Matthew Hosier

CURIOSITY

2009-10-23T23:41:00.002+01:00

A significant part of Poole has been in gridlock the past two days, with the opening of John Lewis. It seems to have attracted considerably more attention than the unveiling of any of our recently installed sculptures.

As the traffic was backed up from the store to outside our church building yesterday, I decided to take a walk down the hill (and up the other side) to see what all the fuss was about. And there were hundreds of people there.

It is possible that most of those queuing to get into the store were, like me, simply interested in observing the cultural phenomenon unfolding before us. But I think most of them actually wanted to see what was in store, in the store. As I had got there, I joined them and went inside as well. And you know what? It’s a shop; that sells things.

Hard to get excited about. Although some people obviously were. Grace reported that one of the other mums at the school gate managed to attract a large crowd simply by announcing, “I’ve been to John Lewis!”

But whatever the ostensible motivation for visiting the store, the underlying reason is little more than curiosity. We humans are a curious lot. If we weren’t curious we would still be living in caves and eating our buffalo fresh carved from the carcass. It is our curiosity that has led us into all our discoveries and social development, as well as often leading us into trouble.

It was curiosity that led to four times the normal audience tuning into Question Time last night to see how Nick Griffen would come across.

I’m not sure there was anything more surprising about what the BNP leader said than there was about what was inside John Lewis. But we do like to look.

Often, though, the most interesting things happen where we are not looking, or, as Jesus put it, "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."

Subtle.

PLANTING ARTISTRY

2009-10-20T19:29:00.004+01:00

There is a certain fluttering amongst the Poole shopperati (or should that be 'shoperati' or maybe shopperratti?) as John Lewis is opening in our midst this week.

To accompany this auspicious event, yet another sculpture has been erected - Yes, try to hold your excitement, incredible isn't it?! I quite like this one, but am concerned it will look rather jaded and naff in 10 or 20 years time. John Lewis is on the site of a former pottery, and there has been some disquiet locally that the sculpture doesn't reflect that once important industry, rather than Poole's maritime connections (the 'flowers' are the props of a boat engine, you see).

There has also been concern that it is just a bit, well, Teletubbies.

Art is meant to provoke discussion, stir emotions, connect us with the sublime. Public art, like sculpture, usually has a hard job winning universal approval. It would be impossible now to imagine Trafalgar Square without Nelson and the lions, but if someone proposed building a similar structure in Poole today I'm sure it would be howled down in protest.

But strangely, no-one objects to the opening of a new John Lewis - instead the response ranges from enthusiasm to indifference, and seems to miss out vitriol. And that is one reason why I think art has greater significance than shopping.

This also makes me think about what happens when we start a new church. There should be some artistry about it, something that leads to strong reactions - that's what happened in the book of Acts. More often though, a new church provokes rather less response than even the opening of a new shop.

So perhaps we need more artists planting churches, even if sometimes that means we get flowers sprouting boat propellers.

DOING BETTER

2009-10-17T17:15:00.004+01:00

Back in August I posted about a piece of 'art' that has been installed at the end of my road. It was quickly vandalized, then repaired, but the light strips on/in it don't seem to be working, and it is starting to look rather stained by all the dog pee it is receiving - it must be an irresistible marking post to the discerning canine.

But not all is lost for public art in Poole. There are some much better and interesting pieces being installed.

I was passing the RNLI headquarters earlier today and paused to snap the new sculpture installed there, which I think is really rather good.

I keep thinking about volunteering for the RNLI as a crew member, but am not sure it would work with my other responsibilities. The Poole crew get called out very regularly, and inevitably the call would come just as I was getting up to preach on a Sunday, or taking the kids to school. So I'll just to have to admire the crew, and the sculpture, from a distance.

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

2009-10-16T20:34:00.001+01:00

So, I’m sitting here listening to Muse, and enjoying a glass of west country cider and the smell of rendered sheep fat fills the air, as I am dealing with the off-cuts of a whole Dorset lamb I bought today. And I have been laughing at my father’s blog (if you are not yet reading it, you should – if only because it is funny) and I am feeling aggravated by my house.

I haven’t blogged about the house, although it has taken up too much of my time, and money, these past months. Put our house in glorious SE9 up for sale in July 2007, took a year to sell, during which time we moved to BH14 and rented a house. Stressful. Bought a house in BH14 in December 2008. It was a wreck. Meant to be refurbed and ready to move into summer 2009, but various problems meant that schedule slipped and we are now moving in at the end of next month. And its not going to be as finished as we would have liked when we move in. “There’s going to be a lot of water in it still – it needs time to dry out,” says my builder.

Still, in for Christmas, even if its on a bare concrete floor and with no kitchen.

