Singing in a COVID World

I don’t know whether you’ve seen it, but there’s a YouTube video called ‘The Blessing’ doing the rounds on social media at the moment. It’s a collection of hugely talented vocalists from different churches recording a song together. It sounds awesome. But it made me aware that the musical component of our meetings has taken something of a hit over the last few weeks! Don’t get me wrong. Some of the stuff we’ve listened to or sung along to has been of the highest quality (insofar as my untrained ear can tell, anyway!) It’s just there’s something missing as I sing along in the privacy of my room hearing only my own voice. And that something is you. It’s going to be brilliant to be back singing together again at some point.

I came across this quote from the German Reformer, Martin Luther, this week. He wrote it in 1538. 

‘A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvellous creation of God must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs’ 

Straight talker was Martin. But he has a point!

Singing is a terrific thing. It’s an especially brilliant thing to be able to do as a Christian. Because we’ve really got something worth singing about. I remember a few years’ ago when our children were way smaller than they are now. We were travelling in the car to someplace or other. The car stereo was on and one of them asked what the song was about. One of the other kids said, ‘it’s about love (… pause …) they all are’. It wasn’t said in appreciation of the subject matter!

Of course, love is a worthy subject for a song. But we‘ve got many more things worth singing about. Only this morning in our family devotions, were reading that the church is God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9). Now that’s a song topic to die for.

Singing, as one writer put it, ‘is a form of emotionally super charged speech’. I agree with that. It’s like saying something but on steroids. It’s words but they pack way more punch than if we just said them. If you remain unconvinced of this, take a recent song and say the words out loud. They sound way weaker than they do than when they’re accompanied by instrumentation! So, I’m all for singing. Singing supercharged biblical truth is a massively helpful thing to any congregation. It’s just not what it feels like at the moment, is it?

There are many things I’m looking forward to when we’re allowed to gather again. Singing, is one of them!

Christianity Explored - Online

UPDATE: WE POSTPONED FOR A WEEK TO GIVE OTHERS A CHANCE TO JOIN US - WEEK 1 NOW 10TH MAY: ALL WELCOME!

This Sunday at 8 pm we'll run our first-ever online Christianity Explored introductory course. Given that it's taking place online, it's ideal for anyone with an internet connection regardless of where they live. So think and pray about who you know how could benefit from joining us. They’d be really welcome.

At the moment it's scheduled for there weeks only. In those three weeks, we'll cover

1. Who is Jesus?

2. Why did he come?

3. What difference does he make?

It'll run from 8 pm to 9.30 pm. 

Email peckhamchurch@gmail.com for further details.

An Unforgiveable Omission!

I somewhat passed over one of the most amazing verses in the Bible yesterday. Forgive me. 

1 Peter 3:18 must be up there with John 3:16 as one of the best ‘go-to’ verses to explain the Christian faith in a nutshell. Where else would you go? It also happens to be one of my favourite verses. I first learnt of its existence when being taught how to explain the gospel using the Two Ways to Live outline. So, forgive me if I’m permitted a brief opportunity to spell out its significance. In case you’ve forgotten, this is what it says,

‘For Christ also suffered once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God’.

As I mentioned last Sunday, it’s not really the main point of the passage. (This is my way of justifying why I paid it relatively little attention!) Verses 18-22 are about Jesus’ triumph over all opposition. His suffering, through his death on the cross, is the beginning of a journey that ends up with him enthroned at the Father’s right-hand side with every opponent subjugated under his authority. But the truths that verse 18 contains are so valuable that I thought we’d benefit from looking at it in a little more detail.

We learn three breath-taking truths from these words.

1.     Jesus’ death was a sufficient sacrifice

Peter tells us that Jesus ‘suffered once for sins’. In other words, nothing more had to be done to deal with the problem of sin. The Temple could be closed. The Priests could be given their P45s. Full and final atonement had been made. We don’t atone for our sins. He has. It’s done and dusted. Jesus has sorted it by his death on the cross.

