A LICC Resource
Edition 26 June 2010
Doctor Under the Microscope Mark Greene talks to Professor John Wyatt about faith on the frontline of medicine
also inside: Good News Antony Billington sheds some light on the gospel New Principal Conductor for LICC Orchestra Introducing Tracy Cotterell as our Chief Operating Officer
Found – New Principal Conductor for LICC Orchestra Mark Greene reflects on a vital new appointment and talks to our new Chief Operating Officer
In any organisation’s life some moments seem more important than others – though often it’s easier to spot them in retrospect. So, for example, back in May 2007, the Board approved a new mission statement. We didn’t just want to be an advocate for envisioning and equipping so-called ‘lay’ people (i.e. 98 percent of the church) to live fruitfully for Christ in today’s world. Rather, we wanted to work out how to refocus local church communities so that helping one another to be whole-life disciples on our frontlines would happen naturally, consistently and purposefully. That change in our mission statement has rightly, slowly and inexorably re-directed our work – helping us say ‘no’ to some things and ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ to others. Still, changing the culture of the UK church is an audacious goal – precocious even, particularly for an organisation as small as LICC. Despite that, as the
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Imagine Project fieldwork on church culture change steadily yielded such helpful learning, it became clear that there was wisdom emerging that could indeed help the whole church. And it wasn’t just us who thought so. As Graham Cray put it, speaking at LICC, ‘churches have to realise that the core of their calling is to be disciple-making communities, whatever else they do.’ The result is that we are now actively working with both the Baptist and the Elim denominations, as well as being intentionally involved with a number of groups who are influencing church life and mission in the UK – all convinced that sustainable mission strategy must be shaped around developing frontlinefocused, disciple-making communities
Opportunities abound. And in that there is a danger. The number one reason why small businesses fail is that they get too many orders too quickly and end up failing to deliver. Similarly, the threat to LICC, and more seriously to the kingdom cause we are involved in, is to have so much opportunity without the capacity to develop, deliver and distribute consultancy, teaching and materials that will serve this growing need. So, we were not only faced with a capacity issue, but also with a gap in our managerial skills. We needed someone to help each member of our current and future team do the right things, in the right order, in the right way, with the right partners, at the right time and with the right resources. In sum, we needed someone with the strategic skills and the people development skills – as well as the necessary theological insight and commitment to the cause – to help us deliver the vision. Enter Tracy Cotterell as our ‘Principal Conductor’. Her appointment seems to me, as Executive Director, to be one of those key moments in the history of LICC. Tracy had led our Imagine Project, and was not one of the 39 people who applied for the role. Nevertheless, as we reflected on the outstanding candidates we had seen, Tracy emerged as embodying all that we needed – if she were willing to go from working two-and-a-half days per week to working four days per week. She was.
Changing the culture of the UK church is an audacious goal
So, I asked Tracy what excites her about her new role… ‘Firstly, I love the vision. Actually, ever since I became a Christian I could never understand how any of us could worship the Creator of the Universe without it involving everything in our life. How could I seek to follow Jesus, to pattern my life after his, and yet leave out great swathes of daily existence? Of course, I know the sacred-secular divide exists, I know it marks so much of the way we do church and the way we do life, but it’s always been a mystery to me, as well as an affront to the vision of abundant life that Jesus died to make possible. So, during my work for British Rail, then in advertising, and then at theological college, I’ve been gripped by the challenge of how to live fruitfully in the world and how to disciple others to do the same. However, it’s one thing to be a champion in equipping Christians to live fruitfully for Christ in every area of life, it’s quite another to attempt to refocus the culture of the UK church – individuals, churches, denominations, theological colleges – on a task that really matters: making wholelife disciples. That’s a huge task and can’t possibly be accomplished by one small organisation – however loudly or clearly it blows the trumpet. Nevertheless, it’s a vital task, a biblical imperative. Secondly, it’s a great time to do this job. The churches and leaders and denominations we’ve worked with in the Imagine Project have shown us that it is possible to change the orientation of a local church towards whole-life disciple-making. And it’s shown us that it can be liberating for church leaders as well as liberating for church members. Many pastors originally felt called to pastoral ministry to help people grow, and the perspectives and resources we’re bringing are helping to release them back into their calling. Certainly, we have much more to learn, but our work on Imagine, on culture and on the workplace have brought us to a new place where we can see a much more
v helping local church communities develop the values and culture that equips people to live fruitfully for Christ where they are
gathered church work more smoothly, it’s about developing a culture that creates a healthy dynamic between what we do when we are together physically and what we do ‘together’ when we are apart. Thirdly, I’m excited about the job because this is the right moment to make some strategic choices for the next phase of the work. That means I have the opportunity to shape the LICC team in a way that really serves the interests of our partners in denominations and local churches, and develops a broader range of resources and approaches to help Christians on the frontline. And quite apart from that, there is a massive opportunity to communicate our learning through discerning use of new media. And that’s good work to be about.’