Hardly Zimbabwean levels of deprivation.

And I’m such a recidivist that I’ve even snuck the heating on, despite it not being November yet. I had to put it on last night as we had our Life Group here, and I couldn’t expect them to exhibit the same levels of hardiness as us, and once on, the dam is breached, and all is ruination.

And today I watched a dvd of Tim Keller preaching about the prodigal God at a Willow Creek conference in our local Anglican church, which was weird enough in itself and my frustrations were compounded by the obvious fact that those around me didn’t get it at all, and so simply confirmed what the great man was saying by their very lack of understanding.

And I’m trying to read Dostoyevsky.

But we had a great time praying for Zimbabwe at Prayer & Fasting. Those guys are the real deal.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION

2009-10-09T18:58:00.004+01:00

Rick Warren is a prolific man. This blog seems to be dying on its feet, with a combination of a full church program, young family, and major house renovation squeezing the time and creativity out of me. Warren, with his church of thousands and a myriad demands on his time, doesn't seem to have much trouble churning out blog posts and tweets though, as well as books and sermons. Hyper-eloquent.

Anyway, Warren's recent tweet about having a library of 20,000 volumes provoked a certain amount of fluttering in the blog and twittersphere. That's quite a collection. And his buying policy was interesting too - used hardback rather than new paperback.

I normally review what I read on this blog, but regular visitors will have noticed a dearth of such reviews recently. I read some stuff that didn't seem worth reviewing, and then I hit a kind of reading block - just couldn't get into anything for a couple of weeks, which is unlike me. And now I am into The Brothers Karamazov, which is going to take a while to get through.

According to a report from the University of California, The world produces between 1 and 2 exabytes of unique information per year, which is roughly 250 megabytes for every man, woman, and child on earth. An exabyte is a billion gigabytes. Printed documents of all kinds comprise only .003% of the total. That was a 2000 report, so doubtless the amount of info is now considerably more.

Its enough to make you never want to read a thing again...

BODIES

2009-10-02T09:01:00.001+01:00

One of my daughters got upset the other day when she heard the new Robbie Williams song "Bodies" on the radio, with its line, "Jesus didn’t die for you, what are you on?"

If you haven't heard it yet, here it is, along with the lyrics:

God gave me the sunshine,
Then showed me my lifeline
I was told it was all mine,
Then I got laid on a ley line
What a day, what a day,
And your Jesus really died for me
Then Jesus really tried for me

UK and entropy,
I feel like its ****in’ me
Wanna feed off the energy,
Love living like a deity
What a day, one day,
And your Jesus really died for me
I guess Jesus really tried for me

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
God save me rejection
From my reflection,
I want perfection

Praying for the rapture,
‘Cause it’s stranger getting stranger
And everything’s contagious
It’s the modern middle ages
All day every day
And if Jesus really died for me
Then Jesus really tried for me

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
God save me rejection
From my reflection,
I want perfection

Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
Bodies in the bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

All we’ve ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
So God save me rejection
From my reflection,
I want perfection

Jesus didn’t die for you, what do you want?
(I want perfection)
Jesus didn’t die for you, what are you on?
Oh Lord
(Jesus really died for you) Ohh
(Jesus really died for you)
(Jesus really died for you) Ohh

According to the BBC, Bodies, has been described by the singer's PR machine as an "apocalyptic conspiracy-laden" song. The epic Trevor Horn production certainly backs that statement up, and brings the familiar Williams sound firmly into 2009.

Whatever.

I don't know about "apocalyptic conspiracy-laden" but Williams spiritual search has long been evident.

"Bodies" cuts to the heart of so much contemporary obsession - our juvenile concern with, "All we’ve ever wanted is to look good naked." You don't have to dig deep in the magazine shelves to see that this desire is high on many peoples priority lists, but what is more interesting is Williams' interaction with the gospel. He gets straight to it in the first verse - a recognition of the goodness of God in creating the world, "God gave me the sunshine." Then swallowing the satanic lie that it is all about me, "I was told it was all mine." And then the hope of the gospel, that Jesus is the only way out of our mess, "And your Jesus really died for me, then Jesus really tried for me."

The final verse brings us to Williams' dilemma - he just doesn't seem to be able to bite the bullet and submit to the grace of God in Jesus Christ as the only way he can achieve the perfection he so desperately seeks. So there is a defiant rejection of the cross in, "Jesus didn’t die for you, what are you on?" yet an echoing longing for what the cross can achieve in, "Jesus really died for you."

