to love new arrivals,  grace to see others lead where we have once led….

On into a new season
So as Charlotte, Josiah, Gideon and myself start out on a new season of life together, daily receiving grace from God to love and model Christ to one another, so I would urge us as a church family to readily receive grace from God; grace for change and growth in the coming months and years as we see the Gospel unleashed and Christ radically changing the lives of individuals and families, and so impacting our precious city of London.

Campbell Morgan's Friday evening lecture (complete with chalk board), c.1911

Do we live under the weight of our history as a church?

In some ways, maybe we do.  Onlookers tend to feel that they own the Chapel, even if it has never been their place of worship.  There’s a constant feeling of being scrutinized, and that our every move is being watched.  Do they still stand for expository preaching?  Why is the place not full?

It seems silly in one sense, because when you worship at Chapel, you realise it’s just a regular church.  We’re pretty normal.  Most of the people we have with us now have joined in the last 7 years.  Why the attention?

But in another sense, I get it.  I get why people look at Chapel and feel a special concern.  The history is spectacular, and I understand why we (as the present members and leaders) need to be very aware of all God has done in the past.

So we celebrate the past.  We look back with admiration.  We read the books, the sermons, the newspaper cuttings (like these) and we feel such a sense of wonder at how God has brought us to a place like this, for a time like this.  You can’t step into the big circular pulpit and not feel the adrenaline as you survey the view, and size-up the hefty lectern.  There’s something amazing about walking into the vestry and seeing Lloyd-Jones’ preaching gown (complete with his name on the tag) hanging in the cupboard.

John Piper’s biography of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones is incredibly insightful.  He ends by considering five areas of weakness in the Doctor’s ministry – ways in which his preaching did not necessarily lead to practical outworking.

The truth is, we have actively sought to correct these and other weaknesses.  Of course we do not downplay the importance of preaching.  We don’t want to trade off our heritage, and our Gospel-focus.  But we take heart that what we’re doing now is right, and God will honour that.

We have hopeful hearts.  We were recently looking at Haggai 2 (“…the glory of the latter house will be greater…”) and there’s a sense in which that passage resonates with us.  Obviously, we’re not building a physical temple, but we are nevertheless part of the building-work on God’s living temple.  And there’s a huge expectancy that swells in our hearts.  Would God graciously move among us to save the lost in great numbers?  Will we see our building filled again, overflowing, with queues of people seeking the truth?  Yes, we will.

I encourage you to pray for us.  There’s so much to thank God for, and it feels that we’re more a church now than we ever were.  The sense of love, of family, of unity, has grown enormously.  Nobody could accuse us of being a preaching centre (in the negative sense of just being a crowd) any more.  But surely there’s more!

Becoming more missional will involve taking risks.  We’ll no doubt draw more scrutiny (“The Doctor wouldn’t have done that…”).  But increasingly our passion is to reach the lost people of London, and though we will not trade off our confidence in the Gospel (we have nothing else to offer) we will bolster the preaching with more and more efforts to live out the Gospel in practical dimensions.

Campbell Morgan and Albert Swift (his assistant) were spectacularly successful in this – as was the first Chapel pastor, Samuel Martin.  We want to re-dig those old wells so that people come to our church and see more than just the preached word, but they will see a loving family, moving in the spiritual gifts, helping the poor, and binding the broken-hearted.

[If you're interested in the history of Westminster Chapel, go to our Audio page and download 'The Faith of Our Fathers' by Josh Harvey, with the accompanying PowerPoint presentation.]

The results have, for the most part, been devastating. You can’t go anywhere without meeting its tragic victims. London is filled with them. The mugged, sexually abused, depressed and suicidal, trafficked children, street sleepers, junkies, corrupt city traders, bent politicians, ‘wasted’ clubbers, abandoned single mums, fatherless kids and knifed teenagers and so on, are everywhere.

TIME-TESTED REMEDY

The only answer to this is the Gospel. The Gospel radically transforms, reorientates and remakes human lives. It affects a kind of metamorphosis – change from the inside out. No education or social conditioning can do this. Over time, the result is ‘redemptive lift’, recreating individual lives. The suicidal find hope, unshackled addicts go free, the sexually defiled feel clean again, the violent find peace. Whole communities and cultures change for the better. This is what we need so much in Britain, but only Christ’s Gospel can do it.

At a time when the Church should be preaching this message everywhere, with Holy Spirit backing, we are often watering it down and warping it beyond recognition. Recently, a book on church leadership offered advice about teaching people simply what they need to hear. It suggests a curriculum for teenagers that includes topics like ‘When I see as God sees, I will do as God says’, ‘Purity paves the way to intimacy’, ‘In the light of my past experiences and future dreams what is the wise thing to do?’, ‘I must consider the interests of others ahead of my own’.

This comes close to moralistic fire-fighting to me. Where’s the Gospel? I wondered why these topics didn’t feature such vital mind-benders as Creation, Fall, God’s Master Plan, Adam and Christ, The Cross, Trinity and Relationships, Christ’s Glorious Achievements, and much more. Our role is not to offer moralism, but to shape the minds of the next generation, showing them God’s big story of Creation, Decreation, and Recreation in Christ. Only then can our relationships, moral decisions, planning, and sex be done to the glory of God.

Must we conclude that we’re most ‘relevant’ to our culture when we offer them homely wisdom, non-confrontational counsel, How To steps to self-improvement, and feel-good pic ’n’ mix spirituality? Yet Paul resolved not to preach anything among the Corinthians (a sordid broken culture if ever there was one!) ‘…except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (I Cor. 2:2). That was what changed them! Tragically, the cross is now considered too jagged, dated, offensive, and bloodied to matter much now. You could catch a splinter touching it, worse still, cause people to faint at its horrors and gore. We’ve become squeamish. We shun subjects like sin, death, judgment, heaven and hell, for more ‘relevant’ topics like ‘Lookin’ Good, Feelin’ Fine!’

OLD PATHS

Jeremiah gives sound advice here: ‘This is what the LORD says: Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls’ (Jer. 6:16). Time spent attempting to understand the cross is one way of rediscovering those ‘ancient paths’ that we need to travel again. This is where the route to spiritual, moral and physical health really lies. We never mature beyond this point, rather, we mature more and more into it, as we restate the irreducible elements of authentic Christianity, and it is these we most need in troubled and unstable times.

The great need of our cities today is to be exposed to and confronted by the Christ of Calvary and his radical intent to restore and renew all things, founded upon his eternal victory at the Cross. The Gospel is an announcement of ‘Good News’, not ‘Good Advice’. It tells us more about what has been done for us, than what we can do. It calls us to believe and receive, not ‘try harder’ and ‘be good’. We can now be fixed-up and repaired completely in body, soul, mind and spirit, but only because Christ was made sick to death in our place, on the cross.

Somebody, somewhere, has to announce this great news or God help us!