On Why You Don't Read The Bible

I've copied this from the EA web site because I think it is a helpful analysis.

Three reasons why you don't read your Bible

From the earliest years of your Christian life- whether as a child raised in a Christian home, or as somebody brought to faith and discipled in a church group- you will have been told how important it is to read your Bible regularly. You decided to try some sort of Bible read through and set to reading four chapters a day. Early zeal meant you tore through the Gospels and enjoyed the drama of Genesis, but before long you ran into rock solid Romans, or life-draining Leviticus. You missed a few days out, and then… well, it's been a while since you found the will to pick your Bible up again.
Why is that? There are three very common reasons, and they all have solutions that aren't so much to do with how well disciplined your are, but more about the way you think about the Bible.
1) You don't have time

This may be the most common 'reason' we give to explain to ourselves why we've not read the Bible for a while: events of the day got on top of me, my feet have hardly touched the ground, I overslept. The fact is that our priorities reveal what we truly value, and the 'not enough time' excuse is most likely a cover-up of one of the two reasons below.
2) You think the Bible is about you

The first is that deep down, you feel your Bible reading isn't 'working'- and it's really because you read the Bible with your eyes on yourself. As you read it, you're looking for practical lessons on life, instructions on how to behave, and commands to go away and do right now. And you find that the Bible doesn't provide these particularly well!
The solution to this problem is to see that the Bible is about Jesus and not us. The solution is to take our eyes off ourselves and begin to look at Jesus in the Bible...You will find that far from dutifully going to the Bible for handy hints for the day, you will gladly run to it so that Christ will conquer your heart afresh; so that you will take your gaze off yourself and obsess over him instead.
3) You think your Bible reading is for God's benefit

Everyone will be familiar with this situation: you've been going strong with your Bible reading, enjoying it and feeling your love for the Lord grow. But something comes up (perhaps opportunity for a Saturday morning lie in) and you miss a day. Somehow the next day gets dropped too and, before you know it, it's been a week.
The feeling you get isn't a stomach-rumbling or a dry throat; not a spiritual hunger or thirst. It's a nagging guilt which tells you that if you really cared about God then you would have read the Bible, that you really should have finished Jeremiah by now...The diagnosis for you is that you imagine your Bible reading to be doing God a favour. The crushing guilt you feel when you miss it is your heart telling you God is displeased, and the slightly haughty contentment you feel when knocking out five chapters instead of your usual four is your heart telling you that God is now smiling on you...
The solution is to recognise and live in God's grace. You are eternally loved and accepted by the Father because of Jesus...In this context the Bible is given to us as a gift to feast on, rather than a project to complete before judgment day. We will find we go to it to savour and enjoy, and when we miss a day we might feel hunger pangs, but we could never feel guilt, fear, or condemnation.
Conclusion

The Bible has been given to us to help us know and love Christ. Our Father is generous and loving, and loves to communicate with us; the Spirit has inspired the scriptures so that they bring life, joy, and fullness to the Christian walk. If you have misunderstood or abused the Bible up until now, making it about you and your efforts, simply look to Jesus instead: the One of whom the Bible speaks, and the One on whom your salvation rests. Read it to love and trust him more.
Daniel Hames is training for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He is also an Associate Staff Worker for Theology Network.
Used with permission from the author. This is an extract from a longer article produced on Theology Network.

Bible Fresh Podcasts

The EA have posted two download podcasts here.

One is from Krish Kandiah and the other from Bishop Tom Wright. These were recorded at the biblefresh launch in Durham in January.

There will be a biblefresh lauch in Scotland in May, watch out for dates and venues coming soon.

EasterLIVE

As part of the biblefresh project EasterLIVE has been launched - read about it here.

You can follow EasterLIVE on twitter or facebook, the idea is to share what Easter means for you in 140 characters or less. This project will run through Lent, I hope you will find it helpful.

Find EasterLIVE here:
on twitter
on facebook

Inclusion and Exclusion

More from this remarkable book by Shane Claiborne.

