Commentary SUMMER 2013

Caroline and Rob Bridgewater question Ray Porter asks whether churches how the church are neglecting single might witness women, working to Christian mothers and women marriage once in professional roles same sex marriage Page 8 becomes law Page 4

Glynn Harrison explores our culture of self-esteem and asks how the ego trip generation can rediscover grace Page 16 Enough said

Mike Ovey introduces this edition of Commentary by reflecting on the unchanging sufficiency of scripture, in a culture which creates new issues and situations for Christians to navigate

When we planned this edition of Commentary we wanted an And last but not least, Rich Aldritt and Ash Carter write emphasis on how theory and practice meet. There’s limited about the Bible, the book held together by its testimony to value in having orthodox thoughts without those working Jesus Christ. through in real life. That’s very much motherhood and apple From church-state relations to work to class to self-esteem. pie, I think, and not the most controversial thing we’ve ever The sheer range of practice we face is bewildering. And no said. But it does relate to a point that is highly controversial: doubt to someone who doesn’t believe, the sheer chutzpah the sufficiency of scripture. of tackling this range must be equally bewildering. So why For as we put the articles together it struck me again how do it? ambitious it is to think of having a theory that can work The answer takes us back to the sufficiency of scripture. out in practice at all. The reason for that is that practice in The first sermon in Book 1 of the Homilies puts it this the 21st century is so varied. That comes out in the range of way: ‘Unto a Christian man, there can be nothing either the articles in this edition. more necessary or profitable, than the knowledge of Holy Ray Porter tackles the relationship of Christian and state Scripture; forasmuch as in it is contained God’s true word, marriage, drawing on his missionary experience from setting forth his glory, and also man’s duty.’ Indonesia. Julian Hardyman reflects on what relational One of the striking things here is the emphasis on the way qualities are needed day-by-day in pastoral ministry. John that God’s word instructs us on how to honour God as God, Putt writes on the way we can take unconscious class behaviour into our churches on a Sunday morning and, all too unawares, exclude others. As our culture continues to Caroline and Rob Bridgewater think through the impact change and innovate, the of work on the life of women in our churches. Chris Green temptation to lean on our provides a snippet about our joint life as Christians taken from his new book on church. Glynn Harrison explains own understanding will get some of the tragic flaws in the self-esteem movement. stronger and stronger

2 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary in our treatment of him and of each other. This is precisely Commentary what Romans 1:21 points out we fail to do. Sometimes we fail because we very obviously worship created things rather than the Creator, and sometimes when we worship the 4 Creator in ways that actually dishonor him. Christian marriage in Martin Luther perceptively pointed out that Romans a changing culture 1:21, with its stress on honouring God as God, opens up the Ray Porter prospect that we may offer a false honour, an insulting honour. This is one reason why the scriptures are so 8 Ministering to the precious: they instruct us in honouring God rightly, and ‘hidden church’ they do so because they are his word. Caroline & Rob That takes us to the sufficiency of scripture. This is Bridgewater necessarily implied by Paul’s description in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, with its emphasis on God’s word instructing and correcting 11 Putting together the us, that we may be ‘complete, equipped for every good work’. jigsaw of revelation Sufficiency doesn’t mean that scripture contains all Ash Carter & information in the cosmos, nor that it explicitly addresses Rich Aldritt every situation in detail that a human being could conceivably face. But it does highlight that scripture has, 13 God’s centre of among other things, a very practical aim: how we should attention: the church live. It gives us enough to honour God as God in our lives. And that’s when the sufficiency of scripture becomes Chris Green controversial. If God has said enough for me to be equipped 16 The ego trip for every good work, then I cannot claim that since I am in a new situation, I have to make my own mind up, because generation ‘scripture doesn’t contemplate what I am facing’. When I Glynn Harrison do that, I may not be explicitly denying scripture, but I am undermining its sufficiency. 19 Too middle class? We need to make our attitude to the sufficiency of Jon Putt scripture clear here, because as our culture continues to change and innovate, the temptation to lean on our own 22 Vulnerability in understanding and claim that we face things scripture pastoral ministry just can’t deal with will get stronger and stronger. It’s Julian Hardyman easy to erode the authority of scripture if you rule out its sufficiency. 28 Book review We hope that as you read this edition you are encouraged Matthew Sleeman in the sufficiency of scripture as we face such a diverse range of practice.

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 3 Christian marriage in a changing culture While the fight against same sex marriage legislation may continue for some time, Ray Porter argues that we should begin to examine how Christians might act once the bill becomes law

Eighteen couples stood in front of me waiting to make their land. No Christian in Indonesia is married legally in church. wedding vows. They were dressed in their finest clothes and, Couples will register their marriage at the government in the pews behind them, were their children, families and offices and then come as a couple for the church ceremony. friends. They had all had Muslim weddings years earlier, but This is also the practice in many other countries. now as Christian people who would have a part in church Sometimes there will be a gap between the civil and the leadership, and in accordance with the church rules, they church marriages. Our language teacher officially married wanted a Christian wedding. her fiancé before going to Australia for a six months course. Their Islamic marriages had allowed the men more They wanted to recognise their commitment to each other, than one wife, but none had availed themselves of but the marriage wasn’t consummated until she returned that opportunity. Now they would have two marriage and they had held a church wedding. certificates: one that satisfied the state and another that In England we have for centuries been able to combine showed the dedication of their marriages to the Lord Jesus a marriage that satisfies state law and one that witnesses in whom they trusted for salvation. to biblical marriage. With the passing of the new marriage Christians in Indonesia and many other nations have law which allows marriages between people of the same long lived with more than one concept of marriage in their sex, it is imperative that we establish a distinction between communities. They have developed ways of witnessing to Christian and secular marriage. While the initial legislation their Christian convictions while abiding by the law of the will allow the Church of England (and Wales) exemption

4 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Photo: nfnitloop oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 5 Christian couples at a marriage ceremony in Indonesia. They had been married as Muslims years earlier, but receive a Christian wedding as part of becoming church leaders.

from the registration of same-sex marriages, the time may representatives of congregational churches, for the first soon come when for the sake of Gospel clarity, the Church time made marriage a civil ceremony only. (They also made of England ceases to act as a servant of the state in the the interesting provision that dumb persons could have matter of marriages, since the state has now abandoned a valid marriage without repeating the words of promise the law of God. We may want to learn from the practice of and that those without hands were excepted from the other countries such as Indonesia, but it will also challenge injunction to join hands.) us to think more carefully about what we understand by Marriage law has changed much over the centuries and Christian marriage. differed from country to country. Onesimus Ngundu, The Christian church has lived with many different formerly Principal of Harare Theological College, in his marriage regulations down the centuries. Some of Paul’s doctoral thesis examined the issue of the relationship arguments in 1 Corinthians 7 relate to existing pagan law. between African customary marriage and Christian marriage. They deal also with situations in which marriage was not He sought to demonstrate how a biblical view of marriage the free expression of love between a couple, but something could work out in the life of modern African churches. that was arranged by families for their own purposes. The change in marriage law in England and Wales presents Augustine may have been the first person to elevate us with a similar challenge. While the fight against the matrimony to a sacrament as he countered views that Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill may continue for some denigrated marriage in favour of celibacy. The Reformation time, we should begin to examine how Christians might removed it from the list of sacraments, declaring that act once the bill becomes law. Whatever law might prevail there was no biblical ceremonial command. The Barebone’s in our country, we want to uphold and promote Christian Parliament of 1653, which was composed of unelected marriage. The state’s redefinition of marriage merely

