Soundbites from 2 Corinthians: Relying on God not ourselves

Over the next few posts, I'm going to pick out my favourite verses from 2 Corinthians and share the challenges and encouragements I've received from them. This letter that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth is possibly my favourite NT letter- whenever I read it, in whatever circumstances, it speaks to me so strongly about persevering through suffering and rejoicing in our salvation and the fact that we've been reconciled with God.

So here's my starter:

'We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure... But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.' 2 Cor 1:8-9

Paul and his ministry team had really been through a tough time. In Ephesus, they faced huge opposition and riots, and were driven out of the city. Paul was hearing reports about the church in Corinth being full of sexual immorality and division, due to false teachers, and faced the personal pain and humiliation of the Corinthians being swayed by the persuasive words of men who did not have the apostolic authority that Paul himself did. Paul describes how they were in such a difficult situation, and yet God put them through it for a reason: so they would rely on Him, not on themselves.

How often do we need to be reminded of this lesson! Time and time again, we fall back on our own resources and forget to trust in God to provide us with everything we need. Paul reminds us in this verse that God raised Christ from the dead- therefore He's not going to find it too hard to help us out in our difficult situations!

I always find that at this time of the year it's natural to reflect on the year that has passed- 2010. And I can really testify that this year God did take me through some times where I felt I was completely beyond my own ability to endure- particularly in my time of extreme sickness where I had about two months off work, and I just didn't think I could take it any more! But I knew God's faithfulness in that time, especially when I was in hospital, much more than if I had been 100% healthy and well. God really does know best, and I pray that this year I'd learn to rely on Him way more!

A Christian Evaluation of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham and his protegee, John Stuart Mill. Ethical theories deal with the reasons which justify moral rules, and for Bentham and Mill, the moral worth of an action could be determined by how much happiness or pleasure it produced. The roots of utilitarianism can be seen, therefore, in ancient hedonistic philosophy, as developed by Democritus and Epicurus. Democritus identified the supreme goal of life as "contentment'. Epicurus believed that the goal of life was to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear and pain, though he advocated a simple life of abstaining from bodily desires, which gives quite a different flavour to hedonistic views.

Utilitarianism, like hedonism, bases itself around the contrasting experiences of pain and pleasure, and puts these at the centre of human experience. The moral worth of an action should be judged, according to Bentham, by the 'greatest happiness principle'- whatever brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people is the morally right action to take in any given situation. Bentham wrote that mankind is 'under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure', though Mill made some distinction between higher and lower pleasures: 'better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.'

There is no doubt that utilitarianism remains one of the most influential ethical theories affecting society today- one could argue that most democracies are based around utilitarian principles. As a major ethical theory, utilitarianism has been criticised and evaluated by many different philosophers and ethical writers, both secular and Christian. One of the major criticisms of the theory lies in the fact that it is teleological- based on the consequences of an action, which are in the future and impossible to predict with certainty. GE Moore argues that it falls into the naturalistic fallacy, because the theory assumes that goodness and pleasure are the same thing. This is not always the case. Finally, Ayn Rand points out the danger of utilitarian followers making ethical decisions based on nothing but 'emotional whims'- hardly a desirable ethical standpoint.

But in order to make a Christian evaluation of this theory, we must firstly take its guiding principles and compare them to God's values as articulated in Scripture. Logical criticisms of a theory have their place, but as Christians we are not simply concerned with whether utilitarianism is logically flawed or not. At its core, utilitarianism expresses that man is chiefly concerned with a desire for pleasure, and that pleasure is the nature of goodness. This is far more reflective of the Bible's definition of sin, than it is of the Bible's definition of man's true purpose and what goodness is.

If we examine Genesis 1, we notice that 'good' is a key word, repeated throughout the poetic pattern of the narrative: 'And God saw that it was good.' What does the word 'good' mean in this context? How does the Bible define it? The central teaching of Genesis 1 and 2 is that God creates the universe with a clear order and purpose. God rules over His creation -after all, He spoke it into being with just words- and places man on the earth to 'Rule over... every living creature' (1:28). The universe is in absolute harmony. Therefore 'good' is associated in the Bible with the person of God Himself -His creation is good because He is good- and with every being in its rightful place, under God. God gives Adam and Eve a rule (not to eat from the tree of knowledge), so from this we see that a truly happy state is not one without rules and without God. Adam and Eve live in paradise because they live under God's rule. The final verse of chapter 2 -'The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame'- emphasises their 'goodness' and happiness. They have nothing to be ashamed of.

