End of an era, a new one begins

Andrew King

Alex
It was a blessing this afternoon to be among just over fifty gathered at the Angel Grace Baptist Church for a goodbye and hello meeting in connection with the church Hope, West End. Long serving pastor Andrew Murray and his wife Joy are retiring back to Suffolk and Keith Holmes, who, with his wife Ruth, has been working for the church for the last nine years is also stepping down. In their place, Brazilian Alex Brito and the association evangelist Tim Gardiner, with their families, are together going to lead the church, now perhaps larger than it has ever been but still small. It was good to hear the new and old men and their testimonies and to hear Andrew King preach a brief but excellent sermon from Acts 20 (Paul's manner of life, method of teaching and message an example).

Alex with Keith

Alex with Andrew

James Hamilton on Typology

It was a great joy to be over at the seminary this morning, where the Association of Grace Baptist Churches South East had organised a double lecture and question session with James Hamilton from Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. About sixty gathered, mostly men and mostly ministers, I guess.

The first lecture set out the approach to typology that Hamilton advocates and the second looked at Isaiah 53 as a demonstration of how it works. There was an emphasis on the need to consult the Hebrew text and to read evangelically (believing the events recorded in the Old Testament really happened) but with that a willingness to see connections where the same words or phrases are used in different places, such as when Noah's ship is called an ark and Moses' baby basket is also called an ark. What Dr Hamilton, the author of a book on the whole subject that came out last year, seeks to establish is some clear rules for spotting typological connections. He certainly was very interesting and encouraging.

Andrew King took opportunity to draw attention to the AGBCSE which now has seventy churches. They even provided a nice goody bag of books for us to take home. This sort of event certainly serves to promote the work the organisation. Well done, Andrew (and team)!

The book on typology can be had here for a good price.

Day Off Week 23 at The Art of Shepherding Conference

My day off this week was rather different. A good friendship has grown up between Andrew King and Phil Heaps at Highbury and the Americans Brad Franklin and Aaron Prelock at St Giles Christian Mission. Last year they organised a conference for ministers and this year they met again St Giles. About forty ministers and prospective miisters were there. All Reformed Baptists I guess.

Phil kicked us off with an appropriate trek through the very relevant and stimulating material in Ezekiel 34. Aaron then took us to the much neglected Pastoral Rule by Gregory the Great. We had an excellent Mexican lunch and then Brad took us to Bunyan's Mr Greatheart. The final session was a discussion period led by Andrew, which went well. Several of us then crossed the road for an Indian meal to rounf off the day.

It was good to meet people I've not met before especially several young men, including two whose fathers I know and one who turned out to be the grandson of a former pastor of Childs Hill (ie the late Tony Sandys). Most of them have parents born on other continents, which is a fascinating dimension of life these days. This is a good addition to the roster of conferences for ministers, not that we are short of them. as I've thought about it the phrase "Art of shepherding" sound more and more pretentious but it was not like that at all. The very opposite.

Conference on Singleness

George Chris
Keith Andrew

Saturday's conference at Highgate Road Chapel on singleness was a worthwhile effort. Some 90 people gathered (60 women and 30 men) - mostly singles I guess but not exclusively by any means. It was good for singles to meet and for all of us to look at the subject and simply to meet other Christians. Most present were fairly local but some had travelled a little distance (Southport, Wolverhampton,  Portsmouth, etc). We are grateful to the organisers for putting this on.

George Platt from Highgate Road started us off with a biblical theology of singleness.

There probably isn't a biblical theology of singleness but there may be one of marriage and so one is able to extrapolate. George, a good Baptist, appeared to want to emphasise discontinuity between the Testaments more than most of us. It is difficult to be positive about singleness (which we should be) without sounding slightly negative towards marriage.

Chris Bennett spoke on the gift of singleness taking the view that not all people who are single have this gift. Chris is very persuasive (from Matthew 19 if not from 1 Corinthians 7) but the view is fraught with difficulties. One wonders what married people who lack the gift of being married are to do, for example. We would prefer the view that sees singleness itself (like marriage) as a gift from God.

We men had a good session with Peter Law and Neil Richardson (while the women had a session with Vicki Gardner and Christine Sherwood). I liked Peter's frankness about his singleness. This session could have been longer. There was no real time for discussion. Keith Berry was also very helpful from Philippines as was Andrew King on singles in the church.

