NBC Pastoral Letter December 2010

I think I have mentioned before in this letter Michael Wenham’s excellent book My Donkey Body, which tells his own story as an Anglican vicar coming to terms with a diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease.

This year he has published a second book, I Choose Everything. This is jointly written with Jozanne Moss, whom he has been corresponding with by e-mail. Jozanne is South African, and also has Motor Neurone Disease. The book tells her story of the onset and diagnosis of the disease, as well as living with it. It is interspersed with Michael’s theological reflections on her experiences. It is another brilliant book, and I would highly recommend them, especially if you’re thinking about Christmas presents! Neither of them are cheerful reads on one level, as MND is not a cheerful disease. However, for both Michael and Jozanne, their vibrant faith in God shines through.

I follow Michael’s blog at http://mydonkeybody.blogspot.com/ and this is a brilliantly thoughtful and everyday blog, which often encourages me to reflect deeply. Last week he posted an update from Jozanne, which gives something of the flavour of her faith:

“Since my last mail, I have regressed considerably. I am no longer able to use my computer and spend most of my days in bed. My body is weak and my breathing is very shallow. I have lost most of my muscle mass and probably weigh between 35 & 40 kg's. I am on a 4 hourly dosage of morphine which brings me great relief from the pain I have been experiencing in my neck and shoulders. I am not able to eat anymore due to the weakened muscles in my mouth and swallowing process. I take all my feeds through a tube in my stomach. I am completely paralysed and I am grateful for the two full-time caregivers that assist me during the day and for [my husband] Dave who helps me at night.                                                                                                                                         

“My greatest challenge now is speech and communication. This is very frustrating for me because I can no longer verbalise any words. It is difficult for me to express how I feel or what I need and also for those around me to understand what I am trying to say. We do seem to find ways around this but with much difficulty and effort.

“Despite all these challenges God has been so faithful to us. He daily gives me the strength to carry on, but not just that, He fills my life with joy as He reveals Himself to me more and more everyday....”

Sometimes in the midst of our hectic preparations and celebrations of Christmas we forget to be thankful to God for our life, faith and health. We sometimes forget those who are having a more difficult time. Our society tends to devalue those who are not fully able bodied and of sound mind. But each one of us has intrinsic value in God’s sight, because he made us, he loves us, and he sent Jesus into the world to save us.

This Christmas, do think if there is someone that you can encourage with Christ’s love.

Also, don’t forget to invite your friends and family to the Christmas services, especially our ‘Christingle’ service on December 12 at 5.00 pm, which is a new venture for us this year!

God bless,

Nik

Barbers and sex

Just had an interesting, and slightly amusing conversation with my barber, who had clearly forgotten my job! It went rather like this...


Barber: Not working today?
Me: I'm the minister at the baptist church, have flexible hours and will be working at a meeting tonight...
B: Well, sorry to keep you waiting.
M: Not at all! In fact I was just reading a book.
B: Oh, what were you reading?
M: Ah, it was a book about sex actually.
B: (clearly flummoxed) Oh!
M: By an American guy called Rob Bell. Really good, goes into the deeper meaning of all kinds of things about sex and desire.
B: Quite deep, eh?
M: Yeah.
B: Don't expect to find a minister reading a book about sex!
M: Oh, it's great. It's called Sex God.
B: (recovering) Oh, that's what the Mrs calls me!

One little step along the way!

(It is a great book, by the way. Here's the Amazon link.)

Pastoral Letter November 2010

The weekend of October 15-17 was a very special occasion in the life of NBC as members of the congregation of all ages and backgrounds came together for the Church Weekend Away at Bawtry Hall near Doncaster.

The youngest was aged 1 and the oldest had experience of many years of life and church life! It was absolutely fantastic to see teenagers playing games with people who were old enough to be their grandparents. There was a wonderful sense of church family together, as we ate together, played together, worshipped together and learnt together.

Adrian Argile, the Heart of England Baptist Association Regional Minister, was our main speaker. He led us in a series of studies looking at what mission means to us as individuals and as a church.

The children’s work was led by Ian and Elaine Coules, who are incredibly gifted at presenting the reality of a living relationship with Jesus in an age appropriate way.

Our worship was led by Julian and Lynn Eaton, assisted by our own Si and Stephen Bennett, who helped us to express our worship to God, with new songs and old.

Big thanks must go to Hazel for all her hard work in organising the weekend away. It was a brilliant location, great food (and plenty of it!) and just so special to spend so much time away together. I’m sure the next one will be even better!

Another important occasion was our Special Church Meeting on October 19. In our Baptist understanding of the church, we are not governed by diktats from ‘higher up’ or by councils. Instead, we believe that we test God’s will for our congregation in the church meeting. Each member should come to the meeting in an attitude of prayer and worship, to hear from one another and from God. Then together we test what God’s will is. Often we work for consensus. Sometimes it is necessary to take a formal vote, as on this occasion. The church meeting resolved (by 33 votes to 5 or 86.8%) to begin to market our present site and buildings.

