Helpful Memories; Powerful Words

Thank you for bearing with me last weekend.  I am glad to say that the problems with my laptop now appear to have been corrected.  I might have lost a few files but at least the tool is working now.  I am grateful to a Christian contact who pointed me in the right direction.  I guess that sits well with the thoughts I shared last week regarding encouraging people to make a response to the gospel message.  I received many encouraging comments and one thoughtful reflection to which I have yet to respond.

Tomorrow (Sunday 29th) I will be taking the service at HMP Gartree at 9.00 and will then pick up Doreen and make our way to join our friends at Yelvertoft where John Harris will be taking the meeting.  We are thankful for friends such as John who share in the ministry in the village.

On Tuesday morning I will be meeting with others on our Holiday at Home team to review the past year's event and plan for the future.  Please pray for wisdom.  In the afternoon I will be back into HMP Gartree.  It is then a relatively quiet week with only a Friday evening activity to attend.

We are not sure at the moment how much communications will be interrupted during this week.  We have a new telephone and internet provider due to take over from Monday and the changeover for the internet might be affected.  If all else fails we have a mobile phone on 07720 322 213.

The relative quietness of the coming week contrasts with the activity of the past week.  On Sunday we had a great Harvest Thanksgiving at Yelvertoft with Charles Smith from the Farming Community Network as our speaker.  Our harvest offerings included quite a quantity of tinned and packeted food that then went off for our local foodbank and homeless drop in ministry.  Monday's Rural Round Table (Fresh Expressions) was productive.  On Tuesday we were pleased to meet with some church leaders from Ireland.  On Thursday we had a fantastic Bible discussion meeting looking at Isaiah 40.  Friday evening and today have been spent in Nottingham in meetings to encourage and promote mission.

What an interesting week it has been in the news.  Developments regarding Syria and Iran need soaking in prayer.  One odd headline that caught my attention relates to work being carried out by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a gene that overwrites old memories with new ones. It was suggested that this could be very helpful for people suffering from post traumatic stress or possibly people who experienced abuse in the past.  Although I have not experienced a deep trauma I have had my share of some pretty horrendous experiences that are now bad memories.  Yet I know that God has used these as part of what has been needed to mould me into the minister I am today.  In many ways bad memories can be helpful especially when these are offered up to God to redeem.  Personally, I would rather see people going down that road rather than wanting the memories wiped as in the Total Recall film.  I know that some reading this will have suffered some pretty dreadful stuff.  I wonder how the idea of overwriting those memories sits with you?

My closing thoughts are on how particular we are in the ministry of God's word.  On a scale of such particularity I think I would score myself fairly highly.  I do not like to sit under ministry that takes scripture out of context or that uses it inappropriately.  When preparing to speak I try to ensure that my ministry is 'sound'.  But isn't that the way we should be when working with God's precious word.  We should take care to understand the truth correctly and minister it faithfully. But against that fact I found myself intrigued at Paul's comments from his imprisonment in Rome regarding what was happening around him  See Philippians 1: 12-18.

Paul refers to people who were preaching the gospel.  Some were motivated by God at work in their lives.  Others were motivated by a desire to stir up trouble for Paul.  But Paul rejoiced over both situations because the gospel was being proclaimed.  I well remember the first time that I was asked to speak in a major conference.  I was still very young.  Other speakers were older, experienced and very competent. I sat up well into the small hours of the morning working on my message and how I would deliver it.  Then, as exhaustion took over, I felt the Lord saying that it didn't matter about the quality of the pen; it was what it wrote that had power to change lives.

It would be presumptuous to think that I had managed to grasp the truth perfectly.  At my best I guess I am an imperfect Bible teacher and evangelist.  I am just glad that God blesses his word to the hearts of the readers and hearers despite human frailty.  The power is in the gospel not our intellectual ability to articulate it.  I would rather have people sharing the truths of Gods word according to their understanding and ability, even if that is poor, than I would have the multitude of dumb Christians with which our land is occupied.

I will continue to be as faithful as I can be in seeking to understand truth from scripture, and in communicating it as often as I can, but like Moses I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets (Numbers 11:29).  I wonder if Paul had that in mind when he write what he did to the Philippians!

Go! Share God's word wherever and whenever you can.  Do so carefully, gently, and as best you can.  But share it please.  It has power once proclaimed.

Barry

Making a Decision

This as been a frustrating week. The problems began when I downloaded some software on the internet. The website offered some additional programmes and I must have inadvertently ticked a box I had not intended.  The next thing was to discover that my internet search engines had been hijacked. It proved difficult to restore my settings, so I downloaded another programme to help me.  The first attempt merely restored the problem once again. A second attempt was working well (I think) but an interruption led to several important files disappearing along with the ability to search the drives on my computer!

