A few thoughts

It has been a beautiful day today. This afternoon the sun was shining brightly, and although there was a brisk north-easterly wind it was not too cold for a steady walk. The trees have not yet turned colour to any great extent, the grass still looks fresh and green and there was a brightness and clarity about the landscape – vivid green fields, newly trimmed hedges, the hills dark against a blue sky, even the whirling turbines on the hillside didn’t look too out of place. God’s creation is full of beauty and interest and is much more evocative, soothing or stimulating than any TV set.

I have recently been reading Garry Williams’ Silent Witnesses and greatly enjoying it. One place struck me as rather odd. In talking about styles of worship he refers to those who are apparently stuck in the 1950’s. But the services of the early 1950’s were very generally characterised by choirs, solos and testimonies, especially in evening gospel services. That decade was then considerably enlivened by the influence of Youth for Christ and the Billy Graham crusades. It was in the 1950’s that some of us, myself included, reacted against what was perceived to be a rather superficial and perhaps man-centred approach to worship, with often somewhat of a dash of sentimentality: ‘I walked in the garden alone, while the dew was still on the roses…’ or words to that effect. No, we shouldn’t try to ape the ‘50’s’, or any other period of time. We must be guided by the precepts and principles of the Word of God.

Last weekend Grace Baptist Church, Lancaster, remembered with gratitude to God twenty-five years of Pastor Phil Arthur’s ministry and thirty-one years of the church’s existence. It was a day to be remembered and, as someone who ministered in Lancaster to a group of Christians prior to the founding of the church, I think I can say that God has been glorified and his name honoured through the witness and work of the church.