Matthew Hosier

PREACHING FOR THE POLLSTERS

2012-01-18T11:51:00.000Z

Last night I got a call from Nebraska.

Actually, it was a call from Gallup, doing a survey about health and happiness in the UK; I came away from it feeling pretty good about life. As it was a series of Yes/No questions it was not possible to give the nuance, qualifications, and caveats that I would normally offer in response to a question like, “Do you feel safe walking alone in your city at night.” So my answers tended towards the positive rather than negative and I guess I sampled as someone who is healthy, happy, prosperous, educated and optimistic – and when the results of the “best places to live in the UK” survey are next published I expect Poole/Bournemouth to feature even higher up the rankings than it normally does!

Rather than an inconvenience, this phone call was thus a rather helpful reminder about the many ways in which I experience God’s grace on a day to day basis: “In the last 30 days have there been any days when you have not been able to afford enough to eat?” No. “Is healthcare affordable in your city?” Yes. “Do you have cancer?” No. Man – I’ve got a lot to be grateful for!

It is easy to lose track of how much grace we receive. It is so easy to be more aware of the things we lack (or think we lack), of the things that annoy us, of the constant drip of bad financial news in the media, than it is of the things that make life good. As a Christian pastor I believe that one of my primary tasks is to keep reminding people of this – to keep pointing them to all the blessings we enjoy by the grace of God alone. Our default position should be one of gratitude. If it is not, we are likely to become miserable ingrates who do little to glorify the name of Jesus.

Yet at the same time I also believe that part of my task is to keep pointing out the reality of the bitterness of life – that stuff happens that stinks, that there is much injustice in the world, and that the sound of war and famine and disaster should rattle in our ears. Without this reality check we are liable to become superficial or sentimental. We are likely to get knocked off course when the day of trouble comes, or to fall for the illusions of the ‘health and wealth’ gospel. And we are unlikely to be motivated to live with generosity and compassion towards those in genuine need.

Perhaps the most helpful Bible book that wrestles with this tension of grace and sorrow is the little oddity of Ecclesiastes. I spent fourteen Sundays preaching through the thoughts of the Teacher seven years ago, and am now picking it up again at Gateway. (Although this time round I am only giving it half the number of sermons.)

Because he recognises the realities of both life’s pleasure and its pain the Teacher is able to make the apparently contradictory statements that, “I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and striving after the wind…There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.” (Eccl. 2:17, 24) The Teacher is quick to commend joy and pleasure, but also brutally honest about the transitory nature of even the most satisfying human pursuits.

Ecclesiastes, then, is a book that helps provide an accurate assessment of life. Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it, “It is an exposé and rejection of every arrogant and ignorant expectation that we can live our lives by ourselves on our own terms.” And as Luther advises, “We should read this noble little book every day because it rejects sentimental religiosity.”

It is a book that helps make sense of many a Gallup poll.

TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER

2012-01-12T13:39:00.000Z

One of the national stereotypes of the British is our obsession with the weather. The theories explaining this obsession are that our weather is terrifically varied; unlike many other parts of the world we don’t have dry or rainy seasons – we just have weather. At the same time our weather is rarely truly noteworthy, as it swings within a fairly narrow range – we don’t get hurricanes, it is never really hot or really cold, it just kinda muddles along. And this is the ground of another theory about why we discuss it so much – that we are a muddling along kind of people, and are easily embarrassed by social interaction, so discussion of the weather is a good foil for more challenging conversation.

Well, let me make some observations about the weather.

The other day it felt like spring, because it was fairly warm, and the bulbs are popping through the soil and buds forming on the bushes. It also felt like summer as I found a couple more raspberries in the garden. And it also felt like autumn, as the leaves have only in the past couple of weeks released their hold on the trees, so I was raking them up from outside my front door. The only season that was missing was winter, which was the season it is meant to be.

Odd.

Not that I want to obsess about it, but it is odd. It’s just not British, somehow, and yet somehow it is. I guess we’ll just keep muddling along.

IN PRAISE OF PARKRUN

2012-01-07T18:05:00.000Z

The other day megachurch pastor and health freak Bill Hybels tweeted, “I wonder why so few leaders take their physical conditioning seriously when it dramatically improves their concentration and energy levels?” Well, I’m training for a marathon, and I think it’s just making me tired!

This is the time of year when many people make resolutions to get in shape, go on a diet, take out gym memberships, and after a couple of weeks misery give it all up again. I think the only realistic basis for taking regular exercise is doing something that one finds in someway enjoyable; otherwise it is just a painful schlep. My marathon training is painful, yet at the same time it is something I am enjoying, which helps me to keep going with it.

One of the things that can make taking exercise more enjoyable is to do it with other people. Obviously, this applies in team sports, but for individual sports like running it can also be true. And this is where Parkrun comes in.

A Parkrun started in Poole last year, and I have taken part a few times (and between now and marathon day – 15^th April, Brighton – need to be doing it every week). It is a well organised and properly timed 5k event which (unlike other well organised and properly timed events) is free to enter. Just show up, run, get your barcode swiped at the end, and your result is emailed to you within a couple of hours. I think it is fantastic. There were 241 of us running this morning, with a very wide athletic spectrum represented (fastest 16:08, slowest 45:17). This is a great example of a community event – sociable, catering for all ages and abilities, free, brilliantly administrated and fun.

There are Parkruns in many locations in the UK, and an increasing number overseas (see here for details). So, if you’re looking for that kick start to the 2012 ‘new you’, you could do a lot worse than toddle along to your nearest Parkrun.

HAPPY EPIPHANY!

2012-01-06T14:52:00.000Z

Those truly wedded to all the rites of Christmas can today take down their decorations, on this, the twelfth day of Christmas. Most of us will have done so already though – by January 1^st, certainly, the Hosiers want to get the house clear and a new year underway. And we were pretty sick of the pine needles!

I like Epiphany though, or at least the idea of it – it is not a festival I have ever consciously celebrated. If nothing else, epiphany is one of those lovely sounding words that is somehow satisfying to say, but it also has considerable theological meaning. Epiphany means different things to different Christian traditions (Wikipedia offers a pretty comprehensive summary of these) but for the western church it is the day when the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus is commemorated. This is a day which represents the sudden comprehension of new knowledge – of knowledge that makes the world a very different place from what one had previously thought.

Of course, this expansion of knowledge is reflected in our other use of the word epiphany – not one that refers to spiritual enlightenment, but to a new idea or understanding of something. This is what we call “having an epiphany.” One of my daughters found this a frustrating concept over this mornings breakfast table discussion – “How can it mean two things?” She needed an epiphany about the English language to see that.

Or, rather, about the Greek language, as this is the word used in the Bible to describe what happens when God “manifests” himself to someone. So, although we use the word in two ways, epiphany means the same thing in both cases – it means something is made known to us, and the most important thing of all that we can come to know is God himself.

So, again, happy Epiphany – and may this be a year when the knowledge of God is to you truly enlightening, and satisfying.

COLLISION

2011-12-22T20:44:00.000Z

The death of Christopher Hitchens last week generated a considerable amount of media coverage and comment. He was a brilliant writer, and a fascinating commentator. A couple of years back Hitchens and Douglas Wilson conducted a series of debates on the question "Is Christianity good for the world." These debates were filmed and turned into Collision. I have just watched it for the first time, and would recommend it - much more interesting than most of what will be on TV over Christmas.

THE TURNING

2011-12-22T15:14:00.003Z

We celebrate Christmas when we do, not because Jesus was born at this time, but because this time marks the turning of the year. This is a good reason why we should feel no compulsion to keep Christmas (it is actually a form of legalism to insist we must) but it does mean that this is a time that feels significant.

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Soon, there will be a discernible shift in the days, as morning and evening gradually begin to lengthen and winter must yield to spring. Not that we have yet had what could be properly described as winter. I can see a rose in bloom in a neighbouring garden, and the other day spotted daffodils in flower. The elements are confused. But I like the fact that the daylight will begin to win over the night again after today. It is a shame we cannot get the calendars properly synced and celebrate Christmas and New Year on the shortest day – the added symbolism would be profound.

However, for my southern hemisphere friends the reverse is true – for them the days will now begin to diminish.

Yesterday I got up to Luke 24 in my Bible readings: “On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” Christmas leads inexorably to Easter, and whether this is the shortest or longest day for you, the good news to proclaim as another day dawns is that “He has risen.”

The year is turning, but Christ has already turned it upside down.

A SHAMELESS PLUG: PLEASE BUY MY BOOK!

2011-12-21T19:03:00.003Z

Mark & Grace Driscoll have a book on sex coming out soon, but I've pipped them to the post and my book Sex Talks is published. It will be available on Amazon in a few weeks time, but is available for immediate purchase here - the perfect stocking filler for any teenager you know!

Sex Talks is based on a series of seminars I led at Newday last year. The first half of this book is based on the five seminars and give an overview of what the Bible teaches about sex. These chapters cover everything from the purpose of sex to porn and homosexuality.

The second half of the book is made up of answers to a bunch of questions about sex that were asked by the crowd at Newday. These questions were sent in by text message, and were anonymous, which means some very honest questions were asked, and I have tried to be honest in my answers. At the end of the book is a section on how to fight sexual temptation, which I hope will be helpful for a lot of people.

The book is aimed at those in the mid-teens to early 20's, and I'm grateful to those in the target range who read it through for me and helped sharpen it up.

Thank you!

TWILIGHT & THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

2011-12-08T09:50:00.000Z

The other day I took Daughter No.1 to see the Breaking Dawn movie. I read all the Twilight novels this time last year (and reviewed the first one here) but hadn’t seen any of the films until this one.

