Riots in England 2011 - thinking about the reaction

A lot of articles have been written trying to come to terms with the recent riots and looting in England (August 2011). Most people I spoke to while it was going on were asking "Why?" 

In fact, just stating the fact that the incidents occurred in England says a lot. Nothing of note happened in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. So there were no sectarian undertones involved. There may initially have been a hint of racial disgruntlement, but this was actually expressed peacefully and was not part of the violence. The attacks were mainly on property, rather than people. People who got hurt were almost invariably protecting property. No organisation, as far as I can tell, played any part in encouraging or organising violence. 

But why? Few of those involved can really give a reason or purpose that anyone else can understand or believe. Many people have attempted explanations based on political agendas. Some point to the withdrawal of community services because of cost cutting, and the social exclusion of the lower classes. Others point to the dismantling of the fabric of society (e.g. the attack on the traditional family) by the "liberal intelligentsia" and the previous socialist government. Others cite the "entitlement culture" which encourages people to feel they should expect to be provided for, whether they work hard or not.

We've heard the offenders spoken of as "feral rats". I've heard people I know rant about them, saying they should be packed off to Afghanistan to see what it's like at the sharp end. Some have ranted that they should be lined up and shot, or that they don't deserve any place in our society.

So there has been widespread condemnation of the rioters and thieves, and a whole lot of finger pointing as we try to understand the reasons. And on top of that there was criticism of the police for not preventing it all.

The Prime Minister spoke of pockets of society being, "not just broken, but sick." In the Daily Mail article by columnist Melanie Phillips (11 August 2011, www.dailymail.co.uk), she begins her lengthy analysis by saying that these events were the, "all-too-predictable outcome of a three-decade liberal experiment which tore up virtually every basic social value." She goes on later to say that, "What has been fuelling all this is not poverty, as has so predictably been claimed, but moral collapse… We are not merely up against feral children, but feral parents." 

She brings her article to a close by saying that, "Repairing this terrible damage also means, dare I say it, a return to the energetic transmission of Biblical morality… When church leaders stop prattling like soft-headed social workers and start preaching, once again, the moral concepts that underlie our civilisation, and when our political leaders decide to oppose the culture war that has been waged against that civilisation rather than supinely acquiescing in its destruction, then - and only then - will we start to get to grips with this terrible problem."

And lest I be misunderstood in what I am about to say, I believe that Melanie Phillips has some very perceptive observations. I too have been concerned through the New Labour years at the attempt to break down the family, but I think if we're honest the rot started a lot further back than 1997. And it wasn't 1979 either, when the socialists say that we all became materialist through the work of the Thatcher government. It was probably also further back than the "permissive society" that boomed in the 1960s (before I was born). 

I also think it is right to track down lawbreakers and see that they face justice - that should go without saying. People who do wrong things should be punished for their wrongdoing.

So what is my take on it all… for what it's worth!?

I tried to think of where Jesus might have focussed his attention. Did He condemn the rioters, fraudsters and thieves of His day? Did He condemn the lone-parent families, the prostitutes and the drunks? Who were His harshest words reserved for?

The conclusion I came to was that Jesus reserved His harshest words for the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious traditionalists, who thought they were above everyone else because they kept the law. They looked down on the tax collectors (fraudsters), prostitutes, the adulterous, the irreligious. They would have been the ones wringing their hands over the collapse of the moral fabric of society. They were morally upright and perfectionist down into the fine detail.

But why did Jesus condemn them? Why did He call them "whitewashed tombs" (Matthew 23:27)? 

Basically it was because they thought they were better than everyone else. They thought that their morality and uprightness made them more acceptable to God than the ordinary Jew, and certainly a cut above the tax collector and sinner. They followed the letter of God's law, and even embellished it, but they did not understand what God's law was all about.

And that's what I think we see today too. We see non-religious Pharisees, the respectable middle-classes, the Daily Mail readers… those who spit blood as they talk about lone parents on benefits, immigrants, youths outside Tesco Express, the language of young people today. We think we are so much better than the looter, the rioter, the inarticulate gangster ("init bruv"!), the heroin addict, the binge drinker, the uneducated. In contrast we are respectable, we are upright, we give to charities, we are on the school PTA, we discipline our children, say 'please' and 'thank you', we don't have too many children and we are polite to our neighbours.