Writing on the rich young ruler, Matt 19:16-30 and parallels:

I think it broke Jesus' heart to let the man walk away. The text says the Jesus looks at him and "loves him" as he walks away. But Jesus doesn't run after the man saying, "Hey, it's a journey, just give half," or "Start with 10 percent/" He simply lets the man choose his wealth.
In our culture of "seeker sensitivity" and radical inclusivity, the great temptation is to compromise the cost of discipleship in order to draw a larger crowd. With the most sincere hearts, we do not want to see anyone walk away from Jesus because of the discomfort of his cross, so we clip the claws on the Lion a little, we clean up a bit the bloody Passion we are called to follow. ...
Jesus doesn't exclude rich people; he just lets them know their rebirth will cost them everything they have. (pp. 103-104)


I've more than once been accused of not being inclusive. It always feels bad to have this thrown at you. I think these words of Shane's begin to show me a way through this inclusive/exclusive stand off.

A desire to include everyone is good, I believe God calls everyone to Jesus, to enter his Kingdom through Christ. Inclusion is good. But we can't do it right. We would always make exceptions for our family, our friends, the people we like. This is where Bultmann started his demythologizing programme, make the gospel more palatable to modern humanity. But, if you give up on the gospel to include everyone all you are left with is a social club.

Jesus excludes. Yes, I think it broke his heart when the rich young man turned away, but Jesus let him go. Jesus and his radical teaching about the Kingdom excluded this man who loved his riches more than he loved Jesus. If you love anything more than you love Jesus you will end up excluded. Anything? Yes, anything: money, possessions, sexual preferences, family, work, ministry, anything.

Jesus knows more about the gospel than I ever will. I suspect those who seek to insult me by calling me non-inclusive would end up calling Jesus the same.

Shane Claiborne, John 14 and 'The Greater Things'

I'm at long last getting round to reading Shane Claiborne's 'The Irresistible Revolution', I think it has been on my blog to read list longer than any other book!

On pp. 84-85 Shane writes about Jn 14:12 "Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in my will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

This is in a chapter recording Shane's visit to Calcutta to visit, learn from and serve with Mother Teresa. Shane writes,

But I began to discover "the greater things." It was not just miracles. I started to see that the miracles were an expression not so much of Jesus' mighty power as of his love. In fact, the power of the miraculous spectacle was the temptation he faced in the desert - to turn stones to bread or to fling himself from the temple. But what had lasting significance were not the miracles themselves but Jesus' love. ... It wasn't that Jesus healed a leper but that he touched a leper, because no one touched lepers. And the incredible thing about that love is that it now lives inside of us. (pp.84-85)

I've heard it taught that the greater things are more miracles, bigger miracles then even Jesus did. But like Shane I know too well how many are sick and don't get healed, how many are hungry and don't get fed, how many are outcast and never welcomed in. I find Shane's reading of this verse very persuasive. Lazarus, raised by Jesus still died, the leper touched and healed would still die, the hungry feed with loaves and fishes would be hungry again. But all would remember, and retell their experience of being loved by Jesus. The radical love of Jesus is now powerfully at work in the lives of millions of Christ's people all over the world. It is long past time for us to radically change the world!

Will We Allow Jesus To Save Christians?

I've just finished this book, Rob Bell & Don Golden 'Jesus Wants To Save Christians', and would recommend you to read it.

The four compass points which give shape to the book are:
Egypt - our experience of slavery
Sinai - where through grace we find purpose and identity
Jerusalem - the challenge of what to do with the blessing God has given us
Exile - when we lose the plot and fail to live the blessing God has made us, but also the place where we can confess, repent and be renewed by God's grace all over again.

A very helpful way of thinking through the implications of the biblical story and our path of discipleship. But, in the end, what does Jesus want to save Christians from?

Jesus wants to save our church from the exile of irrelevance (p.174) - in a world of poverty, AIDS, despair and suicide we can be church in a way that will never connect with the suffering to be a blessing to them.
Jesus wants to save us - from the kingdom of comfort, from the priority of preservation, from the empire of indifference, from an exile of irrelevance (p. 177) Using the theme of Eucharist (see earlier post here) Jesus will save our church, will save Christians from being so into themselves as not to notice a world of need which Jesus loves and is giving his church to as a blessing.