2.     Jesus’ death was a substitutionary sacrifice

Peter tells us that Jesus suffered as ‘the righteous for the unrighteous’. In other words, he took our place. He substituted himself onto the field of play and we were taken from it. He came on. We came off. It's a swap. And so he took what was coming to us; namely punishment. He died in the place of sinners and endured his Father's anger against sin. Not his own. Ours. He didn’t have to die. He chose to. And he chose to die in the place of others. None of whom deserved it.  What drove Jesus to do such a thing? Love.  

3.     Jesus’ death was a salvific sacrifice

Peter tells us that Jesus suffered ‘to bring us to God’. In other words, he died to reconcile us to a God who otherwise has every right to be angry with us. And so, as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross, we can know God as our loving heavenly Father rather than fear him as our righteous wrathful judge. He's saved us. From hell. For heaven. For an eternity with God and his people in a perfect New Creation. 

It’s hard to think of a verse that so comprehensively encompasses the extraordinary achievement of Jesus’ death on the cross. 

Hearing God's Word Online

Because the church is in lockdown, we’ve shifted everything online. And that includes the sermon. I don’t know how you’re finding that. But I suspect you’ve realised, like me, it’s not the same as it usually is.

Here are three things that we might want to consider when listening to our church sermon online

1.     What’s different?

Well, obviously, we’re online! It’s virtual church not in real life (irl) church. And so we’ve lost something of the dynamic of being actually physically with others in the same place at the same time. The odds are, we’re now in our kitchen, or sitting room or bedroom. We’re probably looking at a screen on our laptop or our phone. We may have our headphones in. And we may not have anyone to share the experience with. That’s all a little unusual because real church is intended to be interactive in a way that online church really isn’t. And we’ve lost something of the encouragement that comes from being sat next to people and feeding off their presence and energy. We’re still being spoken to, sort of. But it’s hard to build the same rapport between speaker and hearer when you can’t actually see one another! Preachers can respond when they can spot the audience’s reaction to what they’re saying because they can stray off-script and tweak how they say things to help the audience in front of them. You can’t do that online. It’s more broadcast than conversation. That’s different.

2.     What’s dangerous?

Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m easily distracted if I don’t keep my eyes on something. In real life church, if I lose track and start looking out of the window or I give in to my weariness and my eyelids start to droop then the odds are that the preacher will spot it. He probably won’t name me and shame me. But if he’s any good then he’ll raise his voice to grab my attention, fix me with a knowing look, raise an eyebrow in my direction and carry on. Or I may just be imagining that. But it’s so much easier to hold my limited attention span in a live speaking situation. We know that at the moment the preacher is doing his best to look down his webcam and make it hard for me to look away. But I also know he’s not looking at me! One of the reasons that we’ve gone with Zoom for church rather than with streaming options is that it’s live. The speaker does get some impression of how people are reacting. Sort of. And just like in a real-life church sermon, you can’t press pause in real church when it’s on Zoom. And so that helps us maintain our focus on what’s being said up front.

3.     What’s desirable?

The bottom line is still the same. We listen to an online sermon in online church for the same reason that we listen to any sermon. We want to hear the word of God explained and applied to our lives in a way that engages our minds to reach our hearts so that our wills might be changed to respond in repentance and faith. That’s no different to usual. And the truth is, it can still happen. But that attention span thing is a thing, isn’t it?! At least for some of us. I’ve always found taking notes helpful. I’ve got notebooks from down the years with old sermon notes in them. The truth is that I rarely look back at them. And that’s OK. The point is that they’re helpful in the moment. I try to ensure that note-taking is not a substitute for thinking. Admittedly, multi-tasking as a man remains a challenge. But if I can walk and chew then surely I can write and think at the same time! I don’t try to write everything down. I don’t need a transcript of what the preacher says. I could always steal his notes if I needed that. But I want to be able to understand the main points he’s making and scribble them down, perhaps highlighting the key Bible passages that support them. I might put some questions that I have down to think about later. And I’ll scribble down. Because I’m a visual thinker I’ll also use diagrams and sketches to illustrate the point. The point is that having a pen in my hand and a piece of paper helps me interact with the sermon and concentrate. It may be that you’re the same. However we do it, the point is that listening to a sermon is meant to result in understanding what God is saying to us so that we can respond in exactly the way that he wants us to. If taking notes helps you maintain your concentration, then go down that route. Do whatever you need to do to avoid getting distracted.

