Banner of Truth Ministers' Conference Leicester 2011 Part II

I did go on a little bit too much in the last post, I shall try to be briefer here. Perhaps. Meantime, Mostyn Roberts has posted some thoughts on the conference also. I’ll add a few thoughts at the end in response to some of what he raises. If you’re interested in the Banner Conference, give him a read!

We left off on Tuesday night. Wednesday dawned as it tends to do, and the first session of the day was Martin Holdt once more, speaking on ‘the Holy Spirit and Preparation for Preaching’. Although he spoke less on the Spirit than before, as I mentioned. Some opening comments were that the battle for preaching is won or lost in how much it costs us, and that vital elements of preparation are used by the Spirit. I would wholeheartedly concur with this from personal experience, not that that counts for too much.

Noting that preaching is prime and absolutely neccessary, he made the following points about preaching and prep:

1. It takes time. The Apostles (Acts 6) created Deacons precisely because they needed time to study and pray. There is no place for laziness, which will lead to failure. We must try our very hardest, and ‘fight for our mornings in the study’ – ML-J.

2. Prayer is essential before, during, and after. Eph 1.15 – we must strike a balance between time at the desk and on our knees. We need the Spirit’s enlightenment whether we have preached for a year or for fifty years.

3. Reading Scripture widely and reading it well is vital. Thoughtfully, meditatively, prayerfully. Our flock must be able to understand what we present to them – the purpose of various books of the Bible, their direction and how they fit into the whole. If we read enough Scripture then all else will fade and we will see that it is all about God.

In closing, Mr Holdt urged us to read as much as possible, and to take advantage of those men whom God had gifted in the past to edify us. Do we read regularly or have we lost the taste for it? We might find it hard, but we must take up our cross and read! He mentioned and commended John Piper’s scheme for reading, setting aside 20 minute blocks and showing how much can be done in a week, a month, a year. He also commended that we read as much as possible on the Atonement.

The second morning session was Lewis Allen‘s second look at priorities for the church, and he focused on ‘The Church’s longing’ from Revelation 22.20-21, presenting five core truths about the second coming, that 1. It will be personal, 2. It will be visible, 3. It will be triumphant, 4. It will be transforming (not to stop history but to bring it to its climax), and 5. it will be sudden, at an unpredictable time.

He pointed out how the second coming is under-proclaimed, and how it in fact affects all our teaching if we include it. The Atonement, for example – the purchase of lost souls, which will be gathered up at the second coming. The Resurrection of Christ – we declare it and preach it, but do we consider the final triumph of it will be at the second coming? The Judgment – there will be no judgment without the second coming. The Church needs to know that Christ is coming, the community around us needs to hear it. If we ride a motorcycle and look down at the front wheel, we will soon crash. We need to look up to where we are going, to the horizon!

What are we living for? Does ministry indispose us for dying and make us forget, amidst all the busy-ness, that we are mortal men? Do we live on, and by, the promises of Christ about His coming, that He will rule, restore, heal, bless, renew? Can we say with the ‘Blind boys of Alabama’  – ‘I don’t want to walk or talk about Jesus, I just want to see His face?’. In closing, Lewis asked us if we were moaners or groaners – by default we are moaners, feeling sorry for ourselves, outraged at injustice and so forth. Surely we should be groaners – just as all creation longs, so we, the church and her ministers, should groan, earnestly longing for His appearing.

On Wednesday afternoon I got some more sermon prep done, and then back at 5pm for the Question and Answer session with the speakers. I didn’t take notes, and there are some more detailed comments, especially on five remarks made by Geoff Thomas that are very useful, here. To sound a note of displeasure, it was noted that several pertinent and pointed questions were simply not asked, and it was not for lack of time because the floor was opened to additional questions. These were not overly controversial questions either, as I was informed by three question authors of what they had submitted.

In the evening, Phil Arthur presented a very fine overview of the life of William Tyndale. All the facts about this great man are out there, so I won’t go on. There was a clear presentation of Tyndale’s early life, and his convictions. Much comment was made about the quality of his translation work on the New Testament, and his choice of good, single-syllabled Anglo-Saxon words rather than the more lengthy French or Latin-derived alternatives. So fine was the quality of his work that, as is well-known, the King James Version translators retained 80 percent or more of his work in their translation. Tyndale’s later work and publications were discussed, along with his battering by Sir Thomas More, who in total wrote over half a million words attacking him for his translation of just four greek words. We heard again the sad story of his betrayal, and saw once more his desire to study and translate even to the end, when he was martyred for his faith. This man, who went into exile, forwent the comforts of marriage, friends, and family, caused an earthquake in Britain. Men read or heard for the first time in their own language the words of Christ. How much there was to give thanks to God for! This message, along with Phil Arthur’s reading of various passages in old and middle English, would be a great listen for anyone. I certainly plan to listen to it again, there was so much to take in!

