Archive for August, 2008

Reformission UK

by Hugh on August 21, 2008 in Faith with No comments

Here is a very short review of the Mark Driscoll’s book, Radical Reformission from when I read it last year. One of my general ‘criticisms’ of the book was that its very American, very Seattle – which is understandable, that’s Driscoll’s situation, that’s where he does Reformission. So my thoughts were drifting to the question of how to apply the insightful observations and helpful practical applications of Matthew 28 that Driscoll makes in our post-Christian culture. What are the traits of our society in say Brighton, or more generally in the UK, and how can we apply Driscoll’s Reformission principles to our situation?

First, for those of you who didn’t get it (the play on words), we’re talking about mission and the reforming of that. Reformission is about changing our views, preconceptions, attitudes, style, and methods in the area of mission.

Mission isn’t just something that happens overseas, but primarily happens in our street, our Uni, our workplace…
We can, indeed we must continually refresh the styles we use and the methods we adopt when presenting the gospel in order to show the gospel to be relevant and to engage with our culture (1 Cor 9:22) – “it would be a sin to change the message, it would be a sin not to change the method” MD

So we know from reading ‘RR’ that Driscoll is pretty clued up about the culture of Seattle and how to engage with it and communicate the gospel to it. But what about here in the UK, what is our culture like, to what extent should we engage with it and be immersed by it, and how can we best relate the gospel to it? Most recently whilst in London and Brighton Driscoll explained preaching the gospel to a culture really well, he said that we need to show our culture(s) that the gospel is relevant, not make it relevant – a really helpful clarification to those who think Driscoll is selling out!

Hopefully, soon, I’m going to continue these thoughts by trying to apply Reformission principles into situations that I, and many of us know. Watch this space…

Mark Driscoll on Good Book Company

by Hugh on August 19, 2008 in Books, Faith with No comments

Good news. Not only are the Good Book Company selling Mark Driscoll books, but they are cheaper than Amazon!! The little ‘Book you’ll actually read’ books are selling for just �5!! And I expect there’ll be a little discount on top of that if you have a UCCF student card. On Amazon they’ll cost you �6.29… you fools who bought from Amazon, get them cheap from GBC!!

News to come soonish about some books for men (grrr) and bible reading notes for adults and young people available from the Good Book Company.

Ps. Tom, if you’re reading, I hope you will complete the collection… Radical Reformission and Confessions?? Don’t forget also Death by Love and Vintage Church coming soon. You saw how popular they were at Dwell!!

Pps. Emily, if you’re reading, got the books and study notes (thank you), will review soon! Holiday reading

Online Commentary Survey

by Hugh on August 19, 2008 in Books, Faith, Random with No comments

A new site has been launched called BestCommentaries.com which gives an online survey of just about every commentary. The site takes it information from survey information from; Don Carson, John Piper, John Glynn, Trempar Longman, R.C. Sproul and others. You can see commentaries by book of the Bible, by series or by author. There’s also a list of the two top rated commentaries for each book of the Bible and a list of forthcoming commentaries.

So for each commentary there’s a rating, price, where you can buy it, categories on the ‘type’ or ‘level’ of commentary. There’s a cool feature which is a flash bookshelf (below) it shows you what the commentary looks like, even the thickness as you pull it off the book shelf! Helpfully there’s the facility for site members to add reviews of commentaries as well as that all reviews from Amazon.com are imported. Definately a good place to go if you need to acquire a commentary or build a collection.

Good Churches in Brighton

by Hugh on August 19, 2008 in Faith with No comments

I’ve spent the last three years in Brighton, during that time I’ve had the privelege of being part of a great church and been able to visit other good churches in the area. Here are some of the good churches in Brighton. They would all be classified as ‘Evangelical’ and all to some degree follow my thoughts on a good church:

Bishop Hannington Memorial Church -� Anglican

Calvary Evangelical Church -� Independent

Christ Church Brighton -� Anglican (fresh expression)

Church of Christ the King -� New Frontiers

Holland Road Baptist Church -

Montpelier Place Baptist Church -� Grace Baptist

St. Lukes -� Anglican (bit Charismatic)

What is a good church?

by Hugh on August 19, 2008 in Faith with No comments

So Bish has helpfully pointed out the question which was already in my head following my previous post and creation of a good church guide – what defines a good church? Now much has been written about this question by people much wiser than myself…

UCCF have a little article on their website called ‘Choosing a Church‘. In summary, a good church… is faithful to the gospel, has godly leaders, and the members love and encourage one another.

I guess for something a little more in depth you could look at the ‘9 Marks‘ – 9 marks that characterize a good church.