We’ll be back online on Sunday morning. E-mail us at peckhamchurch@gmail.com if you want to hear the latest in our sermon series in Peter’s First Letter. We’ll be in chapter 3:13-22 thinking about how Christians should respond to hostility from the community.

A 1 Peter Easter

I hope that you had a terrific weekend celebrating our hope in the face of death. We need it, don’t we? Perhaps the uncertainty living under the shadow of COVID-19 has brought the fragility of our existence home to us in a way that few other things have. If you missed our Easter Day sermon, you can find it here on our new YouTube Channel. 

I’ve been re-reading 1 Peter to prepare some Bible Studies for our CONNECT Bible study ‘Zoom’ groups this term. And I was reminded of these terrific verses from the first chapter. I thought they’d encourage us. Peter writes,  

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Praise be, indeed! Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we have an inheritance. God is going to give us a heavenly inheritance that he’s got for every one of his people. Like Jesus, we too will be raised to life again from the dead into an existence in which we will be utterly transformed. It’ll still be us. But it’ll be the very best version of us. It’ll be eternal, unblemished, ‘just like’ Jesus us! Do I get a ‘whoop’ for that?!! In these few verses, Peter tells us three things about our heavenly inheritance.

1.     Our heavenly inheritance is completely undeserved. Peter writes, ‘In his great mercy he has given us new birth’. And so, the reason we’ve got this inheritance says way more about God than it does about us. We’ve got it because of his great mercy and for no other reason. We don’t get heaven because of who we are but because of who God is. He is merciful. It’s like being super kind, but better. And that’s brilliant because he doesn’t change. If it depended on us, we’d be stuffed wouldn’t we? But because it depends on God’s faithfulness to deliver on his promise it means I can’t mess it up.

2.     Our heavenly inheritance is absolutely permanent. Peter writes of this inheritance that it, ‘can never perish, spoil or fade’. In other words, it lasts. It’s imperishable so it can never wear out. It’s undefiled so it can never spoil. And it’s unfading so it will never disappear. It’s permanently permanent!

3.     Our heavenly inheritance is totally guaranteed. Peter writes, ‘this inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through God’s power are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation’. In other words, we haven’t received our inheritance yet. But no matter, because God’s keeping it safe in heaven and he’s keeping you safe on earth. He’s looking after our heavenly inheritance and he’s looking after us. It’s going nowhere and neither are we. If we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ then God is powerfully preserving us so that we go the distance.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for sure!

These words of Peter help us see that the resurrection isn't only for Easter Day. It's for Easter Monday. And then the Tuesday that comes after it. The one that's not called anything because it's just normal. But then again, there are no normal days since God raised Christ from the dead, are there?!

What's so 'Good' about Friday?

What good could possibly come from a day on which humanity killed its creator?

Colossians 1:21-23, which we’ve been studying in our CONNECT small group Bible studies, helps us understand part of the answer,

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

There are four quick things to say about this passage. There’s a ‘before’, an ‘after’, a ‘because’ and an ‘if’.

The ‘before’ is the depressing threefold description of what we used to be like. Like all of humanity, we were alienated from God, enemies in our mind and evil in our behaviour. That’s not a pretty picture. And we may read it and feel hard done by, or somewhat misrepresented. But, when we stop and think about it and we’re honest with ourselves, we realise that the cap fits. We haven’t always felt comfortable when the subject of God comes up. We were resistant to the idea that somehow we were answerable to him. And we were often ashamed by some of the things in the way we therefore lived. That’s the ‘before’.