6 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary changes the law of England and Wales and not God’s law. Caesar would be rendered to Caesar, but we would preserve We must distinguish between state marriage and Christian our duty to God. marriage in a way that has not been necessary before. For the Anglican Church there is the question of whether The Free Churches face the first challenge in that, unlike it wants to voluntarily relinquish its civil function in the Churches of England and Wales, they have no legal marriages, even if its exception is not cancelled by future protection if they continue to officiate at state recognised legislation. The current requirement to solemnise the marriages. They have the liberty of deregistering their marriages between any single persons living in the parish churches as places for the solemnisation of marriage and does provide some evangelistic (and financial) advantages, their ministers ceasing to function as registrars. Those but it is not a necessary part of our gospel witness. Indeed who wish to be married according to state law may avail today, with the almost universal cohabitation before themselves of the facilities of the local registry office. marriage and a general liberal view of the remarriage of Churches would then be free to develop their own pattern divorcees, church weddings are often not a testimony to a of celebrating a Christian wedding. This would be purely a Christian view of marriage. pastoral service with no legal standing. It would be based on But if we were to take such a stand, it would need to the biblical teaching that God institutes marriage between go hand in hand with serious marriage discipleship. one man and one woman who freely consent to be joined in The answer to a bad marriage law is the grace of a good the covenant of marriage. The couple would come to make marriage. A Christian marriage is not just a ceremony that their vows before God that they intend to forsake all other reminds us of biblical teaching. The greatest Bible concept relationships for their lifetimes. The expectation would be for marriage is that it is a witness to the relationship that the consummation of the marriage would take place between Christ and his church. after the ceremony, although there may be occasions when The Catholic classification of marriage as a sacrament did it would take place after the civil ceremony. serve to identify it as a testimony to the grace of God. The We would thus preserve in the ceremony all that has great teaching of Ephesians 5 is a challenge to all Christian previously been in place in accordance with Christian belief marriages. Most of us will confess that our marriages do not and give up what has been our civic function. The things of always serve as a witness to the love of Christ for his church or the church’s response to him. The pastoral care we give to those whose marriages have The answer to a bad failed must not mean an acceptance of the world’s standards marriage law is the grace of of marriage and family breakup. We need to examine our church life to make sure that all the members have time to a good marriage. A Christian spend working on their marriages and are not so burdened marriage is not just a with church activities that work colleagues become closer ceremony that reminds us of friends than spouses. We will watch out for signs of tension in marriages, both our own and that of our friends, and seek biblical teaching. The greatest to help each other to deal with pressure points and avoid sin. Bible concept for marriage Let us then see the attempted redefinition of marriage by is that it is a witness to the this government as a fresh challenge to be counter-cultural, ready to suffer for our beliefs, and as a new opportunity to relationship between Christ present the gospel as we show that Christian marriage is and his church true marriage according to the declared will of God.

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 7 Ministering to the ‘hidden church’ Caroline and Rob Bridgewater think through how churches can provide better pastoral support to the ‘hidden church’ of single women, working mothers and women in professional roles

Caroline is a cancer specialist. In her field of clinical solely for women in professional roles. The hours and oncology, a recent survey noted that currently around 40 the figures are the same for all kinds of women, whether per cent of consultants are female. The next generation will teachers, cleaners, managers, sales execs or administrators. be very different: nearly two-thirds of the up and coming Many women hold down two jobs just to keep the consultants in that field are women. household finances above water. And it’s not just in professional areas that this balance Rob and Caroline take a complementarian view of how is changing. Even nine years ago, the Church of England’s the Bible sets out men’s and women’s roles in the church report Mission Shaped Church said that 78 per cent of all and family, and they keep this matter in review. Rob is now women aged 25-49 were in work and that the number of at Oak Hill as an ordinand, and like many other trainees or women who were single parents and in work had risen by ministers, there have been times in the past where Rob’s around a third in 10 years. work as a part time assistant church leader has only been Hours and patterns too have changed. Some 11 per cent of viable because Caroline has worked to provide enough working women work more than 50 hours per week, and income. many jobs are now shift based. Hospitals, shops, call centres Rob has been struck by the transformation of working and factories all typically work around the clock. culture over the past 20 years and is concerned to ensure There is no point saying that the world is changing rapidly. that churches are ministering well to everyone, including Change has already happened, and these are not statistics women in employment. This includes women in our

8 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary What is the subliminal message here? A church’s primary means of women’s fellowship appears to be aimed away from those who work. Is that a message a church wants to project, even if that is not what is meant?

church families, and also those outside to whom we are seeking to proclaim the gospel. There is a risk that such women might look to their peers within churches and judge them to be part of an outmoded culture, rather than a group of gospel-minded women. Rob recently contacted a number of friends – all women working in different circumstances – to ask them about their view of the ministry of their churches. The replies were both surprising and familiar. All demonstrated a very active enthusiasm to serve at their churches. All have been deeply involved in many areas of ministry. But everyone who responded indicated they at times had felt discounted or left out by their church, and doubting how they might fit. Single women were often busy with church activities but lacked frequent true fellowship. Working mums with children of all ages recounted periods of A quick comb of church websites shows one reason why struggle when they felt unsure of their place in the church women in employment may feel like this. In the dozens of family, and many frequently felt they were being frowned websites Rob reviewed, every advertised women’s fellowship upon. And this was noted by both ‘high-powered’, confident met during the day, when women in jobs typically could women as well as those who would not describe themselves not attend. In fact no church website publicised a women’s in such terms. fellowship meeting during the evening or early morning,

