Love and Light

I started writing this last Sunday.  Some times I think I am obtuse (no need to comment!).  Today was a case in point.  Whenever I am responsible for speaking at church or leading worship I make a point of seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit in the hope of having what might be called a prophetic edge to my ministry.  The Spirit knows what needs to be said and I want to do my best to say what God is wanting said.  Probably on most occasions I develop a strong conviction about the topic or theme and often it proves right, for which I am thankful.  Sometimes I receive that conviction well ahead of the event.  At other times it may only come nearer the time - but that might indicate a lack of prayerfulness on my part!  But today was strange.

Right up to yesterday evening (Saturday 8th) I had no sense of guidance as to this morning's service.  We don't follow the Lectionary, but out of desperation I looked it up on the internet and the more I thought and prayed the more I felt that perhaps I should be saying on "You are the light of the world".  Various related passages of scripture came to mind and I began also to think about hymns and songs. Then I found my thoughts moving on a different theme, that of love (well Valentine's day was coming up).  Soon several contemporary worship songs were resonating in my heart and I began to wonder if I should abandon the light theme with the two hymns I had particularly thought right ("Immortal Invisible God only wise" and "Shine Jesus Shine").

Time was running out and I had no complete plan as I left for the morning meeting.  Half prepared to speak on love and half prepared to speak on our being lights in the world, I looked at my two lists of hymns and songs and tried to sense what God might be wanting me to focus on.  Which was it?  It isn't often I arrive at a meeting feeling confused but I had two different threads in my mind without feeling that I should abandon either.  I quietly explained my dilemma to our pianist and ran through options we might sing.  Just before we began she started to play "Living under the shadow of his wing".  Not wanting to make a sudden theme change I went with this song which had actually come powerfully to mind not long before I had left home.  It's a song with three verses and is about worship and adoration.  As we sang I had a kind of image come to mind of arriving as a guest at a home and on arrival presenting the host with a gift (wine or chocolate perhaps - a love gift).  I shared my thought and we sang it again as our love gift to God as we gathered at his invitation in his house.

This opened up the theme of love and I wanted it to lead into a deeper time of sharing.  We were all thrilled to see one of our folk who was there after having had major surgery just a few days before.  Being there was important to him and so precious to the rest of us.  He was invited to bring us up to date on his operation and future.  He shared with us how strange it seemed that people of faith seemed to be close to him throughout his time in hospital.  As he spoke I became aware that one of the older members of our church was missing.  She needs a lift in order to attend and between us we seemed to have missed picking her up.  So as one person went to pick her up (now almost 30 minutes after the start) we finally had our sharing time.

People grouped mainly into threes to share encouragements and any worries.  We had also highlighted other general concerns for prayer.  Once all three had time to share at least one in each group was to gather the conversation together in a prayer.  It was a time of precious sharing and real loving fellowship (illustrating my theme of love).  So it was strange that I felt we should revert to the 'light'theme next as we sang, "Immortal, invisible God only wise".  The key verse was

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,

Thine angels adore Thee all veiling their sight

All laud we would render, O help us to see

'Tis only the splendour of light hideth Thee.

We have recently been studying Isaiah and had noted the prophecy that the Servant Messiah would be a "light to all nations".  I spoke to this briefly but the Bible reading that followed was from 1John 3 (back to the love theme). To my mind it was seeming fragmented but suddenly came together as I realised that the brilliant light that was Jesus was because he is pure love.  The two are not separate concepts. In that opening song we had sung verse three:

Heart to heart embracing in his love

reveals his purity.

Soaring in my spirit like a dove;

holy, holy, holy is the Lord

If we want to let our light shine before all so that they might glorify God (Matthew 5:16) we would need the Holy Spirit enabling to love as Jesus loved, to even love the un-loveable and our enemies (Matthew 5: 43-48).  It is genuine godly love that makes the light shine!

To coin a phrase from The Simpsons "Dah!"

Now you may have fully grasped that years ago but forgive me for being obtuse.  Where I thought I had two themes I had, in fact, two facets of a single theme.  We brought it all together in our final hymn "Lord, the light of your love is shining... Shine Jesus shine".

So, if you're a little on the slow side (like me) or whether this has been clear as crystal for years, we would all do well to remember that its only as our lives are filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit that we are enabled to love as we ought to love that the light of God streams out of our lives unveiled from our human baseness.  It was love that had brought our friend back so soon after his operation.  It was love that compelled us to go and collect someone who would have otherwise missed fellowship.  It was love that made the sharing and prayer time precious.  It was light that was shining that morning.

Oh, that it might shine brighter and brighter - not just when we gather on Sundays but in every dark corner of our everyday lives - in our homes and places of work or education or in the doll queue or wherever we are found.

Amen?

Now to other things - and in particular things for praise and prayer from recent days.

• I have been greatly encouraged by the emails and phone calls recently because the usual flow of these 'epistles' has been rather disrupted.  Thank you all who have recently expressed appreciation for them.  It means a lot.
• Our hearts go out to those affected by the floods -especially farmers and those in villages.  Please pray for and support your local Farming Community Network people.  You might also like to look at this link to our friends at the Arthur Rank centre. www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/communities-and-farming/community-resources/item/9344-how-to-support-those-affected-by-flooding-in-somerset  (Sorry about the long URL)
• Doreen and I had a great time at Goodwood Evangelical Chhurch, Leicester on Sunday 2nd February where I led the Family Service on the theme of following Jesus.  We are thankful for the prayers and support we receive from this fellowship.
• On 30th January the trustees of Mission for Christ held a telephone conference which included two new trustees who have come on board to assist in sorting out problems inherited from previous administration.  It was a good meeting and several important decisions were taken.  This was followed up by a positive discussion with the Charity Commission as we move towards the end of what has been a difficult journey.  Please give thanks.
• Please pray for Christian friends who run a project at Slack Top near Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire.  They were also victims of the same difficulties I inherited when I joined the trusteeship of Mission for Christ.  This is the Mission I joined as a teenager and worked in for 25 years.  One of the outcomes of the recent trustees' meeting was to execute a Deed of Agreement which we hope will set our Yorkshire friends free to develop the work in new and exciting ways.  
• Please give thanks that after countless hours of work running over the past eighteen months I have finally completed the Mission for Christ administrative work this week and 'cleared the decks' so that the work can move into a new phase.  Give thanks that I can now (apparently) focus more on the important research I have started.
• Please pray that I will find a way to catch up on the Research and that the way will open up before me on this project.
• In our church we give thanks for effective surgery for Rob and pray as he will begin radio-therapy shortly.  We also give thanks that Peter (my bubblingoverwithJesus 92 year old) is out of the High Dependency Unit at hospital and seems more like his old (but spiritually renewed) self.  At the end of a recent visit to him in hospital we share reciting Psalm 23 together and then I prayed for him and he prayed for me.  As I left the man in the bed opposite commented how wonderful this sounded to him and how it had blessed him.  Light shining?

So it just remains for me to say thank you for journeying with us in prayer.  Remember that if you receive these Praise and Prayer News by email but no longer want them you can ask to come off the list.  If you have someone who you want to add to the list please send me their contact details (with their permission please).  I pray that you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and that your light will shine brightly over the coming days.  It will only keep shining if fuelled by God's gracious power, and that is fully and freely available if we really want it.

Your friend and his servant,

Barry

A Church Where Love Is

It is a sad reflection that I hear far too often around the country comments about lovelessness within local churches.  So the idea of finding a church where love is would sound very attractive to many.  I wonder if you find your self thinking "If only!"  I am also delighted to say that I have had the joy of finding churches where love is and experiencing a little of the blessing.

How might you know that you had found a church where love is?  Here are some possibilities:

• It would be a church that treasures its more elderly members, providing transport for them, offering to take them out, visiting just so that you can spend some time together, and making sure that they are comfortable, adequately fed and coping with life and its challenges to the elderly.
• It would be a church where children find that adults are happy to listen to them and take genuine interest in what they have to say (and possibly laugh at their jokes); where children are given time, shown respect, are valued, and can confidently feel safe.
• It would be a church that smiles at the idiosyncrasies of others rather than complaining about them, possibly because they have learned that the faults they see in others are often to be seen in themselves!
• It would be a church where people often use the words "thank you" - for the little things; not just the big ones.  Where all who serve the congregation (whether from the pulpit or the dustbins or somewhere in between) are encouraged  in what they do,
• It would be a church where a stranger soon feels at home and will want to come again.
• It would be a church that practises being hospitable.
• It would be a church where people across gender and generations like to do things together.
• It would be a church where the preaching and teaching style feels humble and helpful rather than harmful and judgemental.
• It would be a church where people do not rush off as soon as the service is ended.
• It would be a church where Sundays are definitely not to be missed both because of what people can contribute to the blessing of others and because they feel it's where they belong.
• It would be a church that is slow to accuse and quick to forgive anyone who might inadvertently have caused an offence, and where everyone feels it essential that they do all they can to bring healing and restoration as soon as possible after hurtful incident.
• It would be a church where prayer is as natural as breathing.

Now that is a church that would be likely to attract others and could rightly be called Christian because it is Christ-like.  It would also be a church where the work of witness and evangelism is made easier because of the spiritual quality exhibited.

While it has indeed been my overwhelming joy to be part of such situations or to have ministered among them, I have also felt the cold chill where there is an atmosphere of spiritual superiority and judgementalism, where people seem to think themselves to be perfect and criticise others, where it feels cliquie and unwelcoming, where hurts are left untended, and people feel under-valued.  In other words places where love isn't.

The words of Paul in Colossians 1:4 have always stood out for me: "... the love you have for all God's people...".  This sounds so wonderfully inclusive.  No one was left out.  There are lots of references in the New Testament about loving one another (I counted 19 references) but this phrase in Colossians somehow seems to say more.  This love is all-embracing.  Now that's a church where love is.  Paul also gives us a clue as to how it is that they have such super relationships.  He tells us in chapter 1 verse 8 that this love comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  When writing to the Christians in Rome Paul writes "... the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us".

When I was still a young Christian I had a problem with a colleague who had a very destructive tongue and was highly critical of others.  Sitting under his ministry on one occasion I found myself resenting what I thought was a sermon targeted at me.  I silently told God all his dreadful faults, clearly thinking myself to be more perfect.  Suddenly, I felt that the Holy Spirit had withdrawn from me offended by what was in my heart at that moment.  Realising my poverty I silently cried to god, "Oh Lord, please take away this bitterness and baptise me with your love".  The next moment what I received was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, with what felt like fountains bursting within my innermost being.  I shook under the power of the Holy Spirit and had insufficient strength in my legs to stand for the closing hymn!  All I could do was pour out praise to God.

