Sometimes life takes on an impetus that means you just hang on and go where it takes you. This year we have managed to accommodate two staff sabbatical absences. I was on sabbatical from September to December; Stuart has been finishing his PhD and has taken three days most weeks since January, and is almost at the home straight with a target date of end July.
This has meant that all of us have been lifting and laying our own tasks and those of others - called team work. But Joyce and Ian are the two constants, with Stuart and I the beneficiaries.
It's been a good year. Two of our students finish - Gordon Jones' has been unanimously called as pastor to Gourock Baptist Church, and will be ordained and inducted on June 30th. Peter Dick is also completing his studies and actively seeking pastoral settlement. All our full time students have completed their year and our part time and modular students their chosen modules.
We are all thankful. Which is why we have a Thanksgiving Service! You are very welcome to come, on June 18, at 7.30 p.m. in Central Baptist Church, Paisley. It will be a service of worship, of celebration of work well done and ministries strengthened, there will be prayer for our finishing students, and a report of the year. As always, we have a guest preacher, and this year we are looking forward to the ministry of the Rev Brian More, Senior Pastor at Newton Mearns Baptist Church. Brian is a past student of the College, and one whose ongoing academic work has focused on Anabaptist theology and history.
Hope you can come, and if you do, looking forward to meeting you.
Baptists have a great attachment to the Bible. This is a historical commitment rooted in our beginnings in the Reformation which recovered the importance of the Bible. I’m not sure I would go as far as Alister McGrath who says, “If the reformers dethroned the pope, they enthroned Scripture,” but you get the idea. But our reverence for the Bible, our ambition to live under its teaching and authority has meant that Baptists sometimes fight over the Bible. Why is this?
Last week I was in Cardiff at the South Wales Baptist College to be part of a conversation among Baptist teachers from the UK, Europe and the USA about how Baptists have in the past, do in the present and should according to our founding principles, interpret the Bible. We do not believe there is an utterly unique approach to the Bible that Baptist alone have access to, but the Baptist vision of faith is very Scripture oriented and this is worth exploring. We were agreed that the authority of Scripture is fundamental for Baptists yet what this authority means and how it works in practice often differs from person to person and place to place. The majority of Baptists prefer to speak of the trustworthiness and reliability of Scripture rather than its inerrancy or infallibility. We do not worship the Bible, we worship the God who is revealed in and through the Bible.
So, over a couple of days we discussed a series of questions and proposals that each of us had prepared about the way Baptists understand and use the Bible. For example, how do Baptists study the Bible in home groups, and how we can improve our practice of “searching the Scriptures.” We considered the issue of how the community to which we belong shapes our interpretation of the Bible. We looked at how our devotion to Christ is both the reason for reading Scripture and also the lens through which we understand the meaning of the Bible. We discovered how some of our Baptist forefathers made major contributions to biblical studies, especially in regard to the Old Testament. We asked, what is the future for a biblically formed church when our culture is inherently suspicious of the authority of the text. And there was more.
The colloquium was a step toward the production of a book that will be published early in 2010. I will write again over the next few weeks in more detail about some of the topics we discussed as a taster for the full meal to be served at a later date.
Our lecturer in Biblical Studies, Ian Birch, has recently had an article published in the South African Baptist Journal. It is a study of Conflict in relation to 3 John. One of our churches has already used it as basis for study among their leadership. It is available at our College Website, under Research Papers HERE as a PDF file.
At present staff are marking final pieces of work from last semester and are now preparing an planning for the new semester beginning early February.
A number of our third and fourth year students are already on Placement in Work Based Learning situations in a number of churches throughout Scotland and actually also down South.
In these placement situations they will seek to meet agreed learning statements reflecting upon practice, writing journals, and carrying out projects on a wide range of subjects ranging from various issues of leadership, preaching and young people, the dynamics of different sizes of churches.
Last night was the inaugural meeting of the Scottish Baptist Theological Society, held at Newton Mearns Baptist Church. This is neither a College nor Baptist Union "thing". It will be an informal and open society where Scottish Baptists can meet together to explore who we are and why we are. We agreed several Values that are intended to shape the ethos of shared faith and trustful exploration together.
