A while ago one of our students, Andy Hudson, submitted an essay on the value of friendship in the Christian life with specific reference to male friendships. Here he highlights the need for openness, honesty, love, and burden-bearing.
An Unlikely Student – Lucy Peppiatt
Meeting Darren that day in 2013, and watching him blossom and flourish while with us as a student, convinced me that WTC should work to become a place that welcomed people who had been disadvantaged in one way or another by their circumstances.
A Hunger for Learning: Changing our Eating Habits
Hungry Bellies
A few things have happened to me in the past few months that have made me want to write something on the fact that seemingly very few Christians are reading the Bible and engaging in theological reflection, why this might be the case, and what we’re doing about it.
In doing this, I’m assuming that studying the Scriptures and engaging in theological reflection is a good thing for Christians to do. I wrote a bit about that a while ago in relation to charismatics here.
One of the things that got me thinking is that this year I processed the bulk of our applications for the coming year. That job normally falls to Matt as the Academic Dean, but as he was on sabbatical, I got to do it. I loved it, actually—reading through the reasons that people want to put their time, money, and effort into studying theology—getting to read some of their stories and some of their hopes and fears—while all the time knowing what’s ahead of them when they arrive and knowing that they’re going to love it!
The two words that stood out more than any other in the applications were “hunger” and “depth.” People are hungry, and they want something of substance to be “eating”. I’m assuming that all the people starting at the other theological colleges this September have written similar things.
The second thing that happened was that I spoke at New Wine, giving the main Bible talks. I thought it was brave of Paul Harcourt and his team to ask me. I’m not well known and I’m mainly now an academic although I have been involved in church leadership for 30 years. I’ve heard hundreds of talks in my charismatic evangelical world and I know what people are accustomed to from that kind of mainstage presence. But as I was preparing for New Wine, I also knew that I wasn’t going to be able to follow any kind of ‘style’, and that I was just going to have to be myself.
What I did in the end was essentially to give six WTC-style lectures. Now I know for sure that I won’t have been everybody’s cup of tea, and I’ve learned over the years that most Christians in our circle here in the UK are too polite to say when they don’t like something. So most of us probably only get the positive feedback in the end. Nevertheless, I think that what I saw in the way that people fed back to me was that a lot of people had found doing Bible study and theology like that thought-provoking and rewarding. I have a joke with my friend, Lindsey Hall, about our lovely mutual friend Gavin D’Costa who turned to me once after an academic discussion and said, “Well that was thrilling!” So nerdy, but so true.
The third thing was that Tim Brearley from Bible Society asked me and my husband, Nick, if we would do a short video for them on why we thought people didn’t read the Bible and what we thought could be done about it. I think we must have talked with Tim for about three hours all in all for a 3-4 minute video! We were all fascinated by the topic and talked around loads of different themes. Tim asked us some great questions and got us thinking.
The fourth thing was Nick launching his Bible for Life website in a great new format – all based on eating a substantial multi-course meal of the Spirit! I realized how effective he is being in providing a resource that could enable this generation to engage with Scripture in ways that are fruitful, accessible, and interesting—at no cost apart from just putting the time in. His background as a good evangelical and a Navigator have been put to great use for something much more exciting than ticking off your quiet time every morning. After years of young men and women seeking him out to study the Bible with him, I’ve been encouraging him to write something on how to engage with Scripture. Look up Bible for Life and watch this space. https://bibleforlife.co.uk/
The last thing was something that has stayed with me since March. A great friend of mine, Tina Cooke, travelled to Winchester from London to hear my Lent Lectures, which meant a lot to me. I think the lectures were a bit too dense really and not as thrilling as they might have been. But Tina wrote me a beautiful email in response and included this. “I turned to my neighbour and said, ‘The thing is, you don’t realize how thirsty you are until someone puts a glass of water in front of you.’”
Hunger, thirst, depth. People are hungry – they want to be eating solid food. I know they are. And the Bible is a fascinating book. It is also food for the soul.
Food for the Soul
I don’t really know how this works, and I know that it is Jesus, the Word, who is the bread of life, but there is also something about the word of God in the Scriptures that feeds us. In Jeremiah we read, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight…” (Jer 15:16). Jesus declares that “human beings shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4) The word of God is associated with food—it can fill our spiritual bellies if we are actually eating what is given us. It is nourishing, satisfying, nutritious, delicious.
So why are we not sitting down to eat?