Where the Holy Spirit is there will always be love.  Perhaps it is also true that only where there is true love will God the Holy Spirit feel at home.  Will you say, "Let it start in me"?  Let's have churches where love is.

Let there be loved shared among us

Let there be love in our eyes

May now your love sweep this nation

Cause us, O Lord, to arise

Give us a fresh understanding 

of brotherly (sisterly) love that is real

Let there be love shared among us. Let there be love.

(Dave Bilborough. Copyright(c) 1979 Kinsway's Thankyou Music)

From the Diary

If you follow me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ruralbarry) you will know that I have had two great school assemblies this week.  Last week a highlight was teaching on the Safe & Sound Course at the William Booth College for Salvation Army  Among the cadets (officers in training) were some that had recently been featured on TV.  This was a really excellent group of 29 students who thoughtfully engaged in exploring theologically what true repentance and forgiveness is.  The whole day gave me a 'Wow'  feeling.  Please give thanks.

Last Saturday we held the second of our version of Messy Church at Yelvertoft.  Since we have no young families and young children it is a challenge to build this out of almost nothing.  But we have a good core team.  Despite clashing with a children's party and sleepover we had a good time.  We are learning as a team and the children are enjoying it.  This seemed proved on Tuesday when I went into the school for the assembly and was greeted with cries of "Yeah! It's Barry" etc!  Please give thanks.

Today it was my privilege to chair a meeting of the Churches Rural Group, a Coordinating Group of Churches Together in England.  As part of what we are doing is to explore the situation among rural churches in the UK to see if we are understanding the challenges faced by churches, their ministers or clergy, and whether they are responding to the needs and opportunities in mission in their local setting.  An appropriate response would be a strategy engaged upon to respond to those needs and opportunities.  I am running a similar piece of research at present through the Rural Evangelism Network.  Please pray.

Tomorrow I am meeting with friends in leadership of other rural mission agencies who meet periodically to encourage one another and explore areas of collaboration.  Please pray.

On Sunday 2nd February I will be leading the meeting at Goodwood Evangelical Church, Leicester. This is one of their periodic all-age meetings and I have been the guest speaker at these in the past. On this occasion we will be exploring what it means to be called to follow Jesus.  Please pray.

On Wednesday 5th I will be taking part in the Congregational Federation's Pastoral Care Board Meeting.  Significant responsibilities rest on the shoulders of the Board members and I value your prayers please.

Finally I have two people from our village congregation needing prayer.  Rob had an operation yesterday (28th January) to remove a fairly large tumour on his back near his spine.  Peter, our bubbling-over-with-Jesus 92 year old is currently in another hospital hight dependency unit.  In asking your prayers for Rob and Peter I also encourage your prayers for those in the UK affected by the severe flooding, including the farmers affected.  Please pray for the work of the Farming Community Network (formerly farm Crisis Network) and those engaging in this serious situation.

Thank you.

What do we mean by 'Believing'?

An evangelist is essentially a messenger of good news.   But is the telling all there is to it?  I was still in my teens when I felt God's call on my life as an evangelist.  Apart from the biblical accounts my examples at that time were the various missionaries whose biographies had been given to me with each successive Sunday School anniversary, the evangelists I encountered through monthly events called Hastings and District for Christ, George Verwer (founder of Operation Mobilisation) and, of course, Billy Graham.  What they all seemed to have in common was not just telling the story but encouraging people to make a positive response by receiving Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

When Jesus told Peter and Andrew that by following him they would become "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19) he was talking to men who knew what fishing is about.  Fishing was not about merely influencing fish; it was about catching them.  More recently I have noticed that some who might have soft-pedalled the issue of encouraging a response have now started using the term "intentional evangelism".  This is a term I have used commonly and made clear in my analysis of evangelism into three stages.  My earliest experiences as a teenage evangelist were in tract distribution among seaside tourists, engaging in conversation with other teenagers in coffee bars and speaking at youth events.  While I was always ready to listen and have a respectful conversation I remember making clear that the listeners would inevitably make a response.  It would be either to welcome Christ or to reject him.

From 1964 to 1988 I was part of an evangelistic team and had a number of responsibilities as we conducted many evangelistic missions each year, mostly in rural settings.  One of my tasks was to encourage a response after the main evangelist had spoken.  I saw this as "drawing in the net"; it was the Holy Spirit who put the fish there.  So I sought, and still seek, to avoid emotional manipulation of any kind, but always to make it easy for someone to take that important step of faith.

In 1974 when there was a lot of fresh thinking about evangelism I remember an older and more experienced man at a conference for evangelists state that he felt that the 'Gift of an Evangelist' was seen in his ability to draw in the net.  He was implying that almost any Christian should be able to tell the story, but the ability to bring about a response was most effectively done by those whose gifting within the body of Christ was that of an evangelist.

The biblical record of such net drawing is quite limited.  On the day of Pentecost the crowd asked what they should do (Acts 2: 38-41), to which Peter called them to repent and be baptised.  A similar request came from the Philippian Jailer who wanted to know what he had to do to be saved (Acts 16: 30) to which Paul responded "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ..."

The language of response to the gospel has been expressed with various words such as repent, believe, commit, trust, receive, accept, etc.  On most occasions where I give such a call it will include the opportunity to say a brief silent prayer following phrase by phrase what I have prayed.  Typically evangelists in the past have then invited people to indicate that they prayed that prayer by raising their hands while others are bowed in prayer, or speaking to the evangelist or a counsellor afterwards, or picking up a response card, or inviting people to come forward publicly.  This last example was one we rarely used in village evangelism where the cultural context militated against a public show.

