Affinity Study Conference 2019 Day 2

Thursday was the main day of the conference. Three papers were given by Robert Letham, Graham Beynon and Ray Evans.
Bob Letham spoke provocatively on aesthetics, focusing on praying and singing and Graham Beynon took us on a very quick tour of Christian writings on the affections ending, obviously, with Jonathan Edwards. Ray Evanss, in typical style looked at where we are at today.
All three papers were very helpful.
Example quotes

Letham:
In the church, Calvin says, voice and song must spring from the heart or it has no value or profit with God. He strongly commended it. It exercises the mind and heart and keeps us attentive. The tongue was designed for this. Music was created to proclaim the praises of God, mainly through the assembly of believers.88 Singing was an ancient practice going back to the apostles. In it the godly mutually edify one another. Singing, with gravity, lends dignity and praise, kindles our hearts to an eagerness to pray. Our ears should be more attentive to the meaning of the words than to the melody. It is a holy and salutary practice.
Beynon:

Edwards sees a parallel with preaching: God’s word must be preached rather than only read in books because,

…although these may tend as well as preaching to give men a good doctrinal or speculative understanding of the things of the word of God, yet they have not an equal tendency to impress them on men’s hearts and affections.

Evans:
... the church is still the church when we are living for God on Monday – it is the church scattered, not gathered. Without getting into the debate whether “worship” is a “Sunday meeting thing” or an
“everything we do” thing (the one tends to devalue the rest of the week, the other the actual gathering for “vertical” worship on Sundays), it seems to me that it is a both/and not an either/or thing. We leave church worship to go into a time of worship – living for God’s honour during the rest of the week in all that we do.

Carey Conference 2018 Wednesday Session 1

Ray Evans gave another helpful paper in the first part of the morning on growing a believers' church. He made seven main points.

1. Equipping for a 'whole life' service not just service

This included commendation of Mark Goode's books, Thank God it's Monday and Fruitfulness on the frontline.

2. Equipping for a whole of life evangelism not just church evangelism

Acts 16 a suggestive blueprint. Inviting people (go and tell) is the easiest and most effective means of reaching people. Others need to be reached through caring for them and servng them. Thirdly, going to people to tell them is important too.

3. Equipping for organic go and tell evangelism

This questionnaire was commended as found for example here

People should be encouraged to know how to share their story (life adn witness must, ofcourse, match)

4. Encouragiing the exploring of space and time

Too often (says Mark Greene) mission becomes "to recruit the people of God to use some of their leisure time to join the missionary initiatives of church-paid workers".

5. Understanding journeys to faith

Patience and impatience, etc

6. The power of example, the difficulties of choices and the cost of mobilising the whole church

7. Colossians 4 - another blueprint

Carey Conference 2018 First Evening

It is good to be here in Swanwick, Derbyshire once again. We have had three strong papers to start us off. Dr Matthew Bingham gave us an excellent historical paper outlining in this first session why it was that the early Reformers were so wedded to the idea of paedobaptism and the idea of a national church. Paedobaptism was accepted nearly universally before the Reformation and the state idea of the church was widely accepted by most. The idea that England was a new Israel was a third element driving pre- and post-Reformation theology. What drove the Particular Baptists, it was suggested was not simply their reading of the Bible, which says nothing of infant baptism, but also their realisation that the idea of an internal and external covenant was an untenable position. The paper was very helpful.

We then had Ray Evans on leading a believer's church, looking at most obviously at Acts 2 and then less obviously at Acts 6. He added three other useful points - settling for either/or when it should be both/and (including reference to the way time is a tyrant); a diagram on the pastor as prophet, priest and king like and something on consulting members plus something on staff and members. See this page here for a very interesting insight.

We also had John Benton, like Ray a Carey stalwart, on freedom in the church, looking at Romans 14:1-15:13. After summarising the situation Paul is speaking of, he pointed out the six principles there (the Lordship of Christ, the way of love, the priority of the Spirit, the example of Christ, the necessity of writing and the goal of praise) and made these applications - Paul gives principles not a formula, we must avoid both legalism and licence, we must preach on self-denial and judgement and the importance of relationships, etc.

