Mission Priorities, Mark Dever and Lausanne

The main thing is that the main thing remains the main thing?

The main thing is that the main thing remains the main thing. That is what I was told as a young Christian with respect to my life priorities. But I believed that my passion for evangelism was not just a personal priority choice – it ought to be priority of every Christian’s life and therefore the mission priority of the church.

I used to preach sermons to motivate people to evangelism that argued: “the only thing to leave this planet will be the word of God and souls of men” a quote I borrowed from my mentor. But thanks to movements like Lausanne, I soon began to see the shortsightedness and lack of biblical basis for my beliefs. Apart from having a pietistic, individualistic understanding of salvation and an almost gnostic eschatology that effectively denied the resurrection of the body and the restoration of the earth, my views did not sufficiently present the mission of God or the role of the people of God in that mission.

One would have thought after the commitments made at 1967 Lausanne congress and then elaborated at Manila in 1989 the evangelical case for the integration of social responsibility and evangelism had been made. I wish the debates were over and we could just get on and do the work. But I still find God-loving, sincere, bible-centred Christians arguing that there is no place for social responsibility in the corporate life of the church.

Influential speakers and movements from Washington DC to Sydney are just as adamant as ever that the preaching of the gospel is the unique task of the church and therefore should be the exclusive missional priority of the church. Because this is not a minority viewpoint and because their writings and speaking are disseminated globally through online materials, I believe it is worth joining the public conversation they have started.

Take the following excerpt from Mark Dever, an influential leader based in Capitol Hill, Washington DC. In a presentation called “the Pastor and his community” Dever presents 35 theses as to why the church should not engage in social justice or take on social responsibility for its community.

Dever: Thesis 25. We must carefully prioritize the responsibilities unique to the church. Matters like a concern for education, politics, and mercy ministries for those beyond the church’s membership are proper concerns for Christians to have, but the church itself is not the structure for addressing such concerns.

At one level it would seem that this statement affirms the Lausanne covenant, which clearly articulates in the fifth article:

Lausanne: “We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all people. We therefore should share his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression.”

But although we seem all to agree that it is right and proper that individual Christians care for the poor, it is not generally agreed that this is something that the church is called to do corporately. The clear reasoning from Dever for his position is that: “if such concerns came to be the focus of the church, they could potentially distract the church from its main and unique responsibility, that of incarnating and proclaiming the gospel”. The implication is that due to the potential of distracting the church from its unique task of proclaiming the gospel the church should not engage as a church in political and social concerns.  It is because of this potential for disunity and distress that I would like to raise four questions about this approach:

1. What is the church?

Dever’s approach seems to separate out what the church gathered and the church scattered should be doing. If we understand the church in terms of the biblical metaphors of the body of Christ or the household of God, then we cannot see the church simply as an event that happens once a week where, as the reformers puts it, the “pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance.” The church is not just a meeting where most of us passively receive the word of God and the sacraments from the clergy. We are a community, a body, a family whether we are together or not, whether we are in the pew or at our desk or in our garden. The idea of dissecting the responsibility of the people of God for social justice from the church is as preposterous as suggesting we only have responsibility to worship Christ when we are corporately gathered.  If Jesus was to elaborate on his parable, would he really have said that if the man lying robbed and wounded on the Jericho road had seen two Christians walking down the road, they would be excused from stopping to help because as a group of believers they had no social responsibility though they might have done as individuals?

2. What does it mean to ‘proclaim and incarnate’ the gospel if we separate out social responsibility and evangelism?

Dever rightly affirms that the church is called to “proclaim and incarnate the gospel.” Jesus is our prime example of this. But when Christ incarnated the gospel for us he met the spritual, physical, social and emotional needs of those he ministered to.  Calling people to salvation was not merely giving them a ticket to heaven, it called for a radical reorientation of their whole life – Zaccheus started to hand back wealth unfairly gained, the rich young ruler was told to give his money to the poor, the expert in the law was told to love like a gracious Samaritan. So it is impossible for God’s people to incarnate the gospel without taking social responsibility as seriously as we take preaching and evangelism.

3. Why does the fact that someone else is doing something mean we shouldn’t?

Dever quotes the reformed theological John Murray at length:

“To the church is committed the task of proclaiming the whole counsel of God and, therefore, the counsel of God as it bears upon the responsibility of all persons and institutions. While the church is not to discharge the functions of other institutions such as the state and the family, nevertheless it is charged to define what the functions of these institutions are . . . . To put the matter bluntly, the church is not to engage in politics. Its members must do so, but only in their capacity as citizens of the state, not as members of the church,” (John Murray, “The Relation of Church and State,” in Collected Writings of John Murray, vol. 1 [Banner of Truth, 1976], 255).

There is much to commend here. Murray rightly pinpoints the churches responsibility to advocate God’s kingdom in every area of society. He affirms that as we preach we must address not just individuals but institutions showing as Jim Wallis has said that “every budget is a moral document.”  The decisions that our government makes on spending money is based on an implicit moral theology, so for example when we spend more money on arms than on alms we are demonstrating our theological commitments. But Murray then goes on to state that the church is not to discharge the functions of other institutions.

If he means the church should not run parallel institutions that further ghetto-ise Christianity from the mainstream – like running schools just for Christians – I can see his point. But I think Dever is citing Murray in a wider context to further his case that the corporate church should not take social responsibility for its neighborhood. Again the parable of the Good Samaritan would then read like this: As the priest walked past on the other side he said: “Look there is a man left for dead on this road to Jericho – this is what the ambulance service is for, as I preached about last year on the subject of improved emergency services”. This abdication of responsibility is precisely what Jesus is challenging the expert in the law about in the parable. Apart from the flawed ecclesiology of this thinking, there is a pietistic individualism that is nascent in this approach. I wonder how far Dever would go with this separation in practice. If it is fine that individual Christians help those in need when not with other Christians, could they expect any financial help, any prayer support, any use of church facilities for their good works?

Dever pastors a church called Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC, which is only a few blocks away from the seat of US Government. Despite his proximity to the most powerful body in the world, Dever argues against the political engagement on the church. I think we need some clarification here. If he means that the church should not be partisan or tell the congregation which party to vote for in an election, then I agree. But if he is arguing against the mix of church and politics then I think there is a problem. The church is by very nature political and our confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ is a direct challenge to every level of leadership, governance and management. The Lord’s prayer is a direct call for God’s kingdom to come on earth. The Bible is full of mandates to seek the welfare of the city, take responsibility for the right governance of the people, the right distribution of resources etc. Again if the caveat is that what believers do in their own time is their own business and not the churches this seems to be very limiting on what can be taught in church – surely we would be arguing for the lordship of christ over all of life. It would see William Wilberforce’s campaign against slavery, Martin Luther King’s voice for equality and an end to racism or the Barmen declaration of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer that challenged the Nazis as not the church’s business.

What about the gospel of the kingdom of God? What about the call to steward the whole of creation? What about the God who inspired Isaiah to redefine fasting and worship? What about Christ’s call to do our (corporate) good deeds in the sight of the world (Matthew 5:16)?  As Tim Keller points out, our good deeds cannot mean praying, having church services and running Alpha courses – our good deeds must be practically demonstrating the love of God. Perhaps a closer reading of Isaiah 58:5-10

4. Will this article be read?

I know that my article will never be read in Capitol Baptist Church. In his seminar Dever clearly states:

Thesis 34 “In our duties as under-shepherds, we want to protect our flock from the well-meaning writings and teachings of those who emphasize their role of making a difference in the culture. Those individuals may be uniquely gifted and called, but it is not a Biblical model for the local church.”

This sounds like censorship. By discouraging the church from engaging with different opinions to those that have been decided by the eldership, there is a mindset that I find quite prevalent in my own conservative evangelical context: we need to ‘protect people from other ways of thinking’. It is as though what is being said is “I have made up my mind don’t confuse me with the evidence”; or even more worryingly: “I have made up the mind of my congregation – don’t confuse them with the evidence.”

As far as I understand it is only the scriptures that are infallible. I certainly do not claim to have an infallible grasp on them and so I have a theology that moves, that benefits from tough questions, from friendly critique, from constant reappraisal.  On the issue at hand I invite Dever to show me where I have misunderstood Scripture.

The main thing is that the main thing remains the main thing. I still hold to this, with my current understanding that the main thing is that Jesus wants his one body the church to do his one mission and incarnate and proclaim the gospel as the united people of God.

I take issue with much of the paper that Dever presented. But as a gifted preacher I value his ministry. I invited him to speak at mission events when he was training for ministry in Cambridge in 1990s and he has only ever treated me with great grace and respect. I have greatly benefited from hearing his preaching and  I pray that my contribution will be received as an admirer who seeks to engage with one area of his missiology, not as a personal attack or an attempt to discredit his wider ministry.

I have been in touch with Mark Dever and he has read this paper, his team are in the process of helping the conversation on by commenting on this piece. Mark was very gracious in his response and I look forward to further communication.

Ipod and Iphone Bible apps review

Free bible readers

1. Logos This is a great little app. It runs really well on the iphone or the ipad. The free version has some basic bibles on it – (but not the NIV, TNIV or ESV). There are also some free books available to read through it which are mainly devotional reading tools like “Morning and evening.” The real genius of this app comes into play if you also have the LOGOS Bible software which then allows you to sync up as much or as little of your LOGOS library onto your mobile device. I am still wrestling with the LOGOS 4 alpha version for the Mac which works pretty well – but am having some problems importing my library from the Libronix software (the earlier version that came with the excellent IVP reference collection / Tyndale Library). The thought of being able to carry a complete set of commentaries and Bible dictionaries in the palm of my hand is delicious indeed. Watch this space as this can only get better and better.