My thoughts as I pondered this week's news took me to a well known verse of scripture from Joshua 24:15 "As for me and my household we will serve the Lord".

A colleague in the Salvation Army has recently completed some research on how many denominations use 'Altar Calls'. For any unfamiliar with this term it refers to the practise of encouraging people to make an immediate response to the message of the gospel. It seems that few now regularly do so. Indeed some traditions that you would expect to be more forthright in their preaching of the gospel more commonly provide invitations for people with physical needs to come forward for prayer for healing than hey invite people to welcome Christ into their lives.

I have calculated that, over the years I must have followed the preaching of an evangelistic message by giving an invitation and opportunity for people to respond to the gospel somewhere between 1000 and 2000 times. Usually this was done very discreetly. Many hundreds will have responded and given their lives to the Lord. Evangelism has three stages.  The first is engagement, or finding the right and appropriate opportunity to share the message of the gospel. The second is sharing the story, and this could take various forms. The third stage is providing an appropriate and sensitive way of encouraging a response. Jesus did not hold back from encouraging people to respond to his ministry.  The early Christians also provided a challenge to respond to their message. Today in the UK there is an abundance of sharing the gospel message but often there will be no challenge to respond.

When calling certain men to become his disciples Jesus told them that they would become 'fishers of men'. These men we're used to catching fish, not just influencing them. 

I remember a national meeting of evangelists back around the late 60s. Already it seemed that traditional patterns of evangelism might be waning. One well known evangelist commented that he felt that the greatest skill that comes with the gift of an evangelist is the ability to know how to draw in the met. I think he may well be right.  Over the years it has been my privilege to train others in evangelism and that has included passing on best practise in providing that challenge. While there are many ways in which the challenge can be given, it basically has two elements. The first is to ask is a person would like to turn to Jesus and invite him into their life. The second is to ask if they would like to do it now.

Once when we were conducting an evangelistic mission for an urban Anglican church I encouraged the local vicar to make the 'altar call' at the end of the final service. Although he was a conservative evangelical he had never given such an invitation in his life. He had listened to me on several occasions. Nervously, he invited anyone in the congregation wanting to commit their lives to God to make their way to the front during the singing of the closing hymn. He then turned his back on the congregation and knelt in prayer. As we sang I watched as steadily people responded to his gentle invitation. When he arose and turned round the look of surprise and joy on his face was wonderful. For years he had preached the gospel like a man going fishing without a net!

Why had he been nervous? It was fear of failure. Some people have their own theological reasons for not wanting to give an invitation. I cannot agree with them, though I understand their concern. Conviction and conversion are the work of the Holy Spirit. Trying to manipulate emotions, conducting an altar call like an auctioneer trying to squeeze out one more bid, or using scare tactics are among inappropriate ways of making an invitation. But a simple challenge, such as Joshua made, might be just what someone needs to help them take that step of faith.  We can do it from the platform or in one to one conversations, but let's do it, and have confidence in God.

From the Diary 22-29 September 2013

For your prayers this week please follow our activities each day. Every day will bring opportunity to share the story and provide an invitation.

This Sunday, 22nd is Harvest Thanksgiving at Yelvertoft and we have Charles Smith the CEO of Farming Community Network (formerly Farm Crisis network) as our speaker, and we will give produce to our local foodbank.

On Monday I will be sharing in a rural round table for Fresh Expressions in London.

On Tuesday I am joining our General Secretary of the Congregational Federation meeting some Christian leaders from Ireland.

On Thursday I will be doing some pastoral visits and leading our Bible Discussion Meeting.

On the evening of Friday 28th and though Saturday 29th I will be taking part in Mission Committee meetings in Nottingham.

On Sunday 29th I will be taking the service at HMP Gartner on Leicestershire.

Thank you very sincerely for your interest and prayer.

Barry

Flexible Priorities

From time to time I find myself reflecting on the diverse aspects of ministry in which I am involved.  During the 50 years in which I have been involved in Christian ministry I have felt that God has  led me into various situations.  I started out as a young evangelist back in 1963.  Somewhere around 1966 the organisation in which I was trained and was working lost a very talented Secretary.  By that time I had been given some administrative responsibility.  Before I knew what was happening I had become the General Secretary of the Mission.  Some of the Mission's activities had led to church planting and with it I gained pastoral experience.  In 1968 I was asked to jointly pastor a church, and remained there for around 21 years.  Throughout this time my knowledge and expertise in charity administration grew, and found expression in various ways, including the formation of the national Network for Rural Evangelism.

