Camp 7 – Willy Wonka’s Whipple Scrumptious Fudge-mallow delight!

I have just arrived home from another fantastic EMW camp. One of the highlights of my year.

Regular readers will know that previous reports have been filled with the Spirit’s moving with many dramatic conversions. (Most of which have remained in contact and are still walking with the Lord well into adulthood).

Although we were greatly blessed and witnessed many young people receive Jesus into their lives, this camp was different….

The Camp theme was Roald Dahl, more specifically Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

We began the teaching with the Golden Ticket, the Gospel, that all received on Sunday morning at Bala Evangelical Church (Mark 4:1-20).

From Monday onwards we met in Bryn y Groes. The house was beautifuly decorated with sweets and chocolate and wonderful illustrations from the book.

Each service worked through the children’s classic looking at how the various characters lost their opportunity to chew on the eternal gobstopper. 

Augustus Gloop’s greed lost him his ticket as he indulged in the Chocolate River (Luke 12:16-21), Violet Beauregard’s pride took her to the Juicer (John 3:1-21), Veruca Salt was a bad nut (Matt 19:16-30) and Mike Teavee had too much screen time and watched his chance come and go (John 5:1-16). 

Charlie Bucket remained humble, he valued his ticket and embraced every opportunity it gave him and inherited the Chocolate Factory. Crash landing back home to invite his loved ones to join him (Matt 28:16-20).

The morning messages were then supported with Wonka themed Bible studies in the evening that looked at our inheritance in Christ. This posed many delightful and deep questions that the Officers worked through in their small groups.

Most of the campers were from solid churches, well discipled and professing Christians. They shared openly the many struggles that they have growing up in a post-Christian secular society. Most are the only Christian in their school, and face ostracisation and even bullying. Their questions were on assurance, why does God allow suffering and how to love and support their peers who claim to be within the LGBT+ community.

I had many wonderful conversations and was delighted to see the spiritual growth of returning campers. Many came to faith through the preaching and teaching of the word that lead to wonderful prayer times after each service. 

We allow for time after the sermon for campers to pray with us. Usually a dozen will stay back as the rest rush off to the games room. But in the last three morning meetings every camper stayed and prayed. This has never happened before and brought me to tears.

The Thursday night Q&A had so many questions it took three hours to work through, the campers stayed attentive and would have carried on until the early hours. Remember they are only 10-13 year olds. Incredible! 

What made this camp so special was the sacrifice and service of our Officers.

When I started as Chaplain of this team, I was in my early 30’s (now in my 40’s) and the officers were in their early 20’s, post-graduates beginning their adulthood. 

Today they are now married, home owners, senior in their professions and have come to camp with children of their own, and/or pregnant. Yet they served with the same enthusiasm and passion as before. 

It has been a privilege to be a part of their spiritual growth. They are phenomenal people.

The Officers love for camp and most importantly the campers is beautiful to see. They gave up a week of their annual leave to lead a large camp, in some cases leaving their children at home to take responsibility for many others.

The camp was filled with activities from Kayaking, to Lazer Tag, fancy dress, craft and swimming. The days were long and full. The Officers endured early starts and late nights. On Tuesday two officers had to take a camper to A&E (an hours drive away), for a pre-camp injury to be checked, they returned at 5:30am, they did not sleep and carried on as normal running around serving to the highest standard.

The campers embraced the opportunity to interact with positive adult role models who they could trust and confide in outside of a usual setting. The authenticity of the Officers gave campers the freedom to be honest, but did come at an emotional cost. 

Seeing the Officers physically exhausted and emotionally drained at the end of a long day, yet still burdened to stay awake to pray for the soul’s of the campers was Christlike.

The preparation that goes into these camps is all year round. The Leaders are fantastic. 

It must be said that not only do our Officers volunteer but they pay for themselves to be a part of the camp. Covering their own costs for bed and board.

I can’t begin to describe how grateful I am for their service and sacrifice. The love and care given to the next generation of Christendom in Wales.

Please pray for our campers, many of whom have met with Jesus for the first time and please pray for our Officers as they return to their family and work commitments after a hard and busy week.

A final thank you to Steve and Deb (the new house managers at Bryn Y Groes). Who did an excellent job hosting us and have maintained the high standards of their predecessors. The Chocolate Cake was exceptional! A massive thank you to them and their team.

The God Desire – by David Baddiel

“I believe that God exist’s but would prefer Him not to.”

This is the obverse challenge of David Baddiel’s new book “The God desire”. A wonderfully honest insight into Baddiel’s journey of psychology that attempts to rationalise the distinctly human need to make reality not entirely mute.

David Baddiel

I have just hit the milestone of forty years and I have been an ordained Christian Minister for nearly a decade. My new life with Jesus began in my mid-twenties from a place of atheist machoism that Baddiel is correct to critique in this book. I grew up in a secular home in North London where football was one of our many god’s. I remember fondly as a child being able to stay up late during a sleepover with my friends to watch our favourite programme “Fantasy Football League” staring David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and of course ….Statto! 