So, for example, wherever we are asked to speak on work, we try to do it differently. We not only address the specific issues of the workplace but how the workplace is just one expression of our wider calling to be God’s person wherever we are. Similarly, when we think about changing church culture, we seek to do it in a way that keeps the frontline in mind. So it’s never just about making the
Tracy Cotterell is a modern languages graduate of the University of Nottingham. She also holds a Theology degree from the London School of Theology. She has worked for British Rail, and was Director of Planning and a Board member of a Manchester advertising agency. Her husband John leads an IT company and they have three teenagers – Alastair, Michael and Isobel.
potent way to integrate the four main streams of our thinking: v deepening the biblical foundations that shape our understanding of mission, of the task and character of the church and of the contemporary world v helping people on their frontline – and in particular their workplace, where 90 percent of people spend 40 percent of their waking life v understanding the cultural forces that are shaping people’s lives and attitudes, and offering alternatives
It’s never just about making the gathered church work more smoothly
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Light on the At a time of ongoing discussions on the nature and scope of the gospel, Antony Billington, LICC’s Head of Theology, seeks to shed some light on what Scripture says, seeing it flow from the character of God himself as one who ‘so loved the world’ – a love demonstrated supremely in the cross of Christ – resulting in transformed lives and church communities, and impact in the world...
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ Isaiah 52:7
Many religions begin by telling men and women what they should do; Christianity begins with what God has done. The shorthand word for this is ‘gospel’, referring not to a set of good instructions or a piece of good advice, but to the good news of what God himself has achieved – for me, for us, for the world – in Christ.
Good News from God In the Roman Empire of the first century, the word ‘gospel’ was associated with announcements of imperial decrees. Heralds would visit towns and cities, spreading the ‘good news’ of military victories or an emperor’s accession to the throne. In such a context, the announcement of the good news of God’s reign, and the call to confess Christ (not Caesar) as Lord might well have sounded politically subversive. For the early Christians, however, the use of the term was not just culturally convenient, but arrived theologically soaked in Old Testament promises of salvation. Isaiah, in particular, declares the ‘good tidings’ of God coming in power, exercising his reign, saving his people, and bringing peace (e.g. 40:9-10; 41:27; 52:7; 60:1). The promises here are bound up with the return of the exiles to Jerusalem and the renewal of the formerly devastated city, which finds itself at the centre of a new heavens and a new earth. It becomes apparent in these closing chapters of Isaiah that God’s kingly reign is universal in its scope, embracing the nations, bringing about a new order of peace and righteousness for all peoples. No wonder it’s described as ‘good news’! And no wonder, then, that Paul writes of the ‘gospel of God’ (e.g. Romans 1:1; 15:16; 2 Corinthians 11:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:2, 8-9), reminding his
readers that this good news originates in him, and is about his kingly action in saving the world.
