President's diary – March 2025
Viva examinations
One of the decisive moments for doctoral students comes when they submit their thesis and then have to defend their ideas before two examiners who are specialists in the field. In the second week of March, two of my students faced such examinations on consecutive days.
The first, for whom I was a co-supervisor, had written an excellent thesis contrasting the views of the Lord’s Supper in a Roman Catholic writer (William Cavanaugh) and a Baptist writer (Paul Fiddes). There was a good outcome with the examiners asking for just a few minor changes before the doctorate could be awarded.
The second student had some brilliant insights into the letter to the Hebrews and, in my view, definitely deserved a doctorate. Sadly, personal circumstances had taken away the opportunity to properly write up his ideas and all possible extensions and suspensions had been exhausted, so the written thesis did not do justice to the quality of his thinking. The result was that the examiners felt they had no choice but to fail him. It was a very disappointing outcome.
Teaching
In the second week of March, I was invited back to the college in Bristol to lead what they call a Focus Day for the ministerial students. The ministry programme this year has been looking at the theme of worship and I was asked to offer them a biblical theology of it.
It was a strange feeling to be back in the familiar classroom with a group of students, some of whom I knew well and others who were new to me. We talked about worship and what it means to be fully human, understanding ourselves as those who live in dependence on their creator.
The next day I was in Melton Mowbray in the East Midlands because the regional association had invited me to talk to local ministers and other church leaders. The theme was ‘The Whole Counsel of God’ – Preaching the Bible Whole and the Whole of the Bible. I spoke about the importance of the Scriptures in the Baptist story, the responsibility on preachers to ensure our congregations engage with all the Bible, and some ways in which this might be accomplished. Everyone was very kind and hospitable, and I enjoyed my visit.
The next week brought some more formal teaching. On the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I taught 10 hours on the Gospel According to John at Trinity College, in Bristol. The group were lively and engaged and I enjoyed being in the classroom.
On the Thursday, the teaching on John was over by 2.50pm and I then joined my MA class on Zoom for the last couple of hours of the module on René Girard and the Apocalypse. That’s the last teaching I have scheduled for this academic year and may be the last formal classes I ever deliver. Now I just have to mark the essays when they arrive.
Preaching
There were two invitations to churches this month. The first was to Boscombe in Bournemouth where the church is celebrating its 150th anniversary. I dusted down a sermon on the local church as a kind of ‘school for saints’ and talked about the different ways we learn; reading the Scriptures, preaching and teaching and, vitally, from one another. I remind everyone that we learn how to follow Jesus from the disciples around us.
I tell a story about the church in Battersea where I was involved in my 20s. A group around my age used to meet after the evening service and I would drive some of them home afterwards. I would drop one of them off at the home of one of the deacons where a group made up of her parents and another couple or two, all in their 50s, were together happily discussing the service and the life of the church.
As another friend and I got back into the car she would often say that she hoped that when she was in her 50s, she would be like the people in that group. And in her 50s, she was. We learned how to follow Jesus by observing those who were doing it well.
The service was a lovely celebration of God’s faithfulness. The Mayor of Bournemouth was there in his regalia and the local MP turned up too. It was a privilege to be part of the occasion. There was a terrific church lunch afterwards.
I felt very welcome. It was a special treat for me to have some friends in the congregation. A young man who was part of the youth group when I was a pastor is now part of the church in Boscombe. He was there with his wife and his parents, friends of mine from the church in Bristol, were visiting for the weekend. It was lovely to have the chance to catch up.
The next week I was in Burwell in Cambridgeshire. It was great to be in one of our thriving village churches. I spoke again about the power of Jesus to transform the everyday. After the service I enjoyed a lovely lunch with the pastor and his wife before the long journey back to Burnham. It was great to meet yet one more of the many able pastors who are called to serve among us and repeat my call for us to make active efforts to encourage others to respond to the challenge to listen out for God’s call to ministry.
Holiday
From 1989 till 2023 Becca and I were in a situation where we could only take time off during college or school holidays. For all that time I was either a student or a college tutor or a pastor with school-age children. I’ve no complaints at all about this, and I realise that many people struggle to afford any breaks at all, but it does mean that since we are both now retired, we can take our holidays at times of our own choosing. And we chose to spend a week in Mallorca at the start of March.
I’d not been to the island since 1968. When I was little, lots of the TV adverts at certain times of year were for holidays. My favourites were always the ones for Butlins which featured fun fair rides, swimming pools and other things that appealed to children. My mother didn’t really approve of Butlins. She would tell me that we might be working class, but we weren’t common.
However, it turned out that Pontins – a rival chain of holiday camps – was acceptable even if Butlins was not. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions about the social codes that were in play. Anyway, our week at a Pontins camp in Devon in 1967 was deemed to have been a success and so the next year we went to what we then knew as Majorca (we made no attempt to pronounce it properly in those days) to experience the joys of a Pontins camp abroad. They called it Pontinental. It was the 60s, I was 11, and I thought this was the very height of sophistication.
Anyway, Becca and I enjoyed a lovely few days’ walking, visiting ancient towns and eating lovely food. It was a far cry from my previous visit, but I loved them both.
Health
Most of the news this month was good or at least tolerable. The doctors don’t seem especially concerned about the impact of medication on my liver but will be requiring some extra blood checks.
Meanwhile, the people at the eye clinic keep telling me that the optic nerves meet the back of my eyes at an unusual angle and so they can’t be sure, based on their tests, whether or not to diagnose glaucoma. However, on the basis that it’s better to be safe than sorry, I’ve been prescribed eye drops to add to the long list of daily medications.
Mothering Sunday
I was at church in Burnham for the first time in a while. Mothering Sunday got a mention, but the focus of the service was on Project Ruth which is a mission agency among Roma girls based in Romania and supported by our church. I was in college with the founder and with one of the other people involved in the early stages of the work and so I have a particular affection for the project. It was great to hear some of the latest news from Bucharest.
Our older daughter came to see us for lunch. It’s her first Mother’s Day as a mum and she brought the baby with her. Needless to say, this was a special treat for us though the dog was a little unsure, probably because, with the baby in the house, Willow was no longer the centre of everyone’s attention.
On the subject of mothers, we had hoped to catch up with our younger daughter’s mother-in-law this month. She lives in Nairobi but has recently joined the staff of BMS World Mission and was in Didcot for an induction week. We tried to arrange an evening out, but a shifting programme meant this didn’t happen. She’ll be back in the UK in May, and we’ll hope to catch up then.
Baptist Union Council
The last week of the month brought a couple of days away at Council. Reports are available elsewhere but it’s worth saying how encouraging it was to hear the news that, according to the returns from churches, baptisms in our networks were significantly higher in 2024 (2854) than they had been in 2023 (2001).
In lots of the places I visit, I’m hearing stories of younger people coming to faith and joining churches. I know that anecdotes and statistics cannot tell the whole story. Indeed, whatever positive signs there are in some places, many statistics – membership, average age of our congregations, giving in real terms, people being called to accredited ministry – may still be going in the wrong direction.
However, this growth in what may be the most crucial statistic of all suggests that at long last the tide may have turned. We have prayed for and longed for this. I hardly dare to hope that it might be happening. Yet I know and have always preached that God is faithful and he will build his Church. Our responsibility is to be true to our calling and to wait for God to decide the time is right.
Perhaps God’s time is upon us. Let’s pray that it is.