The 'goodness' of God's creation quickly comes under threat. In Genesis 3, the serpent tempts Eve to doubt God's words. He tells her she will 'not surely die' from eating the forbidden fruit, and tells her that she will be 'like God, knowing good and evil', if she takes it. Again the word 'good' becomes very prominent. The knowledge of 'good and evil' is desirable for Eve, and she sees that the fruit 'was good for food'. The narrative deliberately uses this key word to emphasise the deception that Eve falls under. The fruit is not 'good'- as soon as they eat it, they experience shame, and quickly work to cover their nakedness. They hide from God, and they are punished for their disobedience. The whole of creation is fractured and fallen because of the fall of man: 'Cursed is the ground because of you' (3:17).

According to these first chapters of Genesis, man's desire for pleasure and to set his own moral rules is at the very heart of sin and our fallen nature. Eve listened to her appetite, not to God's word. Eve and Adam rejected God's rule and decided they wanted to make up their own rules, and know about good and evil for themselves. However, they discovered that only God can define what is good and what is evil. They instinctively knew that their disobedience was evil- why else would they have hidden from the One who created them? In trying to assert that taking the fruit was good, they only discovered that it was sin. They couldn't go against God's definition of good and evil.

Utilitarianism has a worrying correlation to this story of Eden. In creating the 'greatest happiness principle', not only does the theory pander to man's inherent selfishness and desire for pleasure, but it gives man an authority which is not rightfully his: to determine the morality of an action. An action is good if God says it is, and if God says it is not good, no amount of logical argument or ethical theorizing by man will change this. This is portrayed clearly throughout Genesis- after Adam and Eve's attempt to set their own rules, Cain murders his brother Abel and discovers he cannot get away with this. Men begin to increase in number and in sexual immorality, pursuing pleasure, and God judges them with the flood. Men decide to build a tower for their own glory, and God scatters them all over the earth. There is a pattern of man's rebellion, and God's judgement upon them, but there is always a note of God's mercy or grace too. God saves Noah and his family, and God chooses Abram to make a covenant with him and his descendants forever.

By Genesis 6, the Bible clearly establishes the fallen nature of man: 'every inclination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil all the time' (6:5). This fallen nature, this total depravity, renders us unable to discern what is good, and equally unable to actually do what is good. Jesus described it as slavery to sin: 'everyone who sins is a slave to sin... if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.' (John 8:34-36) He also taught that 'out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit' (Mk 7:21). Paul continues this teaching in Romans 1, establishing that since the creation of the world, God's power is clearly displayed, and men are without excuse when they exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship created things rather than the Creator (v 25). The picture is clear: men know there is a God, but they don't want to acknowledge Him. They want to live life their own way. But this brings God's judgement upon them. Utilitarianism simply doesn't acknowledge man's inability to keep to his own moral standards, let alone man's accountability to God for his actions on earth.

Scripture is God's revelation of Himself to man. In His grace, God revealed Himself and His will to man over the years- because we would never have known what is 'good' otherwise. The covenant with Moses and the Law at Sinai clearly show a God who makes His will known to the people, but the people are unable to keep His commandments. Even after receiving the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, Moses comes down the mountain to witness the people worshipping a golden calf. The whole of the Old Testament, and its story of Israel's exile and return, leaves us in no doubt as to the fallenness of mankind and our inability to obey God's laws.

The Bible teaches, then, that we need God to reveal what is good to us, and even then we do not have power within ourselves to obey. This is why Jesus Christ was sent into the world. He was the only man to never sin, to never break God's word, and He died as a sacrifice to make atonement for our sins ('by His wounds we are healed' Isa 53).

The Bible teaches that God has man's best interests at heart. The whole story of God's salvation plan clearly illustrates that He is a God of compassion, slow to anger and rich in love (Ps 103). But it is in eternity, in the new heavens and the new earth, that we will experience a life with no suffering (Rev 21). On earth, we have no right to expect a life free from pain and suffering, because of the model of Christ. Peter calls Christians to embrace suffering for doing good (note that what is good is certainly not equatable with what is pleasurable), because 'To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.' (1 Pet 2:21) The Biblical view of life on earth is not that we should seek pleasure and avoid pain, but that we should imitate Christ. Christ's death on the cross, followed by His resurrection glory, provide a pattern for our own lives: we will suffer, die, and then be raised at the resurrection for an eternity of bliss.

