Terminator Salvation

It’s a sad confession to make, but I’m a huge fan of the Terminator franchise.   James Cameron’s original, casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as the iconic Terminator (a T-800), was an excellent chase movie.   The formula was largely unchanged for T2, and the lamentable T3.   Each of these films present a relentless and ruthlessly efficient robotic assassin being sent from the future to prevent John Conner from living to lead humanity to victory against “The Machines”.   Each film has it’s saviour too, a warrior sent back by John Conner to protect himself in the past – Kyle Reese in 1, and Arnold’s reprogrammed Terminator in 2 and 3 – who introduce themselves with the great line, “Come with me if you want to live.”

Like most summer blockbusters, Terminator Salvation is an effects-laden advert for modern US Military equipment (the trailer for Transformers 2 looks like more of the same!).    Set in the future, after the Skynet Artificial Intelligence has devastated the human race with nuclear attack, the film again depicts The Machines trying to wipe out the resistance leadership.   The war is taking it’s toll, everything looks beat up; The Machines are getting more sophisticated (the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing tactic of Arnold’s human-looking robot-inside-human-tissue is being developed), but they cannot beat the human spirit – leaders like John Conner continue to thwart their complete domination.   In some ways, the formula of the previous films is still the same in T: Salvation.  The Machines have an over elaborate plan to break the resistance once and for all.

If there’s a theme running through the Terminator films it’s this: Everybody needs a saviour.   Sarah Conner (at the time the yet-to-be-born John’s mother – time travel makes the plot confusing), in the first film, needs Kyle Reese to teach her how to fight The Machine trying to kill her.   He dies in the effort.   In T2, John Conner needs a reprogrammed Terminator to save him from an even more advance model assassin (a T-1000).   Arnold’s T-800 dies in the effort – destroying himself to remove all evidence of The Machines, hopefully averting their creation in the first place.   In T3, another Arnold-model T-800 blows himself up sacrificing himself to stop  another cyborg assassin (a T-X) – but this is too late to stop Judgement Day (the day Skynet became self-aware and dropped nuclear weapons on humanity).   Saviours die with alarming frequency in the Terminator films.   They die sacrificial deaths, but never manage to deal a decisive blow to end the war.   The Machine goes on, relentlessly trying to stomp on humanity.

Another unifying thread is the line, “Come with me if you want to live.”   Life – survival is the most important thing.   In T: Salvation, there’s a horrible scene, where captured humans are being herded like cattle to some unknown but grizzly fate – and the young Kyle Reese reminds these hopeless people to stay alive in their heads and in their hearts.   There’s nothing like a positive attitude, but what real hope is there?   Doesn’t real hope demand something you can hold onto, something outside yourself?

In T:Salvation, these themes merge in the character of Marcus Wright.   At the start of the film (set in 2003), he’s a killer on death row, signing his body over to medical research – a second chance to redeem himself.   By the events of the film (2018) he’s been resurrected as a human-machine hybrid.   There’s ambiguity about which side he’s on.   Marcus seems to be driven by a desire to help the humans, and in a decisive scene, John Conner decides to trust him, after he says, “I’m the only hope you have.”   It turns up this is all part of the afore mentioned elaborate plan – but no Machine can keep the Human Spirit down – Marcus betrays his programming, and sacrifices himself to save John Conner, not once, but twice.   This time, self-sacrifice becomes a vehicle for his own salvation, his own death atoning for his own sins – both as a killer in 2003, and as a Machine collaborator in 2018.

All the best stories are ones about the Gospel.   T:Salvation tries to be about the best story – but it’s message falls short.   Self-sacrifice is noble, but it doesn’t atone for your own failure.   Hope is vital, but it doesn’t come from inside.   The one last comment I should make is about John Conner’s radio broadcast.   He’s a leader, issuing a rallying call for the resistance – and he signs off with these words, “If you’re listening, you are the resistance.”   I can’t help myself, looking at Scotland and seeing the parallel – The Machines have taken over, in part helped by “human” collaborators – people who have compromised for a long time.   I think it’s time Gospel leaders started making the same call – all Christians who are listening are part of the resistance: not just the leadership of our churches, but more importantly the membership who have been told for too long that things going against them is not their problem – just mind your own local church, and everything will be all right.   It’s a lie – eventually The Machines will come for them too, the time to fight is now.   They are the ones who’ve got to stand up and be counted, maybe they are the ones who should be calling for a united resistance to fight the Machines?