Jesus wants to save us from making the good news about another world and not this one.


Jesus wants to save us from preaching a gospel that is only about individuals and not about the systems that enslave them.


Jesus wants to save us from shrinking the gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker. (p. 179)


I could go on, but then I would end up copying out the whole final chapter. Is Jesus really saving us from these things? He needs to, and I hope and pray we will let him.

Bavinck on The Trinity

There is a really good section in Bavinck, vol 2, when he discusses the development of trinitarian dogma.
ok, I suppose the history of doctrine isn't everyone's thing, but this is really good and well worth reading.

From the very outset [which for Bavink is the Apostolic Fathers of the late first, early second century] it is clear that the dogma of the Trinity was not born from philosophical reasoning about the nature of God, but from reflection on the facts of revelation, specifically on the person and work of Christ. From the beginning it revolved around the deity of Christ, the absolute character of Christianity, the truth of the revelation of God, the true atonement from sin, and the absolute certainty of salvation. (p. 280)

Notice the foundations upon which, according to Bavinck, the doctrine of the Trinity rests:
> the facts of revelation - that is Scripture and its witness to God;
> the person and work of Christ - we cannot read the gospels or the New Testament without asking the disciples question, 'Who is this man?', and we find the language and themes of Scripture drive us ever more towards divinity in answering this question;
> the deity of Christ, the NT leaves us no where else to go;
> the absolute character of Christianity - in part I'm posting this to ask if anyone knows what this might mean!
> the truth of the revelation of God, see above;
> the true atonement from sin - the inclusion of the atonement here I found unexpected, and yet, when we read of the atonement from sin and how this was accomplished in the cross of Christ we must again reflect upon the nature of Christ and of God;
> the absolute certainty of salvation - an assurance of salvation also leads us to reflect upon God and so will take us into an understanding of the Trinity.

The Trinity is not some philosophical add on to a 'simple' Christianity, but the very heart beat of a catholic, ecumenical faith. As the Athanasian Creed, which in large part is an exposition of the Trinity, concludes:

 This is the catholic faith, which except a man shall have believed faithfully and firmly he cannot be in a state of salvation.

Being Eucharist and Preaching

In a challenging chapter from their book Jesus Wants To Save Christians,
Rob Bell and Don Golden write of eucharist:

Eucharist is a good gift and, 'Jesus is God's good gift to the world' (p. 148). And then, because the church is the body of Christ, 'The church is a living Eucharist, because followers of Christ are living Eucharists' (p. 150).

The church here becomes a good gift from God to the world. Not an empire which uses power or resources to defend a position or maintain influence. A good gift from God to a hurting world that needs to see weakness and brokenness in God and his people.

So, this is, among other things, cashed out in relation to preaching as follows:
The measure of a sermon is not whether it affirms what you already believe. A sermon is not a product to be consumed and then evaluated according to how good it was or whether it was pleasing or enjoyable.
If a sermon can be resolved in the time it took to deliver it, then it missed something central to what a sermon even is, which is connected with what the Eucharist is. The gathering of the church, in a service or worship or teaching setting, is to remind, instruct, and inspire people about being Eucharist for the worlds they find themselves in. It's written in the letter to the Hebrews that they shouldn't give up meeting together because they should "consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." (Heb 10:24)
These gatherings aren't the end; they're the beginning. They're the start. They put things in perspective, they remind, they provoke, they comfort, they inspire, they challenge, but ultimately they are about the Eucharist. About these people in this place at this time being equipped to be a Eucharist.
The Eucharist is ultimately about what we do out there, in the flow of everyday life. (p. 159-160)


How many sermons are preached to the gallery and applauded only because they tell us what we already believe?
How many sermons are forgotten before the last hymn is finished and never influence life in any way?
How poor is our form of worship when we omit a weekly celebration of the Eucharist as central to our calling as the church and our being God's good gift to God's world?