The inaugural lecture was given by Dr Stephen Holmes. lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of St Andrews: A Baptist View of the Authority of Scripture. Amongst all Evangelicals the Bible holds an honoured and unrivalled place as the source of authority in matters of faith and practice. Numerous confessions of faith begin with statements which affirm the Bible as the supreme, absolute and sole authority. Linked to this high view of Scripture authority, is the further conviction amongst Evangelicals that Scripture is clear, plain and can be read by all who humbly seek the will of God in Scripture. From the least tutored to the textual expert, the Scripture is given as gift of grace to lead, guide and teach the Church.
British Baptists however have a particular way of understanding the authority of Scripture, as clearly set out in our Declaration of Principle.
That the Lord Jesus Christ our God and Saviour is the sole and absolute Authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each Church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His laws.
From this nuanced and profound statement, Dr Holmes explored "the Scripture Principle" from a Baptist perspective, and indicated the quite specific emphases of a Baptist theology of Scripture.
The Bible is interpreted within the Church, in a process of community discernment, as in prayer, with open Bible, gathered in the presence and the name of Jesus, the Church meets to discern the mind of Christ.
The guidance of the Holy Spirit is an essential assumption in how Christians are enabled to read and interpret this gift of grace called Scripture; the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness to Christ in Scripture.
In such a process of discernment, prayer and shared seeking of the way of Christ, each local Church is a complete competent Church under Christ, to interpret and administer "His laws". Such a dynamic nexus of people, word and Spirit, means that Scripture is there to be obeyed as its truth is brought home to the heart.
However the first statement of the Declaration qualifies significantly the nature of Scriptural authority. Uniquely amongst Evangelical statements of faith, Baptists place the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutised predicates such as "supreme", "sole" and "absolute", refer to Christ in the first instance. Known as the Christological hermeneutic this means that for Baptists the authority of the Bible derives from the final and sole Authority of Christ "as revealed in the Holy Scriptures". Dr Holmes was careful not to set Scripture and Christ over and against each other. Rather, Scripture is to be seen as the uniquely authoritative means, in sacramental terms, a means of grace through which access is given to Christ. Thus through the text of Scripture the truth of Christ is given, spoken, revealed, so that the Holy Scriptures do more than ,merely facilitate encounter - they bear witness to the One who is encountered, in unique, historically rooted, divinely given documents whose text becomes transforative, quick and powerful in their impact on those who seek in them the truth of God in Christ.
Now all that is my summary of Steve's lecture. I hope I haven't misrepresented or misquoted him. Please feel free to correct or comment Steve. This lecture was rich in historical reference, and rooted Baptist theology in its own origins and articulated Confessions, while tracing trajectories through the Reformation and into the period the the Early Church Fathers. It also drew upon insights and experience from the wider Evangelical tradition, and had a good balance of Baptist affirmation and self-criticism. This isn't a matter of academic debate, but goes to the very core of baptist faith and practice, and is an important ongoing discussion as together we seek to discern the mind of Christ in each Church and in our fellowship together under Christ.
The discussion afterwards picked up several key points, some of which may well be ideas for following up in later meetings.
Came across this news item on aol a couple of weeks ago. Got me thinking.
An "age of paranoia is dawning at the start of the 21st century,
according to a leading psychiatrist. Dr Daniel Freeman, from the
Institute of Psychiatry at King's College
London, has spent a decade conducting pioneering research into paranoia
and believes one in four people regularly suffer irrational fears of
being threatened or in danger.
Paranoia is far more common among the general
public than had previously been suspected, and on the increase due to
the media and the threat of terrorism, he claims.
"These days, we daren't let our children play outside; we're suspicious
of strangers; security cameras are everywhere. We seem to have entered
an age of paranoia. And the indications are that things may only get
worse."
Dr Freeman, who recently developed a "virtual
reality" method of diagnosing paranoia, believes a combination of
factors has helped to create an "era of suspiciousness". One is the
increasing number of people living in cities. For the first time, 2008
has seen urban populations in the world outnumber rural.