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 9 Throughout the Bible, to really valued the times when a minister spoke to them specifically about these issues. Both men and women valued admirable women have honesty from ministers who were clear and well reasoned worked. Priscilla, the wife of about their convictions. Aquila, was a tent maker. The It also seemed to be useful for the minister to hear what pressures and stresses (for example) a woman in a call wife who is praised so highly centre was under or to be made aware that many working in Proverbs 31 was a vineyard mums feel frowned upon by their churches. Ministers do owner and clothing maker. well to counteract this by assuring working mums that they truly are in the church and in Jesus. Lydia was a cloth trader Honest conversations have helped ministers and women with jobs find out how they might fit better into the church family. This has led to new ideas, such as forming smaller, although some churches do actually hold such meetings. flexible groups of women with different backgrounds to What is the subliminal message here? It is that a church’s meet, read the Bible and pray together. primary means of women’s fellowship appears to be aimed Is it possible, too, that fewer specific groups, not more, is away from those who work. Is that a message that a church the answer? If there are plenty of kids and youth groups, a wants to project, even if that is not what is meant? 20s group, a 30s group, a seniors’ lunch, a men’s breakfast, Of course, it is right that women have fellowship together: a women’s weekday Bible study, student fellowships and Titus 2 is an example of this. So too families must be able to parents groups, does that cause the working woman on consider carefully whether or not it is right for them that shifts to ask, ‘Are those like me somehow in less need of a mum should be employed. And surely it is right that women group than these others?’ – particularly mums – meet together during the day when Women’s fellowships could be adapted to be an ‘umbrella’, schedules allow. representing the spread of women across a church But throughout the Bible, admirable women have worked. family. Maybe it’s worth considering a different name for Priscilla, the wife of Aquila, was a tent maker. The wife who the daytime women’s group so that it doesn’t appear to is praised so highly in Proverbs 31 was a vineyard owner and represent all the church’s female population. clothing maker. Lydia was a cloth trader. Rather than holding one women’s fellowship meeting, Scattered throughout both Old and New Testaments perhaps it should be a group that meets in all sorts of are shepherdesses, perfumers, nurses, midwives, traders different ways. Those who are older, or widowed, could and bakers. So surely a church should be ensuring their fully get beside the young mum, or the busy shop worker, modern day equivalents are built up in their trust in Jesus. and the lawyer could get alongside the student nurse. Such Otherwise the church family is tacitly at risk of leaving a fellowship can demonstrate the gospel to other women many members uncomfortable and uncertain. – working or not – so that the busy social worker or the The apparently straightforward solution is to arrange a factory shift worker can see how faith in Jesus is being regular evening meeting for women in work. Sometime this gloriously worked out in such women. works, but it can also have the opposite effect intended, All this is messy and not easily solved. Nonetheless, separating one group of women from another. we must not overlook such a sizeable population of our While there are no easy answers, there are things that churches. We need our modern day Priscillas and Lydias to seem to work. The employed women Rob and Caroline spoke be right at the core of our church families.

10 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Putting together the jigsaw of revelation

Ash Carter and Rich Aldritt, both third- year students at Oak Hill, joined forces to write a book which makes the subject of revelation accessible for every Christian. We asked them about it

Ash: We wrote the book with every Ash: We’re certainly not the first to believer in mind. We think the issue write a book about how God speaks of how God speaks is one of the key to us. Far from it! Down through the subjects for any Christian to get to centuries, stacks of important books grips with. have been written on the subject. If we understand how God speaks, Some of the greatest figures of church then we can truly know him and history have turned their minds to it, everything else slots into place. We can not to mention many more excellent see Jesus clearly. We fall in love with recent contributions. Rich: The main headline is that God him more deeply. We can make sense of The honest truth is that there’s not speaks through his Word, the Bible, by the world in which we live. much new in God Speaks. If you are his Spirit, about his Son, Jesus. Each Get that wrong and we lose all of looking for novelty, look elsewhere. element is a massive subject in its own those things. We lose God. We lose life. We’re not reinventing the wheel – the right, but the book is self-consciously For that reason, we hope God Speaks is wheel is already there. Please give us an introduction. We don’t pretend to simple enough for any believer to read. a hearing, though. Many of the best say it all; we’ve just tried to hit the big We wanted it to be fun too. We hope books are highly specific in focus, and points, one at a time, keeping things people will enjoy reading it as much as simply not that accessible for many light and accessible. we enjoyed writing it. Christians.

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 11 Rich: God Speaks is a book we’ve both biblical understanding of how God position ourselves as ‘Bible teaching been looking for, for quite a while now. speaks without first getting a right churches’, we emphasise word ministry, Again and again we’ve wanted to give it understanding of who God is and (by but sometimes we don’t make that to friends. Since we couldn’t find it, we implication) who we are. much of Jesus. That’s also reflected thought it best to write it. It seemed The rest of the book continues in in the Christian book market: there like a useful way to spend the long Oak the same vein as we’ve tried to join the are lots of books on the doctrine of Hill summer holiday. dots. Our aim was to cover the whole revelation that are all about the Bible, sweep of the subject, and put all of but not many about Jesus as the one Ash: In many ways God Speaks is the pieces of the jigsaw in their proper who makes God known. We wanted to unique. There are lots of books on place. correct that imbalance. the market that address individual God Speaks is unashamedly about aspects of the subject – for example, Rich: We’d love the book to help many Jesus. He is the centrepiece of the books about scripture or about the Christians get to grips with this key jigsaw: the one who reveals the Father; Holy Spirit – but nothing that covers topic. Our prayer is that God will the one to whom the Bible points; the the whole sweep of the subject from use our efforts to point people in the one whom the Spirit illuminates. The beginning to end. right direction when it comes to their Bible is not an end in itself. It is only relationship with God. We also hope it useful because it testifies to the one Rich: The book took shape over the last will keep one or two from drifting off we should be worshipping. We don’t couple of years as we sat under Mike in the wrong direction. Along the way worship the book. We worship Jesus. Ovey’s doctrine lectures. One of the we’ve tried to address some of the main Our big prayer is that God Speaks big lessons we’ve learned at Oak Hill is errors into which people fall. will show Jesus off and, in turn, cause that all doctrine is joined up. Theology If we can help our readers maintain believers to fall in love with him more is like a road map – everything is their confidence in the God who speaks deeply. connected. It’s almost impossible to then we’ll be delighted. We’d love for consider a discrete area of Christian whole churches to be committed to doctrine in isolation, because each area listening to the scriptures, seeking to is involved in the discussion of the know Jesus as he is revealed there. others. For that reason, the book begins in Ash: That said, there is one what some might consider a surprising overarching aim of God Speaks place. We start with the doctrine of that we’ve not yet mentioned. It’s SPECIAL OFFER creation and the creator/creature something we consider to be the key God Speaks retails at £8.99, but is distinction, together with the doctrine distinctive of the book. We wanted the available for only £5 to readers of of humanity as a result of the fall (both book to be about Jesus. That might Commentary. This offer includes a free critical elements of Mike’s systematic sound obvious. But actually you’d be copy of the eBook and free postage. theology). surprised how easily it gets missed. Simply visit thinkivp.com, add God What we’ve discovered is that Many conservative evangelical Speaks and the eBook of God Speaks pretty much every theological issue Christians talk a lot about the Bible, to your shopping basket and enter is dependent on the doctrine of but very little about Jesus. The same the code GSOffer2013 to activate this God. You’re unlikely to hold to a is true of lots of our churches. We special offer. Valid until 31 August 2013.