The Way of Sacrifice

Another season of Lent, another 40 days living with Grunewald's altar piece.

The path of discipleship is one of offering ourselves as living sacrifices to the sacrificed Saviour. Sacrifice is a choice:
> a choice made by the Saviour who humbled himself, learning obedience even to death on a cross;
> a choice made by the Father who received the sacrificial offering made by his one-of-a-kind Son;
and now,
> a choice made by those who would follow the way of sacrifice, follow the way of the Christ.

Our world knows little of freely made self-sacrifice. Lent is not the way of the world, but the way of sacrifice.

Help Desk

I was pointed towards this by Alan, who clearly shares something of my sad sense of humour.

Some biblefresh books

Krish Kandiah has posted on biblefresh books - here.

I thought I would join in on this.

1. Eugene H Peterson 'Eat This Book' is the second volume in Peterson's rightly acclaimed series on spiritual theology.
This is a first class book on the bible and on bible reading, which goes along way into the biblefresh stream of bible experience.
Peterson has a very good section on Lectio Divina, an ancient way of reading Scripture that refuses to leave the words on the page but insists that they enter into our lives every day. It is worth the price of the book for these pages alone.

I've an earlier post on this book here.

2. Alister McGrath 'In The Beginning'.

This book is subtitled 'The story of the King James Bible' and so is perfect reading for 2011 - biblefresh year.

McGrath is an excellent historian and theologian and his handling of the story of this massively important translation of the bible is of the highest order. Beginning before the decision to translate McGrath comments on English as language, the reformation, the printing of bibles and takes the story beyond 1611 with a glance toward the influence of the KJV.
If you are looking for a Christmas present for someone to lead them into 2011- you read it here first.

3. N T Wright 'Scripture and the Authority of God'
As is to be expected, this is a very readable book from Bishop Wright. The authority of scripture has become a battle ground in many of our denominations, if not also in congregations. I'm sure that not everyone who reads this blog will find NTW's thoughts on the authority of scripture persuasive. What you can't do is ignore them. This is a book that will help you think, or rethink, your understanding of the nature and authority of scripture - and we all need to do that every now and then. It is better to have a thought out position than a hand me down 300 year old one.
You might also want to check out Bishop Wright's essay on this theme, available on line here. And other good essay here.

4. Dale Ralph Davis 'The Word Became Fresh'
One for the preachers and home group leaders. The OT is a major area of concern for many Christians and many who are called upon to teach the scriptures.
This is an excellent help into reading and teaching the OT, especially those narrative texts that often seem most difficult to fit into the gospel.

I've also posted on this book before - here.



I hope you find these book suggestions helpful. But remember, when it comes to the bible there is no substitute for the real thing. Depend upon the Spirit and read the text.

Theological Humility

I'm reading (ploughing my way slowly through) vol 2 of Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics on God and Creation.

In a long-ish discussion of the Sovereignty of God and God's will and nominalism I came across the following:

Every scientific discipline is bound to its object; it may not - for the sake of some preconceived theory - falsify or deny the phenomena it observes.
So also theology is strictly tethered to the facts and evidences that God discloses in nature and Scripture. It must let these facts and evidences stand unimpaired and unmutilated. When it cannot explain them, it must acknowledge its ignorance. p. 239, emphasis added.

It appears that for some God's will is a foundation beyond which one cannot and need not press, however, for others there is much that can be said about this.

What interested me was Bavinck's plea for some theological humility. All we can do is receive the revelation God gives us and do our best to understand and submit to it. We do not invent or imagine God or the gospel and must submit to the limits of revelation which God has imposed upon us. To often we are tempted to believe that we can discover something about God or the gospel which he has not revealed. This must obviously be folly and the temptation resisted.

Missing the point

I'm still enjoying Rob Bell's book - Jesus Wants To Save Christians.

Writing about exodus and exile as the background into which the Lord Jesus came in a section on the Emmaus Journey (see Luke 24) we read:

whatever the stranger on the road taught these disciples from Moses and the Prophets, they got it. Their eyes were opened. The suffering and death and crucifixion of Jesus made sense to them.