At the tender age of thirteen the nation welcomed Euro ’96 and with it Baddiel and Skinner’s anthem “Three Lions on a Shirt.” I will never forget returning from a school trip to Alton Towers listening on the radio to England beating Spain 4:2 on penalties. We were parked outside the school gates, our parents waiting, but we refused to get off the coach until the game finished. At the moment of jubilation we sang the entire song word for word in unison with my class, teachers, the bus driver and all waiting for us outside before departing. A pseudo religious experience, the hymn of our generation.

Growing up with typical football “fans” yet not having the sporting ability or the natural physique to truly fulfil  either the position of “a player” or a “hooligan.” Baddiel was the example I could emulate. Funny, intelligent, confident and straight talking. I have admired his work ever since and in some weird way I have grown up with him. I last saw Baddiel at the Hay Festival being interviewed by Simon Schama on his book “Jews don’t count.” A masterful treatment on the antisemitism of the progressive left.

As a fan of Baddiel and a Pastor, I feel compelled to write this response to “the God desire” as someone who meets the challenge of this book.

The God versus no God cul-de-sac

There are a number of approaches I thought about taking, which is exactly why I love Baddiel’s writing. His style is naturally conversational and allows your mind to drift into wider concepts beyond his writing. But I did not want this review to be yet another Christian apology that goes over the tiresome evidences that seem to do nothing but harden pre-existing views. 

David Baddiel is both respectful and honest in his approach and has read on the subject impressively referencing Augustine’s Confessions and TS Elliot as some of his sources as well as being versed in Hebrew literature and ritual through his own Jewish upbringing. 

Baddiel’s argument against God (or the existence thereof) is a subtle one, hidden in the ambiguity of his own desire for a deity. A far more mature position than that of the New Atheists whose arguments are so easily refuted. Dawkins, Harris and Fry have been of great assistance to my own Christian growth and others (please feel free to view a previous article I wrote that went viral rebuking Stephen Fry’s famous RTE interview). 

Baddiel discusses the human phenomena that attempts to give meaning to reality and honestly acknowledges his own endeavours. In doing so he raises many of the same questions that I ask of the Church (especially in the west) that has simply misunderstood and misapplied Christianity in favour of an individually defined syncretistic world view, that as Baddiel concedes is clearly not irreligious. 

Baddiel’s well reasoned argument is not against the God of the Bible, but a culturally misrepresented god. A god that has been designed to provide buffers from cold dark reality, a god of the gaps that can potentially explain the unexplainable, a god of comfort that promises jam tomorrow. 

Tragically, this god that Baddiel challenges has been cultural created by the Church in a desperate bid for survival in an ageing theocracy that is trying to meet the requirements of post-enlightenment thought. It is a mere concept of god that Baddiel fell prey to at six years old and was unsurprisingly left void.

The common misconception of Christianity is lineal. That based on your belief today (or as many think a balance of your good deeds over bad) when you cease to be, you end up in either a place of eternal love and life, or its binary opposite. This false understanding has been manipulated and abused by many historic institution as souls fearfully hedge their bets in the vain hope of a pleasant after-life. Baddiel correctly concludes that this manmade god can feed the needs of the self-indulgent moralistic TikTok generation and all that went before them, yet goes against everything Jesus taught.

Incarnation

Christianity rests in the claim of the incarnation. That the historical figure Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the author of creation. Being God in flesh does not only go some way to explain the miraculous events that took place at His coming but also brings divine truth into reality and not the inverse. A claim that ends all superstation and emotivism. Christianity is a faith in the tangible facts as they are presented in this unique and historical person. 

Jesus said the Kingdom of God has come and in this new reality the Christian is called to follow, putting ego to death for the purpose of serving others (even enemies). The consequence is to build this Kingdom (Church) so that the Jam of tomorrow can be tasted today – and on this evidence trust on having more tomorrow. 

Christianity is the story of the divine entering into concrete truth that makes sense of the universe in the centrality of existence. Which is why the Church is so utterly wrong to present the Christian message in the irrational fringes of understanding, for the God of the Bible does not claim to be the god of the gaps but the God of reality – in Christ, He has flesh like ours. 

The notion of seeking God as a comfort against the coldness of nothingness is a uniquely western concept, where Christians have been spoiled to complacency. In much of the world Christians are persecuted and tortured for their faith. The UK Parliament published a paper in 2022 stating that Christians are the most persecuted people group in the world with over 360 million suffering high levels (life threatening) cruelty. For them Christianity is far from the superficial preoccupied cry for comfort of the army of ageing middle England flower arrangers who have misunderstood Christianity to be about being good enough to pass through the pearly gates.