12 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary God’s centre of attention: Churches today the church are told to be purpose-driven, Jesus-driven, contagious, unstoppable, emerging, five-star or ‘come as you are’. Chris Green, who has recently authored a book about church, explains why he is more deeply committed than ever to God’s people

I have stood with 15,000 people singing to stunning I have a dream contemporary rock, and I have sat with two people as we prayed in silence. I have listened as women and men have The Bible begins and ends with God in perfect relationship told their stories of how Christ has transformed their lives, with his people, from Adam and Eve together in the Garden, and heard how groups of Christian friends have encouraged, to untold billions gathered in the great City Garden in helped and guided them along. Revelation. And at each step of the way between those two, I have been with people from 35 nations as we have prayed God gathers his saved people together, to speak to them, the Lord’s Prayer in our own languages, and discussed with hear from them, and change them to be more like him. God’s those same people how we can work together across the gathered people is what the Bible calls ‘church’ – a gathering differences that in the recent past have led to war. with a wonderfully rich purpose. I have seen extraordinary acts of compassion by God’s The awful opposite of being gathered as one of God’s people, and extraordinary acts that could only have come people is to be scattered as one of his enemies: lonely, from God himself. I have met people from countries I could loveless and lost in a spiritual exile, for ever. Moses prayed not place on a map, and we have treated each other as we about those alternatives every day. truly are – closer than blood relatives in Christ. ‘Whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Rise up, O Lord! Time after time I have thought, ‘I wish every church could May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before be like this’. Often I have thought, ‘I wish our church could you.” Whenever it came to rest, he said, “Return, O Lord, to be like this’. And I know I am not alone. the countless thousands of Israel.”’

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 13 We are not the good news. even unleashed (all of them recent book titles), you can have confidence in God’s great plan in making a people for his But we are supposed to be the own possession. evidence, proof, plausibility, Church – a group of vibrant, loving, risk-everything people manifestation, physical or who are passionately committed to living out the values of God’s Word and looking forward to the new creation – that is cultural expression of the a plan worthy of God himself. gospel, and that is a tough challenge I have a nightmare

But you and I have also endured the nightmare of dreadful And just as being gathered by God was Israel’s greatest services, deadly meetings, bitter power struggles and blessing, so being scattered by him was their greatest lingering hurts. Those charged with teaching truth have potential judgment. Hundreds of years later, Nehemiah also spread lies, those charged with sharing ministry have kept it prayed for the future of God’s people then in exile. to themselves, the broken have stayed broken and – worst of ‘Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, all – the lost have stayed lost. saying, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the And some of us are keenly aware of our own responsibility nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, for that nightmare. I vividly remember being halfway then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, through preaching a sermon and almost seeing the message I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I scroll across the bottom of my sight-line: ‘this is very boring.’ have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.”’ If the church is not functioning properly, and we are the church’s leadership, then we know where to start to look to His church place the blame. Survey after survey supports the idea that churches are seen as boring, irrelevant and bigoted, and that The church is God’s centre of attention, and all his creative Christians yearn for what CS Lewis called ‘Deep Church’: power has been bent towards achieving salvation for us. It passionately God-honouring, intimate, truthful, connected was only to form his church that the Father sent the Son, around the world and across the centuries. that the Son went to the cross, and that the Father and Son There are cheap ways of addressing those problems which sent the Spirit. are as flawed as the problems themselves. Some of us have It was only to form a church that God made creation. Every insisted on staying comfortably boring, without caring for atom of every star exists solely to bring glory to God as the the lost, because we do not want to put ourselves out for redeemer of his people. He wrote the Bible only to speak to others; and we have claimed that anyone who does do what us and bring us to salvation. He warns our leaders that we we can’t be bothered to do has trivialised the faith. are the church of God, (say this slowly) which he bought with A growing church must be a compromised church. And his own blood. there are churches which have reasoned that the way to Whether your church is purpose-driven, Jesus-driven, make God interesting is to make church entertaining, or deliberate or intentional, whether it is contagious, intellectually relevant, or spiritual, and so the space is filled irresistible, unstoppable or provocative, whether it has been with lights and smoke machines, or is dark and candlelit, or recently rediscovered or is only just emerging, whether it is empty and Zen-cool – but the Bible is never opened and is five-star or ‘come as you are’, equipping or connecting or humbly taught.

14 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Both dream and nightmare are vivid, so the pastors who lead churches, and the churches whom they lead, have a right to know who they are and what they are to do. That was why I took up the daunting offer (it wasn’t my idea!) to try to summarise what the Bible says about us. It’s left me more deeply committed to church than ever, more excited by our future, and more focussed on our tasks. I have dug into favourite passages and discovered truths that are still mint-fresh, and I have been thrilled and startled by parts of my Bible that I hardly knew: Acts 13-16, and 2-3 John especially. As I started to write, I had some words of advice from an experienced pastor ringing in my ears: ‘Whatever you talk about most is your gospel’. At a time when there are more books than ever about the church, we need to remind ourselves that however much we talk about it, and however highly we esteem it, the church is not the gospel. We are not the good news. But we are supposed to be the evidence, proof, plausibility, manifestation, physical or cultural expression of the gospel, and that is a tough challenge. But we have the only resource we need: God’s Word as the instrument by which the Holy Spirit addresses Christ’s gathered people and transforms us to be like him. Together. As God said to Moses, ‘Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me.’

This article was adapted from Chris Green, The Message of the Church (The Bible Speaks Today), Inter-Varsity Press 2013, and used with permission.

SPECIAL OFFER The Message of the Church retails at £12.99, but is available at half price – £6.50 (book or eBook) – for readers of Commentary. Simply visit thinkivp.com, add The Message of the Church to your shopping basket and enter the code MotCOffer2013 to activate this special offer. Valid until 31 August 2013.

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 15 The ego trip generation

After 50 years of being told how important it is to affirm ourselves via the power of positive thinking, Glynn Harrison asks how we can rediscover grace in a culture of self-esteem

‘You’re special!’ ‘I am perfect in every way’; ‘I’m a loveable person’; ‘I’m powerful, I’m strong’; ‘Hey, to God, I’m big stuff!” Repeating such statements, mantra-like, has been the bread and butter of the self-help movement since Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking was first published back in 1952. Every day, millions of people go about their daily lives silently rehearsing positive statements such as these. Indeed, one group of North American researchers found that over 50 per cent of survey respondents said they ‘frequently’ use this kind of self-affirmation. Only 3 per cent said they never used them. Half a century ago, if somebody complained of feeling down or felt nobody liked them, that they were ‘no good’ or didn’t like themselves, a friend would probably offer advice along the following lines: ‘Don’t get stuck in your own problems! Don’t think about yourself so much. Think about other people. Make new friends and explore some new interests. You’ll never get anywhere by contemplating your own navel.’