In 1800, just 5% of people around the world
were city-dwellers. By 2030, this figure is expected to have risen to
65%. Rates of paranoia are known to be twice as high in cities than in
rural communities, said Dr Freeman.
"Social bonds are much looser in cities than in
smaller, rural communities where ready-made, relatively stable support
networks exist," he pointed out. "Social isolation, a frequent drawback
to urban life, is closely associated with paranoid thoughts. In the UK,
nearly four times as many people live alone as fifty years ago.
Increasing paranoia is certainly one more challenge posed by galloping
urbanisation."
Public perceptions of crime and terrorism also
contributed to an atmosphere of paranoia, said Dr Freeman. He
criticised the media for hyping up these threats and adopting an "if it
bleeds, it leads" attitude to coverage.
"Every age has its bogeymen, and ours includes
terrorists, hoodies and paedophiles, but the amount of coverage they
receive in both tabloids and broadsheets greatly outweighs coverage of
our real killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and road accidents,"
said Dr Freeman.
Dr Freeman said: "Dealing with paranoia at an
individual level is relatively straightforward. But if we are really to
get to the root of the problem, we need urgent action at a wider level.
We need a range of policies to raise public awareness of paranoia, to
train therapists and tackle the effects of potentially damaging social
and economic trends."
Now. If half of what Dr Freeman says is true in the experience of our
contemporaries, what are the implications for Good News telling?
In
preaching the Gospel of God's coming amongst us in His Son, in
proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus as the revelation and
demonstration of God's mighty love, perhaps the problem people are
feeling most is not guilt, or meaninglessness, but fear - paranoia, a
loss of trust in others, anxiety about the future, a loss of
hopefulness about their own future.
"Every
age has its bogeymen" says Dr Freedman. Quite so says Paul, and answers
it in Romans 8.38-39. There's a Gospel text for today if ever there was
one. I'm thinking about a series of sermons on 'Every age has its
bogeymen - but the Good News is....".
Oh,
and by the way. Note the connection Dr Freedman makes between
urbanisation and paranoia, between city living and the isolation and
vulnerability that has become an emotional epidemic. Such clues to the
human condition in the 21st century are perhaps as important pointers
to the Church searching for relevance as the current reconfigurations
of ecclesiology. If Christ has brought the powers under subjection,
what would that look like as the Church lives out the Gospel in the
great cities and sprawling connurbations? And how do we develop a
vocabulary of reassurance in an age of paranoia, without that
reassurance sounding like scared Christians whistling in the dark?
It's here. Just received in the post my copies of the most recent Regent Study Guide entitled Under the Rule of Christ. Dimensions of Baptist Spirituality, Paul Fiddes (Ed.), Smyth
and Helwys, 2008 (ISBN: 978-095397 - 4-1). The book arose out of a
request from the Baptist Union Retreat Group to the UK College
Principals to write something on spirituality amongst Baptists. The
result was a series of papers which we wrote, reviewed together,
revised in the light of our discussions, and then offered for
publication.
Here's the blurb from the publisher
In this book the Principals of the six Baptist colleges in Great
Britain take up a request to write about Baptist spirituality. They
propose that the spirituality of Baptists, in all its diversity, is
characterized by living ‘under the rule of Christ’. While all Christian
spiritual traditions affirm this truth, they suggest that there is a
particular sense of being under Christ’s rule which has been shaped by
the story of Baptists and by their way of being church through the
centuries. Elaborating the main theme, chapters explore various
dimensions of spirituality: giving attention to God and to others,
developing spirituality through suffering, having spiritual liberty
within a community, living under the rule of the Word in Christ and
scripture, integrating the Lord’s Supper with the whole of life, and
engaging in the mission of God from an experience of grace. Together,
the writers present an understanding of prayer and life in which Christ
is both the final authority and the
measure of all things.
Chris Ellis is Principal Emeritus of Bristol Baptist College; Paul Fiddes is Principal of Regent’s Park College, Oxford; Steven Finamore is Principal of Bristol Baptist College; James Gordon is Principal of the Scottish Baptist College, Glasgow; Richard Kidd is Principal of Northern Baptist College, Manchester; John Weaver is Principal of the South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff; Nigel Wright is Principal of Spurgeon’s Baptist College, London.
