Last Tuesday it was my privilege to be at the annual Grace Baptist Mission Meetings at the Friends Meeting House near Euston. I haven't written anything about it yet due to a lack of time.
I was at some very good EMF meetings in Welwyn shortly before on the work in Spain and Portugal and have said nothing about that. Under the chairmanship of Martin Leech, Daniel Webber spoke first, then Jose Segovia and Manuel Franco, our Spanish Presbyterian friends. Perhaps the most telling remark was Jose's regarding a trip to Mexico where there is a real eagerness for the gospel - not due to any technique but to God's sovereign moving.
After lunch, from Portugal, Jose Rodriques (Alto do Moinho) spoke too [a bit too much about buildings from the Baptist, I'm afraid].
It's always good to be at such events. Quite apart from what is said in public, the informal fellowship with people is always a blessing. See here. On Tuesday we began with the formal delegates meeting. Such meetings are never easy but the chairman Ron Low, succeeded this year by Geoff King, always do well. Perhaps we should be encouraged more to speak but it's difficult to draw a line regarding what we can talk about and what we really can't. I asked a question about how missionaries' stipends are scaled and had a clear, helpful answer from Andrew Sadler who deals with finance.
I had a nice Indian vegetarian lunch with two friends (a little ritual of the last few years although there were less of us than usual).
I then caught two sessions - one very encouraging and one not so. The first was a two parter outlining plans for outreach in the 2012 Olympics and announcing a AGBCSE initiative to church plant in a new development in North Kent. Both presentations (from Nigel Hoad and Steve Richards) were a little lacklustre in a rather modern powerpoint sort of way. A lot of time was taken up relaying the government's plans. Some very ambitious ideas involving huge amounts of money and vast numbers of people were outlined. We were all thinking - but how do we sustain what we've already started and haven't we heard things like this before (eg Newmarket and Bedworth)? One longed for a Lloyd-Jones and a more 'spiritual', God-centred approach. God is the one who builds churches.
Much more encouraging was Brian Ellis's session outlining the various aspects of the work in the Philippines. It struck me that this is the way to success. Begin with the basics - preaching, gathering a church, prayer. The other things will follow on if it is God's will.
At tea-time I slipped over to Euston for a cuppa and got chatting to a Seventh Day Adventist. All very interesting. I urged her to read more John Bunyan and less Ellen G White.
The evening meeting featured several people who spoke briefly. They have fresh new workers for Kenya, the Andersons. Ms Schwier is off somewhere exotic and Mr Read is already at it (we can't say where). We also heard from the Joneses in Kisumu.
The preacher was Andy Christophides who I also heard last summer in Aber. I think he must make a habit of coming down off the stage like that. It's okay but a little distracting. Equally distracting was his decision to tell us he was not a cessationist. He is a keen evangelist and the idea of all this was to do something to win people to Christ. That element one can't knock - though perhaps the appeal was too much to the will and not enough to the affections.
It's easy to knock things isn't it? With around 800 (?) present it was a joy to be there.
