Aber Conference '12 Evening 3 Lyndsay Brown

Lyndsay Brown was the UCCF worker when I came to Aber as a student many moons ago in the late seventies. Lyndsay is Merthyr born and Oxford educated and both elements show. He is the former director of IFES. It was good to hear him again preaching Psalm 73. Typically full to the brim with anecdotes and illustrations it was a tour deforce of apologetic preaching that sought to help believers who, like Asaph, were finding it tough. His focus was on the God of judgement who is omnipresent, a providential carer and the one who gives hope.

That afternoon Lyndsay gave a seminar on his pet subject of world mission and that again was a very encouraging flurry of statistics about the advance of the gospel worldwide.

I must admit that I had not been sure whether these sessions would pass muster but for encouragement the two partly contrasting messages would be hard to beat.

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Our second morning paper on Wednesday was by Lyndsay Brown on Calvin and mission. He began by noting available articles on the subject. These have come chiefly since the 1970s.
Lyndsay referred to Ralph Watson's thesis that there have been great periods of mission – Carey, Hudson Taylor, Post WW2, taking opportunity to refer to the great growth going on today in some places.
Watson (Stephen Neil is the same) says nothing about Calvin and mission. Others too say that Calvin said little or nothing about mission. In all the Calvin celebrations going on there seems to be little reference to evangelism and mission.
However, Calvin certainly does have a coherent theology of mission and was involved in mission. It is true he was very busy with challenges from without and within and perhaps there was a lack of organisation in the early Reformed churches.
It is said that apart from the abortive mission to Rio Calvin showed no interest outside Europe but the rest of the world was very much unknown and exploration was chiefly in the hand of Romanists.
1. A coherent theology of mission
His coherent theology centred on the sovereignty and providence of God. He was not embarrassed at all at the free offer of the gospel. He often wrote about the need to reach all sorts of people, without exception. He was convinced of God's desire for the salvation of all sorts and urged going out.
Some misunderstand his exposition of the great commission, where he seeks to deny the continuing apostolic authority of Rome, not denying the importance of the church taking the gospel to all places.
Convinced of the sovereignty of God in election Calvin still taught that God uses the means of preaching.
2. Ways and means of putting this into practice
1. Preaching
2. Prayer
3. Emphasis on the Word
4. Emphasis on a gentle manner
5. Training
6. Use of literature
7. Concern to reach out to magistrates and rulers
8. Public debate with his opponents
The Reformation has been described as a great missionary movement, which it was. Geneva was very much a centre for missions. In a six year period some 2000 went out altogether, chiefly to France. It has been described as one of the greatest home missions ever. Calvin also had an impact on the Netherlands, the UK (Knox, etc), Hungary, etc.
Calvin was passionate about mission – so should we be. He wanted the gospel to go to all.

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Our first speaker was Lyndsay Brown. Lyndsay was the travelling secretary for UCCF when I began as a student in Aberystwyth. He has gone on to work with IFES in various capacities. He spoke on the phrase so great salvation from Hebrews :2:1-3. It was a great opening message, full of anecdotes.

Well, it was like going back 25 years for me. In no time he was referencing Marx, Freud and particularly an Ingmar Bergman film.

Seeking to encourage us, he spoke of the temptation to lose our sense of wonder at the gospel. In order to counter this, he drew our attention first to various sources – the hymns (eg Wesley O for a thousand tongues), church architecture, the history of science (see Richard Hookyas and Kepler's idea of thinking God's thoughts after him), Michelangelo's diaries, Rembrandt's putting himself at the foot of the cross in his paintings, Handel's sense of the majesty of God, etc.
The modern world is taken up with other things but we ought to be taken up with the wonder of the gospel. Three reasons it is a great message:
1. The Author. It is the message of the Creator, the God of the universe. He illustrated his point by referring to the importance of an author as seen in the pre-publication sales of J K Rowling and the recent discovery of a Caravaggio among the Queen's collections.
2. What it saves from. The gospel provides eternal salvation. He illustrated this from the power of antibiotics, a story from Africa of a woman who had left her husband for another but went back to him and so found freedom, another from a Dutch pastor used in revival in Irian Jaya even though he had once been in the Hitler Youth and done terrible things.
3. What it saved us for. Illustrated from the fictional story of Ben Hur, including the doctrine of adoption. He quoted hearing humanist Marghanita Laski saying on the BBC World service that she knew no-one who could forgive her. He also spoke of hope and added a whole load of quotation from Sartre, etc.
Great start.