Selling Baptist Life: Part 3. Making a Mockery

Having forked out £19 million for a very interesting old religious building, an upscale hotel franchise has to decide what to do with it.  One option is to ignore its history.  Another is to embrace it a little (Bunyan's pristine restored statue - see Part 1).  In the end though, whether we are standing by Noah's half-built ark, by Jeremiah prophesying in encircled Jerusalem or at the foot of the Son of God's cross at Golgotha the unchanging inclination of an unbelieving world is to resort to mockery.

Over the years my sense of humour, not least in churches, has irked some primpy souls so it is from such a personality that I write that the way the hotel has appropriated Biblical themes in the old Baptist House is not funny at all.

I'm OK with The Baptist Grill conjuring memories of several church interviews.  Or even that person who doesn't leave after church with the others but lurks, waiting for the pleasantries to be over so that they can deliver their unpleasantry!

But hereon you may like to refer to the hotel's website (click here), a venue 'Devoted to the Divine.'

'Chef Tony Fleming will preach the gospel for seasonal British ingredients'

'In an irony Oscar Wilde would have appreciated a place of piety has been transformed into a place of decadence'

'The business of L'Oscar is to put every temptation in front of its guests'

'The Baptist Bar: Succumb to Temptation . . . sip on a 'New Testament' cocktail.'

'Perfect for a late night pilgrimage'

All in all it shows up the problem of building religion into stone and not into souls.  For while those who served the Lord they loved in that place are largely gone into His nearer presence where they cannot be mocked, their building and heritage in stone has fallen victim to the mercilessness of a secular age.

Selling Baptist Life: Part 2. Alexander MacLaren

'This Memorial Stone was laid by Alexander Maclaren D.D. LittD., President of the Baptist Union 1875-76 and 1901-2 on Wednesday 24th April 1901.'

Many of us have benefited from the Dr Maclaren's sermons, published with an enthusiasm not so far short of those of C H Spurgeon (though without the same earthy wit).  What would the good doctor make of the disengagement of this building that he witnessed in its proud inauguration?

He might do quite well - here is Maclaren preaching on God's refusal, delivered by the prophet Nathan, to allow King David to build him a house (i.e. a Jerusalem Temple):

Unless we can with our hearts rejoicingly confess, 'Thou art the King of glory, O Christ! Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,' we do not pierce to the full understanding of Nathan's prophecy.
He, that is Christ, has built the true Temple, in that His body is the seat of sacrifice and of revelation, and the meeting-place of God and man, and inasmuch as through Him we are built up into a spiritual house for an habitation of God. In Him is fulfilled the great prophecy of 'My Servant the Branch,' who 'shall build the Temple of the Lord' and 'be a Priest upon His throne.' In Him, too, is fulfilled in highest truth the filial relationship... In that filial relation lies the assurance of Christ's everlasting kingdom, for 'the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.'

God's work is never ultimately about buildings.

Sabbatical Picture No 6 The Baptist Font

Baptists are in short supply in Jerusalem.  There is nothing new about that.  You may find some near an American Pilgrimage Tour Bus (though there are, to be fair, a handful of Baptist churches in Jerusalem).  Baptists might wish to point out that the first Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 2) were practicing Believers' Baptism which basic jewel of Christian truth was recovered largely thanks to our Baptist forefathers in church history.

Commonly Christian visitors to the Holy Land think of being baptised in the River Jordan, where Christ himself was baptised by John.  A minor tourist industry engages in indiscriminate baptism there which I would howl at theologically were it not that in one of my churches I discovered that one of the most conservative, dependable and hard-working ladies of the church was baptised there on a pilgrimage and it had been her key spiritual moment (as well as her only baptism).

The picture here is not the River Jordan though.  It is in the Anglican Cathedral - St George's - in Jerusalem.  Was the Bishop who built this (otherwise very English) cathedral a closet Baptist?

The answer is no.  This is a diplomatic baptistry (the icon behind it is a clue).  The high Anglican Bishop had it built to indicate his positivity toward the Orthodox Christians in the city and its surrounds.  (As most Baptists probably don't know, the Orthodox Church generally practices baptism by immersion, though most commonly (and scarily) to not-yet-believing infants.)

Today the baptistry is used sometimes, though ironically it was built with no real intention that it should be.

Baptist Churches in Britain usually have a baptistry that was built with the intention that it would be used.  In last year's submitted statistics (though the strongest churches can't be bothered with such things as a rule) the 2000 churches in the Baptist Union averaged one baptism each.   So we have built baptistries that were intended to be used and we don't use them.

The Love that leaves

Today we celebrate the birthday of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, London's greatest ever Baptist preacher by a mile and then some.  