I think it would be just as much a shock now as it was then for the Pharisees to hear Jesus call us sinners, as much sinners as the rioter. Perhaps Melanie Phillips might be shocked (although I don't know her, so I shouldn't personalise my point) to be called a sinner alongside the looter and the liberals and Harriet Harman.

The truth is that Jesus calls us all to repent of our sin, and to turn to Him. If we "return to the energetic transmission of Biblical morality" - and we should - it should be to serve the energetic transmission of the good news of salvation for all sinners. Truly Biblical morality, of the kind that Jesus preached, is the kind that calls us all sinners, all under the judgment of God, and all heading for Hell. But the Christian gospel is the good news that all are called to repentance and faith, and all are offered eternal life through Jesus' death and resurrection.

And I could leave it there. But I think this opens a bit of a can of worms. You see, whilst the Jewish Pharisees of Jesus' day at least believed in God and knew what sin was, we middle-class Pharisees of the 21st Century do not even comprehend the word sin. We do not see why God shouldn't accept us. In our own eyes we are not bad people. I remember many years ago bringing an unbelieving friend along to a Sunday morning church service at which Lindsay Brown (of IFES and Lausanne) was speaking. Lindsay spoke very strongly of the need for repentance. My friend was extremely offended and fumed quietly afterwards that he had no need to repent because he had done nothing wrong. Many of us these days think like that.

So I'm going to spend a few more articles reflecting on Christian belief about sin and morality, how we should talk about it as Christians, and how it contrasts rationally with the non-religious worldviews of 21st Century Britain. I hope and pray that it will be useful.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Fifteen)

Conclusion: Learning and submitting

I can remember learning - but I can't remember where - as a teenager, that actions spring from belief. And it's something that resonated so strongly with me that it has stuck in my consciousness since then. Actions spring from belief. What I believe about things will affect what I do and the way I do it. Or put another way, the way I act is evidence for what I really believe, no matter what I say. Actions speak louder than words, as they say. So I should challenge myself in both directions: Examining my beliefs, how do they affect positively the way I live my life? Examining my actions, are they consistent with what I say I believe? Of course, it's more complicated than that, because we don't know ourselves as well as think we do sometimes. And that's where I often get frustrating inconsistencies in my life, and sin. And that's the way this series about prayer came about, and how it has concluded, but in different ways. 

I think that when I came to James 5:15 last year I knew deep down that God would only grant the requests that He wanted to grant, and therefore there is a possibility that some of our prayer requests are not granted. And therefore I was content (was that rest, though, or resignation? There is a difference, and I confess to oscillating). James 5:15 removed my contentment, because I felt the strain of an apparent inconsistency. "The prayer of faith will make the sick person well." Should I be content? Or should I be holding out for healing for all those sick people that I regularly pray for? Different passages in the Bible appeared to say different things.

But I think that the challenge to put my beliefs into action has become more pressing through the study of the passages I identified. And in rounding off this series I just thought it would be helpful to briefly list all those challenges.

• Ask God boldly for what we need;

• Humbly acknowledge God as our heavenly Father, who knows what is best for us and who loves us, and will give us what is best;

• Pray for what will enable us to glorify our heavenly Father by seeking His kingdom before anything else;

• Pray specifically for the Holy Spirit to fill us more and more.

• Prayer requests are not granted to those who have no faith.

• Conversely, if we have faith in God then we must have boldness to pray for big things as well as small.

• Faithful prayer involves perseverance.

• Praying in Jesus' name means having the glory of God at the heart of all we desire.

• Praying in Jesus' name means acknowledging that we are only able to come to God in prayer through Jesus' death and resurrection.

• Praying in Jesus' name means asking for God to work in our lives to enable us to do the work He has given us - namely, bearing fruit in good works and sharing the gospel with other people.

