[Pic: Keith Johns prepares the men for their grilling. Conrad Mbewe & Nigel Lacey visible; Geoff Thomas and Robert Oliver hidden] So after lunch we had our business session. There's always something to deal with of this sort. As chairman of the steering committee that organises the Assembly it falls to me to lead this session - not my forte. Anyway around 42 churches were represented and about 80 were people were present. We were as many as 12 short - people who dropped out because of illness. This reflects, perhaps, the slightly geriatric tendency of the conference. Finance was just about okay but we're hardly flush. Anyway enthusiasm was as great as ever and once again we expressed our amazement that not more Grace Baptists want to get involved. We sometimes wonder where we are going wrong. I suppose there are so many other things happening that people don't have us at the top of their list. Nevertheless we plan to meet at Swanwick next may (21-23) and hopefully there will be a better number present.
After a decent break we reassembled at 5 pm for one of the most fascinating hours of my life. We had invited the veteran evangelist Dick Saunders, now in his eighties, to speak in our second reports session (well spotted Stephen Rees). Now I'd not kept up with what had been happening with Dick, although I'd heard of him inviting Peter Masters down to Sussex and so I knew that either he'd changed or I'd got him very wrong. The story seems to be that he started off in a loving Christian but hyper-Calvinist home. His father was a nursery man and part time preacher, his mother a most hospitable woman. his gripe that although he was always told to be a Christian he was never told how. He had some nice stories of people witnessing to him and his wife as she became. I loved the vignette of a little girl skipping down the road 60 odd years ago and asking 'Who do you love most?' her answer was 'Jesus' and the little word of witness bore its fruit in due time as both Dick and his Bette came to faith separately but at the same time through a church in Eastbourne.
It was the Billy Graham campaigns that got him into his tent crusading work - taking a 2,500 seater tent around the country to evangelise. He also told us how he got into the TWR radio broadcasting. His messages are still being used the world over now. Without rubbishing his Arminianised, altar calling days he spoke of his move away from this way of working and expressed his regret at using personalities such as Cliff Richard and not trusting the Lord more. God is sovereign after all. Two factors seem to have brought about the change. over in America he and his wife discovered books by Donald Grey Barnhouse the one time minister at Tenth Presbyterian, Philadelphia (not the most rabid of Reformed men but Reformed to some extent) and a realisation that because of the charismatic movement straight old fashioned preaching in a tent was not going to last. Abandoning that in the early eighties he went back to his Brethren church in Eastbourne where there was a split over the issue. He went on to pastor the church for 17 years growing in his understanding all the while. He never regretted working as hard as he did but felt he should have studied more and prayed more.
When a man is on the edge of eternity it adds a lustre to his testimony and it was a joy just to listen as this man with humour and humility told us something of his journey. It renewed ones faith in good old fashioned experiential Calvinism. Dick is working on his autobiography. I look forward to reading it. (BTW you can hear Dick preaching here).
In the evening Conrad spoke again from Matthew 5, this time on evangelism - shining the light out. He seemed to be more relaxed by this stage and gave a helpful call to go out with confidence. Whether he had exactly hit the spot could be debated but it did my soul good.
After a decent break we reassembled at 5 pm for one of the most fascinating hours of my life. We had invited the veteran evangelist Dick Saunders, now in his eighties, to speak in our second reports session (well spotted Stephen Rees). Now I'd not kept up with what had been happening with Dick, although I'd heard of him inviting Peter Masters down to Sussex and so I knew that either he'd changed or I'd got him very wrong. The story seems to be that he started off in a loving Christian but hyper-Calvinist home. His father was a nursery man and part time preacher, his mother a most hospitable woman. his gripe that although he was always told to be a Christian he was never told how. He had some nice stories of people witnessing to him and his wife as she became. I loved the vignette of a little girl skipping down the road 60 odd years ago and asking 'Who do you love most?' her answer was 'Jesus' and the little word of witness bore its fruit in due time as both Dick and his Bette came to faith separately but at the same time through a church in Eastbourne.
It was the Billy Graham campaigns that got him into his tent crusading work - taking a 2,500 seater tent around the country to evangelise. He also told us how he got into the TWR radio broadcasting. His messages are still being used the world over now. Without rubbishing his Arminianised, altar calling days he spoke of his move away from this way of working and expressed his regret at using personalities such as Cliff Richard and not trusting the Lord more. God is sovereign after all. Two factors seem to have brought about the change. over in America he and his wife discovered books by Donald Grey Barnhouse the one time minister at Tenth Presbyterian, Philadelphia (not the most rabid of Reformed men but Reformed to some extent) and a realisation that because of the charismatic movement straight old fashioned preaching in a tent was not going to last. Abandoning that in the early eighties he went back to his Brethren church in Eastbourne where there was a split over the issue. He went on to pastor the church for 17 years growing in his understanding all the while. He never regretted working as hard as he did but felt he should have studied more and prayed more.
When a man is on the edge of eternity it adds a lustre to his testimony and it was a joy just to listen as this man with humour and humility told us something of his journey. It renewed ones faith in good old fashioned experiential Calvinism. Dick is working on his autobiography. I look forward to reading it. (BTW you can hear Dick preaching here).
In the evening Conrad spoke again from Matthew 5, this time on evangelism - shining the light out. He seemed to be more relaxed by this stage and gave a helpful call to go out with confidence. Whether he had exactly hit the spot could be debated but it did my soul good.
A question time followed with me in the chair. We discussed the Gospel partnership movement and other matters. Time soon went.
Our last two sessions were on the Friday morning. Graham Heaps from Dewsbury spoke out of his experience with Urdu speakers and others in Yorkshire on building a multi-ethnic (indeed multi-everything) church. It was good to hear the counterblast to "Church growth" sounded once again.
One of the highlights of the conference for me was hearing my father-in-law pray - one felt on the verge of heaven at times. Something similar could be said of his closing sermon from Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was full of fine illustrations and warm but powerful preaching.
The Caterham church behave kindly begun to put the messages on their website here. Do check it out.
Our last two sessions were on the Friday morning. Graham Heaps from Dewsbury spoke out of his experience with Urdu speakers and others in Yorkshire on building a multi-ethnic (indeed multi-everything) church. It was good to hear the counterblast to "Church growth" sounded once again.
One of the highlights of the conference for me was hearing my father-in-law pray - one felt on the verge of heaven at times. Something similar could be said of his closing sermon from Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was full of fine illustrations and warm but powerful preaching.
The Caterham church behave kindly begun to put the messages on their website here. Do check it out.
1 comment:
Thanks for these reports Gary. Seems like you had an encouraging time after all.
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