Sundays sermon looked at ‘the beginning of ethics’; how being made in the image of God affects a Christian approach to difficult ethical topics like abortion / euthanasia / human rights.
A few resources you might want to look at to think through the subjects more carefully:-
Websites that are worth a visit to see their work in these areas include those of the Christian Medical fellowship, who provide lots of resources on ethical debates surrounding medical practice, and the International Justice Mission, an organisation committing to offering legal protection to people suffering human rights violations.
Finally, I mentioned I would try to link to some resources for thinking through the issues around suffering in our world and what the bible teaches about it. bethinking.org is a website with a stack load of resources on all kinds of issues and has a section on how we respond to suffering with articles and talks at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Phil Moore spoke on ‘The Beginning of Everything’ on Sunday, looking at issues surrounding creation and evolution and how Christians should respond and understand what the bible and science teaches. Over the next few days I will try and add more links to this post with online resources for those who want to investigate further. To get you started…
The Test of Faith website has loads of short video clips with prominent scientists expressing how they combine their faith with their science. Also, the scientists give brief insights into their area of expertise, and the discoveries that point at the handiwork of God. The website is run by the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and comes from a theistic evolutionary perspective.
A second resource is a ‘Tough Questions’ seminar stream run at the Newday conference this year. Adrian Holloway addresses the questions ‘Are you saying Darwin was wrong?’ and ‘Do you believe in evolution?’
Since I preached on diversity in the church a couple of weeks ago, the issue of racial diversity in Britain has had a lot of media attention. First, Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, appeared on Question Time. Now, Channel 4 are showing a series of programmes based around race.
When I preached, I encouraged people to try and understand more about the complexities of diversity, particularly those who live as part of the majority culture. As well as a number of films that can be helpful, I think watching some of these programmes on Channel 4, now available to watch online, could genuinely help many of us understand some of the issues behind the debate and the controversy.
In a city where racial tensions bubble under the surface and government officials and community leaders are desperate to find answers to the increasingly complex questions that racial diversity is posing, we as a church have an opportunity to demonstrate even more clearly the incredible wisdom of God by building a church that welcomes in and builds together people from many races, cultures and social backgrounds.
This Sunday’s sermon was part 3 of 5 in the current series on some of our core values. The theme was our passion to build a church made up of people from different races, languages, age groups and cultures. I spoke from Ephesians Chapter 2 on how Jesus brings together diverse groups and builds them into ‘One New Man’.
Part of the application during the sermon was to educate ourselves about the reality of conflict and tension between different groups and I recommended watching some films that explore this theme with people from diverse backgrounds. The films were Crash, Babel, Freedom Writers, Remember the Titans and… Save the Last Dance (something for everyone). Crash and Babel are quite intense so watch out if you are of sensitive disposition!
Sundays sermon was themed around the phrase ‘Act like Men’ from 1 Cor 16:13. We looked at the first few chapters of the bible to see what God’s intention for men was, and how we can fulfil it.
For anyone wanting to read / study more on this theme, there are plenty of free resources online.
We believe that Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations is a foundational and decisive mission statement for every church and that every other agenda is submitted to the greatest goal of bringing glory to God through bringing unbelievers through to maturity in Christ.
What will it look like?
First and foremost it will be a burning desire in all of our hearts to reach every lost person we can for Jesus. It will drive us to pray and to preach, to love and to long for the salvation of those we know, and the millions we don’t in London. It will mean we organise the church and its strategy in ways appropriate to those outside of Christ.
It will also mean that the unreached peoples of the world have a place in our hearts and our church life. We will give money, train leaders and organise teams to go overseas. It means we will wave goodbye with tears to close friends as they get on planes to go to persecuted places; it means we will welcome them back with joy when they come back and visit and bring news of the advance of God’s kingdom.
We believe that the bible centres around the person and work of Jesus Christ. He, though fully God, become a man, lived a perfect life, died in our place, rose again in victory over death, sin and Satan, and now reigns supreme over every created thing awaiting the day of his return when all things will be put under his feet. The bible calls us to fix our eyes and our thoughts on him and pictures heaven with multitudes gathered around the throne of God where Jesus is seated receiving worship and adoration for his sacrificial death that purchased men for God.
What will it look like?
Our preaching will be unashamedly centred on Christ and his gospel. Unbelievers and believers will gather week by week to hear the proclamation of the gospel and as we lift him up he will gather men to himself. Our corporate worship will be rooted in the gospel of grace from beginning to end, and even the contributions will often draw attention to gospel truth and its application. More than this, our conversations, our one anothering, our parenting, our marriages, our pastoral care, even our eating (because of regular communion) will all be thoroughly intoxicated with gospel truth and love for Jesus.
When we first started Emmanuel Church we thought long and hard about what kind of church we wanted it to be. I heard a lot about how I needed to seek God for my personal vision but every time I thought about it I concluded ‘I just want to plant a church like the ones in the bible.’ It seemed to me that Jesus has a pretty clear vision of what he wants the church to be like and my job was not to find my own personal vision but to get some revelation about his.
So, we came up with a list of biblical values that should shape Emmanuel church. Over the next few weeks I will post them one by one to encourage us to stay true to Jesus’ vision of what he wants his church to be like.
Well, I found out this week that emmanuelchurchlondon.org has been nominated for the best local church website of the year competition with www.surefish.co.uk. I was quite happy just that 1 person nominated us, but the judges have shortlisted us for the final public vote which is happening online now until July 8th.
I wasn’t too bothered about winning until I read this on the surefish website…
Divine Chocolate has given all award winners a hamper of chocolate featuring one of every flavour in its 100g bar range so that all six award winners can share in the success of their winning websites!