But I want to answer the question from an e-perspective. If we’re looking for a new church, need to find somewhere good for a friend or new Christian to get stuck in, the first place we will often go is to Google and do a search… “good church in Brighton“. How can we discern whether a church is ‘good’ based on looking at their website? I hope to highlight some characteristics of a church website that will help us find out whether the church is ‘good’. I hope it may also reveal how churches can present information effectively on their website… incidently, if you feel after reading this that you need to revamp you website then I can do you a good deal on a new church website!

People or Buildings?

Pictures are a good indicator – are the pictures of buildings or of people? This will invariably tell you something about the church’s ecclesiology – is it about God and his people, or about tradition and buildings?

Emphasis

What does the church website emphasise? Is it the lead pastor and his wife? Is it the big band? Does it talk about Jesus and the gospel lots, or does it simply speak in vague words that could be applied to any religious community – Faith, Worship, Love, Fellowship, Community, Truth, Hope – all great Christian words, but in an age of pluralism they are meaningless unless grounded in Christ crucified.

Confessional

If I’m trying to suss out a church one of the first things I’ll look for is a statement of faith, what we believe, values page. A good church will be keen to express what it believes in clear statements of belief – creeds, basis of faith, doctrinal basis… generally if they’ve got one it will be pretty good, it’s when there isn’t one, or the church values could be applied to any secular community/charity that you need to worry.

Biblical

Have a look at their term plan. What are they preaching? Are they preaching through books of the Bible, or just random thematic preaching? Have a listen to the audio – how long do they preach for? is the Bible read? is the passage referenced in the sermon? A good church has a high view of the Bible – this is not just assenting to that fact in a basis of faith, but is shown in what is preached and how it is delivered.

Mission / Evangelism

Does the church look like a ‘bomb shelter’ as Driscoll puts it, or is it outward looking? Is there evidence that the church supports gospel work overseas? Is there evidence that the church is seeking to win their neighbours for Christ? Signs of this will be… links to mission partners/agencies, a presentation of the gospel on the site (or linked), the church is a community beyond Sundays, and has seeker courses like Alpha or CE running.

Affiliations

What organisations does the church belong to or link to? Do these groups love Jesus, how do they do in the previous criteria? Is the church part of a network/denomination – is that group ‘good’?

…so just a few thoughts, I hope they will help you to analyse church websites if you’re looking to find a church. If you run a church website, would an analysis of it give a fair reflection of your church?

Good Church Guide UK

by Hugh on August 18, 2008 in Faith with 5 Comments

I’ve received a number of emails from people around the world asking me to recommend them some good churches in different parts of the UK. So… I thought I’d create a Google Map with some good churches on it! It’s currently a work in progress, I hope to slowly update it.

My hope is to list a ‘good church’ in every major town in the UK so there’s a least one church listed somewhere near you. This isn’t an exhaustive list – the lack of inclusion of a church does not make it a bad church! So please don’t complain if your church isn’t on there. This is just my list of churches that I know to be good! Hopefully if you’re looking for a church you’ll find it helpful.

If you’re looking for a church then check out my Good Church Guide for some suggestions…

Ps. It’s not finished yet!

Interview with me

by Hugh on August 17, 2008 in Faith, Life, Random with No comments

Now quite why anyone would want to interview me I don’t know, frankly I am dull and unworthy of having my life or thoughts shared with anyone! But, a guy called David Capener (blogs at thebroadcast.org.uk), who is a New Frontierser from Norfolk is doing a series of interviews with non-NewFrontiersers about their experiences of New Frontiers. So there’s a little bit of background on who I am and some of my thoughts shared in light of attending the Brighton Conference. Check out the interview here.

Todd Bentley

by Hugh on August 15, 2008 in Faith with 7 Comments

Todd Bentley

The other night me and my dad sat down and watched the God channel together. Not something we usually do for obvious reasons, but we did so with a specific intention; to see, understand and analyse the theology and methodology of Todd Bentley. This is big news – Bentley has been running large ‘revival’ meetings for several months now in Lakeland, Florida. He is currently in Los Angeles, and had been due to be at at ‘outpouring’ event in Birmingham (UK) in the middle of September (although this has been postponed/cancelled).

This is definitely a global event. People from all around the world are heading to Florida to receive an ‘impartation’ – now I don’t really know how to explain this, but the idea seems to be that you go, receive some of the Spirit, some ‘revival fire’ and then take it back with you so that the revival spreads and God can work around the world. Here’s what Mark Stibbe from St. Andrew’s Church Chorleywood says:

Since coming back from the Lakeland revival in Florida on Tuesday 13th May, we have seen the fire of God’s Holy Spirit fall on the staff, the leaders and the people of St Andrews [Chorleywood]. Sunday May 18th was particularly exciting as hundreds of people came forward to receive an impartation of the Holy Spirit for evangelism with signs and wonders.

There’s also something happening near me… the Sussex Healing Outpouring, and the Brighton & Hove outpouring. I suspect there’ll be something similar happening near you too!