The Bible does not offer a template for response to the gospel or model wording.  We need to be careful that we don not develop an evangelistic culture which we anticipate is the right or even the only way for God to work to bring men and women to himself.  Personally I struggle a little with the word "believe" in this context.

The earliest evangelistic activity was targeted at Jews where the heart of the message involved a mental consent that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah or Christ. On his missionary journeys Paul always started by proclaiming Jesus as Messiah in the synagogues, but he also employed the concept of believing when speaking to gentiles (for example the Philippian Jailer).  But within the Greek culture of the day the word we have translated as "believe" implies trusting in and committing to.

My problem in the UK today is that when we use the word believe, the dominant concept is one of mental or intellectual assent.  Now I know that faith is fundamental and I also do not want to suggest that a response to the gospel should be 'mindless'.  But sometimes I wonder if using the expression "believe in Jesus" we are actually using jargon that might mean one thing to those of us who know him and have a biblical knowledge, but another thing for those whom we long to know him.

I suspect that 'trust' and 'commitment' carry a better understanding of an appropriate response in our culture.  So we might urge someone to trust that Jesus has taken their guilt and punishment by his death on the cross, and urge them to commit to following Jesus, making him Saviour and Lord of their lives.  Is there a danger in allowing people instead to infer that to become true Christians they have to be able to intellectually accept things that they might at that moment find unbelievable in the intellectual sense?

Those three stages of evangelism to which I referred earlier are (a) engaging with people, (b) telling the story, and (c) encouraging a response.  To do (a) and (b) but neglect to do (c) is, I suggest, like someone going fishing with a rod and line and bait but no hook.  But to an experienced fisherman what kind of bait and hook he or she uses will always depend on what kind of fish they are after.

It has been confidently asserted that one Christian in ten has the gift of an evangelist.  If we are not seeing evidence of a harvest in our churches what does this imply? We urgently need to discover, develop and deploy such people.  Evangelism can be carried out in many different ways in many different contexts, but all with the same aim, because that is what God intends.  Potential and embryonic evangelists in rural areas are likely to be both isolated and challenged by the social context of village life.  During 2014 I hope to offer more support advice and training in this area.  If I can be helpful to you or your church please let me know.  Whether or not you need such a service I hope that you will give me your support especially though prayer.

IMPORTANT: Did you receive last weekend's Praise & Prayer News on "Not settling for Normal"? We missed the usual response we  get from these emails.  If you did see it through an email please would you let me know at barry@ruralmissions.org.uk.  Thanks.

From the Diary:
Sunday 19th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church.  The morning meeting will be followed by lunch and an envisioning Church Meeting exploring where we believe God is leading us.
Monday 20th - Research into rural evangelism
Tuesday 21st - Gartree Prison Ministry
Wednesday 22nd - Teaching at the Salvation Army Training College, London, on Safeguarding and appropriate pastoral response to victims of abuse.
Thursday and Friday mostly writing and administration related to rural evangelism.
Special Note:  You may have read or heard on the news about the man from Market Harborough who died after saving his sons from drowning in the sea off Australia.  He and his family attended a local church and his parents are neighbours of one of our village church members.  Please pray for the Priestley family as we offer pastoral support at this tragic time.

Thank you.

Barry
You can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ruralbarry
Main website: www.ruralmissionsolutions.org.uk

Don't Settle for Normal

Recently one of the men in a prison where I do some of my work enquired if everything at the church was "OK as normal".  I am always slightly uncomfortable about the word 'normal' being associated with church or anything else related to our journey with God.  Visitors to our church sometimes ask if their experience with us is normal for a Congregational church.  Is your experience on a Sunday normal?

In my first church my father served as an elder and for a while as Church Secretary.  He had a dreadful habit when giving the weekly announcements (intimations for my Scottish readers) of saying, "There will be a meeting as usual this evening at 6.30 followed by the usual informal fellowship.  Next Tuesday the usual Prayer Meeting.  On Wednesday the Women's Fellowship as usual.  On Thursday we will have the usual Bible Study" and so on.  Always one to tease my dad, one Sunday as he walked forward to do his duty I invited the congregation to listen out for the word usual and cheer if he said it.  He struggled through bravely to the end and managed not to say the usual word until he was about to step off the platform and realised he had omitted one item, which - of course - he announced as 'usual'!  Loud cheers erupted from the congregation!  Poor dad!

The point is I don't want my life to be normal, nor my ministry to be normal, nor my Sundays at church to be normal - unless the normal experience is never normal. Have you ever wondered what life was like for the disciples during the three years they were on the road with Jesus.  The account in the gospels seems to suggest that any day anything could happen.  They might find a crowd of people eager to hear Jesus or a group of hostile Pharisees.  He brought peace where they expected riot and riot where they expected peace.  They might find themselves sharing in a miracle to feed a hungry crowd, or seeing a lame man walk, a blind man see or even a dead girl brought to life.  Things were hardly 'normal'.  Going on Mark's account of the ministry of Jesus it was all very dynamic.