In this song Williams sums up the spiritual state of his generation. Which is great! Because salvation won't be found in a perfect body, or under the Bhodi tree, but it is to be found in Jesus. So whenever we hear a defiant, "Jesus didn’t die for you, what are you on?" lets keep the steady echo of truth bouncing back, "Yes, Jesus really died for you." That is the song our culture needs to hear.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

2009-10-01T11:39:00.002+01:00

There is going to be a long campaign leading up to the next general election. If a candidate knocks on your door, looking for your vote, what questions should you ask them?

Before a previous election I (with the help of some friends) came up with the following list. I think its still a good one,

• What is your view on abortion?
• What are your plans for care of the elderly?
• What would you like to do to reduce the problem of debt in our society?
• How would you like to deal with the growing drugs problem?
• What is you position on euthanasia?
• Would you support policies that enabled churches to receive Government funding for social action projects without compromising their religious character?
• What is your policy regarding third world debt?
• What would you like to do to strengthen family life & marriage?
• Do you support more stringent controls on pornography?

PULLING WHEELIES

2009-09-30T21:49:00.001+01:00

The other day Grace and I went for a bike ride on the Purbeck hills (its tough in Dorset). When we crossed back into Poole via the chain ferry there were a couple of other cyclists behind us, one of whom was a kid on a mountain bike.

It was a good mountain bike, with lockout suspension. But it was a mountain bike, and I was on my road bike. I’m not as quick as I once was, but I’m not that shabby. Anyway, I pedalled off, and thought Grace was behind me, but sneaked a peak and realized it was the kid on the mountain bike.

So I speeded up. (You must understand that it is not done to be overtaken by a kid on a mountain bike. As a male, I don’t like to be overtaken by anyone.)

I wasn’t going absolutely flat out, but I was going as fast as I could while still looking nonchalant. In not being overtaken it is important not to look like one is trying too hard.

Anyway, the kid tracked me for about a mile, until I turned off and he carried on ahead.

But here’s the thing: Grace – who was obviously some way behind us – told me that the kid was doing a wheelie the whole time he was following me.

A mile long wheelie. At speed. On a mountain bike. That is just taking the p.

I only hope he has been signed up by the GB cycling squad.

I’ll tell you something else that annoyed me – the case of the two policewomen who have been told by Ofsted that they can’t look after one anothers children because they are not registered childminders.

Why does the Government get to tell anyone who can look after their kids?

If a parent wants someone else to look after their child and wants that person to be an Ofsted registered childminder they should have that option. But why does the Government dictate that this has to be the case? Hysteria about paedophilia has led to the State abrogating far too much power to itself over the rights of parents.

Continuing the parent/State theme, this week we are attending open evenings at secondary schools our oldest daughter might be going to next year. It is interesting to watch head teachers giving their pitch. The other night I had to give one head good marks for content but low marks for delivery – he was just trying too hard to be chummy. It seems to me that what parents are looking for in a head is someone who commands instant respect, not chumminess. Anyway, no-one was laughing at his jokes.

Delivering a speech is of course a fiendishly tricky business. Which brings us back to politics as in the UK it is the party conference season.

I like politics and respect those in office, but political speeches so rarely get the pulse racing. To me, it too often ends up sounding like clichés.

Most Sundays I get to stand up and speak uninterrupted for 40 minutes. Party political leaders and head teachers don’t get to do that. I’m working with better material of course – opening up the Bible and lifting up Jesus, rather than trying to sell a school or canvas for votes – but listening to those other speeches has given me a spur to be increasingly diligent in my preaching.

Neither chumminess not cliché will cut it. It takes application to be able to pull a preaching wheelie.

OPEN MY EYES

2009-09-22T21:16:00.003+01:00

Went out fishing with Daughter No. 3 yesterday. Had a wonderful time. Always good to be in a boat with a daughter – not many things to distract them when out on the sea. She caught a lot of mackerel, and a beautiful garfish, one of the most striking looking fish we get in our waters. They have incredible turquoise scales (which are now ringing our bath tub), and even their bones glow a bluey-green, apparently caused by a phosphate of iron.

We didn’t realize there was a whale in Poole Bay.

We must have gone right past it. We saw the RNLI lifeguards on their jetski looking for something, but didn’t know it was a struggling whale that had been reported by someone. The poor thing later washed ashore, dead.

The sea is full of surprises – didn’t expect to get a garfish, and didn’t think there was a whale about. Funny how you can miss the obvious – how could we not see a whale that must have been right where we were?

I did manage to avoid the nutter who has taken to swimming across the incredibly dangerous harbour mouth each day, although with the low sun behind him I didn’t spot him until quite late on. It can only be a matter of time before he goes the same way as the whale.

A friend rebuked me today for not adding tags to my blog posts – said it makes it hard to find things I’ve written on subjects that might interest him. I was puzzled as to why he couldn’t just type a word into the search box at the top of the page.

