_|yx Éy j|ÄÄ|tÅ j|ÄuxÜyÉÜvx Part 4-B: Partnership & Community Clapham Principles: A Review

• Wilberforce never worked alone • He had a group of gifted and experienced friends who were committed to each other and to abolition • Partnership and community were essential for achieving their ultimate goal: the abolition of slavery in the British Empire • The men and women involved in the Clapham Community were brought together by Divine Providence to accomplish His purposes Clapham Principles: A Review

• There were never more than 20 or 30 who were associated with the Clapham Community • Each person was intensely passionate about abolition • They were people of godly character and integrity • They shared life together • They prayed that their efforts would have a major impact on the world • They modeled the Christian life before their children The Clapham Community

• Henry Thornton • Lord Teignmouth • John Venn • John Thornton • Thomas Babington • Henry Venn • Thomas Clarkson • John Newton • Charles Grant • William Cowper • Zachary Macaulay • Edward J. Eliot • Isaac Milner • Charles Simeon • Hannah More • James Stephen • Granville Sharp William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch) Thomas Clarkson (Rufus Sewell) John Newton (Albert Finney) Interdependence at Clapham

Wilberforce “needed them [the Clapham Community] to make him what he was, but they needed him to transform their many interests into a river of reform. His unique position in Parliament and the nation, his genius for friendship, his eloquence and, above all, his faith made him the spearhead of the whole advance.”

Garth Lean, God’s Politician We Belong To Each Other

“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others” (Rom. 12:4- 5, NLT). Building Christian Community

1. False Notions of Unity a. Not just organizational oneness b. Not just the mystical union of the invisible church c. Not just our positional unity in Christ d. Not just a legal unity in Christ e. Not just outward unity f. Not ontological oneness g. Not mere ethical unity Building Christian Community

2. Biblical Unity a. True biblical unity is founded on the Trinity b. The model of biblical unity is found in the love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit c. True biblical unity is spiritual in nature d. This unity is one of cooperation e. True biblical unity is a unity of mind, effort, and purpose f. True biblical unity is one in which believers stand together against the world in defense of the truth Hebrews 10:24-25

“And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near” (NASV).

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (NIV). Stimulation in Community

• The root Greek word originally meant “to sharpen,” but later came to mean to spur on, to urge, or to stimulate • In Hebrews 10:24, the meaning of the word can only have the sense of “incitement” or “stimulation” • The author is giving special force to his call for believers to love and do good works Dr. Simon Kistemaker

“Carefully consider how we may ardently incite one another to love and to do good works, says the writer. Put your mind to work to find ways to provoke – in the good sense of the word – each other to increase your expressions of love that result in doing noble works.” A Church of One?

“This is a disease which reigns throughout the human race, that everyone prefers himself to others and especially that those who seem to excel in anything do not easily allow their inferiors to be equal to them. There is so much peevishness in almost everyone that individuals, if they could, would gladly make their own churches for themselves, because it is difficult to accommodate oneself to the ways of other people.” - John Calvin Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams…Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.” The Final Apologetic

• “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:34- 35). • “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:11b). Conclusion

“Wilberforce proved that a man can change his times but that he cannot do it alone. He needed, in fact, a living God to change, re- motivate, guide, and strengthen him. He also needed a band of like-minded men and women to plan and work with him, and to help keep his aims and motives clear. Together they created the leadership which was required – and the nationwide ground-swell which made that leadership effective.”