On Christian ministry

I have recently been accepted as a 'Probationary Regionally Recognised Minister' by the West of England Baptist Association. I wanted to share a little bit of my history that explains how I got to this point with my fellow believers in church and so this is a slightly edited version of something I wrote for our church magazine.

 About 5 or 6 years ago, while living in North Yorkshire, I felt a strong call from God into Christian ministry. At the time I did not know what form this would take. I wondered whether God wanted to use me in urban ministry, to reach out to people in a poor area. At the same time I decided I needed to move further south, so I could be closer to my parents in Cardiff.

As I prepared to move south and started to look for a new place to live some things happened. In the first place, I felt God telling me very clearly that he did not want me in urban ministry. Then as I started to house hunt I felt drawn firstly to the Forest of Dean and secondly to Lydbrook. So, to cut a long story short, I moved into Lydbrook in November 2010. It was great to find such a loving and caring church family here in Lydbrook, and after a while I felt myself drawn into preaching, and then into leadership. I have also been studying theology online with Spurgeons' College in London because it is very important to me that I am do this thing properly. I would hate my preaching or teaching to cause confusion.

About eighteen months ago I got in touch with WEBA about getting recognition for this calling. A Regionally Recognised Minister is someone seeking to serve in a ‘limited sphere’ within WEBA. I can only exercise ministry within our association, which is fine as I'm not thinking of going anywhere else. I want to help God lead this church forward, so we can become the community of faith He wants us to be. Praise God that WEBA has recognised my calling. I have to meet a Regional Minister in March to talk over all this entails, which is a little daunting, but I know that God will equip me to do whatever is in His will.

Talking about disability and healing

Here are a few thoughts that I put together for a sermon at another local church. The idea was to choose a current topic of interest and link it to the Bible. I possibly went a bit off-piste on that one, but here is where I ended up.

I decided at the beginning of the week that I would say something to you about one of the major news items this week, and there have certainly been a lot to choose from. But if you have watched the BBC at all this week, the most important news item seemed to be related to the live week on Eastenders, So today I will be talking about the death of Lucy. But this is not the death of Lucy Beale, it's someone you have probably never heard of. This was a very small news item that caught my eye. Lucy's death was not widely reported because it was not violent, but it was very sad because when she died last month she was only 29.

Lucy Glennon had a genetic disease called  epidermolysis bullosa  which causes the skin and internal body linings to blister at the slightest knock or rub. The effect is equivalent to a third-degree burn and Lucy lived a life of constant pain. The disease was also progressive, so got worse as she got older.

Read more about Lucy here.http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/17/lucy-glennon-disability-activist-real-effects-of-cuts?CMP=fb_gu

You have to read the whole of the article to understand that this was someone who, despite all her problems, was witty and lived life to the full. Also, despite everything, she was a committed Christian. Her sister told of how Lucy was once asked how she could believe in God when she was in so much pain. “She stopped and thought about it,” says Sally, “then said that over the years she thought of all the people who looked after her, and nursed her, and she sees God and love in every one of those people.”

Lucy was someone who lived an almost disregarded life, despite her impressive qualities. I rather think she is with her Father now, healed at last. Jesus always had compassion on those in need of healing, even if they were people others ignored. Our Bible story is a case in point. It is one of the least quoted healing miracles and tells of a woman with a long term spinal condition. We are told she could not straighten herself up properly. Imagine what it was like living with that for 18 years. It was so long that probably people did not even notice this woman's problem any more. However Jesus noticed her. She may well have been elderly, and as a woman was not viewed as important, but we know Jesus always noticed the humble, the disregarded. She did not even seek healing – maybe she had given up hoping. But Jesus called her forward (as a woman she would have been at the back of the synagogue) and placed his hands on her and healed her. Sadly the synagogue ruler is more interested in upholding the letter of the law on the Sabbath than on rejoicing the fact that this woman is freed from her captivity to Satan. Jesus cared about everyone equally – think about the people he healed. He healed the son of a hated Roman centurion as readily as he healed Jairus's daughter. He healed Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. Everyone is equal in the kingdom of God.

How did you feel about Lucy's story? It seemed a bit unfair that someone so obviously good and hardworking was afflicted with such a dire condition. Why wasn't she healed? We see people who get amazing healing – and we see people who do not get healed. In truth we all await the final healing in heaven. In a book I am reading called Becoming a true spiritual community By Larry Crabb the writer tells of how he shared with a group about he struggled with, his need for approval and to gain glory from his calling. But as he spoke he was worried that people would try to 'sort him out' whereas all he wanted was acceptance, because he believed that he would never be healed in this life, not because he did not believe in healing but because he knew it was too too deeply entrenched in his psyche to sort out in this life, and that also maybe because it was this sense of being a wounded person that kept him seeking after God.  

