andygoodliff

Open Letter to Members of Baptist Union Council

Dear Baptist Union Council Members,

2025 is the 1700th anniversary of the ecumenical Nicene Council of 325. This is being marked in several ways, both by the World Council of Churches and Churches Together in England.  

The General Baptist 1678 confession known as the Orthodox Creed included the Nicene Creed in its statement of faith as one of three creeds that ‘ought thoroughly to be received and believed.’ It was also included in a 1680 catechism by a Particular Baptist Hercule Collins as a creed that 'ought thoroughly to be believed and embraced by all Christians.' More recently the Baptist Union’s Covenant 21 encouraged the saying of the Nicene Creed (or the Apostle’s Creed) as an affirmation of our faith.

For ecumenical reasons as well as those of Baptist identity, we propose that the Council at one of its meetings this year and at the Baptist Assembly in May take the opportunity to positively affirm our faith in the triune God, the person of Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and in the gospel story of salvation as they are confessed in the Nicene Creed. This would be one way of saying to our ecumenical partners and to one another as ministers, churches, associations and colleges we understand ourselves still today as a part of 'the great central stream' of the Christian Church and seek the unity that Jesus prayed for.

Your fellow Baptist sisters and brothers

Rev Dr Andy Goodliff, Lecturer, Regent’s Park College, Oxford

Rev Dr Anthony Clarke, Tutor, Regent’s Park College, Oxford

Rev Dr Myra Blyth, Former Baptist Union Deputy General Secretary

Rev Dr John Colwell, Former Tutor, Spurgeon’s College

Rev Dr Rob Ellis, Principal Emeritus, Regent’s Park College

Rev Dr Michael Bochenski, Former President, Baptist Union

Rev Dr Nigel Wright, Former President, Baptist Union

Rev Dr Sally Nelson, Lecturer in Pastoral Studies, Glasgow

Rev Carol Murray, Former Tutor, Regent’s Park College, Oxford

Rev Dr Craig Gardiner, Tutor, Cardiff Baptist College

Rev Dr Chris Ellis, Former President, Baptist Union

Rev Dr Paul Goodliff, Former General Secretary, Churches Together of England

Rev Geoff Colmer, Former President, Baptist Union

Rev Dr Keith Jones, Former Baptist Union Deputy General Secretary

Rev Prof Paul Fiddes, Principal Emeritus, Regent’s Park College

Rev Dr John Claydon, Former Regional Minister Team Leader, Northern Baptist Association

Rev Dr Julian Gotobed, Tutor, Westcott House, Cambridge

Rev Dr Tim Judson, Lecturer, Regent’s Park College, Oxford

Rev Ewan King, Heath Street Baptist Church

Rev Ashley Lovett, Lead Chaplain, University of Portsmouth

Rev Jeff Jacobson, West Leigh Baptist Church

11 Books forthcoming for 2025

Here are 11 books being published in 2025 I'm looking forward to.

1. Constructing an Incarnational Theology: A Christocentric View of God's Purpose by Samuel Wells (Cambridge University Press, 2025)
2. Love's Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis by Norman Wirzba (Notre Dame University Press, 2025)
3. John Clifford and Radical Nonconformity: 1836–1923 by Michael R. Watts (Baylor University Press, 2025)
4. Joining Creation’s Praise: A Theological Ethic of Creatureliness by Brian Brock (Baker, 2025)
5. Contesting the Body of Christ by Myles Werntz (Baker, 2025)
6. Easter by Wesley Hill (IVP, 2025)
7. The White Bonhoeffer by Tim Judson (SCM, 2025)
8. Discovering Christianity: A guide for the curious by Rowan Williams (SPCK, 2025)
9. Meeting God in John by David Ford (SPCK, 2025)
10. Pilgrim Witness by Curtis Freeman (Fortress, 2025)
11. Evangelism in an Age of Despair by Andrew Root (Baker, 2025)

Wonder of the World: A Christmas Sermon

In the year 4 BC if you had the money and if you had the time, you could have visited all seven wonders of the world: The giant pyramid at Giza, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the mausoleum of Halikarnassos, the Colossus at Rhodes, and the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria. This was a known list that was written about.

Each one was a wonder. Each was something astonishing to behold. Each was a testament to human ability to imagine, create, and construct. Each was funded and ordered by those with immense power and wealth.