The next noticeable stage was the development of teaching and training as the Mission created a unique rural mission training centre and I undertook a large part of the teaching and strategic development.  I found the regular pastoral and leadership ministry complemented the itinerant aspects as I was still involved in planning and working in itinerant evangelism.  For this reason I was happy, when the ministry at my first church came to a close after 21 years, to work with the Congregational church at Herstmonceux.  Here, Doreen and I spent almost 15 very happy years as at the same time I developed the mission enabling ministry of Rural Sunrise.  But this in turn led to new areas of responsibility within the denomination, first as Area Chairman and involvement on various Committees, then as President of the Congregational Federation.  About this time I was asked to represent the Federation in the production of a specialist book on the pastoral care of people who had suffered sexual abuse.  That opened up yet another area of expertise and ministry.

The call to move to the East Midlands led into ministry within a local prison.  This very distinct activity provides a healthy break each week and the opportunity to indulge my love of choral singing.  While various areas of responsibility have been left behind along the way; others have remained with me.

So it is that I find myself  engaged in evangelism, church leadership, pastoral ministry, management, advocacy, research, writing, teaching, consultancy and music on a regular basis.  If you were to ask me what is the "main" thing I am not sure how I would answer.  I am not the architect of what has happened.  I just try to tackle each task as it comes along depending on God's grace to fulfil expectations.  I don't consider any aspect irrelevant.  Priorities therefore vary from time to time.

The latter part of this week I was taking part in the Enabling Group of Churches Together in England.  Frankly this is the most surprising of all the kind of things in which I am involved.  When I started out in rural evangelism the policy was to "work with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ".  While this could be described as "interdenominational", the churches with which we worked were exclusively evangelical.  An incident in 1972 led to helping to develop an inter-agency and inter-Church network that was more representative of various traditions.  The effect of this was to open my eyes to the presence and work of God within expressions of Christianity that I would previously have avoided.

A request from the then Convenor of the Congregational Federations Inter-Church Board (ICB) to help strengthen links with evangelical networks led to my representing the Federation within various ecumenical (Churches Together) bodies.  I eventually became the ICB Convenor and in that capacity I was present this week at the CTE Enabling Group meeting.  Here I sat, ate, worshipped, discussed and prayed with representatives from Catholic, Orthodox, Black Majority, Pentecostal, Anglican, Baptist, Salvation Army, Methodist, URC, Quaker, Moravian and Lutheran traditions (I may have left others out).

Some reading this and who pray for the ministries in which I am involved might find this disturbing.  But I have long since found that God is present and at work in situations which once - but longer -surprised me.  I find sisters and brothers in Christ; people who love the same God and Lord Jesus as I do; people who rejoice in the same gospel of salvation and who are committed to sharing in God's mission.  Some of these see themselves to be called of God towards an organic and structural unity.  Others, including me, see unity of all Christians as a present given that we need to nurture and express in better ways.  All recognise the challenges and difficulties and commit themselves to seek God's help in a journey to which we believe ourselves to be called by God.

I share this with you not to draw attention to myself in any way but rather to be honest about the journey on which God has taken me.  My theology as far as the gospel is concerned has never changed.  I am still a passionate evangelist.  But this week called for a temporary adjustment to priorities that I see as valid and part of my personal journey with God.  Like Peter, reporting on his experience at the home of Cornelius, I am unable and unwilling to stand in God's way (Acts 11:17).

Praise and Prayer Please...

• join me in giving thanks for a truly blessed time at the CTE EG meeting;
• give thanks for a precious time in Bradford last weekend for Tony and Sue's anniversay celebrations;
• praise God for blessings that Monica has been experiencing in Kenya.
• for God's provision for our needs;
• for the life and ministry at Yelvertoft.  We welcome new people, rejoice in seeing others sharing more in ministry, have had a wonderful Bible discussion meeting looking at Isaiah 11 and 12, and had a great time with a Christian evangelistic leader from India this past week.
• pray for the regular activities at Yelvertoft, Sundays and in the week;
• pray for the regular work in HMP Gartree on Tuesday;
• pray for a school assembly on Tuesday;
• pray for the Editorial group for Country Way meeting on Thursday (I hope you enjoyed our most recent issue);
• pray for wisdom regarding time management and priorities;
• pray for the areas of management and administration that are part of each day's work for God;
• pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ within Syria and Egypt who are experiencing serious oppression from Islamic extremists.  It is costing many of them their homes, livelihoods, sometimes liberty and even their lives.  My own links of fellowship within Syria is with the Armenian Evangelical Church.