16 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Today the same friend would bold promises. What started out to love ourselves – right? Who could probably offer radically different with good intentions – to help some disagree with that? And didn’t Jesus advice: ‘You need to believe in yourself people crushed by criticism to stop even say something about loving your more! Stop thinking so much about beating themselves up and take a more neighbour as yourself? other people’s problems and worrying realistic view – became a one-size-fits- As a result, we overdosed on self- about their expectations. You need all solution for everyone. admiration. The self-esteem movement to discover who you are. Be yourself. Self-esteem ideology seemed to gained a powerful foothold in the Learn to like yourself. Build up your offer answers for the big questions Western mind, and reshaped secular self-esteem.’ of significance and personal value and Christian cultures alike. too. Everybody has questions about The success of the self-esteem their value and significance. Since The big con? movement the beginning of time humans have puzzled over where we figure in the But did it work? It was only after All this bears witness to the staggering grand scheme of things and what we decades of promoting self-esteem that success of the 50-year-old self-esteem are worth. academic psychologists got around movement. Self-esteem is now one The self-esteem movement gripped to asking this, the most important of the most published topics in the our imagination because it engaged question of all. What did they discover? psychological literature. And schools, with this, the deepest and most Recent evaluations of the with policies that deter criticism and profound problem of our lives, and it effectiveness of interventions to discourage competition, have proved told us it could fix it. promote self-esteem have repeatedly more than willing collaborators in the Secondly, the self-esteem idea turned up negative findings. There transmission of its ideology. had experts, massed ranks of them. is no robust evidence that simplistic Our churches are not immune from Marketing boosterism to parents and boosterism has produced any of the reach of the movement either. In educationalists as a kind of social the benefits promised. And there is my Sunday school days we sang a little vaccine, the experts promised better emerging evidence that it may do more song that went, ‘Jesus first, myself last, mental health, crime reduction, less harm than good. and others in between...’ drug use and improved educational We rarely teach our children such outcomes for all. self-negating lyrics now. Why not? And finally, when the self-esteem ‘Because you can’t love other people movement took off in the 1960s, it was until first you love yourself.’ In this able to forge a powerful alliance with The primacy of upside-down world of self-esteem it’s the emerging spirit of the age. After self-admiration not the sin of pride that we take into surfing the sexual revolution of the became the default the confessional, but the transgression 60s, self-esteem ideology thrived in of ‘not liking myself enough.’ the new humanisms of the 70s and the cultural mode. If What happened to bring this about? materialistic orgies of the 80s. we want to love one How did the self-esteem movement Eventually, the primacy of self- another, first we gain such a foothold in our lives? admiration became the default First, the self-esteem idea (or cultural mode. If we want to love one have to learn to love ‘boosterism’ as I prefer to call it) made another, then first we have to learn ourselves – right?

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 17 The gospel calls the and worth. So these are large and mental life, we not only fall short of important questions. the glory of God, we fall short of being self out of the search But the self-esteem movement could fully human too. Instead, it calls us for self-fulfillment never provide the easy solutions into an entirely new identity, or way of and orientates it promised. Even judged on its own thinking about ourselves, grounded in terms, it is a failed ideology. the grace and forgiveness of God. to Jesus, the word Boosterism’s veneer of ‘science’ In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, made flesh, and to cannot sidestep the larger the Bible catapults us to the summit the pursuit of his philosophical questions that stand of its teaching on Christian identity behind it, either. The self-esteem by revealing that those for whom the kingdom movement spins the fantasy that Word came will be called the very questions of worth and value can children of God. somehow be uncoupled from questions Thus, the God who spoke in Jesus For example, researchers at the of world-view, but they can’t. Christ speaks our identity to us. And University of Waterloo in Ontario We are not worthy simply because this – our identity in Christ as God’s persuaded a group of subjects to we assert it to be so. We cannot children – must become the foundation repeat and then ‘focus positively’ for signify ourselves. That is why those of personal growth and the lynchpin of several weeks on a range of positive with low self-esteem often feel worse personal transformation. self-statements, such as, ‘I’m a loveable after trying to ‘big themselves up’. Our new identity is a project as well person’. When they compared the They simply don’t believe their own as a given. There is much work to do. emotional responses of their subjects propaganda. And why should they? For many of us, the renewal of the with control groups, they found that mind involves a long, hard journey participants with low self-esteem at The gospel and self-esteem battling entrenched shame and self- the start of the study actually felt condemnation. There are no simplistic worse at the end. The answer to putting yourself down solutions here. The authors concluded that repeating isn’t to boost yourself up. This simply But as the star of the self-esteem positive self-statements might keeps the self focused upon itself, movement begins to fade, we can have marginally benefit certain people prompting more comparison and envy. confidence that in response to the age- (those who already have good mental And it ignores the realities of sin and old question, ‘how shall we think of health), but ‘backfire for the very judgment. And so the gospel, fiercely ourselves?’ the gospel is still good news people who need them most’. realistic about our capacity for sin and for everyone. Of course, we need to remind wrongdoing, insists on something far ourselves that the self-esteem more radical. Glynn Harrison is Emeritus Professor movement is trying to address a real The gospel calls the self out of of Psychiatry in the University of problem. For some, low self-worth and the search for self-fulfillment and Bristol, where he was a practising irrational self-blame has become the orientates it to Jesus, the word consultant psychiatrist and Chair of lynchpin of their personality, often made flesh, and to the pursuit of his the Department of Psychiatry. His born out of harrowing experiences of kingdom. It insists that when we make recent book, The Big Ego Trip: finding cruelty or abuse. And we all struggle self-fulfillment and the pursuit of true significance in a culture of self- with deeper questions of significance self-worth the organizing principle of esteem, is published by IVP.

18 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Too middle class?

Why are churches in socially mixed areas often not as diverse as the places they are meant to serve? Jon Putt talks to a group of pastors who are trying to change things

Joe tentatively pushed the swing doors occasionally drawing a chuckle for open and looked around. He grabbed observations concerning lives with a seat near the back and sat down, which Joe was not familiar, and talking unsure what to do next. earnestly about issues that failed to During the next 10 minutes, the hall connect with him. began to fill up until it was almost As Joe gobbled down a chocolate three quarters full, at which point digestive after the organised bit had someone at the front stood up and finished, he again felt like a foreigner started proceedings. among natives as he watched people. As Joe surveyed his fellow attendees There was a preponderance of people he saw what to him looked like an wearing chinos, shirts and jumpers, alien race: more women than men, many of them branded Fat Face or singing together, largely silent and White Stuff. What sort of ‘crew’ did undemonstrative otherwise. these people belong to anyway? After some time bobbing up and There was a preponderance of people down to sing various celtic-rock-tinged using words such as ‘preponderance’ songs (which the musicians seemed to It was all unusually quiet and no one enjoy more than the crowd), a man got up and spoke for almost 30 minutes, Photo: Nicobobinus

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 19 had popped out for a quick smoke. not only with biblical principles, but No one even looked like they wanted also with cultural assumptions that to. As Joe stood alone he felt deeply hold a dangerous ability to divide and uncomfortable. ‘I just can’t be myself exclude, to create ‘dividing walls of here,’ he thought. hostility’. In the past few weeks I have enjoyed This story is born out of experience. interviewing eight pastors who, in It is my experience, but I am not Joe. their different ways, are seeking to I am one of the Fat Face-wearing, include people more like Joe. I wanted non-smoking, polite, part privately to learn from their experiences and educated, Oxbridge graduate, perspectives and try to identify where professional, non-demonstrative my own cultural blind spots might be. church members that Joe may have Most agreed that churches need seen that day. to realise their cultures are not only I have belonged to a number of influenced by the gospel, but also churches and visited others, and by the backgrounds and upbringing although they have been diverse in of its members. Only when we have some ways, ethnically, socially and the humility to see the flaws in our economically, the dominant culture has own cultures, and the grace in other been a middle-class culture. Certainly people’s cultures, will we be able to in some of those churches, despite build a community that is genuinely their best efforts, they did not reflect welcoming. the diversity of their local contexts. Culture is made up of what we say and I’ve been spending some time in my what we do. The words and behaviour final year at Oak Hill investigating that of those around us influence what we phenomenon in an attempt to uncover think, value and believe, and draw us in any attitudes and practices that place to talk and act in the same way. unnecessary barriers to people from In the most part, we are completely non-middle class backgrounds entering oblivious to this process and unaware into any given local church. that we belong to a culture at all. Yet In the spirit of Ephesians, I’m it finds its way into every part of our passionate about churches in mixed church life: preaching illustrations, neighbourhoods becoming as diverse how we ask for money, styles of as the areas they inhabit. But before hospitality, music, levels of honesty in we can welcome and include people our chat, character traits we respect, from every part of our neighbourhoods, what we wear, the volume of our many of us will need to open our eyes to voice, which sins earn our greatest the cultural subtexts hidden within our disapproval. regular meetings. The way we preach, praise, sing and socialise is packed Photo: Nicobobinus