The giant pyramid at Giza, was the oldest, the largest, and the only one you can still visit today. It was a tomb for a Pharoah. Imagine the effort by so many, for the benefit of one man. The hanging gardens were exquisitely beautiful, an oasis of lush green, an human created mountain paradise of trees, and shrubs, and plants. The giant statue of Zeus, the god of gods, was located in the place where the Olympic games were held. Where men were attempting to be god-like, the ultimate god took the form of the ultimate man. The temple of Artemus was a breath-taking sight, a thirteen-step podium, columns 58 feet tall and the whole building 360 feet long. It was magnificent. The Mausoleum at Hali-kar-nassos, another giant tomb, was built to remember and celebrate the life of Maus-olos. The Colossus of Rhodes was a huge bronze statue, a representation of the god of the sun. It’s name is where we get the word colossal from. Although by 4 BC it was no long standing, having fallen due to an earthquake, you could still visit it, where it lay.    The Phar-os Lighthouse, was a symbol of light and learning, a symbol of salvation. An ancient skyscraper. At night, the furnaces burned so bright, it could be mistaken for a star. I’m telling you about these seven ancient wonders, because to be human is to create things that make us wonder, to stretch our senses to marvel at that which seems almost unbelievable in scale, in design, in intricacy, in beauty. Even now a building can do that or a live moment can do that, and we can find ourselves lost in wonder, in amazement, in awe.

The seven ancient wonders were about power, might, wealth. They were about prestige and importance, about life and death. They were an attempt at eternalness.

In comparison the events of Christmas, of a baby lying in a manger, in an ordinary downstairs room where animals were kept, in an ordinary house,

in an unremarkable town, are without spectacle. This baby born to ordinary woman, with no fame or wealth or power. Here doesn’t look like a wonder of the world. This baby born in a stable is a stark opposite to those seven ancient wonders. The nativity scene speaks of poverty and powerlessness, it speaks of humility and weakness. And yet the carols we sing, the story we proclaim, the faith we confess, declares this birth a wonder of wonders. There is something wonderful in the birth of Jesus. Angels sing, shepherds run, wise men travel great distances. The arrival of God does not come in greatness, it is not marked by huge structures. It comes in the breath of a tiny life, it is marked by a gurgle.

In the year 4 BC you could have visited all seven wonders of the world, but the kind of wonder that stretches minds and hearts, the kind of wonder that cannot be contained, that cannot be fully described, is beheld in Mary’s child, who will be named Jesus. Like the seven wonders of the world, the wonder of Jesus is about life, and will be about death, and will be about eternity. Thirty years later, many will wonder at the things Jesus says, at the things Jesus does. And another three years later, at his death, a centurion will wonder that Jesus is the son of God. And three days after that, there will be wondering at an empty tomb, where his body had been laid, and then there will be untold wonder at seeing Jesus alive, wondrous in body and breath, fully alive in every way.

Our world is full of wonders, full of marvellous sights, full of moments of great joy, and they should be recognised as such, but there is wonder at Christmas that lasts for ever: the unrepeatable gift of Jesus. Here is the wonder of God becoming flesh, here is the wonder of God’s decision to be with us, here is the wonder of God’s love — heart, and breath and bones.

May you be filled to overflowing with Christmas wonder and discover afresh the wonderful grace of God that is for you and the whole world.Amen.

British Baptist Theologians 26: Edwin H. Robertson

1912-2007

Lambeth DD, 2005

1938 Minister, Stopsley Baptist Church, Luton
1942-47 Minister, Dagnall Street Baptist Church, St Albans
1947-49 Head of Religious Affairs, British Control Commission in Germany 
1949-56 Assistant head of religious broadcasting, BBC
1956-62 Study secretary of the United Bible Societies and consultant to the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council
1962-64 Minister, Yeovil Baptist Church
1964-75 Executive director of the World Association of Christian Broadcasting
1971-83 Minister, Westbourne Park, London
1983-2001 Minister, Heath Street Baptist Church

 

Publications

Paul Schneider, the Pastor of Buchenwald; a free translation of the story told by his widow, with many quotations from his diary and letters edited and introduced by Edwin Robertson (SCM, 1956)

The Church on the Air: Some thoughts on religious broadcasting (Carey Kingsgate, 1956)

'European Industrial Life and the Bible', Theology Today 14.4 (1958)