Different ones of us have different ways of spotting the obvious I guess.

Its only in the past couple of days that I’ve realized the mudflats of Poole Harbour are stuffed with clams. Having discovered it, Grace and I stuffed ourselves with them last night – fresh clams, in a wine and cream sauce with linguine. Delicious.

Life is full of surprises. The obvious often stares us in the face and we walk past, oblivious.

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law (Psalm 119:18)… I pray that that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you (Ephesians 1:17-19).

9/11: LIFE GOES ON

2009-09-11T13:43:00.002+01:00

Eight years on from the momentous events of 9/11.

I’m sitting in the café of Lighthouse, Poole’s Arts Centre. (The lack of the definite article ‘the’ before ‘Lighthouse’ is very irritating. It is one of those peculiar arty pretences that insists on it just being ‘Lighthouse’, when this feels very uncomfortable, because really it is the Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts, rather than an individual who we correctly refer to as, say, Matthew, and not the Matthew; unless of course people are irritated with me – which happens – and they then tend to refer to me as that Matthew. But I digress. I’m sitting in [the] Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts.)

I’ve come here to write a sermon (it helps the mind sometimes to work in a different environment) and around me life continues as normal. People drinking coffee; buying tickets for concerts (I’m going to get some for Seth Lakeman in a minute); an arty looking group having an arty meeting. The events of eight years ago are not making much impact here. Life goes on.

My oldest daughter starts at our church youth group this evening. Life goes on. And life goes fast. Where did those 12 years go?

Some things last longer than expected. I had to finally throw away a favourite t-shirt this morning, that I have been wearing for the past ten years (not continually, you’ll understand). I know I’ve had it for ten years because I got it on a trip to South Africa in 1999. It was the first time I had taken a group of young people out there – young people from the church youth group I was leading at the time. One of the lads (who is now a medical doctor and a fine young man, married to another doctor) bought a Quicksilver t-shirt (we were staying by a surfers beach) but then spilt blackcurrant juice all over it. So he bought another. But the juice washed out of the original, and I bought it from him and have been wearing it since. I didn’t expect it to last ten years.

We have some camping gas bottles that we have been using for 12 years. I know we got them in 1997 because we bought all our camping gear the summer before my oldest daughter was born. Those bottles have done several bible weeks, holidays in France, and local camping trips. Every time we use them we say, “Surely they’re not going to last this time – we really should get them refilled.” But, like the widows oil, they never seem to run dry.

Most things don’t last as long as we expect though. At least, it feels that life goes very fast. Eight years since 9/11. A daughter in the youth group. Former members of my youth group becoming responsible members of society.

As the Teacher puts it in Ecclesiastes, A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever.

THREE FANTASTIC WEEKENDS

2009-09-06T20:46:00.004+01:00

Grace & I think this has perhaps been our best ever summer. A wonderful holiday in France at the end of July, followed by an August in which I have been able to get lots of work done, while also enjoying lots of time with the family. And the past three weekends have been particularly good...

Two weeks ago was the Bournemouth International Air Festival. I am not a plane-spotter, but it is a great event - loads going on for all the family, a vast, good-natured crowd, and there is nothing quite like the Red Arrows. And all for free!

Last weekend was our Together At... event which felt a big step up from the previous year. 1,500 people gathered together in the New Forest, enjoying God. It was wonderful.

And then this weekend... Yesterday was the Dorset County Show, which we love - everything from giant vegetables to monster trucks to dozens of foxhounds.

Then today was Vision Sunday at Gateway, which seemed to go really well, followed by the rather funky Party in the Park at Ashley Cross.

We just feel very blessed to be living here.

Tomorrow the kids go back to school, normal life resumes, and there is much to be done. Life keeps rolling on, but we have savored these past few weeks.

Soli Deo Gloria!

BOOK REVIEW: VIRGINITY

2009-09-03T14:58:00.002+01:00

Virginity, A Positive Approach to Celibacy for the Sake of the Kingdom of Heaven by Raniero Cantalamessa

“Its too late for you!” was my wife’s comment when she saw me reading this book (or booklet really – its only 94 pages long). Indeed, reading a book on virginity written by a Roman Catholic priest might seem an odd choice for a protestant pastor with four children and a frequently expressed enthusiasm for marriage and family life. However, it is good to be broadminded!

One of my first posts on this blog was to reference a book I was reading by Cantalamessa on the Holy Spirit. He is a very good writer. Engaging and clear; succinct yet profound. I’ve had this one on the shelf for ages, and it was a spare August moment that made me pick it up and read it.