4/5 stars

2. ESV Bible Regular readers will know that I am not a big fan of the ESV. (issues of readability and the philosophy of translation). But I must say this is the best iPhone / iPad free Bible software I have ever seen. The user interface is a thing of beauty. I think in a race I could beat you to any book , chapter and verse of the Bible even as compared to a printed Bible. The iphone app is excellent but once you put it on an ipad the readability is even better than a printed bible. You don’t need to be online to access the full Bible text which is a trump card when compared to all the other free bible apps. There is a full note taking facility – cut and paste bible passages out of the programme into other apps and ofcourse the social networking possiblities are built right in – so you can tweet your favourite verse. If someone who doesn’t like the translation is using this as his standard mobile Bible you know the interface must be good. (come on TNIV publishers its time to raise your mobile game.)

5/5 stars

3. Youversion This app used to be my favourite bible programme. It works on a whole range of platforms including – blackberry, android and iphone. Its real strengths are access to lots of different translations (including TNIV, NIV, Message…) and the social networking possibilities are through the roof – including the abilitly to have people follow the powerpoint from your sermon on their mobile devices and to do immediate surveys (I must admit I have never managed to get the survey thing working myself). The downside is that it is a little slow to boot up on my blackberry bold and also that you can only access TNIV when you have an internet connection – not so good in my local church (or my office).  It is a very good app though and for me the best one on the blackberry at the moment.

4/5 stars

4. Holy Bible (HD)

Simple Bible reading programme for the ipad – uses the ipad’s screen resolution very well – free translations include NET Bible, King James Version, Byzantine Greek, American Standard Version etc. But not the premium translations : New King James, Todays NIV etc. One really nice feature is the ability to split the screen into two so you can compare translations.

3.5/5 stars

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Olive Tree Bible reader – This is another standard Bible reader for the Ipad / Iphone. It has been optimised for the ipad’s screen. All the usual features are there. There are some free bibles available but the premium translations will cost you from £12.99 for the NIV to 23.99 for the ESV study Bible. But others will cost you as much as £99.99 so becareful what you click on! One feature for die hard John Piper fans is you can download the transcripts of 1200 of his sermons and search them all by passage or subject. So you should never run out of reading material on your device.

4/5 stars

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6. Mantis Bible

The King James Version of the this app is free. It is a pretty standard format bible reading programme with all the usual features – history, notes and search. The highlighter option is pretty clunky as you have to individually select words to highlight them. NIV Study bible is 11.99 on the iphone or the ipad.

3/5 stars

7. Pocket Sword

There’s a lovely user interface on this KJV only free download. It is availabe for Iphone and not yet optimised for the ipad. Apparently you can use the ESV on this app for free – but I couldn’t find a way to do this. One nice feature is one tap access to a commentary on the passage you are looking at. It comes with Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary. It’s nicely done but because I could only get the KJV working I can’t give it top marks. It is available on a range of platforms though.

3/5 stars

7. Wave Bible

This iphone only app is another example of a lovely user interface this time with a couple of extra Bibles available for free – New English Translation and the mysterious “God’s Word Translation”. You can purchase the NIV for $14.99 not sure whether you get this in dollars if you try and purchase outside of america – if you do its a slightly cheaper way to get the NIV. Some nice features – really like the interface for finding bible passages and even though I hate the thought of it a random verse shaker – does look pretty cool when it flips through all the possibilities. But what are you supposed to do with a random verse finder??? Its really easy to compare Bible translations with just a touch of a button. So kudos to the designers.

3.5/5 Stars

8. Red Letter Days

This is a great app to encourage tweenagers  and teenagers to download. It automatically sends them a key verse from the red letter parts of the Bible – ie the parts that record Jesus’ direct speech. Well made and simple to use – the guys at Kore have provided a really nice app here. Kudos guys !

4/5

KJV HD

This is a great IPAD Bible, especially when the NIV version is only £3.99 which as far as I can find is the cheapest way to download the NIV onto your Ipad. A really good 4 page tutorial greets you on start up – its very easy to highlight and export verses (I find this really helpful for sermon preparation on an Ipad). The split screen allows you to keep a Bible passage that you are looking at on one side and then scroll down to another part of the Bible on the other screen – in the same translation, this is really helpful for Biblestudy. So this has some really good features on it and I am very tempted to buy the NIV version. Finding the passage you are looking for is a breeze too. So Kudos to the team

4/5 Stars

Audio Bibles

1. BIBLEIS

A very impressive audio Bible – it needs to be online to work as it does not download the whole Bible onto your device. It has some sound effects to accompany the readings. There is a single voice narrator – but he does read very well.

3.5/5 stars

1. Daily Audio Bible

If you like to have the Bible read to you – here’s a neat app that will automaticaly download a free bible reading each day.  It has not been optimised for the ipad you download a daily dose of proverbs or a daily kids bible reading or a process that works through the whole Bible. The funk factor has been attempted in the recordings. The kids version has two cute little kids reading and chatting together commenting on when their birthdays are and then they get round to doing the reading. They seem to be having a lot of fun doing it – and read pretty well but do stumble over a few of the words as kids tend to do. The kids have a great little discussion afterwards which made me really smile. It sounds like two unsupervised kids chatting a way – which was kind of cool and funny but might be annoying for some listeners.

Here’s a snippet:

“here’s a little newsflash for you – these guys were around before taperecorders.”

“Question – were the Jesus people around before the cave men?”

“Answer – Adam and Even were around before cave men, but some people think  they were around on the other side of the earth… but you ask some very profound question”

“Question – what does profound mean?”

For the daily proverbs reading you get a BRIAN who reads in a kind of voice over man kind of way. So you’ll either love this one or hate it. They need a lot of bandwidth so I would advise using it where you have a good wifi connection.

3/5 stars (but an extra star for being creative 4/5!)

Paid for apps

1. New Daylight

Great to see bible notes coming into the 21^st century by making their readings available on the ipod/ ipad. This is a simple application that allows you to pay to subscribe to daily bible readings.  Keeping the same high standards of the print version by simply allowing the same text to come to your mobile device this is an easy to use program with text that is eay to read. Would love to see some development – greater access to archive material – a more graphically rich presentation. Nevertheless if you like reading daily light this is the app for you. It is optimised to work well on an ipod or an iphone.

2. Wordlive

A demo version wasn’t available for this app. It is £2.99 to download. If you have used the wordlive website it is basicaly a way of accessing the content from there www.worldlive.com in a slightly easier way for iphones. The alternative would be simply putting a link to the website on your iphone and then accessing the content for free.  There’s a review on the app store from Keith Cival the CEO of Scripture Union who says : “the app takes wordlive to a whole new level of accesability and improves the user expereince for mobile users. Worth every penny and more!”

3. Twisted Scripture

I didn’t even download this. Its 59p for 60 short reflections on verses that are often taken out of context. From the looks of it – not worth the investment I am afraid.

5 ways towards genuine partnership

It was a hot day and I was running late and I was lost. Not a great combination. In a sweaty, stressed and rather disjointed way I managed to ask a security guard for directions. His reply was less than helpful: “sorry mate, you can’t get there from here”. Perhaps it was when he saw the colour drain from my face, or my jaw drop that he realized the incongruity of his remark. The security guard went on to tell me that if I could just relocate myself to the other side of campus I would easily find the meeting I was running late for.

The journey from disunity to unity may seem impossible, but perhaps we just need to change our starting point a little to see that it is actually more within reach than we thought. Here are five postures that we could adopt to begin the route to unity.

1. Shared vision

The important idea that has already been raised of shoulder-to-shoulder cooperation rather than face-to-face confrontation is a really useful posture for missional partnerships. This can be difficult to achieve because often those that are the most committed to mission are often similarly and primarily committed to their own mission. I recently sat in the lounge of the national director of a very large UK mission agency only to be told 2 minutes into our hour-long appointment that his agency had written into its purpose statement that they would under no circumstances enter into any partnerships. It was a long 58 minutes in which I tried to convince him otherwise.

When partnership is seen as a distraction and a dilution of primary directives of an agency, it is virtually impossible to catalyse unity initiatives. Perhaps we need to see cooperation and partnership written into our mission statements and job descriptions as a kingdom priority, in order to challenge and change our starting points.

2. Unity in opposition

I have observed agencies and churches working happily independently until suddenly they unite in opposition to a particular person or viewpoint. Sadly this has often occurred around secondary issues such as promoting a complimentarian view of women or a literal six-day view of creation. In order to join in their coalition they then require an adherence to these views, whether or not they are made explicit in their doctrinal statement. At its worst there can exist simultaneously an explicit doctrinal statement that promises the possibility of genuine broad-spectrum unity – but also an implicit unwritten doctrinal statement that revolves around secondary issues.

It is time we recognize where and when this is occurring as unity that actually perpetuates disunity is no unity at all. However, on a positive note, when groups that have previously refused to cooperate begin to consider partnerships, there is then the potential to move forward in their thinking. Sometimes uniting because of a common enemy can be helpful. For example when agencies come together to fight the travesty of extreme poverty or take a stand against blasphemy or speak out against evil, then there is a powerful motivator for unity as the church united recognizes that the task in front of us is bigger than any one agency or tribe can tackle.

3. Generous orthodoxy

I often feel uncomfortable when I meet Christian leaders. There can be an air of suspicion, as though I was ‘guilty until proven innocent.’ As soon as I have mentioned the right conferences, the approved authors or the appropriate churches, then the barriers come down and the right hand of fellowship is offered.  This “out until you are in” starting point divides Christians into the good guys and the bad guys; those who can be trusted and those who should be shunned. I have even heard this explicitly argued by a well-known speaker from Washington DC whose final point of 35 reasons why churches should not engage in social justice was that pastors should protect their flocks by discouraging the reading of books by authors who disagree with the pastor’s position. This is again a unity of the minority based on uniformity, an orthodoxy that will only become narrower and narrower.

