How to do politics as a Christian (be careful what you post)

Since before the recent UK General Election campaign, and more recently with the election of a new Socialist leader I have been pondering and worrying about how Christians come across regarding their political views. I suppose some of my uneasiness has come from the crazy sound and vision bite world of Social Networking, where we seem to post and re-post and "share post" odd and wierd pieces of snippets from here and there that may or may not reflect our political or ideological position. They kind of sound right, and we like the snappy one liner that it is, and even more so if we get oh so many "likes" or even more so if someone then shares it. But as my mother keep saying as a defence for not being on Facebook, "becareful, one of these days what you put up will come back to haunt you!" And I can't help but wonder whether she is actually right!
But more centrally I want to ask in this blog a number of key questions which I think need answering:

1. What comes first for you, your Christian faith or your politics? I think this is a really important question. Some would immediately jump up and say neither, they are entirely meshed. After all, the sermon on the mount etc etc and all that gives me a mandate to engage politically as a Christian. My political views are an outoworking of my Christian faith. And yes, I get that completely. I would say the same.
But be careful. The latter must never come before the former! The New Testament makes it clear that only full and undivided whole hearted committment to Jesus Christ is acceptable, and nothing must get in the way of our walk as a disciple. Yes, even politics. Then we must also take into consideration the classic 1 Corinthians 8 text, often known as "The weaker brother" text. The key verse is 1 Corinthians 9 vs  9 "Be careful, however that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak." This is a key text that it is often forgotten in our 2015 world. The exogesis is very straightforward! If what you are doing, even though the scriptures do not command against, is causing your brother or sister in the Christian faith to be held back, fall away or pushed away or weakened  in the faith, because they are not as mature as you, then you must stop what you are doing for their sake and the sake of the Gospel and the Kingdom. Fairly black and white, unarguable text! Applied to our political views and what we post, then we should all be careful about what we put up!  But someone will say "I'm just trying to make people think!" Yes, I get that too, but again the scripture is clear - our freedom should not be abused, lest it become a stumbling block. And primarily do we present Christ, or do we present our politics? 2 Corinthians 2 vs 16 is also worth pondering in this context: "to the one we are the smell of death, to the other the fragrance of life." What precisely are we presenting as an aroma as we make our posts? It's a very fine line, and Paul says therefore be very careful! Paul in the weaker brother scripture of 1 Corinthians 8 vs 12, says that when we sin against our brother by abusing our freedoms, then we sin against Christ.

2. Let's be clear, there is no one political party for Christians! Oliver Cromwell tried this in his puritan wisdom (or lack?) and the whole thing major backfired. His attempt as Lord Protector to cancel Christmas and to essentially attempt to recreate the Kingdom of God in the kingdom of England went big time wrong. In that sense Cromwell failed to factor in the freedom of conscience of all, most especially those who disagreed with him, let alone those who did not believe the same thing as he or the Puritans. But why be reminded of this piece of English history? Simply this - Christians of sincere and true faith exist in all different political parties, and exist on either side of the debating chamber, whether it be Westminster, or your local county or town council. We may scratch our head and attempt to make judgement on them (which would be wrong), but they have sincerely before God made their choice, and read the same scriptures and worship the same God. Yes, by all means make clear your own political views, but be careful not to judge another believer in this respect. And cromwellism is still seen in our churches today as if there is a preset Christian political view that must be adhered to or if you don't accept the same, then you are amongst the reprobate or deemed a false prophet. Again, be very careful! Freedom of conscience must be given to interpret differently and hold different views, and still be a committed Christian, and yes a brother or sister in Christ. I ask the question again - what is primary? Our Christian faith or our political views? Scripture I believe would support the former not the latter.

3. There's nothing wrong with thinking outside the box, and being made to think about difficult issues. As I've said to our kids time and time again as they have engaged at secondary school level with their essays - "Remember, there are no black and white issues, even as a Christian!" I simply want us to avoid the trap that there is a single right view for the Christian to have and hold on every single tricky ethical issue that there is. Oh I know we like to think as Evangelicals that there are set views, and we even reach for our traditional text books on the shelves to read what it says and then in the worse case repeat them back. But thats the stuff of cults which generally say "this is what we believe in this group, and therefore this is what you are to believe as a follower!" And basically if you don't believe their teaching then you are cast out. Christianity has never been so badly misrepresented if such views are held. No, God has given us a brain and freedom to think, and we should carefully study and read, ponder and reflect and then listen to others, before reaching a conclusion of our own. And even then, remain open to change your views as time goes on. Nothing is ever black and white!