But even when the followers of Jesus were first sent out on their own their experience wasn't what most people would think of as 'normal'. "Even the demons are subject to us..", they said.  And after the resurrection and ascension, going to a prayer meeting as normal a lame man was raised up and a near riot started.  Prayer meetings don't seem normal from what we read.  Being baptised with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost wasn't their normal experience.  Feeling the premises shake as they prayed can hardly be described as normal.  Hearing the person you were praying about and who was in prison knocking at your door  -  was that normal?  Seeing 3,000 people come to Christ and be baptised in one day wasn't normal.  Seeing a congregation suddenly receive an outpouring of the Holy Spirit while still in the middle of a sermon is probably not what we see as normal on a Sunday.

But wait a moment!  Perhaps that is what is normal, and what we experience is the abnormal.  I have been fascinated with the concept of revival all my Christian life and wonder if revival is what should be our normal experience.  Jesus promised, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within him." (John 7: 37-39).  During the Pentecostal Revivals of the first half of the 20th Century ECW Boulton, a faithful minister, wrote:

"Rivers" is thy promise, this shall be our plea.

Less than this can never meet our cry for thee.

Tired of lukewarm service and the loss it brings,

We would live entirely for eternal things.

When with joy we follow in Christ's triumph train,

And our lives are flooded with the Latter Rain,

Then the world around us shall the impact feel

Of a Church with vision. fired with holy zeal.

It has been my privilege to experience some exceptional times when the Holy Spirit has moved and we have felt his presence so real that we could almost touch the Spirit.  I have known profound moments of awe that have come upon a meeting.  I have had times when I haven't been able to speak or do anything as God has come in power and men and women wept their way to the Saviour.  Such occasions, that once seemed common, now seem almost only a memory.  Why is that?  Such occasions were profound life-changing experiences that were not the product of hype or human emotional manipulation.

As I look back to those days I recall that churches and individual Christians were much more prayerful than we are today.  On one occasion I drove members of the team of which I was a part to take a Sunday School meeting.  On arrival at least 30 minutes before the start of the meeting we found a large meeting room full of children earnestly praying for God to touch and change lives, to save the lost and heal the sick and bring honour to his name.  Would you think that was normal?

Do you think it possible that we could return to a time when our normal church experience is ever wondering what God was going to do this week, when Christians are bursting to share their stories of divine intervention and blessing through the days of the past week?  Just what kind of 'normal' do we desire?  And is it that God cannot be bothered to move in our midst or is it we who have lost the desire and the willingness to seek him until he pours out a blessing on our lives, our churches and our service for him - a blessing too great for us to contain so that it keeps overflowing to others?

I am inclined to think that the prophetic word through Hosea needs to be heard by God's people in this land at this time.

"Sow righteousness for yourselves,

    reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unploughed ground;

    for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes

    and showers his righteousness on you."

This begs the question as to whether we are willing to seek the Lord until he comes with showers of blessing.  

When I was 17 I first caught my vision for revival.  I asked my church minister, who was clearly evangelical unlike his predecessor, why he did not preach the gospel clearly.  He told me that to do so could split the church. Together with some other teenagers we decided to do what we could.  We started attending the weekly Church prayer meeting, we witnessed to our peers, and we started a Tuesday night prayer meeting for revival that sometimes continued well into the night.  God transformed the life of that church. I certainly would not claim that this was entirely the result of the commitment and prayer of the Christian teenagers but I have no doubt that we were part of the story.

So, suppose that in order to see a profound move of God in rural Britain at this time it became necessary for there to be men and women with a passion for all that God could do among us, ad a willingness to sign up to seek the Lord until we feel the showers of blessing descending, would you be willing?

Please don't settle for normal if that is mediocrity. I would like a new normal where nothing is normal that does not include our total commitment to God's will and a deep sense of his presence in our lives and meetings impacting the world in which we live.   May God grant us all a not-normal meeting next Sunday.

Diary Notes:

The responsiveness of the group from the London Central Division of the Salvation Army last Monday was encouraging.  Addressing the issue of the awful nature of sexual abuse, how to prevent it and how to care for those who have been past victims is not the most welcome of tasks but how essential it is.

Jean managed to join me at prison this week as she adjusts to life after her husband died at Christmas time.  The men were very supportive and worked well on a Christian song that is new to them.

Video conference for Mission for Christ went well.  One of the trustees is in mid-west USA and took part with temperature -30 degrres Centigrade!

Sunday 12^th and 19^th – Yelvertoft Congregational Church

Monday 13th - Research into Rural Evangelism
Monday 13th - - a telephone conference for the Mission and Society Committee of the Congregational Federation.
Tuesday 14th - Gartree Prison.

Thank you for your fellowship,

Barry   

Please visit the website at www.ruralmissionsolutions.org.uk You can also find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ruralbarry

Saying Sorry is Not Always Good Enough

Any Christian listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 last Thursday  would have been intrigued to hear an extended interview with a lady called Maureen Greaves.  Maureen's husband Alan was brutally battered to death by two young thugs while he was on his way to a Christmas Eve church service in Sheffield in 2012.  Maureen is a committed Christian, as was Alan.  This came over clearly in the interview as she spoke about her forgiving the men that had taken the life of the man she loved.

It was a sensitive interview and teased out something of the relationship between forgiveness and justice.  The topic was followed up in another helpful interview with two others reflecting on Maureen's testimony and the topic of forgiveness.  It has also reached other aspects of the UK media.