But wonderfully there’s an ‘after’. Those very same people, Paul says, are holy in God’s sight, without blemish and free from accusation. In other words, God has chosen them to belong to him. Every last stain or trace of moral filth has been removed. And no one has got anything on us anymore. That’s quite a transformation. How can the very same people be so very different? What accounts for it?

This is the ‘because’. It’s because of the reconciliation brought about through Christ’s physical death. On the cross a monumental swap took place. Jesus became us so that we could become him. He became sin and was punished in our place. And we became righteousness so that we could be reconciled to God. That’s why this particular Friday was good. ‘Good’ doesn’t really do it justice, does it? The Bank Holiday should be renamed the Greatest Friday!

But there’s an ‘if’. And the ’if’ reminds us of our responsibility to keep on keeping on. Paul puts it this way, ‘if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel’. There’s nothing like the hope held out to us in the gospel. It makes no sense whatsoever to go anywhere else, does it? Where else are you going to get the kind of swap given to us in Christ?

Our Good Friday online meeting was a terrific encouragement to remember that Christ’s death brings forgiveness to us. If you missed it, it’s on YouTube here.

What's Comforting you in a time of Coronavirus?

What do you find comforting and reassuring in life in general and perhaps especially in the face of death?

Is that not a key question at this time?

We’re whingeing about the lockdown. But only the most risk embracing are recklessly ignoring the Government advice. We may know some among the 3,000 people who chose to congregate on Brockwell Park on Saturday. We may even have done the same on Peckham Rye. But most people are somewhat anxious at the prospect of getting the virus. The truth is, it could kill us. And we don’t want that.

So what comforts you in the face of death?

Back in the day, some old clever Christian dudes wrote an answer. OK, so it was 1563. It was in the German city of Heidelberg. And it was Zacharius Ursinus (no, me neither) who was the principal author of what became known at the Heidelberg Catechism.

Can you believe that the very first question they posed was this, ‘What is your only comfort in life and in death?

It sounds so contemporary.

This was their answer.

‘That I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him’.

[Mic drop].

Boom! What an answer.

The truth is that there are lots of things that comfort us at the moment: Netflix, salted caramel ice cream, chardonnay, friends and not necessarily in that order. But none of them really comforts us in the face of death. I’m not about to trust any of those things to get me through death as much as I might like them. The question posed asks us to pick one. Just one. What’s the thing that’ll get you through life and death? What allows you to live in the present and face the future unafraid?

What’s your answer?

If we’re Christian then we belong to God. We’re his. And he will preserve us. That’s our security right there. And no one can ever take it from us. Ever.

Jesus put it this way, ‘And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day’ John 6:39&40.

So if you want rock-solid confident comfort in the midst of what could be the single most traumatic thing we’ve faced as a community, then look to the Son. Put your faith in Christ and receive his promise that he will raise you up on the last day to be with him in heaven for all eternity. We may not be saved from Coronavirus. It may get us. There are no divine promises of protection from Coronavirus. But there is the cast-iron promise of Jesus that he can save us through it.

The Leadership Project

The newly launched ‘Leadership Project’ embodies one of the key convictions that led to the establishment of Bridge Church Peckham; a desire to raise up and train young leaders who otherwise might not get access to gospel ministry training.

Wonderfully, this is a desire that’s shared with other local churches. The idea originated from our Co-Mission Cluster with Brixton Local Church (BLoC) and New Life Church Catford (NLC). Understandably, BLoC has thrown all its energies into the merger with Stockwell Baptist Church and so they’re not involved this year. But NLC is. And others are planning to join us.

New Life Church Catford co-pastor, Zim Okoli describes The Leadership Project as ‘a monthly intensive training course to prepare Christian men and women in South East London for ministry leadership’. He’s absolutely nailed it. We meet monthly on a Friday night after work at the new Globe Church space in Willcox House in Borough, central London. Our aim is to provide a number of key elements each evening.

First of all, is food. Let’s be realistic, some people are coming straight from work and they need to eat if they’re ever going to be able to concentrate! But given that lots of the course participants don’t know each other, it’s an opportunity to get to know one another and enjoy each other’s company.

