President's diary - October 2024
Friday 4th October
This evening Becca and I travelled to Wells to hear the band Police Dog Hogan. They play that mixture of folk, rock and country music that tends to get called ‘Americana’, though they mix it up with some songs about the glories of the English west country, which goes down very well in Somerset.
The venue was a very clean and comfortable theatre linked to an independent school. It seemed more suited to a play or a literary festival – that was our next visit to Wells – than a rock concert. But we really enjoyed ourselves.
Monday 7th October
I’ve been asked to visit a local church to talk about human sexuality. I was given the title Sex, Discipleship and the Bible. I made it clear that I had accepted the invitation in a personal capacity and was not speaking on behalf of anyone else.
As usual, I came away thinking afresh about the issues and how I might express myself differently if a similar invitation should come along in the future. As it turned out, I didn’t have too long to wait.
Tuesday 8th – Friday 11th October
A few days away in Chichester – our annual short break with our friends from the old days when we were all young and living in Battersea. We enjoyed catching up, walking on the beaches, a couple of lovely meals, and a trip to the local crazy golf course.
These are people who knew me long before I was a minister and so the relationships are different from most others. These long friendships are a great gift.
Sunday 13th October
I was invited to speak at our home church in Burnham this morning. We have finally finished our long series on the Acts of the Apostles, and we are now going through the book of Daniel.
I was allocated Chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. I ended up reflecting on how much of the Bible story happens in the shadow of empire and then contrasting their rulers with the ruler in the kingdom of God. I noted the tree of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the tree that grows from a mustard seed in Jesus’s parable.
I also contrasted the dream from the tree with the cross, which is like a tree of life for the people of God. I argued that the emperor demands that we die for them, but the true king is willing to die for us.
In the old days, we were always in church at least twice on a Sunday. In Battersea, where I was church secretary, it was expected that I would be present and read the church notices morning and evening. The odd occasion that I missed an evening service made me feel a little guilty.
We attended morning and evening in our church in the Peruvian mountains all the years we were working with Tearfund and then again back in the UK when I was training for ministry. In pastorate in Bristol, I was at both services every week.
But now, there’s an evening service once a month and so things seem very different. I still feel ill at ease about not going, but there’s nothing to attend. Instead, this evening, we drove down to Bridgwater and went to a concert by Steeleye Span.
I first saw Steeleye Span, pioneers of folk rock, in Brighton in 1973. They’re still playing and I’m still listening. Their encore produced a surreal moment. They played their hit song All around my hat but they did the Status Quo version of the song and so we listened to a band play a cover version of one of their own songs. Echoes of echoes.
Monday 14th October
My lovely pastor in Burnham-on-Sea is a former student from the days when I was a college principal, and he knows how much I used to enjoy teaching Baptist History and Principles. So, as a favour to me, he has persuaded his long-suffering congregation to come out on a Monday evening to listen to me talking about what it is that makes a church a Baptist church.
About 30 of them turned out and we thought about being a community of disciples. There’s a second evening in a couple of weeks’ time.
Tuesday 15th October
Today I was invited to talk to the ministers in the South Wales Baptist Association with the title Does the Future Have Ministers? I think some of them suspected that the President had been sent by the Baptist Union Council to hand out redundancy notices!
In the end I offered my usual argument that we can be too pragmatic at times. The statistics might show that the church is in decline, but they may not be as accurate as some think.
More importantly, the people of God have been in decline before, and things turned around. Most significantly, we do not trust in statistics or even in history, we trust in God. If Jesus says that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church, then we should take him at his word.
So, we have to believe the future has a church and since God gives gifts to his church of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, then the future has ministers. Patterns of ministry may change but God does not.
In the evening, I was invited to speak to the association AGM and was allowed to speak on my presidential themes. My concern is renewal, and I am arguing that this will come if we look to our past and recall the commitment to the authority of Jesus as revealed in the Scriptures that lies at the origin of our movement, and then commit to the future by identifying, equipping and releasing the next generation of ministers for our churches.
Thursday 17th October
This afternoon I spoke to one of my doctoral students. She’s living at home in Bolivia but her mind in on her husband’s homeland of Palestine. As the war spreads into Lebanon, she, like many others, is desperate that the bombing campaigns should end and that a political, indeed, a spiritual, solution is found that allows different people groups to live peacefully alongside one another.
We talked a little about her work on Christian Zionist texts and the opportunities she has to speak at major conferences on the issues close to her heart.
Friday 18th October
This morning, I had a conversation with the senior leader in a major Christian children’s charity with Baptist roots, and this afternoon I spoke to a doctoral student, a curate at a parish in the midlands, who is working on 1 Corinthians with a focus on issues of inclusion and exclusion. Most of the learning I do these days comes through the work of postgraduates. It’s all I can do to keep up with them.
In the evening Becca and I drove to the Tobacco Factory Theatre in Bristol to see a play called Slave; a question of freedom. It was an engaging and powerful production about a young woman who is stolen from her childhood home in the Sudanese hills and forced to work as a slave for a wealthy family in Khartoum and then in London.
It was a reminder of the reality of the persistent though hidden nature of contemporary enslavement.
Saturday 19th October
Our discipleship triplet was due to meet. Unfortunately, one of the group was unwell so two of us hit some golf balls at the driving range and then had a conversation over a quiet lunch. It’s a good way to ensure that someone is keeping tabs on my life and the things I get up to.