The privilege of service for and with God is an unspeakable joy.  I hope that what I have written above might make you think about your own journey with the Lord.  I hope that you too can see how God has led you and grown your gifting and experience along the way.  As William Carey, that great Baptist missionary encouraged, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God".

Thank you for praying.

Barry

Mirrors or Stars?

During the past weekend we had the privilege and pleasure of sharing in anniversary celebrations for  a couple of friends in ministry in a Baptist Church in Bradford.  Tony and Sue Newnham worked with Doreen and me many years ago in Mission for Christ a rural evangelistic ministry.  Tony was responsible for music and technical matters in those days and Sue managed a large Christian bookshop.  The Lord has led them over the years and twenty years ago they began their first experience in pastoral leadership of a church.  We had a great weekend with them, members of their church and other friends.  It was good to meet with two other former co-workers in MfC and some others who share in our current ministry.

Preparation for speaking at this event suffered from the fact that I had a demanding programme through last week.  However, as I had prayed about the weekend I had felt drawn to explore models for ministry from Paul's letter to the Christians at Philippi.  I love this book and there is so much that informs the subject. One of the areas of the letter that often seems neglected is the last part of chapter 2.  The early par of the chapter contains the great hymn about Jesus and describes how he graciously humbled himself for us and our salvation.  This is followed by a "Therefore" that tells us how he was then raised up and given honour.  But then a second "Therefore" follows.  Paul writes about how he expected the church to respond in the light of what went before.

If they respond appropriately Paul states, "Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life" (NIV).  We could link this concept top what Paul wrote in 2Corinthians 3: 12-18 where he refers back to the experience of Moses whose face shone (radiated) glory after seeing God on the mountain.  He argues that we should also be being transformed (or transfigured) into God's likeness as we... Now here is the nub of the matter.  Paul uses an expression unique in the New Testament.  Literally it means to look into a mirror.  The NIV translates it "contemplate".  What the original language implies is that we are seeing the glory of God - but indirectly.  As we gaze on this we are made like him.

Keen that we should not assume anything good coming from ourselves many have stated that what happens is that we are reflecting his likeness.  But what we need to note is that it is the image of the glory of God that is being reflected towards us.  We are not seeing it directly but indirectly as we contemplate the glory of the revelation of God through Jesus Christ and the saving work he has accomplished, and that is being furthered in our lives by the Spirit of God within us.  What is not stated here is that we are reflecting that image.  But we are being transformed.

Paul specifically uses a word that is translated as "stars" in Philippians 2:15.  The original Greek word means an object that emits light.  The moon is inanimate and does not emit light; it reflects the light of the sun.  Our sun is in fact a star.  The light with which we are to shine should be coming from within us, though it has its origin in God.  As we spend time consciously in God's presence, and become immersed in the wonder of the gospel, and as God's word works within us, it is as if we are charged up like a battery.  Another illustration would be an electric storage heater.  It emits heat but only because it has received previous input.

Let's continue to spend time contemplating the reflected glory of God revealed in the gospel of grace so that we are transformed - changed from glory to glory.  Don't be a passive mirror; become a dynamic star and shine in today's dark world.

Give thanks...

• For God's blessing during my recent ministry in Bradford.
• For God's blessing on meetings Monica Cook has held in Nairobi and Obambo, Kenya.
• For safety in our travels at home and abroad.
• For God's provision for our needs.  Give thanks for those who help to keep us on the road through their donations.
• For God's grace through a very demanding past week.
• For invitations to share God's word in song and spoken ministry.
• That the work of Action for Christ is being sustained.
• For encouraging feedback from our activities.  It's always good to know that people are being blessed.

Please pray...

• Ministry this week in Yelvertoft: pastoral visits, Bible discussion meeting on Thursday morning,  special mission meeting Thursday evening, and next Sunday morning.
• My regular visit to HMP Gartree on Tuesday.
• Administrative work this week for Rural Mission Solutions and the Rural Evangelism Network.
• As I re-engage with the research work with Winchester University
• For Monica Cook who is busy in Obambo, Kenya
• For wisdom as there are a couple of aspects of Mission for Christ that need to be completed but are delayed by communication problems.  We are also still following up requests for assistance from the police and Charity Commission as we address historic matters before I came on board.
• For growth in Gift Aid support for Rural mission Solutions.  Our work in the UK is not in difficulty but a few more regular sponsors would be helpful.
• Pray for our continuing outreach through the internet and publications.
• Open doors for the ministry of the gospel in rural Britain.
• For the members of Dunks Green Evangelical Free Church in Kent.

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1: 4-6

Barry