President's diary - January 2025

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Monday 6th January

This evening, I drove to Bristol to meet with the others in my discipleship triplet. We talked about the things going on in our lives – my health challenges, one friend’s plans to move, and the other friend’s need to extricate himself from some of his regular commitments so that he can give time to other things. We also gave each other recommendations about what films and TV series we might watch.

Tuesday 7th January

Most of the students who took the Galatians course I delivered in the autumn will be assessed by writing an essay. One student has opted for an alternative assessment, and I drove to Bristol to hear him give a presentation about the incident in Antioch in Chapter 2 of the letter. Afterwards, I went to play badminton. I didn’t win – I rarely do, but I came away having enjoyed it and with no ill effects from the recent operation.

Wednesday 8th January

This evening, I met with the young man whom I am mentoring through his year as a church intern. The new children’s club he’s helping to lead starts tomorrow and so we were discussing that along with the plans for a new home group for the young adults in the congregation. I walked home feeling very hopeful about his development and the prospects for the church.

Thursday 9th January

This afternoon I taught the first class in the MA module I’m delivering on the ideas of René Girard and apocalyptic thought. It’s part of an MA track organized by my friend Helen at the Baptist college that focuses on how we best understand the violence and violent imagery we find in some parts of the Bible. The group are mostly other Baptist ministers, and I thought we had a useful conversation. Of course, the students might have felt differently but they can’t throw anything at me because all the teaching is happening online.

Friday 10th January

I have a doctoral student who is working on Girard’s ideas, and we are reading through one of his books together. Today we looked at the opening section of Battling to the End. Parts of the argument are quite pessimistic about the capacity of people and nations to restrain their own violence, so it was a relief that the next project involved something loving and peaceful. Becca and I drove to Bristol to have lunch with our daughter and granddaughter. After that we made a post-Christmas visit to the shops.

Saturday 11th January

I drove to Oxford to see my mother. I’m becoming increasingly concerned about her current living arrangements and fearful of the difficult conversations and decisions that may lie ahead. My brother and I think that some changes are necessary but mum is reluctant to even consider any.

Monday 13th – Wednesday 15th January

Off to Derbyshire for the Fresh Streams Conference. Lots of good things were on offer even if, as I get older, I find myself a little more on the reformed rather than charismatic end of the Baptist worship spectrum. It was lovely to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. On the Tuesday morning, I was interviewed as part of the main session and was able to share something about the themes I am pursuing during my year as president.

Thursday 16th January

I found myself driving to Bristol again, this time to take part in a Ministerial Recognition meeting of the local association. We were interviewing a couple of local ministers who are coming towards the end of their period as Newly Accredited Ministers. I had to declare an interest because they are both friends, both former students and one is my pastor. It was great to hear about the progress they are making.

Friday 17th January

Today involved a couple of supervision sessions, one with the student working on Girard and international security and the other with the one working on postcolonialism and Christian Zionism. The second of them is preparing to offer a paper at a major conference in Jordan.

Sunday 19th January

Today I preached at the Baptist church in Loughborough. They are having a series on the signs in John’s Gospel, and I was invited to speak on the first of them, Jesus turning water into wine at Cana. It’s an astonishing story of the power of Jesus to transform.

I found it interesting to think about the two stories in John 2. The first takes place among friends in rural Galilee, which must have seemed to many as being like the back of beyond, and the second happens in the temple in Jerusalem at the very centre of things. One is a story of celebration and abundance while the other speaks of God’s judgement.

I recalled the Old Testament texts that speak of the absence of wine as a sign of God withdrawing his blessing. I remember reading somewhere that the wine at a wedding in Galilee would have been the responsibility of the bridegroom. Indeed, when the wine arrives the steward gives the bridegroom the credit for providing it.

In the next chapter John suggests that Jesus can be understood as a bridegroom but in Cana Jesus was sure that the time had not yet come to step into that role. He acted but without taking public credit. His mother, the servants and his disciples all knew what had happened and his friends recognised that this sign revealed his glory – glory that was then hidden from most but that would be fully revealed at the cross. Then, in the very next story, in the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus carries out the prophetic act that announces the start of his public ministry.

After the service we shared a wonderful church lunch and then, in the afternoon, some of us gathered for a seminar where we discussed how we read the Bible as Baptist Christians. One of the things that I’m keen to remind people about is that our churches are not really founded on our constitutions, rule books or trust deeds. We are called into being by our Messiah Jesus through the gospel. We are not primarily voluntary organisations or charities or leisure activities, we are communities of people following Jesus together.

It’s not that our legal documents aren’t important or that the other ways of understanding ourselves are insignificant, but that our primary way of seeing ourselves should be the way the Bible sees us.

Tuesday 21st – Thursday 23rd January

Off with Nigel, our local regional minister team leader, to the meeting of the Core Leadership Team of Baptists Together. There were lots of significant issues on the agenda including Baptist identity, the review of our financial model, and reparations with respect to slavery and the slave trade. There was lots of scope for deep reflection and for some disagreement, but the conversations were helpful and hopeful.

Saturday 25th January

Off to the church’s ‘Blokes’ Breakfast’ in the local Wetherspoons. It was great to catch up with some of the men from our congregation and to find out what’s happened since I was last there.

Sunday 26th January

I was invited to lead the service and preach at City Road Baptist Church in Bristol. I’ve known the church there for many years. They and the church I pastored shared a young people’s outreach team from the Union’s mission department back in the 90s. I’ve acted as their moderator during the last couple of pastoral vacances. They invite me back to preach most years and a lovely member of the congregation usually gives me a bag of mints because they know I enjoy them.

The church has a lovely building in a culturally significant part of the city but has struggled over the years. A younger church has been meeting in their building and there is now talk of a merger. This is really exciting for the wonderful people who have maintained the church and its witness through the lean years and who now see that it has the possibility of a new lease of life.

I left after the service and drove to Oxford. Before visiting mum, I popped in to see my brother and his wife. They are increasingly concerned about mum’s health, and we had a difficult conversation about her health and welfare before I went to see her.

Tuesday 28th January

This morning, Becca and I visited the local solicitor here in Burnham to sign our new wills and to discuss lasting powers of attorney. This afternoon I spoke to the doctoral student who is working on issues of inclusion and exclusion in 1st Corinthians and then drove to Bristol for badminton. My team was well beaten, but cheered ourselves up by regarding each of the handful of points that we did manage to win as a form of moral victory.

Wednesday 29th January

Golf was postponed – probably just as well given yesterday’s evidence about the state of my hand-eye coordination – and so I had a clear day to catch up with my emails and preparation for future engagements.