Saturday Post -- 18/04/15

Not infrequently, as I read over my sermon notes early on a Sunday morning, I think to myself, “This of all weeks”. That was certainly my experience last weekend.

As mentioned last Saturday, we have just begun a new sermon series in 2 Peter, in which the apostle expresses his desire that his readers ‘be on your guard, so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ We do not know too much about the recipients, but it is clear that Peter is concerned for his readers’ continued growth, and especially in the light of repeated assaults by false teachers. Indeed, the theme of false teachers is woven right through the letter, implicitly and explicitly.

So where does this all fit in to April 2015 in northern Bolivia? Well, back in February, I was kindly given the opportunity to speak at a dinner for Trinidad’s pastors and church leaders, in order to promote the Langham Preaching course. The event was really my first foray into the wider church scene here, and an instructive one. The singing was fervent, the music vibrant, the prayers ardent, and chiefly focused on the need for unity among the city’s pastors. The sermon was merely passable – more a meditation on a theme, really – but encouraged by the generally positive tone of the evening, I was happy to see past that.

This group, I was to learn, met once a month on Saturday mornings; I resolved immediately to make the effort to pop along. Well, maybe it was the early start (6am!) and the lack of a free meal, but I began to get a fuller appreciation of things that morning, and I was concerned about what I was seeing and hearing, not least the sermon, which was totally unrepresentative of the text, heavy on prosperity-gospel theology, and despite this, was answered by a chorus of ‘Améns’ at every juncture (is it naïve of me to expect sermons given to fellow pastors to be of an especially high quality, given the preaching abilities of the listeners?). An invitation was then given at the end for those who wanted more of this in their ministry to come forward and be anointed with oil. All but three of us did so. In a town where education levels are so poor that people tend to simply do what someone in authority tells them without so much as a moment’s thought, perhaps I had been overly-optimistic in expecting pastors and church leaders to take the lead in the discernment stakes.

In all honesty, the only thing stopping me from not turning up last weekend was a promise to our fellow missionary KC that I would promote the Emmaus correspondence courses (which FT administers in Trinidad) at one of the meetings. This time, the meeting was largely dominated by administrative concerns, but something that got my nerves twitching was a casual reference to ‘apostles’, e.g., ‘we need to be praying for the situation in such-and-such-a-village, where Apostle Bill has fallen out with Apostle Ben’. Later, an upcoming evangelistic event was being promoted, for which it was incumbent that everyone bring as many people along from their church as possible, in order to hear what ‘Apostle Moses’ had to say.

The apostolic movement is a big deal in Latin America, with many pastors assuming for themselves the title of ‘apostle’ in order to claim for themselves an authority equal to that of the Twelve. And what need, indeed, would one have of Peter and his cohorts, when the Bible is rarely read, when it is mis-preached anyway, and when the word of a pastor in the 21^st century is supposedly more relevant than the ‘living and active’ word of God? Naturally, people tend to get seriously exploited. Up until now, these were things I had only heard about; last weekend was my first exposure to its out-workings right here in Trinidad.

Indeed, going back to 2 Peter, he introduces himself straight out of the blocks as ‘an apostle of Jesus Christ’, stating right from the off that his word carries divine authority; an early salvo against the false teachers of the readers’ time. Here there is only assumed authority in the title, and its occupants are largely preaching heresies.

The prayers for unity, this time, were harder to go along with, all of a sudden sounding more shallow. Unity in the body of Christ is, of course, a noble aspiration, but I’m increasingly realising that its implied meaning in these meetings is more like, ‘willingness to leave one’s brain at the door and submit to some seriously ropey doctrine’.

At the end of the meeting, I got my five minutes to plug the Emmaus courses, with their particular emphasis on personal growth through – wait for it – reading the Bible. For the first time that morning, there was barely an ‘Amén’ to be heard among the assembled pastors and church leaders. A silence that, to me, appeared to speak volumes.

Over the last week, I’ve been chewing over the whole ‘joint-church’ scene, and whether my continued participation can be of any benefit, to myself or others. I’d appreciate your prayers as I think on these questions.

There can be a tendency for us reserved westerners to watch the vibrant Latin American church scene from afar and get a bit sniffy about the emotive nature of it all. But to do so is to question the God-given nature of these peoples. Indeed, such passion is a tremendous asset. Oh for a taste of it in the church in Scotland! As this video reminded me, it’s a question of directing these energies down the correct channels.

Which brings me, finally, to this weekend – specifically last night – when we had our first Bible study as part of the men’s ministry. As we delved deeper into questions of Biblical manhood, I found my interjections as the study’s chairman increasingly infrequent, my Bolivian cohorts taking it upon themselves to minister to one another, be open and honest about personal challenges, and speak truth into the individual needs of the group (“But you must remember, Diego, what the Bible says in…”). So deep did we go that I effectively had to ask my friends to leave, otherwise we could have kept going till well past midnight. No loud music. No emotive gestures from the pulpit. To all intents and purposes, all we were doing was sitting around an open book. But the Latin fire was no less in evidence.

That’s more like it.

Prayer

• Amanda has just got back from the youth leadership meeting (they also take place first thing on a Saturday!) and was telling me there are a lot of interpersonal tensions between some of the young people. Mostly silly stuff, but pray that it wouldn’t become a stumbling block to their participation in the group.
• For Craig as he preaches on 2 Peter 1:5-15 tomorrow. 

Praise

• Craig was able to visit Hernán this week to begin a Bible study, which went really well. He and Elías will each be visiting him once a week in order to keep the momentum going, and give him something important to be thinking about during those long hours in that hospital bed.
• Amanda had an encouraging time this week as she began discipleship with a couple more women.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda