Transform - Autumn 2017

Inspiring Christlikeness

TRANSFORM Autumn 2017

Langham Partnership News

Langham Scholar, Oleksandr

teaching in Ukraine, adopted in Scotland

Consecrated Crucial commentary A heart refreshed, a on a football came during conflict bond established and pitch and crises churches blessed

Contents

Equipping a new generation of Bible teachers

Chair of Trustees Mary Evans

National Director John Libby

International Ministries Director Chris Wright

International Executive Director Mark Hunt

Langham Preaching Programme Director:

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Paul Windsor

Langham Literature Programme Director:

Consecrated on a football pitch Ugandan Langham Scholar is new bishop

Pieter Kwant PO Box 296 Carlisle CA3 9WZ E: literature@langham.org

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Langham Scholars Programme Director Riad Kassis

If you would like multiple copies of this magazine for friends, church members, etc., please ask Liz Wright, address below.

Crucial commentary came during conflict and crises Unity around God’s word in a war zone

Please send donations to: Mrs Liz Wright 19 Whitfield Place, London, W1T 5JX Tel: 020 7209 0915 Email: liz.wright@langham.org

A heart refreshed, a bond established and churches blessed Shared joy in adopting a Langham Scholar

10 Word on the World Reflections by Chris Wright

Langham Partnership’s Vision and Mission

Registered Charity No. 1092233 Company limited by guarantee.

No. 4235957 Tim Charnick Design: 07712613926

Have you considered including Langham Partnership in your will?

Like many mission organisations we can benefit greatly when friends make a final gift that continues to bless the ministries they have generously supported in life. Once you have made proper and primary provision for family and friends this can be a very effective way to go on making a difference to the church on earth when you have joined the church in glory! If you would like to consider this option in your will please let us know and we wiill send you a helpful legacy leaflet. Contact John Libby: john.libby@langham.org

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Langham Partnership’s Vision is to see churches equipped for mission and growing to maturity in Christ through the ministry of pastors and leaders who believe, teach and live by the Word of God.

follow us

www.langham.org

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Our mission is to strengthen the ministry of the Word of God through: nurturing national movements for biblical preaching (Langham Preaching); fostering the creation and distribution of evangelical literature (Langham Literature); and enhancing evangelical theological education (Langham Scholars), especially in countries where churches are under resourced.

Give online You can donate to Langham easily online, once or regularly.

Go to this page and click on the links:

http://uk.langham.org/donate-now/

Greetings from the

National Director: Secular Faith?

I

am conscious that this Transform will be read by some who won’t have had the luxury of a break or a holiday this summer and I consider myself“ fortunate in enjoying time away with family and friends. I normally take a clutch of books and having enjoyed ‘Sapiens’ last summer, this summer’s reading included Harari’s ‘Homo Deus’, both still rooted in the top 10 bestseller List.

Once you cope with his cynicism of things spiritual and religious (I am not commending the book!), he is refreshingly candid in placing himself as mainstream, modern, and ‘secular humanist’. Refreshing? Yes, because he is unusual in implying that he holds that position by faith.

How many discussions have you overheard where the intellectual high ground is assumed by the “Oh-so rational, scientific, ‘no faith’, secular humanist”, against that “irrational, outdated, superstitious, religious Christian”?

This is probably the present UK religious battle ground, but resourcing a Christian, biblical response is essential to Langham’s global role. Many who hold any token religious faith or none (including nominal Christians) probably now default to a secular humanist position, generally expressing support for all human ‘good’ potential without any acknowledgment of God. How can we help inspire those of a living Christian faith to respond in secular cultures so opposed? We often become so defensive as to become mute.

Our key Christian response might at least be to ask the humanist the same questions they ask

of Christians. What are the grounds for your faith that there is no God? You challenge our belief as based on myths and mists of time, but actually our faith is based on a recorded historical event attested to by witnesses we believe credible and whom your faith declares unreliable – why don’t you believe them? You say your position is ‘scientific’ and yet science can only say our experience is not one you have shared (yet!). Yes, many have died in ‘religious wars’, but how many have died in wars caused by those of secular humanist persuasion, which would include Lenin, Stalin, Mao…? You say you won’t believe unless you’re certain, but how certain are you or can you be of the love of your partner or ‘significant other’ – dare you subject their love to the same certainties you’re asking of God? What might be the implications of His love for you?

So, in this Transform we hear from a post-communist war zone, from a football stadium (next edition, maybe from a shopping mall?) and consider a genuine counter secular humanist theology. These expressions of faith are anything but mute! Be encouraged yourself and please consider how we can encourage these others ‘more and more’ by our prayerful and generous financial support.

With thanks and Christian greetings

John Libby National Director

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Consecrated on a football pitch Not every football pitch gets a crowd of 10,000 spectators. Nor does every bishop have 10,000 people singing at their consecration. But that was the scene on Sunday 13th August 2017, in the bustling town of Lira in central Uganda, when Langham Scholar Reverend Canon Doctor Alfred Olwa was consecrated as the new bishop of the Diocese of Lango.

Chris Wright reports

i Chris Wright International Ministries Director

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I first met Alfred when I was asked to be the external examiner for his MTh dissertation at London Bible College (now the London School of Theology) in 2003. His study compared Old Testament laws about the use of land with issues and needs in his home country, to which he then returned. I’m happy to say he passed and got his degree!

Some years later, he was accepted as a Langham Scholar by Langham Partnership Australia, and studied for his PhD at Moore College, Sydney. I met him and his wife Susan there too, and I remember almost suffocating in the massive African hug with which he greeted me! He graduated in 2012, having written a fine study of the preaching of the famous Ugandan leader, Bishop Festo Kivengere. His

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dissertation has been published as a Langham Monograph.

Returning again to Uganda, Alfred was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Uganda Christian University, in Mukono, near Kampala, where his leadership and teaching were highly valued. Then came the call from the Anglican Diocese where had grown up, to become their third bishop.

On the day of his consecration, Wendy and Graham Toulmin were among the invited guests. Wendy was the national director for Langham Partnership Australia during Alfred’s years at Moore College. The Toulmins now serve in neighbouring Congo and were delighted to participate in the grand event. Here is how Graham describes the scene

A large football pitch near the Anglican Cathedral at Boroboro, just outside the town, had been transformed with the erection of an enormous covered area with central stage and numerous multi-peaked tents forming a square to protect the ever-growing crowd from the sun during the coming six-hour service.

Dignitaries from the Ugandan government including the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Health and Security, and some High Court judges arrived with pomp and armed guards. Archbishops and bishops from various African countries and from across the world joined a long procession which entered the tented enclosure along a vibrant red carpet. The main guest preacher was Alfred and Susan Olwa and family, some years ago

With his many gifts and his humble and ebullient spirit… Alfred is God’s man for the job in Lango.

Archbishop Ben Kwashi, from Jos, Nigeria.

The crowd which had swelled to over 10,000 people sang familiar hymns enthusiastically in the local languages.

The music, led by the Kampala Cathedral choir was incredible and at one stage we were stunned to realise that

the announcement over the huge PA system was calling Wendy forward to bring special greetings. So Wendy went forward and brought greetings from Langham Partnership International.

The job before him is formidable with many Alfred’s Langham Monograph on Festo Kivengere

responsibilities, but with his many gifts and his humble and ebullient spirit, which endears him to all he meets, Alfred is God’s man for the job in Lango. We wish him well in his new, enlarged and exciting ministry.

Alfred is well aware of the flourishing Langham Preaching movement in Uganda, and will undoubtedly encourage the clergy now entrusted to his episcopal care to benefit from its training. We also pray that, though he will no longer be teaching at Mukono, he will remain committed to a ministry of teaching and preaching in his new leadership role within the church.