Carey Conference 2011 05

The second session today (Tuesday) was led by Ray Evans. Under the title "Challenge of Leadership" he looked at good pastoral practice for leaders under pressure. The focus was on dealing with size especially when there is transition. With something of a sociological slant it was very interestinga nd stimulating and really helped us to think things through.

He spoke of five pressures

1. Size complexity and busyness

Here he pointed out the exponential effect different size congregations (a church of 250 people involves 2500 lines of communication but 300 people involves 90,000 lines of communication).

2. Size and pastoral problems

The larger the church the more the problems, generally speaking.

3. Size, role and expectation

From "honorary chaplain" to the minister to being pulled in every direction as numbers grow and even the tribal representational role of the pastor. As a church grows the main minister becomes less and less available. People must recognise this and act accordingly. The problem arises when people do not make the transition. 

4. Growth, change and leadership

Driscoll says that growth causes change which causes complexity which causes chaos which causes concern which causes conflict - that can be due to loss of power, renumeration, preference, information, visibility, role, a pace they like or control. It is something that we should be willing to face, however.

Decision making becomes more difficult.

A larger church is more likely to lose members as in a smaller church more effort is made to keep everyone on board.  

5. Growth and resource requirement

Inevitably larger numbers means the need for more and more resources adn personnel. Things get more complex. A greater variety of skills are necessary. Apparently, giving per head is optimal in a church of 75-100, smaller churches and larger ones are most demanding. A larger church has more expenditure. You need people who are competent in various areas (websites, etc). Aesthetics becomes more and more important.

Next we stopped for an interim summary implication. Ray spoke of scepticism about the idea of growth that is due to various factors - theological, ecclesiastical, cultural and personal. Talk about growth is threatening but it ought not to be.

The final section was devoted to best practice from Scripture.

1. Acts 6 and problem solving

Acts 6 shows a leadership identifying a problem and dealing with it. So often we do not tackle issues in the way that we see here

2. Acts 20 and eldership activity

Elders must be active

3. Acts 16 and leadership recruitment

Paul still brings on Timothy even though he was so disappointed by Mark

4. The pastoral epistles and leadership development

Paul is expecting Timothy and Titus to keep learning. Leadership training is so important.

5. Philemon and the great vision/bold move/big ask

Paul had found the secret of what can really bring together - the gospel. This is what leads Paul to make the bold move and make the big ask.

The number one vision problem is that we do not focus on who God is and are too focused on ourselves. 

London Inreach

It was good to be at the London Inreach Project meetings last Saturday. The initial meeting was held at the LCM's Cafe Eterno where the church regularly meets. I was not able to be at that as I was obliged to attend the meeting of the trustees of the Project who gather annually. I am not a trustee but attend with our treasurer Peter Jermyn as chairman of the management committee. I managed to get a cuppa at Cafe Eterno before heading then for the Chinese Church in Shaftesbury Avenue where I chaired our preaching meeting.

It was good to see about fifty or so present. Derek Sewell gave a balanced report on the work, which is still hard going but not without its challenges and encouragements. Andrew Murray then spoke for a while and introduced our new worker Roger Carter to us, the successor to Ben Thomas. Peter Jermyn had a word finally and then our preacher, Ray Evans of Bedford (fresh from a paintball fight that morning - don't ask) turned our attention very helpfully to Dr Luke's case notes on Simon the Pharisee and the woman who kissed Jesus's feet.

Most people then drifted off but some took opportunity to head across Shaftesbury Avenue once again to the Fair Trade shop that the church continue to run (at the local council's behest) in Berwick Street, Soho. (This is where I had started my afternoon with the committee in the basement).

This is wonderful work. Not easy at all but vital. Do find out more. Start here.