20 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary For those who don’t love Jesus, their drunkenness, arguing and late arrival cultural assumptions and how I am cultures reflect values produced by as sins, but failing to condemn much quicker to see the sinful patterns looking for God within – otherwise superficial conversations, closed in the lives of people not like me than I known as idolatry. Yet even non- homes, polite dishonesties, lavish am in my own culture. Christian culture derives from God’s holidays and lack of generosity. For example, one pastor spoke common grace in creation and still Perhaps in the Bible study, it is the movingly about the character of the bears ‘God’s footprints’. Although pregnant 15-year-old being held up community on his estate, whereas God is unknown, the good things he as someone most obviously in need my first thoughts had been directed provides and defines, such as truth, of God, rather than the career-driven towards the big metal bars on the justice, beauty and salvation, will still 25-year-old. windows of his church building. be sought, however imperfectly. Perhaps it is an overheard His attitude to the community was Within church cultures, there is conversation disparaging unfamiliar quite different to mine – and a lot a tension between the old and new baby names, or a snobby comment healthier! creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) renewed made about EastEnders or Big Brother, Someone coming from a council by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 4:16). Yet from people who race home to watch estate background may find the each culture brings with it to the Downton and The Apprentice. middle class Christian’s complacent church community something which, Perhaps a mum feels criticised materialism off-putting, but instead in God’s common grace, has good for lateness, but is not supported place high value in the struggle they things to commend it. Every church adequately in caring for her family. experience. We need to remove our community is therefore a mosaic of Perhaps it is the fact that everyone cultural blinkers and start crossing redeemed sinners with cultures that who speaks from the front has a posh cultural lines. mix together the grace of God and the voice and talks at great length about traces of idolatry. every part of the service. Perhaps in A month has passed. Joe decides he’ll Most of us, however, are blind to our the marriage course, it is items for have another shot and try the other own culture. We may see what happens discussion that are class-specific. church in his area. This time, a man in church as being ‘the Christian way’, Perhaps it is social events that make welcomes him as he walks down the and if we meet someone of another someone feel out of their depth. drive and chats with him outside as culture, we feel they are doing things These simple elements of church life he finishes his cigarette. He seems ‘the non-Christian way’. can so easily draw a subtle line that more relaxed and less quiet than Joe In order to be inclusive, we must divides two groups of people. expected. recognise that some attitudes and One of the pastors I spoke to said In the service, the music is still weird, values represented in the cultures of those of us who come from a middle but the pastor is more engaging. He our churches are not the product of class background need to apply the relates more about himself and talks new life in the Spirit, but are vestiges same sort of cross-cultural thinking about issues that Joe has faced in the of our old life. Some of these attitudes in our attitudes as international week: the death of a friend, family may form an unnecessary barrier to missionaries who carry the gospel conflict, unfairness at work. people coming into our churches who across cultures. That might also Joe relaxes in his seat. Just like him, do not share a similar cultural heritage. change the forms and styles we use in people here aren’t perfect. He knows Perhaps it is the pastor in his church. In meeting and talking to these he’s still an outsider, but this time he applications, condemning gambling, pastors, I have been challenged in my feels like he’s been invited inside.

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 21 Vulnerability in pastoral

Pastoral ministry is relational, ministry and so it involves watchfulness, vulnerability and integrity. Julian Hardyman explores people-centred ministry which is made possible and joyful through God’s grace

Candidates for ordained or paid Christian ministry are often into a local agricultural show and I was struck by the variety attracted by the idea of a life of study and speaking. While of sheep on display. this is undoubtedly central to the work of the minister, the Some had wool as tough as a carpet, while others looked people-centredness of ministry is equally important – in as soft as a Harrods jumper. Friendly sheep, shy sheep, quiet fact, ministry is inescapably relational. sheep, noisy sheep. Formidable sheep and anxious sheep. The New Testament images point to this: the body, the Bidable sheep and intractable sheep. Almost as diverse as family, the household and the flock. Paul uses the last of the congregation waiting for me that evening. these in his great farewell address to the church leaders Our ministry is to every single one of them: ‘all the from Ephesus. flock’, whether we naturally gel with them or not. That is He sums up what he wants them to remember about a challenge for everyone in ministry or who is aspiring to ministry: ‘Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of ministry. which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds It is a challenge for the more introverted and shy of us who of the church of God which he bought with his own blood’ prefer our own company and get drained by others. We may (Acts 20:28). have been drawn to ministry because we like commentaries Ministry means a relationship with people because the and Bible software, systematic theologies and Bible church is not a building or an anonymous crowd. It is a overviews. We enjoy studying, preparing talks and giving group of individual human beings, each with their own talks. But the people side of thing is a bit intimidating. Our stories, secrets, characteristic sins and spiritual potential. ideal would be to have a study in a place like a comfortable They come in all shapes and sizes. One Sunday evening I nuclear bunker. There would be a single tunnel from there was slated to preach on Psalm 23. That afternoon we popped to the church building or place where the church meets.

22 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary And once a week we would stride purposefully down the tunnel, emerge in the pulpit, deliver our brilliant sermon, shake a few hands, enjoy the thanks and then head back down the tunnel again. For others of us, the ‘people-centredness’ of ministry is more appealing. We are natural extroverts and leaders. We feed off others. We gain our energy from them – and from being in charge of them. ‘Shepherding the flock – amen to that!’ Our problem is that we like being in charge too much. And we see people as objects not persons. As John Steven of FIEC observed, we are rather like Emma in Jane Austen’s great novel, who loved using her position in society to play God in the lives of others. But for all of us, ministry is about developing relationships of loving pastoral leadership with a variety of people. One of my theological college teachers had previously been a pastor for 20 years. I asked him what the difference was. ‘Now, my problems graduate,’ he replied. ‘But pastors are called to a life of commitment to people who may remain “problems” for years and years!’ The inescapably relational nature of ministry has several consequences for Paul in Acts 20.

