The ghoul who is ambivalent about Battenberg cake

I always feel uneasy going to shop closing down sales. Last month I was profoundly affected by the closure of Borders in Inverness. As I walked amongst the emptying shelves clothed by the merest fig leaves of 90% off signs I felt like a ghoul on a night out.

Yesterday my graveyard excursion was to Wesley Owen, Inverness. I was not one of their best customers but I must say, in mitigation, that their products did not really line up with my needs. I am not really a Joel Osteen fan, I think his teeth intimidate me and serve to feed several of my neurosis. Hillsongs CDs really are the evangelical equivalent of Battenberg cakes. Allow me a brief excursus on Battenbergs – far too sweet, I never eat the marzipan, quite enjoy the sponge but only ever take one slice. Hillsongs, I can cope with one song at a time but spare me the DVD, Abba baptized.

So, back to Wesley Owen. I bought two books. The first was Mr Hill’s Big Picture by John Fowler. First impressions are mixed. Some interesting little cameos of Disruption characters like Hugh Miller and Thomas Chalmers stood out as promising some light reading. I loved one description of Chalmers, ‘broad leonine countenance, that beaming liberal smile.’ I think I would like both of these things! John Fowler buys into the whole ‘present day Free Church is miserable’ idea, he describes the Presbytery hall located in the Free Church offices as ‘a room of astonishing elegance considering its dour immediate surroundings.’ Does he not know that dour is the new exuberant?

My other purchase was The Doctrines of Grace by James Montgomery Boice and Philip Ryken. This is simply a great book. It was the last book to be written by Boice, written actually in the last six weeks of his life when he knew the situation was terminal. The book essentially outlines the doctrines of grace and is built on the thesis that a robust Calvinism is good for the church and when it is abandoned it generally leads to liberalism. I agree with this totally. I worry that we have drifted into a faux conservatism which is more sociologically driven than theologically. There is a particularly useful section on the doctrine of reprobation. I did not realize that Boice was a hymn writer, and such a good one too.

This ghoul left the shop with his two purchases and went to Starbucks, Eastgate Mall …… it’s just not the same!

Will we need crash helmets in Smithton tomorrow?

It is Saturday evening and I am thinking and praying about our services in Smithton tomorrow. I am not the most spiritual man on earth but more than anything I am praying that our people will be given a glimpse of the majesty of God and will be struck with awe and wonder at the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. I hope that we will experience the presence of the Holy Spirit as we meet together to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, pray and hear the word of God Himself.

Will we climb out of our beds and stumble along to “just another service”? No, we cannot do that. Tomorrow morning at 9.30 and 11:00 and 19:30 we will meet with the living God. This could be a bumpy ride as we see our sin and then see His holiness.

I don’t expect our people to have a sleepless night, just like their childhood Christmas Eves when they could not sleep in anticipation of great gifts. I do wish that we will all be on the very edge of our seats as heaven breaks into earth and our little, plain building is turned into the gate of heaven.

I am thinking of the words of Annie Dillard.

‘On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does any-one have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? ….. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return." (Teaching a Stone to Talk, Harper & Row, 1982)’

I am also thinking of my favourite modern day prophet, David Wells who wrote, ‘The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, his grace is too ordinary, his judgment is too benign, his gospel is too easy, and his Christ is too common.’ (God in the Wasteland, IVP, 1994)

Smithton New Year's Eve Service cancelled.

The annual New Year's Eve Service due to be held at Smithton tomorrow evening at 23.15 has been cancelled due to uncertain weather conditions and certain voice problems.

We wish all our friends a very happy and blessed new year.

Reformissional Scotland

Church planting seems to be the 'in thing' and certainly God is blessing it across the world as He has always done.

I started my career as a church planter and can recommend the experience to anyone.

Church planting is not really on the agenda of Scottish churches these days but there are some exceptions. I don't want to blow the trumpet of the Free Church (ordination vows forbid that anyway) but Neil MacMillan and others have been working on some very exciting ideas which have been taken on board by our Home Missions Board. The next year will be critical in how and if these plans can be executed. Will we be the Highlander's Institute at prayer or a national Church?

Meanwhile a group of guys have just got on with it! Reformissional Scotland is a group of gospel driven, evangelistically motivated and theologically solid people who have started to church plant in Edinburgh. .

I offer Reformissional Scotland for your prayers.