We do not yet have a firm plan of where to go next. However, we believe that it is now clear that our current buildings are not fit for purpose, and that we cannot rebuild on this site. We therefore need to be freed from our present buildings, and have a clearer idea of what our financial resources are, as we explore various possibilities to lease or to buy. We need to continue to pray for God’s guidance and direction, and be sensitive to those who dissented from the majority in good conscience.

Our God will not abandon us, but he will stretch us and allow our faith to grow. We must keep faith with him as he leads us into his future.

God bless,

Nik

NBC Pastoral Letter October 2010

The summer gives us a chance to relax a bit and enjoy God’s creation. With fewer church meetings during August, and possibilities of time off work, we can take the chance to rest and restore. For us as a family August works well for this, having two school-aged children. Before we had kids we used to holiday in June or October.

This summer we went once again to the New Wine summer conference in Shepton Mallet. We had a brilliant time this year – the weather was very kind! This year more people came from NBC than last year, and we had a good opportunity to get to know one another better.

Some of the group were working (helping with kids’ work), but you only have to ask them if they enjoyed New Wine and their faces light up! Indeed, one of the group that wasn’t working this year is keen to work next year! 

We had great teaching from a whole variety of different speakers – I was particularly encouraged and challenged listening to Henry Orombi, the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda. We had lots of opportunities to receive prayer, and indeed one of the group experienced God’s healing during a ministry time, and continuing after. We’ll be having a meeting later in the Autumn for anyone who’s interested in going to New Wine next year.

At the end of August we spent two weeks in the Loire Valley region of France, near Saumur. It was very relaxing, most of us managing to swim, cycle and climb trees (guess who wussed out on the high wire climbing!) We also managed a few visits to Chateaux and vineyards (not just new wine, this time!)

One thing that God was reminding me at New Wine and, indeed, during devotional time on holiday was that God has created me to be me, not somebody else. It is when I am not trying to be somebody else that God is most able to use for his purposes and for his glory.

This is something that each of us needs to remember. God has created each one of us uniquely. He has given us gifts and experiences, strengths and weaknesses that no-one else in the world has. He calls us to use those gifts and experiences in the place that he has put us, at the time he has chosen. He is able to use each one of us to further his kingdom if we remain open to his voice and the working of his Spirit.

This is Augustine’s prayer to the Holy Spirit, which you might want to make your own:

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit,
that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit,
that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit,
that I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit,
to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit,
that I always may be holy. Amen.

NBC Pastoral Letter August 2010

In the past couple of months I’ve been reading and listening to RT Kendall on forgiveness. In his book Total Forgiveness he suggests several reasons for forgiving, as well as ways of knowing that you have forgiven someone.

I think this is really important teaching for the church to take on board, so I would highly recommend buying the book and reading it for yourself, but my first sermon after the summer break will focus in on the story of Joseph and his brothers and the need for total forgiveness.

Perhaps the most compelling reason to forgive other people, whether they have hurt us deliberately or unintentionally, is that God the Father has forgiven us. God knows all the things that we have ever done, said or thought – each thing that has hurt him, and that the Bible calls sin. But in his great mercy, God does not punish us, he lets us off the hook. He gives us forgiveness because Jesus died on the cross. So God tells us to forgive others to the same measure that he has forgiven us – totally.

One of the signs that we have forgiven someone totally is that we don’t tell anyone about what the other person has done for us. It is so tempting when someone has hurt to let everybody know how much we have been hurt. But this is not God’s standard of total forgiveness. Now, it may be that we need to tell one other person, whom we know will not tell anyone else, for therapeutic reasons. it may be that the person has done something which is a crime, and we need to give evidence against them in court. Apart from that, we should keep silent. And that doesn’t mean we say “so-and-so has hurt me terribly, but I can’t tell you what they’ve done.” That’s almost worse than spilling the beans completely.

In his letter, James writes about the dangers of talking too much. “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3.5-6) A stark warning to us.

There is much more that RT says in his book, and I shall share a bit more of it in September. Maybe you could use any quiet moments that August provides to reflect on people that have hurt you in the past, and whether you have totally forgiven them. We cannot do this in our own strength, but only in the strength that God provides.

God bless,

Nik

NBC Pastoral Letter July 2010

Sometimes people say to me that they know all that there is to know about what the Bible has to say to so us, and that they would really rather that I didn’t keep banging on about how important personal Bible reading is, and the opening and preaching from God’s Word that is such an important part of our worship.

