GadgetVicar

John Stott

John Stott died today. You can read more about him via the link. Richard Bewes, one of his successors as Rector of All Souls, Langham Place, writes:

Beloved John Stott, my next-door neighbour for 22 years, went to Glory at 3.15 this afternoon, (British time). He had not been ill, but - at 90 - he had simply done enough, and slipped away peacefully at the home where he has been so well looked after, at St Barnabas College, Lingfield in Surrey. His secretary for over 50 years, Frances Whitehead, was with him; also his niece Caroline (and her daughter Emily), together with his faithful visitor Philip Herbert.

So far, that is all that there is to pass on.

There will obviously be deep thanksgiving for John, and we can be sure that more will eventually be known through the website http://johnstott.org/

John Stott had a profound influence on many a church leader and many more lay people. His Bible-teaching ministry and his commentaries have helped grow several generations of followers of Jesus who can communicate its message clearly.

I am very grateful to have spent a short time with him when I was a curate more than twenty years ago. It was a nerve wracking responsibility to look after the great man for the day when he had time off from preaching at the church I served. I knew he was a birdwatcher (or should that be birder?), and so I arranged some time in the country for him to pursue his hobby. He was very kind and interested in me throughout. On the way home he mentioned that the one book of his that he did not have a copy of was Christ the Controversialist. I think this book was based on some lectures he'd given in Edinburgh. As it happened, the week before I met him, I had acquired a first edition copy of that very book in a second hand shop. I had the joy of giving that copy to its author.

John Stott helped shape my handling of scripture and my preaching. He was a unifying figure for Anglican and non-Anglican evangelicals. Sadly, there is no-one of his stature around today who can fulfil that role. He will be sorely missed. But many around the world will be giving thanks to God for his long and fruitful ministry. May his sermons, books and life continue to encourage other followers of Jesus to remain faithful.

These then are the marks of the ideal Church - love, suffering, holiness, sound doctrine, genuineness, evangelism and humility. They are what Christ desires to find in His churches as He walks among them. John Stott - Basic Introduction to the New Testament, Eerdmans, 1964, p. 163-164

                                                        

Missed The Shack

Unfortunately, I couldn't make the "Faith Seeking Understanding" discussion in a local hostelry last night. The discussion was on William P. Young's "The Shack".

I've found Tim Keller's review to be helpful:

However, sprinkled throughout the book, Young’s story undermines a number of traditional Christian doctrines. Many have gotten involved in debates about Young’s theological beliefs, and I have my own strong concerns. But here is my main problem with the book. Anyone who is strongly influenced by the imaginative world of The Shack will be totally unprepared for the far more multi-dimensional and complex God that you actually meet when you read the Bible. In the prophets the reader will find a God who is constantly condemning and vowing judgment on his enemies, while the Persons of the Triune-God of The Shack repeatedly deny that sin is any offense to them. The reader of Psalm 119 is filled with delight at God’s statutes, decrees, and laws, yet the God of The Shack insists that he doesn’t give us any rules or even have any expectations of human beings. All he wants is relationship. The reader of the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Isaiah will learn that the holiness of God makes his immediate presence dangerous or fatal to us. Someone may counter (as Young seems to do, on p.192) that because of Jesus, God is now only a God of love, making all talk of holiness, wrath, and law obsolete. But when John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, long after the crucifixion sees the risen Christ in person on the isle of Patmos, John ‘fell at his feet as dead.’ (Rev.1:17.) The Shack effectively deconstructs the holiness and transcendence of God. It is simply not there. In its place is unconditional love, period. The God of The Shack has none of the balance and complexity of the Biblical God. Half a God is not God at all.

Wesley Owen Glasgow

We need to pray for IBS-STL (owner of Wesley Owen Books and Music) and those who work for them.

Over the years the Christian bookshops in Glasgow have had their ups and downs, with some closing or moving location. I was involved in a small campaign to keep one open. That cause was lost, but the shop concerned had its ministry picked up by Wesley Owen, and I was asked to pray a blessing on that work. To lose Wesley Owen would be terrible for the employees and a great loss to the Church in the city. I'm making a note to myself to shop there as much as I can in the run up to Christmas. Good sales will make the chain attractive to a buyer. Why not join me in that effort?

Bible Illuminated

An enterprising Swede has come up with the intriguing idea of presenting a cut-down version of the Bible in coffee table magazine style. Dag Soederberg, the Swedish businessman who came up with the idea says, "I'm not on a mission from God. I'm not particularly religious. I'm not telling anyone they should believe."

Read more on the Beeb.

If the daily illuminations offered on the supporting website are anything to go by, it's certainly an arresting combination.

I can't really comment on this much more without seeing the real thing. Time for a visit to a bookshop to check it out. Will I buy it? I doubt it, I've got the real thing X about twenty in our home. Mind you, Santa is coming.........

Episcopal Haiku

A friend sent me an encouraging card and a copy of Episcopal Haiku today (thanks, H!).

Among the gems:

Rehearsing readings,
folks fear they'll mispronounce names.
But who knows what's right?

