Trip to Liverpool

So I've been up in Liverpool for a few days. I left London around lunch time on Wednesday and got back late Friday morning. I travelled by train and was met at Lime Street by Ray Peel, pastor of Calvary church in the city. Ray is a genuine scouser but was converted while in the merchant navy and worked around the country for the MOD ending up in Weymouth for 13 years where he became a pastor. Calvary is an FIEC church and has been the venue for the annual Calvary Bible Convention for many years. They currently have problems with their building so the convention has reverted to an earlier incarnation as the Liverpool Bible Convention under the auspices of a small group of six mostly FIEC churches. This year the meetings were hosted by the nearby Dovecot Evangelical church. I was treated to a very nice meal with Ray and his wife Lyn, also a Liverpudlian. I have been to Liverpool five or six times over the last 25 years and so have some idea of the place. What is slightly weird is seeing names like Anfield, Everton, Alderhey, Bootle, Huyton, Knotty Ash that all mean something but not very much. Ray kindly pointed out Ken Dodd's house and the church he attends. I remember my mother saying to me as a boy that Knotty Ash was a real place not a made up name. It was also a thrill later to get a glimpse of Aintree race course (I once met Red Rum who was opening a fete in Cwmbran!) and busses headed for Penny Lane.
Anyway the convention was on for four nights. Ian Higham from the Belvidere Road church spoke Tuesday and Dr Emil Silvestru was due to speak on the Friday night. I spoke Wednesday and Thursday nights. The former was better attended as some fellowships had cancelled their midweek meetings to be there but both meetings were well attended with a range of ages represented. I knew almost nobody except John Kilpatrick (and his wife Jill) previously a neighbour here in north west London. It was good to catch up. Aware of the election I had thought of relating to that fact in the preaching but decided against and stuck to my recent preaching from Mark 14 on Gethsemane and the arrest. (Mp3s here). One of the elders from Dovecot, Prof Steve Taylor, led. On both evenings he focussed on the work of United Beach Missions. I got the impression that this was very much a UBM/Young life church. I have slightly mixed feelings about UBM. It does excellent work and many fine Christians are involved (including one of my deacons who leads a beach mission in Italy). It has its own agenda, however, and that can dominate in a way that could potentially swamp the work of local churches. An elder from Bethany, Fazakerley (I just love that name delivered in scouse) read and prayed the first night and Paul Kinnaird (Bankhall Mission Church) the second night.
I stayed with Paul, his wife Kay and their family in Crosby over the two nights and was made to feel more than welcome. Being Scots they gave me porridge and marmalade and curry which I appreciated - and nothing deep fried! A former LTS man, Paul has pastored the FIEC church nearby for the last seven years or so. Crosby is on the edge of the countryside and it was nice to be driven through Little Crosby. We also got down to the beach where an Antony Gormley installation (Another Place) remains following the year of culture. This is a series of one hundred life size metal statutes of himself dotted about the beach over a large area. Like so much modern art it seems a little banal and the descriptions are overblown but you can see the idea. The tide was right out at the time but to see the tide coming in and submerging them must be fun.
We also spent Thursday morning at a ministers fraternal just outside the city in Trinity Evangelical, Rainhill. About 12 or 13 of us gathered. Adam Laughton (Southport) chaired and I spoke on Christ in heaven. It was a very good time of fellowship.
So all in all an interesting and refreshing time in the midst of a general election still as yet unresolved.