Sex before / outwith marriage

After watching Question Time last night, Jedi Rev was all for heading off to bed, but was enticed by the last in a series of reports from the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly (it’s not on the iPlayer yet – boo hiss!).   This isn’t another blog about their homosexuality debates, but rather a little noticed appendix to the Mission and Discipleship Council’s report – specifically in relation to sex.   You can read the report here, head down to page 93 (section 7.3), to see “A Revisionist Approach” to sex outside of marriage.

Jedi Rev is astonished that in the CofS assembly, floor time is given to people who people who don’t just use the rules to skip away from Biblical truth, but will make statements like this:

…the prohibition on fornication found in Leviticus belongs to the code of prohibitions regarding cleanliness, which it is not clear to us today are of the essence of our moral responsibilities in following Christ.

Great.    It gets better:

…the era in which Scripture was written knew little of the delay between puberty and marriage which is typical today. Is it realistic, the revisionist asks, to expect young people to refrain from sex for ten to twenty years while they wait for marriage?

Jedi Rev would love to here from any evangelicals who got up and said, “Yes, it’s realistic… God never commands something he doesn’t give the grace to comply with.”   The idea that this is all just immoral stuff that we’d be embarrassed to let our kids hear, and irrelevant to the essence of the Gospel is just bogus.   The moral purity set in the example of Jesus – based on these same Levitical codes – is exactly what God requires in order to declare someone holy!   If we start discounting it as invalid for our modern era, we have to ask what exactly was the Son of God doing living under the uncompromising demands of the Torah?   Was it not something to do with the imputation of righteousness, a la Paul’s exclamation in Philippians 3!

The Gospel is at stake, here, not just conservative attitudes.

James Durham & Scandals of Division

Jedi Rev has been thinking about the Scandal of Division in the Scottish church.  Jedi Rev is wary of self-publicising, but he was deeply challenged by the implications of this under-grad essay.   Large sections have been chopped out.

James Durham and Church Unity

James Durham’s work, A Treatise Concerning Scandal, (published posthumously in 1659) was a product of the near unique day in which he lived.   A day when there was, to our minds, literally one church, not fractured by the denominationalism that marks our own day, as the dominant force in Scottish ecclesiastical life.   James Walker’s comment, in Scottish Theology and Theologians, that to the men of Durham’s day; Rutherford, Gillespie, Henderson, Brown, etc., the very idea of different churches operating side by side was utterly inadmissible is reflective of Durham’s work.

…

Durham opens his argument in part IV of Concerning Scandals by marking out distinctions between Heresy, Schism and Division.   Giving one of the most concise definitions of Heresy ever made in the Scottish Church, Durham writes:

“Heresy, is some error in doctrine, and that especially in fundamental doctrine, followed with pertinacy [sic], and endeavour to propagate the same.”

Heresy is a deliberate refusal to cede to the correction of the church courts, coupled with propagation of such false teaching on the fundamentals of the Christian Faith.   (Or to quote D. Macleod, “An error in fundamental doctrine, tenaciously held and vigorously taught.”)   The point here is to ask this question of the modern day Church of Scotland.   Is there a clear case of Heresy within the denomination?   For Durham, union with the Roman Catholic Church was out of the question – the whole church (still a church, making, for example, valid baptisms) was in error.   Separation was valid, indeed necessary.   Is the same now true of the Church of Scotland?   Some brothers there clearly think so.   Does it necessitate separation – that is the $6,000,000 question.

