150 years of Grace Baptist Mission

Saturday saw Mary and me at the Renewal Centre in Solihull for the 150th anniversary meetings of Grace Baptist mission. This was a great day, though leaving home just after 7am and arriving back after 10pm made it very long. The main speaker was Don Carson who spoke with his usual passion and biblical insight. Part of the evening service was recorded by the BBC and broadcast next morning on radio 4 (available now on I-player). Don mentioned quite innocuously Muslims and Christians, but this was removed from the broadcast - how sensitive can you get? There was much to stir the heart. Over 1400 people gathered. After the first session we found it better to be in one of the overflow rooms rather than the main auditorium. We met numbers of people from the past, going back right to Bible College days. One thing struck me - some of the more recent missionaries are actually going to the countries from which they originate. This seems a wholly admirable and valuable thing. May more such be sent out.

An old haunt

At the end of last week my wife and I visited Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire where, 20 years ago and more, we often visited with our family. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon we walked, with one of our daughters, sons in law and granddaughter, along by the side of the lake with the sun shimmering on the water. The narrow gauge railway train was puffing up and down alongside and lots of visitors were strolling by or sitting at the water’s edge. The lake is actually a reservoir, built in 1797, to feed the Cauldon canal. It was here that John Kipling first met Alice MacDonald and so they gave its name to their famous son. It was a favourite spot for outings in the Victorian era, especially for people from the Potteries and Macclesfield. It is hidden gem, not so well known when we first used to go there, but having something of a renaissance now – but not too much of one, I hope.

Comments

I see that at the ‘God’s Glory, our Joy’ conference next Saturday in Warrington the opening session is entitled, ‘Building Biblical Churches in an Ageing Society’. How fascinating, and how relevant! Already the proportion of older people in this country is getting greater and greater and that of younger people proportionally smaller. This is the first time I have seen any Christians acknowledge this or suggest we should prepare for it. What differences would this make to our worship? Should it make any?

A commission carried out by the Royal College of GP’s and the Health Foundation charity says that doctors should adopt the role once taken by the ‘local priest’. This, I think, is a challenge to pastors and churches. A pastor, or elder, who really knows the families in the church, and reaches out to relatives beyond the church; who understands people, who knows how to get alongside them, who is able to give good general advice and be a real friend, is doing invaluable work and making openings for the gospel that are hard to get in any other way. I think we have probably failed very much in this area – and I don’t think GP’s will ever be able to fill the gap, even on a social level.

Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs

In his recent biography of John MacArthur Iain Murray refers to the use of musical instruments in Christian worship. He says: ‘In the Reformed tradition, the use of one musical instrument, simply to set the tune, is a very different thing from introducing a collection of instruments as a part of worship, as in the Temple: a single instrument may belong to adiaphora, or “things indifferent”, no more to be regarded as a part of worship than the pulpit on which the preacher stands.’ It seems to me that this is correct, because it is part of Christian worship for the congregation of God’s people to sing and make melody ‘to the Lord’ (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16). In most nonconformist services the verbal participation of the congregation is limited to sung praise and possibly the ‘Lord’s Prayer’. It is sad thing when Christians do not realise that it is their privilege, their duty, and should be their joy, to open their mouths and sing to the Lord from their hearts. Who would really want to be playing when he or she ought to be praising?