Christianity is simply not about anything Baddiel rightly criticises. Christianity is the essence of reality mediated through a historical person – Jesus. That when questioned what is good or bad, simply said “follow me.” A truth that lead to cruxifixction. Christianity is not about being good or bad, or about feeling better or worse, it is truth that overrides  and nullifies all these uniquely human desires to trust in what is.

Christianity in principle undermines superstitious sacrifices and rituals that are ultimately of no benefit, and calls one to trust in the great I AM regardless of the inevitable suffering that comes with the demands of a conscious existence. Christianity uniquely grounds all human ideologies into the reality of a person who despite being God suffered and died.

Stories 

Baddiel correctly acknowledge societal need for story. A phenomenon that CS Lewis faced before his conversion,   famously stating that “the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God’s myth where the others are men’s myth.”  The challenge of the Christian story is that it requires the ego to be Crucified for the good of others, a costly duty that today’s conspiracy theories and mythical ideologies simply do not call for. A belief in Aliens gives no premise to help the poor, fantasising over the inner workings of quantum physics does not call you to help victims of oppression. Wokism is not building orphanages or soup kitchens, these pseudo religious concepts are popular simply because they offer a self defined righteousness without demand or accountability. They allow the human being to hide from the truth.

Baddiel is correct in his conclusion than human beings invest in stories. But not in stories that cost them. Void of any persecution the Church in the west has tragically warped Christianity into something that appears no different (to Baddiel and millions of others) than any other story offered by purveyors of morality which is why it has lost its saltiness.  

Conclusions

Baddiel’s book is a masterclass critique of today’s cultural Christianity that is both fictional, misunderstood and far removed from Jesus’ life and teaching. Baddiel asks questions of God that those who claim to be Christian should be ask themselves to purge the Church of any phantasm conjured up to combat our mutual fear of nothingness.

“I believe that God exist’s but would prefer Him not to.” 

Because the call of a Christian is to put self to death for the good of others. In my natural state I would much prefer to follow my hearts desires, fill my boots and then pass into nothingness. But this atheist idealogy is not true.

Christianity is not about good and bad, that is the consequence of curse that generated the need of our salvation in the first place (Genesis 3:22). Christianity is a real person YWHH, the “I Am who I Am” who in reality calls you to account.

So in that sense I believe in God as I believe in Larry David. A real person. (a reference you will have to read the book to get).

Christmas – Handel’s Messiah

Every Christmas I like to take in a performance of Handel’s Messiah – often with tears.

This masterpiece not only ushers in the festive season (for me) but is one of the highlights of my year.

Messiah was composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel whom Ludwig van Beethoven declared as “the greatest composer that ever lived… I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb.”

My love for this epic oratorio is entirely theological.

One of the key themes of the creation narrative is that God brings order out of chaos (Gen 1:1). From this He made rational beings (Gen 1:27) with the freedom to think (Gen 2:20) and choose (Gen 2:27). 

In love God created a society from these beings who would uphold His ethic and be a witness to His love for the world (Gen 12:2).

Ten Commandments were graciously given to define ordered civility from pagan licentiousness. The first four rooted in humanities unique acknowledgement of God and the following six commands to guide the moral expressions of His transcendent reality (Ex 20:1-17)). 

The Ten Commandments were covenantal rules of engagement between the created and creator that distinguish us from the animal kingdom (order from chaos). The Ten Commandments affirm our humanity within a framework that can control our fallen desires for the greater good that is outside of self.

The story that unfolds through the Bible is one of constant flux between humanities free choice to live as intended, trusting in God’s law as image bearers of the divine or to be lead and defined by selfish carnality that ultimately brings death (Rom 6:23). 

A death that is ultimately substituted by the Grace of God Himself, who gave His only begotten Son to redeem the faithful (John 3:16).

The Messiah. Our Saviour.

Handel captures the beauty of this truth not only in music but in performance that incarnates the Christian hope (Rev 7:9).

On stage we have a community of men and women who are utterly equal in value and purpose, devoted to the beauty of a higher collective truth. 

They invite the audience to share in a lifetime of dedication. They present a controlled expression of genius that manipulates vibration through delicate tools of string and wood and flesh. For the collective wave to be comprehended by rational participants that are engaged both emotively and physically – body and soul.

An experience made all the more great by the subject of the performance.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power to be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen. (Rev 5:12-13).

When I go to see Handel’s Messiah I see the pinnacle of humanity made in God’s image to bring order out of the chaos, beauty out of the inanimate and I receive a taste of what is to come (Heb 13:14).

The most powerful man on earth at the time of the premiere, King George II agreed. He was so moved at the matchless condescension depicted that he stood during the Hallelujah chorus. Everyone else in the theatre followed so as not to offend him, a tradition upheld today (1 Cor 16:13).

EMW Camp 2022

Just arrived home from camp. Utterly exhausted.

The team had not worked together for three years owing to the Pandemic. Over half of the officers were new to the camp and all but two of the children had never been before. 