Jesus made it clear to His followers that the world would reject them (John 17). If you seek to follow God's way of life, you will be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12). But the glory of eternity that awaits us make our suffering on earth worth while (1 Pet 1). Whilst on earth, we must seek to obey the clear commands of God in Scripture (a prescriptive approach to making ethical decisions), whilst also seeking personal guidance from God through prayer and the Holy Spirit, particularly for choices which Scripture does not make clear for us (a relational approach). As William Paley wrote: 'Whoever expects to find in the Scriptures a specific direction for every moral doubt that arises, looks for more than he will meet with.' However, the answer is not to form a Christian version of utilitarianism, as Paley did in 'Moral and Political Philosophy' (1785). Although there is some truth in his identifying a motive of 'the expectation of being after this rewarded... or punished', the danger is that this leads to man trying to win God's favour and earn his own salvation by his own works of 'goodness'. We must trust that our righteousness comes from Christ, not ourselves ('He made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God' 2 Cor 5:21). Then in response to God's grace and salvation, we should seek to live our lives for His glory, not our own, to 'make our calling and election sure' (2 Pet 1).

New Breed Conference - Taking No Man's Land

Yesterday we gathered at Highfields Church, Cardiff for the New Breed conference 2010. Last year, Andy went along, and there were a total of 15 blokes there. This year, there must have been 50 people -mostly in the 20s-30s age bracket- and there were a group of around 10-15 wives, fiancees and single women. New Breed is growing! But I guess you might be asking, 'What is it?'

'Working in partnership with Acts 29, New Breed seeks to strategically plant churches, to assist in the training of individuals who feel called to church planting, and to provide a supportive network for those who have already planted churches.'

(http://newbreed.wordpress.com/introducing-new-breed/)

Set up in 2008 by Dai Hankey (pastor of Hill City Church, Trevethin) and Peyton Jones (Pillar Church, Swansea), New Breed's vision is for a new breed of churches to be planted in Wales, churches that are biblical, missional and radical. New Breed isn't a denomination, it's a network where people who are starting and leading churches in areas of social and economic deprivation can support each other and use each other's experience.

The guest speaker at the conference was Steve Timmis, co-author of 'Total Church' and leader of a network of churches called 'Crowded House', based in Sheffield. Steve gave two talks based on Romans 14-15, and he sought to define church planting and look at what these chapters teach us about being a gospel church.

What is church planting?
Well it's not service starting. You could go to a town, hire a venue, and put on a service, and that isn't necessarily a church plant. Steve defined church planting as 'starting a new community, living for Christ'. As church planters, you go to a needy area and you are there to build a community by the gospel, for the gospel. The gospel was designed to go out, to cross frontiers, to go where it hasn't been before. It has global ambitions, and it is not satisfied until everybody has heard about Christ. The words of Paul in Rom 15:20, 'It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known', is really at the heart of what church planting is all about.

Why do we need new churches to be planted in Wales?
Perhaps you're thinking, well that's great for obscure tribes of people in Africa or South America, but why do we need new churches to be planted in Wales? Surely our land is full of chapels and church buildings, after the great revival of 1904, and many of these buildings are nowhere near full on a Sunday. Even in our own locality, there are churches with no pastor, and congregations of about 6 people. So why plant a new church?

The answer really lies in two pictures: the lighthouse and the torch. Many of our churches are lighthouses- they shine the gospel out to the rooftops of our towns. But there are many dark nooks and crannies which are untouched by the broad beam. And we need people with torches to scatter out and head for these dark places.

In our society and culture today in Wales, many people do not feel comfortable going into a traditional chapel building for a traditional church service. It's not something they did as a child, it's not even something they did if they got married -they probably went to a hotel or a registry office. The appearance of these old buildings can be very intimidating, and if people have to come inside to hear the gospel, they will probably never hear it.

New Breed's vision is to plant churches very much at a 'grass roots' level- meeting in homes, then moving to a community centre or school when numbers grow.

