Blackpool School of Art and Design CU

Today I met with Sam, a Christian at Blackpool School of Art and Design, who is planning to set up a CU there in September.

I found this meeting exciting for a whole number of reasons. One of them is that until a couple of weeks ago, I never even realised that there was a degree-level Art College there. Another is the timing: if I'd received a request to help support a CU there before this year there's no way I could have done it. But with the arrival of Adam as Cumbria staff worker, there's now extra time to help. Sam's own story of coming to faith and God's work in his since was exciting. And, perhaps most excitingly of all, he was really keen to be part of the FREE Gospel Project, and even reckons that there's a good chance that all 400 students at his college could be offered a copy of Mark's Gospel. All in all, I came away really celebrating God's sovereignty.

Peace, perfect peace

In the latest edition of Leadership Journal, Tim Keller critiques the idea 'the simple gospel'. Can we still really speak of one simple gospel? And how do the individual and corporate/cosmic elements of the gospel interact?

Keller's emphasis is, I think, helpful and well worth reading and thinking upon. Too often I meet Christians who are under the impression that they have been saved, that the planet will one day be destroyed, and so in the meantime they just kind of whistle waiting for Jesus' return when they will 'go to heaven'. Their gospel is individualistic and merely spiritual. And, in response, many non-believers are unsatisfied with the mere ethereal spiritualisation that they perceive Christianity to be offering.

The Bible seems to pay much more attention to a wider 'peace' than we often do. It's true that the gospel brings our justification and peace with God (Romans 5:1). Wonderfully, we can now approach God as father rather than our enemy, truly reconciled as we are. But this is only the start of the 'peace' in Christ which the Bible writers seem to envisage. Individuals receive the wholeness that they were created for when they are brought back as creatures to the Creator. Not only this, but humanity is restored to be at peace with each other, reconciled as we to each other are through the cross. We have a taste of this now through the church (note the diversity in Acts 13:1 and the theology of Ephesians 2:11-22), and look forward to the fulfilment of this reconciliation in the new creation. The great crowd of Revelation 7 will not be split upon any social distinction, completely reconciled as we are through the cross.

I think there's a wider 'peace' still. The point of God's covenant with Noah in Genesis 8-9 seems to me to demonstrate that God's final will is for peace and harmony in an ideal new creation. Again, there's an eschatological dimension to this: it's Christ's victory on the cross dealing with human sin, the very thing which led to the corruption of the present creation, that gives us hope for its redemption (see Colossians 1:20 and so on), but implications of this future 'environmental shalom' seem to be almost entirely overlooked in most of our gospelling. Perhaps in guarding ourselves against falling into an over-realised eschatology, we miss presenting something of the gospel's fullness. Yet this fullness is something which many unbelievers crave.

As someone involved in regular evangelism, I've found presenting this technicolor gospel difficult. It's difficult to speak present the societal and environmental implications of the gospel evangelistically within their correct eschatological framework, and demonstrating them clearly through the lens of the cross. Keller's hints on preaching at the end of his article are helpful. Krish Kandiah's book Destiny is perhaps the most helpful evangelistic book I've found that links these themes together. Does anyone else have any other ideas?

Keswick Team Days

Just got back from time spent with some of my favourite in one of my favourite places....

The view from the bottom of the valley where we stayed

UCCF North West 2007-8:
Back row: Me, Sarah D, Sarah B, Linda, Zac
Front Row: Ruth C, Rachel, Nick, Ruth P, Lesley, Cathy

I love this song, which has been in my head over the past days as we've spent time in the wonderful Lakes:

You shaped the heavens and the mighty oceans
You set the stars out in the skies
The streams and rivers, fields, trees and mountains
Were formed by Your almighty hand
Creation sings a song of praise
Declaring the wonders of Your ways

With all of creation we're joining our voices
And singing Your praises
We worship, we bow down
Awesome Creator, glorious Maker of all

You made the seasons, gave night and day their orders
You cause the sun and moon to shine
Winter and summer, the changing shades of autumn
All display Your sovereignty
Creation sings a song of praise
Declaring the wonders of Your ways

Eoghan Heaslip (c) 2003, Vertical Worship Songs

Lessons from Gideon on pride

This week, I had the final study of the academic year with the small group leaders at Lancaster University CU. It was our sixth study in the book of Judges.