On Thursday morning Martin Holdt spoke on ‘The Holy Spirit and preaching’, looking at the New Testament, especially Acts 2, 6, 13, to demonstrate the same three elements present in all the preaching that was so blessed: i) Use of much scripture, ii) Proclamation of Christ, and iii) Identification of Sin. He also made some useful general points about preaching: 1. The Spirit will never flood the life of a man in whom Christ is not glorified. 2. We must ASK for the help of the Spirit – ref Luke 11.13. How many gifts does a Father give his children? Just one gift? Or many? 3. We have a duty to teach the church to pray for us. 4. We must lift up Christ.

The final session was taken by Iain Murray, who again, carefully and thoughtfully took us to John 17, especially verses 25 and 26. He spoke about i) The teaching work of Christ, ii) The special purpose of that work, and iii) What that should mean to us as ministers. The greatest encouragement was his reminder to us that our Lord’s ministry is always effective, and always successful. It is hard to believe that Mr Murray is 80 years old. What a blessing his ministry and books have been to so many!

These were a very blessed few days, and I am deeply grateful to my church for providing for me to attend, because I could not have afforded it otherwise, and I do hope and pray that the blessing I received may be in some way passed to the congregation here in Cheltenham.

A closing word about the whole ‘conference experience’. Mostyn Roberts makes some interesting comments on his blog. I differ with him on the quality of the chicken on Monday night, mine was very good, but I tend to agree with him about the general unfriendliness of the experience, especially if you are new. The lack of information about various practical issues is troubling, and also it is quite notable that it is very hard to have conversations with some men, who seem to only want to speak to their own particular friends. Why were the numbers so far down? I suppose the school holidays didn’t help, and there are other factors also – possibly economic ones – but maybe, just maybe, there should be a sharpening of focus and a better promotion of the event. What is it for? How will you benefit from it? – and so forth. I didn’t pick up the ‘doom and gloom’ vibe that some have mentioned in the past, which was a good thing. I don’t think that the Banner conference should move away from the traditional worship it practices, either. Frankly, anyone who thinks that the worship is what keeps younger people away is surely misguided. I just think that the conference needs to be more closely tied to the needs and pressures of modern ministry, and to have some very specific ISSUES dealt with in a helpful way, rather than general or undefined topics. Not that the ministry this year was not punchy, and edifying, and useful – but perhaps, just perhaps, it doesn’t appear half so good on paper as it was in reality.

Banner of Truth Ministers' Conference Leicester 2011 Part I

I am back from a truly blessed few days at the Oadby Campus of the University of Leicester, where for many years the Banner of Truth has held youth and ministers’ conferences. This is my third year attending the Ministers’ conference. Each year has been more of a blessing in terms of the ministry given. In terms of fellowship, several faces I would like to see were absent, and the attendance was about half what it was in 2006 apparently, but the conference did fall in the school holidays due to the lateness of Easter. Another blogger has commented that it clashed with New Word Alive but I seriously doubt that had anything to do with it. In 2009 I was the only man present (apart from Garry Williams, one of the speakers) as far as I was aware, who had been to both events!

Notwithstanding the absentees, I was able to renew acquaintance with a number of men, and to make some new connections too. Above is my photo of the conference speakers, left to right are Lewis Allen, Martin Holdt, Phil Arthur, Steven Curry and Iain Murray.

Herewith my account of the proceedings: Steven Curry gave the opening sermon at 5pm on Monday, speaking from Matthew 6.1-18 on ‘The Piety of the Kingdom’. He centered on Christ’s description of hypocritical piety, showing that it is i) an unreal ‘act’, ii) to seek public notice and iii) to seek the applause of men. The Lord Jesus uses three examples to illustrate this, those of giving, praying, and fasting. Pastor Curry went on to show how all these three things are good, but can be done wrongly.

He moved on to show ‘The mark of an authentic godly piety’ – which is, in a word, secrecy. We are to resist the temptation to display what we are doing, or to drop hints about it. The Lord commands us preachers to ‘go private’, and cut off the opportunity for self-promotion. Of course, we cannot do everything in secret, like preaching, evangelism, visitation, but those things that we can do alone, we should.

Like a surgeon of the pastor’s soul, Mr Curry cut (by common testimony and consent) by the work of the Spirit, into the hearts of many present, as he asked, searchingly, whether we are as fervent in prayer privately as we are in public? He asked if we were as gracious at home as we were in the church? He asked if we were as holy in the house as we appear to be in the pulpit? May God forgive us and deliver us from such hypocrisy!

He thirdly discoursed on the importance of genuine and true piety. Nothing can be hidden from our Father ‘who sees’. Unlike Jim Bakker, who apparently never saw his wife Tammy, without her makeup on, the Lord sees us without our makeup all the time. What must be the source of our piety? It must be love for Christ, who loves sincerity as much as He hates hypocrisy. This message set the tone for all that was to follow over the four days!