If you want to understand why the Church of Rome insists on its clergy being celibate you should read this book. Rome’s position is often ridiculed, but as is generally the case with Catholic moral theology, there is a well-reasoned and carefully nuanced explanation behind it. (After all, they’ve been thinking about this stuff for hundreds of years!) Even if you are not interested in Catholic theology and practice, Cantalamessa does have something to say on a subject we Evangelicals do not always do too well on. Because we see marriage as normal and desirable, we do not always know how to regard those who are single. We also tend to trip over those passages of scripture which seem to encourage a way of life that does not involve marriage.

Cantalamessa focuses on two of these passages – Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 19:10-12 (“There are some who choose not to marry for the sake of the kingdom of heaven”) and Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians (“The unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord’s affairs” 1 Cor 7:31-35). And he makes some very good points, following very much in the tradition of St Augustine. Some of his points are just too Catholic for me to take seriously, but the good points include these:

• To be a virgin is not something to be ashamed of, and the Church should seek to recover the use of the word in its positive sense, rather than in the negative way it is so often portrayed by the world.
• To choose celibacy is not to deny the goodness of marriage but in fact to recognize its goodness – if something is not good there is no cost in choosing not to take hold of it.
• Choosing celibacy is in some way a choosing in this life of what will be the pattern of life in the new creation, for then we will not marry (Luke 20:34-36). As Cantalamessa puts it, “I believe that it is not ontologically (that is, in itself) a more perfect state, but it is an eschatologically more advanced state, in the sense that it is more like the definitive state towards which we are journeying.”
• Christians are called not to an eternal relationship in a couple, but to an eternal relationship with God.

If you can cope with the Catholic-isms, this is a thought provoking book for both the single and married to read. Cantalamessa flags up the dangers facing Catholic clergy who are celibate and who also live singly, rather than in community (and this was written before all the child abuse scandals in the Catholic church broke). While the notion of a class of clergy who as part of their call to ministry must remain celibate is a strange one for me (thank God for Martin Luther!), this does highlight a challenge we all face in our churches – How do we build genuine community, in which both the married and single take a full part? Married people need single people, and single people need the married and families – we are meant to be mixed up together, serve one another, and learn from the different joys and sorrows we experience.

We are re-launching small groups at Gateway this month – I am not naïve enough to think this will offer a full solution, but I do sincerely pray that our Life Groups will help us form genuine community. Missional communities where young and old, male and female, single and married can together pursue their calling in Christ.

WAR

2009-09-02T08:54:00.002+01:00

70 years on from the start of the WW2.

Yesterdays various commemorations cast interesting light on the ongoing impact of the war - Germany's contrition; Russia's beligerance; the terrible suffering endured by Poland; the experience of evacuees from the East End moved out to the countryside.

When I was 17 my burning ambition was to join the Army. God then led me on a different course, and although the more I think about it the more I see the strength of the argument in favor of pacifism, there is still a large part of me that regrets never having served in the military.

A favorite Newfrontiers quote is that, "The Christian life is not like a battle. It is a battle." Guy Miller, who leads the Newfrontiers team that serves churches in the Wessex region and beyond, quoted this at our Together At event over the weekend. He also talked about his brother-in-law - a real life action hero who served in the Special Forces and died recently (you can read his obituary here).

The beginning of September always feels like the start of a battle for me. It is when church life gets fired up again after the easier pace of August. I'm preparing to preach on Sunday from Ephesians 3:8-12, setting out our plan of campaign for the next few months. Paul writes that we are to have boldness and confidence because of what Jesus has done in us. Boldness and confidence - characteristics of a good soldier.

Bring it on!

HOW SERIOUSLY DO YOU TAKE THE CHURCH?

2009-08-27T10:42:00.003+01:00

From the Calvin blog:

How is the work of Christ on behalf of the elect appropriated? Answer: by faith in the gospel. But, since we are ignorant and slothful (Calvin's words), "we need outward helps to beget and increase faith within us". These "helps" are to be found in the church. Citing Cyprian, Calvin makes (what to 21st century individualists sounds Romanesque) the statements: "for those to whom he is Father the church may also be Mother" and "there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels".

"I believe in the holy, catholic church," we affirm as we recite the Apostles' Creed, but do we really mean it? And we do so in the Creed before affirming our belief in personal salvation ("the forgiveness of sins"). Calvin's words above strike the modern evangelical as obscure at best and sacramental at worst. Twenty-first century evangelicalism knows the language of personal faith and personal quiet-times but balks at the corporate dimension of salvation and the means of grace.

And in this 21st century evangelicalism is wrong! Choosing a church is not just like choosing your favorite flavor of ice-cream; and leaving a church should not be done as lightly as switching from shopping at one supermarket to another.

So, how seriously do you take the church?