Good News about Jesus How does God bring about this promised salvation? Through the death and resurrection of his Son. If the gospel is the ‘gospel of God’ at one end of Romans (1:1), it is also the ‘gospel of Christ’ at the other end (15:19; cf. 2 Corinthians 2:12; 9:13; 10:14; Galatians 1:7; Philippians 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 3:2). Occasionally, Paul outlines the essence of the gospel more fully. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, for example, provides an early statement. Here, Paul reminds the Corinthians of the gospel he had ‘preached’ (literally, ‘gospeled’) to them as something he had himself ‘received’ and ‘passed on’. Describing it as ‘of first importance’, he sums it up in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, ‘according to the Scriptures’. In particular, Paul writes, ‘Christ died for our sins’, emphasising the significance of his sin-bearing death. And he ties Jesus’ death to his resurrection, as the rest of the chapter makes clear. It is as ‘Christ’ – God’s appointed king – that Jesus dies for our sins, is buried and raised to life. Jesus Christ crucified and risen again is the ‘good news’ that Paul preached, on which the Corinthians have taken their stand, and by which they are saved (15:1-2). In Romans 1:1-6, likewise, Paul makes it clear that the gospel is focused on Christ and rooted in Scripture. It’s about what God has achieved through his Son – Jesus Christ our Lord – the fruition of promises made long ago through the prophets. Small wonder, then, that the gospel defines Paul and his ministry, that he is set aside for it, that he is so eager to preach it. Note what he says of
the gospel in Romans 1:16-17: that it is the declaration of God’s saving power through the work of his Son, bringing men and women into a right relationship with himself, which comes about as it always has done – through faith, from first to last – and which is available equally to all who believe, breaking down barriers between ethnic groups in the process. How could he be ashamed of that? In addition, Paul’s reference to Jesus being born as a royal descendant of David and raised from the dead in the power of God’s Spirit (1:3-4) perhaps draws attention to the significance of the entire story of Jesus, from birth to exaltation (see also 2 Timothy 2:8) – reminding us (by the way) that the gospel can’t float free as a ‘nice idea’ without being rooted in these unique events. It’s no surprise, then, that the designation ‘gospel’ is used to describe the narratives about Jesus in the New Testament, nor that they share a common focus on what Jesus said and did – and especially on the significance of his final week – not to mention the conviction that what they record is the fulfilment of God’s promises of blessing which reach back to Abraham, that salvation history is brought to its climax in Jesus. Mark, for instance, begins by saying that his account of the ‘gospel’ is about ‘Jesus Christ, the Son of God’ (1:1), and describes Jesus preaching the ‘good news’ of the arrival of God’s reign (1:14-15) – all as the culmination of a story which reaches back into God’s dealings with his people. Jesus himself understands his ministry as fulfilling the herald of Isaiah, as he reads Isaiah 61:1-2 in the Nazareth synagogue and announces the arrival of the era of salvation and peace promised long ago (Luke 4:18-21). But as the gospel stories move on, it becomes clear that
Jesus himself understands his ministry as fulfilling the herald of Isaiah, as he reads Isaiah 61:1-2 in the Nazareth synagogue
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the liberation will come about through Jesus taking on the role of the servant who would suffer and die on behalf of others, as Jesus walks the inexorable path to death and resurrection. Nor should it come as any surprise that these same emphases form the basis of the proclamation of the early church in Acts (2:22-39; 3:12-26; 10:34-43; 13:23-41), with the gospel as the announcement of God’s victory over sin and death in Jesus Christ.
Good News for Life Since belief in the gospel comes bound up with a particular view of reality – of God, Christ, creation, humanity, sin, redemption – we discover that it provides the perspective from which to view the whole of life. It is the gospel that funds the entirety of our existence as disciples of Christ. There is no place that the gospel does not touch with its implications because of the comprehensive nature of God’s saving work in Christ, his rule over every aspect of life. There is an appropriate priority here, however. Those who might fall into the trap of thinking the gospel is about what we do, whether in social action or discipleship, need to be reminded that it is foremost the proclamation of what God has done in Christ – which then,
The gospel funds the entirety of our existence as disciples of Christ
Good News of Salvation And it’s a big salvation! We have been reminded by a number of writers in recent years that the gospel must not be reduced to individual justification without also understanding the purpose of God to redeem a people and ultimately remake the world. Of course, the gospel is certainly not less than personal forgiveness, but it is much more, involving not only the rescue of men and women from judgment, but also the renewal of God’s relationship with his people, and the restoration of creation itself. Romans 16:25 -27 provides a doxological summary of the gospel at the end of the letter, coming full circle back to where Paul started – with the gospel as God’s plan for the salvation of humankind in Christ. In between, it’s seen as embracing individuals, Jews and Gentiles together, and the whole cosmos, undoing the consequences of sin – guilt, bondage, and death – all of which reaches back to Old Testament promises to Abraham and David, not to mention God’s own blessing of creation. Indeed, the comprehensive nature of the salvation God brings is evident when we look at the larger tapestry of the biblical story as a whole – moving from creation to new creation – the overarching plan of redemption of a fallen people and the recreation of a damaged world.