My
own chapter "Spirituality and Scripture: the Rule of the Word" is an
exploration of how Baptists live with the theological tensions inherent
in the Baptist declaration of Principle. That tension is both vital and
creative, and calls us as Baptists to live in that dynamic place of
personal trust, seeking to reconcile in obedient discipleship, faith as
personal encounter with and commitment to "Christ as the sole and
absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice"
while at the same time holding to Scripture with a faithfulness that
takes just as seriously the crucial qualifier "as revealed in Holy
Scripture".
Later this year, on November 27 at Newton Mearns
Baptist Church, the Rev Dr Stephen Holmes, Lecturer in Systematic
Theology at the University of St Andrews, will deliver the inaugural
lecture of the Scottish Baptist Theological Study Group. The lecture
will be on "Baptists and the Authority of Scripture", and Steve will
approach the subject as a Baptist theologian, deeply evangelical in
conviction, and from a personal perspective that is both pastoral and
academic. In a postmodern context impatient with authority claims,
dismissive of denominational loyalty as unnecessarily limited in
perspective, in an overall situation of church decline and loss of
theological confidence, conviction is more than ever an essential
component of identity.
How Baptists interpret the Bible indicates how Baptists use the Bible.
And if we think at all about that sentence then we should be more than
a little uneasy with that word "use". The nature of the authority under
which we seek to faithfully follow after Christ is of the first
theological importance, and for that reason can become an issue of
personal and at times rancorous disagreement. But for Baptists there is
an underlying spirituality that arises out of what we have historically
called Baptist Principles. Central to these is the person and place of
Jesus Christ.
We
love and serve the crucified, risen and coming Christ who is living and
present in the Church which is His body. We seek together to discern
the mind of Christ, as a fellowship of believers, a gathered and
covenanted community, and as such a complete Church because Christ is
present in its gathering. It is in this process of seeking the mind of
Christ that we regularly gather, assuming His promised presence in our
gathering, trusting the superintendence of the Holy Spirit who moving
amongst and within our hearts interprets the truth of Christ, and with
mind and heart open and obedient to Scripture as it is opened, read and
pondered, so that in this dynamic force field of divine initiative,
human longing, shared learning and redemptive love, we seek to follow
after the One who always goes before us, beckoning us to follow.
The
"church meeting" is, therefore, in all actuality and with deliberate
intent, the Church meeting its Lord - nothing less than that level of
reality and truthfulness does justice to the principles by which as
Baptists, we claim to live. A Baptist hermeneutic of Scripture, worked
out in such a spiritually dynamic and communally discerning context, is
something quite different from many other models based on different
theological principles; amongst other things, it is such an hermeneutic
that entitles us ever to use the word radical for the Baptist way of
being the Church. Indeed the word radical is rendered semantically
redundant wherever Baptist identity issues in the faithful and
principled practice of Christ-centred community living.
Amongst the Scripture stories that inform how as Baptist we might 'use'
Scripture, is the account of the disciples on the way to Emmaus. The
risen Christ, drawing near, opens the Scripture, patiently and with
persistent authority - then in the breaking of bread, their eyes are
opened. The words of Christ about opened Scripture, and the shared meal
of broken bread, impel hesitant faith towards recognition, and trustful
joy towards an unknown but accompanied future. This Malaysian Icon
captures the surprise on the two disciples' faces - the place of
fellowship, where, in the presence of the risen Christ,
Scripture is opened and bread is broken, becomes the place of
recognition and revelation; the place too, where all our assumptions
about our lives and possible futures are radically revised by each
encounter with the One who goes before us, lovingly daring us to follow.
Yesterday I attended the Thanksgiving service for the life of Dr Ted Herbert, Vice Principal of International Christian College. The service expressed some of the deepest realities of Christian faith - hope through Jesus Christ, gratitude for a life so fully and fruitfully lived, celebration of a life given to the service of Christ and His Church, and a recognition of the loss and sorrow that inevitably accompanies the death of someone so deeply loved and widely held in high esteem.