Secondly, input. It’s not a lightweight curriculum that we’ve put together. We may have bitten off more than we can chew for any day of the week, let alone a Friday night! We’re working our way through 1 Timothy in leader-led expositions. We’re also exploring an interpretative tool to help us better understand and teach the Bible. Participants are required to have read a couple of chapters of a Systematic Theology coursebook and be ready to discuss key doctrinal issues in small groups. And then we have a ministry discussion.

Thirdly, ambition. We want to raise people’s aspirations for serving God in the local church and using the knowledge that they’ve gained for the benefit of others. It may well be that this serves as a stepping stone to them accessing further training at places like the Cornhill Training Course.

It’s early days. We’re only a month in. We’ve just done it once so far. And we didn’t manage to fit the doctrine discussion in because we started late and spent too long eating pizzas! But this first year is the pilot. We’ll respond to feedback and reshape it in response for next year. But it’s properly exciting.

It's not 'The Silver Bullet' but ...

We moved to a new venue on Sunday. And we’re pretty excited. We’re now meeting in St Mary’s Primary School in Peckham.

We know a building is not the silver bullet of church growth. You need to do a whole load of other things other than find a killer venue to get people to come to church. And ultimately, as 1 Corinthians 3 reminds us, God is the one who gives the growth. But it’s a start! A bad venue can sink you. A good venue can help you gain some traction.

We’ve been well served in our previous venues but this move gives us three extra things:

1. It gives us credibility as a church who want to be in Peckham for the people of Peckham. Nunhead isn’t Peckham. And that’s where we’ve been. I suppose you could argue that Nunhead is a suburb of Peckham. But I’m not sure you’d get away with that with the people who live there! We’re keen to be in Peckham. It’s where we think God has called us to be. And this means we can move closer in. We’re a stone’s throw from the station now. Admittedly it’d need to be a small stone and a big arm. But we’re just around the corner from the Bussey Building.

2. It gives us visibility among the local community. We’ll be able to stick up banners, flags and so on so that anyone driving, walking or cycling passed on a Sunday will know who’s there and why we’re there. Yesterday all we had to say who we were was a lone flag and a ropey little sandwich board on which we’d scribbled a few details. But people paid attention to it, they stopped, some to chat to find out a little more about us. That was really encouraging.

3. It gives us flexibility for our meetings. There’s terrific outside space so the kids can let off steam. There’s a room for creche so that parents and babies can escape when they need to. There’s a lovely hall with all the audio visual stuff that we need. We can serve refreshments and people can mill around chatting before and after the ‘formal’ meeting. There’s a library space with some sofas so that people can sit, catch up and pray together.

It’s an exciting new stage for us. We’re very grateful to God and to the wonderful people at St Mary’s who’ve made it happen. If you’d like to come and visit, join us. We have refreshments from 10 till 10.30 am and then chruch ‘proper’ starts at 10.30 am.

Powerhouse - the BCP Prayer Meeting

It’s not what we call it; the prayer meeting. But we do believe it. ‘Powerhouse’ could work. It says what we think. Perhaps I’ll run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it. But before I do, I have a confession to make. It’s about prayer meetings regardless of what you call them. I rarely feel like going. There you go, I’ve said it. I know. It’s rubbish. But I’m being honest. And I’m going to hazard a guess that I’m not alone! Am I right?

It’s not that I don’t like them. I do. Once I’m there and I get going. It’s the idea of them I don’t like. And it is unquestionably the case that I have attended more church prayer meetings in my Christian life than I would otherwise have done for the simple reason that I have been employed by the church that’s holding them. It’s also helped that I’ve had to be responsible for hosting and leading most of those prayer meetings. And if I don’t turn up, people notice.

But the truth is, even if it’s not a battle to get there, it’s a battle to feel like I want to be there. And, for me, the battle rages hardest during those months in the UK Calendar when it’s dark outside. And so May, June and July are my sweet spot! But even then, it’s a struggle. And it’s a struggle because I’m a sinner. I’m independent. I think I can do it on my own. I want to do it on my own. And I try to do it on my own. And prayerlessness is an assertion of independence because nothing says dependence like seeking the provision of our loving heavenly father.