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however, carries certain entailments, as God works through those of us who believe. Church life, mission, ministries of mercy, as well as our discipleship all flow out of, and take their bearings from, what God has first accomplished – and will accomplish – in Christ for the sake of the world. Although the notion of an ‘integral gospel’ or ‘holistic gospel’ has gratifyingly become increasingly common parlance, something more than that is at stake here – the working out of the implications of the gospel in all aspects of life – in the home and at work, in the hospital and at school, in the art gallery and the sports arena, in business and in politics, our lives reflecting the scope of his reign, our relationships displaying the arrival of the kingdom and anticipating its future consummation, living to the glory of the God of the gospel.
Further Reading James V. Brownson et al., Stormfront: The Good News of God (Eerdmans, 2003). A critique of how individualism and privatisation of religion have led to truncated versions of the gospel.
Ted A. Campbell, The Gospel in Christian Traditions (OUP, 2009). An academic work showing that the same ‘basic’ gospel laid out in 1 Corinthians 15 is found in different traditions throughout the history of Christian thought.
Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel? (Crossway, 2010). A concise treatment of the gospel in terms of the God to whom we are accountable, humanity as sinful, Christ as God’s solution, and humanity’s response in repentance and faith.
Chris Green (ed.), God’s Power to Save: One Gospel for a Complex World? (Apollos, 2006). A helpful collection of essays addressing, among other matters, the vexed issue of whether Paul and Jesus preached different gospels.
Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World (Baker, 2009). A bracing call for our lives and churches to be shaped by the gospel.
Timothy Keller, Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything (Zondervan, 2010). An excellent eight-session course for groups, supported by a DVD and Study Guide, showing how the gospel is lived out in the whole of life – in our heart, in our communities, and in the world.
Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (SPCK, 1989). A classic discussion of how the gospel relates to secular, humanist, pluralist culture.
Doctor Under the Microscope
It’s one thing to have a private opinion about a controversial issue, it’s quite another to be an eminent scientist taking your convictions and your research into the public eye. Here, Mark Greene talks to John Wyatt, Professor of Ethics and Perinatology at University College London, an international expert on medical ethics and the author of the recently updated classic, Matters of Life and Death (IVP), about life on his frontline… 7
Mark: When I heard you in Edinburgh, in public debate with Ann Furedi, the head of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, I was amazed by the respect, warmth and good humour with which you disagreed so profoundly with each other. Usually, these encounters become heated, vitriolic even. John: One of the things I learnt from John Stott was that it is often more important how you debate than whether you win the argument – we’re to model dialogue and double listening. The other thing I remember him saying is that it’s important to engage with the best arguments of our opponents and not their worst. So, rather than creating a straw man and then destroying it – which is what so called public debate is so often about – there should be a genuine quest for dialogue and understanding.
Mark: Much of your career has been focused on working with very vulnerable babies. Emotionally, that seems like an enormously difficult place to be. John: Yes, it has been very demanding emotionally and ethically. Some of our work was on the detection of brain damage using sophisticated brain scanning techniques. But if we know there’s evidence of brain damage, if we know the baby is going to die or be permanently disabled, how do we use that information clinically? So, we couldn’t avoid the ethical questions. At the same time there was the emotional impact. I remember vividly the time that the emotional side came home to me. It was when our own babies were born 8
in the same hospital. In fact, with our second child, we had a momentary panic when he didn’t breathe after birth and I suddenly had visions that I too would become the parent of a child with special needs. Mercifully, that didn’t turn out to be true, but it certainly gave me a taste of being on the other side of the table. I suppose I’ve always had a natural empathic tendency, but it became much, much stronger and came much closer to home with that experience.
worst possible situations, if something terrible can happen, then it probably will. So, one is confronted with the mystery of suffering on a practical level. That’s where the theology of suffering is very important. I’m constantly forced back to try to grapple with these things. So you go back and read Job, and Lamentations, and the story of the cross and the Psalms, with all those visceral agonies, because you’re confronted with it, you can’t avoid it.
Mark: I wonder where you found the resources to deal with seeing so much suffering?
Mark: Was there a means of support that you found particularly helpful?