That way many more than the 10,000 who attended his consecration will be helped to grow with depth and spiritual maturity.

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Crucial commentary came during conflict and crises A year after the Slavic Bible Commentary was launched, the project’s manager Taras Dyatlik continues the story from the last issue of Transform, explains how it came at a pivotal point in EuroAsian history, and outlines their future plans for the book.

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“The Slavic Bible Commentary was written during the deep conflict between Russian and Ukrainian nations and states. It also came at a time when seminaries saw an urgent need to review the focus of evangelical theological education in Euro-Asia.

The 94 authors represented different church traditions (Baptist, Pentecostal, evangelical Christians, members of other churches) from Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine and other countries where the Bible is read and interpreted in Russian. But they were all directly influenced by the socio-political challenges between proUkrainians and pro-Russians.

“One of the project’s main objectives was not only writing a contextual commentary, but also creating a

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hermeneutic (interpretative) community of Eastern European theologians, who could listen to each other and respect theological differences. By God’s sovereign will, this came in the context of severe conflicts because of the huge protests of 2013 in Kiev; the war in the Donbass region; the SyriaUkrainian refugee crisis; corruption and economic challenges in Ukraine, and corruption and Western sanctions in Russia.

“The Bible for these 94 authors became the real source of looking for God’s will for contemporary Eastern European Slavic Christians. They asked: what is the mission of God to nations torn by the war and military conflicts? What is a Christian church leader’s mission to representatives of

“Translation into Ukrainian will hopefully begin in the next few months.

It will be relevant for church ministers and the next generation of Ukrainian evangelicals, who are asking how God’s Word applies in the current challenging socio-political context.

Therefore, the Ukrainian translation (and a number of theological articles and application examples) will be adapted to our current contextual realities.

the nations, which are considered to be enemies? What is the Kingdom of God in relation to the issues of state, nation and language?

“We raised through pre-sales about $76,000 (£58,637) for printing the commentary. This is a miracle considering the corruption and deep economic crisis in Russia and Ukraine.

“In Ukraine, 6,400 copies of the commentary were printed in late September 2016. Currently we have just two copies left in storage.

2,500 copies were sent to the US for distribution in Russian and Ukrainianspeaking immigrant circles. Of these, 1,000 copies are yet to be distributed, but we expect they will be gone by the end of this year.

Ukrainian. We negotiated with English translators, who were missionaries in Ukraine for over 20 years and know Eastern European Slavic culture from the inside. This is vital for translation

We want to strengthen mutual relationships between Western and Eastern evangelicals in the context of the Church’s mission and the Kingdom of God. Lord is the architect of history, and we are thankful to Him for our partnership with Langham during all these years when the Slavic Bible Commentary was written.

“Around 5,400 copies have been distributed in Ukraine and Ukrainian states so far. This is unbelievable in our context of economic and social-political challenges.

“In Russia, 3,470 copies of the commentary were printed in December 2016. About 2,470 copies have already been distributed. We decided to have two separate prints in Ukraine and in Russia, because it would be extremely difficult to import such a large Christian book from Ukraine to Russia taking into account that the two countries are in a state of a hybrid war”

English and Ukrainian translation “Earlier this year, the editorial board discussed translation of the commentary into English and

“The Slavic Bible Commentary, in the current socio-political challenges of Eastern Europe, is a witness of unity in Christ between Ukrainian and Russian Christians around the Lord and His Word. So the investment of Langham Partnership was not just into a commentary, but also into developing the Eastern European evangelical hermeneutic community and strengthening the relationship between evangelicals from the countries which are in a state of a hybrid war. And it coincided that Langham’s support came during these most crucial challenges for Ukraine and Russia. The

“We pray that God would richly bless Langham to continue developing Christian leaders, educators and preachers all over the world for His glory.”

Taras N. Dyatlik, Slavic Bible Commentary Project Manager of our cultural meanings. For us it is extremely important to bring Eastern European theological perspectives on scripture to English-speaking theologians and church leaders. We want to strengthen mutual relationships between Western and Eastern evangelicals in the context of the Church’s mission and the Kingdom of God.