Christians Against Hitler (SCM, 1962)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, No Rusty Swords: Letters, Lectures and Notes 1928-1936 edited and introduced by Edwin Robertson (Collins, 1965)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Way to Freedom: Letters, Lectures and Notes 1936-1938 edited and introduced by Edwin Robertson (Collins, 1966)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christology edited and introduced by Edwin Robertson (Collins, 1966)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (John Knox, 1967)

'The Bible of the English-Speaking World: 1949-1969: The New Testament', Expository Times 81.4 (1970)

Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Edited by Edwin Robertson (Collins, 1970)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, True Patriotism: Letters, Lectures and Notes 1939-1945 edited and introduced by Edwin Robertson (Collins, 1973)

 'That Sunday Evening Service', Fraternal 177 (Oct. 1976): 29-36.

'Sunday and the Media', Fraternal 197 (Oct. 1981): 17-24.

'Focolare' in The SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality edited by Gordon Wakefield (SCM, 1983)

John Wycliffe: morning star of the Reformation (Marshall, 1984)

The wounded healer, J.B. Phillips (Triangle, 1984)

'J. B. Phillips: Translator', Expository Times 95.10 (1984) 

The Shame and the Sacrifice: The Life and Martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Hodder & Stoughton, 1987)

'A Personal Pilgrimage', Fraternal 217 (1987)

The Biblical Bases of Healing (Arthur James, 1988)

Bonhoeffer's Heritage: The Christian Way in a World without Religion (Hodder & Stoughton, 1989)

‘A Study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Jews, January-April 1933’ in Remembering for the Future Vol.1 edited by Yehuda et al. (Pergamon, 1989)

'Remembrances of the Work to the Religious Affairs Branch 1947-1949', Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte 2.1 (1989)

The fire of love : a life of Igino Giordani 'Foco' 1894-1980 (New City, 1989)

Makers of the English Bible (Lutterworth, 1990)

Living Christianity (Fount, 1990)

'The Attitude of the British Churches to the Reunification of Germany', Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte 3.2 (1990)

Unshakeable Friend: George Bell and the German Churches (CCBI, 1995)

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Selected Writings edited by Edwin Robertson (Fount, 1995)

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Prison Poems of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, translated and edited by Edwin Robertson (Eagle, 1998)

 

Bishop of the Resistance: A Life of Eivind Berggrav, Bishop of Oslo, Norway (2000)

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christmas Sermons translated and edited by Edwin Robertson (2003)

 

'Bonhoeffer and the European Union', Baptist Ministers' Journal 292 (Oct. 2005): 5-8.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Stand at the Door: The Advent Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer edited by Edwin Robertson

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Meditations on Psalms (2005)

British Baptist Theologians 25: Sally Nelson

MTh (Spurgeon's, 1996), PhD (Manchester, 2011)
Confronting ‘meaningless’ suffering: from suffering-as-insult to suffering-as-ontological-impertinence  (PhD, University of Manchester, 2011)

Lecturer in Pastoral Studies, Trinity College, University of Glasgow, 2025-
Dean of Baptist Formation, St Hild College, 2015-2024
Editor, Baptist Ministers' Journal, 2009-
Secretary, Whitley Committee, 2012-2022
Co-editor, Journal of Baptist Theology in Context, 2020-

 

Publications

'Pride and Prejudice', Baptist Ministers' Journal 272 (Oct. 2000): 11-14.

'Pink ballet shoes', Baptist Ministers' Journal 280 (Oct. 2002): 3-6.

‘Medical rites: priestly power in modern healthcare’ Scottish Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy 12.1 (2009): 18-23.

‘Making ethical decisions: dualism and personhood’, Faith and Thought 47 (2009): 26-44.

A thousand crucifixions: the materialist subversion of the church. The 2009 Whitley Lecture (Oxford: Whitley, 2009).

‘Pain and personal transformation’, Faith and Thought, 50 (2011):27-34.

‘Disability and Resurrection’, Faith & Thought 62 (2017)

‘The water buries like a tomb: Baptists and baptism’ in Gathering disciples: Essays in Honor of Christopher J. Ellis edited by Myra Blyth and Andy Goodliff (Pickwick, 2017).

'Lent and dissent: discovering the ‘poor’ in Rhythms of Faithfulness: Essays in Honor of John Colwell edited by Andy Goodliff and Paul Goodliff (Pickwick, 2018).