• Be assured that God is ready to help us as we work for His glory and the coming of His kingdom.

• Don't pray for our own pleasure and self-satisfaction. Pray with God-centred motives and for God-centred motives.

• We see more of our prayer requests granted when we know we pray for things that God wants, as revealed in His Word, and as we understand and align our lives with that more deeply.

• Praying according to God's will means knowing the Bible.

• Praying according to God's will means accepting and rejoicing that God has the final decision in the answer to my prayers.

• Praying with the church is an important and special privilege, giving us even deeper access to the presence of Christ.

• Don't shy away from praying for big and amazing things, not least the raising of a dead soul to life to receive salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Our faith when we pray should be based on our knowledge of God and His promises in His Word, not on our past experiences of answered prayer.

• Praying with righteousness, repentance and confession, in the community of the church, will result in healing… but the full extent of that healing may have to wait until Jesus' second coming.

• Just keeping praying and don't give up.

And of course, those are just the things we learnt about prayer. I'm sure that we also learned a lot of other things as well, such as the importance of caring for the weak and those in the margins of the church, such as the way God assures us of His work in us, and many other things.

One of the things I pray for is that I may never lose sight of all that I've learnt through these studies. 

It is quite moving for me to realise that when I started studying these passages I was just approaching the end of my course of chemotherapy. As I come to the end of this series of blog articles, just over a year later, I am fully fit and have been back in work for six weeks. The Lord has been very gracious to me. Not only have I been "raised up" from my illness, which is amazing enough on its own. But I have felt the warmth of His love through the church. And I've been given the time to study and benefit from His Word, and to share His Word with other people. 

Apart from to urge us once again to never neglect persevering and faithful prayer, my final point is this: God uses our questions and confusions, weaknesses and doubts, to teach us huge amounts more than we ever expect, if we turn to His Word with faith.

It started, if you remember, with simply reading the Bible. Literally, just reading. How many of us miss out on learning all these big things about God and His infinite love for us simply because we don't simply read the Bible?

And then I allowed myself to ask an honest question. My reading led me to some confusion, and into asking questions. And I turned to God's Word to get the answers to those questions.

And all that learning about prayer, and the other things as well, stemmed from that one simple honest question, "Does God guarantee I will be healed if I pray for healing?" It started with weakness and doubt, and the result was a superabundance of encouragement.

I am certain that the Lord will do the same with your weaknesses and doubts, whatever they are. Read the Bible. Allow yourself to ask questions. And turn to the Bible to find the answers. Act on the answers. And the Lord will provide you with an overflowing amount of learning and encouragement.

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:9-11)

May God bless us and glorify Himself in us.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Twelve)

Part Twelve - Pray with the Gathered Church

So, where next in our tour? It started with a question from a passage in James, which expanded into studying a number of New Testament passages that make bold statements about prayer and faith. There are three more left to share with you.

This time, God willing, I would like to share my thoughts on Matthew 18:19-20, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

So, God will grant anything we ask if we come to him with a united request with at least one other person? That would seem to include every public prayer that we say "Amen!" to in a prayer meeting, or in church, or with our kids at bedtime. But is Jesus really making such a general and sweeping watertight promise?

We find in this case that the context is critical in understanding the scope of what Jesus is saying in these verses. We need to look at the whole of chapter 18 of Matthew, and see that Jesus is teaching here about the way that we should treat people within the church, and in particular the way that we should be disciplined and guided to follow Christ.

In verses 1 to 4, Jesus is asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He replies by calling a little child among them as an illustration of the kind of humility required in the kingdom. "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (v3) We are to have a humble, learning, attitude, knowing our weakness and our need of help and instruction. We are not to go around using our standing in the church to lord it over others, thinking that we are better or wiser or more holy than others. A patronising, judgmental spirit has no place in the church, and those who display such attitudes will have no place in the kingdom of heaven.

In verses 5 and 6, Jesus pushes further to tell us what our attitude to the humble and weak should be. He says, "whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." If we welcome among us those who humbly accept their need to change, their need of forgiveness, their need to know Christ more, then we welcome Christ. And if we are humble ourselves likewise as little children, we will see that we, in Christ, are here to help each other. And Jesus condemns those who through their actions cause any believer to sin, including those arrogant people who call themselves Christians but who place burdens on the weak and cause them to fall away.