The Bible is Unfamiliar
I think one of the reasons is that the Bible is unfamiliar and people don’t know where to start or how to make sense of a lot of what they read and so they give up. It’s a great legacy of the Reformation that we can have Bibles in our own language in our hands and on our phones, but I don’t think it helps us to think that the Bible is always just self-explanatory so we can all be left to it.[1] The Bible needs to be taught and it’s a much more fascinating book if it is. I love hearing great Bible teachers telling me something about the context and the language that I didn’t know that brings the text to life.
The Bible is unfamiliar because it’s not read at home or in schools in the way that it would have been in the past. Church is now the only place where most people will encounter the Bible, so preachers and teachers need to take that responsibility seriously. For some reason, however, Bible teaching has gone out of fashion in evangelical charismatic churches. I don’t really understand this, but just from conversations I think there are a few things going on.
The first is that I think leaders have made assumptions about people in the congregation just getting on with it when they’re not. The second thing is that I’m unsure about whether leaders are immersed in the Scriptures. Put it this way, if they are, it’s not filtering through. The third is that I think there is a fear that in-depth teaching will be perceived to be boring, put people off, and they won’t come back.
Teaching or Inspiration?
Consequently, a lot of what we hear is a few verses from the Bible used as a springboard for a talk that is largely made up of stories, life wisdom, and maybe a few jokes. I love hearing testimonies and stories of what God is doing around the world, and it can be hugely inspirational, but it’s not teaching. The same can be said for interviews. I like people and I like hearing about what has motivated them in their lives, but it doesn’t serve the same purpose as teaching. Much of what we get at festivals and also in our local churches falls in these categories, which would be fine if we were also receiving good teaching, but I think we all know that for the most part, it’s become the main event.
The one thing that I have heard particularly in charismatic circles is the skill or gift to take a story from the Bible, work through it, and apply it to our lives today. I’ve heard some people do that brilliantly and prophetically. It strikes me that this is teaching, and I think it is a good thing.
Even so, just taking stories or working through themes as a practice for the preaching series can mean that communities never really engage with the whole of the Bible. Communities of believers should work through books (or the lectionary), so as to ensure that we’re engaging with the Scriptures on its own terms and not just ours. Let the Bible ask you hard questions and ask them right back. Get stuck into a good discussion about what something might mean, read a commentary or two, phone a friend, draft in a scholar.
Flaky Listeners?
I don’t know if this is true or not, but I think that the sloppy practices that we’ve got into is to do with an idea that we think people don’t want to sit through something that might be seen to be dry or overly academic. Is it because we’re so desperate for people to come in and stay that we think we need to make every talk entertaining? Or is it because we think that we’re dealing with a generation that can’t concentrate any more? I can promise you that anyone who can binge watch Netflix or play a video game for 24 hours non-stop has no problem concentrating. They’ll just concentrate on what they want to concentrate on. Like eating junk food.
Personally, I don’t think we need to pander to a fast-food culture, especially as I see so many people come alive when they’re taught the Bible by people who love it, believe it, and understand the power of it for knowing God and knowing ourselves. I think it’s about changing our cooking and eating habits.
Changing a Nation’s Eating Habits
For some while now I’ve been interested in Jamie Oliver and his mission to change the eating habits of whole nations. I love food and I love the effect of good food on people and I get what Oliver is doing. I think he’s right to want to start a “Food Revolution.” I recently watched his Ted Talk on this in the US.[2] You can see his passion in this talk. I actually think there are things the church can learn from him, precisely because his mission is to change a nation’s eating habits, and it strikes me that this is the task before us with the Bible.
The two things he focuses on are education and producing delicious food. Teach people why good food matters, let them taste delicious food, and then teach them to cook nutritious, delicious food for themselves. A simple vision.
It’s fascinating watching his Ted Talk peppered with what I associate with prophetic language—the time is now, the time is ripe, people are ready for change. I feel the same about biblical literacy and theological education. People are hungry and bored, tired of eating food that leaves them sluggish, and ready for something more engaging. It will undoubtedly mean more work for everyone, but it will be so worth it.
So just to carry on with the food analogy a bit longer…
When you’ve become used to/addicted to fast food, you need to do some work to change your palate and your cooking and eating habits. It’s about changing your expectations of food: the buying, the preparation, the eating. Finding spiritual food requires more time than getting a sugar-hit or a salty, cheesy burger delivered to your door while you lie on the couch in your pj’s watching Netflix. We all might enjoy a sugar-hit or a burger moment, and we may have had the spiritual equivalents of these moments. But the general rule for eating spiritual food from the Bible is that it requires foraging, simmering, picking through bones, marinating, refrigerating, smoking. It’s food that will take time to bring out rich and deep flavours.