We learned much about this loveable and energetic man. His friend from student days spoke of Ted's integrity, ability to bring people together, unpretentious enthusiasm for learning and his obvious but never ostentatious intellectual gifts. Dr Tony Sargent described Ted as a cedar of Lebanon - tall, straight, and life enhancing and life giving. The personal relationship between himself and Ted was shared movingly and with a great sense of affection and of the co-operative partnership they had shared in the work of ICC and in wider theological education.
While the service affirmed the hope of the Gospel and something of the deep gratitude to God Ted had himself expressed during the weeks of his illness, the service nevertheless held the important balance between gratitude and hope filled faith, and the personal sense of loss that follows Ted's death, particularly for his family and colleagues. Glory tinged with sadness, and sadness suffused with the hope of glory.
On discovering the seriousness of his illness, Ted made it clear from the outset that he would live his final weeks as he had lived his life, - trusting in God for strength, depending on the grace that is sufficient, living gratefully and joyfully out of the faith that so animated and vitalised him. An email from him, responding to my own sent to him after his illness was announced, carried his usual friendly and open interest, and was a brief reassurance to those like myself who were concerned at the news. His testimony given recently to the College students, and to his own church community at Bearsden Baptist, can be heard here on Youtube.
This is one of the most remarkable testimonies I have ever heard, as Ted talks with humble confidence, with an unmistakable tone of peaceable and restful trust, and with unqualified gratitude to God for his life. No complaints or questions, just a sustained note of gratitude for what has been. When someone facing a terminal illness says he is in a win win situation because if God heals him God is glorified, and if not he will be himself in glory, it is hard not to wonder at the grace that enables such courage.
The many tributes paid by students and former students, by friends and those who owe much in their own spiritual experience to Ted's witness and friendship have been gathered on the ICC website here. My own comment I have copied below, because it says much that we want to express as a College to Diana, Joy and David, to our colleagues in Christ at ICC, and to the students and countless others who give thanks to God for Ted's life.
As a brother in Christ and as a colleague in the work of Christian
training, I quickly came to appreciate Ted's spiritual, personal,
intellectual and adminsitrative gifts. Over the years his pivotal and
guiding role in ICC has been both highly significant and very fruitful
in the work of God's Kingdom, seeing the College become a leading
training resource within and beyond the UK. I pass on the condolences
of the staff, students and others in the Scottish Baptist College
community, assuring Diana and Ted's family of our prayers that they
will continue to know the strength of which Ted so movingly spoke in
his testimony. Our prayers too for the Principal and all the staff and
students at ICC as you go through a period of major readjustment. The
sovereign love of God keep and guide Ted's family, and sustain the
wider family with whom he worked in the service of Christ. And may the
peace of Christ strengthen our faith and hope, and enable us to give
thanks for a life in Christ, faithfully lived.
Spent Saturday afternoon at a house party in Inverurie, then Sunday
morning at a morning worship service in Aberdeen. Both celebrating the
same thing, a fiftieth Anniversary since Ordination. That's 50 years of
living faithfully towards promises made about the care of the flock of God, the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and the surrender of secondary priorities in the interests of the Kingdom of God.
Derek Murray (the taller one in the photo!) was ordained 50 years ago. As minister in Paisley, Kirkcaldy and edinburgh, as Lecturer in the Scottish Baptist College full time 1961-66, as Hospice Chaplain for 15 years, and as part time lecturer in our College for 46 years, his service to Christ, and to our denomination in Scotland is justly to be celebrated. And so it was.
A house party, a worship service, and a sermon by the Rev Dr Ruth Gouldbourne on the text from the woman who anointed Jesus, 'She did what she could', as well as a couple of sizeable 50th Anniversary cakes shared with the congregation, enabled us to do what we too seldom do - honour and celebrate pastoral ministry as life well lived, and as a vocation that is secretly transformative and life enhancing.
Derek was also presented with a scrap book of memories, greetings and photographs. My own contribution was personal, and goes back to my own experience of Derek as teacher, and my knowledge of him as a man, and as my friend. With Derek's (very reluctantly given) permission I'm including it here, both as an appreciation of Derek's contribution to our College and the theological education of our ministry, and as a glimpse of the qualities that give pastoral ministry its enduring values as an expression of the love of God. ....................................................................................................