I was impressed that the daughter was happy for me to take her – the young women who work in my office all said it would be far too embarrassing for her to have me there, as Bella and Edward snogged on the screen. Now, I consider the opportunity to embarrass one’s offspring to be a perk (even a prerequisite) of parenthood, that should be fully indulged, but the daughter was remarkably unfazed – so perhaps all the work we’ve put in at keeping an open relationship with her is paying off.

Anyway, I quite enjoyed the movie, as I enjoyed the books (being as in touch with my inner teenage girl as I obviously am) and Daughter No.1 and I had an interesting chat about it as we drove home.

One surprising thing is that Edward isn’t all that good looking (something with which the daughter agrees), yet he is the pinup of choice in a million bedrooms. Which simply demonstrates the power of marketing, and the extent to which we believe something is desirable just because we are told it is. Back in 2008 Robert Pattinson (who plays Edward) said, "It's funny, but about a year ago I'd talk to girls and no one would be interested. Really, it's true, and then when it was announced I would be in 'Twilight' and the book's author gave me her seal of approval, everyone seemed to change their mind. The attention I get now is just mind bending."

We all (and not just teenaged girls) need to be alert to how easy it is to be suckered by fame and fortune and advertising and celebrity. The reality is that though we like to think of ourselves as independent and savvy and smart, we tend to believe what we’re told.

To claim that Edward is not that attractive might be contentious enough (Go Team Jacob!) but let me draw what may be a more contentious line from that to the current economic crisis: Just as Edward isn’t that attractive, perhaps the economic crisis isn’t that bad.

As I can already sense people picking up stones ready to hurl at me, I’ll try and qualify that.

Sure, the economic crisis is very bad. Especially if you live in Greece. In the UK it is also very bad if you are a young person looking for work (though not as bad as in Spain where the unemployment rate is a Great Depression equalling 25 per cent); if you have lost a job it is very bad; if your income is dependent on revenue generating investments it is very bad. Every time I fill up the car with fuel, or get a utility bill, or buy groceries I experience the pain of inflation that seems to be running ahead of the official rate. And of course, it could all get very much worse if the Eurozone doesn’t sort itself out.

So there you go – all my caveats expressed and you can put those rocks down.

Yet, it’s not that bad – certainly for those of us who have held onto our jobs and have mortgages to pay. With interest rates still so low paying a mortgage is a lot less painful than it has historically been, and this makes a major contribution to household finances.

What has happened is that for the past three years we have been fed an almost relentless diet of terrible financial news which leaves us all feeling poorer, even if objectively we are no worse off than we were. Five years ago we were all still drawing capital out of our houses and racking up big bills on our credit cards which made us feel as though we had lots of money – when actually, we just had lots of debt; which is at the root of the whole crisis anyway. Now, because we’ve been told to believe it, we believe Edward Pattinson is the handsomest man ever to breathe and that we have never been so financially desperate.

What to do?

Those of us who are Christians have a special responsibility to think about money in a way which is not “conformed to the pattern of this world” and this means we should not have our thinking bent by the news, but shaped by the gospel. The economics of the kingdom of God are different from the economics of this world. Practically what this means for us might be things like:

Be a good steward – it is much better to learn this lesson when times are fat than when they are lean, but whatever the times it is a lesson that needs to be learnt.
Remember the poor – our subjective feelings of financial hardship should not blind us to the objective poverty of the two-thirds world and our responsibility to love our neighbour.
Help those who are affected by the current financial situation – this is a time for the church to be church.
Don’t be judgmental towards the poor (as this report reveals we are becoming) – instead we should seek to serve and to bless.
Remain thankful – God is good, and greatly to be praised!
Live in faith and not in fear – God has promised to provide for his people, and we need to believe this.
Be generous – faith and generosity travel hand in hand, whereas fear inevitably leads to selfishness and envy. Living generously means we continue to give money away, we open up our homes to others, we look for opportunities to bless others, we pay for our round at the bar and we don’t skimp on tips.
Hack down some idols – if money and possessions have become our idols a time of economic uncertainty will certainly expose this; which means this is a great time to get out the axe!

Rather than buy into the gloom we are told we should inhabit, this is a great opportunity for the church to demonstrate the grace and generosity of God at work in us, remembering that “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 10:22).

DUMBING DOWN?

2011-12-07T08:16:00.000Z

Last week I took Daughter No.1 to a GCSE options evening. This is the first stage in her education that a degree of choice about study options presents itself and the headmistress of her school stressed the importance of making good choices, so as not to limit future possibilities regarding university and career. There has been a great deal of debate in the UK in recent years about the 'dumbing down' of our exam system, and a great deal of angst about the expenses now associated with going on to college. Comparing our own age with previous ones is often instructive, so it was with interest that I followed this link to the Harvard entrance exam of 1869.

It left me feeling extremely thick and uneducated!

BOOK REVIEW: THE BREEZE OF THE CENTURIES

2011-11-17T19:19:00.002Z

The Breeze of the Centuries: Introducing great theologians from the Apostolic Fathers to Aquinas, by Michael Reeves

The longer I continue in Christian ministry, the more convinced I become of the vital importance of having a grasp of church history. Perhaps this is partly a consequence of age, but more than that, church history is incredibly useful both in terms of instructing us about important matters we might otherwise struggle to grasp, and in warning us not to repeat the mistakes that others have made.

Getting into church history, however, can feel intimidating – where is one supposed to start? One good starting place is Greg Allison’s Historical Theology, which is a brilliant systematic theology, written through the grid of historical theology. That is quite a big book though, and so still might be quite intimidating. And that is where The Breeze of the Centuries comes into its own. In just 150 pages Reeves gives an overview of the life and thought of the Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine, Anselm and Aquinas; and does so with wit and panache.

As well as outlining the big theological issues of the ages, Reeves is good at slipping in those aspects of human interest that make history interesting – such as the Letter to Diognetus only being discovered in 1436, being used to wrap fish in Constantinople, and Aquinas’ family trying to tempt him away from his spiritual calling with a scantily clad seductress. But the big theological issues are big – and still very relevant today. Questions of the deity and humanity of Christ, the nature of eternal life, and the rationality of faith are hardly novel to our age, and the battles of the past prove fertile ground in which to work out how to respond and what to believe.

Viewing theology through the lens of history is also helpful to us in working out where the battle lines should be drawn in defence of the truth. We live in a time when there is both an incredible level of rancour amongst people who all claim to be followers of Jesus, but also a general cultural assumption of ‘tolerance’ that means many Christians find it difficult to ever say, “that is wrong.” Where the likes of Polycarp and Athanasius draw these lines is deeply instructive.

As Reeves points out, the theologians discussed here offer a broad range of personalities and beliefs, and some are more attractive than others. For example, I find Athanasius and Augustine far more convincing than Anselm and Aquinas, yet each repays study – if only for the shaping influence they have had on later cultures and theology.

This is an excellent little book – get hold of it if you can!

50 YEARS OF WOMENS LIB & THIS IS WHERE WE GET TO?

2011-11-11T10:26:00.000Z

Generally, pop music isn’t worth commenting on. It is so ubiquitous, and generally so ephemeral that it doesn’t warrant much response. Yet sometimes it is wise to give some attention to it, if only because of its ubiquity. It is easy to uncritically allow pop to be the sound track of our lives, without adequate reflection on what it is telling us about our lives, and our world.

One song that recently caught my attention (I happened to be in the gym of a hotel, and – as is invariably the case in gyms – MTV was on) is Lana Del Ray’s Video Games. The first thing that caught my attention was the melodic beauty of the song – the tolling bell and harp that open the track set this apart from the normal plastic pop. But my next reaction was a fairly visceral reaction to the lyrics.

At one level Video Games is simply a retelling of boy meets girl – the classic tale of falling in love. I’ve nothing against that! And I’ve certainly got nothing against faithful, serving love. But some of the underlying messages in the song make my skin itchy.

It's you, it's you, it's all for you

Everything I do

I tell you all the time

Heaven is a place on earth with you

Tell me all the things you want to do

I heard that you like the bad girls

Honey, is that true?

It's better than I ever even knew

They say that the world was built for two

Only worth living if somebody is loving you

Baby now you do

The major problem here is the way it locates personal identity in romantic relationship. Romantic relationships are important, and most of us desire them and enter into them, but to define ourselves by them is to sell ourselves short. Key to personal identity should be an understanding that we are made in the image of God, and that (if we have responded in faith to Christ) we shall one day be like God. That is a far more compelling message, and a much better place to get a sense of who you are, than, “I’m nothing without a boyfriend.”

A subsidiary problem is that the object of the song is a typical slacker male, sitting around drinking beer, wasting his time playing video games and leering after the bad girls. This is not the kind of man I would encourage any woman to devote herself to. She would do much better to find a man who works hard, doesn’t look at porn or fantasize about pole dancers (and expect her to act out these fantasies), and is faithfully committed to serving her, rather than having her run around after him.

Young women should have higher ambitions – and higher standards – than this. I wouldn’t want my daughters singing songs like this. After decades of campaigning for women’s rights we should be able to do better than this.

BABYLON OR HEAVEN?

2011-11-04T09:37:00.000Z

Looking back over my preaching of the past 12 months or so it is clear that the themes I have been returning to again and again are the implications of the Christian’s union with Christ and the certain hope of resurrection life. It is what I’m planning to preach again this Sunday morning at Godfirst, Rosebank.

I have been trying to emphasize – repeatedly – the solidity of the Christian hope – that actually we are the most grounded of all people because we of all people will for all time be possessors of all the earth. This is a very different vision from common notions of “heaven.” And it has all kinds of very practical implications.