BOOK REVIEW: MOVING IN THE PROPHETIC

2009-08-27T08:45:00.000+01:00

Moving in the Prophetic by Greg Haslam

In the interests of full-disclosure I need to acknowledge that Greg is someone I know, like and admire – he is a colleague and friend. I officiated at the marriage of his eldest son, who is also someone I like and admire very much. I have preached at Greg’s church.

Reviewing a book written by a friend is different from reviewing one by a stranger.

This is a helpful book. If I have a criticism, it would be that Greg has probably written two (or even three) books here. At nearly 400 pages long this is a fairly hefty volume, and the sections on finding vision for your life and how local churches should function (chapters 9 to 13, comprising over 100 pages) could profitably have been published separately – the content of these chapters is good, but doesn’t seem to me to be tied clearly enough to the title and main thrust of the book.

OK, that quibble aside, what is good about Moving in the Prophetic?

It is thorough! Greg is well known for working through subjects methodically, and here he gives us a comprehensive survey of what the prophetic gift is and how it should function. Even if you were not to read the whole thing cover to cover, every believer would benefit from picking out the chapters and sections relevant to them.

Greg is very open – passionately open – to the Spirit of God moving among his people to release prophetic gifts, but he is also crystal clear about how prophecy needs to be properly used in the church, and how we are to avoid charismania. I would love to get this book into the hands of some of the people I’ve had dealings with over the years who have pursued prophetic cul-de-sacs and in their desire for the spectacular have failed to develop any kind of real spiritual maturity.

I also like the way Greg describes the variety of ways in which prophecy can come – through preaching, through song, through wordplay, and so on. Through it all he emphasises again and again the importance of being soaked in the Scriptures. Genuine prophecy must be firmly grounded on the infallible word of God.

Greg illustrates Moving in the Prophetic with many stories from his own experience. Some of these stories are very powerful, while many of them are very funny. They serve both to stir up a hunger to experience more of the presence of God and to warn against abuses of the prophetic gift. Greg’s own breadth of reading and cultural interests are revealed in his encouragement to those wanting to grow in the prophetic to allow their emotions to be stirred by reading authors ranging from John Donne to John Steinbeck.

This book would be invaluable for the pastor leading a church which has never experienced prophecy. It provides a theological rationale and framework for the gift, and answers many of the objections of those who claim that spiritual gifts do not operate in our day. It would also be invaluable for the individual wanting to grow in their prophetic gift – it is packed with practical insight and wisdom. The three chapters on Learning to Prophesy, Delivering a Prophetic Word and Testing a Prophetic Word are particularly good. These chapters should be required reading for anyone wanting to prophesy, and it would be very helpful if they could be published in a separate pamphlet which could be given out at church membership classes!

Greg has served the Church well with this book. Read it, and stir up the gift!

RAISING WOMEN

2009-08-26T09:35:00.001+01:00

As previously promised, Grace and I have put our heads together and come up with some thoughts about raising daughters. This article is too long to be posted here in one go, and I don't want to break it down into a series of posts, so instead the whole thing is available as a pdf here.

WONDER & WORSHIP

2009-08-25T09:37:00.003+01:00

In my role as a church elder, I sometimes get into conversations with sincere believers who have themselves tied up in knots over some aspect of theology, in a way that is ultimately unfruitful and unhelpful. These conversations tend to turn on subjects such as predestination, creation and eschatology - subjects which are too large and grand for our finite minds to fully compute. They are the things that seem to me to come under the Deuteronomy 29:29 directive that "the secret things belong to Yahweh", and there comes a point where I have to say, "I just don't know - but I choose to trust."

Calvin puts it well:

Thou seekest reason? I tremble at the depth. Reason, thou; I will marvel. Dispute, thou; I will believe. I see the depth; I do not reach the bottom.

We are meant to be led to wonder and worship, not dogmatism or doubt.

NEWDAY VID

2009-08-23T19:04:00.001+01:00

The Gateway young people loved Newday.

Here's a video they put together about it:

SCREECH ON THE BEACH

2009-08-21T11:16:00.002+01:00

Yesterdays world record firework display in Bournemouth didn't meet with universal acclaim. This from the Independent:

An explosive world record attempt came under fire today as a barge carrying fireworks appeared to blow up and burst into flames.

Around 175,000 people turned up for Roar on the Shore to see 110,000 fireworks set off in under 60 seconds from the barge between Bournemouth and Boscombe piers in Dorset last night.

But instead of rockets shooting to the skies, the event was over in about six seconds as the metal barge appeared to explode, with flames spreading across the deck.

Visitors also complained about delays of up to three hours to leave the town as the roads became gridlocked.

Oh well - I enjoyed it!