We welcomed a larger and more diverse group than normal. Several children had never been to church or even read the Bible, others were from different denominations. We had five youth from Ukraine who could not speak a word of English and a number of children with additional learning and medical needs. This was going to be a challenging week!

Other than a few behavioural issues early on as the youth began to settle into a routine. The camp delivered with water fights, zorbing, a beach trip, picnics, wide games, tournaments and many more activities. The officers worked tirelessly and complimented each others strengths. We prayed together. Their love and service to the children unrivalled.

The days were long, for many 6am-1am with disturbed sleep. But Bryn-Y-Groes kept us well fed and in comfort. 

I was grateful for the several opportunities to retreat to my room where I could attend to various duties as a Pastor (planning sermons, funerals for the following week). 

As the camp chaplain it is important to build relationships and “get involved” where possible. It is also wise to know when to step back and allow the opportunity to offer support for those that need to escape the intense schedule.

In the morning services I worked through Jonah, we discussed God’s Grace, His wrath and intense pursuing love for us. In the evening the campers went into study groups with their officers and expanded on the earlier teaching through the gospel accounts. Practically applying lessons to their prayer life, school, relationships and other priorities. There were several prayer groups throughout the day.

Each evening myself and the camp leader took the Ukrainian family to Bala lake for a private study with some hilarious outcomes through the translation app. They really appreciated this time.

The highlight this year was found in the Q&A session (Thursday evening). Over seventy questions were submitted during the week with the promise that each one would be answered. 

For three hours the campers remained engaged. The age group of the camp was 10-13yrs. I was not expecting this level of questioning. They asked about LGBT+, Abortion, Heaven and Hell, we closed on a section dealing with assurance. I read from Romans 8, God came, we prayed together. Dozens of campers recommitted or professed faith for the first time. This included a young man who was militantly honest about his atheism at the beginning of the week. Glory to God in the hIghest.

The EMW are blessed with such wonderful volunteers giving their time and energy to disciple the next generation. I love our team so much.

Concluding thoughts.

Camp had always been an oasis. One week of the year spent with children who had not yet succumb to the pervasive woke agenda of the secular west. Protected by their church and family. They loved Jesus and wanted to know Him more.

But this year was different. The children were different. Despite best efforts the pandemic has clearly had an impact. The contrast made more apparent by our Ukrainian friends onsite, and my own experience of camp in Romania the week before. 

Having to answer a ten year olds question on abortion and another on LGBT+ revealed how vulnerable children have become to our hyper-sexualised culture. (You would never dream of hearing such a question from the mouth of a child so young in the east of our continent where Christianity is still culturally strong).

I asked many campers what they were most looking forward to on their return home. Every reply mentioned screen time (Xbox, Playstation, iPhones) where they would be exposed to so many diverse voices and this is clearly having an impact on their understanding of God. 

Church pragmatism has considerably distorted their view of the Bible and Salvation. Our children need to hear the Gospel, yes, but after this week I can see more now than ever how desperately their need is for sound doctrine (2 Tim 4:3). 

I am not calling for our children’s education to be restricted to just the Christian worldview, or for them not to be exposed to (age appropriate content) with alternative views, but for parents and churches to understand and be aware of what their children are being exposed to and better equip them to face the big questions that our post-Christian culture is asking of them. 

I can’t wait for next year!

Psalm 23 for Ukraine

Noddfa Church partner with Biserica Crestina Emanuel Galati, a Romanian church who are just a few miles from the Ukrainian boarder.

The church have supported thousands of refugees, and through their love and witness, many have come to faith and began new lives with Jesus.

What better victory could these poor souls have over Putin than to look back on this horror joyfully and proclaim triumphantly “that was how I met my Saviour.”

I was doing some translation work on Psalm 23 and noticed that in the Hebrew there are certain tensions that do not clearly come through in the English. The struggle is very much ongoing for the Psalmist, they are under constant attack, being pursued, hunted, run down by the advancing army, yet the Psalmist writes….their cup overflows!

With this in mind I thought I would re-write this most famous Psalm from the perspective of a newly converted Ukrainian refugee at Biserica Crestina Emanuel Galati.

I ask that as you read it, you put yourself in their shoes, think of all that they have lost, the violence they have come from. Then consider all that they now have gained in Jesus.

As you read it give thanks to God and please continue pray for the work. (Deuteronomy 10:18).

Psalm 23 for Ukraine

The creator of the cosmos is mine. All things then are for me.

I can rest.

Even when life feels impossible, it now has meaning.

I am comforted and protected.

My perspective has been changed.

Surely good will come.

For your honour 

I can celebrate in attack. 

I can have victory even when pursued.

With you I am always in abundance.

Constantly in love.

Welcomed into your home.

A one minute video on the fantastic work of Biserica Crestina Emanuel Galati

COVID-19 Lockdown: What does the Bible say?