One of the things that Oliver disturbingly demonstrates is how milk is now served in American schools – it now has added sugar and flavours. So rather than just plain milk, children are being loaded up with pounds and pounds of sugar because someone somewhere decided that milk on its own was no longer appetizing. When does something served as “milk” cease to be nutritious and thus not really milk at all?
I’m one of 5 siblings and my mum in her day was a health freak. We had very little sugar at home, no white bread, no crisps etc. As a result, we loved eating fast-food. Whenever we could we binged on it. I used to swap my horrible home-made brown bread and cheddar cheese sandwiches with Clare Taylor who had white bread and Dairylea. Yum. That was primary school. The long-term result though is that in reality Mum taught us all how to cook good food and to love it. She passed on good eating habits.
I wasn’t nearly as conscientious with my kids (who all also love fast-food!). I did read about making kids eat a tiny bit of what they say they don’t like though, and I tried that because I didn’t want fussy kids. It totally works and eventually gives them the ability to eat what is put in front of them. A lesson on how eating habits can be formed over time.
Oliver has a simple formula: education, letting people taste delicious food, and teaching people to cook for themselves. The parallel for us is this: education (why Bible study/scholarship matters and why I should bother), letting them taste delicious food (making Bible study and theology as fascinating as it really is), and teaching people to cook (giving them skills for their own study).
Serving up proper meals and changing our cooking and eating habits will mean a fitter, more robust, more flexible, more resilient, long-lasting body that is the church. It’s totally within reach and I personally think, along with Jamie Oliver, that the time is ripe.
[1] This is linked to the idea of the perspicuity (or clarity) of Scripture that is inherent in the Scriptures themselves. This is a Protestant principle found in such texts as the Westminster Confession of Faith, although even there it is stated that ‘All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unti all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.’ (7.1) My italics. Scripture can lead a person to faith, learned or unlearned, but is not necessarily ‘plain’ in all things.
[2] https://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver/transcript?language=en
Why Study Theology? Reflections for the evangelical charismatic church
I remember very clearly, in my 30’s, realizing that I wanted to study theology at degree level. I had no idea that it would end with me doing a PhD, leading a college, writing books, and teaching. It hadn’t been a “career move”! I thought I was studying theology so that I’d be a better co-pastor with my husband and because I loved it. I also thought then that these were good enough reasons for all that study and investment, and I still think they are.
Bible For Life
By Nick Crawley, MA – Church Leader, founder and director of Bible for Life.
Nick is an Anglican clergyman with over 25 years experience of church leadership in London, Harare (Zimbabwe), Sheffield, and Bristol. He is a qualified Banker and Investment Analyst and was awarded an MA with merit in Christian Theology from the University of Bristol. He is married to Dr. Lucy Peppiatt the systematic theologian and author, and current Principal of Westminster Theological Centre. They have four sons.
What is Bible for Life?
William Tyndale translated the Bible into English in order that ‘the boy who drives a plough (would) know more of the scriptures’. And he was executed for it!Today, almost 500 years after his death, it’s easy enough to pick up an English Bible, but our secular C21st society seems to know next to nothing about what it actually says.
One of the reasons for this is that the Bible is in practice a difficult book to understand.
I love the Bible. I’ve never found any book remotely like it. It describes the life of the most remarkable man who ever lived and who has influenced human history and life more than anyone other human being. It also has what has been called a ‘ring of truth’ about it – a deep resonance that it is communicating the most genuine truth a person can ever encounter.
Over the past ten years I have been working at finding ways to make both the books of the Bible and its message more accessible for interested, but busy people.
Bible for Life, (BfL), is a ministry that helps 
genuine enquirers get to the heart of the message of the different Bible books. It is built on a number of principles.
1) Studying a whole book at a time
First, the majority of Christians seem to read the Bible like a newspaper, turning to their favourite sections and not reading much else. While this is better than nothing it almost always misses the author’s main point. BfL approaches each book as a unit, written by an author in a specific context to recipients in a different context. The context is crucial because it directly influences the meaning of the text. Every sentence has been written for a reason and contributes directly to the meaning of the book and its application.
2) Using the resources available on the internet
Second, since our lives, (and especially the lives of those under thirty), are now completely orientated around the internet, Bible teachers must find new ways and media for communicating Biblical truth directly to smart phones, laptops and tablets.