Though his great appeal was to the soul of the ordinary man as well as to the social needs of a great but exploitative city, he was not willing to watch some other clever or compromising Baptists demolish the basis of the faith that has served the Gospel so well.  

However in this key passage at the start of the divisive Downgrade Controversy he demonstrates the reluctant pain with which believers who believe the Bible part company from those who state they believe the Bible (or that they believe the Bible but it doesn't mean what it plainly says).

It now becomes a serious question how far those who abide by the faith once delivered to the saints should fraternise with those who have turned aside to another gospel. Christian love has its claims, and divisions are to be shunned as grievous evils; but how far are we justified in being in confederacy with those who are departing from the truth? It is a difficult question to answer so as to keep the balance of the duties. For the present it behoves believers to be cautious, lest they lend their support and countenance to the betrayers of the Lord. It is one thing to overleap all boundaries of denominational restriction for the truth's sake: this we hope all godly men will do more and more. It is quite another policy which would urge us to subordinate the maintenance of truth to denominational prosperity and unity. Numbers of easy-minded people wink at error so long as it is committed by a clever man and a good-natured brother, who has so many fine points about him. Let each believer judge for himself; but, for our part, we have put on a few fresh bolts to our door, and we have given orders to keep the chain up; for, under colour of begging the friendship of the servant, there are those about who aim at robbing the Master.

Baptist Assembly Lite

I haven't been to Peterborough often.  For an FA Cup game years ago, and to visit the Cathedral is about it.  I've felt a little inclined to visit Kingsgate Community Church - obviously because it's an Evangelical honeypot, but also because I've appreciated Dave Smith's biblical ministry.  It's amazing what can be achieved with the Holy Spirit, the Word of God and a heart for outreach.

I gave the Baptist Assembly a miss this year.  It occupied the Peterborough building that Dave and others minister in (though it isn't big enough for them in one sitting).  Soberingly, the Baptist Movement [note our new word] fitted in at one sitting comfortably.  I've been speaking to several friends who went to find out what (apart from gender balance - we won an award, you know) I missed.

First the good news:

1. I didn't miss any preaching and certainly not any Biblical exposition.  Squeezed down from three days to one, some things just have to go.  How about the preaching of the Bible?  I wonder if any of those responsible pondered at all about the symbolism of meeting in a Bible Church that has grown exponentially and ditching the Bible?    Click here to listen to Dave Smith preaching from the Bible for 40 minutes.

2. I did miss the opening (let the Baptist Times describe it) Ed Jones invited three Regional Ministers onto the stage and asked them to place a toilet roll on their heads - and unroll it as quickly as possible. This was to emphasise that the Assembly was intergenerational.  This defies comment.

3. I didn't miss (what I have often found the most moving of things at Assembly) the individual recognition of those who have died, and those others about to be recognised in ministry and mission.  They were, instead, made part of a wall which is a nice thought provided they are also given some individual named space too.  No time for that this year of course.

4.  I didn't miss the joy of meeting lots of people I've not met in years or ever before and spending time talking with them.  No time for that this year of course.

Now the bad news:

And lastly, I really must get to the Kingsgate Community Church some time .  It's amazing what can be achieved with the Holy Spirit, the Word of God and a heart for outreach.

Congratulations?

If there is one point in an Induction when I wince it is when someone (often someone who I feel should know better) congratulates the new Pastor on their appointment.  The Biblical verbal phrase that seems to cover this kind of appointment is being set apart.  The implication - no, it is the explicit meaning - of congratulation is of human achievement, of promotion, of a new job successfully negotiated, of privilege or of some combination of some of those.

Setting apart is not a reason to be congratulated or commiserated.   If the year 4 teacher in one school is promoted to be Deputy Head in another you send a congratulatory message.  If the year 4 teacher is assigned year 2 next year you observe and note the change.  That is setting apart and exactly characterises the New Testament's approach to Christian ministry though of course not the disciples' - which earned them a telling off from Jesus.

 

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,  and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,  even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

 

This seems clear enough.

 

Today one of the Gentile rulers, David Cameron, changed his Government cabinet around - in the lordly manner that Gentile rulers do when an election is looming.  Meanwhile, in the Church of England Synod  the decision was made to allow the appointment of female Bishops.   David Cameron thought this was a great idea - most specifically, "a great day for the Church and for equality".

 

It all sounds so plausible.  It is a total denial of the meaning of ministry.  What is this equality?  Seen in the skewed vision of a venerable British establishment Institution and through the eyes of a Gentile ruler women have just broken through a glass ceiling.