If you’re in to Todd Bentley then let me ask some questions that have been prompted by listening to him preach? If you’re not, then they will reveal some of my perceived issues with his teaching…

What is Sin? – Is Sin something that you do that you need to repent of, or is it demonic, is Sin caused by the power, the dominion of the Devil? I think it’s a bit of both, but if you place your emphasis on the latter, you won’t be convicted, you won’t acknowledge your responsibility and you won’t come to repent.

How is Sin defeated? – The power and hold of Sin is according to Bentley defeated by a supernatural work of the Spirit, it’s something we have faith for and pray for. Now while it is true that there is an on going battle between Spirit and flesh, the fact is that the penalty, power and hold of Sin was defeated once for all time at the Cross – an emphasis on the battle now diminishes the centrality of the Cross.

Who is at work – God or man? – Bentley seems to call on the congregations to pray, have faith, give yourself, stir up feelings and emotions, to strive for faith. This is all very man-centred and actually religious. While they talk about faith, it’s not as a gift from God, but as something that you do, something that you put your mind to. God’s work in salvation from beginning to end is diminished as the focus is put on man and his faith… which will force God to act.

Is Bentley promising prosperity? – At first I didn’t think Bentley was preaching a prosperity gospel, I thought it was just healings, miracles etc. But here’s where the prosperity comes in – we have faith, we pray to be released from the dominion of sin, likewise we pray against the ‘dominion’ of financial difficulty, sickness, relationship breakdown – once we defeat the devil’s power over us we will have prosperity! This is more subtle than most prosperity preachers, but it is still false promises, a false gospel.

What is the central message in Lakeland? – Healings, Miracles, defeat of Sin/demons, power evangelism, impartation etc. This seems to go against two main themes – firstly the Gospel, which is Christ crucified, atonement for sins by the shedding of his blood – Sin, Jesus Crucified, and repentance and faith are not prominent, the main message here. Secondly, while I agree that revivals will be marked by some or all of the events in Lakeland, the overwhelming defining feature of revival will be repentance, humility and genuine conversions.

…and I’m not even going to touch on the stuff you see in the YouTube videos about Todd healing people by kicking them in the face, about visitations from an Angel called Emma, and about Todd manifesting a demon… I don’t have any response, but my instinct is to simply say that it’s wrong and messed up!

Some verses for consideration:

1 Peter 2:1-3 – There will be false teachers in the church. I’m not saying Todd Bentley is an anti-christ, but he is teaching things that are false!

Colossians 2:18 – This sounds worryingly like Todd Bentley, “goes into great detail about what he has seen”… worship of angels?

One thing that has surprised me about this is the lack of senior leaders in the church speaking with some authority about what is happening – so it ends up that half-informed bloggers (like me – and appologies that I have nothing to reference, this is simply my thoughts on watching God TV) are the only voice in the debate. However, John Piper did blog yesterday with some thoughts shared from Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine – he asks some probing questions of Bentley and the ‘revival’. Two key thoughts came across:

Discernment was lacking and discouraged
Revival is marked and tested by its doctrine

In recent news, Todd Bentley has separated from his wife which is a tragedy. I fear this is the start of the collapsing of this revival movement which will inevitably result in a fallout of confusion. PRAY, for Todd and his wife, and pray for discernment and true revival. Go and read John Piper, and this guy Lee Grady…

Looked Upon

by Hugh on August 14, 2008 in Arts, Faith with 7 Comments

On camp this year I bought a copy of ‘Looked Upon’ an album by the Na Band from Sovereign Grace. I bought it for several reasons; firstly it has a cool cover, looks like an old mid-western farmer, could do with a piece of straw coming out of his mouth. Second, ‘the Gobbmeister’ – Sovereign Grace’s unofficial UK music promoter – was selling them at bargain prices. And thirdly… Sovereign Grace are known for making good music!

Looked Upon You can listen to the song previews here. I love both the music and words of these songs – particularly the new versions of Man of Sorrows (What a Saviour) and When I Survey. Another favourite is ‘My Lord I did not choose you’, it’s basically Calvinism put to a song, I paraphrase some of the lyrics:

“You have saved me, you took my sins away, you called me… I was dead but you chose to save my life!”

Sometimes Calvinism, orthodox beliefs lead to pride – proud that God chose me, proud that I’m not like those foolish Arminians! But these truths are spoken gently and humbly, and they can only lead to humility because it’s all about what God has done! The subtitle for the album is “Humble orthodoxy set to music” – that is a great description, Biblical truths, but as with much of what Sovereign Grace does is laced with humility.

Incidentally, I also bought ‘Upward: The Bob Kauflin Hymns Project’… I didn’t like this one, maybe it will grow on me… I just didn’t think the new tunes to old hymns were effective.