CHBC Pastor's Messages

June 2008

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:13:37 -0400

A Liberian Adventure

Reading the Foreign Office recommendation that the West African country of Liberia should not be visited I admit to some hesitation about what I had let myself in for. Earlier this year I volunteered to act as team pastor for a Discovery Team to travel to Liberia and find out about the work of Samaritans Purse International (SPI). Indeed as we flew through the storm clouds into Roberts International Airport and looked down on the vast array of UN helicopters and vehicles my concern was heightened.

Our team was made up of a rich variety of individuals, some with no Christian faith, two SPI staff and others from a whole range of professions and experiences. None of us knew quite what to expect from a country where civil war finished only in 2004. We were to spend a short time in the capital city, Monrovia, before travelling along very bumpy tracks to Foya in the North West corner of the country. Despite any concerns or fears, through all the travelling and among every group of people we met we experienced some of the most friendly and welcoming people imaginable. Here were groups of people with almost nothing by way of material wealth yet the love, faith and charity that they gave to us was overwhelming. SPI are perhaps best known as the organisers of Operation Christmas Child and we had the privilege of distributing some of the shoe-boxes that had been sent from the UK. But they are involved in immensely more than OCC. During the 7 days there we visited church and school buildings erected by SPI, an orphanage that SPI were involved in, agriculture and aqua-culture projects, Christian work among a Muslim community, as well as getting involved in the making and setting up of Bio-sand Water Filters and being part of church services.

In every instance we were richly blessed by the people we met and the generosity of gifts presented to us.

Perhaps the greatest gift though relates to the measure of Christian faith demonstrated for us. Let me tell you about one man as an illustration, a man called Dennis.

One night we stayed in a guest house which had belonged to Dennis’ Father, the local doctor. During the civil war a group of wounded soldiers arrived on the doorstep and demanded immediate medical treatment. For five days and nights, Dennis’ father treated the soldiers and they left. A few days later the same group returned from another battle and demanded more help.

The family asked the soldiers to come back the following day as Dennis’ father was completely exhausted. The soldiers pushed their way into the home, burst into the relevant room, dragged Dennis’ father outside and crudely beheaded him. Dennis’ 17 year old brother rushed out to see what was happening and as he tried to run away the soldiers shot him in the back.

Dennis spoke about these events with tenderness and concern; he doesn’t show any of the hatred or bitterness that you might expect. He was just one of many people to exude forgiveness and love and to live out the reality of Christian love. Instead of revenge Dennis has committed himself to the spread of the Christian gospel in a world of fear and evil. He is now a church planter, travelling around the area supporting and upholding a proliferation of new church workers and encouraging them in the good news of a forgiving Lord.

Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia is an incredibly active and vibrant work, we only scratched the surface of all that was going on throughout the country but in the little we did see, we were confronted by hundreds of examples of those who materially had nothing but were determined to share their faith and love with as much generosity as they could muster.

In Liberia we saw and experienced the reality of these words from 2 Corinthians 8; ‘Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.’

Please pray for the people of Liberia and for the work of Samaritans Purse and please support their work in any way you can, I promise you the people who benefit are extremely grateful. (www.samaritanspurse.uk.com)

Hope, Hope, Hurray?

admin — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:57:56 -0400

Despite the data, Mark Greene finds reasons to be cheerful

“Woe, woe, three times, woe”, so beat the drums of doom on almost any measure of the social, emotional, physical or mental health of contemporary Britain… overworked, overtired, overspent, overweight, overdrugged … Is there hope for our muddled education system, careening from new initiative to new initiative, desperately trying to claw its way up the EU league tables? Is there hope for our children, the most miserable in the ‘developed’ world? Is there hope for our slave new world of work where the rich do indeed get richer and the rest of us get wearier? Is there hope for our community relations as the mounting fear of Islam builds an ever higher wall, razor-wired with suspicion and resentment on both sides? Is there hope when terrible events like the Bridgend teenage suicides no longer seem to be ghastly anomalies but harbingers of deepening darkness?