This context, in fact, gives more weight to the familiar saying in verses 8 and 9, "If you hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell." The weight comes from the way Jesus introduces this in verse 7: "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!" It appears to me that when Jesus speaks of hands, feet and eyes that cause sin, he is first of all talking about people. He has been talking about the acceptance of humble people within the church, and he goes on to talk about our treatment of them in verse 10. Hence, I think primarily Jesus is asking us to be careful who we keep within the church. If people cause ordinary, weak and humble, genuine believers to sin, to give up or to fall away, then they should be cut out of the church. People and attitudes, for instance, that turn people away from Christ because they do not feel good enough to get into heaven, are absolutely not to be tolerated. Of course, the individualistic and personal way in which we normally see these verses is not wrong. Jesus is saying that we ought to take all sin seriously and eliminate from our lives as well as our churches those things that cause people, even ourselves, to sin, even if it causes us temporary disadvantage.

In verses 10 to 14, Jesus switches from negative to positive reinforcement of his point. We should not look down on other believers ("these little ones") because they are personally known and cared for by God the Father. In fact he is happier when one of these is brought back and nurtured than about ninety-nine who do no get lost in the first place. "… your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." (v14) If He cares for all of His children, even the meekest, weakest and humblest, then so should we. We should go after them, protect them, care for them, ensure that they are well taught and that they grow in their knowledge of Jesus. We are not to play percentages, as if keeping the majority is the best strategy. No, expending disproportionate time and effort to hold on to the weakest and the most problematic is what we are to do.

Verses 15 to 18 give an example of a disciplinary process, which both builds up the weak and weeds out the proud. In the case where one of our brothers or sisters wrongs us we are to show them their fault. This aims at helping them to grow and change in the way that we all have to. "If he listens to you, you have won your brother over." (v15) Winning him is our aim. If he doesn't listen we should get one or two others to back us up, so that he knows that it is not just a matter of opinion. After that we should take it before the church, by which I think Jesus means the elders of the church, rather than the whole congregation. If the person still does not listen then they have proven themselves to be too proud to listen and change, and therefore they are not showing the humility required of a believer, and they should be put out. "Treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." (v17) In our day, perhaps we'd say, "treat them as you would an atheist or a drug dealer." In other words, they cannot be part of the church until they show repentance.

The point isn't a one-size-fits-all disciplinary policy. The point is that our first priority should be winning our brother, but also that the church should be kept pure.

Verse 18 is what gives the church, in particular the eldership, the responsibility and authority to make these judgments. "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." When the church makes a judgment in line with God's will, as revealed and correctly understood from His Word, that judgment is binding in heaven as well as on earth. God will back it up.

And that is what gives the immediate context for the verses we are particularly interested in. "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For when two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (vv19-20) Why does the church have authority and responsibility with regard to discipline? Because Jesus gives them this authority. Because when we gather together as the church He is with us.

But it is not just worldly authority. It is only authoritative and binding in a heavenly sense if it is done "in my name" (v20). We've discussed those three important words before in this series (Parts 6, 7 and 8). In that sense, the church is only authorised to teach, discipline and pray within what God has revealed through His Word. We have authority in the church only because Jesus meets with us in the church. He is present with us as we make these judgments and ask for His blessing in doing His work. In other words, the authority of the church is always under the authority of Jesus, in doing the work of Jesus. And we find Jesus' teaching in the Bible.

Nevertheless, whilst the context shows that this is not an open-ended promise to guarantee anything we want, it is a great comfort to us that we when we come together and submit to Christ and His Word He is there with us, hearing us, supporting us.

So what shall we take away from this study to encourage us in prayer?

First, that Jesus is with us in a special way when we meet together in His name. When we meet with childlike humility, seeking to honour Him, seeking to learn from Him how we can best serve Him in pursuing His kingdom, He is present with us to grant our requests according to His will. He will give us the help that we need. What a great assurance that is.