Standing at Branksome Dene (at the more civilized Poole end of things) it was fun to watch the fireworks, and then almost more entertaining to see the scores of boats head from Bournemouth across to Sandbanks for the weekly Poole fireworks - it looked like the sea was alight.

As we so often do, Grace and I went home saying, "What a fantastic place to live!"

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

2009-08-20T23:22:00.002+01:00

If you haven't yet heard it, you really must listen to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's performance at the Proms before it disappears from iPlayer. Very unusual. Very clever. Very funny.

A SHIRT OR A STATEMENT?

2009-08-20T13:33:00.001+01:00

I bought a new shirt the other day.

On the shirt hung a tag. On the tag was some text. The text said this,

In 2003 Original Penguin was recreated by a group of people who love great style and smart clothing. You, today’s style makers have evolved this legend and made it your very own. Thank you. We are proud to design collections for people with such great intellect, style and humor.

I don’t think I’ve ever been called a style maker before. Its not really my style. And how do they know that I am a style maker anyway? Purely by dint of me buying one of their shirts it would seem. But I bought it because it was cheap (the wonders of TK Maxx – “Designer labels, always up to 60% less”), and not because I thought it was a stylish thing to do. So does that mean I have style without even realizing how stylish I am? or just that I buy cheap shirts?

I’m also not sure how I have contributed to the evolution of a legend. Or made it my own. King Arthur I’ve heard of, and Robin Hood. The Loch Ness Monster, yes. And Bigfoot. I’ve never come across the legend of the penguin before though. It might be my own, but I’m not sure I feel inclined to conspiratorially pull people into the corner of my local pub, whispering, “Have you heard about the penguin?”

Its very nice to be described as having great intellect, style and humor, but in all honesty that’s probably only something my wife would say about me, and then only on very special occasions. I wonder how wearing a particular shirt demonstrates great intellect? I don’t think there is a copy of Aristotle or the Critique of Pure Reason sewn into the fabric – the “slim shoulder and lean through waist” design doesn’t allow much space for weighty works of philosophy anyway.

Perhaps they know it takes a sense of humor to be able to buy a shirt with just such a tag hung on it. Ha! A knowing, ironic joke – “Isn’t it funny that we write this drivel – it shows how funny (knowing, ironic) you are to understand what we are doing!” But somehow, while they are being funny, I don’t think they mean to be.

In a grown up world all such spiel would be considered a criminal offence.

I quite like the shirt though.

BOOK REVIEW: UNDERSTANDING THE BOOK OF MORMON

2009-08-15T21:39:00.003+01:00

Understanding the Book of Mormon by Ross Anderson

First a gripe. This book is subtitled “A quick Christian guide to the Mormon holy book” which indicates that it is going to be fairly short, but when I part with £10 ($14.99 for American readers) I rather expect Amazon to deliver something of reasonable thickness. This is tiny! More of a booklet than a book really. The content is good, but the price is steep.

So, what of the content?

Anderson was raised a Mormon, before converting to historic Christianity, and since 1983 has been pastor of a church in Utah. There are quotes from Anderson’s family members who are still Later-day Saints, and he states that he got LDS readers to check some of the chapters before publication. His aim throughout is to be non-confrontational, so if you are looking for polemic this is not the place to come.

A few months back I had a couple of LDS missionaries on the doorstep and found my conversation with them to be stimulating, frustrating and confusing in equal measure. I’m afraid I was not at all points as irenic as Anderson, partly because at the time I was preaching through 1 John, with its rather curt warnings against those who separate from true faith in Christ. It was a difficult discussion to pursue because it felt like my interlocutors tried to appropriate any claim I made for the unique claims of Christianity, saying, “We believe that too.” It was also difficult simply because I did not know enough about the Book of Mormon.

Although it is short, this book does a good job of explaining the history and significance of the Mormon scriptures. And while Anderson works hard to remain respectful, it is difficult not to read this without a growing sense that the beliefs of the LDS are simply ridiculous. Joseph Smith and his writings are so clearly the product of the cultural milieu of America in the 19th century that any claims for divine inspiration are risible. An imaginative young man with a family history of folk magic came up with a story that made Native Americans the lost tribes of Israel and the USA the true Promised Land. Many Americans (of many creeds) have, in their search for identity, tried to capture links to the past that their young nation can actually never claim (at least not in a way that doesn’t feel faintly embarrassing to a European). In this vein Smith created an ideology that gave Mormons historical integrity. He told a story that connected the New World with the Old, and actually demonstrated its superiority. He told a story of how a disparate people could become one people with a common culture. He gave birth to one of the great sects of Christianity – close enough to the truth to make it difficult to debate with the new religions missionaries, but far, far distant from the real thing.