In choosing a couple of books to bring with me to South Africa I picked up a volume of short stories by HC Bosman. Bosman was a South African author, who wrote in the middle of the last century, and his short stories are brilliant – somehow spacious and rambling yet incredibly pithy and punchy and poignant at the same time. He tells tales based around a collection of rural Afrikaners, living near the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana) border, and I love them.

As these are Afrikaner stories, set a century ago, the Dutch Reformed Church often features – usually in a somewhat ironic (Bosman is great at irony) and not exactly flattering light. While reading the story “On to Freedom,” this passage caught my eye:

“As you all know,” Wynand Oosthuizen said, “my farm is situated right up against the Limpopo, and I live there alone. Consequently, I have much time in which to think. And I have thought about this question of the predikant (Afrikaans for ‘pastor’) and the young men and diamond diggings. Yes, I have given it much thought. And I perceive that there is only one way in which the predikant will be able to get people to stay away from the diamond fields: he must say that the diamond fields are a lot like heaven.”

We looked at Wynand Oosthuizen, wondering. It seemed to do queer things to a man, living alone like that beside the Limpopo.

Because we made no answer, Wynand Oosthuizen thought, apparently, that we hadn’t understood what he was saying.

“You see,” he went on, “after every Nagmaal (Communion) I have observed that there is a big rush to the diamond diggings. That is because the predikant talks so much about the wickedness of the life on the diggings; how the diamond fields are like Babylon, and how vice and evil flourish there, and how people make money there and then forget all about their duty to the church. Now, if the predikant were to say that the diggings are exactly like the Kingdom of Heaven, nobody would want to go. No, nobody at all.”

Bosman here skewers exactly the problem of so much Christian teaching and theology. A Christianity that teaches mere moralism is attractive only to those who like to live as moralistic legalists. For the rest, well Babylon looks far more attractive. Moralistic legalism only serves to drive people towards the very things it warns against, rather than drawing them towards the riches that are ours in Christ.

If we were to actually understand the implications of the Christian’s union with Christ and the certain hope of resurrection life, then no one would go rushing off “to the diggings.” So it is this that I intend to keep preaching – it is the message that we need to hear.

7 BILLION IS A BIG NUMBER

2011-11-02T13:47:00.000Z

According to this fun statistical calculator, when I was born I was the 3,693,152,001^st person alive on planet earth. (It’s quite nice to be an ‘and first’ – makes me feel special!) This week the total number of people alive on planet earth is thought to have nearly doubled that number, and now stands at 7 billion. (Although there is a significant margin of error in the calculation.)

A rapidly rising population does not depress or worry me as it seems to many people. I have enough confidence in God’s covenant with the earth (Genesis 9:9-17) and in the ingenuity of man, to believe that the potential is there to feed every mouth and clothe every back, without resultant planetary catastrophe. I don’t believe we have resource problems – just sin problems. In a number of developed countries the more likely problem is now actually insufficient population growth, as fertility rates (the number of children a woman has) drop below replacement rates (the number of births required to maintain a stable population) and an ageing population becomes increasingly dependent on a shrinking number of economically active younger people.

The UK population is growing still, though this is largely driven by immigration (as our own fertility rates – Hosiers excepted – are below the replacement rate). But one of the interesting things about being in South Africa is seeing the incredible pace of development. Here the fertility rate still outpaces the replacement rate and this coupled with the need to improve the living conditions of the majority population means vast swathes of land which were previously empty are now covered in housing.

Parts of the Cape and Johannesburg look more like Dubai now than the South Africa of old. Yet the inequalities and needs of millions of people are still painfully obvious – flying into Cape Town or Johannesburg the visitor will be struck by the scale of the townships surrounding the city. On Sunday I drove through a township outside Cape Town, which was a very desperate place. This is where not only poor South Africans but many refugees and economic migrants from other African nations first land when they reach the Cape. Many of them subsequently escape though, making the economic journey from leaking shack to solidly built hut to – perhaps, one day – what you and I might recognize as proper housing.

In the end what most of the worlds 7 billion people want is simply a decent roof over their heads, and enough food to eat and clothes to wear.

This desire is reflected at the heart of the Christian faith. Jesus told his disciples that he was going ahead of them to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house (John 14:1-4); and the end of the story tells of the day when a numberless crowd will stand in worship before Jesus (Rev 7:9-10). On that day maybe there will be even more than 7 billion people standing on this earth (it will be this earth, and I hope there are more than 7 billion people) and not one of them will be naked, or homeless or hungry.

That’s the Christian message – an expectation that we have been given sufficient resources to lift people out of poverty now, and a great hope for an eternity in which there is no poverty.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

BINGE DRINKING IN THE TAVERN OF THE SEAS

2011-10-31T21:42:00.000Z

In January 1989 I turned up in Cape Town as a bolshy 18 year-old and my world was upended. Everything changed for me in Cape Town, and the months I spent here were hugely significant. It was also a time of dramatic change for South Africa. Apartheid was on its last legs, but exactly how things would work out when those legs gave way was anyones guess.

I went back to England (and to university in Newcastle) in September 1989. Early in 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from jail, and South Africa was clearly on an irreversible path to majority rule. That path was a rocky one, however, and for a time it seemed the nation might descend into civil war. Terrible fighting in Natal between members of the ANC and Inkatha, and the revolutionary rumblings of the white supremacist AWB, threatened the worst kind of future for what became known as the rainbow nation.

I returned to Cape Town for a few weeks in 1991. It was a different country, and I was a different person, but Cape Town was still her alluring self.

It was then another ten years before I came back, this time for a weeks holiday, with Mrs Hosier, and a six month old daughter No. 3 in tow. 2001, and everything was different, with apartheid dead and buried, but the ANC Government struggling to meet the expectations of a newly enfranchised people.

And now another decade has passed, and despite numerous trips to southern Africa, it has taken me this long to get back to the mother city. And even this time it was an 'accident' - a sudden rescheduling when my planned trip to Zimbabwe fell through because of problems organizing flights.

So I have been here 60 hours, and like a sailor reaching land after a long haul at sea I have been on the binge. 60 hours of swallowing as much of the Cape as I can before flying up to Johannesburg tomorrow. 60 hours per decade is not enough to slake this addicts thirst. The tourist advertising for South Africa used to boast, "The world in one country," and in many ways that boast was true. South Africa is a nation apart; but Cape Town is a whole other world to itself. It is a unique place, and gets into the blood as surely as the Cape winds cut through your clothes.

Spending time with Jubilee Community Church has been a massive joy and privilege. Even in a church of 1,000 people the passage of time means there are only a handful still here who were here 22 years ago; yet somehow it feels like coming home. This was a church that taught me so much, and my thinking has again been challenged and enlarged by this latest brief encounter.

Thank you Cape Town. Thank you Jubilee.

BOOK REVIEW: AFGHANISTAN

2011-10-27T12:13:00.004+01:00

Danger Close: Commanding 3 PARA in Afghanistan by Stuart Tootal, and, Losing Small Wars: British military failure in Iraq & Afghanistan by Frank Ledwidge

Constant conflict from the first Gulf War to the rise of Al Qaeda (culminating in 9/11) to the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, has in many ways been the story of my generation. Unlike the earlier metanarratives of the long stand off of the Cold War or the Second World War, this conflict has felt much more morally ambiguous and indeterminate.

These two contrasting books offer interesting analysis of British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Published in 2009, Colonel Tootal’s book was one of the first ‘herographies’ describing the conflict in Afghanistan, while Lt Commander Ledwidge’s (just published) book is among the first of what will surely be a mountain of literature critiquing British strategy in these wars.

Tootal tells a soldier’s story – of being in command of a battalion of paratroopers desperate to prove themselves in combat, and the often bitter reality of what that experience was like. Tootal seems to have been clear sighted about the complexities of being the first significant deployment of British troops into Helmand. How, he asks his Whitehall bosses, will he gain the support of the local population if he destroys their livelihood – the production of opium poppies? No answers are forthcoming.

Tootal also describes the complexity and confusion of the command structure within which he had to work, “In essence it meant that I had three bosses to work to.” This was a recipe for disaster in a theatre of operations like Helmand.

The political and military complexities of Helmand meant that the Paras were put in no win situations, for example, when they were tasked with rescuing a police chief who had been captured by the Taliban. This police chief was corrupt and a threat to the general population, yet to not rescue him would be seen to undermine the governor of Helmand who represented the Afghan government and so had to be supported.

Ledwidge is a barrister and military reservist who has served in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, and brings a forensic eye to British military strategy. Losing Small Wars is replete with eye watering facts and figures. For instance:

It costs £400,000 to keep each British soldier in Afghanistan for a year
The campaign in Afghanistan costs £6 billion each year
Of 7,000 British soldiers in Basra in 2006 only 200 were actually available for patrolling
In Helmand, from a Brigade of 3,500 men, there were only a maximum of 168 men able to conduct combat operations
“There are, proportionately eight times more generals in the UK armed forces that there are in the US Marine Corp, four times as many as in the US army, and as astonishing ten times as many as the Israelis have.”
Javelin rockets (costing £70,000 each) were routinely fired at sniper positions; and “Until early 2010 it was common to call in an air strike and drop 1,000 kilogramme bombs (cost £250,000 plus £35,000 an hour fuel for the constantly patrolling jets) on the position

Tootal recognizes the way his unit’s presence inflamed the situation in Helmand:

There is no doubt in my mind that our arrival had stirred up a hornet’s nest in a province that many had considered quiet until then. But it was only quiet because the Taliban and the drug warlords had been allowed to hold the ascendency there. There was no rule of law, no government authority and any ‘peace’ was due to the ruling tyranny and corruption of bandits and insurgents. Although no one ever said it to my face, some safe at home in the bureaucratic corridors of Whitehall later suggested that 3 PARA might have been overly aggressive in its approach. But they were not the ones shedding blood, sweat and tears in the service of their country.