I was asked to present a Paper for the EQUIP 2020 on the Biblical principles of Lockdown. Here are my notes I pray that they challenge, encourage and bless.

In this session I am going to ask the simple question in regards to Lockdown “what does the Bible say”?

Looking at;

1. Examples of lockdown through scripture
2. How did the Apostle Paul manage in lockdown.
3. The Lessons we can learn from the Bible.

So let us begin…..

1. Examples of lockdown through scripture

Throughout the scriptures we see example after example of God’s people being forced into isolation, imprisonment, and being cut-off from community. Right from the very beginning in Genesis 3, we see sin enter into God’s creation causing Adam and Eve to hide away in shame and socially distant themselves from God. In Genesis 7 God commanded Noah and his family to go into a 150 day lockdown, for their protection, during a global flood and we see the people of Israel in Exodus 12 being locked in their homes over night as the angel of death passes over. In 1 Samuel 17 the Israelites were stuck in their tents in the Valley of Elah as Goliath taunted them. In 2 Kings 25 Jerusalem was in a localised lockdown – under siege of King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army. In Genesis 39 Joseph was incarcerated, so was Samson in Judges 16, the prophet Jeremiah was locked in a cistern, and Daniel was put in the Lions den. We also read in the New Testament of the imprisonment of John the Baptist, Peter, James, John, Silas and Paul. They all spent time in isolation, they all at some point were in lockdown, they all at some point had to live out their faith away from their church family and friends. But always, always, God used such experiences for a greater good! Each time we see a lockdown in scripture we also see “God’s will be done” – through either a miraculous escape or rescue, or through the militancy and amplification of the message during the incarceration, or in the rising to power of the most unlikely.

Halleluja!

2. How did the Apostle Paul manage in lockdown

Now we all know the story of Paul. The once Great Saul of Tarsus who studied under Gamaliel was on his way to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians – when Jesus met with him and his life was changed. Paul then began proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah in the synagogues and travelled hundreds of miles to share the gospel with the gentiles. We know in Acts 16:16-25 that Paul was put into prison in Philippi for casting out a demon and was miraculously released. And we read in Acts 21, that Paul is arrested again and in Acts 23 was brought before the Sanhedrin. In Caesarea Paul was in prison for two years where he meets the Governor Felix in Acts 24 and then through an appeal process gets himself to Rome where he lived under house arrest. In total Paul had around five years in Prison or house arrest. For five years he was in lockdown for the Gospel. We know that Paul welcomed visitors but he still had limited face to face contact with the wider church. But, and this is interesting, he did not stop the work. He was not silenced by the lockdown. He used whatever mediums he could to get the Gospel out. Whilst in Prison he wrote “Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon” – letters that we cherish still today. Paul also utilised various runners such as Onesimus and Tychicus, Aristarchus, Mark and Barnabas who are all mentioned at the end of Colossians 4:7-9. What we see here is that Paul used every source of communication he could to get the gospel out. He built a wide social network to Pastor and Shepherd his church plants remotely.And we read in 2 Corinthians 10:10 that many people thought that Paul’s letter writing was arguably more powerful than having him there in person.

“His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” 2 Corinthians 10:10

In many ways Paul’s lockdown was a blessing. It allowed him time to reflect on the faith and share the good news in innovative ways that we are still being blessed by today, 2,000 years on. Paul did not dwell on the negative but saw his lockdown as an opportunity. He said himself in Ephesians 3:1 that he was “captive for Christ Jesus”. And this I suppose is the first lesson that we can take from the Bible as we work through the pandemic. And this lesson is one of perspective.

Was the Covid-19 lockdown the final nail in the coffin of your church?

When your Sunday Services were cancelled, did you give up hope?

Was your first thought …. What are we going to do now?

Or did you see this crisis as an opportunity? 

What was your perspective?

Did you give up? Or like Paul did you innovate with the tools at your disposal and continue in ministry with the same Gospel Gusto as before?

The Lessons we can learn from the Bible.

Noddfa Church

I can only speak for our church. But within 24 hours of the lockdown, by God’s Grace, we became a community food hub. Now you maybe sat thinking thats great if you have the resources. -John. But all it took was some hand sanitiser at the door and some social distancing posters and a request for food donations and we were up and running. By the end of the lockdown, we had served over 10,000 meals, partnered with our local Tesco and Asda and had furloughed British Gas drivers, local parole officers and the shadow home secretary out delivering food parcels for us door to door each week. God is good – isn’t he.

Noddfa Church Foodshare Hub

Like Paul we utilised many partners from our local community including the borough council, food-banks, local farmers and schools and as a result the church became the hub of the community during the pandemic, and with each person who came in through our doors we built a bridge for Jesus.

Like Paul we utilised other Mediums to get the gospel out such as Youtube, WhatsApp and Facebook live. Our Sunday Services peaked at 3,500 views on Facebook live and we ran live Bible quizzes, Hymn singing and Live Q&A sessions throughout the week (Ask Pastor John peaked 6,500 views) throughout the week – constantly engaging with our church and wider community. Which gave us great exposure in more traditional media such as the local press who ran several stories on our efforts. 

