Month: October 2010

Next sunday afternoon, we will have a baptismal service in the church. It is exciting since the last Baptism was about 5 years ago. I will be leading the service, and Emmanuel Hartiel will be preaching. In order to prepare myself, I was having a look at the 1689 London Baptist Confession on the subject of Baptism. Their first paragraph is interesting. Contrarily to the modern trend that sees Baptism as a sign for the outside world, the confession describes it as a sign for the one baptised. Here is the paragraph in full:

Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptised, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of sins; and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life. (1689 London Baptist Confession, 29.1)

The Westminster Confession of faith says the same thing:

Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.

Have you heard of the Micah challenge? Until recently, I must say I hadn’t. It is an initiative from the International Evangelical Alliance, and a number of Christian Charities. It is “a global coalition of Christians holding governments to account for their promise to halve extreme poverty by 2015.” (Micah challenge website).

A few members here are quite interested in the SEL (the French equivalent of Tearfund), and they would be aware that this Sunday (10/10/2010), is a special Sunday for those involved in the Micah Challenge. The SEL would like churches to get involved in reminding their local MPs about the government’s commitment at the UN to help towards halving poverty in the world by 2015. For this, the SEL would like all churches involved to hold a special service, and for this they have sent a whole pack of activities to take place during that service. I personally find it a bit over the top, but you do not have to share my opinion.

Here in Guingamp, rather than following this activity pack to the letter, we have decided that the Micah project would be mentioned, together with a reminder of a Christian view of our involvment in social work. It will take place during the service, for about 10 minutes.

For this, my colleague and I have agreed to use an Article by Mark Barnes, published a year ago in the Evangelical Magazine (available online here). It is a helpful article which outlines some of the dangers to avoid in order not to fall into the social gospel pitfall.

We will finish this time by a prayer.

Micah Challenge website here.