As I was about to teach on the subject of sexual abuse and the pastoral care of victims at a meeting for officers in the Central London Division of the Salvation Army I thought I should incorporate a recording of the interview and use it as a discussion starter.  So I produced a video to incorporate the audio recording and included various slides with pictures of Alan and Maureen and some quotes taken from a UK newspaper interview.Also among the slides are some pertinent questions on the difficult issue of forgiveness.

It is a difficult and complex issue and after seeing the video we had an excellent discussion at the meeting in London on Monday 6th January. I'm happy to make the video available to others who might wish to use it.  You can contact me at barry@ruralmissions.org.uk. (Please put 'Videos' in the subject line)

While I have no hesitation in stating that God loves everyone all the time and unconditionally, I cannot say that God forgives everyone unconditionally.  To do so would be a denial of his character of being just.  I also believe that it is absolutely wrong for Christians to rush headlong into a process of forgiveness without at least some understanding of what they are doing.  Sadly, this runs counter to what we hear a lot from pulpits and sometimes from poorly informed counsellors.

In the interview Maureen repeatedly stated that she had forgiven the men who killed her husband.  But what had she forgiven them for.  She could certainly forgive them for taking her husband from her, but she certainly could NOT forgive them for the act of murder.  That is not her prerogative.  By contrast, Jesus could forgive those who drove nails through his hands and feet and who gambled below the cross for the last piece of property he owned.  Similarly, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, could forgive those who threw the stones that killed him.  But you or I could never grant third-party forgiveness - nor could even Mary.

I also asked  the group to reflect on what Maureen thought she was affecting by her act of forgiveness.  We know that being able and willing to forgive anyone for a hurt we have suffered can bring peace and healing as we let go of malice, bitterness and resentment. Maureen was a secondary victim of the brutal act the men committed and in offering her forgiveness for that hurt she might affect the hearts and minds of the villains - if it increased a feeling of guilt and remorse.  Others hearing her loving words might also be affected and moved to be more loving and forgiving themselves on personal matters.

A third discussion centred around 'feelings' and punishment.  Maureen stated that she had not felt rage - just bewilderment that anyone should do something so dreadful to the man she loved.  Later she did say that she had some negative feelings and has found herself needing to repeat the act of forgiving them.  I think that unless a person feels some kind of anger or rage over what has been done to them the act of forgiving is less significant.  If we hurt and feel the pain then forgiving has deep meaning.  If it is costless then it could be worthless (not that I am suggesting that Maureen's act was worthless; far from it).

She was asked if she was 'happy' with regard to the prison sentences given to the two young men.  One has to serve a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 25 years before he can even be considered for parole.  The other man was found guilty of manslaughter and was given a nine year sentence.  Maureen stated that she was happy with the life sentence but thought that nine years was too lenient.  She and her family have contented themselves on the lesser sentence on the grounds that when that man is released his face will be well known and they felt his punishment would be more intense after release. "From the start", she said "I wanted justice for Alan".

It is at this point that the interview exposed a hole.Maureen had repeatedly stated that her act was based on the extraordinary forgiveness she had received from God for her sins.  She spoke of God 'forgiving and forgetting'.  Was she, perhaps, acting like the man in the parable Jesus told as recorded in Matthew 18: 23 -35?  The discussion digressed slightly to reflect on John 20:22.  Let's come back to that as it is difficult.

Maureen went on to make a good point.  People that do wrong need to receive due punishment.  It is good for them and for society in general that this is so.  So, unlike the forgiveness we receive from God ,which comes with justification and so no punishment, accepting the rightness of their punishment (and even feeling that one sentence was too short) is right - but perhaps using the word 'happy' was unfortunate.  On the other hand, closure is needed so I don't want to minimise the psychological and emotional benefit derived from the sentences being served.

The final discussion was on what was effected (achieved) by her act of forgiveness.  For her it seems to have brought some peace.  We don't know that it has had effect on the men (that is stimulating remorse and real repentance).  I think it is important to state that it will not have had an effect on God regarding his relationship - or lack of it - with these men.  In God's eyes They remain sinners and his forgiveness requires genuine repentance, and genuine repentance means more than saying sorry.

So let's go back to that tricky verse in John 20:22.  I don't think that this gives to anyone the ability to act in a priestly way to absolve someone from their sins where there is no real repentance.  I certainly do not think that anyone (including ordained priests) have authority to forgive sins that have not been committed against them (i.e. acting as a third person).  I do believe that where we have been sinned against and where we have grace to forgive them, and where they wish to acknowledge culpability and receive forgiveness, then in such a situation where we give forgiveness they are also forgiven in heaven.  But true repentance will always be expressed in a willingness to accept any earthly consequences that follow the sin (e.g. a prison sentence).

I am happy to point people to the words of 1John 1:9.  Where there is acceptance of culpability, true remorse to the extent of openly acknowledging guilt than I am happy to give assurance that in such situations God justly forgives so that "there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus..." (Romans 8:1).

Forgiveness is something precious and we should not cheapen it by passing the words around like sweets from a bag.  In every situation there are always more than one person involved.  Being willing to forgive and offering that is not actually effecting forgiveness if there is no true repentance.  So we need to be careful how we use the term.  We need to consider the issue not just from our side (if it is we who want to forgive); we need to consider the impact on the perpetrator, and also of its impact on society, and in the eyes of God.  Let's be careful that we do not short change someone of a process of grace, or worse still pass them a dodgy note that has forgiven printed on it but is frankly worthless.