'Baptism and SEN', Baptist Ministers' Journal 340 (Oct. 2018): 20-27.

'Not staring but gazing: a disability reading of healing in John’s Gospel', Journal of Baptist Theology in Context 1 (2020): 6-20.

'Ministry and Education’ in Ministry in Conversation: Essays in Honour of Paul Goodliff edited by Andy Goodliff and John Colwell (Wipf & Stock, 2022).

‘Baptist Ministerial Formation in Multilogical Space’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 50.1 (Spring 2023).

A tribute to Brian Haymes (from Sean Winter)

Baptists can be a rough bunch: sometimes passionate; not always given to nuance or sophistication; an often strange mix of the deeply conservative and the deeply radical. In the midst of all of the spiritual vitality, ecclesial complexity, and ecumenical obstinacy that marks out much of Baptist life, Brian Haymes, who has died, was class.

 

He was the product of an extraordinary generation of Surrey (Sutton), suburban Baptist upbringing, part of a family related (if I recall correctly) to John Le Carre (whose spy novels betray regular acquaintance with Baptist chapel life). Brian trained for ministry at Bristol Baptist College at a young age (one of Len Champion's 'men') which prepared him for life-long ministry within and for British Baptists. Two things stood at the core of that ministry: the importance of preaching and the need for a constant recovery and ongoing interrogation of what being Baptist actually meant.

 

Brian was a remarkable preacher, perhaps the best I have heard with any regularity, with a voice that somehow managed to convey intelligence, authority, and deep pastoral sensitivity at the same time. There was a tremor, just at the edge of the voice that may well have been cultivated but that held your attention. But what was so compelling was the way that the full weight of his intellectual and communicative gifts were offered in service of conveying the mystery of the gospel in ways that connected it to the deepest complexities of human experience. That is as preaching should be.

 

And Brian was a quiet but consistent advocate for a vision of Baptist identity that, frankly, has helped to keep many of us Baptist over the years and that, again frankly, he came to fear was being lost.

 

He did it all with grace and humility, with a certain patrician elegance and a wry sense of humour. I initially encountered him as a senior leader in Baptist life, sought him out as a mentor, shared membership of the same church for a while, and came to regard him as a friend. In my own journey there are a small handful of people that have been a constant reminder to me of why I remain an ordained Baptist, and Brian was one of them. He was always very clear that the Christian life was a matter of 'seeing in a glass darkly', with much that is mystery and far less than we would want that is certain, but he now sees 'face to face'. Thanks to God for a life that was lived 'worthy of the gospel of Christ.'

On the news that Brian Haymes has died

Brian Haymes (b.1940) was one of the most important English Baptist ministers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. He pastored 4 churches (from 1965 to 2005 in Bristol, Exeter, Nottingham and London), with a period as principal of 2 our Baptist Colleges (Northern and Bristol), and was a President of the Baptist Union (1993). In addition to his written work, both individually and as part of a small writing group, he offered Baptists some wise and important thinking about their identity (see here), which deserves still to be read.

A passionate Baptist (and at the same time a committed ecumenicist) he argued for the importance of a Baptist way of being church, which he felt was in danger of being lost. He saw small glimmers of hope among those that continue to offer theological thought and offer his encouragement. 

Brian's place among Baptists was recognised in 2011 when he was given a festchrift, Questions of Identity, edited by two of his friends Ruth Gouldbourne and Anthony R. Cross, and with many more friends contributing, including Paul Fiddes, Faith Bowers, Alan Kreider, Robert Parkinson, and Sean Winter. The title was play on a small influential booklet called A Question of Identity, which had been a set of talks he had given for the 1986 ministers conference in the Yorkshire Baptist Association. (The booklet was reprinted with a new coda in the Journal of Baptist Theology in Context in 2021.) 

I did not know Brian well, but several years ago he very kindly invited me to his home and offered me books from his library. Many I took were Baptist related, each with his name written inside. He stayed in contact, sending emails of encouragement to press on with the bits of work I was doing.

In the last few months he was working on a manuscript which brought together many of his essays and articles into one place. It will now be published posthumously, and one of the best ways to honour his legacy will be to take the time to hear his voice — bold, clear, coherent — speak to us again.

Baptist Union: Does the Future (Still) Have a Denomination?