…

The Westminster Assembly fell in favour of a Presbyterian polity for the government of national church, with preaching, not the administration of sacraments, central to worship.   …  Compare the language of the Assembly:

“If you can join with us in occasional acts of worship, you ought to act with us in joint communion, not in separate congregations.   That you should be a distinct Christian organisation, taking members from our Churches, who may have scruples of conscience, is schism undoubted in the body of Christ.”

with Durham:

“Schism implies [as a] consequence: that either the church of Christ on earth is not one, or that one church may be of such heterogeneous or dissimilar parts, as the one of them ought not to have communion with the other; or at least this, that a person ought to seek his own satisfaction and consolation, though to the prejudice and renting [sic, rending?] of the church, and to the general offence and stumbling of others.”

The dream of a united church in Britain came to nothing.   But it was not the ideal of unity, set out by James Durham, par excellence, in Concerning Scandal that failed.   The failure of the Westminster Assembly lay in part with the Parliamentary support for the Erastian party, and Cromwellian support for the Independents.   The point here is to ask, What will stand in the way of a like minded drive for unity today?   Will it be the political expediency of some “evangelicals” not wanting to enter a narrow church with a strict Confessional Subscription?   If the lessons of the 19th century teach us anything, it is that there remains a clear need for some form of unity in doctrine.   The higher that standard is placed, the better.

Is separation ever valid?

Reading Durham’s work, it seems not.   Durham goes to great lengths to support the notion of Church Unity.   He lays down six rules to govern the approach one should take to the matter.  Durham’s language is hard to follow on some of these points; the following is as good an interpretation as possible:  (Jedi Rev was going to make contemprary comment on these points, but realised that was far too easy…)

Firstly, Durham states that if a cause of current division is not such as would create new schism in the church, the parties must come together in unity.   There are plenty gross miscarriages and defects, such as do not lead to schism that have caused such, these should be overlooked.

Secondly, such defects as do not cause continuing communion with the church and her fellowship to become a sin are no cause for division or schism.   Such causes of inconvenience are not causes to break the unity of the church.

Thirdly, a man may have a burden to two courses of action within the church.   One of these may well lead to division, and so is not an acceptable course.   Unity is the higher purpose.   A minister, for example, must follow the duties of his calling.

Fourthly, some courses of action may lead to greater edification of the individual, but lesser unity of the church.   The unity of the body of Christ is to be maintained, such that in time greater edification might be achieved.

Fifthly, in a case were two courses of action will present inconveniences either way, the greater good of, or least hurt to the united church must be sought.   This course of action is to be discerned by examining which course has the most dangerous and potentially destructive inconveniences; which inconveniences seem most inevitable; and which side or course has the most pressing call to duty, to the commands of scripture.

Finally, given that no church polity is free of defect, individuals are advised to act for unity foremost, especially when there is no danger of personal guilt, or accession to the guilt of others.   However, no one can be made to act against his or her own conscience, or against there own duty.

Given these rules, it is difficult to see what grounds, if any, there might be for legitimate division.   But, it should be remembered, Durham was at this point writing on scandalous division; divisions that had no grounds in heresy.   Under these differing doctrinal circumstances, separation would prove a valid course of action.   That is clearly the situation in the modern day – Heresy demands separation, but with other denominations already in existence, is there legitmate grounds for not uniting with them?

Conclusion

The sub title to Durham’s work, “The Dying Man’s Testament to the Church of Scotland”, gives some insight into why it was written.   Durham was nearing the end of his days, and was acutely aware of the problems facing the church.   There was fast approaching a day when the Doctrine of the Visible Church would not be at the forefront of discussions on Christian Unity (i.e. today, when the Doctrine of the visible Church is used to support silly notions like baptising the infants of people with no faith in Christ); the Westminster Assembly had failed to craft a nationwide Presbyterian church; and the Church of Scotland looked fraught with futile divisions that would benefit no one.

Jedi Rev is left wondering about our day.   The futility of Reformed Churches, operating side by side, but refusing to cooperate at a higher level is a scandal indeed.   The Church of Scotland is now clearly rife with Heresy – as defined by Durham, not the nasty insults of a Python-esque Spanish Inquisition.   Will anyone answer the call of James Durham or, in a more contemporary setting, John Ross?