In a couple of hours, using nothing but the Hebrew Scriptures, this man converted all of their despair to hope and a vision of a new future. p.90.

Where this really bites for me is just a few sentences later:

In Jesus' day, people could read, study, and discuss the Scriptures their entire lives and still miss its central message.
In Jesus' day people could follow him, learn from him, drop everything to be his disciples, and yet find themselves returning home, thinking Jesus had failed.
Which is a bit like walking with someone for hours,
only to discover that you had missed who they really are the whole time.
Because the stranger is, of course, Jesus. p. 90

I certainly know too many scholars, some of the finest intellects I've ever met, who've studied the bible their whole working lives and never met Jesus, and don't know what it is to follow him. But what strikes me is not where this affects others. No matter how faithfully, passionately, skillfully I read and study Scripture I must confess that I will and do get it wrong, I miss the point - worse I can walk beside Jesus and not recognise him.

We can have great confidence in Jesus and in the Scriptures, of the Old and New Testaments, Jesus can and will use them to open our eyes to his grace for us in the cross and empty tomb. That I get it wrong does not mean I need to abandon the gospel or the bible. Rather, in all humility, however much I think I know I need to come again and walk beside Jesus and hear him teaching the gospel from Scriptures until my heart burns within me.

And if you'll forgive me, I think you do also.

Essay on N T Wright

I picked up this link from Mike Bird at Euangelion.

Mike writes,
Nijay Gupta has put together a very brief guide to N.T. Wright for those attending the upcoming Wheaton Theology Conference (gosh I wish I was going now!). It is designed to introduce N.T. Wright and the dialogue that he has started to the uninitiated. It includes essays on N.T. Wright on Jesus, Paul, and Biblical Theology. Nijay's essay is about N.T. Wright and the Apostle Paul.



Find the link and the essay here. It is worth looking at if you read N T Wright and want another opinion on his theology.

Something's Wrong

I've started reading Rob Bell and Don Golden's Jesus Wants To Save Christians. Now, there's a provocative title to think about.

In the first chapter Bell writes of something being wrong - a sense we share, even if we're not quite sure what's wrong.

Jesus was a Middle Eastern man who lived in an occupied country and was killed by the superpower of his day. (page 17)
For a growing number of people in our world, it appears that many Christians support some of the very things Jesus came to set people free from. (page 18)


What's wrong? People are not free.
What's right? Jesus came to set people free!
What's wrong? People today are living in bondage, and living in ways that condemn others to the
                        bondage from which Jesus came to set them free.
What's right?  ???
What's wrong? People who claim to know Jesus are living in ways that would have, and will again,
                         condemn Jesus to death
What's right? Jesus is right and we need to learn to live like him.

Reading 2010

I've amended my Reading Targets for 2010 to keep them up to date.

I've read Pete Greig's God on Mute and would seriously recommend you all to give up any other reading you have underway and read this book. See earlier posts here.

I've added two books I picked up at the Kingdom Come conference in Belfast last week:

Rob Bell and Don Golden 'Jesus Wants to Save Christians' and Christopher JH Wright 'The God I Don't Understand'. I'll let you know how I get on with them.

On the list, I've made a start on the Bavink and the Bolt/Thomson volume but haven't finished them yet.

Reading Together

As I suggested in an earlier post - Reading in Community - I've set up another blog.

Encouraged by responses I'm going to try posting on passages of Scripture and inviting comments. Please do visit this blog, I've called it Reading Together.

Pray with me that God will use this blog to bring into being a reading community where we can hear God speaking to us as we read and share around his word.

Another Cake Day

It might sound like I'm grasping at any excuse for cake (well, so what if I am?), but today is International Septuagint Day.

A day to remember the 70 scholars who translated the OT from Hebrew into Greek in Alexandria in 70 days. (It makes a good story)

More seriously, the text of the Septuagint establishes the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Scriptures back to somewhere around 200 years bc. When we add to this the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with a Hebrew text from around the time of Christ, why do English versions of the bible continue the dubious practice of conjectural emendation of the text?