Sometimes people give us negative messages about healing; that God would heal us if only we believed, or confessed sin in our lives. But we're not put here to be turned into perfect beings in this life, rather to go on a journey with and to God. To do that involves being honest with God and with ourselves and acknowledging that we all have messy, unsatisfactory things in our lives because we live in a messy, unsatisfactory, broken, fallen, sinful world – call it what you will! And we know that we have a heavenly Father who loves us. We know this God loves the Coptic Christians who were murdered because of their faith. He also longs to reach out to their executioners. He cares equally for those on both sides in the conflict in Ukraine. God cares so much he sent his only Son into the world and Jesus says we can see him in everyone in this world who is in need. We can see him in the black man jostled off a train in Paris...and his Father seeks out the lost, including the Chelsea fans who abused him. God is alongside the Muslim parents desperately praying for their daughters to return home, and with Lucy's family as they mourn her loss. I hope you will take with you this knowledge that you are loved, and I pray that we can all take that love into the world either through our words or through our actions. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always. Amen.

He is the image of the invisible God

If you were explaining your faith to someone who knew next to nothing about it they might ask you 'why do you worship Jesus? Who is he?' Imagine trying to answer that question, maybe to someone you had met briefly, trying to explain the importance of Jesus in one paragraph. Well, in his epistle to the Colossians St. Paul does a very good summary in verses 15 – 20.

The passage divides into three sections, and each one tells us a different thing about Christ, all of which add up to explain why He is at the centre of our faith.

Firstly we are told that Jesus is 'the image of the invisible God' - Jesus shows us what God is like, and more than that , he is so close to God that he was there when creation began (like wisdom, and you may recall John 1: Jesus is the word, and God's word is wise). Jesus has a unique role in creation: he helped create, he rules over it all and he holds it together. You may be reminded of John 1 as well as Proverbs 8:22, which tells us that the first thing God created was wisdom: so in that light, does that mean Jesus is Wisdom, and Proverbs, when it talks about 'wisdom' really speaks of Jesus? I don't think any commentators believe this: some believe that when New Testament writers wrote about Jesus they were influenced by the Old Testament – they wrote according to their faith tradition, and so they used the descriptions of wisdom to help them express the centrality of Jesus to God's plan. In Isaiah 11: 2 we are told that the Messiah will be the one on whom God's spirit of wisdom rests. So Jesus being equated with wisdom , and being someone who was known for his wisdom, shows that He is the Anointed One.

There is something else going on here. The fact that Jesus is so much part of the big picture reminds us that when he created the world God planned everything. For atheists the very existence of the world is random. Everything is because of chance. Despite evidence that our very existence, the size of our planet, its closeness to the sun, the presence of water, needed to exist within very narrow parameters, for many everything is a result of random mutations. But the Bible tells a very different message. This is not about evolution versus creationism, it is about plan and purpose versus accident and chance. As Christians we believe in a world that is here for a reason, where God has an overarching plan, and our lives have real meaning, and at the centre of that meaning is Jesus.

Then in verse 18 we have a shift in emphasis from the transcendent figure of Christ, the Messiah, Creator and Son of God, to Jesus the head of the church. What a difference. Suddenly we, as members of the church are connected to the creator of the universe. You may be feeling very very far away from Jesus at the moment. In body terms you might feel like the big toe: but we all know that if you stub your toe it has an impact on the head – the mouth usually says 'ow'! Toes might not feel very important or even very lovely at times, but we know they come in very handy when you need to walk anywhere. And even though it is a long way from the head the big toe is controlled by the head. Despite the times we feel distant from Jesus, we are connected to him: the same blood runs through the whole body. We have a relationship with Jesus, he walks alongside us.

The third thing I want to highlight is how Paul describes Jesus' role in life – his job description. It is not to do miracles, preach sermons or make disciples; it is to 'reconcile to himself all things.' And how does he do that? Through the cross. The problem with the wonderful relationship we should have with God is that too often we don't have it (remember Adam walking in the garden with God?). Our relationship gets spoiled. Sometimes we have distractions in our life, or we may have had life events that drove us away from God, but the root problem is sin. And sin is not just disobedience to God, it is also the breaking of a precious friendship. It was to restore that broken relationship that Christ gave his life. And what is truly mind-blowing is that it is not just to make us acceptable to God, to give us the confidence to stand in God's presence, that Christ died; he died to bring all things on earth and heaven – everything to that place of reconciliation. The cross is not just our place of reconciliation, it is also a reminder that the final goal of creation is reconciliation to Christ.

This passage is amazing, and beautiful, but it may seem remote from your daily life. I believe we may learn things that can help us today. Firstly we learn that we are created for a purpose. God's world is made for a purpose, and we were made for a purpose too. Our lives have real meaning. I want to ask you a question: do you truly believe your life has real meaning?

Secondly we realise that we are created to have a relationship with Jesus. We are part of his body. Do you know Jesus, do you sense him walking beside you in your daily life?

Thirdly, we may feel very distant from God because of life events, or because of sin. But we know that through Jesus' sacrifice we have the confidence to approach God's throne. The cross puts all things right – it gives us reconciliation with God. So, are you feeling at peace with God, or are there jagged edges in your life that are making you uncomfortable?