Cars and Websites

Jedi Rev’s car is still sitting in triage outside the garage. That means Jedi Rev is still off the road, and without real Jeid powers, like levitation, there will be no trips to do visits today.

The free time has been spent building and populating a new website for Sleat and Strath Free Church.   Next on the today’s agenda, a new prayer letter for the church, and a ton of paperwork to do with the planned holiday club.   Who needs admin assistants when you can just break your car and do all the paerwork yourself?

Please visit the site, and comment here if you have any suggestions.

General Assembly: The Good Bits

Despite my previous three posts, the Free Church General Assembly had many good points:

1. Rev. Kenny Ferguson’s opening address was a robust call to prayer for the reviving of the Church.   Jedi Rev does wonder what exactly we hope for with these prayers, but that cannot take away from the hope that God might listen, and surprise us all.
2. Rev. Douglas MacKeddie.   His opening address was on a predictable topic, but it was deeply challenging and full of good pointers to how we minister to people – not just the aged – who struggle to cope with the world we live in.   His prayers, despite forcing us to stand for all of them, were clearly being answered as we went through the week.
3. The Assembly Arrangements Committee – they realise the way we conduct business at the Assembly is cumbersome, and needs a facelift.
4. The Ecumenical Relations Committee – their report on the work of the ICRC, was always helpful and encouraging.   The fact that the Free Church is part of an alliance of Reformed Churches – with differing views on “distinctives” like worship – is a huge blessing.
5. Dowanvale – OK, so Jedi Rev thinks the specifics of the plan to link DV with Paisley needed more thorough examination, but that doesn’t change the fact that another of our larger congregations is taking steps to sacrificially support a struggling work.   The fact that we have elders willing to look beyond their own four walls is refreshing.
6. The Home Missions Board report, the update on Strategy, the presentation from the HMB – all of it is testimony to a denomination who’s vision far outstrips its current ability and funding.   Who knows how this will pan out – maybe an influx of people, and staff, willing to lay aside denominationalism will allow the Church in Scotland to lay hold of this vision with both hands, and make something of it.   With God… who knows?
7. The Youth report was, as always, great.   The guys trying to deliver on this area are clearly over-stretched, and crucially lacking in much input from youth, or youth workers.   Why not co-opt some of the Church’s excellent youth work personnel to the committee – Susan Maclean for example?
8. Jedi Rev is unsure about feeling over confident, or too self-congratulatory in these areas, but there is so much we can be thankful for when we see our young people grasping the scriptures, and proud of it in a totally un-embarrassed way.
9. The Church is blessed with some brilliant leaders in the board of Trustees.   The huge, dull, scope of their remit is daunting, but that they rise to this with boldness and courage is quite cool.   James Fraser – despite his clearly busy schedule – loves to job he’s doing, and clearly has the mental capacity to step up to the task.   Rod Morrison is also probably under-rated.
10. The Communications Committee has a great vision from conveying something meaningful in our day.   It’s a shame the work they do in producing papers on relevant issues can’t be expanded into a full apologetics program.   Maybe the St. Peter’s vision for a Centre for Public Christianity will go some way towards helping in this area.
11. The College, and the work the profs, and other teaching personnel do is great.   Looking at the CofS (again) Jedi Rev is thankful that the Free Church has control over its theological education; but says so noting there is still room for improvement in the way we train people for all sorts of ministry… not just the preaching ministry where our college has clear strengths.
12. For Jedi Rev, the International Missions Board report was the absolute highlight of the week.   The Free Church – a tiny denomination really – has a huge impact globally.   The work we are graciously allowed to do in training others – in Latin America, South Africa and in parts of Asia – is outstanding.   Not only in training, but in evangelism, supporting local churches, humanitarian work, the Free Church is blessed with some of the brightest Believers you could find anywhere.

Jedi Rev counts it a blessing to have been able to gain an insight into these areas, and despite the annoying, wasteful experiences of the Assembly Week, Jedi Rev is thankful for being part of a Church so blessed by God.