Second, that we should not neglect the assembly of Christian brothers and sisters, signifying our submission to Him. He has given us the gift of the church, brought us into it, for our good, for our growth in knowledge and holiness, for the pursuit of His kingdom. Within the church we are built up and edified. Within the church we are corrected and nurtured. Within the church we meet with Christ.

We can and should pray privately, following the example of the likes of David, Daniel, Moses, Paul and the apostles and prophets. But we should all the more pray with the gathered church as we seek to support each other humbly in doing God's will and preaching the good news of His kingdom.

To finish with a quote from John Calvin (emphasis is mine):

"There is therefore no reason to doubt that those who give themselves up to his direction will derive most desirable advantage from his presence. And since it is an invaluable blessing to have Christ for our director in all our affairs, to bless our deliberations and their results; and since, on the other hand, nothing can be more miserable than to be deprived of his grace, this promise ought to add no small excitement to us to unite with each other in piety and holiness. For whoever either disregards the holy assemblies, or separates himself from brethren, and takes little interest in the cultivation of unity, by this alone makes it evident that he sets no value on the presence of Christ." (Commentary on Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. 2.)

Thank God for the Church

I wanted to write an article that expresses my feelings of gratitude and praise for the church I belong to with my family - St Mary's, Eastrop, Basingstoke. But I wanted to do that in a way that glorifies God and encourages all Christians to see in some measure the true value and glory of the wider church in general. So I first of all want to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow members of St Mary's. But my encouragement to other Christians is that you should see the great blessing of belonging to a church, as well as attending.

It is more than 18 years since I first moved to Basingstoke and came to St Mary's. I found the welcome there to be warm and was drawn in, as a young single Christian man, to the fellowship. I got involved in leading the music in the services, and in leading services, preaching, teaching at housegroups, evangelism, and in helping with some of the teaching and activities for young people. But my involvement has varied over time, and certainly has been much less since we had kids. I met my wife at St Mary's, was married at St Mary's, and had all my four children baptised as infants at St Mary's. And things have changed subtly and matured over time. Clive Hawkins is still the rector, but curates, associate pastors, ministry trainees, youth workers, housegroup leaders have come and gone. The "new building" is no longer new! And our styles of worship, our evangelistic activities and other regular activities have evolved.

But, over the past four or five years, and especially in the last year, I have really experienced first hand St Mary's as a Christian community. I really can't tell you all the ways we have needed help, counselling and support as a family. But I can say that we would not have got through the past few years without the church.

The most overwhelming example has been this year. I was taken ill and rushed to hospital on Christmas Day, and I stayed there until the middle of February. I was diagnosed with cancer and started having chemotherapy during that time.

Heidi and the kids were well supported by church members while I was in hospital. They had a rota going whereby meals would be delivered to them every day, so that Heidi did not have the worry of having to do that.

I was visited in hospital, not just by Clive and other leaders, but by quite a few members of the church. Being in hospital can be boring, apart from the unpleasantness of illness, so just having people come to chat was great.

Since I came home, and have not been able to work while going through the chemotherapy treatment, things have been tough financially. And whilst it is true that most of the financial support that has kept us from going deeper into debt in the last few months has come from state benefits, we have also been humbled by the generous and spontaneous donations of Christian brothers and sisters both at St Mary's and beyond. Some gifts have been anonymous, some direct. We have not asked for anything, and yet people have seen our need and given generously. Without those gifts we would be seriously struggling.

One Christian friend left some cash in our house without telling us after visiting one day. When we sent a text message later on to ask if it was their cash, the response we got back was simply, "Acts 4:34". This verse is from a passage that speaks of how the early church ensured that there was "not a needy person among them" because they shared their possessions. This brought a tear to my eye, not only with gratitude, but because it was clear that their generosity was not just because we were friends. This was a gift following the example of love in the early church, and in response to the love of Christ who "was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Church members have also helped us out with a variety of jobs that I didn't have the energy or strength for.