In contrast, Ledwidge argues that the Paras were overly aggressive and it might well have been better to leave some of the ‘bandits’ in position. Ledwidge plots the mess that 3 PARA were going to find themselves in. An SAS team had been operating in Helmand and warned against a number of decisions that Whitehall was to take. “The mess that the British were about to find themselves in was rooted in their meddling with local governance that they neither understood nor had the capacity to control.”

Ledwidge is also good on the history of British military entanglements in Afghanistan, and reflects the fact that while the British may not have any cultural memory of our previous Afghan wars, the Afghans certainly do. Three times previously we had entered Afghanistan, and each time received a good whipping; for the Afghans, this was simply going to be the next instalment in a series of engagements stretching back to 1839.

Throughout, Ledwidge is critical of British arrogance and sense of superiority over the Americans in fighting counter-insurgency warfare, when it has actually been the Americans who have been faster to learn and displayed greater competence. Senior British officers continually harped on about the lessons of Malaya and Northern Ireland, when these were entirely different conflicts from those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ledwidge is also critical of the decision to make 16 Air Assault Brigade (of which 3 PARA is a part) the first British troops to enter Helmand. As the most aggressive element of the British Army, they were an unlikely choice for what was a peacekeeping mission, and while commending Tootal’s professionalism, Ledwidge questions his lack of engagement with the ‘human terrain’ – that is, having an understanding of what a ‘war among the people’ might actually mean.

The Paras were isolated in ‘platoon houses’ and used overwhelming force and heavy weaponry to defend themselves, that destroyed town centres, with the result that, as Ledwidge records it, “the British had fulfilled exactly their historic role as most Helmandis saw it – that of aggressive and destructive invaders.”

Ledwidge makes the shocking point that the British have now been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviets were, and have achieved less than the Soviets did. There was a chronic shortage of Pashtu speakers attached to the military, and an apparent blindness to the fact that a group of heavily tooled up foreigners patrolling the streets of Helmand might be perceived as threatening by the natives.

Ledwidge sums up his criticisms like this:

The form of ‘expeditionary warfare’ on which Britain’s armed forces staked their future has proved to be beyond their commanders’ capabilities. A failure to adapt, antediluvian structures and intelligence systems, deployment schedules that ensures a lack of continuity, a cavalier attitude to post-entry planning, a mentality geared to excessive readiness to use extreme violence, an attachment to archaic traditions and imagined histories – all of these factors played their part. Inadequate equipment and a dearth of personnel coexisted alongside a vastly swollen command structure that was proportionately eight times the size of that of the US marines.

Having read a number of reviews of Losing Small Wars by serving military personnel it appears that most soldiers agree with Ledwidge’s analysis. But against the backdrop of the dreadful strategic failures of the military high command must be measured the bloody reality of the cost to British troops. The most harrowing chapter of Danger Close is the account of a patrol that stumbled into a minefield on Kajaki Ridge which resulted in the death of one man, and several others losing legs. The subsequent poor treatment of the injured men, and the penny-pinching approach to their families (especially in light of the overall costs of the campaign) is shocking.

Reading these books left me with a sense of admiration for the bravery and courage of individual men, but something approaching outrage at the overall picture of our recent military adventures. We have made colossal mistakes.

HALLOWEEN

2011-10-26T10:46:00.000+01:00

A friend in my Life Group pointed me towards these comments by John Piper about Halloween:

Apparently, some of my friend's friends were shocked by Piper's somewhat laissez faire approach to Halloween. Of course, Piper is an American, and within American culture Halloween has occupied a very different place from that which has historically been the case in the UK. A watershed for us was when the ET movie came out, and suddenly the 'Americanization' of Halloween began to happen in the UK - now it is a huge deal, at least commercially, and our shops are at the moment packed with ghoulish attire.

So what should our response be?

Well, I am inclined towards Piper's relaxed attitude on this one. I think it is an area where Christians can look very foolish when they have an overheated reaction. As I have written elsewhere, my belief in the supremacy of Christ over all things means I don't need to get in a panic about Halloween. However, as a parent, and as a Christian, I would have the following rough framework:

I wouldn't let my kids go out trick or treating. I don't like the way it seems to be begging for stuff, and I know that for some people (especially the elderly) it can be intimidating to have kids banging on their doors asking for sweets.
When other peoples kids knock on our door we give them something - not a tract about the evils of the occult, but some sweets or cake. Why? Because it is an opportunity to demonstrate grace and generosity.
I have pumpkins outside my front door. Not in celebration of Halloween, but because Daughter No.4 grew them, and they look good!
I wish trick or treating was one habit we hadn't imported from the US!

BOOK REVIEW: HEAVEN

2011-10-22T16:47:00.001+01:00

Heaven, by Randy Alcorn

A friend, seeing me reading this book, asked if I liked Randy Alcorn’s writing – and yes, I do. I like the way he sets our earthly experiences against a backdrop of eternity, and I have found his teaching on money, especially, incredibly helpful. That said, I did not read Heaven quickly, as I would with something I can’t put down. It’s not that the book is anyway dull or uninteresting, but it is quite detailed, and actually lends itself to being dipped into, rather than read in big chunks, cover to cover.

The book is divided into three sections. Part 1 provides a theology of heaven; Part 2 answers practical questions about heaven; and the third (short) Part addresses how we should live now in the light of heaven.

The first section is thorough and helpful. Alcorn tackles the many distorted views we can have of heaven – that it will be boring, or ephemeral. Alcorn is very good on this, emphasising again and again the physicality of heaven, and just how delightful it will be. He quotes a little too liberally from The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia for my taste, but those stories do at least help to paint a picture of what we might expect in heaven.

Alcorn is also good in explaining the distinction between heaven as it now is, and heaven as it will be – after the resurrection when heaven and earth (and it will be this earth, though earth made gloriously new) are united in time and space. It is this heaven that ultimately we long for! In explaining these things Alcorn demolishes ‘Christoplatonism’ that fails to do justice to the bodily nature of our heavenly existence. This is such an important thing to grasp – anything physical that we enjoy now is only a foretaste of the physical pleasure we will enjoy forever in heaven.

I should imagine that most readers of this book will immediately turn to Part 2, however, which deals with the kind of questions everyone has asked at some point. Alcorn isn’t afraid to cover all kind of bases here. For example, have you ever wondered whether you will see a favourite pet in heaven? Alcorn thinks you might! Have you wondered whether there will be books, or art, or entertainment in heaven? Alcorn gives some intriguing answers. What about sport, or the adrenaline kick that danger can provide? This is something that has often bothered me as so much of what I regard as pleasurable involves the potential for injury! And Alcorn is helpful, speculating that it might be possible to hurt ourselves – but to then experience instant and perfect healing; and that we might (for example) still know the effects of gravity – which means climbing would still be dangerous – and fun!

Of course, in some of these answers Alcorn veers closer to speculation than to exegesis, but the whole book is scripture saturated, and is never merely speculative. While I might question some of Alcorn’s conclusions I appreciate his commitment to working out answers from the pages of the Bible.

The final part of the book is a reminder to us of how a belief in an eternal heaven should affect our lives here and now on earth. Alcorn returns to the theme of his books on money and possessions and asks,

What will last for eternity? Not your car, house, degrees, trophies, or business. What will last for eternity is every service to the needy, every dollar given to feed the hungry, every cup of water given to the thirsty, every investment in missions, every prayer for the needy, every effort invested in evangelism, and every moment spent caring for precious children – including rocking them to sleep and changing their diapers. The Bible says we’ll reap in eternity what we’ve planted in this life.

That is an encouraging thought, and this is an encouraging book.

Howver, for those who might feel daunted by the 500 pages of Heaven, there is a pocket sized summary of the book available, in the Tyndale Touchpoints series. It is this book I will be recommending at Gateway when I preach on heaven in a few weeks time. Shorter, pithier and cheaper than the big book, it is well worth laying your hands on.

BLOCK

2011-10-21T11:17:00.000+01:00

I spend a fairly large proportion of my working week writing.

When I first started working for a church I don’t think I envisaged quite how much writing it would involve, but I must have bashed out millions of words over the past 16 years.

There is the writing of sermons; writing small group study notes; writing training guides; writing emails; writing pastoral letters; writing blog posts; writing magazine articles – writing, writing, writing.

I guess not every church leader does as much writing as me (though plenty do a lot more) but this is partly a reflection of my own personality and bias: I like writing. I like to get things down on paper, and I like to work on a sentence, a phrase, a paragraph. I like to see how words fit together, and to try and get the right punch! and flow in what I write. I hate reading poor writing. Many is the book that I have either discarded or taken an age to read, not so much because of weak content, but due to sloppy syntax. (This is a particular bane of Christian paperbacks.)

But sometimes in this torrent of words I get block. Like a hefty log wedged between the banks of a stream and stopping its flow, there are times when writing feels more a torture than a pleasure. This week has been one of those weeks. No inspiration for blog posts. Sermon preparation as laboured as a chain-smoking geriatrics breathing. Enthusiasm for other pieces of important preparation running at a crawl.

How to fix the problem?

Maybe writing about it will help!

A POLITICIAN IN THE PARK

2011-10-14T15:57:00.000+01:00

A bit of a furore has been stirred up today by the news that Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin has been seen throwing away documents in St James’s Park.