So we should be careful how we express our views, careful what we put first as primary! Faith or politics? Careful what we post, and careful not to judge! And deep, studious and open to the views of others, as we ponder our ethical and political view points!

Highland holiday snaps

Highland holiday photos

Highland holiday

Each cog has to mesh

As a former Engineer, the visual imagery of a set of gears in any type of gearbox, always leaves me both amazed and concerned. Amazed because it really does take some brains and skills to make a series of cogs hit just the right place at just the right time. Concerned because every engineer's worst nightmare is the crunch and smash that results from this going oh so wrong. 'Tis both expensive and somewhat soul destroying. The expression "back to the drawing board" - the cry of designers and engineers the world over, is so often true as the project explodes and there is nothing left of it. Ouch! and most of us over 40 years can well remember the Morris Minor, famed for its unique exhaust sound and heard from at least 1/2 a mile away, as also the crunch of the gears is then heard. It ain't wonderful. Cringe! Cometh the problem, cometh Saint Cog, Birmingham born no doubt, and Patron Saint of Syncromesh. Blessed be him.

But it got me thinking the other day about the short sentence in Ephesians 4 v16, in the Bible: "as each part does it's work." The chapter has been about encouraging spiritual gifts in the church family and showing that different people have different gifts, and the thrust of the message from St Paul is to paint the image of the local church family as a body, wherein each part of the body is dependent upon the other. A veritable "gear box" indeed!
So it is necessary for the gearbox of cogs to be functioning, and essentially working well, together! There is a noticeable reliance upon each of the other cogs to function and work as designed. When an engineer builds a gearbox, the intention is to then to hold it all in place within a housing, just so the springs and nuts don't escape. There is no space for independence or prima donna cogs. The gears have to work, and they have to work together. And the truth is that if one part of the working mechanism breaks down, chooses to not function or break, then the mechanism is in real trouble.
So too the church of God's people. In this seemingly volunteer environment, this is a big ask and a huge expectation. It seems no one can be contained by a housing? Truth is if important components don't function properly or break, and in our "oh so polite" world of church we so easily say "that's fine, don't worry", but the effort required soon falls on others if one or some choose to not fulfil their tasks. And soon, other cogs are overloaded and will more easily ware out. Each part does need to do it's work. If it doesn't, then we are soon in trouble. Nothing causes more frustration and upset when a cog doesn't work!

Its worth thinking about.

My opinion? Who cares! A lesson from Spurgeon's Sermon Class

Another lamb to the slaughter had made his way before the entire college community for the weekly sermon class. It was bad enough to just get there - the college chapel, lead the worship, and then preach. After all you had had no sleep for days, could easily have taken up Spurgeonic pipe smoking to calm yourself (well the great CH did it after all), and then you were wheeled out in front of friends and faculty in the hope they would be kind. In the really old days of  Spurgeon's, a student would have 2 sermon classes during their college existence, I'm guessing to see if you had improved or not! But we had it easy - just the one sacrifice. We died only once! The old students died twice! This was between the 88-92 years in the days of PBM. But it didn't stop there, for having survived the chapel bit, everyone retreated into a lecture theatre wherein the sacrificial lamb was positioned centre stage, and surrounded by all in the jolly college community. Then 2 critics from the student body and 2 from the faculty would sprout forth their deeply considered critiques (all pre-prepared in advance from seeing the students script) - "The preacher completely missed the point of the text and should consider his entire future in the ministry to be in jeopardy!" "The prayer led at the start sent me to sleep, and lacked theological substance!" "The preachers voice was thin and sounded like Kermit the Frog, he should pack it in now and return to the Muppet show!" "There are only 3 ways to preach this text, and this preacher chose neither! He should re-consider returning to be a road sweeper!" "The preacher entertained us this morning, but perhaps he should consider the stage as a stand up comedian!"
It would take you several months to regain any sense of divine call upon your life, if at all, but hey ho, thats what set Spurgeons apart from the others as being "The College of the Prince of Preachers!"

But I remember one severe but necessarily true criticism by a faculty member of a student's sermon: "We are not interested in hearing what the student thinks about this text, we are wanting to hear what God thinks! Please tell us!" Ouch!

