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Helen Dare's Whitley Lecture

Helen Dare, who last year completed her PhD on Baptist hermenuetics is delivering the 2014 Whitley Lecture on 'Always on the way and in the fray: Reading the Bible as Baptists'

You can hear it at the following locations:

Monday 24th February at Luther King House, Manchester (see here)

Wednesday 19th March at Spurgeon's College in the morning and Bloomsbury Central Baptist church in the evening

Wednesday 9th April at South Wales Baptist College (see here)

Or in due course get a copy of the lecture, probably via the Baptist Union shop.

Thinking about the Creed with Film

Bryan Stone's Faith and Film (2000) is a study of the Apostle's Creed with film. Each line of the creed discusses a different film(s). Stone demonstrates how the different films can illuminate, or not, Christian theology; that is, he doesn't seek to accomodate theology to film, but instead create a dialogue.

'I believe' = Contact

'God, the Father Almighty' = Oh God!

'Creator of heaven and earth' = 2001: A Space Odyssey

'Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord' = Jesus of Montreal

'Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary' = The Greatest Story Ever Told / The Last Temptation of Christ / The Gospel According to St. Matthew

'Suffered under Pontius Pilate' = Romero

'Was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead' = One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

'On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father' = Phenomenon /  Powder / E.T.

'Will come again to judge the living and the dead' = Flatliners

'I believe in the Holy Spirit' = Star Wars

'The holy catholic church' = The Mission

'The communion of the saints' = Babette's Feast

'The forgiveness of sins' = Dead Man Walking

'The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting' = The Shawshank Redemption

Over a decade on, I wonder what other films might now be equally as helpful or interesting in thinking through the Christian faith with film. I'd like to think there might be better films than Flatliners or Star Wars.

Ten UK Baptist Blogs Worth Following

Lots of Baptists ministers continue to blog. Here's ten I enjoy and who blog fairly regularly, with my description of what you can discover in their contents: 

1. Jim Gordon - delightful and faithful musings from a bibliophile

2. Stuart Blythe - persistent pressing of questions of discipleship, mission and nationalism 

3. Catriona Gorton - mundane and profound thoughts on church and life in the everyday

4. Steve Holmes - theological lines that remind us what theology can offer the church

5. Ruth Gouldbourne - a look inside a Baptist minister's mind

6. Ivan King - food, ministry on a 'edge' - provocative and fun

7. Simon Woodman - posting his sermons from Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church

8. Simon Jones - politics, music and occasional New Testament wonderings

9. Neil Brighton - thoughtful thoughts on how to be a (charismatic) Baptist (in large church) 

10. David Southall - NHS chaplain telling good stories

Stations of the Heart: Parting With a Son

Seven days into the new year and just finished my first book. It was Stations of the Heart: Parting With a Son by Richard Lischer (professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School), which is an account of the final ninety-five days of his son's life having being diagnosed with terminal cancer. A strange book perhaps to start the year with. I read it because death and dying shaped 2013 in a particular way and my life as a minister is never far from being with someone who is approaching death or grieving the loss of a loved one. I read it because I'm wanting to read theological memoir more and more ... Hannah's Child by Stanley Hauerwas, The Pastor by Eugene Peterson, Untying the Knots by Paul Vallely (his biography of the Pope Francis) and Kathryn Spinks' The Miracle, The Message and the Story (her biography of Jean Vanier). Stations of the Heart lays bare the journey of both father and son (and family) towards death and grief. It is though a profoundly faith-full book, as Adam (Richard's son) is a witness of dying well, if dying too soon for a life so young.

Baptist Life 2014: A Year Ahead

Here are some predictions for what might feature within Baptist life for those apart of BUGB in terms of issues and questions.

1. Future of Ministry. Major work is being doing in 2014 around a review of ministry in terms of formation and training and future shapes, including can we sustain 5 Baptist colleges (short answer is likely to be 'no'). The implications of the review will most likely set the direction of ministry for the next generation. What kind of ministers do we need? What kind of ministry can we sustain?