And we have been constantly upheld in prayer. This is something that I cannot fully grasp. People at St Mary's have mentioned us to the only God, the Creator of the Universe, in their prayers! There are so many other things to pray about and pray for, and yet they pray for us. But it doesn't just stop at St Mary's, or in England for that matter. I am aware of brothers and sisters praying for us privately and in churches around my own country, and in Canada, the USA and India - people I don't even know!

I should say that we have received a lot of help from other people outside St Mary's and outside of the wider church as well, including some of our unbelieving friends and family, which really is equally appreciated. If they are reading this I do not want them to feel that I think less of their help and their gifts than those of Christians. I am not trying to say that Christians are more caring than anyone else. And I am not trying to say that people at St Mary's are more loving than other people. The Lord indeed provides for His people through many divers means - but that is something to write about another time!

I am only trying to say that church is much more than a Sunday thing, and we have experienced that over the last few years for us, both through St Mary's and through the wider church around the world. You see, the way that love, support and care works, in this context at least, sets church apart from, say, the help received from a charity or a social club, or from close friends and family. We have been treated with generosity in many cases spontaneously and without direction from the church leadership, so it's not a formal organisational thing. We have also received help and been offered help from people within the church that we don't even know very well. These are not necessarily our close friends at church who are helping us out. People want to help because Jesus Christ has loved them, and they want to share that love as he commanded.

I was reflecting on this. And I was thinking how little teaching the Bible contains on the things we normally associate with church - church buildings, church government, church meetings, church music. When the New Testament speaks about church it has much more to say about relationships as a group of people. In fact, it fundamentally addresses us as a church and not as individuals. It's what John Frame calls "one-anothering" in one of his books that I'm reading at the moment (Salvation Belongs to the LORD, P&R Books, 2006).

Peter says, in 1 Peter 2:9-10, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God's] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people…"

Paul, in Ephesians 4, speaks of the church as "the body of Christ" (v12). And he says that the reason God gave apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists was, "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…"

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12, again uses the analogy of Christ's body to describe the church, where, "there are many parts, yet one body." (v20) His thrust is that different people in the church have different gifts and talents, and therefore different roles, but we all need each other.

But after talking very practically about everyone having different gifts and needing each other, and the fact that it is good to desire the higher gifts, Paul says, "and I will show you a still more excellent way." (1 Corinthians 12:31) He then goes on, in the well-known passage in chapter 13, to say that exercising these gifts with love is more important than anything else. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (13:1-3)

And that reminded me of what Jesus said in John 13:35, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples…" What did he say next? If you have a great choir and sing nicely every week? If you read your Bible and pray every day? If you wear an ichthus, fish, badge at work? If you refrain from swearing and getting drunk? If you give up every Sunday to meet with Christians and hear preaching from the Bible? None of these things are bad. Some are very good and essential. But they are not what Jesus said. Jesus said, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

John expands on that in his first letter: "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." (1 John 3:16-18)

Love within the church community, and love for those outside the church, is to be the main defining mark of our Christianity and our churches. And that's what I have experienced in St Mary's, Eastrop, Basingstoke, whatever our faults and foibles in all sorts of other areas. And that's why I thank God for St Mary's and for his grace towards me through the church there and the wider church. And I want to encourage all my brothers and sisters to keep on loving, because in your love God is working His love through you.

But I also wanted to share this for the sake of some of my friends and family, who would call themselves Christians and have a strong belief in Jesus Christ, and yet are not members of a church. They have a variety of reasons. Some don't think it's important. Some haven't made a huge effort to find a church to go to, and say they can't find one. Some are put off by superficiality in Sunday services. Some are shy. Some didn't like the last church they went to and have been put off. Some are simply chickening out.

I don't judge anyone. But my heart aches for them, whatever their reasons, because they are cutting themselves off from one of the main channels of God's love for them. ¬¬I do also believe that God commands us to meet together as Christians, and to align ourselves with other Christians publicly by belonging to a visible church. And therefore staying away from church whilst wanting to call yourself a Christian is sinful. However, my main concern is that without the support of the church they will fail to grow and will eventually fall away from Christ altogether.