Check out the new website http://www.reformissionscotland.com/

Uniformity, some American dudes and a tantalising prospect

Many of you will be aware that the Free Church of Scotland is engaging in a discussion about forms of worship at the moment. A number of us were asked to submit papers and I was allocated ‘uniformity of worship’. It is my understanding that all the papers will appear on our website at some point. The papers have already been circulated to Kirk Sessions and Presbyteries.

The contributors have so far enjoyed the process and the interaction has been marked by mutual respect and graciousness.

I offer the last 2 paragraphs of my paper for your perusal!

Orthodox Presbyterian Church

There are lessons to be learned from the experience of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in the USA. The OPC was founded in 1936; it was led by J Gresham Machen who left the liberal PCUSA. The issue of worship was not dealt with in the first ten years of the denomination’s history; matters such as premillennialism, dispensationalism, Christian liberty and principles of international mission dominated their agenda. The denomination had inherited the hymnal of the PCUSA but in 1943 the General Assembly agreed to erect a committee to "present to the eleventh General Assembly a preliminary plan for a hymnal of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church."

When the report came to the eleventh General Assembly it was clear that the issues were more complex than first envisaged. It was recommended that there be two hymn books, a larger and a smaller one for more general use. It was suggested that the larger hymnal consist of 85% Hymns and 15% Psalms and that not all of the 150 Psalms be included. The outcome was that, following a motion by Prof John Murray, the denomination take an opportunity for a diligent study of the biblical data regarding worship.

The Report was presented to the Thirteenth General Assembly which met at Westminster Seminary, PA, in 1946. It is not surprising that two reports emerged from this process reflecting the two views within the denomination. There was a majority report which concluded that hymns were both Biblical and also within the parameters of their Confessional framework and a minority report sponsored by John Murray which argued for an exclusive Psalmody position. An interesting feature of the report was that there was a large measure of agreement on the regulative principle; the disagreement was on the application of that principle.

One of the outcomes of that debate was that the OPC have liberty on the matter of materials of praise with some congregations opting for an exclusive psalmody position and others for hymns and music. It is my understanding that currently about 10% of congregations are Psalm singing.

The OPC and other American experiences also raise the matter of how many Psalms ought to be included in a hymn book. There is no doubt in my mind that all 150 ought to be included. If we are looking for points of agreement one would certainly be that whilst there may be a debate about exclusive Psalmody, there is no question that exclusive hymnody is quite simply wrong. In recent years there has been a revival of interest in Psalm singing which is reflected in new hymn books like Praise which includes all 150 Psalms.

It is encouraging to note that here we have a conservative denomination which shares the same confessional standards as the Free Church of Scotland, including the principle of uniformity of worship, which has agreed to disagree.

In the OPC we have a helpful model to follow.

A word on greater unity

It would be wrong not to at least add a paragraph on one tantalising possibility. The Presbyterian Church in Scotland is experiencing turmoil and change following the decision in the Church of Scotland regarding the ordination of a practicing homosexual minister. The matter of wider Presbyterian unity has been discussed elsewhere by a former Free Church of Scotland moderator in some detail.

If the issue of worship were to be the sole ‘deal breaker’ in a realignment with other likeminded brethren in Scotland would we consider a change? If the Free Church were to be enlarged in such a way, would we accept a uniformity of worship which would include hymns and music?

If the only thing stopping a national Presbyterian Church is a form of worship, would you be prepared to give way on this? I hold to the same position as the late Rev Hector Cameron of Killearnan who wrote, ‘It is of course a Biblical axiom that the various laws which are imposed upon us by God differ from one another in relative dignity and importance, and that, wherever a conflict may occur, the law which lies lower down on the scale must yield precedence to the one higher up ……… with that I mind ….. the presumed obligation to use only inspired materials of praise, unaccompanied by instruments ….. may not on occasion be suspended, in the interests let us say of promoting the communion of saints, or to satisfy some other sufficiently pressing dictate of love in the context of inter-church relations.’ 1.

Conclusion

It is my hope that this paper, along with others will facilitate a robust but gracious debate.

I hope that we will get a perspective on our own denomination that will enable us to see that we really are united on the issues which do matter. If we are not agreed on whether it is wrong to sing about Jesus with all the clarity of new covenant revelation and employ the God given gift of music in His praise, we are agreed that we glory in the cross and not in the flesh.
[1]Hold Fast Your Confession, Ed. D Macleod, Knox Press, Edinburgh, 1978 p. 126)

I wanna cough like Archie

I have just read a new book, let me tell you about it. The title is not all that snappy; it’s One of Heaven’s Jewels: Rev Archibald Cook of Daviot and the (Free) North Church, Inverness, by Norman Campbell.

