2006 the AGM report after the irregular ordinations and subsequent ecclesiastical storm and inevitable and unwelcome media attention. The personal low point was my name being put under a photo of Richard Coekin in the Daily Telegraph. My mother commented that the furore had clearly aged me!

Dear Friends

One of the new ‘innovative’ features of cross channel ferries in the last few years has been the addition of the progress chart that crops up on the screens to inform you just how far you’ve travelled on your journey. They’re a bit like the ones you get on long flights but travelling at speeds of 20 knots (or thereabouts) means that the cursor movement is almost undetectable! However, at the end of the 3 hours that it’s taken to cross that stretch of water it’s reassuring to look out of the window and see we’re in Cherbourg and not Portsmouth.

This letter is an opportunity to do just that, to look out of the window and see where we are. It’s usually hard to spot any progress in church life week by week but over a 12-month period it’s so much easier to take stock. It’s possible for us to become despondent and discouraged about how little progress seems to be made. That’s especially true if we have very high standards or temperamentally we come out of the same box as Eeyore. But it’s also understandable because so much of what we do isn’t done as well as it could be. How could it? Most of us aren’t professionals we’re just willing volunteers with an enthusiasm for following Christ as best we can. But, under God, we’re about to discover that we’ve accomplished so much more for His glory than we ever would have imagined. Be encouraged and don’t be downcast! I hope that you find it as thrilling as I have done to look back and see where we were a year ago and then to realise what God has enabled us to achieve in the intervening period. But as we look back over the year I think there have been three dominant features to our congregational life.

1. It’s been a year in which we’ve had to endure suffering

We don’t have to look far in our congregations before our eyes alight on an individual, a couple or a family who’ve had to endure personal suffering of one kind or another. Some have lost loved ones this year. Some without the opportunity to form the relationships with children for which they’d hoped. Some continue to face the uncertainty of very serious illness that’s either life threatening or shows no signs of abating. Others deal with traumatic events from the past, ongoing hostility in relationships or alienation from family. And so we’re not a congregation with whom a ‘triumphalistic’ approach to life sits comfortably. It’s hard to speak of the positive side of suffering but there have undoubtedly been benefits arising from what the Lord has sent our way. In particular we’ve had to learn what really matters in church life. We could run the very impressive evangelistic programmes and our handling of the scriptures could be exegetically perfect but we would not be a church worthy of the name if we failed to provide the personal support that many of our number have needed this year. We’re a long way short of being the finished article in ‘bearing one another’s burdens’ but one of the things most frequently said by those ‘under the cosh’ has been how much they’ve appreciated the commitment and compassion of others in their suffering. Long may it remain the case.

2. It’s been a year in which we’ve had to contend for the faith

It’s not every year that a church like ours is a matter of discussion in the national newspapers or the church press, gets discussed on Radio 4 and becomes a hot topic on numerous web sites. There’s an unattractive love of notoriety that can develop in some of us but much of the stuff said about us has been less than complimentary. I’m not aware that any of us has enjoyed the attention. The cause of this disquiet was the declaration of ‘temporarily impaired communion’ by the Co-Mission Initiative Partnership with the Bishop of Southwark. This led to the ‘valid but irregular ordinations’ that took place subsequently. Mercifully we’ve copped very little of the flak that’s been flying around. Most of it has been directed towards Richard Coekin and we’re grateful to God for his courage and graciousness under hostile and provocative accusation. But some of us may have had to justify the actions of our elders and the Co-Mission Initiative to angry work colleagues, to concerned parents or to unbelieving friends. Some of us have not found that easy because we’re not by nature people who like a fight. In truth few of us are. The positive side to our act of principled disobedience has been that we’ve sought to obey the scriptures, trusted God, sought His vindication, prayed and in His kindness he saw fit to grant us victory. We’d be foolish to think that the battle has been won and the slide of our denomination into liberalism has been halted but hasn’t it been great to see God uphold us in our prayers and encourage us to go on taking decisions for the good of the gospel?

3. It’s been a year in which we’ve had to persevere in evangelism

Our great longing is to be a church whom God uses not only to build up Christians but also to reach the lost. And so this year we decided to ‘go it alone’ and run our own mission. In the past we’ve piggy backed on the Wimbledon events. In truth it never really worked for us and we weren’t hugely successful at persuading friends to make the journey to the Polka Theatre. We’ve also developed an increasing sense of identity in Balham and so we sought to capitalise on that. It’s hard to imagine how we could have been better prepared. We produced a comprehensive mission handbook, we had a series of instructive doctrine slots and the whole of the autumn term in Knowing God was spent training one another to explain the gospel. And so we went into the mission with high hopes. We had visitors at each of the evening events and a small Christianity Explored course was started soon afterwards. That’s terrific isn’t it? Of course we can do better but what a privilege from God to be used as an instrument in bringing the gospel to the nations on our doorstep. Rather ambitiously we sought to include the all age congregation and ran two morning events. It’s fair to say that these were not as successful as we would have wished with almost no unbelieving friends attending. But we prayed and we invited friends we weren’t sinfully disengaged from the opportunities. It’s just our friends ‘blew us out’. That might be because we didn’t sell it as strongly as we might but it’ll take a while for regulars to gain confidence in the quality of events that we seek to run. We need to remember that it’ll take time to build up friendships with neighbours and with acquaintances in local antenatal and toddler groups. And we rightly feel that we probably ought to invite them to supper before we invite them to church! The positive side of our experience of evangelism is that we’ve learnt to persevere. Even though it’s true that London has become increasingly hostile to the gospel and some people are willing to be vocal and antagonistic in their opposition we continue to meet people who are surprised and intrigued by the content of the gospel. That’s hugely encouraging to keep going.

Conclusion

I think church planting is a little bit like trying to ride a bike for the first time without stabilisers. I can’t find a Bible verse to justify that assertion but bear with me! There have been definite times this year where we’ve been making what can only be described as genuine progress but there’ve been one or two occasions where we’ve wobbled and perhaps fallen over. But the key thing in learning to ride a bike is not to quit but to get up and get going again. In establishing and growing the work of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ at Balham praise God that we’ve not proved quitters.

The other reports thus far

http://richardperkins.blogsome.com/2007/07/05/2007-a-year-at-ccb/

http://richardperkins.blogsome.com/2007/07/05/2005-a-year-at-ccb/

http://richardperkins.blogsome.com/2007/07/05/2004-a-year-at-ccb/

http://richardperkins.blogsome.com/2007/07/05/2003-a-year-at-ccb/