Over the last year I've written several pieces that seek to help the Baptist Union as it has faced difficult conversations around ministerial rules and same sex marriage.

The latest piece is for the Baptist Ministers' Journal entitled 'Does the Future (Still) Have a Denomination?' out this month.

It argues for 5 Core Principles that churches, colleges and associations might gather around going forward: Jesus, Scripture, Baptism [and History], Mission, and the Holy Spirit.

Let me know if you would like to read it. 

It is supported in part by an (open-access) article in the Baptist Quarterly: 'English Baptists Confessing the Faith in the Twentieth Century'

and also two other open access articles:

— 'Baptists and the Bible in the Last 100 Years', Journal for Baptist Theology in Context Issue 9 (2023)

— 'The Politics of Disagreement in the Body of Christ', Journal of European Baptist Studies  23.1 (2023)

 

A Sermon for Good Friday

This week I was reading an article. Robert Colls writes about Westoe Methodist church in South Shields where he went as a child and young adult in the 1960s, and which closed in 2022.[1] He reflects on the ‘world within a world’, where a vibrant community life centred around the worship of Jesus took place. He reflects on Sunday mornings for worship and Saturday evenings, his parents dancing, 'where in the break you got a home-made supper that proved the parable of the loaves and the fishes.' He reflects on being part of the Boys Brigade company — 'Silver pips, stripes and badges came and went for all these things, but the cadences of the Bible stayed. They come easy to me now. Best of all, there was lots of football and cricket, although the kit was something else.' Older, he joined the Young People’s Fellowship. 'If you wanted to meet the girls, you had to go church.' He says 'The YPF was important in ways I’m still trying to figure out . . .  Sundays provided the venue. Bible and hymnbook provided the wonder. Local preaching provided the ‘oracy.’ The minister provided leadership, and the books.' He says, ‘Clubs’ and ‘squashes’, ‘fellowships’ and ‘sisterhoods’, ‘Packs’ and ‘leagues’, choirs and Sunday schools, Communion and ‘contact’ groups — the names said it all in a common round that brought people into regular and informal union.' He says, 'we talked about Jesus Christ almost as if he was a member away at university (long hair, at Oxford, probably).' The article is called The Death of the Church. He says the closing of churches ‘leaves a gap in who we are . . . Scanning a screen is not the same as belonging to anything as complex as a church.'

Last Friday, I took the train to Streatham in South London. This is where I group up. We lived in Thornton Heath, but church was Streatham Baptist Church, known by everyone who went as Lewin Road. The church was a second home. Being back in the building — which had a big redevelopment after we moved as a family to Stevenage in 1992 — I could still remember places I sat in a service; where a door and steps down into a small garden area had been; where an outside staircase that went up to the room I went into for Sunday school. The hall was still the same where I attended playgroup as a toddler, and 7ups as a junior aged child. Being in the building also brought to my mind a community of faces, who had been part of the congregation, who had been part of my life, a community of generations, from 0 to 90 — so many names. My life, my faith, owes a lot to that church, in ways I can only recognise now. I could tell a similar story about the church I joined in Stevenage, Bunyan Baptist, in which I spent my teenage years, and early adulthood. There again was a community that loved me, encouraged me, took an interest in me, prayed for me. I can tell another story of the last thirteen years being here, at Belle Vue.

Today is Good Friday, why am I sharing this? Partly because it has been on mind this week, but more importantly it reminds me of the power of the cross. The cross of Jesus is the beginning of the church. From the death of Jesus comes something new. And we see it in the words of Jesus to his mother and the beloved disciple. The last time we met Jesus’ mother was in Cana. Jesus said then ‘My hour has not yet come.’ On the cross his hour has come. If the water into wine was the first sign of Jesus, the cross is the supreme sign [2], to be equalled only by what happens on Sunday morning. The supreme sign of God’s love for the world and for his only Son being given for the salvation of the world.

Ahead of his arrest, Jesus had said, ‘when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.’ Here at the cross he is drawing a new community together. Here on the cross, Jesus is the vine, and he is creating branches which will bear fruit. A new family is born at the cross who share the same blood, the blood of the cross [3] The impact of Jesus’ words, are that the beloved disciple receives this woman as his own. This has been the good news from the beginning. Jesus comes to his own, and to all who receive him, they become children of God, born not of natural descent, but born of God. The community of Jesus — the church is where we are thrown together by Jesus and freed to call these people whom we have no natural affinity, nothing in common, ‘brother’ and ‘sister.’[4]

This is the work of Jesus, the work the Father gave him. This is what Jesus says is now finished, It is the creation of a community of love, a new family of grace and truth, a fellowship centred on abiding, receiving, living. Its source is Jesus, and its power is the cross. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground a dies, says Jesus, It remains only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds.