It is an account of one the most famous ministers of nineteenth century highland conservative Presbyterianism, Archibald Cook of Daviot. My interest in the subject emerges from two different streams. The first stream is historical. Our congregation is reasonably new; it really has been going for about 30 years and is located in an area which has only had significant housing for the last 40 years. Smithton-Culloden Free Church was planted by the local Presbytery but the mother church was the Free North Church in Inverness town centre. Archibald Cook was the first minister of the Free North and so in a sense he was one of the founders of my own congregation. Many of the spiritually minded people in our own congregation have often spoken of a sense of being sustained by the hopes and prayers of men and women of long ago. The church to which I am privileged to minister, like most others, is not a historical island but one which is located in a flow of covenanted prayers over many generations.

The second stream is personal. I spent my formative teenage years in the island of Skye, I became a member in Snizort Free Church in 1976. Snizort was an unusual congregation. It was dominated, even in the 1970’s by a very famous minister, Rev Roderick Macleod, who was a spiritual giant and had witnessed a powerful revival at Snizort. The Free Church in Skye has a very different ethos to that of Lewis, one of the differences is that it is influenced much more by Free Presbyterianism and Snizort certainly had that stamp. I am thankful for that early influence in my life and the emphasis on experimental Calvinism and for a longing for revival and genuine gospel power. I have to say that hebridean Presbyterianism is just one of the influences of my life; there are elements of that culture which I revere and other elements which I reject. The point at issue here is that Archibald Cook was one of the main heroes of that tradition and his Gaelic sermons were found in many homes. It is a matter of some significance that the average Skye crofter who had received a minimal education was familiar with the writings of erudite divines of a past age. No Yancey and Lucado there, just Henry, Owen, Jay, Ryle, M’Cheyne, Boston and a galaxy of other great minds and warm hearts.

With that background I have to say that I enjoyed Norman Campbell’s book immensely. Let me just give a few reasons for my enjoyment of the book.

I think that younger people ought to mix their reading and move about the centuries and traditions. In many respects Cook’s world is so different to ours but reading about it is a foil to the chronological arrogance which can be a feature of our age. If a young reformed believer is stuck in the world of the yuppie New York trader or the Seattle artist their perspective on life will inevitably be narrow. In the same way if an aspiring young preacher is locked in nineteenth century Strathnairn and holds only one ambition in life and that is to be old, then he will be useless in the pulpit and parish. I would advise any young person to pick up a book like this and read of another world.

I loved the chapter on Cook’s childhood on the Isle of Arran and especially the account of revival and spiritual awakening on that island. It is significant that Arran is tough today and spiritually challenging. I loved also the account of the revival in Inverness with all its problems and blessings. I understand that my colleague Malcolm MacLean has done a talk on this and I would encourage him to go further and write a book. Invernessians may be interested to learn that the building on Fraser Street which is now The Mustard Seed restaurant was the epicentre of the revival when it was an Independent Chapel.

It is significant that the North Church, Inverness, had its genesis in an acrimonious split! It was the old story of a church being divided over who to call as their minister with a large congregation having a split mind and the two groups being unwilling to compromise. The minority started a new church and called their man, Archibald Cook. It is often the case that a large church splits over such an issue and forms a new church. Often both churches grow and prosper and one wonders why they didn’t just sit down and plan a plant. An unplanned pregnancy can often be a shock but new life is always welcome! Splits in cities can work but in rural situations they are inevitably disastrous and always take generations to repair.

When one reads the book you realize that some things don’t change. In Cook’s day there were discussions about worship, church planting, political involvement and the cult of the personality. In the nineteenth century highlands the young, restless and reformed movement was just beginning and people had their pin up preachers just as they have today. One old lady was said to have expressed approval of a younger minister settled nearby because he coughed ‘jist like Airchie Cook’. (Sic)

I also enjoyed the chapter on the saga of Rev Jonathan Ranken Anderson of Glasgow. I first read about this man in an article written in The Monthly Record during my student days by Dr Ian R MacDonald of Aberdeen. I have to say that I took a dislike to Anderson then and the chapter in this book did nothing to redeem his reputation for me. Anderson was a hyper separatist who basically fell out with everyone except himself. He had a huge following of disciples/sychophants and even to this day is regarded as a hero in some circles. You should read the book and form an opinion yourself.