And so, it was good to have our first ever ‘proper’ church prayer gathering last Wednesday. This not meant to imply that we’ve never prayed as a church before. We have. In fact, for the first six months the only meetings we had were prayer meetings. Every month. We prayed about the plausibility and possibility of planting a church in Peckham. And amazingly we can now look back on those meetings that started a year ago with retrospective fondness. Tomorrow we ‘go live’. But last Wednesday night was the first official Bridge Church Peckham prayer meeting. And it was terrific. We were few in number but that made it intimate. We were in a home and not a church building or school hall but that made it comfortable. We didn’t have a large sheet full of details but that made it spontaneous. It was like the much bigger more complex prayer meetings that I’ve had the privilege of being a part of over the past few years paired back to the simplest essence of prayer: God’s people petitioning him for his provision.

I’m not saying that my unbelieving independence has been overcome. I fully expect that to be a constant battle until my sinful nature is destroyed. But I am saying that the idea of them is that bit more attractive than they’ve been for a while. See you at the next one?

Laid Back Vision Lunch & Low Key Launch

Next Sunday we go live. Normal Sunday meetings. This past Sunday was our last as a launch team. We had a magnificent bring and share lunch together. And somehow there was enough to go round. I know, go figure! Remi Adidere came and spoke to us about his experience of being a part of the Co-Mission & Grace Church Brockley church plant, New Life Catford. And he then explained and explored the implications of Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed for us. We also thought afresh about why we’re doing what we’re doing just in case we’d forgotten or become unconvinced in a moment of faithless risk-averseness over the Christmas period! And we prayed.

And so next week is our low key launch. Can you see how we’re ramping back the expectations? You may think that’s somewhat lacking in adventurous faith. And you may be right. But it’s hard to make a massive impact when you’re only 25 people! And ‘launch’ conjures up images of a huge boat sliding down the slipway into the harbour after the Queen has smashed a champagne bottle on the bows of the new ship. It implies making a big splash. And we feel more like a paper boat being dropped into the Atlantic. We’re not sure the ocean of people in Peckham will notice. Not yet at least. But in time we hope. Like the mustard seed, we’d love to grow.

If I’m honest, I’m not sure that there’ll be a massive difference between the launch Sunday and launch team meetings. Those launch team meetings have involved careful sequential exposition of passages in Ephesians, occasional singing and congregational praying. That’ll sound a lot like church to those of you with a biblical ecclesiology! But this Sunday we throw the doors open to the people of Peckham. And they’ll be very welcome. After all, one of the reasons that we’re doing this is for them. As Adrian said in the recent Co-Mission video, ‘there are other faithful evangelical churches who’ve been around in Peckham a lot longer than us. But they’re not going to be able to reach every one who lives here’. Depending on where you call it quits, there are over 70,000 people in the five local electoral wards. We’re not going to be able to reach them all either. Peckham needs more church plants! But we’re focussed on our low key launch Sunday for the time being. And that seems like more than enough to be getting on with. But in God’s kindness, we have all we need in place. We have a place to meet (our temporary home in the Salvation Army building on Gordon Road, SE15). We have musicians. We have a preacher and a passage (Adrian Yeboah on Mark 1:1). We have people. We have a great God. And we have reasons to praise him.

And so, tell your friends. We’re open for business. In a manner of speaking. We’re going to be working our way through the Gospel of Mark until we finish it at some point in the summer. And so it’s ideal for anyone who wants to explore the Christian faith through one of the earliest historical accounts of his life, death and resurrection. We’ll let you know how Sunday goes at some point next week. I need to go on work on a new infographic idea I’ve been having.

A Christmas Retrospective

So we actually pulled it off. In God’s kindness. I know you were all on tenterhooks!