Letwin is MP for West Dorset, a particularly beautiful constituency, that is not far from Poole, and I find it rather endearing that Letwin chooses to do some of his work in the park rather than in the office – clearly he feels the need for green space. For the short time I worked in central London I would often disappear to the park (in this case Hyde rather than St James’s) at lunchtime and find a bench to sit and read on in relative tranquillity. But the idea of a very senior politician using a bench as his office is a rather surprising one.

Probably the best known Psalm is the twenty-third:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.

I imagine the average day in the life of a cabinet minister is fairly turbulent and the desire to find some still water must be strong. Perhaps, amongst the ducks and pelicans in St James’s Park, Mr Letwin found some of that peace. I hope he isn’t now hounded out of it by the outraged squeals of the media and Opposition. So I hope that all those papers Letwin threw into the park bin were merely low-interest, low-security mailbag filler.

In a year when we have seen our cities rocked by civil unrest I find it somehow reassuring to know that one of our senior leaders is quietly sitting in a London park, reading – and discarding – his papers.

BIG BROTHER

2011-10-13T15:09:00.002+01:00

At our Newfrontiers leaders Prayer & Fasting days this week I made a flippant remark to a friend about getting my chakras aligned. (Being a good Christian he wasn’t familiar with the term.) Then – oddly – the google ads that run at the side of my emails were today encouraging me to buy aromatherapy creams that would help align my chakras.

How does that happen?

It is a basic statistical rule that anything that has any possibility of ever happening will at some point happen – it is this rule that lies behind many ‘coincidences’ and ‘what were the chances of that?’ events. Someone will win the lottery. Someone will get struck by lightening. Someone will bump into a long lost friend on a train station in Bognor. (What do you mean it hasn’t happened to you yet?)

Of course, with Google it feels a bit more sinister than just the random workings of statistical probabilities, as Google is working hard to map our personal preferences and desires. As an experiment to illustrate this I just asked one office colleague to give me a random subject (she chose ‘synchronized swimming’) and another colleague and I then typed this into Google at the same time. Wikipedia came out as the first result for both of us, but after that the rest of the page was different – although I’m struggling to see in what way the results had been tailored for each of us!

‘Googling’ is now so ubiquitous and so useful (I guess I must have googled twenty or more times today already. Sermon prepping this morning I didn’t bother to go to a concordance to find a reference – just google it) it is easy to believe in the objectivity of Google, as if it were simply a much faster and more complete telephone directory or Encyclopaedia Britannica in which the information remains constant, and is the same for whoever accesses it, wherever they are. But googleworld is different. It’s watching you, responding to you, anticipating you. Which is why two people doing the same kind of job and sitting within an arms length of one another get different results every time they google.

This should make us much more sceptical about the information we receive back and more discerning about how we use it. It also means we should be careful what we google for – remember, everything you’ve ever looked at online is recorded somewhere and has a shaping impact on everything else you look at. And for me (perhaps it’s just me being perverse) it means throwing the odd curve ball into the Google mix so that ‘they’ don’t really get to pigeonhole me.

I like to mess with their chakras.

200,000 ABORTIONS, 60 ADOPTIONS

2011-10-07T22:32:00.000+01:00

RIP STEVE JOBS

2011-10-06T08:17:00.000+01:00

There are going to be a lot of posts written about Steve Jobs today, by lots of us sitting in front of our Apple products - so just a few links from me.

I'm sure I must have linked to this before, but it is one of my all time favourite comedy clips (sorry - embedding has been disabled).

And more seriously, these posts by Josh Harris and Ed Stetzer are well worth reading.

TOO MUCH, TOO SOON

2011-09-25T12:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday a letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph from a group of more than 200 academics and other experts, expressing concern about how children are raised in the UK. The points are well made, and worth giving consideration to. From my own observations, I would make these points about modern childhood:

· As I have written before, much of the problem is with my generation, with its ‘lifestyle choices’ and refusal to grow up

· School is a mixed blessing. School can be great – especially great schools! But school starts too young and is too intense for many kids, especially boys. We keep identifying new categories of special need, and labelling increasing numbers of kids with those special needs, when a lot of the problem is that six year old boys are meant to be running around in the woods hitting each other with sticks and not stuck in a classroom

· We too quickly default to electronic media for entertainment, which does lead to a physical passivity, even if the mind is being engaged in some way

· We are too cautious, and don’t let our children take enough risks

· We are too busy trying to be friends with our children when what we are meant to be is parents

And, of course, over and above all this is our secularization. In the end, without a consciousness of God’s claim and rule over us we are all blind guides leading the blind. For it is God, “who strengthens the bars of your gates; and blesses your children within you.” (Ps 147:13)

A LUTHERAN POPE?

2011-09-24T11:41:00.000+01:00

Yesterday the Pope visited Erfut, the monastery that was home to Martin Luther, and what might be described as the spiritual home of the Reformation. To have a Pope address leaders of the Lutheran church at this site is ironic almost beyond description. It also begs the question as to which church Luther would himself feel most comfortable with were he alive today – a Lutheran church that has in many ways slipped so far from the ideals of its founder, or a Catholicism that regularly speaks with greater clarity about matters of faith?

At the end of his address the Pope made some interesting observations. The first was a thinly veiled attack upon Pentecostal and Charismatic churches:

The geography of Christianity has changed dramatically in recent times, and is in the process of changing further. Faced with a new form of Christianity, which is spreading with overpowering missionary dynamism, sometimes in frightening ways, the mainstream Christian denominations often seem at a loss.

Clearly the See of Rome feels the threat of what it regards as its possession by God given right being taken away by these Pentecostal upstarts. This is the case especially in Latin America, where to be a Christian does not now necessarily mean being a Roman Catholic – and it must be as unsettling for the papacy as was Luther’s Reformation. The Pope’s concern is that, “This is a form of Christianity with little institutional depth, little rationality and even less dogmatic content, and with little stability.” That is perhaps a fair criticism, but does not in itself invalidate what is happening. By definition, whenever a new move of God begins it takes time for institutions and theological depth to develop – and sadly it is often the development of those very things that kills off spiritual vitality.

The Pope’s final point was well made, and worth quoting in entirety – it is one with which most Pentecostals would probably identify!

The second challenge to worldwide Christianity of which I wish to speak is more profound and in our country more controversial: the secularized context of the world in which we Christians today have to live and bear witness to our faith. God is increasingly being driven out of our society, and the history of revelation that Scripture recounts to us seems locked into an ever more remote past. Are we to yield to the pressure of secularization, and become modern by watering down the faith? Naturally faith today has to be thought out afresh, and above all lived afresh, so that it is suited to the present day. Yet it is not by watering the faith down, but by living it today in its fullness that we achieve this. This is a key ecumenical task. Moreover, we should help one another to develop a deeper and more lively faith. It is not strategy that saves us and saves Christianity, but faith – thought out and lived afresh; through such faith, Christ enters this world of ours, and with him, the living God.

I’m not sure Luther himself could have put it any better.

IT'S THAT TIME

2011-09-18T18:56:00.000+01:00

I took down this seasons sweet peas this afternoon. This is always a cathartic moment.

Sweet peas are fantastic – the simple essence of summer – and for three months we have had bunch after bunch of the fragrant blooms filling the house. I planted them in March, they were flowering by June, and they have been beautiful. So taking them down is in someways a sad thing to do. I don’t much like the shortening days and the passing of summer. The other day a passing dog walker remarked, “I don’t mind the darker mornings.” My reply? “I hate it!”

Yet there is also something I enjoy about the autumnal tidying of the garden. I like clearing some space, where everything has become overgrown. I like to see the soil again, and attain a sense of cleanness. I like the anticipation – that come next spring that bare space will again be filled, by something beautiful, or edible, or (best of all) both.

And I like the feeling of getting in rhythm with the times as they are meant to be, because,

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot (Eccl. 3:1-2).

ANOTHER SHAMELESS APPEAL

2011-09-16T14:45:00.000+01:00

I have been running, with more or less regularity, for the past 25 years - but I would never describe myself as a runner. I don't have the natural ability to truly count as a runner. Someone who runs, kind of, but not a runner. I guess I've racked up a few thousand miles over the past quarter century, and got through numerous pairs of trainers. I've had some miserable times of plodding along feeling like a sack of bricks, and rarer moments when it has all felt much more effortless. I've probably done some of my best thinking while I've been running; and also some of my most aimless daydreaming.

Anyway, every so often it is good to run with purpose, and in a couple of weeks time a group of us from Gateway are taking part in the Commando Challenge. This is a 10k 'run' over the Royal Marines training course in Devon, and as part of the deal we have to raise money for the Devon Air Ambulance - a very worthy cause! The course forms part of the final selection process for Royal Marines, with strict time limits for its completion. Our aim is just to get through it!

So, if you'd like to sponsor me I would be most grateful! (I only have to raise £60) Please visit here.

Thanks!

FAMILIAR GROUND

2011-09-01T21:04:00.000+01:00

Have you ever had the experience of visiting a place you have known intimately, after a period of several years of not being there? It is an odd experience – one I had yesterday as I went back to Sidcup for the first time in nearly four years.

Sidcup was not a place where I ever expected to live, nor would have actively chosen, and actually for most of the time I was there I lived a mile or two up the road in the glorious surroundings of London SE9. But for thirteen years (longer than I have lived anywhere else) I served a church based in Sidcup, and all my kids have “Sidcup” as the place of birth in their passports, so we will forever carry a piece of South London/North Kent with us.

Despite having been away for so long, it was scary how quickly autopilot took over as I drove in, went into the church building, and then walked to the high street and to see friends. The cliché that it was like I’d never been away was all too true.

I started this blog at the beginning of the process of moving away from Sidcup, and my first proper post was a parable for what I was experiencing at the time:

Yesterday afternoon I was out on my normal run route, and ran into a tree. This isn’t a normal part of my normal run, but some abnormal wind had blown a tree over a path and I didn’t duck low enough to avoid a branch.