General Assembly: Top Three Wastes of Time

Jedi Rev also experienced a lot of time wasted at the General Assembly.   Here are the top three wastes of time:

1. What will we call the joined congregation of Dowan Vale and Paisley?

There’s some background to this – DV was formed a few years back through the merger of congregations in Partick, Drumchapel and Govan.   The Drum and Govan churches were at first used as bases for Christian work – Open Doors Trust in Drum, and some youth work in Govan.   Eventually, both these works ended.   The buildings were sold, and DV now has a lovely building.   That is completely separate to the fact that DV has grown, there have been conversions, and it’s all good.  The reason Jedi Rev say it’s separate is because you could probably put Kenny Stewart in a tin shed and some people would flock to hear his preaching, and it would be blessed to the conversion of many.

Now there’s a plan to link Paisley with the DV congregation.   DV, it seems, want to focus on the needs of their own community – and Jedi Rev agrees, this should be the Church’s priority for them.   They have shown no long term commitment to other areas – Govan and Drum being clear examples.   They want to reach out to the people of Partick.   Give them an assistant pastor to help in that!   But DV feel compelled to answer this cry for help.   The General Assembly were being asked to approve the linkage.

What makes this a waste of time?   The home Missions Board were concerned that the name of the new joined congregation should reflect the geography – so they wanted it called Dowan Vale / Paisley Free Church.   Ugly, but necessary, Alex MacDonald argued, to preserve the identity of the Paisley Free Church.   An interesting point of view.   But what left Jedi Rev reeling was not the name, but the specifics of how the new congregation would work.   Paisley is not the nicest of towns.   Sorry, but there’s a nub of truth there.

Paisley has problems.   Social problems, economic problems and dire spiritual problems.   The question Jedi Rev had was, “What sacrificial commitment was the DV congregation going to make to help the work in Paisley?”   The answer was, incredibly, that DV will support the prayer meeting in Paisley as they would support their own.   Don’t get me wrong – pray is important.   But Israel did not beat Amalek through prayer alone – Moses, Aaron and Hur had their part to play, but so did Joshua and his army.

Jedi Rev’s verdict: Why was the Assembly wasting it’s time on the name of this partnership, and not closely examining the detail of what we’re being asked to approve?   It was a rubber stamp moment – and a waste of our time.

2. Was the synagogue worship a wake?

This came just before lunch on Wednesday.   We were hearing the report of the Board of Trustees, which included the plan to engage in a weighty discussion of our form of worship, culminating in a plenary assembly to settle the issue sometime in 2010.   Dr. Iain D. Campbell had moved an amendment to pass from this matter, and end the discussions now.   Jedi Rev recognised some problems with this – but so too did many other commissioners, so the amendment was happily withdrawn.   This was not, in itself, a waste of time.   Jedi Rev feels the church needed to be reminded of the importance of this, and give a strong mandate to the Board of Trustees as they go about this business.

The waste of time came when a commissioner missed the point of the discussion, and felt now was the time to start tearing into the specific questions of our form of worship – based, some would say, in part upon the synagogue worship of Judaism.   Jedi Rev is sure there is a place for such discussion – in reports, academic papers, smoke filled rooms with glasses of brandy in hand, perhaps even the Chalmers Hall, or the Church History class room.    But the floor of the Assembly was the wrong place.

3. How many flats, exactly, should be retained as student accommodation in Edinburgh?

Jedi Rev was subject to a riveting discussion, nay, argument between the Board of Ministry and the Board of Trustees.   The Trustees want to dispose to some flats in Edinburgh – they are grotty, and in a poor state of repair.   Jedi Rev knows, he lived in one for three years.   But they are willing to retain at least 12 – and despite this, can’t sell any right now due to the depressed housing market.   The Board of Ministry want some flats retained, at least 9, to cater for the needs of students at the Free Church College.

The procedure here was wrong – the Board of Ministry should have sought to amend the Trustees proposal.   But the real problem was that these two committees couldn’t get their heads together on this in advance, and brought this pointless discussion to the floor of the Assembly.   Jedi Rev was close to tears, and asked if this matter could be dropped, and discussed in a small room with representatives from both Committees present.   The moderator indicated this was the last speaker on this matter – but the discussion then dragged on for a while.   The words of 1 Corinthians 6:2 came to mind – Do you not know that the saints will judge the world… are you incompetent to try trivial cases?