There are, however, at least two objections that these Christian non-church people might throw at me for my audacity:

First, the concept of church in the Bible encompasses both a visible church and an invisible church. All believers, those who have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and their eternal life, are part of the invisible church. We don't get a choice. We are all automatically part of it by God's choosing of us before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and then his calling us into it (1 Peter 2:9). Therefore, they might argue that they are already part of the church, Christ's body, and they don't need to actually go to church on Sunday or belong to a church in this life.

But this overlooks at least two things.

It overlooks that the New Testament never speaks to anyone outside the visible church. The gospels and the letters were written to people who had relationships with other Christians in churches - good or bad. We are told to love one another visibly and obviously so that people will know that we follow Christ. How can we display that love for one another if we do not do it in the context of a visible church? If New Testament Christians had issues with other Christians they were never given the option of ostracising themselves and acting as an independent, lone believer. They were taught how to act, speak, learn, grow, submit, love, care, build up, edify, in the context of the church.

More importantly it also overlooks the fact that the invisible church doctrine was conceived in order to highlight a particular truth, and not to minimise the importance of physically belonging to a church in this life. The invisible church concept is important when we consider that Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" (Matthew 7:21-23) So Jesus knew that there would be some in the visible church whom we would think are genuine believers, but he would know them to be "workers of lawlessness". He also said, "I know my own and my own know me." (John 10:14) So whilst the visible church may be a mixture of true Christians, the deluded and the "wolves in sheep's clothing", we can be sure that, "the Lord knows those who are his" (2 Timothy 2:19).

Second, they may say that they just don't get anything out of the meetings at the local churches. They may say that they publicly confess that they are Christians, and are part of the wider church because they have ad hoc fellowship with other Christians. And I may have been misunderstood earlier as saying that meeting together on Sundays is not important, because the main thing about church is the relationships and not the meetings.

However, the thing about the meetings is that these are the focal point. We meet on a Sunday to worship God, to hear His Word, to pray to Him and to sing praises to Him, to visibly show that as a group of people this is what we are all about. "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people." (1 Peter 2:10) God's people, not just a random group of people. God's people, not a networking group or a therapy group or a commune. Our purpose is to, "proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvellous light." (v9) And when we meet and do what we do, we say to the world, "we are God's people and we proclaim His excellencies, we rely on Him, we trust Him, we learn from Him, we praise Him. He is our God, and Jesus Christ is our Saviour!"

It's also an expression of love for each other, because in our meetings we build each other up and encourage one another through Bible teaching and through prayer. So if we treat Sunday services with apathy or lack of commitment we are effectively saying that we don't care about our brothers and sisters - we can't be bothered. Christianity without meeting with other Christians is all about what we can get out of God directly, whilst refusing to be His means of helping, loving and caring for our brothers and sisters in Christ. The church is one of the main means that He uses to help His people, and yet we both refuse that channel for ourselves, and refuse to be part of that channel for others, if we refuse to be part of a church. We want help from Him directly - in the way we determine, rather than the way He reveals. In short it's self-centred rather than God-centred, and is therefore not true Christianity.

I have gone on long enough. I hope you see why I thank God for the church - my own local church at St Mary's and the wider church - especially in my time of need. And I hope that if you are reading this as a Christian you will place importance on the church, and give yourself to it. And I pray that as we give ourselves first to God, and then to each other, we may visibly demonstrate the love of Christ and thereby commend the gospel to the watching world.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Why Does God Answer Other People's Prayers and Not Mine?!

Here's something I started to learn in my last big gap between jobs. It has since been reinforced, but I think it will be many years before it finally sinks in.

I can't remember how many months I had been without paid work. It could have been three or four. I was starting to feel very anxious every day. I knew it was not right to worry so much, but the daily decisions over what to do to market myself and generate leads were starting to overwhelm me. I was worrying that the money was going to run out in a few months, and then we would have to sell the car, then sell the house, etc.

I was praying specifically at the time for myself, that the Lord would help me to trust completely in Him, that He would enable me not to worry. I prayed that I would just be able to focus on each day's requirements, and that my mind would be settled regarding the future. But the Lord denied me that peace.