The New Breed idea of a church plant is that a community is created where the broken outcasts of society can find the love of Christ. In today's society, the 'middle class' is perhaps a much broader group of people than in the early 20th Century. More and more people are going to university, and I think the middle class is in some senses defined by empowerment. A middle class person is empowered -by education, financial resources, confidence- to solve their own problems. If a middle class person wants to find out more about Jesus Christ, they have the means and the resources at their disposal to do so. They can use the internet, they can find someone who knows more, they can find a church. But today's 'underclass' of people who struggle with serious addictions, depression, can't hold down a job, are not empowered to do this. If someone needy lives in Trevethin, and the nearest gospel church is in Pontypool town centre, that's 2 miles too far! They need a gospel church in their own community. And here's the big twist: who is the most responsive to the gospel? Is it the secure, well educated middle class? Generally, they're not interested. They don't feel a need for Christ. It's the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the homeless, the messed up people who do. If you're unsure, read the gospels! The sorted people rejected Jesus. The broken people came to Him and found life and healing.

What are the characteristics of a gospel church?
Steve drew out from Rom 14-15 that a gospel church is a place where outsiders, those who are different, are welcomed in, because in the gospel, that's what God has done with us. We were all once outside God's kingdom, but He made it possible for us to become His children, through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. The situation of the church in Rome was that there was serious division between Jews and Gentiles- to do with eating customs. Paul teaches them that their priority needs to be to serve one another, and accept each other.

In a community, it's never about 'ME'. Christ didn't please Himself, or put His comfort and safety first. Passion for God's glory consumed Him. The gospel calls us to have a zeal for God and His church, because in His church, His glory resides.

The passage emphasises the quality of 'endurance'. Community takes endurance. Enthusiasm may take you to 'no man's land', but only the gospel will keep you there. Paul highlights the need for 'hope' (Rom 15:13). Biblical hope is firm confidence in God's ability to keep His promises. Paul could see in the gospel age that God's promise to Abraham, that all nations would be blessed through him, was being fulfilled, as Gentiles from every nation were hearing the gospel and becoming part of God's kingdom. This is a task that is still unfinished and still going on today. Paul prays for this hope, that the gospel will not just save us but grip us and give us missionary hearts. Only those who abound in hope will do the work for Christ.

Our Call to Garndiffaith
Since we moved to Wales for Andy to be trained and equipped, we have been praying for God to lead us to wherever He wants us to go. And it seems that now, the dots are being joined up, and it has become clear that God wants us to go to plant a church in Garndiffaith.

It's been a long journey and there isn't space here to give every single detail, but here are the main 'dots' which make up the picture.

God led us, through various ways and means, to see the need of churches to be planted in the deprived areas of the South Wales valleys.
God led us to Dai Hankey and his team in Trevethin, and we got to know them and built good relationships with them.
God led Dai to the conviction that Hill City needed to send a team to Garndiffaith, and plant a church there.
God led Dai to ask us to be part of that team.

And here's the really crazy part- we'd been praying over several months about the Garn church plant and whether it was right for us to be involved, and then I became really ill in the first trimester of my pregnancy. I was admitted to hospital and Psalm 63 was one which constantly comforted me. In fact, Andy had felt God give him this Psalm for me, and he was the one who had read it to me and marked it out.

At the New Breed Conference, we were prayed for, and a Welsh-speaking guy called Derek came up to us and said that Psalm 63:1 was going round in his head in Welsh and he felt he should share these verses with us. In English, it's 'You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.' I chuckle when I remember how I was admitted to hospital because I was dehydrated! But anyway, in Welsh, it's “O Dduw ti yw fy Nuw fe’th geisiaf di – Mae fy enaid yn sychedu amdanat a’m cnawd yn dihoeni o’th eisiau – fel tir sych a DIFFAITH heb ddwr.” Salm 63 Note the emphasised DIFFAITH which I think refers to the 'dry and parched land'. Dai translates 'Garndiffaith' as 'the rock of desolation', so it's a similar theme. We were just blown away because God had given us this Psalm so recently, and it just seemed a wonderful confirmation that this is the place where God wants us to go.

Obviously, there are a lot of things that need to come together in the next couple of months. We are just trusting that if God is in this project, it will work out. Please join with us in praying for this church plant!