Budget 2006

A day for Tories if ever there was one. Not a day for Gordon Brown. In my opinion, he came across as timid and weak, with no real changes to announce, just an hour of pompous self-congratulatory rhetoric.

As an awkward quirk of the system, the Leader of the Opposition only receives a copy of the budget a few minutes before it is announced in the House of Commons. And when they do get a copy, it is with the actual figures blanked out. This means that wheras the Chancellor has months to prepare his hour at the despatch box on budget day, the Leader of the Opposition has no opportunity whatever to make a reply of any substance.

But today this made no difference as Mr Brown managed to squeeze very little substance into the speech; even if David Cameron had had more notice of the document, I can't imagine that you can counter "no-substance" with "substance". Nevertheless David Camreon's reply was excellent, far more engaging than the hour of nonsense spouted by the Chancellor.

In a carbon-conscious world we have a fossil-fuel Chancellor, we heard. He is stuck in the past and correctly characterised by the Opposition as an old fashioned "tax and spend" politician. As DC read out how much Britain will be borrowing over the next few years, it made me think about things from a Christian point of view.

Some Christians think that it doesn't matter how much you borrow, as long as you're helping people with the money. My question is can it ever be right, or (if you want to use this language) even a Godly thing to do, to plunge future generations of Britons into decades of debt for the sake of being able to meet targets? A church wouldn't dream of asking its people to get into debt to fund its social action work, and businesses wouldn't survive on this basis. So why do these people think that it is okay in government? Surely this is appalling stewardship, and David Cameron made this point (from a non-Christian perspective of course), saying that Labour is mortgaging Britain's future.

The characteristic rudeness of the Labour party was highlighted on multiple occasions, first with Jack Straw leaving the frontbench less than a minute into the 8-minute reply and then with DC telling the Prime Minister and Chancellor that it was important that they listen to him, rather than chatting to each other. He was then backed up by the Deputy Speaker who called the speech to a halt to call the entire Labour side to order, telling them to mirror the respect shown to their future leader by the Tories. One Labour MP was even threatened with removal.

It was highlighted that it was highly unlikely that the Chancellor, being the person who has destroyed pensions and blocked reform, could be a suitable person to save pensions and reform public services.

Even the Liberals had a good point to make, highlighting what we now know to be a pre-election bribe in last year's budget. Sir Menzies Campbell asked why pensioners deserved an extra £200 last year, but didn't this year. An insightful question, which I assume will be avoided by Labour at all costs.

Overall though, this was a day for Conservatives everywhere. The Chancellor showed himself to be everything his opponents thought they would need to prove. To quote David Cameron: "He's an analogue politicianin a digital age. Mr Deputy Speaker, he - is - the - past."

Closer To God: April - June 2006

Another shameless plug!

The next edition of Closer to God has hit the shops.

Terry Virgo says:

“It’s difficult to overstate the value of systematic Bible reading. To do so with the aid of helpful notes from a gifted Christian teacher simply multiplies the blessing. Let me encourage you to take advantage of Closer to God and ‘discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness’ (1 Timothy 4:7 NASB).”

I have been using these notes for a while now and they have been an excellent tool for me.

Notable features this time around are:

Church planting: an article by Bob Hunt of All Nations Christian College
‘Resisting the rat trap’: Jonathan Bell on overcoming temptation

Jonathan Bell leads West Birmingham Family Church, a Newfrontiers church in the midlands. He is also the son of Arnold Bell, who leads my church in Sheffield.

Newfrontiers contributors across the series include Terry Virgo, David Holden, John Hosier, John Groves, Jonathan Bell, David & Philippa Stroud.

A Day In Oxford

Not gawping at the city's amazing architecture, but a day in a warehouse in the west of the city with hundreds of other student workers and students from our family of churches.

The AA told me it would take 3 hours to get there, and by the time we had negotiated the snowy hills of Sheffield and the roadworks (which I'm sure were on every road we drove on, that's how long it took. Impressive, AA.

It was so good to see familiar faces from all around the country as you walked through the door; from the first minute to the moment we left there was a sense that this was more than conference, it was family meeting together.

Having outgrown Brickfields, King's Centre (home of Oxford Community Church) is big enough for the annual gathering to grow as we plant more and more churches and more and as more students get caught up in what God is doing through his church.

Worship was led by a band from south London and it was great to be drawn into the presence of God as we sung. Nick Sharp from Grace Church, Nottingham was the main speaker and he spoke hilariously, challengingly and encouragingly from Acts 16:1-10.

Reminding us that the purpose of student work is to catch our students up in this "apostolic slipstream", he said many of the things I lack the boldness to say to the students in my church in Sheffield. He called on us to not let our students just get caught up in the student bubble of campus and CUs, but that through church we are to direct them towards the city and indeed the nations! Students are here to help reach the city, not just other students.

He had three points:

1) We are family. Paul sent Timothy in his place, knowing that as his spiritual son went on his behalf, that the people would see him, Paul. There was clearly a family likeness, a family way about the two, resulting from God joining them. In a similar way, when people look at us they should see the family way, see the similarity between ourselves and those who God has put us alongside. God has joined us as a family of churches and this is something we should play up, not play down.

2) We are on a mission. We need to lead personally in one-to-one evangelism. Our students should know how to share their faith effectivelly in a one-on-one context. Nick drew a comparison between the basic drills of being in the military and the basic drills we need in the Christian life, saying that being able to share the gospel in 2 minutes is one of the most important.

3) Empowered by the Spirit. A community of the Spirit, hearing from God. Are we truly charismatic? Or do we go through church life without that direct and ongoing encounter with the Spirit of God? He was concerned that we don't get into the habit of having a church meeting where spiritual gifts are not used.

As part of this last point, Nick shared how the Nottingham CU is now openly anti-charismatic, so the chaplain has had to start a new group for charismatic christians. He also shared a hilarious story about Terry's visit to the UCCF Forum 2005. One of the exec from the non-charismatic Nottingham CU was at this event and approached Terry to ask him about the fact that God has been using him to heal people recently, particularly people with bad backs.

She had a bad back, and Terry prayed for her and she was completely healed. She was then invited to Grace Church to share her testimony one Sunday morning, and was amazed at the freedom there to pray for the sick. She said that in her own church she has to go into the loos if she wants to speak in tongues! Needless to say, she is now an ex-member of the exec and a member of Grace Church.

It's so encouraging that Terry is part of the UCCF thing, especially that, having been invited as a man of the Word, he is not neglecting the Spirit. It means the prospect of change in many of our campus Christian groups could not be far off.

But, the day got better still. After hearing/seeing Adam Whitlock on Prophetic Evangelism, we had the afternoon to pray. Andy Martin came to share about mission opportunities. He told us (much to my delight): "don't bother going on mission with other mission agencies, the church is THE mission agency, it's God's way. If you have a heart to reach nations, get in touch with us." God powerfully met with many as they acknowledge a sense of call to reach nations for His glory.

It was a great day which was helpful in re-iterating our message and calling once more, that we are a Spirit-filled family on a mission.