Jedi Rev would like these words framed and put over the doors to the Assembly Hall.

General Assembly: Fear Factor

Tuesday

The highlight of Tuesday morning was the Ecumenical Relations Committee report.   Iver Martin’s committee does a lot of good work, and they deserve our thanks.   Trips to New Zealand to the International Conference of Reformed Churches being one of the more arduous tasks they are charged with – but their involvement in the European Theatre of Operations makes it all worth while.   They have, for the last few years now, been involved in “talks” with the Church of Scotland.   To quote the CofS Ecumenical Relations report, “There are uncertainties about the goals of [this] conversation.”   Dr. Ian D. Campbell agreed with this.   He wanted to suspend discussions (perhaps for a year) to allow both parties to take stock of the situation, perhaps even to find a purpose for the talks.   Jedi Rev suspects that this amendment was defeated because of fear:

• Iver spoke of his fear of what the press would make of it if we broke of discussions right at this point.
• He spoke of the fear that we would be abandoning evangelicals in the CofS who are thankful for our conversations with the denomination.
• Some commissioners spoke of their fears that local evangelicals would no longer partner with them in the Gospel, if we broke of high level talks.

Jedi Rev thinks these fears are red herrings:

• The press will maul us whenever we get round to breaking off talks with the CofS – a virtual certainty, unless the CofS is radically transformed (something which will not – despite Iver’s suggestions – be due to our involvement in these talks).
• The CofS evangelicals Jedi Rev knows – arguably not leaders, but rank and file guys like Jedi Rev – keep asking why the Free Church is talking to the CofS, but not any of the various evangelical groups within the CofS: that would be far more profitable.
• If we were to take a pause in our discussions, that would be simple thing to explain to our evangelical neighbours – and I suspect we do them a great disservice and slur by suggesting they will break off partnerships with us as some commissioners suggested.

It is a long standing Jedi tradition that fear leads to the Dark Side – but on this issue, Jedi Rev thinks the Free Church was motivated by fear.   Iain D’s amendment was voted down, so the talks with the CofS will go on.

Jedi Rev’s verdict: Jedi Rev is all for closer partnerships with other evangelicals.   But Jedi Rev is sceptical about the purpose of high level talks with the CofS.   There are other Christians we could be more closely involved with – the APC denomination for one!   There is serious prospect of removing the scandal of that division, yet it is disappointing that so much energy is directed to a conversation that has produced a disappointing “Joint Statement” and now a confusing report on dialogue.    It is more disappointing that the arguments of fear held so much sway in this debate.

Jedi Rev thinkis it will be really bad if we break off talks with the CofS after they approve of homosexual ministers.   It makes us look like homophobes.   And what can we hide behind?   The argument that this is an unprecedented departure from the authority of Scripture?   We’ve been saying that for years already.   What makes the present crisis any worse – is it because this time it’s a gay guy?   Jedi Rev thinks voting against Iain D’s amendment will land the Free Church with real difficulties.

General Assembly: An impenetrable Church court

Jedi Rev is just back from the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.   After a mostly relaxed weekend – three services in a pulpit swap with Daniel Sladek, two helpings of really nice venison at lunch with friends and one broken timing belt – Jedi Rev is now ready to put some thoughts on the web about a week that was maybe a bit of a let down.

Monday Night

The opening night of the GA is supposed to be a fairly formal affair, with the retiring moderator preaching, the moderator designate being dragged to the chair by the wary previous holders of this esteemed office and the clerks get us to do the first of a long series of “rubber stamps”.   Jedi Rev has come to dislike rubber stamps.   Rubber stamps are moments when you are asked to approve a decision by stamping your feet, but when no serious alternative option is presented.   The first rubber stamp is normally the approval of standing orders – stamp stamp stamp – but would anyone ever dare propose a different set of standing orders?   Jedi Rev wonders what a GA would be like if standing orders required all speakers to to use iambic pentameter when addressing the house.

