andygoodliff

The Judas I never knew

Read this by Kester Brewin at Complex Christ. Very challenging. Judas, like Pilate is an ambiguous character in the passion story, so easy to demonize that they lose their humanity.

I've been spending all my time this week getting ready for Easter Icons, which I organising for Bunyan again this year. Last year's windows on the cross, had a really good response, so I'm hoping this year's will be equally as good. I love the preparation for things like this.

Children and Church (according to Hauerwas again)

    ... Jesus called to himself a child - the essence of one who is powerless, dependent, needy, little, and poor. He placed the child 'in the midst of them,' as a concrete, visible sacrament of how the Kingdom looks. Jesus' act with the child is interesting. In many of our modern, sophisticated congregations, children are often viewed as distractions. We tolerate children only to the extent they promise to become "adults" like us. Adult members sometimes complain they cannot pay attention to the sermon, they cannot listen to the beautiful music, when fidgety children are beside them in the pews. "Send them away," many adults say. Create "Children's Church" so these distracting children can be removed in order that we adults can pay attention.

    Interestingly, Jesus put a child in the centre of his disciples, "in the midst of them," in order to help them pay attention. The child, in Jesus' mind, was not an annoying distraction. The child was a last-ditch effort by God to help the disciples pay attention to the odd nature of God's kingdom. Few acts of Jesus are more radical, countercultural, than his blessing of children.

Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens: A provocative Christian assessment of culture and ministry for people who know that something is wrong, 1989, 96)

Children and Church (according to Hauerwas)

    ... Christians assume, given the practice of baptism, that parenting is the vocatiton of everyone in the church whether they are married or single. Raising children for Christians is part of the church's commitment to hospitality of the stranger, since we believe that the church is sustained by God across generations by witness rather than by ascribed biological destinies. Everyone in the church, therefore, has a parental role whether or not they have biological children.
    For Christians, children are neither the entire responsibility nor the property of parents. Parents are given responsibility for particular children insofar as they pledge faithfully to bring up those children, but the community ultimately stands over against the parents reminding them that children have a standing in the community separate from their parents. Therefore, the ways in which mentally handicapped children are received in such a community should be strikingly different from how they are received in the wider society. For the whole burden of the care of such children does not fall on the parents; rather, the children are seen as gifts to the whole community.

(Stanley Hauerwas, Dispatches from the Front: Theological Engagements with the Secular, 1994, 182)

A Baptist theology?

Recently books written by British Baptists theologians are appearing all over the place, which is good for Baptists like me who are trying to do theology from a Baptist perspective. Three books should definitely read are:

1. Promise and Presence: An Exploration of Sacramental Theology by John Colwell (Paternoster, 2005).
(See also his earlier Living the Christian Story: The Distinctiveness of Christian Ethics (T & T Clark, 2001). John is Tutor in Christian Doctrine and Ethics at Spurgeon's College, London.)

2. Tracks and Traces: Baptist Identity in Church and Theology by Paul Fiddes (Paternoster, 2003).
(See also his earlier Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity (DLT, 2000). Paul is Professor of Systematic Theology at Oxford University and Principal of Regent's Park College, Oxford.)

3. Free Church, Free State: The Positive Baptist Vision by Nigel G. Wright (Paternoster, 2005)
(See also his earlier New Baptists, New Agenda (Paternoster, 2002). Nigel is Principal of Spurgeon's College, London.)

Other books written by Baptists recently are:

Baptist Sacramentalism, by Anthony Cross and Philip Thompson (eds.) (Paternoster, 2003)
Answering God: Towards a theology of intercession by Rob Ellis (Paternoster, 2005 - Rob is a tutor in Christian Doctrine at Regent's Park College, Oxford)
Gathering: A Spirituality and Theology of worship in Free Church Tradition by Chris Ellis (SCM, 2004 - Chris was until recently Principal at Bristol Baptist College)
With Unveiled Face: A Pastoral and Theological Exploration of Shame by Paul Goodliff (DLT, 2005 - Paul is Head of Ministry for the BUGB)
Listening to the Past: The Place of Tradition in Theology by Stephen Holmes (Paternoster, 2002 - Steve is lecturer in theology at St. Andrew's university and formerly a lecturer at King's College London)
Intercessory Prayer: Modern Theology Biblical Teaching and Philosophical Thought by Philip Clements-Jewery (Ashgate, 2005 - Philip is a Baptist minister in Huddersfield)
The Gospel-driven Church: Retrieving Classical Ministries for Contemporary Revivalism by Ian Stackhouse (Paternoster, 2004 - Ian is a Baptist minister in Guildford)

As you can see part of this growth in books published is the willingness of Paternoster Press to publish them. Paternoster have become one of the major and leading publishers of theological works.

Emerging ... What?

You can find my article called 'Emerging ... What? in the March 2006 issue of Ministry Today. It's a short introduction to emerging church which I wrote last summer trying to explain what is the emerging church if you had to try and define it.