This seemed to me to be something of a metaphor for life.

Normally we jog along our normal routes, at our normal pace and normal things happen. But every so often we find ourselves running into a tree that isn’t normally there.

Running into trees is painful.

Pain is designed to teach us, and, if we are wise, next time we will keep our eyes open and duck or swerve or step-over the tree that lies in our path. Most of all, we won’t let the trees stop us from going where we are meant to be going.

I think this is part of what Jesus meant when he said “No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Looking back is a sure way to hit some trees…

Leaving Sidcup was a painful process, and I smacked into a few obstacles on the way. By the grace of God I think I learnt some valuable lessons. Going back yesterday wasn’t looking back, but it was a welcome return to familiar ground – I could have found my way in (and out) with my eyes closed.

NAMELESS HEROES

2011-08-26T10:12:00.001+01:00

Reading the (very) familiar story of Isaac and Rebekah this morning I picked up something I don’t think I’d spotted before – which is the familiar pattern of regular Bible reading.

In this story Abraham sends a servant off to Mesopotamia to find a wife for his son, Isaac. God leads this servant to the household of Laban, Abraham’s great-nephew (or something like that – I always find degrees of relationship in Genesis confusing!) and to Rebekah, who – in one of the high points of scripture – declares, “I will go with this man.”

The big characters in this story are Isaac and Rebekah, and of course Abraham, but the nameless servant who goes to find Isaac’s wife is who caught my eye this morning. He is described as “the oldest of Abraham’s household” (Gen 24:2), which implies the most senior and trusted servant Abraham had. Back in Genesis 15 we read that Abraham complains to God about his (then) childless state, and how this means his inheritance will pass to Eliezer of Damascus. So it seems reasonable to assume that Eliezer was this self-same “oldest of Abraham’s household.”

I wonder whether Eliezer ever felt conflicted in the changes in Abraham’s fortunes? Did he rejoice quite so heartily as others did at the birth of Isaac? After all, no Isaac would have meant Eliezer getting his hands on all Abraham’s loot, and his own descendants laying claim to all that Abraham had been promised. It would be easy to imagine a disgruntled Eliezer – and a significant lack of enthusiasm when it came to finding Isaac a wife, and the way in which that would underline his own missing out on Abraham’s inheritance. But we get no hint of this in the story. Instead, Eliezer rejoiced and worshipped when God led him to Rebekah.

It is easy for us to get disgruntled if we feel others are getting more recognition than we are. Eliezer had obviously dealt with this temptation. He had a bigger vision, because he recognized what God was working out through Abraham and his descendants. Eliezer wasn’t pursuing his own agenda, but the plan of God. He wasn’t so concerned about getting his own name in lights, as the fulfilment of God’s promise that through Abraham’s offspring all the nations of the world would be blessed.

As Augustine put it, "Your best servant is the person who does not attend so much to hearing what he himself wants as to willing what he has heard from you." That's what Eliezer was like.

What an example. What a servant. And what a hero.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

2011-08-21T20:37:00.000+01:00

Recently I had the unanticipated experience of finding myself at a barbeque with a bunch of guys from the special forces. As Poole is a military town, with a Royal Marines base in the harbour (home to the SBS) this experience was not so surprising as it would have been when I was living in Sidcup. Nonetheless, it was an interesting evening.

When I was 17, my burning ambition was to join the Parachute Regiment, and I took the initial selection tests for officer training. By the time I got to university and had spent a few months in the Officer Training Corp that ambition waned, and my life took several different turns. Twenty years later, despite regular lurches towards pacifism, I still feel a measure of regret that I didn’t spend a few years in the military. If I had my time again I think I’d give it a go.

The past few days I have been away at our Together At Westpoint event, which gathers churches from across the south and south west of England, and beyond. It was a truly wonderful time, and I loved every minute of it. About 140 of us were there from Gateway and it was an excellent time of hanging out together and eating lots of cake – as well as superb times worshipping Jesus and hearing great preaching.

It was interesting how often military themes came through at Westpoint. We are a pretty militant lot for Christians! Rather than the church on the back foot this was the church advancing. One of the real highlights of this was our offering at which £101,000 was given, which was pretty impressive as their were less than 2,000 of us at the event. There might be a recession on, but we’re not participating!

One of the truisms about events like Westpoint is the number of unsung heroes – the real foot soldiers – who make the thing happen. All those people who never appear on a platform but labour away making sure the showers work, and the kids are looked after, and the site is tidied. We said goodbye to one such hero today – Joe Nolan, who has been on a year team at Gateway and is now heading off to Exeter University to read theology. Joe has served us so well, in so many areas. I’m going to miss him.

We finished Westpoint with a barbeque. There weren’t any SF soldiers there, but as I looked around there were a whole crowd of men and women who are very special, and a force to be reckoned with. There’s nothing like the local church.

It’s amazing who you can meet at a barbeque.

PRAYER FOR LONDON

2011-08-10T12:33:00.002+01:00

SEZ I

2011-08-10T09:48:00.002+01:00

In The City of God, Augustine relates a famous story about power:

For it was a witty and a truthful rejoinder which was given by a captured pirate to Alexander the Great. The king asked the fellow, ‘What is your idea, in infesting the sea?’ And the pirate answered, with uninhibited insolence, ‘The same as yours, in infesting the earth! But because I do it with a tiny craft, I’m called a pirate: because you have a mighty navy, you’re called an emperor.’

The scenes we have witnessed these past few nights on the streets of British cities are just another working out of the encounter between pirate and emperor. In the end, it is about power.

Augustine was acutely alert to this power play, and the tendency of emperors as well as pirates towards villainy. But this did not lead him to call for a renunciation of state power; instead, the power of the state must be tempered by justice. As Augustine expresses it, in introducing the story of Alexander and the pirate,

Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms?

So, the only significant difference between villainous and righteous power is not its scale, but whether power is exercised in the pursuit of justice.

In the narrative of the Bible this power play has been in operation since the creation of the world. Adam and Eve were entrusted with power, a power that operated in justice, to steward and govern the earth. But justice was abandoned at the moment of rebellion, and human power was surrendered to villainy. Augustine identifies this initial rebellion, this original sin, as pride – the attitude that says, “Sez I.” Self-love, rather than love for God, resulted in the corruption of power, and the tendency for power to corrupt.

On our streets we have seen this “Sez I” attitude writ large. It is the attitude that simply enjoys the exercise of power, without any reference to justice. As one criminologist put it, "powerless people suddenly feel powerful" and that is "very intoxicating."

In contrast to “Sez I” it has been encouraging to see communities (often led by churches) coming together to clean up after the mess; and it was encouraging to see so many London churches gathering to pray last night. These actions are themselves powerful, but they require the submission of power to a greater cause – that of justice. And so there is a great opportunity at this time for the church to demonstrate what submitted power in the pursuit of justice looks like. And there is great need for government that uses its power in the exercise of justice – so all Christians should pray for our Government in this regard.

Twenty years ago I was spending a few weeks working at a research station in the Namib desert – miles from anywhere – when I heard the news of riots on the streets of Britain. Grace (not Mrs Hosier then) was on her own in a flat in Newcastle, one of the worst affected cities, and I remember the sense of concern I felt for her, and shock that such things could happen in the UK. At the same time (and this is a story I often tell) when I was in South Africa, with apartheid in its death throes, it was interesting to observe how white Christians prayed for peace, while black Christians prayed for justice, as it looked like the nation might plunge into bloody carnage.

Those who are used to security and comfort value peace; those who live in insecurity and oppression desire justice. But the reality is that peace and justice are two faces of the same coin.

What South Africa needed in 1991, what Newcastle needed then, what our cities need now, are peace, and justice. Let’s pray, and labour, for both.

LET ENGLAND SHAKE

2011-08-09T14:50:00.000+01:00

Honestly, I go away on holiday for a couple of weeks and the country falls apart. Never mind Dave Cameron having to hurry back from Italy, clearly it was my defection to France that led to riots on the streets, double-digit increases in energy bills, and massive turbulence on the financial markets. I can only apologise for taking my hands off the reins.

Even more depressing was coming home to find the football season had started again.

August has a long established track record of civil unrest, and there is good evidence that this is at least in part due to the temperature. Warm things up to 27C and young men just can’t stop themselves from throwing things at the police – “It wasn’t me gov, it was the heat wot made me do it.”

Looking at some of the footage of the disturbances I can understand something of the mentality behind it. There must be a tremendous sense of power in ruling the streets like that – a hot summers night, the police on the back foot and free shopping options, are all reasons why it is unsurprising that the anarchy is spreading like randomly lobbed Molotov cocktails.

Rather than being shocked by the events of recent nights, a good Calvinist with an appreciation of the doctrine of total depravity will wonder that such things do not happen more often. This isn’t the end of the world, or even of civilisation as we know it, but the expected fruits of those who have been “given up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (Rom 1:28)

The natural tendency of sinful man is to do what ought not to be done, and a society that sows the corrupt seed of playing football during the cricket season has only itself to blame for the more corrupt fruit of “unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit.” (Rom 1:29)

There is nothing profound about this anarchy. There is nothing profound about looting. It is simple covetousness and unrestrained unrighteousness. As well as identifying the problem, the book of Romans also offers a simple solution – that the government “is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Rom 13:4) So more power to the police’s elbow, and baton.

And of course (as any good Calvinist will tell you) there is an even more glorious solution than simply the power of civil authority to coerce civilised behaviour. Gloriously, ultimate violence has been enacted against the Son himself, in order that the corrupt hearts of man might be changed. That is, “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Rom 3:22-25)

Hallelujah!