Only the most die-hard cynic or perhaps the most resolute realist would want to answer any of these questions with anything but a ‘yes’ – few of us can live without hope. But a ‘yes’ is too vague, too triumphalistic, too easy. Easter is not the season for easy answers. After all, the cross tells us too much about how sulphuric our sin is and too much about the cost of neutralising it for us to be blithe about the cost of planting and tending mustard seeds in the parched and polluted soil of the contemporary Britscape.

But, oh, how we need hope for a better tomorrow, a better today. For when hope fades, faith withers, loves shrivels… open hands close, arms fold, we look in the mirror not out of the window, our hearts plummet and our heads slump…

But hope there is. Hope in the light shining in Christian drug rehabilitation programmes that outperform government initiatives by over 60%, in young offender programmes with much lower rates of re-offending, in businesses run in radically different ways, in schools transformed by outstanding leadership and determined teachers… And there is hope in countless, literally countless, acts of individual caring – a prayer here, a meal there, a card sent, a coffee served, a job well done, a careful word, a listening ear … Hope in graciousness under pressure, hope in generosity in adversity, hope in the selflessness displayed in a culture panicked into progressively deeper self-centredness.

Still, our hope does not lie in the reality that well considered Gospel initiatives offer ways of doing things that the world can mimic, though they may. Christian hope lies in more stable and ultimately more fertile ground.

Firstly, Christian hope attacks the meaninglessness that so many feel about so much of their lives. The Gospel is after all a Gospel for the whole of life, for Monday as well as Sunday, for work as well as church, for school as well as leisure, for the body as well as the mind, for eating as well as praying. The Gospel of the King who came to reconcile all and renew all, the Gospel that tells us that we can do whatever we do for him is a whole-life Gospel that calls on us, as Brian Draper puts it, to live in the moment not for the moment.

Still, hope lies not in just the assertion that everything is significant but in being given the resources to live out that significance. And the first reason there is hope to live in a new way is that we are new creatures. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature, the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17)

I take this at face value. I was a caterpillar. And when I was a caterpillar there were only two ways for me to fly:

1. On a leaf’s back

2. In a bird’s beak

Either way, I couldn’t do it on my own. But now I’m a butterfly and I can fly. What was impossible now is possible.

The Christian life isn’t meant to be lived on a naturalistic plane by simply accepting a new set of ideas. It can’t be lived that way. We have hope in the now because we are new creatures and therefore have a whole different set of capacities. I don’t have to behave this way, I don’t have to think this way, I can live differently.

Still, ontological change (change in my being) without fuel for the journey leads to earthbound stasis, discouragement and exhaustion. Nothing destroys hope and happiness faster than being asked to live a particular kind of life without the resources to do it… bricks without straw, steel without iron, holiness without the spirit. We need fuel.

We know that God resources us to fulfil his calling in all kinds of ways, not alone on the road like Christian in Bunyan’s tale, but through the community of believers, through providential provision, through sovereign intervention, but above all and through all and in all he resources us by His Spirit.

It is His Spirit that leads unto into all the truth. It is His Spirit that carries on renewing us. It is His Spirit that makes us aware of sin in order to cleanse and liberate us. It is His Spirit that creates in us that elemental ease, that seals in that sub-atomic sense of being deeply loved, that liberates contentment. And it is His Spirit that is the source of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – all those characteristics that would make a really good recipe for the happiness that is so rare in our culture.

It is God’s spirit that helps us see God’s glory in a smile, or a sandpiper, or a quadrilateral equation and give him glory. It is His Spirit that helps us in the maelstrom of the everyday, that re-shapes our attitudes and our sense of the potential for divine glory in ordinary situations.

Hope, however, does not necessarily change circumstances or change outcomes. Life is still hard, seeds planted are eaten up, acts of kindnesses are rejected or ignored, people get sick, people die of outrageous diseases, of scandalous starvation, people are hacked to death by machetes… Evil finds ever more creative ways to surprise us and intimidate us as the Coen brothers so powerfully explore in No Country for Older Men. How are we to respond? Give up? Hunker down in the ghetto? Turn up the volume on the iPod? Buy a new pair of shoes? We need the long view, we need the eschatological framework.

In the end, justice will be done. In the end, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. In the end, all those who rejected our kindness, mocked our faith, scoffed at our sometimes feeble acts of defying the darkness, will give him glory.