2. Assembly. Will this year see the beginning of the end of the Baptist Assembly as we know it? If yes, will anything replace it or are we seeing the Union become a centralised body? 

3. Associations. Following the Union changes, will we see any renewing of Associations, with regard to their purpose, their governance, their practice? My own view is that Associations are largely disconnected from local churches and that there is a need to restablish the bonds of connectivity and relationship between churches and the 'association' in its institutional form. 

4. Politics. Will 2014 continue to see a renewed engagement with national politics, particularly in the area of welfare and poverty? Will we see some new Baptist 'political' activists?

5. Pioneer Collective. 2014 will be an indicator of whether this has legs, whether it is able to reach and capture the imagination of Baptist Christians, or whether 'pioneer ministry' (small 'm') is a minority sport! 

6. Home Mission. Will we reach the new target? Will we begin to make the hard decisions (now to be made by associations [but who in associations is a question that needs asking]) about what home mission supports and sustains? 

7. BMS. Will we get a clearer sense of what BMS working in the UK will look like? Will Catalyst Live cement itself on the Baptist landscape at least for the next few years? 

8. Same Sex Relationships. Will we see any changes in the ministerial guidance? With an increased number of churches engaging in conversations, what will this mean for the Union? We might want to ask WWSCD (What Will Steve Chalke Do Next?) 

Baptist Life 2013: A Year in Review

2013 saw some big changes amongst British Baptists.

1. New General Secretary. 2013 saw the appointment of the first female General Secretary in Lynn Green. This was seen as a historic appointment and confirmation that the direction of the Baptist Union is one which affirms women in leadership in all parts of Union life. Currently women occupy the three (arguably) most powerful Union positions of General Secretary, the Moderator of Trustees and the Moderator of Council. Dissension from women as leaders both spiritual and practical (the 'and' really shouldn't be there) is now surely in a minority or at least being very silent. The impact of Lynn as General Secretary on the Union will become clear as 2014 unfolds. 

2. New Council. Over the summer of the 2013 the Baptist Union Council went from about 180 people to 80 people, meeting in its new form for the first time in November. Alongside the new Council also is the new Steering Group (made up all the constituent parts of the Union: associations, colleges, Council, trustees and specialist teams), which will take on a larger chunk of Union decision-making, with the Council being more light, a place to listen and to seek vision. A smaller group should potentially be able to do more, however the news that the 2014 Baptist Assembly will be two days and then for the following three years only one day (due to finances and the space to think differently) has implications for balance of power now being concentrated in a much smaller number. One hope had been for a more beefed up Assembly with an emphasis upon deliberation. 

3. New Name (and website). In the autumn, the Union relaunched itself as 'Baptists Together' with new website and magazine. This attempt to emphasize our relationality is to be welcomed, the hard stuff of making it a reality is yet unclear. The decision to reduce future Baptist Assemblies to one-day, at least for an interim, will surely make it harder to for local churches feel like participants.

4. BMS. 2013 saw BMS take new steps to engage in mission within the UK, with the appointment in March of a new UK Field Officer and in November the Catalyst Live events. Over two days in two different locations - Manchester and Reading - BMS hosted a TED-like event, where speakers and contributors were given 20 or 30 minutes to present something. Its success will see it surely repeated in 2014. We are at the beginning of more intentional season of BMS working in different ways within the UK, to resource and support mission, outside of its overseas work.

5. Baptist Pioneers. Towards the end of the year saw the launch of the Pioneer Collective by a group of "pioneer" Baptist ministers (representing Urban Expression, the Incarnate Network, the Light Project and BMS). The five year vision is to see "400 new Baptist pioneers: GOING to where the church isn’t; DOING what Jesus does; and SEEING what happens."

6. Politics. Through the work of the Joint Public Issues Team (Baptist, URC, Methodist), in which we are the junior partner, the free churches have had some substantial political profile especially in the area of the welfare and poverty, following their report in April on truth and lies about poverty.