 

Seen through the eyes of Jesus and the radical values of the Gospel they have secured a lower place than they had when generically left at home doing the ironing.  No congratulations there then.  Wait a minute: here comes (my italics) Regional Minister (Team Leader) of the East Midlands Baptist Association the Revd Dianne Tidball with the official Baptist line:

 

“Congratulations to our Anglican friends on having the wisdom, courage and grace to open the door to women becoming Bishops.  We are pleased to learn that the vote enabling women to fulfil all roles within the church has been passed.  We are delighted that the wider church will have the opportunity to benefit further from the gifts and experience that women, already in senior roles, will bring."

 

That's it I guess.  If you believe in senior roles, you offer congratulations.  Is there anyone out there who believes Jesus actually meant what he said?  If we are denying ourselves how can we thereby be congratulated or achieve a this-worldly equality?

Chu Chu Church

I imagine myself on a railway station.  This particular railway is only one of several that link the our region with the Destination City.

The railway that I travel on (my kind of ticket is not accepted on the other lines) has introduced a new way of operating from next summer.  The track systems  manager and the operations manager will lose their jobs and a new manager will look after everything (if she/he can).  Sometimes the thirteen trains a day will be reduced to six because there will probably be less drivers.  There will certainly be less maintenance engineers.  We are assured, however, that the railway will in fact be far more efficient at moving people to the Destination City.  I wonder how assured I am by this assurance.

Then there is the Big Railway down the road.  With its 42 trains a day (admittedly using some very old and varied but decorative rolling stock)  there is really no competition in this region.  It does have problems with the public however as it forbids women train drivers (though they can sit in the cab). 

Meanwhile, in the Destination City, the railways' purchaser, owner, inventor and builder looks at the diminishing passenger numbers from this particular region - which is his great concern.

 

 

Pentecostal Church Worship Leader leads worship for Redeemed Christian Church of God Pastor preaching at Methodist Central Hall

I enjoy the Baptist Assembly.  And I enjoyed the one that has just finished.  Many thanks to those who worked hard to make it happen.  Given that these are tense times of financial shortfall it was especially good that spiritual focus and Christian courtesy were maintained.

True, in Baptist Churches (and others) large and small I attend occasions that are more worshipful, more prayerful, more Biblical, more challenging, more comforting, more encouraging, more friendly, more inspiring or more valuable.  Yet the general sense of the occasion is that the Lord Jesus is at the centre and the machinations of church structural life are at the margins and this is something that many a meeting of church groupings fails to achieve.

This year's Assembly was largely at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, London.  This produced a very different feel to the balmy seaside locations in far flung corners of England that the Assembly usually inhabits.  The sound of police sirens replaced that of seagulls, strolls on the promenade gave way to escalators on the Underground and the proportion of white faces dropped in a minor version of the manner familiar to all who leave little English towns for a daring day trip to the Metropolis.

It was peciliar at times.  One peculiarity, captured in the blog heading, is the strange way that the Baptists themselves became the audience in their own Assembly.  This was not universally true but was a marked feature of the final gathering.  The Baptist Union has shrunk of course since its Edwardian heyday and indeed its current project is to attempt to shrink some more (for financial reasons).  But it still consists of thousands of churches, leaders and tens of thousands of Christians.  Worldwide, Baptist Christians make up one of Christianity's more populous and dynamic branches. Yet assembling British Baptists ended their Assembly at a location and with a worship leader and a speaker all from different expressions of the church.

I'm not sure what I think about this.  (I'm a lot surer about what I think of the second peculiarity but I'll come on to that another day when I've calmed down).  My instincts, like that of most Baptist Christians in the UK, are not very denominational (see earlier post).  Surely, though, Baptists have in their worldwide ranks some people who can lead worship at the three evening meetings as helpfully as the guy who did so.  Yes, I know he went to the Royal College of Music but so does the pianist in our Church Youth band.  Nothing wrong with what he did, but little variance from soft rock convention-style fare (well, perhaps that was what was wrong with it . . .).  The speaker was a national figure of considerable warmth and import but his visiting courtesy probably rendered him far less prophetic than he would have been to his own church grouping if it was in the same state that we are.

Perhaps the difference between visiting artistes and family members is that the artiste performs on the night but a family member behaves with an eye on the next morning.  The worship leader artiste imagines the next conference not next Sunday in Bloglington Baptist Church; the artiste speaker imagines ecumenical networking not Bloglington BC's (and the Blogshire Association's)  inadequacies inherited, incoming or self-inflicted.  Is this why the family counsellor will always make it their goal to get a troubled family talking to itself rather than listening to their outside input?