I was speaking to someone from Lewin Road this week. Someone I’ve not seen in over thirty years. She told me how her family came to the church. A few years later, when she was not even ten years old, her mum died. Afterwards her father struggled to cope. One day she came home from school, to find the police there, her father was having to be committed, and they asked her did she have anywhere to go? (This was the 1960s!) She ended up going to the home of a woman called Lois, by then in her sixties. And later she was fostered by a couple in the church. This young girl was loved, as a daughter, as a sister: from that hour she was received into a home. This was salvation in its fullest sense, a kind of heaven on earth. She went on being welcomed at Lois’ home, and later when she was older, married, and had a child of her own, she would visit Lois with her own daughter. Lois then much frailer, then in her eighties.

That’s the gospel. That’s the power of the cross. That’s why we call Good Friday ‘Good.’ The Good Shepherd lays down his life for us. The Good Shepherd who knows our name. The Good Shepherd who says, ‘here is your son’, ‘here is your mother’, ‘here is your brother’, ‘here is your sister.’

 

[1] Robert Colls, 'The Death of a Church', New Statesman 22-March - 4 April 2024

[2] David Ford, Gospel of John (Baker Academic, 2021)

[3] Timothy Radcliffe, Seven Last Words (Burnes and Oates, 2006)

[4] William Willimon, Thank God's Friday (Abingdon, 2004)

Book Review: Conversations by the Sea: Reflections on Discipleship, Ministry and Mission by Andrew Rollinson

Andrew R. Rollinson, Conversations by the Sea: Reflections on Discipleship, Ministry and Mission (Handsel Press, 2023), 194 pp. £10.00

Reviewed by Rev Dr Paul Goodliff.

This is a wonderfully rich, eminently readable and wise book by one of the most experienced and gifted of Baptist mInisters, Andrew Rollinson. After pastorates in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Edinburgh, Andrew was Ministry Advisor for the Baptist Union of Scotland, overlapping for much of the time with me while I was Head of Ministry at the Baptist Union of Great Britain (which meant we often 'chewed the cud' together on matters ministerial), and finally a fruitful ministry in St Andrews before retirement (although I can hardly imagine Andrew 'retiring'!)

Structured as meditations around John 21, each chapter takes a different scene from that narrative, and takes a look at matters as diverse as discipleship, resourcing a missional community, leadership, unity and failure. This is the accumulated experience and wisdom of half a century of ministry, and we are all the richer for it.

If I take a sample of the voices which speak into this book, you'll see how broad are Andrew's interests and how wide his reading: Colin Gunton (oh, hurrah! and his Bampton Lectures, The One, the Three and the Many to boot,) Bonhoeffer, Eugene Peterson, Michel Foucault and Miroslav Volf. Here is the evidence of a pastor who has continued reading widely throughout his ministry — a vital resource for the feeding of the pastor and an almost absolute necessity for every minister, both in its continuation and its breadth.

It is also a deeply theological book, written by one who has engaged throughout his ministry with the great themes (and writers) of theology. It is by no means a purely pietist meditation on discipleship and ministry, but Andrew does not shy away in embarrassment from the evangelical giants of the spiritual life — Richard Baxter or A W Tozer, for instance — or those from wider traditions, such as Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, or Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy. Here is evidence of a truly ecumenical spirit at work, ready to draw from the treasury of wisdom, wherever its roots may lie.

I found the chapters on leadership and power; ministry starvation and its remedy; ministry failure and restoration and self-awareness and self-deception in ministry of particular significance. I wish every pastor might read them and benefit from them. Their ministries would be safer and richer for it.

I hope that Andrew continues to read and write in retirement for many years, but meanwhile we have Conversations by the Sea: a book that ought to be on the reading list of every newly-ordained minister and minister in formation, and near the top of the list of books that more experienced ministers read in their sabbatical (if not sooner!) in order to feed both mind and soul. This is, in short, one of the best books on ministry and discipleship I have read in many a long year.