John: At one level we can’t do this alone and I’ve been so grateful for the reality of the support, particularly of Celia, my wife, and a number of close friends with whom I was able to share the agonies. And they
John: I do think there is a whole theology of friendship that, to a large extent, we’ve lost in the modern world. We don’t understand friendship, don’t see it as important – we don’t value it. In the secular world we’ve collapsed the
clearly understood and cared. Also, I was part of a close team of colleagues and although we didn’t always share exactly the same understandings, we shared a belief that life was precious. And there was the great camaraderie of being together in the, sometimes desperate, attempt to preserve life and keep death at bay. But certainly there were times of despair and bleakness, and I think this is something probably all Christian doctors are confronted with. It’s easy to absorb very simplistic understandings of good and evil, health and disease and suffering. But then, in your clinical career, you’re confronted with the terrible agonies and also the injustice, the apparently capricious nature of suffering. It seems so unfair that in the
distinction between friendship and genital sexual relationships. To modern people, two people of the same gender who are very close friends are thought to probably be gay. The only way we can understand a close relationship is sexually. And yet it seems to be in biblical thinking that those two kinds of relationship are completely different. So there’s a sexual relationship that is heterosexual, unique, lifelong, exclusive and then there’s friendship, which is equally important but is different. It is non-sexual but intimate and open and vulnerable and committed. And I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had just a small number of those kinds of friendships, which have been a wonderful experience of intimacy, of openness of sharing and
of mutual vulnerability. That kind of friendship has to be nurtured and is a precious thing. One of the things I always say to medical students and junior doctors is that now is the time to develop the friendships that will last a lifetime and which are going to be a foundation and a resource. There’s a wonderful thing that Bernard of Clairvaux said, that Christ himself ‘kisses us’ through the love of our friends. Mark: When you made a decision to make a public stand on medical issues, were you aware that you were ‘putting your head above the parapet’ at that stage?
agonise and suffer, who are listening to what I’m saying, and whom I may have to go and talk to subsequently. It’s a complex thing to combine those two. Theologically, it’s the prophetic and the incarnational. Sometimes we’re called to follow Christ by just being his hands, his presence in the situation, and sometimes we’re called to speak the words of Christ in public. Jesus was able to combine these two roles but it’s an extraordinary discipline as these two roles can clash and cause difficulties. Mark: You were called to give evidence to a Select Committee in the Commons. How was that received?
John: Yes, in a word. One of those seminal utterances from Uncle John (Stott) was about double listening and about living an integrated life. I was never under any illusions that living that kind of
John: The incident for which I was most vilified was over scientif ic evidence I presented on abortion. I gave evidence about the survival
life in a countercultural way would have potential consequences, which you can’t always predict. I think it was Stott who first quoted that Chinese parable, ‘He who would be a Christ must expect a cross’. From an early stage I knew it was a possibility, and as I wrestled to try to develop as an integrated person, to try and link science, technology and ethical issues with the biblical framework, of course I knew we were coming up with uncomfortable conclusions which were running against some of the perceived wisdom, and I realised that I was in the midst of an ethical maelstrom. For a philosopher medical ethics can seem like a wonderful playground, but it’s utterly different if you’re a doctor and there are real people who bleed and
of premature babies, based on my experience from babies we’ d cared for in London. The interesting thing was that several people gave evidence before the committee of MPs, but I was singled out for attack in the public media. I think that it was because I was presenting empirical data and I was a senior academic at an influential London university that was also seen as a mainstream arena of academic rationality. Therefore, the attack was based not on my beliefs but on the soundness of the data. I was attacked for manipulating and twisting the evidence. The Guardian newspaper has an occasional column called ‘Junk Science’ and I was that week’s ‘ junk scientist’.
Mark: Did you sue them? John: No, I didn’t. There was a large, internal academic enquiry at the University, but the science was solid and supported, and the University defended me and the evidence I had given. Mark: How did it feel to have your professional integrity vilified in public? John: It was very painful. Of course it can take 20 years to build up a public reputation for integrity and five minutes for it to be destroyed, but I have come to realise that in the end it doesn’t matter what people think of you. One has to reorient oneself to the most important thing, and the most important thing is that I’m faithful. Sometimes being faithful will mean that you will have lots of plaudits and will be approved of and
perceived as a great person. Other times being faithful means you’re regarded as a maverick and a nonentity and flaky and unreliable. And, frankly, it doesn’t matter. And I have to keep reminding myself that perhaps it doesn’t matter what people really think; what matters is that I’m faithful. Mark’s complete interview with John Wyatt explores his calling to medicine, his focus on babies, contemporary attitudes to abortion and his responses to it. It can be downloaded from licc.org. uk. A separate interview, focusing on the question of suffering, was included in the December 2009 LICC Podcast. This is also available to download from licc.org.uk. 9
About the book: main themes A far from heroic figure, despite his opportunity to save the planet, Beard cannot save himself from his own desires and selfishness. This is echoed in the portrayal of humanity throughout the book. One of the novel’s most memorable sections focuses on a voyage to the North Pole for scientists
Solar
and artists to see climate change close up. Despite the
Ian McEwan
on the boot room used for storing essential clothing as
Jonathan Cape, 2010
people’s inability to care for the resources that can save
Extract He was suffused with the pleasant illusion of liking people.