From the diary
Sunday 5th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church
Monday 6th - London Central Division of the Salvation Army
Monday evening - video conference for trustees of Mission for Christ
Tuesday 7th - Gartree Prison
Thursday 9th - Bible Discussion Meeting, Yelvertoft
Sunday 12th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church
Monday 13th - Research into Rural Evangelism
Monday 13th - - a telephone conference for the Mission and Society Committee of the Congregational Federation.
Tuesday 14th - Gartree Prison.

I pray that you will be greatly blessed in 2014, which you will be as you seek to walk well with God.

Thank you for your fellowship.

Barry

Valued yet humble?

I heard of a young and very earnest Christian man who became concerned about his high opinions of himself.  In prayer meeting after prayer meeting he was heard to cry out passionately, "Lord, make me nothing!"  Eventually an older Christian brother could stand it no more and after hearing this prayer for yet another time responded with, "Brother, you ARE nothing.  Accept it by faith!"

Realising what it means to be adopted into God's family should at one and the same time, enable us to feel secure and valued, yet humbled and delivered from the need to strive for approbation. When i was on mission in Devon many years ago I met a Christian couple who had adopted a young girl and were concerned that one of their natural sons was giving her a hard time.  They need not have worried as the wiry youngster reminded the boy concerned that his parents had to have him but that they chose  to have her!

Jesus had useful things to say about those who wanted to be seen as important by trying to take the most important seats at a banquet.  He also took his disciples to task regarding this so common human failing as recorded in Mark 9: 33 - 35.

During this past week Pope Francis has been in the news regarding his leadership style and moves to make his role more collegiate rather than autocratic.  For all Christians in leadership situations it is vital not to 'act like servants' but to remember that this is what we are.  But for some of us it seems that it doesn't come too easily. How tempting it is to want to feel important and have others respect us.  How hard it is genuinely not to care how we are regarded as long as we serve well.

My own Christian ministry background was certainly one that enhanced the status of elders and ministers, carrying with it the expectation that others would submissively follow our lead.  Coming into the Congregational understanding of authority within churches was at first a rude shock.  But then it became personally liberating and exciting.  As I have written in earlier posts those in church leadership who feel that they have some greater authority given them by their call to ministry need to be careful that the authority they exercise has not been stolen from their congregations!

One of the words associated with Christianity is 'fellowship'.  It is a word that expresses something treasured among us.  It carries that sense of belonging, of good company, of caring for one another, and more.  You probably know that the Greek word in the New Testament we have translated into English as fellowship, is Koinonia.  It carries the sense of partnership and sharing.  It is my opinion that to have proper fellowship no one can be superior or subordinate.  As we think about the fact of the humble circumstances in which Jesus was born and the status of those with whom the news was first shared, perhaps "being nothing" in terms of importance is something we could all remember.  Perhaps too, we could try to seek out someone who feels less important than others and try to communicate how precious they really are.

The News:
On a personal level, Doreen was able to join us for church at Yelvertoft last Sunday morning and has made slow and quiet progress through the week.  I picked up one of the viruses (the one with the nasty cough) but will be OK for our special Christmas outreach service at Yelvertoft tomorrow
morning.

Last Tuesday in the prison the choir received an invitation to sing some Christmas carols and songs in the Prison Visitor Centre this coming Tuesday afternoon.  I guess it will be background music but it's an interesting opportunity.  All the men were happy to accept the invitation.

On Wednesday I was invited to lead a Christmas event at the village Senior Circle.  Not all are Christians so it was another opportunity to share something of the gospel.

I value your prayers as we have mailed out over 1200 Christmas newsletters to those on the Mission for Christ mailing list.  In the summer of 2012 when I became a trustee of that organisation the only database we could find had more names than that but many of them were people I had known in the 1970s.  The charity cannot afford to lose active prayer partners but neither has it the money to lose mailing to people who might either be in the glory or have moved long ago.  This is the last general mailing form which we hope to have a smaller but effective list.

We are grateful that a friend enabled us the use of a franking machine which saved us £200 on stamps as franking is discounted.

Seeing to the Mission for Christ newsletter production and mailing took up a lot of time and set back time needed to get our own messages out.  If you don't get one before Christmas I hope you will understand.  The Bible says something about preferring others!

I hope that, like the shepherds in the biblical account, we recognise the birth of Jesus as something to tell others about.  We pray that many will learn just why God came into the world in this way. The event this Sunday morning is all about celebration and welcome.  It starts with good hospitality and continues in the same way as we open the doors of the chapel to the village.  If you read this in time please pray for a good turnout.

I am in prison on Tuesday.  We have a Christmas communion service on Wednesday.  Next Sunday (29th) I will be leading the service at the prison before travelling to Yelvertoft.  Christmas and New Year is often a bad time for those in prison.  This presents both a challenge and an opportunity not only for those who serve through the chaplaincy but also for the Christians within the prison community.  Please pray for them.

If anyone has a spare moment and would like to chat during the holiday season you are welcome to call me on Skype or phone.  (if you don't have the details some are on the website at www.ruralmissionsolutions.org.uk)  If you are on your own then please do call, though we welcome hearing from anyone.  May I take this opportunity to thank those who have already sent cards and those who have sent their news and annual donations.  Thank you all.

Yours in happy fellowship,

Barry

Getting the facts right please.