.Your gift.

Your gift could make possible and speed the work of translating this vital resource into Ukrainian and English.

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Oleksandr Geychenko, Langham Scholar from Ukraine

One of the many things I have learned in my role as a Langham Scholar Care Coordinator, writes Liz McGregor, is that no one should consider taking up the challenge of post graduate studies without first “counting the cost”. While it is wonderful privilege to be given the opportunity it also takes a level of sacrifice not just for the scholar but for those closest to them – a spouse, children, colleagues – that demands patience and commitment and fortitude. I honour each of the scholars and their families that I have come to know who are in this together and have displayed these qualities in great measure. Meet one such family.

f Liz McGregor LPUKI Scholar Care Coordinator

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For the Geychenko family from Ukraine counting the cost meant taking the hard decision that Oleksandr would come to Scotland alone to take up his studies at the University of St Andrews in 2014 . Meanwhile his wife Tanya and daughters Olesia and Taia would remain at home in Odessa so that high school education would not be disrupted for the girls. While there is the assurance in their hearts that this was a wise decision it has meant periods of separation, some commuting back and forth, lots of phone calls and a few tears along the way.

Now however, as Oleksandr finishes up his research and leaves St Andrews for home where he will complete his writing he looks back with gratitude and a fresh understanding of what it means to be part of the global church for even before he arrived in Scotland, a local church, Leven Baptist Church, had heard about his need for

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accommodation and reached out to him. St Andrews is a small university city that welcomes visitors all year round because of its history and its famous golf courses. Because of this, accommodation for post graduate students is not easy to find and can be expensive and so students often find themselves living in some of the towns and villages along the coast of Fife.

Just 3 weeks before he was due to travel, with still no accommodation in place, an email from the Pastor of Leven Baptist Church was a huge encouragement. This was followed up by a call with a local family who kindly offered to host Oleksandr for 3 years with room and board - they even showed him his room on skype! And so, in the midst of the difficult decision to come to Scotland without his family, Oleksandr was reassured that God was going ahead of him.

A heart refreshed, a bond established and churches blessed preach - the priority is in prayerfully and practically supporting him through his PhD studies. Tanya and the girls are included in this growing bond of friendship and fellowship too.

Oleksandr Geychenko and his family enjoying the Langham Scholars’ holiday at the Hookses

Adopt a Scholar Meanwhile on the other side of the country, in the small semi- rural town of Strathaven south of Glasgow another church was reaching out to Oleksandr and his family. Strathaven Evangelical Church was founded 20 years ago and has a membership of about 80 people.

An active World Missions Team has developed and encouraged a focus on five priority mission partners of which Langham Scholars is one. Having had an interest in Langham over the years because of the work of Dr Ian Shaw (Associate International Director of Langham Scholars Programme) who is a member of the church, a decision was taken to deepen this engagement with Langham.

Initially the possibility of inviting a scholar to live in the area was discussed. This was not realistic however, due to the rural situation of Strathaven but that did not hold this church back - they simply chose to “adopt” a scholar based in Scotland and from there a very special bond of fellowship has developed with Oleksandr and his family. This has been a “no strings attached” relationship. Oleksandr was invited to spend a weekend in Strathaven from time to time. While the congregation has learned a lot about Ukraine through Oleksandr that his spurred them on to prayer, there has been no pressure on him to

A key principle of the church’s 20th anniversary celebration in 2016 was “Blessed to be a Blessing”. In this spirit, a well-supported Gift Day raised funds which allowed the Geychencko family to enjoy a trip to Scotland following the Langham family holiday at the Hookses.

Two-way blessing On this trip they were able to stay in Strathaven and Leven for some days and meet people in these church fellowships, including those in the Home Group that Oleksandr attended each week in Leven that have been such a support to him. They were also able to spend some days in Edinburgh and visit St Andrews to see where Oleksandr has been studying.