I think this is supposed to mean, 'The Hebrew Text is uncertain so I'll make an educated guess as to what I think it might have been.' However, with such a well established Hebrew text conjectural emendation ends up being something more like, 'I don't want the text to say what it says so I'll change it.'

If you want to read the bible then read the bible - we know what the text says, our only difficulty is in obedience and submission.

Kingdom Come - day 4

This morning, on the final day of the Kingdom Come conference, Dr Trevor Morrow spoke on the title of 'What might God be saying to the nation?'

Trevor acknowledged that within evangelicalism there is a range of opinion on the nations, from an Erastianism in which the church and nation are synonymous through to a Menonite position where the church is the city on the hill set apart from the nation.

Taking a lead from NT Wright, Trevor identified the exile in Babylon as the controlling narrative for the synoptic gospels - something I am also persuaded of having read NTW. Looking then into the prophets of the exilic period, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah, Zephaniah and others, Trevor discerned the two great themes of i) tear down, and ii) build up.

It is time to tear down the idols.
Before starting on the idols of the nation, Trevor spoke of the frequently carved idols of evangelicalism - I hope all who own this title will take the time to consider this carefully:
we build the idols of:
1 - reformed orthodoxy - where our orthodoxy, as we understand it, is all that matters, and we are saved not by Christ but by our correct and pure understanding of all the heads of reformed doctrine.
2 - ministry success - we worship the attendence at our meetings, the building in which we gather, the cash which we raise.
3 - preaching (or whatever gift God has given us) - we use our gifts as though our exercise of them will be our justification before God.
4 - an experience of God - we have exchanged God for an experience of God, and we are breaking his heart.
Before we can call others to tear down their idols, must we not tear down those we worship?

Idolatry in the nation:
1 - nationalism - God has become a resource we use to bless and give success to our nationalism.
2 - technological and economic success.
How often in the church do we implicitly approve of the cult of more money, more stuff, more power, more things?

It is also time to build up, to find hope:
A people in exile, such as spoken of in Jer 33:14-16, seek:
justice, right relationships and peace with God.
The hope we offer is that after our exile, the city where we will be led to live shall be called 'The Lord our righteousness.'
We need radical, authentic testimonies to the life of the Kingdom which alone can offer hope to a people in exile seeking to come home.

Kingdom Come has been a great conference, the talks will be available to order on line, they are all well worth hearing.

Tearfund - Haiti

Tearfund have posted another update video on the work and situation in Haiti - check out the Tearfund web site, find it on Youtube, or here ...

Kingdom Come - Day 3 post 2

Well what could come next.

Kirsh Kandiah spoke in a seminar of the Square Mile mission resource which St Ninians in Stranraer will be looking at later this month, so more on Square Mile to follow.

Mark Greene of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, www.licc.co.uk, spoke of the place of work in a pattern of whole life discipleship. Among many gems I will be pondering the following:
The values of the church are more important than the form of the church.
Evangelism is an invitation to join a movement to change the world.
Does the work life of Christians outside their involvement in the life of our congegation feature in the churches prayer diary, prayer meeting?
What difference will it make to my preaching if I look out at the congregation and see the team I am only a part of and speak to them as to team members? How will what I say on Sunday help team members speak to others on Monday? Good questions now seeking answers!

Gordon MacDonald gave his last address on Direction. The importance for the church and the leader of the church leader seeking direction from God. Moses would enter the tent of the meeting, where is our tent where we meet with God and ask him to teach me your ways, go with me or I'm not going, show me your glory? As God answers these requests he sets the direction for his church and his leaders.

What a great conference, and still tomorrow morning to go!

Kingdom Come - Day 3, post 1

The powerful and prophetic message given to the Kingdom Come conference this morning by Heather Morris deserves a post all to itself.

Heather Morris is a Methodist Minister and Director of Ministry at Edgehill Theological College, Belfast.