Eschatology is our antidote to apparent failure and futility. We know that in the end no act is insignificant, we know that in the end He will turn all things to good. Our role is to do what the Master asks and leave the results to him, confident in his justice and promises. Indeed, our eschatology should not make us passive in the present. Rather, as Paul puts it in Colossians, the eschatological hope radiates back into our present lives and changes behaviour now:

“ … we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” - Colossians 1v5

Faith and love grow out of hope. Our capacity to trust and to love God and love neighbour is fuelled by the assurance of what we have to look forward to. We trust because we have been granted a revelation of the one who is trustworthy. We love because he first loved us. And won’t stop loving us.

Indeed, it is vital to remind ourselves that these lavish gifts of ontological transformation, of pneumatological resource and eschatological promise cannot be co-opted by those who don’t know Jesus. These are His gifts to His people. Ultimately our hope lies in relationship with Christ. The one who died for us is the one who lives in us. The one who calls us is the one who pours His life into us. Christ is the hub of it all.

Paul travels many miles for Christ, writes many things, plants many churches, sees the Spirit work in miraculous ways, but what is his overriding motivation? Knowing Christ. Indeed, you can’t escape the thrill in Paul’s writing, the sense of gratitude, of awe, of wonder. Christ is fantastic. He just adores him, delights in him, wants above all to press on to know him. You can’t escape the sense that Paul’s obedience springs from love and that perhaps that love is partly because God is joyous to know.

Sam Storm puts it this way in One Thing (Christian Focus 2004):

“Happiness is the whole soul resting in God and rejoicing that so beautiful and glorious a Being is ours. Happiness is the privilege of being enabled by God’s grace to enjoy making much of him forever. I’m talking about the ineffable and unending pleasure of blissful union with and the joyful celebration of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

This is not to advocate the romanticism of some popular worship songs but it is to remind ourselves that our God is not a mere concept to be admired, a skills coach to be grateful to but a person to be adored. Yes, we yearn for a life of authenticity, we yearn for awe, for agape and for adventure but the yearning for adoration, to adore a person, to bring delight to another, to love with all our soul and heart and mind and capacity is deeper than any other. Amazingly, no one desires such adoration more than our God, no one delights in it more, no one has done more to make it possible and no one returns it so lavishly and freely than the one who gave His son for us.

Herein then lies our hope for now and eternity. Hope because every aspect of my ordinary life is significant to him; hope because I have been changed on the inside; hope because the Spirit empowers; hope because in the end all that I have done for Christ will bear its proper fruit to his Glory; and hope in the reality that not only can I seek to obey my King as master, but, amazingly, I can bring delight to him as His child and friend.

Hope, hope, hallelujah.

This message was written by Mark Greene and is reprinted with permission from LICC

Spring 2008

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:10:39 -0400

The Christian doth protest too much!

With apologies for misquoting Shakespeare I have been reflecting recently on how appropriate it is for the followers of Jesus to register objection and disagreement quite as often as we do. Firstly I perhaps should acknowledge that I can be a bit of a soft touch! In the past I have been very willing to join in with the latest cause and add my name to the petition, to sign the prepared postcard and even write an occasional letter to my MP (making careful use of the notes provided by the relevant organisation). The Honourable Gentleman is clearly a very conscientious man. He runs a busy office and his annual House of Commons expenses return evidences his determination to respond fully to as much correspondence as possible. In many cases, I have to admit, such responses are far from helpful and, as a friend of mine recently said, sometimes I just wish he would drop me a postcard which says ‘thanks for your letter, Peter, I agree.’ But no, such simplicity doesn’t seem to be on the agenda, such agreement not easily forthcoming and in a sense my frustration is compounded.
But that is not what I want to concentrate upon. My point for today is not that I can’t seem to get agreement about the issues that influence my protests, be it abortion, euthanasia, Jerry Springer the Opera or whatever, my point is that perhaps we are too quick, too ready, too ‘religious’ about protesting.

This quandary came to light for me recently during our annual DEEPER studies in Warwick. For the benefit of the few who haven’t heard, DEEPER is part of our church’s attempt to offer serious, in-depth, biblical study from some of the finest evangelical minds of today.

This year we enjoyed the ministry of Steve Brady, principal of Moorlands Bible College and now the person responsible for causing my reflective dilemma.