But this has been a two way blessing.

Both Leven Baptist Church and Strathaven Evangelical Church are thankful for the bond of friendship and partnership in the Gospel that will continue with the Geychenko family, with the Odessa Theological Seminary

and with Langham. It has enriched their fellowship and increased their interest and knowledge of what God is doing in Ukraine. And of course, they are already looking forward to welcoming Oleksandr - and perhaps the family too - when he returns for graduation in 2018!

Surely an appropriate paraphrase of the words of Paul and Timothy to the church that met in the home of Philemon says it well as we join with Oleksandr and his family in honouring these churches….”(We) thank God always when (we) remember you in our prayers…for we have derived much joy and comfort from your love, brothers and sisters because our hearts have been refreshed through you.”

Oleksandr’s doctoral research is an analysis and critical assessment of the church structures of the Ukrainian Baptist Union in dialogue with the ecclesiology of Oxford theologian Paul Fiddes.

On his return to Ukraine, he will teach at the Odessa Theological Seminary. He has also been invited to develop a programme for advanced degrees in Practical Theology at the Seminary.

Could my church adopt a Langham Scholar?

As you read this story perhaps you are asking the question “Could my church adopt a Langham Scholar? If you would like to find out more about how your church could partner with the Langham Scholars please contact Cindy Crossley via: cindy.crossley@ langham.org.

Some possible ideas might be to: n Receive regular prayer news about a specific Langham Scholar or country or region

n ‘Adopt’ a Langham Scholar studying in the UK, arrange for them to visit your church to get to know them and find ways to encourage and bless them. n ‘Adopt’ a Langham Scholar studying in the Majority World (Developing World). Receive regular news about them for prayer and, if possible contribute towards the funding of their study programme.

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Chris Wright seeks a biblical response to current challenging events In the last issue (Spring 2017) we reflected on the culture of political life exposed in the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump, in the light of what the Bible has to say about the standards God requires of government, the idols that God rejects (but still dominate us), and the judgment that God operates within history. We are living, I suggested, in a terminal phase of western civilization that is experiencing the inevitable results of prolonged idolatry, namely, the outworking of God’s judgment in processes glaringly illustrated in the story of Old Testament Israel.

But in such a world, we are called neither to abandon hope (for the future belongs to the kingdom of God), nor to desert our mission (for Christ still sends us into the world as the Father sent him). What then will following Jesus demand of us today? I suggest four things at least – I’m sure you could add more. All of these assume that we are gospel people, committed to the mission of God and sharing the good news of what God has done in Christ to reconcile the world to himself.

We must be kingdom people submitting to the reign of God Jesus came preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. The call to discipleship was fundamentally a challenge to accept and submit to the reign of God, and to shape the whole of life accordingly. And those whom Jesus first called to be his followers knew the potential cost of living as citizens of the Kingdom of God in a world that boasted the kingdom of Rome and Caesar.

For them, it meant rejecting BOTH collusion with the oppressive power and wealth of Rome, AND some radical alternatives, whether of a religious or revolutionary nature like the Essenes or the Zealots (what might be labelled in our world as hard right or hard left politics). Instead, they were called to practise the values of God’s kingdom, as taught and modelled by Jesus himself – breaking down social barriers, practising radical forgiveness and table fellowship, cancelling debts, turning the other cheek, generosity 10 TRANSFORM

to the poor and the outsider, loving even the enemy. These were radical and subversive of the established order, boundaries and codes of their day – both Jewish and Roman. When we declare that Jesus is Lord, and not Caesar, we are acknowledging that we are called to follow the Jesus of the cross, not the ‘Jesus’ of Constantine – or the ‘Jesus’ of those who claim his name as ‘evangelicals’ to bless and support a blatantly immoral regime. We need to re-examine our loyalties, and ask if we have submitted our political views, choices and support, to the criteria of God’s kingdom as revealed in Scripture.

