the red pill

A member of our music group used this verse from the Message translation in part of the devotions he led last night. I was struck by the wonderful language, and so share it with you here. With thanks to Alan Clark for drawing my eye to the text!

A few people have heard some things have been happening at Tabernacle Baptist Church Wolverhampton, and wanted to hear more. So I have written a brief summary of the exciting things that are happening. Over recent years the church has been in a season of growth. This has meant we’ve needed to rethink the way we do some of our leadership, decision making and structuring life together so that we can still be making sure people receive our well-known warm welcome and hospitality, and also find a way into the life of the church in such a way that they are enabled to grow as disciples of Jesus. A number of years ago we began supporting a local evangelical church that had been struggling, and in 2012 we merged the two churches into one church that meets in two locations. This year, God has been generous to us, and through a significant gift we have been enabled to make some serious headway on mission, vision, and strategy. When the leadership team went away on retreat, we fe...

A number of people have asked to have a copy of the words we used for the Communion service on Sunday afternoon. The team that write and design these sessions draw on a variety of influences, but this year our own Craig Gardiner wrote most of the significant portions. I include here the text of the Gathering Prayer, the prayer following In Memoriam, the words used to welcome all to the table, and then the invitation to come. A Gathering prayer Gather us in, Lord, the lost and the lonely, the broken and breaking, the tired and the aching who long for the nourishment found at your feast. All: Gather us in, the done and the doubting, the wishing and wondering, the puzzled and pondering who long for the company found at your feast. All: Gather us in, the proud and pretentious, the sure and superior, the never inferior, who long for the levelling found at your feast. All : Gather us in, the bright and the bustling, the stirrers, the shakers, ...

Today has been a sad day for evangelicals in the UK. The largest umbrella organisation, the Evangelical Alliance (EA), has today discontinued the membership of Oasis Trust, an agency that has done more than almost any other to raise the profile of evangelism, youth ministry, gospel-inspired social action ministry and a distinctively Christian approach to matters of education, health and social welfare. The reason the EA did this? Steve Chalke, the founder and director of Oasis, has called for a public conversation between evangelicals around the issues of human sexuality, same-sex marriage and faithful examination of approaches to scripture. Let me be clear, what I feel is a tragedy is not that the wider evangelical constituency might differ with Steve and Oasis, but that the simple act of calling for a conversation has led to them being effectively defined as non-evangelical. It was remarked to me recently that Jesus merely had to say one sentence for Lazarus to be raised from t...

I very often hear people make comments about how their votes make no change, or not feeling there is any merit in getting to the polling station. Today I came across this wonderful cartoon from Dave Walker , which he has given me permission to repost from his site CartoonChurch.com . I'm not sure there's any need for me to make further comment other than - get out and vote!

If your understanding of grace leads you to bring division to the body of Christ, it's broken. Time to think again.

This weekend we've had the pleasure of hosting a group of young people about to head off to Thailand as part of BMS World Mission's year out programme called "Action Teams" During the church service they shared in last night they distributed mini packs of Jelly Babies to everyone and invited us to pray as we ate, using the guide below with each colour Jelly Baby corresponding to a different team to pray for.  I share this here so you'll be able to join us as we continue to pray for the teams through the year.

We're looking for a special individual, couple or team to come and work with us in seeing this wonderful city impacted by the kingdom of God. If what follows appeals to you, then feel free to get in touch for a more full profile, and ways of finding out more. An Opportunity in Wolverhampton Tabernacle Baptist Church is a thriving, ethnically diverse, welcoming church in Wolverhampton. For the last two years we have been supporting, and then merging into our structures, a church in the city centre called the Church at Broad Street. The Church at Broad Street had once been a thriving evangelical church, but has, over many years, dwindled and struggled. The purpose of the recent merger is to release new ways of mission and ministry into that part of the city. The location is a tough one. The neighbours are fast-food restaurants, sex shops, a homeless hostel, a nightclub and a rock venue. Close by is the University, with a guesstimated 5,000 students living in halls ...

Wednesday 28th August 2013 marks the 50th Anniversary of Revd. Dr Martin Luther King Jnr's famous "I have a dream" speech. I wonder in what ways we need contemporary Dr Kings to rise up and speak on behalf of those who remain marginalised, neglected, denied their human rights, and left languishing in the misery of unkept promises. As a mark or respect, and in honour of possibly the greatest Baptist preacher ever, I reproduce his most famous speech below. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But 100 years later, we must face the tragic fact ...

There are some exciting posts being advertised at the moment, so I share them here to inform you, but also to ask you to pray with Baptists in Britain as many of our structures and those leading them go through a season of great change. The new General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Revd. Lynn Green, will be inducted into the post at a service at Sutton Coldfield Baptist Church on the afternoon of Sunday 22 September, marking the most visible shift in our leadership. Alongside this, several of our regional associations are currently advertising, or have recently been searching for new Regional Ministers. Yorkshire Baptist Association and Eastern Baptist Association have recently closed applications. Northern Baptist Association are looking for a new Regional Minister with a special responsibility for enabling mission in that area. More details here North West Baptist Association are looking for a Regional Minister to help guide them through the next three year...