In our church we have small groups, called housegroups, where we meet midweek every other week to study the Bible, pray and encourage each other. For some reason normally, even in these groups, I have found people are reticent to share things for prayer about themselves that are close to their heart. They deflect, asking for prayer for their neighbour's son who fell off his bike, or their work colleague whose wife had an affair. Sometimes these concerns are genuine, and it's certainly right to pray for them. But I know, confessing for myself, that sometimes these prayer requests are designed to deflect away from asking for anything for ourselves. I don't know why! Perhaps we don't like people getting to know us too deeply. Perhaps we like people to thing our lives are a bit more together than they really are.

But for a while the housegroup I attend we managed to buck that trend. I won't say that we all completely opened up to each other, but there has certainly been more sharing of more personal and sensitive stuff. During this time, I shared my anxiety about the job situation. I said that most of the time I cover up the fact that I am worried. I am blessed with the ability to appear calm even when I am pretty stressed! And the group prayed for me, amongst others, in the meeting, and continued to pray specifically in their own personal prayer times.

A couple of weeks later I remarked to someone that I had been blessed with a remarkable peace about my work and financial situation. Nothing else had changed. I was still out of work. There were no more prospects. I was still facing financial ruin in a matter of months. But I had been able to put the worries of the future out of mind and focus on the day's requirements each day.

And I traced this peace back to the specific prayers of the members of my housegroup. Praise God for answered prayer!... BUT…

… I had been praying the same for myself for weeks before. Why did God answer the prayers of other people for me positively, but not my own?

Some Christians would mistakenly assume that it has something to do with my faith. Perhaps I didn't pray with faith, but my friends did. I have always marveled that people jump to that conclusion so quickly. It is really quite uncharitable, and not warranted.

The conclusion I came to was that God often is pleased to use the prayers of others for us, rather than our own prayers, for several reasons. Here are two:

First, so that we don't start to think it is our prayers that are effective in getting God's action. If God answered all our own prayers for ourselves, we might start to use prayer as a kind of magic spell, under our control and for our own use. We have to realize that when we pray we are asking the Almighty God to act on our behalf. It is His power that is effective in answered prayer. Another way of putting it is to say that we should not talk about the "power of prayer", but the power of God in graciously acting in response to prayer. Prayer is not powerful. God is. (In fact, isn't it the very weakness of prayer that displays the power of God when He answers!)

Second, so that we are encouraged to bond as a community and care for each other. As we share our burdens, God uses the church community to bring us grace and help. God has arranged things so that, as Christians, we are called into a new community - the church. We relate to God directly, through Christ, as individuals, yes. But God's will is that those individuals knit together to form a new community.

The apostle Peter said, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God… Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God." (1 Peter 1:9-10)

Paul says, "you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God's people and members of God's household." (Eph 2:19) He refers to Christians as a "building [that] is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord." (Eph 2:21) In Ephesians 4, he speaks of the church as the "body of Christ" (v12), and explains how this works, "speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (vv15-16).

God works through the church, not normally through individual Christians. We need each other.

I have to say that I have never neglected going to church for any significant period of my life, although there have been times when I have contributed more in terms of service and ministry. But this experience made me realize that I had never really appreciated how much I need the church. Sometimes we Christians spend much of our time complaining about our local church, looking down on our brothers and sisters, criticizing the pastor, getting fed up with the musicians, and so on. But we need each other. God has ordained it so that we cannot grow without each other.

There is much more that can be said on this. However, I will simply refer you to a chapter in Tim Chester's book, You Can Change, that I found helpful on these points about the place of the church in our growth as Christians.

From learning these things, I have made a couple of practical changes that I thought I would share with you. First, I now try to make sure that I pray for others more than I pray for myself. And I tend to ask people more what I can pray for them. Second, I see writing these blog posts as more important, because in them I can, with God's blessing, help to build up the church. So I will continue blogging my reflections as much as I can, with the prayer that each post will do just that, for the glory and praise of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.