“A long obedience in the same direction”
By October 1974, at the
Baptist Theological College of Scotland, I was plunged into the deep end of the
Old Testament by Derek Murray, and taught how to swim. He was teaching Old
Testament exegesis following the retirement of The Rev J Allan Wright, and the set book
was Daniel. The Sunday school stories seemed straightforward enough – big
statues, even bigger furnaces, a lions’ den and a grass eating king recently
turned vegetarian, and in the background the God of Israel who wasn’t to be
messed with.
But what about the beasts, the horns, the eyes, the Ancient of
Days, the secret numbers of weeks and all the other symbolic images of politically
subversive apocalyptic? One of the clear memories of those conversations around
the table, supported by standard commentaries such as Heaton and Porteous, was
the humility and gentle questioning of Dr Derek. It wasn’t that he was the
authoritative, Hebrew- breathing, biblical specialist – it was that he was one
of the learners who taught us a great deal about how to learn together, and how
to open a Bible, and to read, mark and learn with open and valid questions. For
preachers, there are few more liberating discoveries than that the Bible not
only welcomes our questions, but gives us the kinds of answers that help us
question our world, ourselves and even the ways of God.
When some years later Derek
was the preacher at the College Valedictory service, he spoke about the
pastorally disastrous and spiritually damaging impact of ministers who
specialise in guilt-making. He was referring to the commonly held belief, then
and now, that what Christians need is challenge, and challenge equates to being
told the gap between aspiration and performance, the gulf between what we want
to be for God, and what we know we are. Guilt, he argued, may be a powerful
motivator, but nothing like as powerful as gratitude; and a sense of
unworthiness may at times be a healthy astringent, but we are most galvanised
into costly acts of love by the knowledge we are loved. It was an address that
avoided the more popular or apparently more important questions of church
growth, effective leadership, missional drivenness – and in doing so recalled
us to the classic discipline of love fuelled by a redeeming and reconciling
Gospel.
These two personal memories,
significant as they are for me, demonstrate two pervasive Christian graces; reverent
curiosity about life and faith, and grace-informed optimism about people. As a
pastor, a teacher, a chaplain and a friend, Derek has quietly, unobtrusively,
faithfully and in ways he himself might never take time or trouble to imagine,
lived out a life of pastoral vocation that has touched many of us with decisive
reminders of what pastoral care can be when it is the natural outflow of a
humanity that is itself the gift. In the end what Derek the husband, father,
scholar, pastor, writer, preacher, has brought to the vocational trajectory of
his life, is a deep faith in God, a gently persistent faith in people, and an
enviable capacity for unaffected self-forgetfulness. It has been a long
obedience in the same direction.
Whereas most of us can
occasionally come pretty close to false modesty about our abilities, I have
never sensed anything other than genuine surprise in Derek Murray when good
things are said of him in his hearing. These things are written then, so that
he might have the chance to feel genuinely pleased with what others say about
him!
Fifty years of ordained
ministry, and such ministry, is a special gift to the church, and one to be
celebrated. I am very happy to be personally included amongst those whose
memories and experiences help to celebrate the gift of such a ministry. Shalom,
and thank you
Today the creative homiletics class hit the streets.
We engaged in 3 street spiritual disciplines:
1. Attentiveness - to others as part of our attentiveness to God. Being aware of other people, their presence, their characteristics, their emotions, their actions.
2. Discernment - of the rulers, principalities, and powers at work in the streets. The ideas and ideologies competing for interest, attention, compliance.
3. Street Reading and Interpretation of Scriptures - carrying out a corporate bible study outside a dis-used HBOS, Bank of Scotland Building on Luke 12 - including the parable of the rich fool read out loud from the steps before we sat on the pavement and steps to talk.
At least for a time in the contested space of Glasgow Streets the Word was being embodied and discussed.
The class was great, the discussions englightening, the coffee fine, and the challenges radically apparent.
These are disciplines that I would be really keen to repeat, develop, lead others in.
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