There's been a lot of discussion of abuse and threatening behaviour on social media in the last week or so. On of those caught up in the crossfire, for daring to voice her concern at the degrading representations of women in "Lads mags" and on page 3 of The Sun is the theologian / songwriter / journalist Vicky Beeching. Tonight she asks for prayers as she seeks to find peace and sleep following days of abusive comments and threats. So, I reproduce this as my prayer for her, and also other women, speaking out, shouting back, taking social media back from the voices and comments of an evil minority.  From "Celtic Daily Prayer" a prayer from Anne Wadey The sky is bright with uncountable stars. I know they are uncountable: I have tried this impossible task these sleepless nights. Where are You, Lord, as the fog of fatigue numbs me of all but the desperate desire to sleep? Comfort me, Lord, with Your presence as the ever-watchful mother soothes the...

This last weekend saw approx 1300 baptists joining together in a very sunny Blackpool for the annual Baptist Assembly; a time for us to gather in prayer, celebration and reflection about the life of our Baptist Union of Great Britain , and the work of BMS World Mission. For the last few years I've had the privilege of being one of those who gets to shape some of the larger sessions, we have the somewhat utilitarian title of "session Design Group". It has been a thrilling experience seeing words we've crafted and laboured over be used in ways that have brought joy, peace, hope, laughter, as well as creating space for people to encounter God or access his word afresh. This year I had the task of shaping a communion service that would be intergenerational, that is to say would speak in some way to people of every age. For various reasons there were some constraints (getting more than a thousand people moving around in a fairly full space can be tough, and we needed t...

This article it repeated here with kind permission from The Baptist Times Lynn Green elected new General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain Saturday, 04 May 2013 16:18 The Revd Lynn Green has been unanimously elected as the next general secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. There were no votes against and only a handful of abstentions when Assembly delegates appointed Lynn to the role during a packed Baptist Union AGM on Saturday morning. She will take up the post in September 2013 and will become the first female general secretary of our Union. After receiving a standing ovation she said how 'incredibly humbled and honoured' she felt, and how through the whole process 'we have all been seeking God together.' She paid tribute to her husband Stuart and all those who had supported her ministry, adding, 'This is not about me. It's about all of us. We are the Union.' She was the unanimous choice of the General Secretary Nomi...

Many of you ill have already read the terrible news that Matthew Warren, son of Rick and Kay, has died. If I'd been at my home church tomorrow I'd have led prayers there for them as a family, and as a church. Please join me in prayer for Rick and Kay, their other children and their grandchildren. Pray too for those you know who are struggling with mental illness, and please pray for Saddleback Church. Beyond praying for God to be close to them, for them to know the reality of Him as the God of all comfort, the father of all compassion, I hardly know how to suggest you pray, but please do.

This year we're taking inspiration from Psalm 84. We're regularly using this image from Anneke Kaai's remarkable collection of works inspired by psalms. You can buy these as a book, along with the Message translation and the artist's explanation, entitled " The Psalms, an artists impression ". Here's her thinking behind this piece, which we have turned (with the artist's permission) into a postcard to give to the folks here at Tabernacle Baptist Church Wolverhampton. The poet lives far away and longs to travel to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to be close to God.   He thinks of the birds that fly around the Temple grounds, building their nests, even in the Temple pillars. This painting shows the head of one of the pair of copper pillars at the Temple entrance. The pillar was called Boaz (cf. 1 Kings 7:15-22) and had a lily-shaped capital, decorated with a pattern of seven interwoven chains and pomegranate shapes.  A space high up in the cap...

So, It's been too long since I blogged, and too long since a the last in the GraceThoughts series. Sorry.

Light shines in the darkness And the darkness cannot overcome it For the shepherds, given the lowliest job. Marginalised, under appreciated, poorly paid, the butt of every joke, light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it For the wise men, those who seek genuine spiritual truth, the new agers, the tarot readers, the searchers, those who look at the world and see the hand of a creator, those who look at the dark skies for signs, light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it For Mary, unsure of her future, like every mother wondering what world her child is born into, what her baby will grow up to become, for every father who fears for his daughter's future, for every parent who has to trust their children, with all their successes and failures, into the hands of an unseen God, light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it For Anna and Simeon, those of old age, who had longed to see something later in their lifeti...

I'm so grateful to Maggi Dawn for flagging up the growing number of churches offering Blue Christmas events. Wolverhampton's third Blue Christmas will happen at on December 18th at 7.30pm

A friend of mine, Andy Goodliff, has drawn together a group of people to reflect on advent in a different way, offering thoughts and activities that will help us engage with advent more deeply.  25 days. 25 things to do (or in some cases not do). 25 things to do to mark the season of advent. 25 things to do that don't celebrate christmas, but get us ready. 25 things to do that teach waiting and patience. 25 things to do that help head, heart and hands be generous. 25 things to do that shape a life in a Christ direction. I Invite you to take a look at 25thingsforadvent Today's entry just happens to be mine...

I know of folks who are struggling, fighting to hold onto faith, resisting the temptation to fall into despair, or battling with doubts about their futures, their pasts, their identity, their fertility. Job is recorded as saying, "Even though You slay me, I will trust you O Lord". That's a statement that has intrigued and inspired me at many times. It's a rare and beautiful faith that recognises the cost, the pain, the suffering and yet pushes on to the goal God has for them. For sure, their reward will be great. Elizabeth said to Mary, "Blessed is she who believes that what the Lord says, He will accomplish". Enjoy this, let it speak to your soul, as you replay it and join in may it be like deep calling out to deep. I wanna soar with You Up on wings like eagles But I'll crawl with You too When the dark and lonely questions come I wanna stand true No matter what's new or comes through I cant stand still Whatever hits I'll keep making m...