Grace Assembly 2024

Ebenezer, Campbell, Relf, Whitton

Jonathan Gulliford, Mark Richards, Matt Benton, David Last

I have spent the time since Tuesday lunch here in Swanwick at The Grace Baptist Assembly. The assembly used to meet in Childs Hill once upon a time and I was on the committee that arranged the assembly. For the last 20 years, however, we have met for a residential conference. For various reasons I have been unable to attend for a few years but it was good to be there this time. The format is largely unchanged and it was good to meet old friends and new.

Paul and Bridget Relf acted as hosts and so Paul preached at the beginning of our time together, looking at some words of encouragement from 1 Thessalonians. On both evenings David Campbell preached to us from that wonderful verse, Romans 8:28. We had two news sessions - one on Reformed Baptist work in Italy (presented by a gentlman from Rome called Davide Ibrahim) and one on the British scene, including reports on Chorlton and irmston; teaching English to internationals in Leytonstone; College Park, Lewisham; Pidley, N C|ambridgeshire, etc.

The conference theme otherwise was The nurturing church and particualrly the perennial subject of eudcation. So on the Wednesday morning we had an excellent survey of the last 50 years of state education in this country by Alun Ebenezer, former headmaster of Fulham Boys School. He helpfully pinpointed 11 things that have changed over this time with good humour - the culture, the view of children, authority, mental health, technology, the view of the body, the matter of the environment, sex and relationships, equality, religion/beliefs and family. This was followed by a discussion panel featuring men who had (respectively) sent their children to a Christian School (Jonathan Gulliford, Yate) home schooled (Mark Richards, Chesham) and state school (Matt Benton, Aylesbury). This was followed up on the final morning with a discussion session, chaired by David Last.

There was  also a necessary business session on Tuesday afternoon. The biggest decision was to move to Northampton next year, due to rising costs at Swanwick (the same change has had to be made by the Carey Conference).

In the final session, Steve Whitton from Lewisham preached from Genesis 19 on The cost of compromise.

Lord's Day May 18 2014

I was sat in the congregation once again yesterday. In the morning Mark Richards from Chesham preached on the parables of the treasure and the pearl of great price. It was very thorough and carefully worked out, a blessing to hear. In the evening one of our deacons led communion and then American Robert Jones, currently studying at LTS, preached from Psalm 16, a psalm clearly very der to him and one that he shared well with us. What a good day among God's people and under god's word. Attendances were quite good. As a result of Mark's children's talk my youngest son tells me that if we really can't have a dog, he might settle for a metal detector.

Grace Assembly 09 1

So here we are back in High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon. This time it is the Grace Assembly Conference. We have been having residential assemblies for some time now and it seems to work well although numbers are slightly down this year. I took the train to Broxbourne via Tottenham Hale then walked to the centre. They say it's two miles but it felt more like four. John and Jean MacDonald gave me a lift the last 5000 yards or so. We began with lunch so it was nice to have time together. I sat next to Philip Tait from Stockton on Tees and Gearoid Marley from Birmingham. There are lots of other familiar and unfamiliar faces here. We also met briefly as a steering committee before the first meeting. Our hosts are Mark and Chris Richards from Chesham. Mark kicked off for us preaching from Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name. He gave us some background and then made the following points
1. The character of the people of God - They fear the LORD. The fear of the LORD was thoroughly with lovely references to the minister visiting the dance in the Lewis Revival of 1959, to Polycarp and to the modern martyr Mehdi Dibaj of Iran. He used that famous quote of Anselm about his devotion to the Lord even to going to hell.
2. The logic or reflex of the people of God - they talk with one another. He interestingly raised the question of whether we should put more time into our marriages given the prevalence of divorce. The people in Malachi's day knew their times and so saw the need to spend time with other believers. We are not in danger most of us of turning into a holy huddle. There is an argument for spending more time with Christians than ever. Obviously this includes things like assembly. Perhaps these are days for special measures such as these.
3. The conduct of the people of God - they respond to their situation by talking with one another He referred to Ephesians 4, Acts 2:42, Acts 12, etc, etc and also to Spurgeon's first sermon on how precious Jesus is to believers.
4. The Lord pays close attention to what they say and records it and does so much more. Moving on to the rest of the verse and beyond Mark then spoke of the blessings God brigs on his people who fear him.

Grace Assembly 09

The programmes for the next Grace Assembly, May 19-21, are now out. Hope you can read some of the detail. (Try double clicking pics).