Ever notice how
some priests gaze at your forehead,
never in your eyes?

Ascension!

Did it really happen and what could it mean?

....many of Luke's readers would know that when a Roman emperor died, it had become customary to declare that someone had seen his soul escaping from his body and going up to heaven. If you go to the top end of the Forum in Rome, stand under the Arch of Titus, and look up, you will see a carving of the soul of Titus, who was the emperor in the 80s of the first century, ascending into heaven. The message of this was clear: the emperor was becoming a god (thus enabling his son and heir to style himself 'son of god', which is a useful title if you want to run the world). The parallel is not so close this time, since Luke is clear that it was not Jesus' soul that ascended into heaven, but his whole. renewed, bodily, complete self. But there is a sense that Jesus is upstaging anything the Roman emperors might imagine for themselves. He is the reality, they are the parody - a theme we will notice more than once as Luke's story unfolds. And when, at the end of Luke's book, the good news of Jesus is preached in Rome itself, openly and unhindered, we have a sense of, 'Of course! That's how it had to be'. He is the world's true and rightful king sharing the very throne, and somehow even, so it seems, the identity, of the one true God.

                                                                                                                                    Tom Wright on Acts 1:9-11 (p14, Acts for Everyone, Part One)

Thursday Beverages

It's been an ultra-long day, beginning with an 8am breakfast with my prayer triplet at Wesley Owen, various meetings (also at WO - it's nice that they should let me use their premises as an office, all for the price of a few mugs of coffee), book shopping (see some of what I bought in the sidebar to the right), got my hearing back about lunchtime, more meetings, home for a quick 'Hello!', check emails/phone calls, then off to Glasgow City Mission to interview candidates for the Chief Executive's post. Home for 10.30 or so, a few phone calls to make and emails to read and reply to.

One of my oldest friends was advising us tonight - he was one of the youth leaders who recruited me for my first Christian leadership role, way back in 1980/1. It was lovely to see him, but also a little bit weird to be working with him again in a completely different context. Our times together since the eighties have been for hillwalking and beverage sessions. I think we must be due one of those soon?

Days off - The Plan

See The Children of Men with GadgetVicar Boy and pal.

Tidy up study!

Go for a walk.

Do weekly shop for swarm of locusts that live in the rectory.

Blairdrummond Safari Park tomorrow.

Finish reading a book.

Watch, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on DVD.

Intelligent Church

I've started to read Steve Chalke's and Anthony Watkis' 'Intelligent Church'. It is a good read, and one that I'm finding simultaneously encouraging, affirming and challenging. They are trying to help the Church engage with the world in a post-Christendom environment. Grace, love, and diversity feature heavily but there is also a rootedness in Jesus and scripture. It will mean a certain messiness but also an attractiveness; many churches today can't handle the former and are sadly lacking the latter.

I think this is what the Lord has called us to experiment with at St Silas'; how to be an ancient/future community of God's people that looks to the past, is open to the present, and anticipates the future. It's a heady mix.

I do wonder if the writers will find themselves preaching to the converted. The practical ideas included in the book are helpful, but I'm not sure how many conventional churches could or would take them on board.

It seems likely that what we are seeing happening, certainly in the UK, is small communities of people, in different streams, discovering new ways of doing church that work in their environment. Fresh Expressions is an attempt to encourage this too.

A word to the wise: if you have any influence in a church, let those who want to experiment a bit, do so. They might just be riding the wave of discovering how to be an 'Intelligent Church'.

War Things

Airfix has gone into receivership.

Making model planes, tanks and ships was a part of many males' childhood. Printed media for male children often focussed on war themes. In those days children were fascinated by war. What adults who had faced the real horror of war made of this fascination and glorification I don't know.

Making models however, did serve as an excellent apprenticeship for dealing with flat-packed furniture in later life. The occasional re-enactment of historical battles could be given a little extra realism when models were set on fire. I don't think this created too many pyromaniacs. Usually this activity was conducted outside and not as the models hung from the bedroom ceiling by little threads.

What other war-based things influenced childhoods in the sixties and seventies, that turned many into warmongering and politically incorrect adults?

The Victor comic. I remember going every weekend to the newsagent with my dad to pick up a copy.

Commando comics.Handy-sized, they became a favourite for swapping. One learned important German phrases which remain useful in our Euroland of today, such as, "Achtung ! Spitfeuer!" and "Britischer schweinhund!". I don't remember reading this particular edition, which resonates with the current interest that people seem to have in tattoos. "Too tough to kill" makes for a great motto across a forehead, though I suspect it woulld be taken by many in the gentle city of Glasgow as an invitation to try.

The Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army). Many boys  could only dream of owning one of these seven-guns-in-one, that you could literally "have someone's eye out" with.

I've just about given up such childish interests, (apart from an occasional computer wargame) though I've retained an interest in military history. I'm also now mindful of the need to engage in spiritual warfare. No doubt my extensive experience from the likes of the above gave me a little bit of training in tactics!