On Monday evening, Iain Murray began his much-appreciated standing-in for Prof. Edward Donnelly, whom it was reported has recently preached his first sermon since a very serious illness deprived him of many faculties. We must pray for His continued healing! Mr Murray gave the first of two addresses on John 17, Christ’s high-priestly prayer. He commented in opening that this prayer is unique in scripture – being perfect, and sinless. He covered three points from the first verse of the chapter, firstly showing how the Lord Jesus was, and is, the Priest on His throne. Secondly, he opened up how this passage displays the Lord’s continuing, permanent ministry. His work is not finished as He dies. Salvation is complete, but there is more – He is no less active now He has ascended to Heaven! Thirdly, he covered the petition that Christ be glorified, and the Father in Him. Mr Murray showed us powerfully how God’s glory is entirely bound up in the salvation of His people. He closed with observations about how believers are the glory of Christ, how men are not to be glorified (especially ‘successful’ preachers), and finally he made the though-provoking application that the truth about Christ’s present ministry is surely the answer to unbelief amongst us – we must realise that Christ is not absent, but present, and active, and able!

Tuesday morning dawned, and I leapt out of bed unusually readily for the prayer meeting, breakfast, and then the double-barrelled shotgun that is Martin Holdt. I have heard one or two minor contributions by Mr Holdt at past Banner conferences, and to be honest I thought that he was over-prescriptive and far from reality. Not any longer. In his first message, on ‘the Holy Spirit and the preacher’s personal life’, he simply and profoundly urged us all to seek more  of the Holy Spirit. Are we all as filled with the Spirit as we should be, or could be? He showed that there is no command to be baptised in the Spirit, or sealed in the Spirit, but that there is a clear order to be filled with the Spirit. We must practice what Ephesians 4.1-3 teaches. We must set the tone for our congregations, and exemplify a life lived in step with the Spirit. whose heartbeat is Christ in the Word of God. How well do we know the Holy Spirit, how much do we love ALL the persons of the Triune Godhead? Mr Holdt said far more in this talk about the Spirit than he did in the subsequent talks.

The second message of the day was from Lewis Allen, who spoke of the church’s love for Christ as a great priority, from Ephesians 6.23-24. Pointing us to Christ time and again, he urged us never to tire of looking to Him. He firstly enjoined us to Desire Christ’s presence with us – His truth (John16.13), His peace (John14) and His joy (John 15.11, 16.22). One line that stuck with me was his comment that a pastor should be ‘the best friend a church member could ever have’. What a high standard! What is our Sunday morning habit? Do we enter, looking grim, at the last moment, like ‘a bat from the belfry’, and shuffle towards the pulpit or pew? Or are we about, greeting people, ushering all in to worship the Lord? Secondly, Mr Allen urged us to be Zealous for Christ’s glory, as Christ was filled with zeal for the Father’s glory in John 2. ‘A minister without zeal is no minister at all’. He used the example of the late, great rugby commentator, Bill Mclaren, whose obvious love of rugby came through in his commentary. Are we in love with Christ? Is our passion obvious from our preaching? If we are not excited, how will anyone else ever be? He observed that in English we have a vocabulary the size of French and German combined. How can we be dull? Thirdly, he called us to be Devoted to the Lord’s Service. This service should be costly – otherwise it is not authentic. If ministry costs us little, it is because we love the Lord and His people little.

Duly chastened, I headed off for an afternoon of study in my slightly smelly study bedroom. To be honest, the last-minute switch to Digby Hall from the usual Gilbert Murray Hall did not win any awards with me – the accommodation smelled. As I sat in my room, I heard one of the dutch pastors passing my door saying ‘someone has been smokings in here’. That, and everything else beside! Anyway, you soon get used to rank odours, and I spent longer than expected in my room, missing the reports and discussion at 5pm. I was told that there were moving reports of the Lord’s work in Pakistan and Myanmar.

In the evening, Iain Murray laid out some of the work he has been able to do on the life and ministry of Archibald Brown, a man who ministered in the shadow of CH Spurgeon. I could write for ages here on this marvellous message, but that would, I think, steal some of the thunder that should be reserved for the upcoming articles in the Banner of Truth magazine, and, we trust, the biography!! Suffice to say that Archibald Brown lived from 1844-1922, serving four churches, most notably 30 years at Stepney Green (later East London) Tabernacle, which was rebuilt to accommodate 3,000 under his ministry, and filled. In those 30 years, 5,600 members were added, of whom 4,000 were new converts. In the midst of a foul and deprived part of London where many philanthropists worked, he was noted for his compassionate work. He was a gifted evangelist, and able to communicate with all types of people. Mr Murray pointed out that apostasy was growing in Brown’s time, and his ministry emphases are therefore helpful to us in our times. Skipping so much which will doubtless be revealed in print, Brown’s ministry began when he upbraided a London City Missioner who was planning to read from Pilgrim’s Progress rather than to preach, and therefore the missioner opened the floor to him. He attended the Tabernacle’s Pastor’s College in its early days, aged just 18. Rules of admission were apparently bent a little for him! He was sent to Bromley after a short while to preach to a new work there, but he saw weekly numbers drop several times, and he went to Spurgeon, who advised him to ‘hang on by your teeth, and by your eyelashes if neccessary‘. We need a little more of that tenacity today!

I may share a little more about A Brown in another post, but suffice it to say, this talk was engrossing, enthralling, and inspiring indeed. We await the Banner presses with interest!

Anyway, I’m tired, and this is getting long, so I will leave the rest of the conference to a part II, which I hope to get up by the weekend.