Hearing the critique of our views from the wider church is vital for us not to end up in self-imposed ghettoes of superiority. History would have been different if in South Africa the Dutch reformed church had listened to the critique of the black church and churches outside of South Africa instead of labelling them liberal or Marxist.

When seminars about the emergent church become an exercise in ridiculing or demonizing the particular churches of people, to offer a more immediate example, only builds a dependency on figures who adopt the guru position of arbiters of orthodoxy. Instead an approach that aims for a genuine critical engagement where positives and negatives can be heard will promote the building of Christian maturity through discernment.

Although we believe in an infallible scripture we do not believe God sent us infallible interpreters. We need others to help us to strengthen our grasp on the core of the gospel, and as we do so we should build the maturity to deal with difference through engagement and discernment rather than by building a culture of censorship.

4. Kingdom not empire thinking

Although God’s kingdom will last forever our missions, agencies and even local churches are not necessarily supposed to be eternal, and sometimes we need to let things die in order for the kingdom to advance. This happened spontaneously in my experience in Albania as virtually all missionaries were evacuated for many months in 1997 during a period of extreme unrest. Arguably, this absence of agencies did more for the development of indigenous mission than the previous four years of missionary church-planting.  In the UK scene, there are multiple agencies with the same aims. Whether it is working with the persecuted church, or Christian radio stations, or youth ministries, it is worth checking whether we are kingdom-building or empire-building and whether our resources could be better used.

There seems to me to be two simple options to consider in order to move forward towards unity in this scenario: they could diverge or converge. The first ‘divide and conquer’ approach would need us to find ways to segment the mission field to offer a more targeted approach based, for example on age ranges or geographic areas. The second merger option would look for ways to combine two identical fundraising strategies or two web sites or two sets of field staff into a single resource for the sake of the kingdom.

5. The chemistry of relationships

Finally often the precursor to effective partnership is simply relationship – people work well together because they are friends. This is where for all my love of digital technology there is a downside. It is all too easy to write graceless blog posts and comments that bypass personal conversation and can cause unnecessary offence and disunity. I have to ask my friends in the blogging community to hold me accountable on this score. However conferences that allow time and space for conversations can be extremely valuable. Not only can they prevent hostile confrontations, but they can allow us to make, build and deepen friendships which can lead to the possibilities of partnership.

Pick your preacher John Piper, Mark Driscoll A.N. Other?

Had a mostly encouraging time at the Evangelical Ministers Assembly today at St Helen’s Bishopsgate. There was a fantastic plea from unity from Vaughn Roberts that stood out for me and an interesting interview of John Piper by Adrian Reynolds.

Piper explained that because the church had grown so much they now had 3 campuses – spread over a 24 mile strip of a highway in Minnesota. Obviously Piper can’t be at all three campuses simultaneously so he records his sermon the night before at a smaller congregation and they then show that in whichever of the campuses Piper is not in that morning.

Piper explained that he had been wary about doing this because preaching should be “eyeball to eyeball” but this was maybe a B plus (or B minus) solution. Adrian rightly asked the question we were all muttering – why don’t you just train up more preachers to which Piper replied that there are plenty of opportunities for others to preach in the church when he is on holiday.

There was a whole queue of people waiting to speak to Piper after his talk so I didn’t get a chance to raise these issues with him directly.  Piper explained in the rest of the interview that he likes to spend a lot of time on the internet “showing idiots why they are wrong” so perhaps he might contact me sometime.

There are some strengths to this approach.

1. It recognises that some people have a God given exceptional gift and it seeks to provide the biggest opportunity for its use.

2. It is seeking to “think outside of the box” and effectively utilise new technologies.

3. It allows a group of churches to be “on the same page” by hearing the same message as a point of unity.

4. It is only a degree different from multiple back to back services where the preacher zooms from one to the other – Keller apparently travels to multiple campuses leaving one service when the singing starts after the sermon and arriving just in time for the preaching slot having missed the rest of the service. ( I am happy to be corrected if this is wrong).

But I do have a number of problems:

1. Cult of personality

The model effectively says there are no preachers that could possibly take the place of the gifted preacher. In fact its says its better to have a pre-recorded sermon than to have one of these lesser preachers. On this principle – if the preacher doesn’t have to be a) physically present or b) live – why not extrapolate this thinking. If John Piper is that good maybe we should just beam him into all the churches in the UK  – we wouldn’t need to employ preachers and use the money and time that goes into sermon preparation into other forms of ministry – it would certainly be more efficient. Or if the preacher doesn’t have to be speaking live – why don’t we just use recordings of preachers from the past – a classic John Stott series or even LLoyd Jones or just have someone read old Whitefield sermons? If as Tim Keller says that global cities all have the same basic culture then we could just show recorded sermons of one preacher. This for me is unacceptable, but the logical consequence of the thinking expressed by Piper. Which leads onto the second problem.

2. Lack of communication

we need sermons that are going to engage with the people in the room. Being able to speak into the pastoral situation of those that are present. If you know that someone in the congregation is seriously ill, or a wedding is coming up or the town is facing some major changes or a whole gang of newcomers have turned up – then you would want your sermon to adapt to that. Preaching has definitely become a prepackaged monologue. There’s no room for the immediate feedback of seeing people getting bored, being moved. Many a preacher will know when God has moved an audience and you need to ditch what you had planned because the Spirit has done something in the congregation. Good communicators know when an illustration is working as you see peoples eyes track you, or their faces light up – even when preaching a similar sermon in a multi-service event – there will often be a different demographic present in the early service to the later service so you need to hone your illustrations or adapt your application. But none of that is possible if you are not preaching live in the room.

3. Lack of relationship

Part of the problem with the Mega church / Multiple Campus model is that it has separated the Ephesians 4 joining together of Pastor / Teacher. It has instead made teaching into a set piece generalized celebrity monologue.In a megachurch the person preparing the food for the sheep to feed on – does not know the sheep. They speak bland general applications at their audience rather than truth into the lives of people that we have journeyed with through the years. There’s little room for the biblical models of interaction – Jesus often preached in response to a question, or explaining an event that has taken place like a miracle or a lack of a miracle. None of that is possible in the pre-record. But it is also true in Keller model of rushing between multiple services.

4. Consumer Church – church becomes a place where I go to get my spiritual fix for the week of singing and preaching. Piper did explain that he thought that preaching was not the most transformational aspect of the church’s life. So the place of small groups becomes more significant – as a friend of mine reminded me of Rick Warren’s dictum – “we need to stop thinking of a church small group and instead think of a church of small groups” but this is still an interesting comment from a man who has given his life to raise up preachers. When asked to justify his reasoning for doing the move he said “we got great feedback” which sounds a lot like a marketing mentality rather than the usual theological explanation we’d expect from Piper.

I must admit I grew up as a huge Piper fan, I can look back at Desiring God as a very influential book on me as an 18 year old. I was uncomfortable with the language of Christian Hedonism then – and am probably more uncomfortable with it now 20 years on. I really enjoyed “Let the Nations be Glad: Piper’s book on mission. But found “Future grace” to be more harm than good to me personally. I was saddened by the attacks on NT Wright’s work. What I value most about Piper’s ministry is his commitment to expository preaching combined with passionate about emotion-touching charismatic style worship as well as a ministry that shows genuine and practical care for the poor. For conservative evangelicals Piper offered an interesting counterbalance to some of the Sydney Anglicans who were strongly opposed to any kind of church involvement in social justice at the time. Conferences like EMA were influential in moving the debates along for conservatives and Tim Keller’s recent rise in popularity has swung the debate firmly towards a more holistic missional approach.

Sabbatical?

One thing that struck me about Piper this year as he explained he was going on an 8 month sabbatical to try and reach out to the sons he had lots relationship with and to invest time in his marriage. This was a humble and brave thing to say in front of a crowd of over a thousand ministers. So much better to do things this way round rather than hear that a marriage has fallen apart. But it was intriguing that he didn’t say he had any regrets though, and for a man who has been a hero to so many preachers – it might be helpful to hear if the sabbatical reveals another model for sustainable ministry.

Summer Reading for Christian Leaders

Summer is a great time to encourage Christians to read – here’s a little list you can pass on to your congregations to help them think of books to pack on their hols.

Beach books

My Father Maker of the trees - Eric Irivuzumugabe

a powerful and moving story about Christian faith in the middle of the Ruandan Genocide. The first half of this book in particular offers challenging yet inspiring insight into some of the darkest days in living memory and yet God’s grace in the middle of it all.

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100 verse Bible -Mark Stibbe

Mark Stibbe’s pocket sized guide to the big story of the Bible. Mark picks 50 verses from the Old Testament and 50 from the New Testament and shows how they weave together into the Bible’s big picture. Split into bite-sized portions easily read in 2 minutes flat. There is a heavy emphasis on the fatherhood of God in this book, which is one of Stibbe’s key themes at the moment.

God on Mute, Pete Greig

- not a new book but one I only recently got round to reading. this book is a gem – a really engaging book about the struggles of unanswered prayer. Pete mixes humour, theology and personal stories to great effect. If you haven’t read this book  – buy it now. This is the best book I have read recently.

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Biblefresh handbook -a really beautiful magazine format book – with lots of pithy articles, easy to read between dips in the pool! Packed with really helpful articles and inspiring ideas this book will help you recover a passion for feeding on God’s word. Royalties from the book all go to support the work of Bible translation in Burkina Faso.

Stretch your thinking

If life is busy, summer’s change of pace can be a good time to go deeper in your Christian reading. Here are some meatier books to get stuck into.

The Blue Parakeet Rethinking How You Read the Bible, Scott McKnight
A very accessible but challenging book about understanding the Bible. Scott McKnight’s chatty style means that many important ideas about hermeneutics and biblical application are handled in an engaging way.