Since ministry is relational it means being watchful

‘Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers’ (Acts 20:28-31). This is an important expansion of the relational nature of ministry. It is too easy for the standard requirement for a Christian worker to be that he is to be a nice guy (or the female equivalent). Warm, exuding bonhomie, enthusiastic and unthreatening – this is what people want. Paul’s explanation of what pastoral relationality looks like is rather different. It means watching like a guard dog for people’s spiritual safety.

Photo: ingirogiro

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 23 A vicar friend of mine the flock but for the shepherds themselves: ‘keep watch over yourselves’ (Acts 20:28). He shows one way in which that teaches his curates to ‘walk operated for him: earning his own living so that he would towards the pain’. When we not be tempted to desire the Ephesian’s resources and so do that we start to share in that he could demonstrate help for the less well off. Ministers today may be tempted to manipulate people for it. We take on our shoulders financial gain, and there are all sorts of ways of fleecing the some part of their anguish flock. We may try to treat people as means to our ends, or build our little empires. I got a warning of this in an annual review a few years Guarding people against the dangers outside and inside ago. One of the deacons pointed out a couple of times that them means well aimed sermons which are more than year that ‘You sounded as though you thought we should exegetical lectures. We need the people contact to know do what you said just because it was you saying it.’ He was what the issues are – and then the wise love to address them quite right. constructively The ‘flock’ is not there for us. We are there for them. They The responsibility also means individual warning, about are not there to provide a stage for our talents. Church is the marriages they are neglecting, or the spiritual disciplines not a project to puff our egos. Instead, the flock is there to that have shrunk almost to vanishing point. This is the very be cared for, even at high personal cost. As Paul says: ‘I only hardest aspect of the relational heart of ministry, but it is know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison integral to the task. and hardships are facing me.’

The relational nature of ministry means personal Only one person has ever been in ministry who had no vulnerability relational issues to overcome in himself and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this in Paul’s repeated references to tears: in his He gave himself to die for our glaring failures, our inner introduction he reminds them that I served the Lord with twistedness, our sly self-centredness, and for our mixed great humility and with tears (Acts 20:19). This takes us way motives. God is able to build us up by the word of his grace beyond the detached professionalism many of us would so that we can rise to this challenge – and the cross is big like to hide behind. Even acknowledging the cultural and enough for our continuing failures. personal variations in how easily we cry, this is a model we Shy inhibited people: he can help you become less shy! He cannot ignore. really can. This was my experience in becoming a Christian. A vicar friend of mine teaches his curates to ‘walk towards And I think in his grace it has continued to develop. the pain’. When we do that we start to share in it. We take Extrovert, outwardly confident people: he can help on our shoulders some part of the anguish of premature you become sensitive. He can give you the self-control bereavement, marital breakdown, family dysfunction, to become good listeners. I know people who are off the or spiritual decline. If we never feel like crying because scale extroverts. Christ has taught them to care for people someone we love resists the gospel, we need to ask ourselves pastorally, to sit and listen and ask questions, rather than what walls we are hiding behind. just answer them. If ministry is inescapably relational that has another Because of the grace of the gospel, ministry which is implication. Paul is clear that watchfulness is not just for people-centred becomes possible and even joyful.

24 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary Oak Hill and CCEF to introduce Biblical Counselling course

Oak Hill and the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) in the USA are planning the introduction of a new counselling course specifically designed to deliver the benefits of CCEF’s training courses in the UK. Steve Midgley, who ran the recent CCEF Changing Hearts conference in the UK, says: ‘Helping make biblical counselling more widely available in the UK is something I am hugely excited about and I am delighted that Oak Hill College share that passion. I am very pleased to be involved in delivering this new training for this certificate-level course. The year two will include opportunities opportunity.’ course will explore the principles and for supervision of students’ own Mike Ovey, the Principal of Oak practice of biblical counselling. counselling work. Hill College, says: ‘Equipping men Students will download lectures so These courses, which have been and women for pastoral ministry is they can listen at times convenient for studied by thousands across the world, what Oak Hill is all about. Working them before meeting centrally with help people become better pastors, with CCEF to bring this much-needed pastors and counsellors experienced counsellors, youth and small group biblical approach to pastoral ministry in the field, who will guide small leaders and better church members in the UK is a fantastic opportunity.’ group discussions and seminars. and friends. The plans under discussion are to use Short written assignments will help For more information about this the well-established distance learning students ground the material in their planned course, please see the college modules from CCEF as the foundation own lives and ministry. We hope that website: oakhill.ac.uk.

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 25 Oak Hill appoints new Director of Free Church Training

Graham Beynon is to become Director of Free Church Training at Oak Hill College, beginning in the academic year 2014/15. Graham is a former student at Oak Hill and is minister of Grace Church in Cambridge. He is also the author of several books, including Planting for the Gospel: a hands-on guide to church planting. Graham will continue to pastor his church in Cambridge, and this part- time appointment with Oak Hill will help ground his work with the college in the life of the local church. Graham will be responsible for directing and developing modules which will train Free Church students for church ministry. church students and enables them to discipleship through the relationships Mike Ovey, Principal of Oak Hill, thrive here.’ with other students and staff. says: ‘We are delighted that Graham Graham says: ‘My time studying at I’m thrilled to be joining the staff will be helping us provide the best Oak Hill was invaluable for the years of team at Oak Hill to focus on the possible training for our students from Christian ministry that followed. Not needs and training of free church independent churches. He will also only did I learn to think more clearly students. I hope that with God’s help help to make sure that our culture and about God and his wonderful word, this new position will benefit the next community at Oak Hill welcomes free but I was also challenged in my own generation of free church ministers.’

26 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary New faculty to teach Old and New Testaments

Oak Hill has been going through a to God’s word will be a great gift to us.’ process to appoint two new faculty Trevor Burke is originally from members in Old Testament and Northern Ireland and has served for New Testament respectively. We are many years in seminaries in Nigeria, delighted to announce that Dr Trevor Wales and Fiji. For the last nine years, Burke and Dr Chris Ansberry will be he has been professor of Bible (New joining us in the summer to commence Testament) at Moody Bible Institute, teaching these subjects in September. Chicago. Mike Ovey, Principal of Oak Hill, says: He is author of Adopted into God’s ‘It is a joy to welcome Trevor and Chris, Family, The Message of Sonship, and and their families. Their commitment contributory co-editor of Paul and the Corinthians, and Paul as Missionary. Trevor is excited to be involved in the training of the next generation of pastors and missionaries to serve the worldwide church of Jesus Christ. In He is the author of Be Wise, My Son, teaching New Testament, he especially and Make My Heart Glad, and has wants to help students grasp the co-edited with Christopher Hays, importance of Paul’s family metaphors Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of for understanding what it means to be Historical Criticism. and do church. Chris’s desire is that his students will Chris Ansberry is an American who recognize the Old Testament’s abiding received his PhD in Old Testament witness to the God and Father of our and Biblical Theology from Wheaton Lord Jesus Christ, relish its distinctive College, illinois, an institution in which testimony, and be transformed by its he has taught for the past four years. theological vision.