We finished with a question panel. Again, all very helpful.

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Ministers Fraternals

I've ended up attending two ministers fraternals this week. On Monday it was the very traditional Westminster Fellowship down in Wesminster Baptist. There Philip Eveson preached to us and spoke very interestingly on Psalms, especially the structure of the book, followed by discussion. We also prayed. There were about twenty of us and it was all very helpful. Then on Wednesday I joined the North London Baptist pastors walking across Hampstead Heath. Quite postmodern, we simply walk, stop for a cuppa and then walk a little more before dispersing. There were about ten of us. Again, very enjoyable. I guess there is a place for both sorts of fraternal. I am certainly thankful for both.

Pastoral Friendship Walks

I went for the first time today on what my friend Andrew King from Highbury calls a pastoral friendship walk. (I think there have been two before this one). We met at Hampstead Heath Station, walked across the Heath in glorious sunshine, stopping for refreshments at Kenwood House, and ending up at Gospel Oak. There were about seven of us. The idea is that sedentary men who can easily be loners get out in the fresh air, and do a little exercise and talk to each other. It is not aiming incredibly high then but you would be surprised how revolutionary sometimes the simplest ideas can be. I certainly enjoyed the walk (which I try to do anyway) and the chat. Thanks Andrew for getting us organised.

Carey Conference 2016 Day 3

Our final morning consisted of two sessions. Dan Strange of Oakhill College presented his apologetic approach on the gospel as the subversive fulfilment of culture, which can be accessed in is books and elsewhere. The conference sermon was given by Andrew King of Highbury who took us to Ephesians 2 and argued persuasively for churches with a diverse make-up.

I should have mentioned previously that on the other two days there was a woman's track with Julia Jones. About a hundred of us were there over the three days, a little down but that may well have been only due to the timing. Next year we will be earlier on January 3-5. Leonardo De Chirico will be the main speaker, God willing. There was a good spirit and hopefully many blessings will flow from it.

Programme for Carey Conference 2016

The programme for the Carey Conference, January 5-7, has now been published.

Tuesday 5th

Registration from 12.00 to 13.00 and 13.45 to 14.30 13.00

Lunch (if pre-booked)

14.30 John Owen - Gary Brady / Women’s Track – Julia Jones

16.00 Tea 16.30 The Functional Centrality of the Gospel - Mike Bullmore

18.30 Evening Meal

20.00 xxxxxx

Wednesday 6th

07.45 Prayer

08.30 Breakfast

09.30 The Gospel and Pastoral Character – Mike Bullmore

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Communion with God – Phil Heaps

13.00 Lunch

14.30 Free Time

16.00 Tea 16.30 Q&A / Women’s Track – Julia Jones

18.30 Evening Meal

20.00 The Gospel and Pastoral Labour – Mike Bullmore

Thursday 7th

07.45 Prayer

08.30 Breakfast

09.30 Confronting & Connecting: The Gospel as the Subversive Fulfilment of Culture – Dan Strange

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Conference Sermon – Andrew King

13.00 Lunch & Depart

Lord's Day July 6 2014

I popped over to Highbury last Sunday. It is six miles away so it's slightly outside our area but I have long been aware of the church and the present minister, Andrew King, has always been very friendly. Like most of the churches I've been to recently they have modern building (like Highgate Rd they meet upstairs). Again there was a pretty diverse and friendly group present. Andrew led the whole thing and they used hymn books (Praise! and a supplement - nearly all modern hymns). There was piano accompaniment and again an African drum. A young woman sang with the instrumentalists but without a microphone. There was no formal collection. The order of service was straightforward, the only unusual feature being an interactive section with a whiteboard in preparation for the sermon, which was a six pointer (the points were written on a sheet for us) in the third in a new series on Ephesians 1. Andrew also tried to sell us some good books (I bought one!) which was refreshing. We had a cuppa to follow and they then had lunch and communion as it was the first Sunday of the month. I had some nice chats. How encouraging.

Highbury normally have a Bible study in the evening, which I might have gone to had it been on. Instead I went to Childs Hill where Robert was preaching again on Abraham from Genesis. We were only about 16 but it was good to be there. I enjoyed the hymns this morning but tonight (God of the covenant, a Horatius Bonar hymn on justification and Wesley's 'Tis finished! The messiah dies - superlative!).