South Wales Argus – “Noddfa Church remains the heart of the community during Lockdown“

For us the Covid-19 Lockdown was tremendous for our outreach. It was better than anything we could have planned for this year and this is because of our Gospel Perspective as a church. We knew that God was in control, that had not changed, no matter what harm could come to us. 

Aa a church we got on with the same job that we have always done, sharing the Gospel, just now in a different context of a nation wide lockdown. We met the immediate need in our valley quickly and became a touch point for Jesus and there are amazing examples of other churches doing the same right throughout Wales, stepping up to meet the needs of their communities. Helping with childcare, transport, key worker relief, support phone lines for the lonely, dog walking services, shopping, providing PPE, financial support to those in need and an online outreach that was watched by a quarter of all adults in the UK! Lockdown has been an amazing time for the church and we must continue to pray for fruit.

We have been back in the chapel for seven weeks now, it is all very different, with lots of red tape and measuring sticks. We have a one way system, you have to book your seats online before you come and there is no singing. But we have been truly blessed by the experience of being back together again. It is far from normal, but in hindsight, I don’t think we want to go back to normal. We do not want to lose what we have gained through the Covid 19 experience. So we have continued with our online ministry – recording the services. This has helped to protect our most vulnerable members as they do not feel pressured to come and can still watch from home. It has also allowed us to continue to reach out to the wider community and our members can now take “church” directly into their friends and families homes by just simply sharing a link. We have kept our community hub open, although demand has dropped significantly, we still have our regulars come in and we want the community to know that we are still here for them and not going anywhere. We have ramped up our food stores for when the furlough scheme comes to an end. As we expect that the need will increase then. But I think the key point here is, that as we return to some kind of normality post lockdown, we should not fall back into our old ways and lock down in our churches. God has used this pandemic in amazing ways and we mustn’t undo the many positives that have come out of this crisis, because of our desire to return to normal.

Perhaps our old normal was not what God wanted. Perhaps God allowed us to get uncomfortable, so that we would wake up as a church. So that we would innovate and adapt to our changing world, so that we would break from needless tradition and better love the communities God has place us in. Friends, God did not close the church during lockdown, He sent us out in new and wonderful ways.

Summary

1. Do not be discouraged by the lockdown, we see in scripture that God has used such events many times before for His will and purposes.

2. Don’t lose what you have gained throughout the experience of lockdown bt rushing back to normal. Keep hold of what worked.

3. When the next crisis comes, challenge your perspective, see it as an opportunity for the Gospel. God is sovereign.

Amen

Covid 19: Funeral

Today I took two funerals at our local crematorium. They were both pre-booked before the lockdown and neither of the deceased contracted Covid 19. 

They were both local families who had requested my services but neither attended the church.

Usually I would meet the family in person at their home a week before the funeral to discuss arrangements, prepare the eulogy, read scripture and pray. If they are willing I would then return a second time to confirm the details (ensuring that I have the correct names of all the Grandchildren etc), read scripture and pray. 

I would then meet the family in the home of the deceased the morning of the funeral for “Family Prayers” before leading the procession (with the hearse) to the end of the road. A Welsh Valley tradition. 

The service and committal are both usually at the Crematorium, (very occasionally at the church). 

In such a close community such as the Welsh Valleys, funerals are very well attended. I have rarely done a funeral with less than fifty mourners (and as many as 2,000). 

Following the service I would receive an invite to the wake (usually at the local rugby club). I do go on occasion – if appropriate. 

The following week I hope to meet the family again with a printed copy of the Eulogy in a card and offer further literature about our church and the hope we have in Jesus.

But in light of the Coronavirus and the national lockdown I can no longer follow this process.

So here are some practical pointers that I hope will be of assistance if you are conducting a funeral service during lockdown.

Before the Funeral

Pray.

This is going to be tough and made even harder under the heightened anxiety of the lockdown.

Prepare everything over the phone

Phone technology is more familiar to older relatives (and friends) of the deceased. Nobody will feel left out. Zoom and other video conferencing apps can cause added anxiety in a potentially difficult situation. I would not use them unless recommended by the family.

Make sure you have contacted all the family and friends that wish to be involved.

Your initial contact may give you all the information you need, but it is worthwhile to call wider family and friends out of courtesy to see if they have anything to add. 

Follow Government guidelines

New regulations limit the amount of mourners that can attend a funeral. Our local crematorium has stipulated a maximum of five guests. Make the family aware that you are up to date with the guidelines. This will save any embarrassment on the day if others wish to come.

Liaise with the Funeral Director about who can come.

Please be sensitive, deciding who can come can cause a family feud at a most difficult time.