There were other tasters in the book. If you want to read about the weird preaching style/voice known as the sèisd– the chanted sing song used by some of the older ministers when they experienced liberty. I often heard the sèisd as a young man but I was never tempted to imitation! Some regard it as mesmerizing; I just thought it was scary. I'm just waiting to hear of some young Turk who has taken it up again.

I enjoyed the book. There are elements of life in those past days which annoy me intensely, usually because I can see them continuing today. I recognize the petty disputes which led to insults and walk outs and the bruised egos as good men insult each other. There are elements of the culture of ‘the men’ today – basically they were forerunners of the emergent movement. Cook’s own idiosyncrasies are noteworthy, his penchant for Traducianism and intense dislike of music stick out. I thought he backed a loser with Mr Sinclair of Wick. I have some sympathy with these men over the Maynooth grant controversy but not with their views on Catholic emancipation. He was a good man, there are many good men but there was only one perfect man. Cook was strong on the free offer of the gospel, he may have been hard in his preaching but his motive was simple, he wanted genuine, Spirit wrought conversions and not some superficial religious experience. At the end of the day I look back on these men as a pygmy views giants.

We are thankful to Norman Campbell for this book. Norman is an ideal steward for this sort of material. His background and life experience enables him to cross the growing number of aisles within conservative highland Presbyterianism, his knowledge of the Gaelic language and culture gives him a feel for the context of Cook’s life.

Norman has written the book as a labour of love and the profits from the sale of the book will be donated to Bethesada Care Home and Hospice, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. If you have friends or family who appreciate the ways of another day then buy them this book. If you want to know something more about this intriguing sub culture within evangelicalism then this is a great place to start.

One of Heaven’s Jewels: Rev Archibald Cook of Daviot and the (Free) North Church, Inverness by Norman Campbell; self published by Norman Campbell 2009 and is priced at £19.99

ISBN: 978-0-9563641-0-1

It is available at the Free Church bookshop and the FP Bookroom. It can be ordered online from the Bethesda Hospice website at http://shop.bethesdahospice.co.uk/.

It appears not to be available on Amazon.

Fairies, apologetics, carols and a bishop.

Last Sunday we did our first advent sermon of the year. Twenty five years in the same place with an average of 3 advent sermons per year, so we have done about 75 sermons on the theme.

I found my material in Luke 1: 1-4. The title ‘Christmas is not a fairy tale’. I gleaned at least some of my inspiration from the Right Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, who caused some controversy recently by saying that many carols were mince and led people to believe that Christmas was a fairy story!

Luke writes to Theophilus but it’s like an e mail sent to him but forwarded to us all. He writes to a young Christian with questions and doubts. Luke is himself a second generation Christian whose life was radically changed by Jesus of Nazareth. The young gentile doctor now dedicated his life to make known the life of Jesus and the acts of the early church.

In the sermon I made three points …….. yep, I’m a crusty old traditionalist and probably a Proc Trust nightmare.

Point 1 – The Christmas story is not the invention of a man with a powerful imagination. The contrast was with Enid Blyton , by the way, have you read how Noddy came about? Bizarre.

Luke had both the Old Testament and Mark as a source and so this story was not made up by him. The Jesus phenomenon was talked about everywhere and many people believed it. It’s not a clincher that many people believe something but as Mathew Henry says, it is a ‘support’ to our faith if not a ‘foundation’

Point 2 – The Christmas story is not the invention of one man noted for unreliability. Many of our people have husbands, wives, partners and other interesting significant others who simply do not believe the basic facts of the Bible. Many of these people who do not believe are very, very smart and their Christian partners are intimidated. The point here is, you can trust Luke. He ‘carefully investigated everything from the beginning’. In an age of post modernism when being sure is a crime, we can be sure that Luke is reliable

Point 3 – The Christmas story was written by a man who wanted to strengthen our faith. Luke says that he writes, ‘so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.’ I reminded the people of the words which came to John Newton in the middle of the Atlantic storm, “What if these things should be true?”

We need to hold on to certainty. Barna tells us that 53% of ‘evangelical Christians’ do not believe in absolute truth and 43% agree with this statement, ‘It does not matter what religious faith you follow because all faiths teach similar lessons about life.’

It was a bit of an apologetics sermon. I phoned Robertson and told him that no-one was ever converted by apologetics ………. You know, he agreed.

Thank you Luke, just what the doctor ordered!