In the evening Becca and I returned to Wells to attend part of the literary festival. We enjoyed listening to John O’Farrell, the author of a humorous political memoir, some Spitting Image sketches, a number of novels and a couple of musicals. It was in the same theatre we’d been in a couple of weeks before and the venue seemed better suited to this occasion.
Sunday 20th October
This morning, I was invited to speak at the Baptist church in Yeovil. I’ve never visited the church before, but I have lots of friends who’ve been a part of the fellowship over the years.
I re-wrote an older sermon for the occasion. It was first written for a shared communion for the students and staff of the Bristol theological colleges, the Baptist college and Trinity, the Anglican college. It draws a parallel between the clay jar of Jeremiah 31, into which he places the title deeds to land he has bought in order to express hope beyond exile, and the clay jars, the apostles and others, into whom God has placed the hope of the gospel. Afterwards, I had a lovely lunch with friends who are part of the congregation.
Monday 21st October
Another friend has been in touch looking for a perspective on human sexuality. This time we recorded a short interview for his church. On reflection, I realised afresh just how easy it is for those who engage on this issue from any point of view to misunderstand other approaches or to fail to recognise the integrity of other positions. I know I’m not immune to these things and so I’m constantly finding myself reassessing my opinions.
Wednesday 23rd – Thursday 24th October
Off to Derbyshire for the meeting of the Baptist Union Council. Ministerial Rules, Project Violet and the financial review, plus lots of opportunities to catch up with friends. I first attended Council when I become one of the first group to be asked to be trustees of the Union in, I think, 2005. I then attended as a college representative till 2023 and currently get invited in my role as president.
After Council I stayed around to attend a Zoom meeting of one of the academic committees at Spurgeon’s College. When I retired from my role at Bristol, the London college kindly invited me to help provide some oversight to their teaching and learning. It’s great to have an opportunity to stay involved in theological education and to see how these things are being done at a different college from the one I know best.
Friday 25th October
I share the supervision of one of our ministers who is nearing completion of his PhD thesis on the theology of the Lord’s Supper. It’s another one of those projects that has taught me a great deal. He hopes to submit by the end of the year. I shall miss our conversations, though I’ll be pleased to see another doctoral student reach the finishing post.
Saturday 26th October
I left home fairly early and drove to east London where I’d been invited to participate in the dedication of the renovated Aldersbrook Baptist Church, the new home of the International Praise Centre. The renewal of the building is an astonishing achievement and a great monument to the partnership between a dynamic local church and London Baptists, as well as others.
The service featured lots of gospel singing as well as a range of contributions from people associated with the church, association and building project.
The highlight for me was a message from Pastor Kingsley Appiagyei. I had to follow him. I did my best, but I know when I’m beaten. I spoke about inviting people to come and see what God has done in restoring the building. The service was described as a ‘temple dedication’ and so I spoke about some of the different ways the Bible uses the term temple; the building in Jerusalem where God’s glory fell, the creation as a whole in which God is enthroned, the body of Messiah Jesus, and the church – the people of God.
Afterwards, some of us gathered downstairs and I shared with the local mayor in the unveiling of a plaque while Pastor Kingsley offered a prayer. It was a very odd feeling to see my name on the plaque. I felt very honoured and yet conscious that it was more about my current role than about me. What mattered was that our Baptist family had been part of the occasion and that the relationship is a significant one and worth marking.
Monday 28th October
This evening, I spoke again at the Burnham church about what it means to be a Baptist church. I tried to explain why we do the things we do in the ways that we do.
Most of the questions were really about our differences from other church traditions. It became clear that lots of those who came along had backgrounds in other denominations or in independent churches and wanted to explore the reasons behind the Baptist approach to things.
Tuesday 29th October
Another early start. This time I was off to London to preach in the chapel at Spurgeon’s. The text I was given by the college was the end of Acts 2 and I spoke about the wells that God has given us from which we draw water to sustain the life of the church and how, whatever else we may do, these things need to be part of the life of the people of God.
I drew attention to the importance of fellowship, breaking bread together, prayer, and the teaching of the apostles.
After chapel I had lunch and a conversation with my friend Philip, the college principal, and then drove to Oxford where I spent the evening with my brother and his wife. I stayed with them overnight and in the morning, I visited my mother before driving back home.
Wednesday 30th October
This evening, Becca and I drove into Bristol to see one of my favourite bands, Squeeze. She thought they sounded a bit like a fairground, but I thought they were wonderful. I first saw them play in Brixton in the 1980s and I’ve followed their career ever since. They’re performing a handful of new songs but are happy to play the old hits.
I sometimes think that the perfect pop song has to have a snappy words, a melody you can sing after a couple of listens, and should do what it needs to do in no more than two to three minutes. I’m happy to provide a list of examples if anyone is interested. Squeeze have a number of songs that can stand with the best, especially, I think, Goodbye girl and Another nail in my heart. The fact that the words are largely about experiences of loss and personal failure is for me, I’m afraid to say, a part of their appeal.
Thursday 31st October
The month ended with a supervision session with a doctoral student. Oh, yes, and we bought lots of chocolate and sweets in case anyone knocked on our door this evening asking for treats. Whatever our feelings about Halloween, we want to let everyone know they’re welcome.
However, this year, nobody rang our bell, and we realised we’d have to eat the chocolate ourselves. Sometimes life can be tough.
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