Make the effort to contact all those in the immediate family (and close friends) who cannot come because of the restrictions (especially elderly relatives). Help them feel involved by asking for any anecdotes that they wish to add to the eulogy, or simply share with them what you hope to say on the day. Assure them that you will give their condolences during the service. Offer to send a copy of the Eulogy and Order of Service to those who can’t come.

The Funeral Service

The families grief will be amplified by the tragedy of seeing row after row of empty seats. Be conscious of this. 

Arrive as early as possible to give you more time with the family. Expect additional members to attend to view from afar. Make sure you go and speak to them – even if they are five minutes walk away in the car park.

A gentle handshake or a pat on the arm speaks volumes, but this cannot be done. Social Distancing limits our ability to communicate, so more time is necessary to show your support to the family verbally. They will need it.

Thank God for the five in attendance and preach Christ as you would normally to a full house, to quote Rev. Richard Wurmbrand “Preach to the unseen angels”. You will have a small but captivated audience with no where to hide, they are in deep grief and pleading for hope. Jesus is always the answer. Take your time, embrace the silence. 

When it comes to the hymn. Offer the family to stand and simply ponder the words if they do not feel comfortable singing in an empty room. Gauge their response, if they are not singing, remain mute.

At the end of the service

Still respecting ‘Social Distancing’, offer your condolences again to the family then politely and promptly depart, do not linger. 

Wash your hands when you get home. 

Follow up with a phone call over the coming days.

Love them. Pray for them.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

Dominion

Tom Holland is a rare academic in the secular west who (at the least) has the grit to acknowledge that his agnosticism is born from a 2,000 year old matrix of Christian ethics. (A truth that he is not embarrassed by).

Each chapter is incredibly well written and defines an epoch of church reformation, narrated through the life stories of known historical characters and more interestingly those on the fringe of wider notoriety.

We read of the many shocking mistakes of Christendom that further reinforce its doctrines of the total depravity of man. We see how politics and greed corrupted and divided the church and how competing forces (paganism, Islam and secularism) have reacted against it.

But what becomes clear in this book is that throughout two millennia of cultural turbulence a thin veneer of Christian truth is always preserved by God’s brave (yet often weakened) remnant. Each generation has men and women willing to die to protect Jesus’ teaching that all are equally treasured by God and thus have dignity. That power does not come (as in the natural world) by the imposition of terror but in the love of the victim. The Cross is the sign of this revolution that has so greatly blessed humanity.

Tom makes several comparisons throughout history to show that as far as our society drifts away from God it always returns to the truth of the Cross. For it is the very morals derived from Christianity itself that those who mock and undermine the faith use to defend their cause.

The Gay Pride movement, whilst rightly attacking the homophobia within the church seek after the Christian Doctrine (of life-long monogamous marriage) that the early church fathers died to preserve under the Roman Empire.

The feminists who rightly attack bigotry in the church are also calling (through the #metoo movement) for the same self-restraint that the Puritans fought for.

Post-Christian France showed Christian virtue by welcoming Muslim refugees into their secular nation, expecting that they would take the same satire towards Muhammad as Christianity had endured for centuries with Jesus. Yet once the Atheist publication ‘Charlie Hebdo’ was attacked, secular France quickly returned to their Christian virtues to denounce it as wrong.

The much venerated John Lennon sang the Atheist anthem from his 72 acre palace in Bedfordshire “Imagine there is no Heaven-it’s easy if you try”. Baptist Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. was sent to Heaven for crying out “I have a dream”.

Wherever you stand in regards to faith and religion, the wonderful truth that Tom Holland reveals in this book, is that our histories tensions have all revolved (and thus in some way have been influenced by) the Cross! Christianity is in us all!

Although I have tremendous respect for Tom I can’t agree with his gloomy conclusion, that we are in the Shadow of God’s corpse, that just as Birds came from Dinosaurs, new cultural systems will be born from Christian ethics. If anything this book has taught me the very opposite, that throughout history new ideologies come and go, but the truth of Christianity always lives on. Why? Because it is true! If it wasn’t it would have died out long ago!

Christianity is the constant that built the West and continues to transform and liberate the oppressed all over the world.

This book has really encouraged me (as a Baptist Minister).

By God’s Grace our little church is growing but across the UK Christianity is facing extinction. This book reminds us that such decline is just one of many throughout  history. God is still working and His remnant will persevere for the good of humanity. The UK will return to its first love.

“And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You” (Psalm 9:10).

 

Coming out

Last week Phillip Schofield stole the headlines by “coming out” as ‘gay’. This was a huge shock to me – as I assumed this was the case anyway.

Phillip Schofield has been ever present in my life. As a child I would race home from school to watch him and Gordon the Gopher in the broom cupboard, I loved waking up to ‘Going Live’ on a Saturday morning and I had the privilege of seeing him on stage as Joseph (dressed in his technicolour dream coat).

I have so much respect for him as a broadcaster and entertainer and I pray that this is how he will be remembered.