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 27 Dementia and what it is to be human Matthew Sleeman has been reading a book which takes a critical look at how society and the church treat people living with dementia

Given our fixation on youth, vitality their carers. He opposes the standard and the power of personality and neurobiological explanations of individual human choice, dementia dementia as ‘deeply inadequate’. is one of the horsemen stalking our These defect-based understandings of contemporary culture. It lurks only dementia are, he claims, reductive and just below the surface in discussions of destructive. the ‘problems’ raised by an increasingly Dementia also has psychological aging society. But it is submerged, and social dimensions but, to be avoided, even in churches and the seen properly, Swinton locates it experience of many believers. as a theological disease, afflicting As John Swinton says in this very how personhood is lived out within thought-provoking book, ‘Cancer God’s creation. The second half of evokes concern; dementia evokes fear.’ his book addresses that pastoral- It forms the photographic negative theological side of dementia, but not Dementia: Living in the of humanity living under the fear of before the opening chapters have Memories of God death (Hebrews 2:15). For many, it is critiqued dementia’s ‘standard story’ the unaddressed fear of losing one’s with the seeds of a counter-story for John Swinton memory, and thus one’s self. approaching its impact on both its Eerdmans, 2012 John Swinton urges us to see sufferers and their carers. dementia differently and to relate Since our words shape worlds, Christianity with its sufferers and Swinton resists reducing dementia

28 oakhill.ac.uk/commentary sufferers to patients at the expense remembering of us. God remembers, understanding of personhood and the of their personhood. Herein lies his therefore I am. non-relating which flows from it. first challenge to believers and the For Swinton, dementia does not erase For me, though, the challenge came churches. What is needed, Swinton this priority and prior reality. As such, much closer to home in more subtle contends, is an expanded medical he is well positioned to critique secular ways which impact more directly on perspective which is alert to what he humanist models of ‘person-centred ministerial education and everyday terms ‘malignant social interactions’ care’ which provide only ‘a synonym Christian living. Swinton quotes one which threaten the very humanness of for good care rather than a statement writer who asks whether middle-class the dementia sufferer. about someone’s moral standing’. friendships can bear the weight of Rather than dementia itself entailing At the same time, he questions deep and diffuse obligations to care in a loss of mind and of self, he says some restrictive assumptions which the face of dementia. the disease often provokes others to can neuter Christian responses to He asks whether a need for distance assume this is happening. The sufferer dementia. Subjectivist Christian songs and safety means that we turn people then becomes their diagnosis, and their can be unwittingly reductive. Swinton into strangers. He quotes a repentant other social roles and positions become highlights Darlene Zschech’s ‘Shout church leader who wonders where the forgotten. to the Lord’ as assuming ‘a self-aware, dementia sufferers and their carers Citing how even Ronald Reagan’s cognizing self’: singing ‘my Jesus, had been during his busy ministry, circle of friends and visitors my Saviour’ assumes a ‘me’ who ‘can commenting that if such people were diminished with his advancing remember what such knowledge might elsewhere, then, in terms of the church, condition, Swinton powerfully mean for one’s salvation’. actually they were nowhere. contrasts the progressive isolation and More brazen implications arise One big strength within Swinton’s loneliness dementia engenders with in some triumphalist forms of analysis is that his constructive the continuing and even strengthened Christianity which actually jettison strategies centre around the practices moral and social obligation felt by the dementia sufferer. Pat Robertson’s of the local church. This comes into friends supporting those suffering 2011 broadcasted advice to the husband focus in the book’s second half. If God terminal cancer. of a dementia-sufferer to divorce her will remember sufferers and carers Within this contrast, Swinton takes and ‘start all over again’ since ‘that even while wider society seems or issue with what he terms ‘capacities- person is gone’ provides a clear, if seeks to forget, then the church stands based practices of love’. He reaches chilling, example of this deficient as ‘the only community that exists instead for a view of humanity made in a relational image of God, where personhood precedes relationship and relationships are possessed by persons, Swinton powerfully contrasts the rather than relationships legitimating personhood. progressive isolation and loneliness Our identity and worth is not dementia engenders with the continuing bounded by our skulls or our skills. and even strengthened moral and social Rather, the basis for this is our dependence on God’s existence, his obligation felt by friends supporting creating and sustaining marked by his those suffering terminal cancer

oakhill.ac.uk/commentary 29 Swinton looks for churches to offer dimensions of divine love within its overall biblical revelation. hospitality to those who are becoming Many of Swinton’s most powerfully strangers, to offer welcome which hopeful statements struck me breaks the alienating processes as particularly – even narrowly – applicable to those with trusting faith afflicting both sufferers and carers in the saving work of Jesus, even if Swinton appears, on the surface at least, to pitch them more widely, as solely to bear active witness to the afflicting both sufferers and carers. more general in scope. This is not living memory of Jesus... the place Churches, he hopes, will embrace to deny a dignity to every and each where people learn to see what God’s enduringly real people, a relational dementia sufferer: there is another memory looks like.’ The weak and the and spiritual condition, not simply dimension of God’s love for all that he vulnerable can here find their place. confront a neurological decline. With has made, and for all who are made in Swinton’s proposals are varied. He rethought gestures of love and a his image. commends song, music, art, dance and biblically robust theology of visitation, But fallen humans living in the ritual as able to function as modes of Swinton calls for practices which memories of God is a sharply double- extended memory, which can unlock follow God’s initiatives in visiting us. edged reality when we are speaking of emotions, feelings and recollections. His vision is that through care and the holy God, ‘from whom no secrets This will be a challenge for a culture support, carers and sufferers can find are hidden’, who will judge the living (and its churches) which celebrates in churches somewhere to belong, to and the dead. Ultimately, divine individualism, innovation and change. express their experiences and to think remembrance is good news only within More foundationally, his urge to about dementia differently. the context of covenant grace. believers to become ‘friends of time’ ‘Dementia may be a tragic affliction, Thus understood, perhaps Darlene confronts my busy, activist self. Can but there is much to be hoped for as we Zschech does serve the believing I prioritise attentiveness and ‘soulful can create the types of relationships dementia sufferer well: ‘nothing companioning’, a caring which learns and communities that will allow us compares to the promise I have in you.’ (and yearns) to hear and call the to see properly, hope realistically, and These concerns are fundamental, individual by name in an extended remember with a love that drives but require a nuancing of Swinton’s way that counters and inhabits the us into the presence of people with argument rather than its rejection. sometimes terrifying affliction that dementia.’ Here is a book with much to resource accompanies the dementia process? My biggest concern with this book individual Christians and churches. It What will this mean, in terms of my concerns its relatively vague contours has opened my eyes to how to reach time, energies, attention and relational for God’s love. As I read, I was reminded out to, and include, those affected by stamina? These questions are of Don Carson’s little book The Difficult dementia within the life of the church. searching ones. Doctrine of the Love of God (Crossway, This is a book to feed on and return Swinton looks for churches to offer 1999). I longed for Swinton’s powerful to. It provides nourishing challenges hospitality to those who are becoming advocacy ‘to rethink the practices of and ongoing and growing questions, strangers, to offer welcome which love within the context of dementia’ as well as directive and generative breaks the alienating processes to take on board Carson’s variegated answers.

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