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A New Kind of Christianity, Brian McLaren

This is a controversial book to put on this list. A lot of people are reading it at the moment and it would be worth reading where ever you stand on the theological spectrum that is evangelicalism. In my opinion McLaren is definitely asking the right questions, around biblical authority, ecclesiology and mission. I don’t agree with all of his answers but for me this is his most expositional book – offering very interesting angles on Romans and Corinthians in particular. I found myself underlining as much in this book for future reference as I did writing questions in the margins. Even when I disagree with McLaren I always feel I have had my thinking stretched and my understanding challenged.

Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller

If you have never read or heard Tim Keller before this book is an excellent introduction. Keller demonstrates he has the passion of a preacher and the sensitivity of a pastor combined with the intellect of an academic. This is book about modern day idolatry and will open up an important stream of biblical teaching that is often neglected by the western church. Keller brings a rare combination of biblical and pastoral theology to this book – read it and you will be challenged!

For the preachers:

Preaching with Variety – Jeffrey D. Arthurs

Currently my favourite book on preaching – it tackles the different Biblical genres and how to make the most of the variety of communications styles in the scriptures for adding breadth and creativity to your own preaching. Not too heavy – lots of practical suggestions.

Reading the Bible Wisely – Richard Briggs

A small book which models really well how to teach the Bible in such a way that people are skilled in their Bible reading in the process. Briggs lectures in New Testament at Durham University and offers a warm and encouraging book about a deeper engagement with scripture.

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Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes – Kenneth E. Bailey

Allow a Middle Eastern scholar to guide you through a “kaleidoscopic study of Jesus in the four Gospels”  This book will change the way you see Jesus and therefore the way you preach him. I found this book both devotionally inspiring and intellectually stimulating.

The end of Twenty Four

I was hooked on the show from the first run of the title sequence. The idea of a spy drama in real time, with multiple camera angles with the impossibly tough unstoppable force of Jack Bauer. I loved the plot twists, the jaw dropping moment when the trusted Nina was revealed as the mole was a brilliant piece of TV.

I remember waiting a whole week for episodes to come on BBC, but then came the DVD box set – where you could bing watch for a weekend and do the twenty four thing in nearly real time. I was so enamored by the show that I wrote a book on what the Christian life would look like in Twenty Four hours.

I loved the Jack Bauer jokes:

Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas

Jack Bauer once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.

Jack Bauer can un-scramble an egg

If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he’d shoot Nina twice

Bauer went through some interesting changes through the series. He had to deal with the charge of being anti-muslim so there were some conspicuous Muslim brothers in arms. He also had to find a way to justify torture (which I think he failed abysmally). There is also the moment at the end of series 7 where Bauer feels regret and remorse over what he has done with his life and a kind Muslim cleric offers him advice “sometimes it is hardest to forgive yourself.”

So Bauer gets his own brand of spirituality that says its ok  to do what you need to do as long as you are true to yourself. This was a real moment of truth for me – this was reshaping Islam to suit your own ends, something that our culture is happy to apply to any faith – including Christianity. What does Jack Bauer’s God look like? Basically anything he wants him to look like – because no one messes with Jack Bauer. It would seem in the 24 universe – even God wears Jack Bauer’s Pajamas.  No matter how much I love the 24 concept – i can’t buy into that. Jack Bauer is normally on the pursuit of truth – to uncover the conspiracy – to make sure that the real story is made public. So I want to know the true God – not some flimsily put together construction or projection.

In series 8 Bauer loses his moral compass – becoming a self appointed angel of death to all who were implicated in the death of his girlfriend. Now the enemy was not just the terrorists but insurgents within his own government. He has out Bourned Jason Bourne as he is willing to execute his victims and perfectly willing to dissect them along the way too. The last day might as well as have been called Judgment day – as Jack Bauer has become death collecting all his sinful victims along his merry way. But the series kind of ends on a wimper as Jack Bauer isn’t killed, but instead says goodbye to Chloe then slinks off into the sunshine.

By not killing off Bauer in the last episode there is always the chance of a reprieve. So maybe the clock hasn’t stopped on 24 – maybe it’s just on pause?

What do you think?

See also my 25 facts about 24.

why the iPad is that good

So while all the crowds were gathered outside of the apple store in regents street, having camped out all night in the cold, my dad walked into a shop in Brighton walks straight through the front door and up to the counter and buys (on my behalf) a nifty little iPad.

When I saw Steve Jobs give his keynote presentation about the ipad – I was unconvinced. i thought it was just a large Ipod Touch – but I admit it I was wrong.

I met my iPad on Monday and having prised my sons’ fingers off of the device I must admit it really is worth all the fuss.

It does feel like something dr spock would happily carry around the bridge of the starship enterprise. It is a sleek piece of kit – cloaked in aluminium and glass. It feels sturdy and substantial.

Switchthe iPad on (and after registering the device on a computer equipped with the latest version of iTunes ) and you are away. If you have an iphone or iPod touch the iPad will autumotically sync with any apps you might already have) – iPhone apps look blocky on the screen, and so the machine really comes into it’s own when you boot up one of the iPad specific programmes.

The genius is that the screen is just the right size to read from, I find myself devouring news websites, books and any online reading material. The Internet definitely feels more hands on – every website (except for those with flash content) comes alive in a new way.

The iPad is a game changer for electronic publishing – look at the marvel comic app; the guardian’s photo app, and the wired magazine app. Even the ESV Bible app looks really good on this device (it is my least favourite of modern Bible translations but they have done a great job on the presentation of this e-version.)

I was very impressed with the onscreen keypad – which is just right for me – and I am almost touch typing on it now. The screen is very nice – better than my old MacBook Pro for contrast and brightness – colours look great on it.

There are some niggles – the lack of flash, having to pay extra for pages and keynote, waiting for more iPhone apps to update to the universal application status so they work natively on the iPad rather than just in enlarged/ blocky mode. The lack of a expandable memory slot.

But this has to be congratulations to the apple team for making this form factor of computing the next step.

Mission Partnerships the Harsh reality

We all know the theory of unity. Christ prays for his church  “that we may be one” so that the world may see that God sent Jesus into the world. Reference John 17. We know that unity is what Paul identified as “living a life worthy of the gospel” and that we would make every effort to keep the bond of peace. Reference Ephesians 4:1-4
And we even know the economics of unity. We know that it is a better use of resources if we work together; that as Christians in minority situations we will have a greater impact when we partner.
We know the ideal of unity but what about the reality?
Here was my experience.
The Albanian Encouragement Project was a global model of unity. At least that was what Jun Vencer, the then president of the World Evangelical Alliance, told us. The AEP made perfect sense: Albania had been one of the most closed countries on the planet; atheistic communism had relentlessly persecuted all religions virtually annihilating the evangelical community. In 1991 after the bloodless revolution, Albania became open to Christian missionaries to enter the country. We all went.
AEP was managed by some amazing servant-hearted missionaries from Missionary Aviation Fellowship. They provided the infrastructure to support the glut of foreign missionaries that poured into the country.
As the telephone service was virtually non-existent – AEP provided a Christian radio network that spanned the country. The roads were often impassable – AEP provided a plane service to help Christians get to the far-flung regions of the country. The postal system was challenging – AEP offered a mailbox service and a secure mail delivery mechanism. Accessing information was difficult so AEP provided a radio-based internet service. Medical resources were scarce so AEP provided a medical centre.
The AEP was provided for missionaries to facilitate unity, partnership and cooperation and it was humbling to receive these incredible services provided in such a generous way.  But despite this foundation and framework, genuine partnerships between mission organizations were hard to find. Some towns had several churches, others had none. Some projects were heavily sponsored (like the promotion of material regarding creationism) while others were ignored (like the relief work with the uneducated children of the poorest villages). I incriminate myself in the problem as I was working for one of two student-based missions in Albania at that time, with our competing philosophies of ministry.
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My personal experience was so heartbreaking that I decided to study missiology back in the UK. From my experience in Albania, my academic study, my research into the writings of the great ecumenical evangelist Lesslie Newbigin, and my current vantage point from my position at the Evangelical Alliance UK, I am beginning to identify the following as the most significant factors preventing genuine partnership. As this is a blog, I am open to comment, corrections, challenge and conversation.
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1.    Paternalism. Unfortunately many mission agencies still have a thinly veiled West is Best approach. If you are wealthy, theologically trained and numerically successful in your Western context then it is not long before opportunities to develop an “international ministry” arise. Most conference speakers in any given country are likely to be British or American.  I met someone recently who told me they were planning to plant churches in every major global capital. I am a big fan of church planting and actually a fan of this person’s preaching ministry, but I struggle to understand why we would need more Westerners to plant churches in global capitals. It’s hard for indigenous church leaders who have been working away faithfully in those contexts not to feel a slap in the face on their ministry, when someone who knows nothing of the language, culture or contexts of their cities arrives to show them how its done.

2.    Immaturity. When I was young in my faith things were very simple and there were only two ways of doing ministry: my way and the wrong way.  I had my own theology that said that I was on the side of the angels and everyone else that thought differently was either heretical or misguided. This doesn’t make for great dialogue and co-operation.

3.    Franchise models. This model is basically the replication of a simple formulaic approach to ministry that is simply exported from one location to another with no serious attempt at contextualization. I use the business metaphor deliberately as the 4 key elements of efficiency, predictability, quantifiability and control, from the McDonaldisation thesis’, are very visible in this approach to ministry. This model has been adopted by church planters, evangelistic enquirers courses and student ministries alike. Because the “brand” of the ministry is such a highly prized commodity; partnership only becomes possible on the terms of the franchise holder, which diminishes the possibility of genuine cooperation.

4.    Economics – because mission agencies need to fundraise there needs to be a “Unique Selling Point” of a mission agencies work in any given situation. Explaining to funders that we have decided to partner with another agency which is doing a similar ministry to ours might undercut our funding base.