I am deeply grieved that Phillip Schofield had to go to the extent of divulging his sexual desires on national TV.  His sexuality is his business and the ordeal must have put such a strain on his family. They have all been in my prayers during this difficult time.

Sadly this is one of the consequences of living in a post-Christian nation. No longer are we defined as equals, image bearers of God, with a shared desire to glorify Him in good works, but rather our identity has become sexualised. Putting unnecessary pressure on those conflicted in such areas.

So, I want to say to Phillip Schofield and to anyone else in his circumstance – however cathartic “coming out” maybe, do not let this experience define you. Because you are so much more than your sexual preference, you are a human being and God loves you (Genesis 1:27), you are of infinite value to Him (John 3:16) and thus greatly treasured by Him (Ephesians 2:4-5). God made you who you are (Psalm 139:14) and He does not make mistakes (Psalm 18:30) and whatever you are going through or whatever experience you have faced as you are finding your way in this life, this does not exclude you from God’s Grace (Romans 3:23-24).

Dear friends, when all that you desire today is gone, all you will have left is God. Happiness can only be found in Jesus and whether you are Rich, Poor, Black, White, LGBTQ+ – the Bibles message is clear – All can come (Revelation 22:17) through the Cross (1 Corinthians 1:18) and know God’s love, forgiveness and rest.

We continue to pray for the Schofield family.

 

The Australian Bushfire – is God to blame?

We have all been horrified by the disturbing images of Bushfires rampaging through Australia.

At the point of writing nineteen people have tragically lost their lives, three of which are volunteer fire-fighters and there are many more missing and unaccounted for. Over two thousand properties have been damaged with hundreds of families displaced.

Ecologists have estimated a death toll of half a billion animals across 11.3 million burnt acres – which is an area the size of Belgium – in flames!

Millions of people have resorted to prayer whilst others have used the atrocity as a platform to promote their atheist ideology.

Social Media is filled with comments such as…

“How can a loving God allow this to happen” 

“How cruel and spiteful is God”

“What is the use of prayer?”

 “Christianity is B*** s****” 

etc etc.

I have received several messages regarding such comments which I will endeavour to answer as compassionately as possible.

I pray that these answers help the Christian defend their faith amidst such tragedy and that the accuser may accept the love of God in their lives.

The Australian Bushfire – is God to blame?

A loving response……

1. If God was to prove Himself to you in this instance and miraculously stop the Bushfire would you be in church on Sunday? He has worked many miracles throughout human history that you choose to happily discredit, so why ask God to work a miracle in this case? And what difference will it make to your relationship with God view if He did work in such a way again? (John 12:37).
2. If God was to come to earth and act out His perfect justice, eradicating all that is against His will (like the Australian Bushfire), how would you fare against such judgement? Would He not have to eradicate you to? Rejoice that by Grace He stays His hand and loves you despite your reaction of Him. (Matthew 7:2)
3. There are many theories about who or what started the Bushfires; A) arson, poor land management, climate-change or B) natural forces. A) If it had been caused by human negligence (or worse), such actions are condemned by the Bible. If we refuse to listen to God’s guidance, we cannot then blame Him for the consequences. (1 John 2:16). B) If the Bushfires are naturally caused then there is absolutely no warrant for any moral response in a merely material universe. If there is no God (as you claim) and we are merely products of random chance then the Bushfire has no significance, it is just another random natural act. The loss of a third of all Koala’s is yet another cold and heartless example of the Darwinian ideology you wish to promote.
4. Isn’t it odd that when any horrific event occurs (natural disaster, terror attack etc) millions of people who do not give God a second thought suddenly become theists and “pray” or use the atrocity to attack Christians and blame the God they do not believe in.  I am yet to see anyone on social media blame (or petition) Vishnu, Buddha, Krishna or any other god for that matter.  Why is it that only the God of the Bible gets it in the neck when things go wrong? Is it because it is only when life gets real, when the horoscopes, the Yoga mat and well-being app are proven to be no help whatsoever, that deep down the truth of who really is Sovereign  becomes clear? It is the tragedy of the human condition that it takes such an atrocity to break down our pride to reveal this truth. (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

The Australian Bushfires have caused a horrific loss of life, and we all grieve this because deep down we all believe (as the Bible teaches) that life has meaning and purpose. The Australian Bushfires further evidence the Biblical teaching that this world is broken and that bad things can and do happen and our natural desire to seek justice and appoint blame points to the Biblical promise of a better future. 

Friends, it is only the Bible that can explain the horror that we are seeing, it is only the Bible that can justify our sorrow and it is only the Bible that can give us the hope we need to get through this difficult time.

I pray that such atrocities will bring you to the Bible for answers and ultimately to the Cross of Jesus Christ, where God turned the pinnacle of human evil and suffering into a gateway of love that will unite all His faithful into a new and better world (Revelations 21:4).

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

#PrayForAustralia