noble aspirations of the participants, McEwan focuses it gradually falls into shambolic disrepair. Symbolic of them, the boot room episode demonstrates that for all its comic moments, Solar presents a tragic view of humanity: our rapacious desires will eventually consume us.
Easily forgivable, all of them. And somewhat co-operative,
About the book: implications
somewhat selfish, somewhat cruel, above all, funny… But
Famed in earlier novels for unpicking the shattering
yes, he felt unusually warm towards humankind. He even
relational consequences of a single moment or decision,
thought that it could warm to him. Everyone, all of us, facing
here McEwan explores the opposite concern, suggesting
oblivion, as a matter of course, and no-one complaining
that our immersion in small domestic dramas diminishes
much. As a species not the best imaginable, but certainly
our capacity to care about the bigger global picture. Despite
the best, no, the most interesting there was… These fondly
our creative capacity, we humans ignore the pressing threat
forgiving and self-forgiving thoughts sustained him until
to our existence from climate change by busying ourselves
they reached the hotel for lunch.
instead with the fulfilment of our own selfish wants.
Why read this book?
Questions to ask while reading
Amongst Britain’s foremost novelists, Ian McEwan is one of
1. How does McEwan’s worldview in Solar cohere with that
the few to garner both popular appeal and critical acclaim.
of the Bible, which emphasises God’s operation in both
After the taut miniature On Chesil Beach, McEwan’s latest,
domestic and global spheres?
Solar, plays out against an epic backdrop encompassing
2. ‘Life did not change. He had been deluded’ (Beard
climate change, art, idealism, rationalism, postmodernism
concludes). Are there seeds of hope in Solar?
and artificial photosynthesis. Surprisingly, it is also McEwan’s most comic novel.
Questions to answer after reading 1. ‘This matter has to pass beyond virtue. Virtue is too
About the book: overview
passive, too narrow.’ Such is Beard’s pessimistic conclusion
‘Bald, short, fat’ Michael Beard, serial philanderer and winner
about a response to climate change, suggesting instead
of the Nobel Prize for the Beard-Einstein Conflation, is a man
that any solution has to be
confused by the domestic world and bored by scientific
entertaining and profitable,
discovery. As the novel opens, Beard has been appointed
as well as true, to be
head of the new National Centre for Renewable Energy, but
successful. Do you agree
behind the public façade he is ‘a man of narrowed mental
with Beard’s conclusions
condition’, chiefly preoccupied with the infidelity of his
about the weakness of
fifth wife. Symbolic of the greed and apathy of humanity
virtue?
at large, we follow Beard from 2000 to 2009, during which
2. How can virtue motivate
time the key to a sustainable and clean form of energy falls
in a way that goes beyond
(almost literally) into his hands.
selfish gain?
Ben Care
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there is a chance to see how someone is re-imagining (he calls it re-practising) the disciplines of church worship for the sake of discipleship in everyday life. For those leading churches, this is crucial. We don’t need to be scrambling to become more ‘relevant’ to everyday life; we need to think about how we can become more ‘connected’ to everyday life. ‘Relevance’ can stunt our worship together, making it
Giving Church Another Chance
scattered across towns and cities for most of the week.
Todd Hunter
Questions to ask while reading
IVP, 2010 Why read this book? At a time when many people are re-thinking the value of the gathered church as a place of spiritual formation, Todd Hunter writes to encourage us to connect all we do in gathered worship with our everyday life. Todd was previously the national director of both the
utilitarian. ‘Connectedness’ encourages us to think how our life together flows out into our experience of being
1. To what extent does Hunter’s decision to join the Anglican Communion give him that ‘zeal of a new convert’, that may see liturgical life through rose-coloured spectacles? 2. There are few stories from people on the frontline showing how the practices of church have shaped their engagement in everyday life. Is this because there wasn’t room in a short book, or is it because they still need to be sought out?