Anderson gently unpicks inconsistencies in Smith’s story and translation. He demonstrates the contradictions between the Book of Mormon and other LDS scriptures. And he shows the lack of archaeological evidence for Mormon claims that the ancient civilizations of Mexico owe their origin to wandering Israelites.

Next time some Mormon’s come calling I will be better prepared to dialogue with them, and must thank Anderson for that. That probably makes his book worth the money; but as the LDS don’t come by that often it’s a close run thing…

PATRIOT OR TRAITOR?

2009-08-14T15:01:00.002+01:00

The top story on the BBC website at the moment is this one titled, NHS attack by MEP 'unpatriotic'

The fact that the NHS has become part of the political argument in the USA about health care has created a furore, and it is the hottest of hot political potatoes on this side of the pond. I personally feel there are good arguments to be made both for the NHS as it currently stands and against how it currently stands. I think there should be space for this debate, and not the immediate terror that strikes British politicians when one of them dares to break ranks and question health care orthodoxy.

Above all, it strikes me as bizarre when an MEP is described as being 'unpatriotic' for criticizing the NHS in another country. Someone who is unpatriotic is unconcerned about their nations well being and reputation, which is clearly (whatever you think of him) not the case with Daniel Hannan MEP. It could be described as unpatriotic to undermine a key institution of government, such as the House of Commons - oh whoops, quite a few MPs who have been doing that...! But unpatriotic to criticize a health care system? I don't think so.

I tend to stick by the old adage, that sacred cows should be slaughtered, and talking about the NHS has become one of those cows. There seems to be the same kind of entrenched defensiveness of the NHS that there once was of the Established Church. And I do not think that is patriotic, but undemocratic and blinkered. Let's have the debate. At the least, it would make politics more interesting if the main parties actually disagreed on something important.

BOOK REVIEW: THE FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM

2009-08-12T15:35:00.005+01:00

The Five Points of Calvinism Defined, Defended and Documented by D.N. Steele and others

Last Sunday I had a fascinating conversation with two Muslims who came to church. Very quickly we got to the nub of the matter – how can you be confident of salvation? For my new friends it was a matter of works righteousness, seeking to obey the Koran and hadith as closely as possible. “How then,” I asked them, “can you ever be sure that you have obeyed sufficiently for a righteous God to accept you?” They seemed to agree that I had a point.

In the end, the distinction between all true and false religion is this – How can you be accepted by God? True religion answers, “In Christ and his righteousness alone! It is not my works that save me, but his.” The sad thing is how often what would label itself as “Christian” in reality holds no better promise than the claims of Islam. Too often the answer given to the question, How can you be accepted by God? is, “By being good.”

The point is, you can never be good enough. Only Jesus is.

The Five Points of Calvinism is a classic. First published in 1963 it was updated in 2004 and sets out the true gospel of salvation by the grace of God alone. For those who think of Calvinism as a narrow, disputatious, and unpleasant creed, this book describes a kinder, gentler Calvinism. It explains how Calvinism predates John Calvin himself, and how it represents the good news of Jesus Christ – a gospel that means we can be accepted by God despite our failings, and never by our efforts, but only by the saving work of Christ.

The first section of the book sets out to define what Calvinism is, and how it differs from the great competing theology of Arminianism.

The second section moves from definition to defence, explaining the ‘five points of Calvinism’. The explanation given for each point is very brief, but accompanied by copious examples from scripture.

The third section is a wonderful annotated biography of recommended reading on the subject of Calvinism.

These three sections are very helpful as reference material. The first two are worth reading word for word (which won’t take long) and the third is a great starting point if you want to investigate these truths more thoroughly.

In many ways the Appendices at the back of the book are its most useful feature. These set out some of the practical implications of Calvinism, and would all repay study. One of the appendices is an excerpt from Spurgeons biography, which displays good Calvinist humour:

I recollect an Arminian brother telling me that that he had read the Scriptures through a score or more times, and could never find the doctrine of election in them. He added that he was sure he would have done so had it been there, for he read the word on his knees. I said to him, “I think you read the Bible in a very uncomfortable posture, and if you had read it in your easy chair, you would have been more likely to understand it.”

If you have never read anything about Calvin or Calvinism, in this year, the 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth, you could do a lot worse than start with this book. And if you already convinced of the doctrines of grace, The Five Points is an essential reference tool for your shelves.

MORE ART

2009-08-08T18:17:00.003+01:00

Here is a report in our local paper about the none too enthusiastic response to Poole's latest piece of civic art, which I posted about the other day.

I am thinking about organizing a "Poole Plinth Party" when we get people to stand on it, Trafalgar Square style and get the local media along to report. Anyone up for some performance art?