3) Catering for different levels of engagement
This leads to the third feature of BfL; The Menu. The material on the site is presented for the visitor to engage with the material in different levels. Using a meal format the visitor can have a 5 minute ‘Taster Course’, through watching a short video, studying an image, reading a summary or engaging with questions. A deeper engagement through other ‘products’ is available in the ‘Starter Course’, while in the ‘Main Course’ there is a “commentary” and a serious study of the imperatives of the book for the committed disciple of Jesus. The ‘Dessert Course’ is more open-ended touching on academic issues, special studies, prayers and tools for the church pastor. At the end of each course there are questions relating the key issues in the book to contemporary C21st life and issues.
4) A varied approach to suit different personalities
The fourth BfL feature is the variety of learning approaches to suit the different ways we engage with and respond to texts. As well as visual, audio and textual media there are different ways of responding what we encounter such as ‘challenge’, ‘enquiry’, ‘inter-reaction’ and ‘response’. BfL works to provide these, and this is where the related discipleship coaching is important.
5) A coaching and mentoring tool
I engage with a number of people on a monthly basis coaching them in their engagement with the Bible. The strategy throughout is to coach them to engage with the Bible for themselves. A month seems to be the right period of time for a person to engage at a deep level with one book of the Bible. As Jesus said, “The measure you use is measured to you.” Those that engage most, get most.
6) Completely free!
I look forward to the day when there are hundreds of different internet based strategies and tools for helping apprentices of Jesus unlock the dynamic of Scripture. BfL is one such tool. All the material is completely free. I hope you find it helpful. Why not visit the site now and see for yourself.
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A Fresh Look at Jesus’ Final Judgment Parable
Bob Ekblad has spent 25 years in international mission and is particularly passionate about working with the poor and ethnic minorities, as well as teaching on Mission and Social Justice.
To read more from Bob and to find out about his work, visit his website here.
A judgment parable…
Jesus’ parable of the judgment of the nations is often presented in ways that associate our treatment of anyone who is hungry, thirsty, a foreigner, naked, sick and imprisoned as synonymous with how we treat Jesus. Many Scriptures clearly call us to care for the poor, excluded, immigrants and prisoners. But numerous details in this parable suggest a different interpretation.
Jesus here teaches on the future judgment of non-Jews (the nations=ethnos), whom he commissions his disciples to evangelize and make disciples of before he departs (see Matthew 28:18-20). This parable is not about the judgment of nation states as institutions (though they will be judged), but about Jesus’ future response to how people treat his followers who go out spreading the word.
In this parable the King, who is also a Son of the Father in Heaven, returns and is enthroned. He calls non-Jews together and like a shepherd he separates sheep from goats. He says to the sheep, identifying himself as their shepherd:
“Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
“For I was hungry… thirsty… a stranger… naked… sick… imprisoned” and “you gave me food… drink… hospitality… prison visits.”
These “righteous” don’t understand when they had done this for him, this Son of Man– the shepherd King. They hadn’t recognized him or made the associations he names.
“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me’ (Matt 25:40).
Who exactly are the King’s “brothers” and also “the least of these” in this parable?
For most of my ministry I read this as referring to anyone in the category of hungry, sick, naked, a foreigner, or prisoner. This interpretation puts permanent pressure on all non-Jews to serve everyonewho fits into these categories—or else you will be accursed and sent into “the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (25:42).
Is this the motivation Jesus is suggesting we should have as we minister to the poor, immigrants, refugees and prisoners? I don’t think so. God’s abundant and tender love for the poor and excluded is the only sustainable motivation.
I think that this parable is about God’s judgment of non-Jews who receive or reject followers of Jesus as they go to fulfill Jesus’ commission to make disciples, baptize and teach.
The King states “to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them,you did it to me.”
In Matthew Jesus consistently refers to his disciples as his brothers distinct from blood brothers/sisters (see Matt 12:48; 28:10).
A key Scripture is Matthew 10:40-42, where Jesus says to his disciples:
“The one who receives you receives me,” and “whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink… shall not lose his reward.”
Jesus also calls fellow believers to treat one another as brothers and sisters (Matt 18:15 35; 23:8) of our common Father in heaven.
Western Christians may find identifying Jesus’ followers as the hungry, thirsty, naked, foreigners, imprisoned of this parable difficult due to our distance from the ragged and persecuted state of early Christ followers and today’s persecuted believers and precarious ministry workers. Yet Christians today are marginalized, persecuted and martyred like never before in history in many places throughout the world—including inside our prison system.
Jesus’ disciples who carry on his mission were sent out in vulnerability, without money, extra clothes or even sandals (Matt 10:10), as persecuted “sheep in the midst of wolves”—a big challenge to us now. They were often strangers and even foreigners as they went from village to village and to foreign lands, fleeing persecution (Matt 10:16-23). They were dependent upon people’s hospitality (those people of peace who received them). But they were often rejected, persecuted, imprisoned and martyred (Matt 5:10-12).