One connected observation.  If our speaker, worship leader or the Central Hall itself wish to become recognised as Baptist ministries (and no, I don't think this is likely!) they may yet be surprised at the paperwork, committee work, and possible rejection this would entail for them.  I think there is irony in that somewhere.

One of my problems has always been that, even when I'm enjoying myself, I think too much. 

Denominated

Maybe it's because the first five letters are an obvious anagram of demon.  Whatever.  Denomination is a very unpopular word, especially among English Baptists.  It's the last thing we want to be called.

This is poignant as at this time at least a few earnest English Baptists furiously (sometimes literally) debate the future of our denomination, er sorry - family, whoops - movement (or should that be stream?).  This debate might have been triggered by a fresh reading of the New Testament, by a desire to root out heresy or by an urgent sense of the need for more of the kingdom in the churches or the world but, it must be admitted, it actually owes its origin to the state of the economy.  Less money means prioritising and pruning.  Mind, like the New Testament those financial difficulties do have a Greek context I suppose . . .  Anyway, the one denominated weekend of the year comes up in a few days with the Baptist Assembly.

So I thought about denomination (I'll freely admit to disliking the word myself).

I can't think of any everyday place where the word is used except the one in which I worked for the first six years of my working life - a bank.  Strange to relate, although the word was part of the daily story at the bank nobody (unlike the Baptists) regarded it as a bad word.  And still nobody does, as far as I know.

Why is the denominated £10.00 an alright thing - even a good thing when you have five of them instead of a £50.00 note as a rule - but being a Baptist or a Presbyterian is a bad thing?  "I'm not really a £10.00 note, I'm money" is somehow true but also, well, silly.  "I'm not a Presbyterian, I'm a Christian" seems so, well, saintly.

The history of Christianity is littered with the proven futilities of denominations that think they are the only note in the wallet, that imprinted with the Spirit, the Pope, the Bible translation, the baptismal formula, day of worship, the liturgical words or the fastest growing this that or the other they are the £10.00 that all money should be.  All the while forgetting that only the signature of the One Who Gives Them Value gives them value.  He doesn't seem to mind denominations but they cannot self-validate.  The £10.00 note accepts there are other notes that are money but unashamedly does what it can do, which is not unique or even indispensable but as valuable pound for pound as that of its fellow denominations.

This is my slight alarm about English Baptists.  I am not sure that we are that bothered about the Signatory. He may well have an interest in pacifism, human diversity, interfaith dialogue or community justice but his signature is really for purchasing salvation. 

As the (Presbyterian) woman pictured on the denominated note above once wrote, Good is good, but it is not enough; it must be God.

Baptist Times

The news that the Baptist Times is to be published no more after 2011 struck me is a similar way to that described by Catriona Gorton; I'm somehow sadder than I expect to be.  Steve Holmes has written a good blog on why it probably matters.

The Baptist Times has not played a large part in my life.  Apart from a supplement where our Church was featured my only appearance in the paper was for one of my inductions to a Pastorate: a couple of weeks later a more famous Baptist minister (also called John Roberts) arranged for a rebuttal to assure his friends that he had not, in fact, been called to the church that I'd been called to!

Oh, and when I was a student I had a letter published too.  It was about the ecumenical movement and somebody took it and turned it into a pamphlet which was my introduction to the fact that once your words are out there you have little control over them - a helpful lesson ahead of blogging!

The predominant effect of the Baptist Times over the years has been to irritate me.  So, true to form, before I read the announcement of its closure (I never read papers and magazines from front to back and the announcement was near the front), it irritated me again.

Often it is the pretentious letters (and that happened again) but there was also the editorial.  This was mocking refreshments after services and (of course) the length of sermons.  The editorial was headed 'First Impressions' and was alluding to the woeful ones that Baptist Churches allegedly give.  But you know what?  Scarcely ever - in any of the churches I've served - have I heard first-time or relatively new  unchurched people complain about the refreshments (which is unsurprising if you've visited a hospital, travelled on a train or sat in an airport lately).  More astonishingly they scarcely ever complain about the length of services or even sermons.  No, the complaints - if they come at all - come from people who have been going to church for years (and frequently on behalf of their growing children who are in the process of deciding that the Christian faith may not be for them.  I think we Christian parents have to accept that the coffee is unlikely to be the major factor there . . .)

I wouldn't greatly respect these potshots on any week but they had a special irony on a week when the paper itself was seen to be a failed enterprise after 156 years.  Statistically the fall in BT circulation is catastrophic compared to the decline in Baptist Churches.  Maybe if they'd offered coffee/biscuit vouchers and free sermon DVDs . . .