5.    Lack of theological reflection. If our grasp of the gospel is weak then chances are we won’t be able to tell the difference between the gospel and culture. This makes us more likely to confuse our mission’s historic way of doing things with the orthodox way of mission – thus partnership will be seen as compromising.

6.    Ego – Unfortunately I have to include this in this section. Whether it is cult of personality, distorted conversion statistics, more money than theology, or simply a desire to build empire or dynasty, the global mission scene is scattered with people whose ego is out of control. These people are notoriously difficult to partner with.

So I pose a challenge: who can you partner with today? I would love to begin a viral trail of stories of small and significant partnerships that instead of duplicating ministries begin to multiply fruit.
Let me finish with a prayer spoken by an impassioned elderly missionary to Albania to a crowded room of representatives from different mission organizations at a conference hosted by AEP:

“Lord Jesus. In John 17 you prayed – Let them be one. Lord Jesus – answer your own prayer. Amen”

BASIC: FEAR GOD – FRANCIS CHAN

I was honored to get invited to the “World Premier” of the BASIC series of films made by Flannel – the production company behind the NOOMA series of films featuring Rob Bell. The screening was held in London’s illustrious Leicester Square – a real movie Mecca.

The evening started with the opportunity to be introduced to Francis Chan himself and we were shown a 3 minute movie which was a cross between a blooper reel and a kind of out takes collection. It featured Chan’s very cute kids, his “beautiful wife of 15 years” and opportunities to see Chan doing some impressive dance moves. It was a kind of a strange introduction but all good natured. Then Chan was introduced in person – we heard about his first job working in Taco Bell, his experience of bereavement as his Mum died giving birth to him and then later both his Stepmother and Father died from cancer whilst he was still at school. Chan came across really well as a man passionate about God and sharing his faith. He told us about his plan to escape from the limelight by going to work in “an orphanage in Africa somewhere” and his struggle with pride at seeing his face on lots of magazine covers and how it made him break down in tears at a conference once.

Then came the first in the BASIC series of films. Chan explained that he wanted to get back to the basics of the faith – to express what someone who went away to read the Bible on a desert island would see as the most important things to say. The series will start with s a three part series on the Trinity . The Fear of God, The person of Christ and the power of the Spirit.

The film itself lasts 15 mins long. It is essentially Chan giving an impassioned sermon on why we need to fear God – not just respect him but genuinely fear him. The film is Chan talking straight to camera at high speed interspersed with a very impressive shot of a girl in a completely white room lying on a white bed in a black dress (see above). The room then begins to flood and for some reason she can’t get out of the bed and so she becomes completely submerged- gasping for breath. The shooting of this scene oozed the NOOMA production values and is very well shot. You get 20 second snippets of the girl then clips of Chan talking straight to camera. The soundtrack thumps away in the background adding to the tension of the girl looking like she is going to drown.


Positives:
There’s lots to commend about this short film.

• It was impressive visually.There’s nothing that touches it on production values on the UK market at the moment (save NOOMA of course).
• Chan speaks with energy and is an engaging speaker.
• There is a directness of approach that is different to the NOOMA videos.
• Reformed Christians especially will like this as it takes the classic Calvinistic approach of  preaching the law  first  - by starting first with the awesome holiness of God – some would argue this the logic behind the flow of the book of ROMANS.
• Though the message is “basic” and direct – the hallmark Flannel creativity is on display.

Questions

• Who is the audience? – as an evangelist I was hoping this series might be a useful evangelistic tool but it assumes too much knowledge of the Christian faith, e.g. what we mean by holiness, the context of the book of Psalms etc. If not an evangelistic tool – then maybe a discipleship programme? But Chan rightfully said at the event that the best discipleship programme is not a product but a community. Chan was on really good form on this subject explaining how he had been invited as a young believer to live in a Christian home and how he had the gospel modeled to him by the common life of this family. So it would seem Chan is not keen on off the shelf discipleship courses.As a tool to encourage discipleship maybe? Well maybe. For my part I think the film didn’t quite work as discipleship tool, as there was a lot of verse plucking and proof texting going on, instead of modelling Scripture well.
• What was the application? The bottom line message after 15 mins is fear God – which is a fair point – but you don’t feel like you have been taken very far on this journey as to what this could really look like. (I admit i have only seen the film once – and it was at the end of a long day – so after a second viewing I might feel differently.)
• What is the point of the drowning girl? I am a visual learner and so really appreciate good images. As I said earlier this scene is incredibly well shot. But I kept asking apart from the fear and terror shown in her face – what is the connection here with the fear of God? It could even be seen to be manipulative – a contemporary take on the fire and brimstone of some of our forebears – the kind of turn or burn preaching. “here’s someone drowning” – you need to fear God.
• Could maybe less have been more? Chan comes across very well – but he does speak a lot – very quickly and with a lot of repetition. Chan is his own man – but there are a lot of “Rob Bellisms” in the video – turns of phrase and stylistically communication. I wonder if the video would have worked better if the pace was different, if there could have been time to reflect, more stories, less concepts, more application less repetition? More Chan less Bell ???
• Why launch in the UK? Chan seemed to know very little about the UK context- “do you have fastfood here?” he asked. The resource seemed to fit best in a US context where there is a high degree of church attendance and nominalism. So why launch a resource that is aimed at a US market in the UK when there has been no attempt to contextualise it for this audience?

So?
Flannel have produced an interesting resource.
Its well made, engaging and orthodox.
Chan is charming and comes across as a genuinely humble person  (although the blooper real, the short film itself and all the advertising really do profile his face a lot)

Check out the video for yourself, you may find it a really useful resource where you are.

May God bless this new initiative.

Hollywood and the Holy Word – Biblical Echoes in Contemporary Films ar

There’s a tunnel on an eco-trail that follows the path of an old railway line behind the town where I live. Its dark and damp, has an unpleasant odour, and the walls are covered with questionable graffiti and chewed gum. Yet whether we are walking, cycling or jogging, my family can’t resist a pause in that tunnel. The children’s faces light up as we shout at the top of our voices for the thrill of hearing the echoes reverberate around us. We are the only ones there, but the very place speaks of others, and the irony is that although alone, we feel surrounded.

Contrast this with the image of a commuter. Sitting on a train crowded with other people, he shuts everybody out with the simple accessory of an ipod – he is surrounded, yet alone. But the deeper irony in this is that he is actually still surrounded. Choirs and orchestras fill his ears as he immerses himself in the experience of that bustling concert hall, or packed out stadium.

Significance

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman take these ironies one step further, observing that cultures simultaneously exist “as both objective and subjective reality.”[1] The cultural artifacts that we produce, such as music, poetry and film, are at one level tangible expressions of the inner life. But their intrinsically subjective nature often produces an undeniable objective response as it shapes the cultural environment that affects our human life, thought and experience. Clifford Geertz illustrates this:

“the concept of culture I espouse… is essentially a semiotic one. Believing with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.”[2]

Humanity enjoys listening to its own voice, whether this is children making echoes in a tunnel, or commuters listening to music on their i-pods on a train. But as we reflect on the skill, beauty and creativity of the artists our individual, subjective experience begins to influence our actual, objective reality, connecting us with one another in these ‘webs of significance’.

But the echoes of our own voices and the voices of other people throughout history and around the globe are joined by another far more significant voice. The voice that spoke creation into being reverberates around the universe still. It speaks to the children discovering science and nature and it speaks to the commuters discovering culture, however isolated they think they may be.

It is precisely because the subjective voices of our culture has the power to shape our reality that it is vital that we try to hear past them to recognize God’s authoritative voice echoing through itunes, the internet and the film industry. Helping these echoes become more audible is a powerful resource in our evangelistic and apologetic ministry. It draws on the sensus divinitatis that haunts every heart, and points out the fingerprints that the creator of the universe left on all that exists and on the moral sense that informs every conscience.

In our western cultures we are used to the latent biblical echoes that have infused classical art and literature, and have shaped our language and our heritage. However as these echoes resonate in contemporary culture, we will see that Gods voice continues to speak in perhaps the most unlikely of places, and we will explore how, through watching films more closely, we can tune in ourselves, and help others to hear the timeless message of eternal life.

Source

The Bible teaches that even without the special revelatory influence of God’s word, his people or his Spirit, something about God can be discovered through general revelation. In western cultures it can be difficult to differentiate between general revelation and the lasting impact of the historical biblical values that once underpinned our societies. For example, general revelation may cause someone to experience a sense of wonder as they reflect on the intricacies of the created order (Romans 1:18-20), or a sense of guilt due to a personal pang of conscience (Romans 2) or a longing for a connectedness with a higher being (through the sensus divinitatis in Ecclesiastes). The social impact of a historical Christian heritage however can also be seen as that same sense of wonder compels the viewer to sing “All things bright and beautiful” or as the guilt is expressed in terms of the fear of social exclusion, or as the connectedness is sought out in a cathedral or  other recognized ‘sacred space’.

In the short term the source of the echo makes little difference either to the receiver or to the evangelist. Whether based on aspects of general revelation, or cultural biblical memories, these examples demonstrate points of contact between the world and the gospel. In the longer term if the decline in biblical literacy both within and outside of the church community goes unchecked we can expect the echoes based on biblical memory to diminish, just as the clarity of an echo dissipates the further you move from the source of the echo.  However the echoes of God’s general revelation will always remain in any and every culture as God will not leave himself without witness.

	Convergent Echo	Inverted Echo
Intentional Echo	The author consciously articulates biblical values, stories or concepts.	The author deliberately contradicts biblical values, stories or concepts.
Unintentional Echo	The author indirectly includes latent assumptions of biblical values, stories or concepts.	The author indirectly betrays a latent or subconscious hostility to   biblical values, stories or concepts.

