Tonight was the first in what will hopefully be a long-term series of cafe nights at BH. I was a bit frustrated with the cafe nights that happened in the past, because it was the same as a normal service, just with chairs set out differently and some nibbles… but tonight we got rid of songs, prayers, any kind of liturgy or service order and I ad libbed at the front.

Povey spoke on the subject of exclusive beliefs and absolute truth, essentially just a rip off of Keller… speaking of which, after a review by me I managed to flog some cut-price copies of Reason for God, I have two copies left if anyone is interested. You can get Povey’s talk here…

First BUSA game of the new season, against Writtle College… was horrible, was wet, and we ended up playing at a Brighton council ground. Anyway we won… I scored 25 runs, my highest score since moving ‘darn sarf’, didn’t get any wickets sadly, but good to get back to playing some cricket!

Sad news though, my trusty Hunts County bat broke, cracked all the way through, was gutted! But it’s a good excuse to go down to Newbery and get a new one!

Today BH hosted the annual Sussex Gospel Partnership conference, entitled “The Mission Minded Church”… the purpose of regional gospel partnerships is to encourage and equip evangelical churches in Sussex to work together; to support training schemes, conferences, evangelism and ultimately church planting.

Today we were joined by guest speaker Steve Timmis from Crowded House, along with 300 Christians from the partnership from all around Sussex. Steve gave two main talks from Philippians about being a gospel shaped church, and encouraged us all as gospel citizens to be gospel ministers. Steve said some great things in explanation of the text and in very practical application. He said some things which I imagined might have been a bit edgy to some there, but it’s always good to be challenged and rebuked by God’s word!

Would highly recommend listening to the talks… there were also 3 seminars; mission to 50-70s, 18-30s and families….

Talks from BH website

On the subject of the BH website, watch this space… the new look will be launched some time after exams… but this is top secret!!

In celebration of handing in my dissertation on Tuesday (2 days before the deadline!) I finally got round to selecting some DVDs to rent from my LoveFilm account… I only bought 4 rentals so I’m being somewhat selective.

Anyway, the first one I got was American Gangster. It’s based on the true story of Frank Lucas, Harlem drug-lord in the late 1960′s and of Richie Roberts who prosecuted him along with other drug dealers and corrupt police officers. Although there’s a couple of bloody/not very nice violent bits it’s surprisingly tame for a gangster film, it gets the 18 rating very much for the drugs theme.

Denzil Washington (Lucas), and Russell Crowe (Roberts) both give good performances, and you know it’s going to be pretty good with them in it. The film is well produced, good dialogue and visually captivating – unsurprising as it’s directed by Ridley Scott. I liked the way in portraying a true story you get to see something into the personal lives of the two men surrounding the ongoing drug-dealing main events. Good distraction from starting revision.

Last month I posted something about Jim Packer and his proposed de-licensing by Bishop Ingham, I was a little ungracious to Ingham (not without reason)… but the recent response by Packer and others to Ingham has been both firm and gracious, it seems a good model for dealing with heretical Bishops, here’s an extract…

…However, with deep reluctance and regret we have concluded that we cannot continue the Anglican ministry to which we were ordained under your jurisdiction. The Diocese, under your leadership, has departed from historic, orthodox Anglican teaching and practice. It has departed from what the Primates have unanimously recognized as the standard of teaching of the Anglican Communion. The Diocese is in a state of broken or impaired communion with the majority of Anglicans worldwide. Sadly, it appears the Anglican Church of Canada has now similarly departed from Anglican teaching and practice…

They’re going to continue to be Anglicans, but get their licences and Bishoply (is that a word?) oversight from a guy in the Southern Cone called Donald Harvey. You can read the full letter here.