For the past three weeks, we've been looking at the Gideon narrative in chapters 6-8. Chapters 6 and 7 were more familiar to me - the theme of grace screams loud. The LORD appears to a cowering Gideon and commands him to lead Israel into battle. Although Gideon is weak, the LORD promises to be with him - and God plus one is a majority. In the battle itself, famously Gideon's army is shrunk until it is 1/400th the size of the Midianite army - yet he still wins. Plenty of evidence, then, to show both Gideon and the Israelite nation that it's the LORD that delivers them, then?

Erm, no. As chapter 8 unfolds, the Israelite nation start a form of hero worship of Gideon (offering him to be the first king in a hereditary monarchy). Although Gideon declines, he shows himself to be proud. Perhaps he even started believing himself that his own efforts had led Israel to victory. And so he makes himself a golden ephod (at the best, over-stepping the authority he had a judge; at worst, condoning the hero worship) and, despite rejecting the kingship, starts living a kingly lifestyle. He assembles a harem and has plenty of children - a form of displaying affluence in the ancient world. Even worse, he calls one of his sons Abimelech - or 'my father is the king'. Despite having a form of godliness, Gideon confuses the LORD's power with his own. He takes the credit for the LORD's victory, even though he had so much evidence of his own weakness.

It appears that there's a big lesson to those in any form of Christian ministry. Our theological conviction might be that, without Christ, we can do nothing. Yet it's very easy to look at the fruits of our ministry and start patting ourselves on the back. Like Gideon, we forget our weakness and the reliance on God we once felt, and we become proud. The LORD, who has provided the transforming power, is forgotten. We're tempted to think we're worthy of a big golden ephod.

I remember one evangelistic talk that I gave a couple of years ago. I felt awful throughout the whole of the day I was due to give it, having not slept very well the night before. Prayer alone kept me going that night I think. Half way through the talk, I remember thinking that I should give up, so convinced was I that my efforts were in vain. I was weak and I knew it.

God used that talk to save people there that night. At the time, I was literally dumbfounded. God's strength was made perfect in my obvious weakness. Yet, two years later, I know that my heart is sometimes tempted to feel proud of my efforts that night. It's so easy to forget that which Gideon forgot: the LORD's power graciously given to weak people. At worst, my heart sometimes longs to be able to assemble a big golden ephod.

The lesson of Gideon is a sad one. He started well, yet ended badly and miserably. The ephod became a snare to Gideon and his family. In addition, Gideon's sin had prolonged effort - as we read in Judges 9 and the account of Abimelech. Much better to prayerfully realise that God alone saves and transforms. Much better to ascribe to him the power and the glory, and to be amazed that God uses individuals just like us. I've found Piper's APTAT acronym helpful to prevent my heart from getting proud. Let us not become like Gideon, but learn the lesson.

New Word Alive 2009

Exciting to see the New Word Alive 2009 Promotional Video. Even more exciting to see that two of its stars are Andrea and Penny from the University of Cumbria CU!

How to be free: the idle idol

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been reading How to be Free, by editor of The Idler, Tom Hodgkinson.

Coming from an existentialist viewpoint (whereby there is no ultimate meaning and we construct our own way of living and meaning), Hodgkinson tackles a series of common things in society that he says enslave us and prevent us from experiencing our freedom. These handcuffs include forms of government, capitalism and what he calls 'mind-forg'd manacles' (a term borrowed from a poem by William Blake), certain ways of thinking and seeing life that prevent us from feeling free. What emerges, then, is a 'radical manifesto' for living. Hodgkinson would, for example, have us quit jobs that we find boring, realise that careerism often makes promises that it can't keep, refuse to vote in elections, abandon supermarket consumerism, ditch our watches and mobile phones and move to the countryside, amongst other recommendations.