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The chart above indicates the different ways in which we experience God’s voice echoing through contemporary culture. We will look closer at each type of echo using an example from film to show how points of contact can be detected. There are two main distinctions that need to be highlighted. Firstly the echoes can be either intentionally or unintentionally included by the author or creator of the cultural artifact. Secondly those echoes can be either convergent with biblical truth or inverted appearing opposed to biblical truth. Recognising these polarities can help us to locate the echoes as the following examples will illustrate.

Intentionally Convergent Echo

Some films deliberately seek to grapple with biblical themes even if their directors are not Christian. The Matrix Trilogy is an example of this where the authors mix shades of Buddhist thinking, Christian thinking and number theory to interesting effect. The Messianic figure of the character Neo, the chosen one, experiences death and resurrection, the love of the character called Trinity and victory over the dark forces. These themes have been powerfully used by evangelists to illustrate the big picture of the gospel.

Alternatively we could look at the more recent film Gran Torino where Clint Eastwood plays Walt, an angry war veteran who has seen his neighbourhood “invaded” by, in his eyes, the very people he fought against in Korea. But he is transformed by the generous hospitality of his neighbours and his growing incense at the injustice around him.  The climax of the film shows Walt facing down the gang that has been terrorizing the neighborhood leaving the audience to expect the typical gunslinger victory finale.  Instead Walt poignantly forsakes violence, and offers himself as a willing victim in a gruesome yet heroic death that leaves his enemies undone by their own evil and Walt dead on the pavement in cruciform.

A film like this follows Brian Godawa’s archetype of a core redemptive narrative and can be used evangelistically both as a foretaste and foil for the gospel, as it is discussed in terms of how it compares and contrasts with the story of Christ’s passion. The biblical references are deliberate but they are inadequate to express the richness and subtleties of biblical revelation. In a missional context the echoes can be incredibly helpful as touchpoints for the gospel, but the film is not the medium for the nuanced exposition of Scripture or the direct exegeting of doctrine. Instead film can reference, evoke and provide narrative expressions of elements of biblical theology that can awaken an appetite for Scripture.

Unintenionally convergent echo

Some films inadvertently demonstrate a biblical echo. Finding Nemo, Changeling, and Taken are recent examples of very different genres of film that centre on the relentless search of a parent, against apparently insurmountable odds and challenges to be reunited with their missing child. Perhaps the films grasp the significance of the God-given genetic coding that draws families together. Perhaps the films betray a latent memory of the ancient biblical story of the prodigal son? Maybe more significantly they betray the longing in each of us to be reunited with our Father God?

The evangelist can draw on these themes as Paul’s Areopagus sermon demonstrates. Affirming when culture gets things right and using them as a bridge for fuller revelation has missiological efficacy and biblical warrant. And so the films can be used to explore the emotional response to this popular and prevalent theme of the unstoppable force of parental love. Whether it is Angelina Jolie facing incarceration in an insane asylum, Liam Neeson taking on the entire sordid underworld of Europe, or Marlin the clownfish facing down sharks, these films all demonstrate the incredible lengths to which a parent is willing to go in pursuit of a lost child. The evangelist can steer discussion to enable viewers to see the world from God’s perspective, desperate to restore relationship, and to see themselves from God’s perspective, valuable enough for him to face death to save us.

Intentionally inverted echo

The 1995 Ron Howard film The Truman show tells the story of a man raised by a television station to be the star of a reality show that he does not know he is in. Through psychological and sociological manipulation Truman is confined to Fairview Island and every single participant in Truman’s life story is an actor performing to the hidden audience of a million television viewers. The director of this vast enterprise is “Christoff” who from his omniscient viewing station in the sky seeks to control every aspect of Truman’s life experience to maximize audience ratings. The none-too-subtle references to Christoff’s godlike role are underlined by throwaway lines such as “cue the sun”, or by unmistakable actions such as sending lightning bolts to prevent Truman’s escape from the meta-narrative that has subverted the reality.

This finely crafted film, powerfully critiques the commercialization of life and the role media plays in the social construction of reality. Eeven using that limited hermeneutic to explore the film can be a very helpful resource for the church in an advertising saturated age.  But the film is also a deliberate distortion of the biblical story. Howard revises the biblical account of the fall of humanity by allowing his God character to be exposed as a power-hungry, self-obsessed manipulator that seeks to confine and control his creation out of a personal sense of inadequacy. This inverted echo can nevertheless be a very useful apologetic tool. It enables the audience to bring their suspicions of God out into the open, and it provides a dialogue partner for a genuine interaction with the God of the Bible.

Unintentionally inverted echo

Many films operate in a worldview that is subconsciously at odds with biblical values and the echoes in these films are probably the most difficult to locate, but also the most crucial to locate.  The dark pessimism of a film like 2009’s Hurt Locker, which depicted a US bomb disposal expert descending into an addiction to the adrenalin rush that being in war produces, provided no hope or redemption, only a cycle of despair. The protaganist found no refuge in normal life and could only feed his addiction by returning the battlefront. The film reveals the author’s sense of meaninglessness of life and death, and his blurring of moral standpoints, allowing accepted standards of good and evil to be questioned.

One way inverted echoes can be used in evangelistic ministry is to allow a film to paint its picture of life and focus on the discontinuities and discrepancies, both with personal experience and with the biblical explanation. The book of Ecclesiastes demonstrates exactly this kind of ‘life without God’ thinking as it explores life “under the sun” – life without God in the frame. This ancient literature from the heart of our Old Testament comes to the same conclusions of many of the darker films of our time.

This anti-apologetic approach builds on what the American apologist Francis Schaeffer describes as “taking the roof off”. It allows people, particularly in western cultures, to see what happens when we abandon the things we prize most about our culture, things that are actually vestiges of the Christian cultural legacy. Many films that depict meaninglessness, anarchy, isolation are a way of experiencing life with the roof of the Christian worldview removed, allowing us to feel the cold wind of life without God. In contrast, when we see people admitting that they value life, integrity, a sense of justice and equity, or law and order for example, we can help them to see that they are sheltering under the umbrella of the biblical worldview.

Story

Film is a powerful communicator. It speaks to the emotions, the imagination and the mind. It tells a story, but the story it tells can redefine what we believe about the world, the future, even ourselves. It can reinforce or undermine our value system, our moral compass and our spiritual openness. But it is not the creator of the film who has ultimate power over us. We are hardwired to hear the voice of the one who created the filmmaker and the world we live in. We are immersed in the story he is writing, and it is as we read and study the plot synopsis that are our Scriptures, that we will hear Gods voice speaking to us, find resonance with the echoes in our culture, and draw a new generation of people to be part of God’s story.

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[1] Berger & Luckman(1967):149

[2] Geertz(1993):5

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This article was recently published in Transmission, the Bible society’s journal. Subscribe to receive it three times a year.
This article also appears on the Lausanne Global conversation website.

10 reasons why Christians must vote

Here’s an excerpt from our new book Just Politics. Get hold of a copy as soon as you can so you can make an informed decision for the elections. You can reprint this list of 10 reasons why every christian should vote in your church news sheets this weekend. Just give “Just Politics” a good plug.

The Prayer of Living Beautifully

Here’s a little video my son and I made together to support the Bible readings at Spring Harvest this year.

We had a great time this year at Spring Harvest. I really enjoyed teaching the Bible in 70 minute slots. What a privilege to guide a big top full of people who want to study God’s word.

I promised to make some of the video links I used available.

Atlast both my wife and my prayers were answered…

Something revolutionary is about to happen to my office. Currently overcrowded with books from floor to ceiling, I am about to clear an entire shelf – much to the rejoicing of my wife! And it’s thanks to the publishers at IVP who have managed to pack the full complement of 49 volumes of the Tyndale commentary series onto a PC- (and now Mac-) friendly CD ROM, via the Libronix Library system.

The Complete Tyndale Commentaries CD-ROM has arrived.

More than revolutionising my office, it will also transform my preparation time. Wherever I go I will now be able to take this world-class commentary series on the road with me. In case you haven’t come across them, the Tyndale commentaries are concise and clear, scholarly without being overly academic. They don’t require any familiarity with original languages. They are a verse-by-verse commentary on Bible passages with emphasis on helping you understand the original meaning of the text rather than how to apply the text today. I find them invaluable, not usually the last word but definitely the first port of call when struggling with a difficult passage. My personal favourites so far are NT Wright on Colossians, John Stott on John’s letters and Derek Kidner on Genesis, Psalms and Proverbs. But to be honest every volume is worth a consult when preparing.

Do the Maths
So lets do the Maths: at £8.99 a pop the paperback commentaries are fantastic value, but when you get 49 of them for £149.99 you are saving a massive £290. I understand that some people don’t like reading books on a computer, but it is really unlikely that you would sit down and read a Tyndale commentary cover to cover. You are more likely to look up individual passages so having it at the tip of your fingers wherever you and your laptop happen to be is brilliant. And of course you can copy and paste, and cross reference quickly against other commentaries all from within the programme. It takes a while to get a hang of the Libronix system – but it doesn’t require any technical expertise to get it up and running. I use mine on my Mac thanks to a free crossgrade available on the Libronix site.

This is close to being an I-pod moment in digital publishing. With my laptop loaded with all my favourite music and filmclips, and now all my favourite commentaries I feel like my eco-friendly mobile office is closer to a reality than ever before. If you want to bless your pastor, Bible college students, itinerant staff, lecturer friends or home group leaders this Easter, this could be a very generous but much appreciated gift.