Surprisingly, Iain Gill and Jedi Rev seemed to have taken it upon themselves to make Monday night a slightly more interesting affair, with two addenda to the Assembly Arrangements Committee’s deliverance.   This committee normally meets to, unsurprisingly, arrange the Assembly.   So they tend to thank people for some genuinely hard work, e.g. Sharon Fraser at the church offices, who is just great – one her jobs is putting the Commissioners reports together (that’s 80, 200-page ring binders).   This committee is however responsible for the orderly arrangement of these reports in advance.   So, for Iain Gill there was an issue about one committee using their “deliverance” (the points they ask the Assembly to approve, and take action on) to instruct another committee to do something.   You might think this was a minor, utterly insignificant point, but as we’ll see, it was anything but.   Blood, sweat and tears were going to be shed on this point.   Jedi Rev had a different concern – nobody outside the Committees knows what the committees are discussing until they report, and as they only report once a year (the afore mentioned 200-page ring binder), it’s like a blocked pipe being cleared.   The volume of information is overwhelming.   Nobody can be expected to read all of it (contrary to some opinions, Jedi Rev didn’t read every page of the reports!), let alone understand everything.   So, Jedi Rev asked if the AArC would consider changing the reporting system – give us smaller, more regular updates.   Then there’s the issue of confidentiality – some committee members have a problem with this.   There’s one well documented instance involving unfreezing some bank accounts – a clearly private matter, but thanks to some buffoon the other party with a claim on the money got wind of the plans, and the money remains frozen in a HBoS account to this day.   Jedi Rev asked the AArC to sort this out – but he used much more polite language than that.   And then Jedi Rev did the unthinkable – he asked the AArC to find a way of allowing the wider membership of the church to see, and have some input into the committee room.   Jedi Rev is not in favour of committees operating under a blanket of secrecy.

As you can see, Monday night was riveting.

Jedi Rev’s verdict: unless the Free Church’s proceedures become more accessible, the lack of interest will continue to deepen, and that will contribute to more people feeling that what happens in “Edinburgh” has little or no bearing on thier local church.   Presbyterianism does not need to be impenetrable.

Making deals you come to regret

I’ve moved house, moved congregations, and all that!   So no blogs for a while, sorry.

This week, I’m all stressed out, because I think I made a deal without realising the cost.

Last Sunday, I was talking to the kids at church.   I told them we had would be taking communion next Sunday, and asked them if they had any idea what communion was all about.  Being faced with about 10 blank faces, I realised something was amiss.

Had they, I asked, ever been to a communion service?   Shaking of heads.   So, did they know that we passed around a loaf of break, and a shared a cup of wine?   More shaking heads.   This is a megaproblem.   If kids growing up in the church don’t know what communion is like, let alone what it represents, or indeed what is actually going on, how can we expect them to take it seriously when they reach an age of responsibility.

Truth is, this is another example of how we, in my beloved Free Church, don’t take the Gospel all that seriously.   It’s great that people come to church services, but we don’t expect them to see what it’s really about.   Communion forces us to remember that we exist to exalt Jesus Christ.   It teaches us that his life, ended at Golgotha, is the single most important event in the world and that without this focus, the Church is nothing.

But, coming back to the narrative, the kids don’t know any of that.   So, I made a deal with them:  If you come next week, you’ll sit in for the whole service, and I’ll preach foryour benefit, so that you’ be able to understand what communion is all about.   The work involved is more than usual.

EDIT: In the end, none of the kids came that Sunday.

Should James (and young pastors everywhere) Blog?

I’ve not yet figured out how to link sites on comment posts, so this will need to do.

James was blogging on whether or not he should blog. He’s got a hugely wise quote from Carl Trueman, on the dangers of young pastors blogging.

Maybe I need to listen to that. I’ve found a helpful tonic, Abraham Piper (son of John, webguy at Desiring God) giving 6 reasons why pastors should blog. It’s nice. Maybe I need to listen to these wise guys.

And there I’ve broken two rules about blogging! 1. These are not my own thoughts. 2. I’ve just linked someone else and said nothing new. Cheers.