At this time of year I find myself concerned to once again encourage those who share the account of the birth of Jesus to get the facts right - or at least as nearly right as it is possible. Watching the current TV series on the Bible disturbs me as various matters are omitted while others are injected into the story line that are in contradiction to the record of scripture.  If it is important for people to read and believe the Bible then it is vital that we take care neither to get the facts wrong nor to so embellish the story that it deviates from the truth.  Something as profound as the coming of the Son of God into this world ought to be treated with special care.

TV, cinema and computer games present us with fantastic stories with super heroes, people possessed of special abilities, and imaginary alien creatures.  I sometimes find myself wondering whether the gospel story sound like just another fantasy when we speak of a virgin birth, turning water into wine, walking on water and rising from the dead. But my anxiety is relieved when I remember that the Holy Spirit bears witness to, and convinces of, the truth.

A recent article in The Guardian newspaper revealed that children are generally not as gullible as many think.  However, the research has revealed that many more children believe that Santa is real (even up to the age of 9 sometimes) than believe that Harry Potter is real.  Of course, they may have a vested interest in believing in someone who can supply them with so many gifts each year!  Personally, I suspect that many children continue to act as if they believe in Father Christmas even when they have realised that is just a myth.

Of course, it will always be a matter of controversy for Christian parents whether or not they play along with the Father Christmas myth.  There is no evidence that going along with the myth leads later to psychological problems arising from disappointment.  It genuinely seems, however, that children are capable of discerning the difference between a report  about a man dressed in red who rides around on an airborne sleigh and drops down chimneys all over the world and the report of a miracle baby born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago.  I don't have any qualms about playing Father Christmas for the children in reception calls in our local school.  Children seem to be able to discern truth.

But I feel altogether comfortable when I hear, in a church context, the story of Immanuel distorted and embellished with fantasy.  Mary was given an opportunity to check out the dependability of Gabriel's message having been told that her relative (unlikely to be a first cousin), Elizabeth was six months pregnant.  She did so without delay and remained with Elizabeth and Zechariah for three months.  Returning to Nazareth, having probably been away from Joseph, and now already three months pregnant, one can understand his initial concern.

There is no reference to Mary arriving on a donkey or of the wise men arriving on camels. It might have been more comfortable for Mary to be in a cart supported by cushions, but we don't know.  There is no reference in the Bible to a stable, though there is reference to a manger.  It is not uncommon in the Middle East for the living quarters to be upstairs above the equivalent of a modern-day garage.  The word sometimes translated "Inn" is elsewhere in the New Testament translated as the "Upper Room" or Guest Room".  It is possible that they would have headed for the home of a relative or friend but what is clear is that there was no normal accommodation for the visitors from Nazareth who had just arrived.

The Bible does not tell us that the angel and the host of angels appeared above the shepherds in the sky.  There is no reference to choirs or singing.  The shepherds "hurried off" to check out the angels' story so they would not have wanted to travel with sheep or deprive any young lamb of the care of its mother.  And of course there is nothing in the Bible about oxen or an ass.  Incidentally, that funny traditional manger depicted in many nativity plays would not be likely.  A manger was usually a wall-mounted item used to provide hay for horses and donkeys and at their head height.

Since Mary and Joseph had to present Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem (a few miles from Bethlehem but almost 100 miles from Nazareth) on the eighth day after his birth it is almost certain that they remained in Bethlehem  and that the Magi (not kings and not necessarily three - just two or more) visited them in the house after that date as they fled to Egypt that night after the Magi left.

It seems to me that we have a plain choice.  Either we tell the story in the way that Matthew and Luke record it for us, as part of the gospel of truth, or we wrap it up in fantasy and wonder why people don't believe. The inauspicious nature of his birth complements the wonder of his conception and the extraordinary nature of who was born that day - no mere male child but, as Charles Wesley puts it, "God contracted to a span".

Personal News this week
Doreen has ventured out to local shops a few times on her electric mobility scooter this week.  I'd rather she did not do so but understand her frustration and impatience for the fractures in her spine to heal.  I'm still having to do the bulk of domestic duties but Doreen is able to manage some tasks occasionally, but then needs to rest to relieve pain.

Ministry News
We were saddened to hear that Elaine Robinson died very recently.  While we rejoice that she is now with the Lord and that we shall meet again, this is  a sad time for those who were close to her, especially her husband, Don.  Don and Elaine have been active evangelists in rural areas for many years distributing gospel newspapers. Please pray for Don.

Last Sunday afternoon I was in HMP Gartree for the Christmas Service led by the Salvation Army band and songsters from Kettering.  The Prison Male Voice Choir sang one carol with the songsters and one partly written by me to a tune I composed a few weeks ago (I'd like to think it was a gift from the Lord).  This was received with long and generous applause.  The Salvation Army Band would like to arrange a setting for brass band, for which I am delighted.  The whole service was a great blessing.

Last week I gave a wrong date about forthcoming times in prison.  I shall be there on 24th and 31st but also taking the service on 29th December.

There was a good school assembly last Monday.  This Sunday, the Revd John Harris is taking the meeting at Yelvertoft so I have a little rest.  This Wednesday 18th I will be leading a Christmas carol event for the Senior Circle in Yelvertoft.  On Sunday 22nd we have our annual "Christmas Warmer" instead of a regular service.  This is built around hospitality and is very informal.  Carols are chosen by our visitors and the story of Christmas will be woven between these. Sometimes doing things differently to a traditional carols and lessons helps people to listen.

Thanks to all who have sent cards or messages already, and for the many kind comments of appreciation regarding these weekly missives.

I pray the Lord will abundantly bless you.

Barry