This was a great way to start the conference. Jonathan Fletcher, Vicar of Emmanuel Wimbledon opened the Reform National Conference with an exposition of Nehemiah 8.

He reminded us that first and foremost we’re working for the spiritual reformation of the nation. Our principal concern is not political activity per se but the spiritual renewal of the country. He suggested that Nehemiah’s reforming activity in the newly re-populated city of Jerusalem demonstrated that there were three necessary ingredients of any spiritual reformation.

1. The recovery and reading of God’s word

Jonathan pointed out that throughout the chapter there’s evidence of serious attention to and honouring of God’s word. There was a tremendous emphasis on understanding (2&3). The teachers went to great lengths to make sure that people could get their heads round what was being said. Jonathan commented that his hunch is that many of us are paying lip service to the ministry of the word but we may lack confidence in the word of God to effect deep change. We may be distracted by structures, programmes and so on and failed to give ourselves wholeheartedly to the preparation of Bible teaching. Jonathan said that in contrast to his days on the staff at St Helen’s, when he would regularly sit under Dick Lucas’ ministry, he is now rarely moved when he heard the word of God being preached. He put the fault firmly at the feet of those who preach and handle scripture and accused us of weightlessness in our preaching. He urged that we pursue the Luke 24 experience, so that our hearts might burn within us in response to the word of God. He’s got a point. We need to recover and read God’s word.

2. Remembering and rejoicing in God’s goodness

The people began by weeping and rejoicing but there were then told to stop (10). They then celebrated the most joyous of the three feasts in Judaism; the Feast of Tabernacles. Later on in Nehemiah there’ll be rigorous self examination but at this stage they remembered how good God was. They had experienced a second exodus, having been brought back from the Babylonian captivity and returned to their Promised Land. In the same way, Jonathan reminded us that God has been very good to us. Our hearts must go back to that first Good Friday and rejoice. But also God has also been very good to us in our country since then through the reformation, the evangelical revivals and so on. We need to remember and rejoice in God’s goodness.

3. Urgent and penitential prayer before God’s awesomeness

The book of Nehemiah is infused with prayer. As Nehemiah turns to prayer in chapter 9, he oscillates between God’s goodness and the people’s sinfulness (9:26f). Jonathan reflected that his experience of being at GAFCON was wonderfully joyous, it was free from triumphalism and there was tangible prayerful dependence on God. But he feared that we may have been a little light on repentance and penitence. He encouraged us not simply to point the finger at others in the Anglican communion but recognise that we’re part of the problem and approach God in penitence (9:32). God forbid that we be those that preach yet do not pray. We mustn’t simply leave this to a few intercessors. One of the key ways to ensure that we’re praying is to seek the recovery of the prayer meeting and prayer triplets. We should long to belong to praying rather than growing churches.We need to be urgent and penitential before God’s awesomeness.

Conclusion

To see the recovery of spiritual life in the church of England we’ll need to have confidence that God’s word will do the work, the joy of the Lord will be our strength and our penitent and urgent prayer is absolutely necessary.

Went to a talk by the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler this morning at the Southwark Diocesan Evangelical Union (DEU). I know, but it was Monday, I was tired and my brain wasn’t going to work on anything more taxing! Attendance at these sorts of meetings is not always the best use of time. But I wanted to hear what he had to say on Lambeth, GAFCON and the recent General Synod vote on Women to the Episcopacy. Stay with me. Church politics isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but this is where significant decisions are made that have a huge impact on the future of evangelicalism in the Church of England.

It’d be fair to say that the Co-Mission Initiative, of which the church I pastor is a member, has not always seen eye to eye with our Diocesan Bishop. It’s not personal; it’s a matter of principle. We’ve taken issue with his failure to distance himself from a House of Bishops’ statement on Civil Partnerships in which the Senior Clergy of the Church of England gave their tacit approval of immoral sexual activity. That wasn’t really the type of leadership that we were looking for! We also think he’s anything but helpful in encouraging the type of missional church planting needed to reach the city with the tremendous news of the gospel. As a result, we’re currently in ‘temporarily impaired communion’ awaiting his repentance, retirement or removal from office. I’m not fussy, I’d take any of them!

The talk was supposed to be his considered reflections on the Lambeth Conference. But given his audience he demonstrated his political adroitness and did little more than tell a few storiesabout queues and a cat. We’ll coem to that later. It was like looking at someone’s holiday snaps, but less interesting because he’d left the slides at home. I came away absolutely convinced that if our great city is to be reached with the gospel then looking to the Diocese is an exercise in futility. Words cannot express how utterly depressing to think that this is the man we’re looking to for help in gospel ministry. But the truth is that I gave up on the Diocese a long time ago. Theologically and missiologically we’re in very different places and in all honesty because he profoundly disagrees with our theology he wants no part in spreading it across South London.

I wasn’t expecting much but I wasn’t prepared for what met me at the DEU. It wasn’t the Bishop that was most disappointing, it was us. Let me explain.

We were ancient. With very few exceptions we looked like a waiting room for the cemetery! We were the leaders of the evangelical constituency from the Diocese of Southwark. And we were old and grey. We’re the guardians of the gospel, charged with the responsibility of contending for the truth, promoting the gospel and training the next generation of church leaders. And we were ancient. The average age had to be well over 55. I was one of the youngsters and I’m nearly 40! Whilst I may take a slightly more nuanced line than Mark Driscoll’s recent comments to the Diocese of Sydney on the need to raise up much younger leaders, his point was never better illustrated than in our meeting. The nature of the meeting might be self selecting but I fear that we’ve taken our eyes of the ball of finding and training some youngsters who can give their twenties and thirties to the gospel.

We were broad. The writing was on the wall when the Chairman, Gary Jenkins used the expression ‘from across the evangelical spectrum’. It sent shivers down my spine. Evangelicalsim has morphed in the last few years. And that’s not good. Liberal evangelicals and classical evangelicals aren’t on a spectrum, we’re separated by a chasm. We’re barely on the same page let alone reading the same Bible. How can we both be evangelical and have different views on penal substitution and sexual morality? We can’t, and it’s nonsense to suggest that our differences of interpretation legitimate what is little more than reinventing the faith. There’s real and substantial difference between us. And I fear it’s irreconciliable without deep and heartfelt repentance. The heat and hostility shown towards those of us who refuse to compromise but instead pursue a path of principled action gives me little hope of converegence. It doesn’t matter how many conversations we’ll have, we’re on different theological trajectories.

We were weak. It may well be that the best tactic in that situation is not to say anything at all. That was the decision made by the staff team from one large evangelical church. They may have been right. But I’d like to have seen some more opposition to a few things that the Bishop said. I didn’t say anything and I probably should have done. I found the wisdom of my seniors convenient. But in reality I was weak. Things had been said that Jesus would have taken issue with and I just let it go through to the keeper. I figure Jesus would’ve taken a monumental swing. He’d have connected as well! If we don’t register our utter opposition and sense of betrayal at the revisionist agenda of the liberal wing of the Church of England that he represents, we only have ourselves to blame as the Church of England continues to travel in a direction away from biblical truth.

The Bishop told a story about his time at Canterbury when, in a quiet moment of solace in the Cathedral cloisters, a cat jumped up onto his lap and started purring. He started stroking it and then it unexpectedly turned round and bit him. He concluded that this was a parable for the Lambeth Conference. But I came away from the meeting thinking we were like the compliant cat that rolled over onto its back and let the Bishop tickle our tummy. I’m hoping for some bite at the Reform Conference starting tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.