Vineyard Churches USA, and Alpha USA. He’s now a bishop
Questions to answer after reading
for the Anglican Mission in the Americas. He has a website
1. Would this book help everyone get a bigger perspective
(www.toddhunter.org) where you can read more about his
on why we gather to worship? As a participant, is it obvious
work and his other books.
how your church services relate to everyday life?
About the book: overview
2. Recognising that most Christian arguments are about
When most people talk about church, they normally focus on what is happening on Sunday mornings, and so concentrate on the quality of preaching, sung worship, seats, coffee and so on. This book wants us to view the activities of church worship as a springboard for the whole of life, rather than as ends in themselves.
About the book: main themes
doctrinal understanding rather than Christian virtues, Hunter writes, ‘when was the last time you heard a debate between Christian leaders over the proper way to love those who are hurting us?’ (p.29) Why is that? Do we assume that it
The book reflects on the main liturgical ‘moves’ that happen
will just come naturally? Is
in most churches: singing, Scripture reading, the sermon,
this why we never see these
the offering, communion and receiving the benediction.
virtues as ‘skills’ that need
These ‘moves’ are linked to the overall mission purpose
to be nurtured?
of God for the world. Hunter wants to see the life of the
Neil Hudson
gathered church as being a spiritual discipline that will enable people to live well for Christ in the whole of their lives.
About the book: implications Todd Hunter wanted to write the book to encourage people who are either new to church worship, or who have become disillusioned with it, to re-engage with the church. For LICC readers, along with this encouragement,
is a new series intended to aid small groups in discussing titles that LICC believe are worthy of further study. The pages are designed to be easy to photocopy and distribute. Or download the PDF from licc.org.uk
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Coming Up @ LICC Toolbox June 14-18 and September 13-17, at LICC
Want to interpret the Bible better? Keen to understand more about today’s world? Want to make a difference wherever you are? If so, LICC’s highly acclaimed, 5-day Toolbox course is for you. Toolbox is running twice in 2010 – June 14 -18 and September 13-17. To find out more, visit the Toolbox page on the LICC website, or call 020 7399 9555.
21st Century Disciples June 19, 9.00am, at Renfield St Stephens Church, Glasgow
The last in the ‘21st Century Disciples’ series of events organised by Mission Scotland in partnership with LICC. The speaker for the day, which is aimed at Christians and church leaders eager to explore the challenges of whole-life discipleship in today’s world, is Bishop Graham Cray. Cost: £20 – includes lunch
For further information and to register, contact sarahjane. biggart@missionscotland.org.uk, or call 07734 101358.
New in the Pod Don’t forget that LICC now produces a monthly Podcast. Featuring a stimulating mix of conversation, information and debate, each Podcast is uploaded on the first Monday of the month. Recent highlights include Matt Summerfield of Urban Saints on youth discipleship (May), Mark Greene and Margaret Killingray debating the failure of feminism (April) and Bishop Graham Cray on 21st century discipleship (March). LICC Podcasts are available to download from licc.org.uk or via the iTunes store.
New Imagine Blog Keep up-to-date with the latest news from the Imagine Project, and explore the thinking, theology and resources that contribute to creating whole-life, disciple-making churches by visiting our new Imagine blog. Aimed at leaders and anyone committed to whole-life discipleship, this new blog is a place to explore the wider dimensions of whole-life discipleship and engage with others doing the same. Go to: liccimagine.blogspot.com/
Young Disciples: Church on the Edge June 23, 10.30am, at LICC
Richard Passmore of the Frontier Youth Trust presents a half-day training session exploring best practice in detached youth work, and the formation of faith communities among young people ‘on the edge’. Cost: £10 (concessions £7) – includes refreshments
Further information about all of these events can be found on our website at licc.org.uk/about-licc/events
New on the Web The LICC website is constantly being updated with new articles and resources. Recent additions include:
New Imagine DVD Small Group Resource This resource guides a small group through the themes, ideas and questions raised by the Imagine DVD, allowing them to grapple with the material as a group and discover new ways of supporting and equipping one another as whole-life disciples. Download free from licc.org.uk/imagine/resources/imagine-dvd/
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