#TOAM11 FRIEND TO FRIENDS

2011-07-15T20:41:00.000+01:00

As my friend Liam Thatcher wittily expressed it, we are now hoam from toam.

I have my friend Mpi Ndebele from Bulawayo with me, and took him to the pub to meet my heathen friends. The juxtaposition was stark - from being in the crowd of thousands at Brighton, of whom I personally know (to some degree) hundreds of people, and all of us joined in celebrating Jesus, to being back at the end of the bar in the Bermuda Triangle with my Christ-denying buddies, trying to explain something of what I have experienced this week.

Money talks, so I told thoam that we had given away £925,147 at toam. That is pretty fuse blowing to the average man standing at the bar.

What a privilege to have friends. But - oh - for the day when my heathen buddies are Christ-denying no more.

"What a friend I've found, closer than a brother..." Thank you Jesus, for your friendship.

#TOAM11 THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

2011-07-15T08:55:00.000+01:00

In August 1986 my family moved from Bournemouth to Brighton (I was 16) and although I only lived in Brighton a relatively short time, the town (I still can't quite choke out the word "city" to describe it) has been a constant in my life. I got married here, ran my first triathlon here, backslid here, got a renewed vision for the church here - and have attended innumerable conferences here! Now, in a strange closing of the circle of the years my parents have moved back to Bournemouth, just 10 minutes from where I am in Poole and with Together on a Mission ending too, my reasons for returning to Brighton on a regular basis begin to shrivel.

Yesterday at the conference was an emotional day, with - to be honest - a lot of nostalgia in play. And - to be honest - I won't be sorry to have that behind us. Newfrontiers has always been a future focussed movement, and we are at our best when we are moving on. Forward momentum was much in evidence at our prayer night, last night. This conference marks the end of an era, but also the beginning of our latest reinvention, and that is good.

So, just two more sessions to get through. First off, I am back into the seminar stream I have been helping out with, and this morning we are reviewing Wayne Grudem's book Politics According to the Bible. I'm afraid it's not going to be pretty... (As an aside - if you are looking for downloads worth listening to, there is a wealth of good content from the seminars here. And not just the ones I have spoken at...!) And then it is the final, final session, with David Holden delivering the final message.

And then it is home - and another day.

#TOAM11 STATUS UPDATE

2011-07-14T18:36:00.000+01:00

Another big day at the Brighton Conference. Terry Virgo gave his last message as "father of the movement" this afternoon, as he spoke about the history and future of Newfrontiers and recognized the many new "fathers" who will be leading us on from this point, while he takes more of a "grandfather" role.

There is much that could be said about this, but now is not the time. Simply let me say: Terry Virgo - what a man!

Also, there is not the time as I am blogging on the run, with a meeting to get to. Tonight is prayer and party time as we celebrate, give away lots of money, pray for the nations, and generally whoop it up.

Of the main sessions, PJ Smyth's word from last night will, I think, rank as one of the all time top drawer contributions from the years this conference has run. Superb theological reflection, pastoral application and apostolic faith mingled together in a sermon that left the thousands of us listening in amazed awe at the grace of God.

Must fly...

#TOAM11

2011-07-13T18:42:00.000+01:00

A very quick update on the very last Together on a Mission conference in Brighton.

It has to be quick as I am between meetings – and that is pretty much how the conference is. The sessions are long, the breaks short, and every break is booked with seeing someone. The sessions are obviously important, but for my money it is very often the between meeting meetings that are more important. The one thing I will miss more than anything else about this conference is the opportunity to catch up with all my friends.

Friends and heroes.

The likes of Tom Eaton, church planting in Japan, and PJ Smyth, leading the incredible Godfirst in Johannesburg. Friends from the US, from the Pacific region, from Africa, and from all corners of the UK. There is a multitude of precious people here, who I love and treasure, and this is the short time each year that I get to see many of them. And that I will miss. Tonight is our annual curry night when as many of us as we can round up go out after the meeting for a catch up over something hot – an absolute highlight.

Today I also had the added bonus of being able to grab lunch with Mike Ovey, principal of Oak Hill theological college. Chatting theology with him was fascinating – especially as it followed a seminar I had been in debating the on going debate between John Piper and NT Wright. Mike had some very illuminating things to say about that particular discussion!

This evening PJ Smyth is preaching and is sure to get a rapturous reception. PJ missed last years conference as he discovered a cancerous lump in his neck just before he was about to fly out. Twelve months on and cancer free his message tonight will be – I am sure – inspirational!

The main sessions from the conference are being downloaded as we go, so you can listen to what PJ, and Co. have to say by clicking here.

WHOA! FACEBOOK FRIENDS!

2011-07-05T13:17:00.000+01:00

When my oldest daughter started at high school there was an induction meeting for parents at which one of the senior management team urged us to keep our children away from Facebook. This was due to his pastoral observation that Facebook was a huge distraction that often keeps pupils from focussing on what they need to focus on; and that Facebook often causes emotional harm, as it can become a minefield of bitchiness and bullying (big problems, for adolescent girls particularly).

Daughter No. 1 is now 13, but because we agree with that teachers opinions we are still holding the line and haven’t yet allowed her to have a fb account.

It has been interesting to see the comments provoked by my mild post last week about Facebook – comments on this blog (interestingly, far more than I normally manage to generate), via Twitter, email and so on. I haven’t looked at my fb page for a few days, but I should imagine there are some comments on that too!

OK, so my headline was a bit inflammatory (I find it hard to resist a good headline!) and I would perhaps have been wiser to title my brief thoughts as, “Facebook, Friend and Foe.” But, the title aside, reading back through what I wrote it doesn’t really seem that polemical. It simply reflects an irrefutable pastoral observation, similar to the one my daughter’s deputy-principal made.

It’s not even as if I claimed that peoples status updates were wrong – the very nature of status updates (or Twitter) is that one tends to post either boasting moments or wallowing moments – I do this myself, and don’t feel any need to proclaim a mea culpa about it. The point I was making was simply this: that to immerse yourself in the boasting or wallowing updates of others can have a negative impact upon your own emotional wellbeing. And as I say, this is pastorally observable, and irrefutable.

I am a fairly disciplined person, but even so there are times when I find it hard to focus on the task at hand because social media, email, and the internet generally are so distracting. Back in the day when I was at school I would get distracted by plenty of things, and spent many hours “organizing my files” rather than actually doing homework or revising for exams, but those distractions are as nothing compared with what we have to wrestle today.

It was not wrong to organize my files – but it was a mistake to not actually do any work, as my ‘A’ Level results testify! Facebook is not wrong – but (to return to my original delicious headline) it most surely can be turned to the devil’s work. Facebook can be a very fickle friend – so those who are likely to be dragged down by it would do well to stay away from it.

That is all I was saying – and you can stick that in your status update!

FACEBOOK: THE GREAT SATAN

2011-07-01T15:31:00.000+01:00

Do you use Facebook?

As you are reading a blog I guess you do.

I do, but only in a very limited way. My blogs and twitter account are linked to it, so anything I post there appears on Facebook too, but that’s about all I do with it. I don’t check it very often, and if you have tried to message me via fb, sorry, but I probably haven’t read it. I just don’t like it very much. I recognize its usefulness – it can be great for sharing church news for example – but I’m also alert to its dangers.

There have been some well publicised accounts of church leaders getting uppity about Facebook – the most well publicised being the case of the pastor who ordered church members to shutdown their fb accounts because it was a ‘portal to infidelity’, only to be exposed as having had an affair himself.

While (unlike that pastor) I am not having an affair, the way in which fb can lead people to forming unhealthy online relationships that then become anything but virtual does concern me. (Or, perhaps more frequently, the danger is in rekindling the flame of relationships from the past.) But more prosaically, I am concerned about how fb often messes with peoples emotions.

Mrs Hosier & I were discussing this over lunch with some friends – the trouble with Facebook is that it skews reality. This is what I mean…

If you follow the status updates of your Facebook ‘friends’ you will tend to get a stream either of peoples ‘boasting moments’ in which they say how great their life is; or you will get someone’s wallowing moments, in which they bleat on about how awful everything is. And neither of these do us much good.

Facebook is like friendship porn. You sit alone in your bedroom with your computer, imaging you are entering into something real, but in reality it is a fiction.

If you believe all the boasting moments you are left feeling deflated, isolated, lonely and sad – “Why wasn’t I invited to that? How come I don’t get to do that? Why are they having so much fun and I just have this useless life?” By measuring our normal experiences against everyone else’s best experiences, we will always end up feeling second rate. But the reality is that no-one’s life is that perfect! If you could compare your life with the averageness of everyone else’s life you wouldn’t feel so bad about yourself! And you wouldn’t be so easily led into the deadly sin of envy.

On the other hand, if you keep reading the status updates of people who constantly complain about how tired/ill/depressed/overworked/overstressed they are, then you are going to end up being dragged down with them. But if you spent more time with real people, you would realize that things are not as bad as all that, and you would be less prone to the deadly sin of sloth.

Because the thing is, when I am with real people – whether it be at church on a Sunday morning, or in the pub on a Friday evening – what I find is that some people have had fantastic weeks, with exciting things to talk about, while others have had difficulty, but taken as a whole, most of us are pretty much muddling along ok – and, importantly! – we all muddle along much better when we are looking someone in the eye, patting each other on the shoulder, and generally being present with one another rather than virtual.

So here’s my advice: Try going a week without checking your Facebook page. It won’t kill you you know. It might actually make life better!