Opinion - what's yours? As an observation, and a kind one at that, we do seem to love having opinions about viritually every topic. Some people are even outspoken to the point where either they very clearly have a view on everything, or they just will not stay quiet. You just know in any group setting that they are going to speak and express, once again, their rather tedious perspectives and wearisome views, which have in any case been heard one hundred times before. Yawn!

But what if we actually made it a discipline and a choice to remain quiet and to listen? To perhaps trash any pre-concieved "opinions" and actually spend time listening to a fresh one?! Oh joy, oh rapture when we might reach the place of realising that maybe, and probably, no one is actually interested in our opinions. But that may be a sad place to find yourself in if you are highly opinionated. So I give you a half way house: why not assume that no one is interested in your views unless they ask for them? In which case, you can indeed carefully respond, with tact and grace, with your "obviously only true" and correct world changing opinion!

But this is just my opinion!

83.5 Christian Ministry Truths

I've haven't blogged (again) for oodles, so feeling okay-ish today I thought I would throw some "stuff" into the arena.
I've noticed recently that there is this excessive desire by internet bloggers and the like to provide "easy lists" rather than to wax lyrical with long paragraphs. For example 10 easy ways to put the cat out, 5 hard ways to mow the lawn (gotta see that one) or 20 ways to oven cook chips. And so, I thought I'd have a go, and to do so covering a couple of topics I have been pondering on recently:

First: Pointers to the Baptist Family I belong to:

1. Did we go far enough with the recent Baptist Union changes? Should we not have amalgamated with other church streams - Pentecostal and United Reformed being possible obvious choices, and particularly where similar struggles and challenges are being experienced, and haven't we got much that we can learn from one another?
2. When is "the local" going to mean "the local church"?
3. Isn't it time to join with most other Christian denominations and allow churches to advertise ministry vacancies online, particularly if the practice is already given over to Youth Workers and Regional Staff?
4. What is the next national vision? And if there isn't to be one, can it be "the local"?
5. If there is a now a code of values and practice for all Accredited Ministers, when will there be a code of practice for how churches are to act and behave?

Second, I thought I'd re-visit my "Ministry Truths" list which I produced 5 years ago, and consider any new additions, as well as smile and cringe at those I scribed back then.

So this is how it went, in no particular order, but 5 years on I have added and edited:

1. You can never ever please everyone but you must defintely always please God.
2. You can only minister where there is invitation.
3. Never assume anything.
4. Never think you've seen the worst situation, be unshockable.
5. Beware of people in fluorescent jackets
6. Everyone sees "it" differently and has an "agenda." See "it" God's way.
7. Any and every situation is never "black and white".
8. At the end of the day you can only do what you can do. Then you have to hand it over to God.
9. Ministry is a thankless calling, where few appreciate you, rarely say thank you, never pay you enough, sometimes complain, sometimes get angry at you, think you don't have another life, sometimes don't say nice things and rarely appreciate "the real you". But that's ministry.
10. Some people think you live at the church all the time.
11. People often think that the only thing that you have to deal with is their problem and don't even consider everything else that you have to do.
12. Conversely, if you sort/manage/service regularly the above group with "strokes" then ministry life tends to have less crisis points.
13. The Kingdom of God is substantially bigger than you, your world, your life & your church.
14. Some people like to play games.
15. History always repeats itself & there's nothing new under the sun - God's seen it all before and left us with evidence. Unless God really does something extra ordinarily different, he does occasionally, be ready to see the difference and catch his wave.
16. Demon possession is always, always the very last conclusion to reach. What else is going on?
17. There's always a statement or question behind the statement or question. Ask yourself what it is and answer that one, not the smoke screen.
18. People often get angry at you, even though it hurts, don't take it personally.
19. Always put the family before the church.
20. Your past can shape the way you are today. Be aware of it. Re-visit it, deal with it, let go of it. Use it.
21. Don't panic.
22. Keep a balance in all things.
23. The Kingdom of God does not work to the principal of logic.
24. Be kind to yourself.
25. Spiritually and liturgicaly, be open to the new, do not forget the best of the past.
26. Protect yourself, guard yourself.
27. Keep going. Never give up. You're doing a good job.
28. Ministry is not the whole picture. There is another life!

Well thats it for the time being. You don't have to agree, and these are MY lists! But if they make you chuckle, then good!