Like all the very best church planting, it was all a bit last minute and seat of your pants stuff. But I wouldn’t want you to think that it wasn’t carefully planned and meticulously well implemented. It was. It’s just that you know there are going to be some unforeseen unfortunate events! My personal favourite was the moment when we lost power to the keyboard mid carols and two of us were scrabbling around on our knees in the dark trying to work out which lead had become dislodged from which socket. It was only afterwards that someone pointed out that the singlest biggest clanger of the evening had been the bit where the band played Once in Royal David’s City to the tune of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. No one seemed to notice!

All in all, it really was a terrific evening. We had loads of guests so that we were almost twice as many as we usually are. OK, that’s not that impressive if you’re only six people. But we’re normally about 25 and there were only a few shy of 50 in the room. That was terrifically encouraging. For sure, the brilliant carol services at our friends, All Saints Peckham would have been in their hundreds. But the guys who came to us weren’t planning on going to those. And so we seemed to be reaching a group of people who otherwise might not have gone to a carol service at all. That was exciting. The gospel is such good news that it’s fabulous when people get to hear it in an environment that’s conducive to listening.

As expected given the talented line up, the music was lively. The decoration was inspirational and very ‘new’ Peckham. The recycled cardboard Christmas tree and hessian baubles screamed ‘smashed avocado and knit your own yoghurt’ in a wonderfully ironic self deprecatory way. Whilst we’re on the subject of self deprecation, I think I did an adequate job in speaking. I did my best and tried to bring my ‘A’ game. I knew that I had limited time. I’m not sure what people were expecting from what we entitled as a ‘Christmessage’. My guess is that if you go to a Christian event you know there’s going to be a sermon of some sort. But I also imagine they think that’s a ten minute thought for the day kind of a thing. I stretched the ten minutes out to fifteen. And spoke quickly. Too quickly, I suspect. But I did my best to explain that the single greatest present that we could ever receive has already been given to us by God in Christ. People listened. They may well have been persuaded. Time will tell.

It may well be that we do this again. For lots of us, we’d never done anything like this before. New Year’s Eve Watch Night services are a much bigger affair. But it was good to do this. And to do it together. But we’ll probably wait till next December before doing it again!

Christmas Carol Event

We've got our first ever 'public-facing’ event this Sunday. I’ve done this kind of thing lots of times before. But it doesn’t get any easier. I’m a familiar mixture of unbridled excitement and paralysing anxiety. Either way, it’s not great for the stress levels and I’m not the easiest man to be around right now. I’m excited because if it all comes off, it’ll be brilliant and we’ll go into Christmas on a real high. But I’m anxious because it could all go pear-shaped. But I’m choosing not to focus on that. It could. But there's very little I can do about it!

I couldn’t think of a better event for Bridge Church Peckham to go public with, than a carol service. And it’s not simply because we love Christmas. We do. After all, what’s not to love about mince pies, mulled wine and historic folk music about Good King Wenceslas. But one of the key drivers for wanting to start a new church in Peckham is to join with other local churches who are trying to reach the people of Peckham with the good news about Jesus Christ. And this seems to be a good time of year to do that. People seem genuinely willing to engage with spiritual things around Christmas. It’s as though society temporarily lets its guard down and puts its occasionally suspicious demeanour to one side! We’re allowed to talk openly and even enthusiastically about Jesus Christ; who he was, why he came and what difference he makes. And that’s exactly what we’re about. That’s our greatest passion. We want people who may never have had a meaningful opportunity to engage with the Bible’s take on the biggest issues of life, to have that chance. And if we and our carol service this Sunday afternoon can contribute to that, we’ll be thrilled. We’ll be in Peckham Springs for a 4 pm start and we’d love for you and your friends to join us.

Richard Perkins

Lead Planter

The space we’re going to transform and fill with Christmas cheer!

Another (New) Leader

Back in the summer, we were able to announce to the assembled gathering at our ‘Planting in Peckham’ prayer meeting that Adrian Yeboah had agreed to join us on the leadership team. That was terrific news. And it remains terrific news!