Don’t miss out on this excellent free event on Tuesday next week

Hi friends,

there’s an amazing line up of speakers at the Biblefresh launch at the London Institute for Contemporary Christainity. There are three back to back mini conferences happening – come to which ever will help you the most. Check out the amazing line up of speakers

Let us know you are coming by commenting on this post or emailing Biblefresh@eauk.org

Biblefresh

30 March 2010

London Institute for Contemporary Christianity

For Church Leaders:

9.30            Coffee & networking

10.00            The Bible: tedious, taboo and toxic or transforming, treasured and true? – Krish Kandiah (Evangelical Alliance)

10.45            Break

11.00            Rebuilding Confidence in a Rubbished Text – Gavin McGrath (L’abri UK)

11.45            Break

12.00            The Shock of the Old: how the Ancient and Other speaks into Today – Mark Meynell (All Souls Langham Place)

12.45            Lunch

For Youth & Children’s workers:

2.00            From Bible Baddies to Storynory: 20 ways to engage children with the Bible – Krish Kandiah

2.45            Break

3.00            Fresh approaches to sharing the Bible with young people – Jenny Baker (Sophia Network)

3.45            Break

4.00            Reading youth culture through biblical lenses – Jason Gardner (LICC)

4.45            Tea & networking

For everyone:

6.00            Drinks & snacks

6.30            Live music – Andy Flannagan

7.00            Welcome & prayer – Jenny Brown (All Souls Langham Place)

7.10            Make Bible Poverty History – What is Biblefresh? – Krish Kandiah

7.30            Reading the Bible Politically – Andy Flannagan (Christian Socialist Movement)

8.15            Praying the Bible – Interview with Jonathan Oloyede (Global Day of Prayer)

8.30            Word Association: Connecting the Bible with everyday living – Jason Clark (Deep Church)

9.15            Panel Q&A – Hosted by Jenny Brown & Krish Kandiah

9.30            Close

Just Politics – lets get stuck in…

A cross in the box

I was shouting at the television.  And no, it was not because my beloved Liverpool was failing to play its usual top class standard of premiership football.  It was not even that I had failed to record the last episode of Heroes. What I was watching was even more galling. It was a man touting for support for the British National Party by explaining that as a Christian, he hated homosexuals and immigrants, denied the Holocaust and climate-change, and believed in white supremacy.

Nick Griffin’s shocking appearance on BBC’s Question Time tallied 8 million viewers, many of whom, like me, were incensed enough to shout back at the television as everything in us was desperate to contradict his unchristian attitude to the world.

Funnily enough, all my shouting fell on deaf ears. Well, almost. My sleeping kids and elderly neighbours stirred a little, but Griffin looked me right in the eye and just kept talking. What could I possibly do to challenge this dangerous heretic? I needed to think outside the box.

As it happened, I had recently been on a journey of discovery with politics. I used to be one of those Christians shy of getting involved. Perhaps it was the misconception that engaging with politics should be separated from daily life, from the call to evangelism, or from faith itself. Perhaps it was the corruption in the system, the apathy in the society or the scepticism in the church. However it was getting to know Christian MPs that completely changed my perspective. Suddenly I met people who were really putting their faith into practice and making a difference. I realised that the only prayer Jesus ever taught us was to pray for a new government – “Your Kingdom come”. Jesus’ death was under sentence of political agitation.  Jesus’ teaching called us to be salt and light. Even the persecution of the early church was provoked by its political challenge of ‘Jesus is Lord’.

And so I collected the wisdom of these politicians into a book called “Just Politics”. Contributors included MPs, party leaders, church leaders, songwriters, respected thinkers and ordinary UK Christians. I received hundreds of stories of young people stepping up to the mark and making a difference. From issues of unfair trade, to trafficking, from street children to street pastors, the overwhelming message that came over was that engaging with politics is far more than voting. It is speaking out for the poor and marginalised we encounter on our streets and in our communities and on our television sets. It is refusing to sit back and do nothing when violence escalates, crime rates soar, hospital waiting lists jam and children starve.

Just Politics contains excellent practical advice about how to get started. And I was about to try some of it out. As my voice grew hoarser, I picked up my computer and began to twitter. I started a Facebook group called “Nick Griffin does not speak for Christians” which attracted 4000 people in a matter of days.  I even dared to mention politics from the pulpit.

As the election comes closer, we have the ability to begin to reform the government – the ones whose decisions can bring justice, compassion, hope and life. Like me, will you watch the electioneering from your sofa and just get cross at the box? Or will you stand up, put a cross in the box of your ballot paper, and make your voice heard? But politics is more than just voting – I challenge you to start to think outside the box.

Time to Say Goodbye to June Kandiah

June was born Jean Regina Ball on April 16^th 1937, as the eldest of three daughters to Evelyn Rosina Ball and Reginald Alexander Ingleby Ball. She was born in Shilong, India. Reginald, my grandfather, was an Irishman a tea planting engineer and an expert marksman and exterminator of rogue man eating animals – be it lions, tigers or bears. June’s two sisters Nola and Diana were born shortly after, and the three girls were sent to Dr Graham’s Homes School in Kalimpong in 1945.

This school that rested on the hillside with a Himalayan backdrop provided June with some fond and other not-so-fond memories, but certainly several lifelong friendships. The annual Kalimpong reunion was often a highlight of the year for June.

June’s friend Barbara writes:

“I first met June when we were in the same Kindergarten Class in Dr. Graham’s Homes, Kalimpong. We were the best of friends and I remember waiting for June every morning before the start of the school day.  Her face lit up when she saw me and we always sat next to each other.  We shared confidences, laughter and sometimes sadness too but I was always happy in June’s company. When we were 7 years old we were in a Play called  THE SNOW QUEEN and June was chosen as the Snow Queen as she was the prettiest girl in the class.  She wore a shimmering white dress and had a silver crown and I was so proud of her as she sang and danced on the stage and her beauty shone through. We have kept in touch ever since and I shall remember June’s beautiful smile and her laughter.  She was totally unselfish and believed that there was good in everyone. I feel privileged to have known June and having her as my friend has greatly enriched my life”. (Barbara Burgess nee Castley)

In 1951, aged just 14, June came to England by boat sponsored by her paternal grandmother whom she called Aunty. She lived in London in the fashionable area of Kensington. June was know as Little Miss Sunshine by the staff in Harrods and was often given gifts as she went around running errands for Aunty.

June first came to Brighton shortly afterwards, where she attended a pre-nursing school in Stanmer, and moved in to 5 Wellington Road with Aunty. She was a strong swimmer and would often swim the distance between the Palace and West Piers on Brighton Beach – just for fun. After school, in 1955, she went to Worthing General hospital where she trained to be a state registered nurse for three years.

Shortly after her twentieth birthday, she moved back to Brighton where she did some private nursing. But she never forgot her Indian roots, and in 1961, she went to India by boat from Southampton to work in Victoria hospital, Calcutta.

A year later she moved to Chichester to live with her sister Nola who had now married Barry Beacher. June was again doing private nursing work, and it was during this she was involved in a motorbike accident that left her in pain for the rest of her life.

She moved back to Wellington Road to nurse Aunty until she died, leaving June the house at 5 Wellington Road  that became her much loved family home for the next 40 years. June lived there herself and rented out the other rooms to students at the university.

One of these students was a Sri Lankan lad named Mal, who kept in touch with Mum. He writes:

“I very clearly remember the day I met June for the first time. It was in  October 1967 when I responded to an advert she had placed in the Evening Argus advertising her upstairs flat. She asked me basically two questions … one was which college I was attending and the other was my nationality. Based on the two answers she decided immediately to rent the flat to me for £7.00 per week with electricity.  
She did look a little like my eldest sister then. She was also like a mother to us for the 2 year period we stayed with her as a student. Whenever we fell ill she used to come up and check on us and also give necessary medical advice and provide us with medication too. This was a great strength to us. At the same time she was very strict if we were making any noise after 10.00 pm on weekdays.  
 
Two remedies she gave me are still with me and I keep using them from time to time. The funny part is just two days ago one of my labourers in the estate came to me and said he had a carbuncle. Immediately my mind went back to No. 5, Wellington Road days and I told him to apply the same medicine that June asked me to apply. I believe that was the day she passed away. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.
 
Love
Mal & Sue”

June was a gregarious young woman, and was always surrounded by friends. At the local dance halls she always had a different partner for each dance! She really was the life and soul of the party – and parties there were many. Pots of rice and curry would be cooked up and the crowds would come to chat, eat and dance. It was at one of these parties in the 1965 that June met an international student who had come from Malaysia to gain a degree in Electrical Engineering. His name was Bala.

Mum had plenty of suitors, and even emigrated to marry one of them (the then All England Champion Badminton player) leaving her new friend Bala to house-sit. The match was not to be though, and when she returned in 1968, June Ball found herself bowled over by the slim, sophisticated, spin bowling cricketer house-sitter, who would later become my dad.

June and Bala married in August of 1970, against the wishes of certain family members on both sides. But their love overcame all those challenges- and plenty others in their forty year marriage. Krish was born in 1971, and Sara in 1974 and the family was complete. At this time, Bala was working as an engineer with GEC and June continued to nurse.

Krish writes:

“My childhood memories are of a happy, stable home environment, with the strong support of my aunties and uncles  in both the UK and Malaysia. My adventurous mum encouraged me to try new things and gave me strategies for coping with the ups and downs of school life, whilst my dad instilled in me a love of education and travel. Mum was always there with a clever new idea when the kids at school were calling me racist names. She was the one who laboured through the night so that I won the best Easter Garden competition at school or ensured that Sara and I had badges sewn on our uniforms. I remember sitting with Mum scooping out the flesh of an enormous pumpkin so I could put it on my head on Haloween. The following year, I persuaded Mum to strap her hoover on my back so I could be a ghost buster. When my sister got a paper round delivering the Brighton and Hove leader – it was Dad that drove them and Mum that walked round lugging thousands of papers –but it was Sara that got  all the money! It was also Mum who encouraged me to follow the marching band that came past our house one morning, and that was the time we discovered the Salvation Army, that was to be a spiritual home for both of us. It was mum that taught us both to pray, (Sara is now the prayer co-ordinator for a major Christian relief and development charity) and it was mum who read the bible with us (teaching the Bible is what I most enjoy about my job these days.)”