We must be Bible people - living by the story of God What do we think the Bible actually is?

For some, it is a bookful of rules; or a bookful of promises; or a bookful of doctrines. It certainly includes plenty of all of those. But in the form that God has given his Word to us, the Bible is fundamentally a story - or rather The Story - the story of God, the universe and everything, from creation to new creation.

The Bible is like a great drama in six acts: creation (Act 1); rebellion (Act 2); promise – Old Testament Israel (Act 3); fulfilment in the gospel of Christ (Act 4); mission of the church (Act 5); new creation (Act 6). 1 Followers of Jesus are called to live in and for that story – and to orient our lives in relation to what it tells us about who we are and why we are here, as the people of God for the sake of

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God’s mission. Our lives should be governed by this great overarching story of the Bible – what God has done in the past, is doing now, and will ultimately complete in the future. This is our narrative. This is who we are and what we are about in the world.

The trouble is, many Christians are simply living in the world’s story and trying to make the Bible somehow ‘relevant’ to that. But we are not meant just to apply the Bible to our lives (as if our lives were the centre of reality), but to apply our lives to the truth and story of the Bible. We have lost the plot – the biblical plot. We have forgotten the story we are supposed to be in.

Specifically, we live within ‘Act 5’ of the great drama of scripture - the age of mission, between the ascension and the return of Christ. We are living in the Bible’s story - what kind of people then do we need to be in order to live consistently with the story we are in?

Where do we fit? How should we live?

Answer: We must be contrast people - shining the light of God Those who follow Jesus must be as distinctive as he was. We live in a political era defined now by relentless falsehoods and lies (so-called ‘posttruth’ culture). We endured mendacity on an industrial scale during the Brexit campaign, in exaggerated unfulfillable promises and false hopes, and unrelenting demonizing and blaming of the weak, the poor and the foreigner for social problems they did not cause. We see corruption, nepotism, self-enrichment, and moral depravity in high places; - the kind of spiritual powers of evil that Paul warns us about in Eph. 6.

In such a world (which was much the same in Jesus’ day), Christ called his followers to be ‘salt and light’ – a powerful combination of metaphors For a very helpful outline of the Bible story, as the drama of God’s mission, and how it should shape the way we live now, see Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story, 2nd ed.

(Grand Rapids: Baker, 2014).

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(Matt. 5:13-16). Probably he was echoing Isaiah 58:6-8, 10, where God looks for the light of good works, social justice and compassion, and calls it ‘righteousness.’ Both metaphors speak of contrast and distinctiveness. n Salt: was primarily used to stem corruption and putrefaction in meat or fish. n Light: lamps dispel the darkness of a room, or home, or footpath.

Jesus’ words make two assumptions: a) The world around us is corrupt and dark, and b) followers of Jesus do have the power to make a difference - just as salt and light do.

And so they also carry two implications: a) We must therefore both penetrate society (not withdraw from it), b) and yet also retain our distinctiveness within society. We must be in the world, but different from the world.

But if there is no real difference, then we become nothing less than part of the problem itself – contributing to the division and degeneration of society.

Compromised Christians raise severe questions about the nature of their Christian profession, questions that are now being asked by Christians in other parts of the world about the stance of some prominent American evangelicals in support of Donald Trump. Some evangelicals in the Majority World are struggling even to continue using the word ‘evangelical’, which has become so corrupted and abused by that astonishing alliance.

We should heed the sobering words of the Lausanne Movement’s Cape Town Commitment ‘a) We challenge one another, as God’s people in every culture, to face up to the extent to which, consciously or unconsciously, we are caught up in the idolatries of our surrounding culture. We pray for prophetic discernment to identify and expose such false gods and their presence within the Church itself, and for the courage to repent and renounce them in the name and authority of Jesus as Lord. b) Since there is no biblical mission without biblical living, we urgently re-commit ourselves, and challenge all those who profess the name of Christ, to live in radical distinctiveness from the ways of the world, to ‘put on the new humanity,

created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.’2 We must be praying people – appealing to the throne of God Followers of Jesus must be people of prayer, as he was. He taught us what we call ‘the Lord’s Prayer’, but perhaps we blithely repeat it with little thought about its challenging political significance.

‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven…’ That is an astonishing prayer! – that the rule of God and the will of God should operate on earth, not just ‘up in heaven’, or ‘eventually’. Do we understand it? Do we mean it? And do we act in relation to that prayer, in our political opinions and decisions – as citizens and voters?

Do we search the Scriptures to see what God’s kingdom means, or what God’s will is, in relation to social, economic and political life, the realities of work, the marketplace, business, the law-courts, government etc.? The Bible (especially the Bible of Jesus, what we call the Old Testament) has plenty to say on all of those things. And when we have done our biblical thinking, do we pray for those values – the values of God’s kingdom and God’s will to be upheld on earth, in our own nation and neighbourhood? If not, what’s the point of the prayer?

I was recently struck by the first ten Psalms. There we find urgent, passionate, desperate, prayer to God in relation to the political realm and its evil. They pray that God would put down the wicked in power, and vindicate the oppressed (as Mary prayed in the Magnificat). Listen to the remarkable language of David’s prayer in Psalm 10.

12 Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless.

13 Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, ’He won’t call me to account’?

14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand.

The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.

15 Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out.

Do we have the courage to pray like that? Do we make use of the prayers in the political realm that God has actually given us in Scripture? Does your church ever obey Paul’s command in 1 Timothy 2:1-2? I have been in many churches where it is completely ignored.

I see no contradiction in both praying for our rulers (they are sinners in need of God’s love and mercy; we pray for God to bring them to repentance and salvation), and also praying against them - when their policies or actions are manifestly out of line with what the Bible teaches as God’s standards, values and priorities. I have done that for years. I pray for our political leaders, that God will bring them into meaningful confrontation with the gospel. But I pray against them, when they continue with policies that hurt the poor and favour the rich. And I think the Bible authorizes both kinds of prayer.

In conclusion, we are still called to be the followers of the crucified Lord, and to lift up his cross and bear witness to him and the Good News of all he taught, modelled, and accomplished. And we are to lift up that cross precisely in this world of evil, folly and confusion. For it was in such a world, and for such a world, that Jesus died and rose again, and calls us to follow him.

So I finish with this short reflection, by George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community in Scotland.

I simply argue that the cross be raised again At the centre of the market place As well as on the steeple of the church.

I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles But on a cross between two thieves; On a town garbage heap; At a crossroads of politics so cosmopolitan That they had to write his title in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek, And at the kind of place where Cynics talk smut, And thieves curse, And soldiers gamble.

Because that is where He died, And that is what he died about, And that is where Christ’s men ought to be, And what church people ought to be about.

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Cape Town Commitment IIE.1

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John Stott London Lecture 2017 Climate and faith in the public arena Thursday 16 November, All Soul’s Church, Langham Place 6:30pm – Refreshments, 7:15pm – Welcome and lecture

As scientific evidence builds, so does vocal opposition, much of it from religious conservatives. Why is climate change so polarizing, and how can shared values move us past the barriers we face?

Katharine Hayhoe combines biblical Christian faith, academic climate science, insights from psychology and sociology, and a winsome communication style that has led her to being named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people and one of Fortune’s ‘world’s greatest leaders’.

Tickets £6 from jsll.eventbrite.co.uk or on the door johnstottlondonlecture.org.uk The John Stott London Lecture is organized in partnership with:

You can pray everyday for Langham Partnership’s vital work around the world using the PrayerMate app.

It’s free to download from Google Play (android) or iTunes (iPhone), then simply subscribe to LPUKI’s feed under the ‘World Mission & Bible Translation’ section.

Photo: Artie Limmer, Texas Tech University

Lecturer: Dr Katharine Hayhoe

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