We’d been putting lots of important things on hold until we had someone like Adrian in place. We always wanted to have a culturally and ethnically diverse leadership team. Nigel and Richard really are quite different to one another. But they don’t look like it. If we’re honest, they’re both middle aged, middle class white men. If we’re ever going to ‘grow a church in Peckham of such diversity that it can only be explained by the gospel’, we knew that we simply had to find someone who was representative of a different culture to them. And we were prepared to wait until we found that individual. Wonderfully God has provided a man who was not only willing to work with them, he seems genuinely enthusiastic about doing so!

Adrian has been married to his wife, Abigail since January 2015. Together they are parents to a lively toddler, Mickey. Adrian is a currently at London Seminary, where he is studying theology and we will be supporting him as he completes his course over the next few years. Abigail combines being a Mum and wife with working full-time in business consultancy providing insight into the way management teams function.  

Born in London and descended from Ghanaian parents they are now living in Peckham. It’s wonderful to be working together to try to grow an intentionally multi ethnic, multi cultural and multi generational church in Peckham.

We’re hugely grateful for the assistance of those who’ve helped the Richard, Nigel and Adrian in their ongoing conversation and the many who’ve been praying behind the scenes. It’s also worth saying that together the three of us will be working on further strengthening the leadership team by diversifying the composition of that group. At present Nigel will fill the role of Senior Elder. Richard will be the Lead Planter. And Adrian will come on board as the Minister in Training whilst he completes his studies at London Seminary. But please continue to pray that the Lord provides us with the godly, able leaders that Peckham needs.  

This appointment has been the product of a considerable period of prayerful reflection by all concerned. That’s not because we were uncertain so much as we were all acutely aware that the relational fit and chemistry will matter hugely as we embark on a new thing together. I imagine the devil would love to see us distracted, disagreeing and disunited and so please pray that we’re humble, gentle, respectful, prayerful, careful to listen, clear in speech, of one mind and enjoy these early stages of trying to plant a church together.

Adrian Yeboah in action

Christmas Carols

So, it’s been a while hasn’t it? Sorry about that. Lots has been happening. But it’s all been behind the scenes. We’ve got so much we want to tell you. And we will. But this is most important slash urgent right at the moment.

We’re providing a Christmas Carols event for the people of Peckham. Other carol service providers are available. But this is ours. And we’re a little bit excited. We’d love you and your friends to come. It’s on Sunday 16th December. We’re starting at 4 pm. And the best bit is that it’s in Peckham Springs.

Just so that you know what to expect, let me describe what I think we’re looking at. We’re thinking six carols, some Christmas readings, a ten-minute Christmessage (did you see what we did there?!), mulled wine and mince pies and loads of social interaction. Come if you can. And bring your friends.

Peckham Springs accessible from Blenheim Grove

Church Planting - from the inside!

It was over breakfast, yesterday in Streatham, that I realised the time had come to return to blogging. It's been a while. For a number of years I'd dumped a whole heap of ill-informed opinion online at theurbanpastor. But there's been a six month hiatus caused largely by stepping back from being the Senior Minister at Christ Church Balham and needing to give my attention to what was coming next. However, in conversation with a good friend who was considering whether to join our launch team over a flat white and an enormous croissant, I realized that people simply didn't know where we'd got to in our plans to plant in Peckham. And so this is an attempt to address that.

It's going to be an account of church planting; from the inside, through the eyes (and heart) of a planter. I simply want to keep people up to speed on what's going on and where the Lord has brought us thus far. I won't be able to tell you everything. But I'll try to tell you more than I should. I'll preserve people's anonymity where to reveal their identity would be to cross a boundary. So whether you're likely to come to join us, or whether you're intrigued by what we're doing or whether you just want to know what planting feels like and looks like from the inside then hopefully this diary of a church plant will give you an insight into what's involved. 

A whole heap has happened already. And I'll need to bring you up to speed on that. We're not where we want to be, at this point in time. We'd love to be further on. But we're not where we were this time last year. Just like my Christian life! But we have much to give thanks to God for. And I'll spell out some of that in the posts that follow.