You see, almost in passing, Steve made the point that perhaps the church of today sees its priority more as a protest movement than a gospel people. That came at me like a bolt of lightening and caused me to stop and think about my personal motivation for protesting and adding to my MP’s bulging post-bag. Please don’t get me wrong, I do believe very strongly that the church of today has stayed silent far too often and we are now suffering from the consequences of that. We are struggling in our attempt to reclaim the ground of a human conscience for our nation. But are we, am I, more committed to making a fuss than I am to following Jesus?

As Easter is with us, once again we read Isaiah’s prophetic words of one who was oppressed and afflicted yet who did not open his mouth. He offers us a picture of one who, like a sheep before her shearers, remained silent. In the midst of protest and disagreement, is that the model I follow? Or am I too taken up by the eagerness of making a noise that I try to fill Christ’s sheep like silence with my own perpetual bleating?

As Christians we are first called to love the Lord God with a fervent passion. As part of that, as far as I can make out from scripture, we are to follow the example of Jesus in every way we possibly can. Yes he turned the tables, he upset the money-lenders, he stood up for justice, but principally he did so because those against whom he acted were stopping others from worship of the living God. Jesus’ task, and every aspect of his example, was to demonstrate an active, living love for his Father and to help us to draw near to him in every part of life. But are we listening?

Steve Brady’s point was not to stop Christians protesting but to challenge us to check out our motivation for doing so. Is that letter or will the addition of my name to the petition, serve God and bring honour to the name of the Lord Jesus, or will it just add to my own sense of self importance?

How anxious are we not to lose sight of our over-whelming calling to live in a Christ-like way in every situation we encounter? Steve acknowledged that whilst protest might, quite rightly, be something we engage in, particularly for the benefit of others who don’t have as clear a voice as we enjoy, that protest should never obstruct or diminish our first task of being Christ-like.

Easter is always a great time to reflect upon how Christ-like we have been and what differences we might try to make for the months ahead. I’ve failed in many areas to follow his example or to offer him my wholehearted worship. Perhaps now, before I write that letter or rehearse my argument of objection against my MP I can ask Jesus what he would have me do or say. I just hope and pray that, despite my protests, he won’t remain silent.

December 2007

peterburns — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:50:11 -0500

Fairtrade begins at home

This is an article published in The Baptist Times 6th December 2007

Fairtrade begins at home.

Have you noticed how God often causes you to stop and think about the fairness of life? There I was bumbling along with the usual routines of church when it was almost as if God caught hold of me by the scruff of the neck and forced me to look around.

That Sunday, I tucked into my well earned, post-service cup of tea, fairtrade of course, and listened to the hubbub of discussion engaging with my topic for that morning; “The Micah Challenge”. Like many churches, we had taken hold of the opportunity to highlight the crying need for justice and mercy across our world and I felt smugly pleased that dialogue was clearly taking place about how we could practice what I had just preached and we could all work at being fair, just and merciful.

But then my thoughts returned to the previous weeks harvest festival and the words of a visiting farmer rang in my ears; ‘I fear’, said Mrs Adams, ‘that within the next few years the UK farming industry could go the way of our mining industry’. What did she mean? Are things really so bad?

Such is the sense of crisis being felt at the farm gate, such are the problems being faced today by hard working people who get up at 4am to work 16 hour-long days, that they see little hope for the industry that has sustained numerous families and homes for generations. Straight from the horse-grazers mouth came the concern that their industry is facing a catastrophe.

How, I wondered, does this fit in with Micah’s call for justice and mercy?

Is it ‘fair’ that between 1996 and 2005, there has been a 53% decrease in UK dairy herds? Is it ‘just’ that every week, on average, 7 dairy farms are ceasing production? It didn’t feel very fair to me.

But then life goes on and my attention was diverted again, until that hand on my collar started to pull a little harder and I received a copy of a report written by The Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG). The report is entitled “Fairtrade begins at home” and here I found more horror stories to fuel my concern and more evidence that, for the typical British farmer, business and life are just not fair.