Of course, Jesus calls us to be his disciples, his followers. He calls us to a pattern of what in the modern idiom would be called life-long learning. Paul refers to this also in his letter when he refers to us pressing on towards the goal. “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3.12

The truth that God always has more to teach us from his word was evident once again to me last week, as I was reflecting on that phrase that became the focus of my sermon: “Through many hardships we must enter the kingdom of God.” I was drawn to the story of Jacob, a story which I know very well having grown up in a Baptist church Sunday school, and then having attended churches which faithfully preach from the Bible throughout my teenaged years. This year marks twenty years since I myself first began preaching, and my very first sermon, appropriately enough, was on a text from Genesis.

Yet it is only in 2010 that God has shown me a deeper truth about Jacob. He wrestles all night with God because he desires God’s blessing. He knows that to be blessed by God is the most awesome thing in the universe. It is the thing to be most prized and desired. Yet the path to it may be intensely difficult. The Sunday School FlannelGraphTM (ask your parents, kids!) did not quite convey the impression of this beaten up, scruffy, crippled man, as he staggered away from Jabbok that morning. As he went to be reunited with his wives and children. As he went to be reconciled with his brother, whom he had not seen for years, he was a physical wreck!

Yet God had blessed him! It is a mighty thing to ask for God’s blessing, but we can be sure that God will always bless us for our good.

Not sure if I should sign this letter off with ‘God bless’!

Nik

NBC Pastoral Letter June 2010

At the recent New Wine leadership conference I attended there was some discussion on the place of faith, particularly in reference to Jesus’ statement about faith being able to move mountains. You may well have heard people talking about this faith as though it is something that must be mustered up, and if we have enough faith, then we will see amazing miracles and healings. Adrian Plass satirised this in his novels by having the main character attempt to move a paper clip by faith!

Well, that’s not what the text says. Jesus says, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17.21)

The key is ‘faith as small as a mustard seed’. The context is that of the disciples’ failure to cast out demons. What Jesus says is that it is not a matter of how much faith you have, whether that be a kind of super-faith or even faith in faith itself, but faith in God. It is faith in God that will move mountains, even if that faith is as small as a mustard seed. For it is God who moves and acts according to his will, not in accordance to how much faith we can somehow summon up.

True faith in God is trusting in the person of Christ with the whole person, heart, soul and strength.

Sometimes we are disappointed that God does not act in the way that we expect him to. He does not always work healing when we expect him to. We hear some amazing testimonies of people experiencing God’s healing and yet we do not see it in our own lives. This was the case even in the New Testament. Not all the lepers in Israel were healed by Jesus. Timothy continued to have a problem with his stomach. Paul had problems with his eyesight. Epaphroditus does not appear to be healed.

Unfortunately sickness and death are part of our present world, a world that is marked by its rebellion and rejection of God’s authority in human lives. And yet… we do see some elements of the age to come breaking into the present age as we taste something of God’s healing and blessing in our present lives. None of this is related to the strength of our faith, but to our faith in the strength of God himself.

If you’re interested in joining us at New Wine in Shepton Mallet for the Central and South West conference, then go to www.new-wine.org/summer10. There are half week tickets available at www.new-wine.og/halfweek and you can find details of joining the team at www.new-wine.org/summer/Teams.htm. There are spaces for children’s work, youth work (except 13-14 age group), Site Crew, Stewarding, Hospitality, Projection at N&E, Medical, Our Place and more! Serving on team is a brilliant way to grow as a Christian and to go to the conference for free!

God bless,

Nik

NBC Pastoral Letter

You can, I suspect, hardly have failed to notice that the General Election is scheduled for May 6. In the following weeks a new Parliament and a new Government of one sort or another will take shape. A post-WWII record of nearly 150 MPs are retiring. Change is certain, what is not certain is what that change will bring.

Christians often lament the way in which Britain no longer seems to be a Christian country, and is letting go of its Christian heritage. This may well be true, but it is also not the first time such laments have been heard.

William Wilberforce, a former MP for Yorkshire, is perhaps most famous for his indefatigable role in bringing to an end the slave trade. After he was elected as an MP in 1784 he became a Christian in 1785. This brought a complete transformation in his life – he had been mainly interested in having fun and high living, but his conversion awakened him to other concerns such as poor working conditions, immorality and inequalities. He famously called for a “Reformation of manners”, and explored a whole variety of ways to do this.

Ultimately Wilberforce realised that whilst the State had a role in restraining evil, it was not very good at promoting good. He knew that a reformation of manners would only truly come about as people turned to Christ.

In these coming weeks as we look at the role of the Holy Spirit in the believer and in the church, we are reminded again and again that it is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that changes us from self-centred people to people, filled with the Spirit, who consider the needs of others before our own. This is the reformation that we need, and the reformation that society needs.

We cannot make it more Christian by legislation or censorship, the only way to make it more Christian is to introduce more people to Christ, and the life-changing work of the Holy Spirit.

God bless,