What's appealing and quite fresh about this book is the way in which it identifies several of what I would call 'middle class idols': common ways of orientating one's life that ultimately make one end up feeling miserable. Chapter subjects include dealing with debt (which so often imprisons those who take it on), rejecting career and all its empty promises and even stopping moaning (all things which promise much but deliver little). What the book also positively captures is the way in which it seems many people have just forgotten how to have fun, so busy are they with so many other things. I was reminded again of such how good it is to laugh. In a positive way, Hodgkinson also implores readers not to always continually be so set on making things better for the future in some way that they fail to live in the present moment.

Overall, however, I found this book frustrating. Too often Hodgkinson seemed to have an unrealistically positive view of both human nature and pre-industrial Medieval life. This is combined with an ongoing rant against the effects of the Reformation and what he calls 'Puritanism'. Nearly all 'mind-forg'd manacles' are pinned onto the historical influence of Protestant theology. In actual fact, I suspect that much of the individualism and corresponding death of the corporate mindset has more to do with the French Revolution and the arisal of democracy than the rediscovery of the doctrines of justification by faith alone through grace alone.

Some of the chapters advocate downright selfishness. Although at one point Hodgkinson admits that freedom can be experienced in serving others, the overwhelming burden of the book advocates living for oneself rather than being burdened by the needs of others. In one bizarre chapter, Hodgkinson seems to say that the feeling of guilt that we might feel for hurting others is merely culturally constructed:

'A sign that guilt is not an innate emotion but something culturally produced can be found in the example of infidelity. A man who is unfaithful to his girlfriend may feel pangs of guilt. But when he has split up with that girlfriend, the guilt over the infidelity vanishes and, indeed, he may feel the opposite emotion - he might feel quite pleased with himself. It is obvious too that small children do not feel the burden of guilt. Guilt is something we learn to feel.'

Not surprisingly, then, Hodgkinson advocates that we merely insulate ourselves from feelings of guilt and learn to desensitise ourselves to them.

Perhaps, though, my major gripe with the book is that of the central premise: that of freedom. There's no doubt that Hodgkinson puts his finger on many aspects of contemporary society that cause anxiety and unnecessary stress. Yet, for Hodgkinson, to be 'free' is to 'do what we like all day long; do nothing all day long; muck about all day long'. To be free is to be 'idle' - to be able to maximise time where a person can do what they might choose to do. According to Hodgkinson, the Adam and Eve narrative illustrates a pre-industrial idyll, where humans neither work nor consume. He seems to think that the world's problems would shrink if only everyone did what they would if they had free choice. (In passing, he can only deal with the problem of suffering by saying 'tough luck' and exhorting readers to 'embrace melancholy'. One chapter is flatly entitled, 'Stop moaning; be merry' - not, perhaps, the most sensitive way of addressing a suffering person). And it's worth noting that even if many of the 'evils' mentioned are done away with - mortgage, boredom, career and so on - we'd still not feel free.

Whilst, then, there is much in the book that is positive and even corroborates with Biblical thinking (like not building one's life around one's career, and the responsible use of the environment), it jars with Biblical thought when it just sets up another idol in the place of others: that of idleness. Ultimately the 'freedom' that Hodgkinson envisages is too limited. Biblical freedom is not found in doing nothing, but it embraces every part of human life as part of the worship of the Creator for which we were made and renews us to our created purpose. Indeed, Scripture warns against every person doing as they choose (see Judges 21:25 for starters). Hodgkinson seems unaware of the consequences that might follow if people really did life by his philosophy. Instead, we experience freedom as we willingly and joyfully submit all parts of our lives to Christ. Ironically, then, it's in serving others in love that we experience the freedom for which we all - Tom Hodgkinson included - crave.

Ted Turnau resources

One of the things I really benefitted from at the European Leadership Forum was Ted Turnau's sessions on using films for discussion, understanding worldviews and in evangelism.

His session, Screening Worldviews: how to watch (and discuss) movies as a Christian is available here, and strongly recommended. Ted also has his own website here, and includes fantastic resources on hosting a film discussion night and a list of recommended films to use. The sort of film discussion nights that he proposes might be suitably used by churches, plus also by CU small groups for outreach events.