PARTNERSHIP WITH MARKET PLACE MINISTERS

2011-06-21T16:44:00.002+01:00

Tapiwa Chizana leads a church in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, as well as being a partner in accountancy firm Deloittes. Here he describes how leaders are being developed in Zim, and how those with some available funds and vision may want to get involved…

The Situation

Zimbabwe, like most third world economies, has a significant population in bondage to systemic poverty. The solution is the gospel of the Kingdom of God, which seeks to transform lives through genuine heart change, resulting in fruitful living. This message should affect how individuals worship God, work in their vocations, and relate to one another. The productivity and fruitfulness of an individual should increase as they embrace the biblical principles, of hard work, faithfulness, and stewardship.

Financial resources are undoubtedly a constraint whilst seeking to preach this message across the Nation and to the ends of the Earth. Most of the people we are seeking to reach and disciple are unemployed, or are not financially self sustaining. A dependency syndrome has crippled communities and eroded the dignity that comes with hard work and the earning of a fair wage as a result.

Our response

We believe that a significant part of our response is to send workers into the harvest field. We would like to train leaders who can preach this message with boldness and authority. We would prefer each “future leader” to learn principles of good work ethic, during this period of training. This would be obtained through formal employment or starting an income generating project.

As part of our response I have outlined a summary of our approach to paid/ non paid pastors. We have embraced the views below from our understanding of scripture as well as the reality of poverty in our context. I.e., very few congregations would be able to give sufficiently to adequately take care of a pastors financial needs.

We believe the following;

• We are all full time for God’s Kingdom, regardless of whether we are serving in the church, or employed in “secular” job, or running a business. We, however, believe there is a place, biblically, for leaders to be sustained by the offerings of the congregation.

• We believe that paid leaders should give themselves to the work of God, as will be evidenced by the Grace of God upon their lives – rather than to expect a salary as a right, when there is no evidence of fruitfulness.

• We believe that we are all “priests” and that God has called us to build churches where all the believers are involved in mission, engaged in serving God, and loving one another, rather than relying solely on the pastor, to meet their needs.

• We are aware that many Per‐urban and Rural churches in Africa do not have the financial resources to adequately cater for the needs of a paid pastor.

• Local church members should be generous, and should not look to other churches or a business as their source of income, but should look to God, as their provider.

• Local church members in our context should be equipped to enable them to become more fruitful financially, through Foundations for Farming, pursuing further education, starting businesses and by assisting them in finding employment.

• We encourage a leader to start off being employed by an existing organisation/ business, or to start a business as a means of obtaining an income, and gaining credibility in the community.

This is how we approach the issue of paid leaders:

• We encourage leaders and volunteers to be involved in the life of the church on a voluntary basis for as long as it is sustainable.

• We generally consider taking on someone as a paid leader when, either of the following exist:

o The work is increasing and is measurable, such that non full time workers cannot cope. This would ordinarily be a focus on prayer and the preaching of the word.

o The Local church is evidently generous and giving sufficiently to pay someone a salary

o The individual considered has the gift mix that can fit the area of need in the church, at that point in time.

Partnership with Market Place Ministers

Market place ministers are defined in this paper as Christians in business and other organisations that are influential within their vocations and spheres of influence for the Glory of God. Most market place ministers are in the unique position to perform the following:

• Give practical wisdom on issues that Christians encounter in the market place on a day to day basis, as applicable.

• Provide employment, or facilitate an individual obtaining employment in an organisation.

• Invest in income generation projects for the primary purpose of providing employment, besides making a profit.

We currently have future leaders living in the Trenance community of Bulawayo, who are unemployed or not financially sustainable. Our effectiveness in training them, and their effectiveness in serving God will be maximised if they were able to find employment in Bulawayo. We believe this to be a critical stepping stone towards our mandate to make disciples of all Nations. We are seeking market place leaders who will be able to partner with us in this regard. Specific information on individuals can be provided.

How you may be able to help

1) Ask me to look for business opportunities in Bulawayo, in which you may be interested in investing directly.

2) Set up some funds for investment (from interested people), and visit Bulawayo, to spy out the land for opportunities.

3) If you are passionate about micro-financing and helping start up small businesses then consider going out to Bulawayo for six months. You will need to have access to the funds mentioned in (2).

If you would like to get in touch with Tapiwa, contact me via: info@gatewaychurch.me.

Thanks!

PRAYING FOR THE DEPRESSED

2011-06-08T13:42:00.001+01:00

Anxiety and depression have reached almost epidemic proportions in Western society, and the church is not immune from this. At Gateway we have called a day of prayer and fasting today for those who are struggling with depression, but knowing exactly how to pray can be difficult. How, then, should we pray for Christians who are suffering from these illnesses? Here are a few pointers…

Pray with sensitivity for the body of Christ

· If you are a Christian you are intimately and organically connected with other Christians, and this is worked out by your membership of a local church. What happens to one part of this body affects every other part – as 1 Corinthians 12:26 says, “If one member suffers, all suffer together.”

· This means praying for others with compassion even if you cannot empathize with what they are going through. Those who have never suffered depression can find it very difficult to understand the illness – don’t let this be a bar to compassion!

· The letter to the Galatians says that we are to “bear one another’s burdens” yet at the same time each one of us is to “bear your own load” (Gal 6:2,5). Corporately we are to help each other. Individually we are not to give up!

· As 1 Thessalonians 5:14 urges us, we need to treat people with an appropriate combination of gentleness and firmness – and recognize that we won’t always get this balance right.

Pray for sudden breakthrough

· Sometimes those suffering with depression have an encounter with God that leads to their immediate and total healing. We should pray for this!

· Sickness is part of the curse of our fallen world, and as the kingdom of God breaks in sickness is banished – so we should always pray for immediate deliverance.

Trust in the sovereignty of God

· While we pray in faith for immediate breakthrough, very often we have to endure under hardship. Immediate healing is under the sovereignty of God, and so is patient endurance.

· We need to believe Romans 8:28-30!

· Our troubles are meant to drive us closer to God, as they prove and purify our faith. The struggles we go through are permitted by a sovereign God in order that we might be conformed to the image of Christ.

· Often it is our sufferings that do the most to shape us in a Christ-like way, and the end result of this is our glorification!

· We mustn’t allow our lack of understanding to be a bar to God’s perfect understanding. Often our suffering will seem inexplicable (just look at the story of Job!) but we must stay firm in the belief that God is working out his sovereign plan.

· In this life we will experience many things that cause us to groan in pain, but the sure hope of resurrection should keep us pressing on (2 Corinthians 5:4).

· Recognizing the sovereignty of God also releases us from the pressure of thinking we have to fix everything – in the end God is in control.

Fight the battle for the mind

· Our worship of God is meant to involve our bodies and our minds, and this means we need to engage in a fight that is both body and mind (Romans 12:1-2).

· Sometimes the cause of depression is physical, due to chemical imbalances in the brain. When this is the case we need to pray for physical healing.

· We also need to pray for the development of right thought patterns. Our minds can be trained for better or worse. We should train them for better!

· The battle for the mind involves a fight against anxiety and for God’s peace (Philippians 4:6-7). The way we engage in this fight is not by focussing on anxiety, but on truth and hope. Truth and hope grow in us as we make a practice of thankfulness. We need to train our minds towards gratitude.

Break the power of sin

· Anxiety/depression can be the result of sin.

· If the sin is something that has been committed against you, then lay hold of the death of Christ which is our expiation. This means that Christ’s death has absorbed all the sin that has defiled us. Christ’s death means you are no longer defiled by what others have done to you, but declared spotless because of Christ’s atoning blood.

· Laying hold of this means developing the practice of forgiveness. As long as we remain in unforgiveness to someone, we are not free from what they have done to us.

· However, if the root of anxiety/depression is sin that has been committed by you, then repent, and lay hold of the death of Christ which is our propitiation. This means that the wrath of God which should be our just reward has instead been born by Christ, so God’s anger has been turned away from us. Hallelujah!

Identify our cultural vulnerabilities to anxiety/depression

· Many people suffer from options paralysis – we have so many options we find it impossible to decide which to choose!

· Choice is not always a blessing and can be the cause of huge mental stress.

· In the Western world we are not engaged in a physical fight for survival, as most people in most places for most of history have been. But our enemy is always looking for ways to destroy us – and emotional sickness is one way by which he attempts this.

· In response, we need to find our security and identity in Christ, and be alert to Satan, resisting him so that he will flee from us (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Recognize that it is often good things that cause anxiety/depression

· Significant causes of depression are things that should make us happy! This includes such things as a house move, job change, marriage, or having a baby.

· We need to identify Satan’s tactics to rob us of joy – and fight!

· We need to recognize a spiritual fight for what it is, and lay hold of the armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-18).

Thank God for common grace

· There are many things God provides for us that can help us in the fight against depression, and we should thank him for them, even if they seem very ‘normal’.

· These things include friends to talk to, medication, sick pay, and appropriate therapies. These are gifts from God, which we are to be thankful for.

· Thankfulness is a powerful weapon against depression!

Fight the stigma and shame

· The shame of suffering depression can be a significant reason for keeping us locked in depression. We need to fight this.

· This doesn’t mean that everyone has to know everything about our mental health – just as we might not want everyone to know everything about personal physical health issues.

· We need to recognize that Jesus is our scapegoat, who has born our shame and disgrace (Hebrews 12:2). In him, we will never be put to shame!

· We also need to see the honesty and rawness of the Bible, when great saints of God call out in emotional pain to him. E.g., Psalm 22.

· We need to find people we can talk to appropriately, about what we are experiencing, without feeling ashamed.

Grasp who you are in Christ

· If you are a Christian then you are chosen by God and precious to him. You are part of his body and bride, and he delights over you. Jesus died to save you, the Father has adopted you, and the Spirit dwells in you. Feed yourself on these truths.