June was always making friends, whether it was through her work as a nurse where she met Elizabeth and Theresa, or on the maternity ward where she met another new mum and neighbour Chris Armstrong. She had a fantastic reputation in her community for her neighbourliness – she was always offering practical help, or food, or running errands- always with a story to share and an ear to listen. Her long-standing friendships with Mrs Oglive, Miss Pazel, Aunty Kate and most recently with Gorinder and Callum are a testimony to how hospitable she was. Krish and Sara were always encouraged to bring friends round, and they were all introduced to tasty spicy cuisine. Probably many of the curry houses in Brighton are in business today because of the crowds who developed a taste for spicy food at 5 wellington road.

June had many other social outlets – her work as a warden at Viaduct Court, her work with Help the Aged and her volunteering at the Salvation Army coffee shop with Phyllis. This was work she enjoyed, and she was faithful and friendly.

Her arthritis slowed her down more than she liked, but this did not stop June from tending the garden that she loved, or travelling all over the world from Albania to Alaska, from Sri Lanka to Spain, or pursuing her talents for letter-writing, drawing and card-making. She loved spending time with her four grandchildren Joel, Luke, Anna and Elly and two great-nephews Joshua and Jaeyen, encouraging them to be creative, laughing with them and playing Rummikub, Guitar Hero and Settlers as though she would never tire of it.

During the last three and half years, June battled bravely with her cancer. However much it took its toll on her body, she continued to look radiant, and engage in lively discussion. June was overwhelmed by the love and support she had through these difficult days from her husband Bala and daughter Sara. In the week since she passed away, tributes have flooded in from all around the world. June is consistently described as a lovely, vibrant, generous lady and faithful friend who was much loved, and will be much missed.

Thinking out loud about leadership structures

Hi friends

I am playing around with some ideas for a small church’s leadership structure. Would love to know if you have seen any good models.

Here are a couple I am thinking through, comments and ideas would be really helpful. I don’t think there is a one size fits all leadership structure, but I would love to know what your experiences are. If you fancy sending me an image file with your structure I’ll post them on here to aid the discussion.

Thanks

Krish

The classic elders and deacons model tweaked

In this model, we stick the separation of elders and deacons. Eldership focusses on pastoral and visionary leadership. There is deliberate inclusion of someone who is an elder in development (a younger). The diaconate is an empowered group of leaders – and this is where the ministry delivery and co-ordination hub of the church exists. There is connectivity between the elders and the deacons through the pastor / senior leader.

smaller team - maybe more focus

This cluster model puts the core ministries of the church at the core of the leadership team. Each member of the senior team brings their area of ministerial expertise to the table. Each leader has responsibility for the care, development and communication of other ministry leaders within the church family. There could be periodic meetings of the whole ministerial leadership team of the church but the regular meeting of the leadership team would be just the five people depicted in red.

Smaller cluster model

The smaller cluster model seeks to refine this even more by giving the pastor specific responsibilities too.

Over to you guys – all ideas welcomed:

Biblefresh books

Sorry things have been so quiet on the blog lately! We have been busy talking about Biblefresh with people all around the UK. Not to mention a bizarre episode I had with my macbook pro and a car…

Any way thought I’d give you a heads up on some of the exciting books I have been sent to review for Biblefresh. When the Biblefresh site comes fully online you will be able to browse through all the new resources, but I thought I would give you a taster.

Preaching with Variety

this is a great little book – a quick read packed with motivation and encouragements on how to teach each of the different genres of scriptures faithfully and relevantly. It challenges us to rethink the way we flatten the different genres into a bog standard sermon. If you think your preaching is getting a little stale (or if you can be subtle about it – if you think your pastor could use a little bit of encouragement to think creatively and biblically at the same time). Then get a copy of this book. It’s well worth the read.

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Grasping God’s Word by J. Scott Duvall &  J. Daniel Hays

Here’s a useful handbook guiding you through the basics of understanding the biblical text. If you are planning to train up Christians to better handle the word of God, you could do a lot worse than investing in this book. I am not completely convinced by the “principalising” methodology of Old Testament exegesis – seeking out a culturally transcendent principle from every text. This would seem to say that it would have been better if God had cut out all the narrative and just given us the eternal principles in the first place. Nevertheless this is a good handbook for helping create better Bible readers.

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Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology, Kaiser, Vanhoozer et al

Don’t let the title put you off this book – it sounds like we are leaving the Bible behind to move onto theology.None of the authors want to do that. they are all trying to explore how do you build a theological framework from the Bible. I enjoy the counter points series because i really like having scholars engage in debate with those that have very different views from them in a godly way. This book has challenged the way i read, interpret and apply the way i engage with the Bible. I haven’t finished this yet – but so far Kevin Vanzhoozer is on great form. This book has already challenged the way I teach the Old Testament in particular.

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The Blue Parakeet, Scott McKnight

Scott McKnight has a very conversational and laid back style, which allows him to communicate some pretty enormous ideas in a very easy to read way. Scott is a theologian and comes with the endorsement of Willow Creek Church in Chicago.

This book will challenge the way you read the Bible by helping you ask big questions about what we expect the Bible to do for us. Scott’s worked example on the role of women in the church may be too close to the bone for some people and I hope that doesn’t mean that some of my more complimentarian friends miss out on a really useful book

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Theological Interpretation of the Old Testament, Kevin Vanhoozer

I have lost my copy of Faith of Israel by William Dumbrell – which provided a biblical theology of each book of the Old Testament. So much of that book has been underlined -I’d loved to know who has got my copy! But as I read through this book I believe it might be even better. Vanhoozer is a systematic theologian of the highest calibre – and he has applied his skills to pull together some of the best biblical scholars of the day and he has forced them to ask theological questions of each book of the Old Testament. If you are planning a teaching series on an Old Testament book soon – I’d make the relevant chapter of this book one of your first stops.

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If budget is not an issue – the larger dictionary is definitely worth buying. It contains all of the articles from the Old Testament volume, the New Testament volume and much more besides all wrapped in delicious hardback binding and extra thick pages.

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I’ll post some more later – but just wanted to get back into the blogging game…

last Sunday of the decade

Its an all age service at church tomorrow – and I am leading it.

This is the last Sunday service of the decade I am really excited that this is a great opportunity to look back at the last ten years and also look forward to the next 10 years.

So I have got a quiz lined up and some life journey exercises for everyone to do together.

Is the quiz too hard- though – how many faces would you recognize?

End of the decade all age quiz

The Bible passage for tomorrow is Simeon’s song, (also known as the Nunc Dimitis)

NUNC DIMITTIS

Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”

What a great passage to look at the future with hope because of the difference Jesus makes to our perspective on the future.

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Global (Warming) Theology

With the Copenhagen Summit just days away – I am hoping that Christians around the world will be praying for wisdom for our global leaders as they make decisions about the ecological future of our planet.

But I just got an email from the European Leadership Forum explaining that this year’s keynote speaker will be Professor Wayne Grudem.

I owe an enormous debt to Professor Grudem because his was the first systematic theology that i read cover to cover. It was a really engaging book because he didn’t duck out the juicy bits of theological discussion (at least the juicy bits when i was 19 years old – speaking in tongues, prophecy etc).

I enjoyed the book despite holding very different views on the end times and the roles of men and women. Grudem’s work was a standard part of my discipleship training for the young people I was working with.

But today as i scanned through Prof. Grudem’s previous talks at the ELF I heard him argue that global warming was wrong.

“There are those who say that the production of carbon dioxide is creating a greenhouse effect and is causing the earth to warm, in fact it does not appear to be born out by empirical evidence, all of the evidence for global warning is based on computer modelling and many of the assumptions of the computer models are highly suspect. Within the last month we had 30 000 scientists who signed a public declaration that they were high sceptical of the warnings of global warming. “

As i listened to Dr Grudem share his views on the subject and also provide an extensive list of websites where global warming is disputed – i was hoping that he would balance it out with alternative views to his own – but no this was an important part of his message to emerging and established leaders in Europe.

As i listened i thought about the significance that Grudem’s writing came from a North American context, which has the incredibly influential oil producers funding all sorts of research programmes to rubbish the claims of global warming.  It reminded me of  the need for a truly global conversation about global warming. If this had been a dialogue rather than a download there might have been an opportunity for Professor Grudem to learn as well as teach. But he seemed very unaware of the impact his cultural location had on his position. As a result a noted evangelical theologian is a global warming denier and is encouraging European leaders to follow him. This is an issue of huge apologetic significance – as the Christians are seen to be the equivalent of flat earthers which can’t be good for the public reputation of the gospel.

As I reflected more on this I noticed that Dr Grudem had a pivotal role as the General Editor for the ESV Study Bible. The ESV approach to translation includes the idea that:

“The ESV is an “essentially literal” translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. As such, its emphasis is on “word-for-word” correspondence, at the same time taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. Thus it seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original.”

I am no linguistic expert but even in the experience of becoming fluent in the Albanian language when we served as missionaries there in the 1990s this “word for word’ translation principle would seem naive as it seems to show a lack of understanding of how languages work. So once again a lack of awareness of the nature of culture has influenced a conservative evangelical US global export. (there’s some interesting articles I have found on the challenges of ESV’s approach to translation and culture here)

The other aspect of Professor Grudem’s work I am now re-examining is his approach to male and female roles in the home which often appear to me to seem to find ways of baptising the model of a 1950s home in the USA as a cultural model for the rest of the world.

How do we facilitate a genuine global conversation on these subjects so that we don’t remain locked in our cultural bunkers – recognising that both sides have things to learn? Only this way will we be able to commend the gospel effectively and credibly.