The EIAG, given the remit to look into the relationship between the major food retailers and farmers, found significant cause for concern and their report highlights a rapidly declining industry that many of us are simply ignorant about. Of course the Church of England has something of an interest in these areas; they are major investors in the retail food industry whilst also being landlord to many tenant farmers. As Baptists we are perhaps starting from a rather more humble point but are we not also in a position to take seriously the challenge of Micah, other Old Testament prophets and Jesus himself? Today, in a field near you UK farmers are crying out for nothing more radical than ‘a fair price for a fair product’. Does that seem unreasonable or unfair?

Today many farmers are forced to sell their produce significantly below cost and the pernicious business practices of major retailers threaten to cut even further into that already unsustainable situation.

In 1995 dairy farmers routinely received 58% of the retail price of milk whilst the retailer received just 1.3%. Ten years on the retailers margin has increased (to 31%) principally at the expense of the farmer/producer (36%).

Furthermore ‘beef and sheep producers are making a loss on “virtually every animal”’ according to a recent announcement from the National Farmers Union. Add fears over FMD (Foot and Mouth Disease), AI (Bird Flu) and BTV (Bluetongue Disease), then consider the ongoing effects of flooding and we have a tragic concoction that spells potential disaster.

The church has always been at the forefront of the international campaign to ensure that people are rightly given a fair price for their crafts and goods, and yet it seems hard to escape the fact that we are ignoring the very same cry from within our own countryside. Surely this can’t be fair or just.

As Christmas approaches I find myself faced with a plethora of worthy charity catalogues, offering the opportunity to buy fair trade goats, pigs and ducks for Aunt Gladys. But I wonder if, I should include in my shopping a slightly different present which will also provide a tangible benefit in the local community; some British lamb or pork - reared on a nearby farm, purchased at a local farmers-market and prepared by a good, independent butcher!

The EIAG report concludes; ‘British farmers are not asking for special treatment but there is inequality and dysfunction within the supply chain requiring attention.’ As churches and as consumers, do we care? As those who delight in God’s creative genius reflected in our countryside, do we believe this matters? As Christians I believe we must fight for fairtrade at home with vigour and passion and seek justice and mercy in our own land?

Pastor, Castle Hill Baptist Church, Warwick.

June 2007

peterburns — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 15:40:10 -0400

‘When he saw the crowds, Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.’ (Matthew 5:1)

Many people today are asking how are we supposed to behave? What is the right way to live and who do we listen to among the clamouring voices and confusion of opinion? Where do we get the instruction or guidance by which to live and then the ability and power to do so? What, in this 21st century, are we to do for the best because today, in this 21st century, we are as confused as ever, as far removed from the truth as ever, and as lost as ever a people were in any age in the whole of history.

So I want to make a bizarre suggestion, I feel moved to voice a ridiculous thought, why don’t we listen to what Jesus says? The reaction of so many people of this modern age would be that this seems ridiculous and bizarre. They see no relevance, no sense and certainly no fun in even considering the content of a 2,000 year old manuscript. But in the lengthy discourse that has become known as The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expresses principles, - moral, ethical and social, that apply just as much to us today as ever they have done to any other people at any other time in any other place. They are principles which come from an eternal mind who longs to offer guidance and help for the whole of life throughout the whole of eternity, and these are the words, the instructions, the helpful hints that we need to listen to.

If we could only realise that, as society today, we need to re-learn and re-adopt the standards that Jesus wants, then we will demonstrate a social, ethical and moral pattern of behaviour that honours our creator God and challenges the widespread cancer that sin is as it spreads across every aspect of our world. Maybe then we will see society beginning to take notice of what Jesus says, and who we should be.

As Christians, our first priority should be to open our bibles and to ask -what does Jesus want to say that will help us to be the counter cultural people he intended?

And then, as Christians, we can do one of two things, we can gather in our neat and tidy ecclesiastical ghettoes and tut-tut about falling standards ‘after all it wasn’t like that in my day’! Or we can demonstrate the difference and distinctiveness of Christian behaviour.

True Christianity, true discipleship of this man on a hill-side, demands a standard of behaviour above and beyond that which society has decided is acceptable and normal. And for that revelation Jesus has left us with The Sermon on the Mount. At Castle Hill we are slowly working through this sermon and discovering what Jesus wants to say to us. Please join us if you can or get into the habit yourself of regularly reading the Sermon and asking Jesus to apply it to your heart and life.

God bless you,
Peter