In Jesus’ parable on judgment, receiving them equals receiving him—a total identification. Jesus’ identifying himself, the King with the “least of these” represents his deliberate inclusion of the humblest of his recruits who go out on mission. When we receive a humble disciple of Jesus, Jesus says we are receiving the King, the Son of the Father himself.
May we welcome, provide for, care for and advocate for those who minister in Jesus’ name. May we intercede for the persecuted church worldwide, and be inspired ourselves to join the company of Jesus’ brothers and sisters—even the “least of these,” knowing that even if the world does not always receive us, Jesus has our back.
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Brad Jersak – A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel
This episode of WTCLive comes to you from the student pub at WTC’s student residential (January 2016). Lucy Peppiatt and Matt Lynch discuss Brad’s recent book A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel (Plain Truth Ministries, 2015). Brad explains his journey toward writing this book, and how his perspective developed. Hear Matt, Lucy and Brad in a fun and lively discussion about Brad’s book.
Buy the book here:
A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel – Brad Jersak
Rev. Brad Jersak PhD
New Testament and Patristics
Rev. Dr. Brad Jersak (Reader Irenaeus) is an author and teacher based in Abbotsford, Canada. He teaches New Testament and Patristics at WTC. After serving as pastor and church-planter for twenty years, he now travels for Fresh Wind Christian Fellowship and serves as reader at All-Saints Orthodox Monastery. Brad’s focus today is on writing accessible theology, facilitating ‘listening prayer’ seminars, and teaching college courses. His emphases are the Gospels, Cruciform theology , and contemplative spirituality applied to prophetic justice. He is currently editor of www.clarionjournal.com and senior editor Plain Truth Ministries (www.ptm.org).
Lucy Peppiatt PhD
Principal, Systematic Theology
Lucy has bachelor’s degrees in both English and Theology. She completed her MA in Systematic Theology at King’s College, London, and her PhD through the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Lucy is the author of Women and Worship at Corinth: Paul’s Rhetorical Arguments in 1 Corinthians. (Wipf and Stock, 2015); and The Disciple: On Becoming Truly Human. (Wipf and Stock, 2012). Lucy’s research interests are Christ and the Spirit, Charismatic theology, discipleship, and 1 Corinthians.
Matt Lynch PhD
Dean of Studies, Old Testament
Matt teaches Old Testament and serves as Dean of Studies at WTC. He recently moved from Germany, where he completed post-doctoral research on conceptions of divine supremacy in Persian period biblical literature. Matt is the author of Monotheism and Institutions in the Book of Chronicles (Mohr Siebeck, 2014) and various articles on the Old Testament. Matt is particularly interested in helping students grasp the theological and literary contours of the Old Testament, wrestle through its ethical and historical challenges, and understand its ongoing significance.
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Iain Provan – Creation, Violence, and the God of the Old Testament (Part 1)
With: Iain Provan and Matt Lynch.
Our guest is Iain Provan of Regent College, Vancouver. This is an opportunity for you to engage with Matt Lynch and Iain Provan on some of the difficult issues pertaining to the way violence and God are portrayed in the Old Testament. Matt will also be discussing Provan’s recent book Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why it Matters (Baylor, 2014).
Speakers:
Iain W. Provan, PhD
Iain Provan is the Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College. He received his MA at Glasgow University in Mediaeval History and Archaeology, his BA from London Bible College in Theology, and his PhD from Cambridge. His academic teaching career took him to King’s College London, the University of Wales, and the University of Edinburgh, where he was a senior lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies. Dr. Provan has written numerous essays and articles, and several books including commentaries on Lamentations, 1 and 2 Kings, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, and co-authored with Phil Long and Tremper Longman A Biblical History of Israel (John Knox Press, 2003). Most recently he released Against the Grain: Selected Essays (Regent College Publishing, 2015), Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters (Baylor University Press, 2014) and Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World that Never Was (Baylor University Press, 2013), and Discovering Genesis (SPCK, 2015). He is currently writing a book on Protestant biblical hermeneutics, projected for release in 2017.
Matt Lynch, PhD
Matt is an Old Testament scholar and the Dean of Studies at Westminster Theological Centre. His research interests include the theology of Isaiah and ethics in the Old Testament. Matt is the author of Monotheism and Institutions in the Book of Chronicles (Mohr Siebeck, 2014) and various articles on the Old Testament. Matt is particularly interested in helping students grasp the theological and literary contours of the Old Testament, wrestle through its ethical and historical challenges, and understand its ongoing significance. Matt is married, with two children.