Heather was asked to address the question, 'What might God be saying to the church?' I think everyone present was made aware during Heather's address that she has listened very carefully for what God would say in answer to this question and then spoke with great power and grace those things our God would have us hear from him.

From Judges 6, where Gideon is called into ministry service Heather identified some key words which the Lord spoke to Israel and today would speak to his church.

Feeling distant from God and under pressure the people went into retreat and took to hiding in caves in the hills. God would say - stop hiding! Be strong!

To the people when they had heard God calling them to repent and they refused to listen, God would continue to say - repent of your sins.

God calls his people to repentance to make them holy, to have them model the character of God. Every child of God made holy by God is a marker that God is at work in our town/city/nation.

When Gideon asks the Lord, 'Why has this happened to us?' (and in passing how many in recent months in Scotland have asked this of the Lord?) The Lord replies as it were, 'Wrestle with me;

When Gideon says, 'I am the least' God says - I am sending you. We forget that God is God and so we diminish the wonder of being sent by God. God sends the church because he loves the world. The church would be transformed, and so we would be agents of transformation within our communities, if we felt only an echo of God's love for the world.

What challenging words that God is speaking to his church. Thank you Heather for your faithfulness in ministry in so powerfully bringing God's word to us this morning.

Kingdom Come

Day 2 at Kingdom Come continued the high standard set on the first evening.

Bishop Ken Clark gave the morning bible reading: 2 Peter 3:18 - But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Too often Christians, and Christian leaders, specialise in cover up and we turn our backs upon the grace/compassion filled eyes of Jesus.

There is a great need for 3G leaders:
Grace - we have replaced gracious living with merely obedient living.
Gratitude - if you have joy in your heart, please inform your face!
Generosity - a real need to live generously, the church is the only group where you can be savaged by sheep. Shepherds need to remember a lesson from farming, the sheep get fed every day and only get shorn once each year.

A really good session which held up the challange to Christian leaders to answer the question, 'What motivates me?'

Mark Russell and Harold Miller led a seminar session on the title 'Is the church an obstable to mission?' I think the answer is that it often is but shouldn't be.
On changing an institutional church it was offered that you can, eventually turn around a large ocean liner more easily than a large flotilla of smaller vessels.
Church is (or should be) what happens when people come together in community to celebrate Jesus and share his love with those around them.
Churches, both I think at denominational and congregational level, swamp their leaders with the task of being chaplain to Christians rather than being missionaries or evangelists. And then wonder why the church isn't growing???

To the well known triad of Belong, then Become, then Believe, we could add in the first place Bless. If the Christians serve their community to bless them will they not be attracted to belong ...

In the evening session Gordon MacDonald spoke on Depth, following last nights address on Defence. Taking Col 2:6 as his text - Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established is the faith, just as your were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Depth happens in the regular daily routine of living as disciples of Christ. A long-term relationship, such as being disciples of the Lord Jesus requires regular (daily) renewal. What a challenge this is to us! A frozen institutional faith is not going to be deep.

Another good day in Belfast with much to feed on over again in the days to come.

Kingdom Come - Day 1

I'm over in Belfast at the Kingdom Come conference, organised by the EA Northern Ireland - so a big thanks to them for this conference.

This evening at the opening session Gordon MacDonald gave the first of his three address for leaders. It was a good beginning to what I hope will be a good conference.

Defence. Sometimes we all, perhaps especially leaders, need to focus on defence. A good team is built around the defence, at least we were told this is true in American football!
For Christians defence is all about repentance, forgiveness and mercy. In Jn 21, when Peter jumps out the boat he just can't wait to get to Jesus.

'You don't do repentance right the first time' - an encouragement and challenge to us all.

If I repent and expect you to forgive me, then I must, MUST, forgive you.

I especially like the idea of creating an environment of mercy - the breakfast by the shore - a time, a place, a setting where God's mercy in Christ can be received.

So, a good beginning.

For the first time I've taken the laptop away with me and I'm blogging using the btopenzone in the hotel (which is just fabulous), so I post on day 2 tomorrow.