Letter from Australia 122 – A Return to my Radical Roots

 Dear brothers and sisters,

It’s been a long time since my last letter – life has been kind of busy! However, I thought I would let you know a major change that has now occurred.   I came to Australia to work in a wider ministry helping churches to do evangelism – firstly with City Bible Forum and then with Evangelism and New Churches of Sydney Anglicans.  To be honest neither of these worked out.   We loved living in Sydney – and I still saw the potential of the work there – but for various reasons – it was just not happening.

In November last year we moved to Newcastle in NSW to help a small, struggling Presbyterian church, Scots Kirk, Hamilton.  https://scotskirk.com/   As someone remarked you are going back to your roots!   For the past few months although I have been working as the minister, officially I have been appointed as a ‘commissioned gospel worker’.    Until last night.

 

 

Last night at the meeting of the Hunter Valley Presbytery, in Grace Presbyterian Church, Wallsend, having passed all the tests, interviews, requirements, I signed the formula and was officially appointed as a Presbyterian minister in New South Wales.  It was a really strange feeling.  There was a sense of Deja Vue.  In August 1986 I did the same in Clyne Free Church, Brora.   Then I was two weeks married, we had just moved to our first home, and I was nervous, excited and raring to go.  38 years later we have moved to a new home, and I am nervous, excited and a wee bit more apprehensive about going! 38 years of joys and sorrows, expectations and frustrations, renewal and reversions, have made me a lot more cautious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been asked a few personal questions which may prove helpful to answer.

• Why did you come to Australia? –

This article in EN summarises my thinking at the time – https://theweeflea.com/2019/03/25/transported-to-australia-article-in-evangelicals-now/

For me coming to Australia was like jumping off a cliff – the problem is that after five years we are still waiting to land!  I don’t feel that I have done what we came to do.  There is a genuine sense of personal failure.   Perhaps we shouldn’t speak in terms of failure so much as terms of patience.    We loved living in Sydney – but we didn’t come here for a holiday or to escape – we came to do the Lord’s work.

• Why have you not gone back to Scotland?

That’s such an interesting question.  It’s perhaps best answered by my pointing out that I am rarely asked ‘why don’t you come back to Scotland?”.     I was heartbroken to leave Scotland, and I still get homesick.  But there is a wider cause and purpose.  Here we have no continuing city!   I came to Australia because I was asked.   I haven’t gone back to Scotland because I haven’t been asked.

In terms of culture, friends and family there are many reasons to go back – not least with the latter.   Having Andrew and the family out here last week was wonderful but also sad.  There is a price to be paid for being a stranger in a strange land.

I fought a lot of battles in Scotland – seeking to get the Church to change and to warn the wider culture about the road we were heading down.   Whilst it was good to see the Free Church change, it was heartbreaking to watch the society go down the route we were warning about.   Politics in the church and politics in the society needed to be challenged.   And there was a price to pay.  A lot of bridges were burned.    And no one is really interested in rebuilding them.

In reading Samuel Rutherford I can so identify with him.  He was only exiled to Aberdeen, the other side of Scotland; but in terms of distance from home that was more than in today’s world being exiled to the other side of the world!

Another way of answering this is just simply the Lord’s call.  We haven’t been called back to Scotland – and we have been called here.  I can’t answer the why.

• Why have you not gone into politics or a cultural ministry?

I give the same answer as I gave in Scotland.  That is not what I am called to do.  And for me being a minister in God’s church is more important than being a minister in the Scottish government.   I am not saying that that is the case for everyone – but preaching God’s word is my Eric Liddle ‘when I run, I feel his pleasure’ moment.

However, I also believe that the Church has to have a prophetic ministry, and we have to speak the Word of God into the culture.   That is why I keep on writing, debating, broadcasting etc.    Doing so in the context of being a minister in a local church helps me to try and keep a balance – and to realise that it is what appears to be ‘the little people’ who are important – not the great, grand and hubristic schemes of men.

• This seems like going back to the beginning – why?

Because that is what I do.  I don’t get called to the big churches.  I don’t fit in with the evangelical institutions.  I find the restraints, political games and compromises too restricting.   In going to a church which is on the point of death and needs resurrection I know that I cannot do it.   I think when I came to Australia, I thought I could do something.   And that was my downfall.    But in coming to a situation where you can only ask ‘Lord, can these bones, live’? you know that only the Lord knows the answer.  And you are entirely dependent on him.  In theory of course every bible believing Christian will say that we are dependent on God.  But in practice we depend on others, on ourselves and on our circumstances as well.

Like Brora; like St Peters Dundee; Scots Kirk had reached a stage where my appointment was a last desperate measure.  And I don’t really know what to do – except preach the Word and see what happens!

• Why a small Presbyterian church?

Presbyterianism is not strong in Australia.  I have no desire to be a Jeremiah but in New South Wales I think it is far weaker than many realise.  There is a desperate need for renewal.  I know that I cannot bring that.  But I hope what God will do is revitalise and renew this small congregation so that others may have hope as well.

And I like the Presbyterian set up.  At its best it can give freedom, support and allows you to be hard core at the centre and flexible at the edges.    (At its worst it can be a bureaucratic nightmare – perfect for amateur lawyers, politicians, narcissists, hypocrites and mini-popes!  Soft core at the centre and hard core at the edges).   The freedom to preach the Word of God is thrilling.   I have been delighted as we have been going through the book of Acts to discover that it is an ideal fit for our situation.  Despite the hundreds of books, conferences, podcasts, training courses etc on church revitalisation – I still come back to this.  Christ is the head of the Church – and he tells us what to do through his Word.

This article perhaps explains my thinking on that best. https://theweeflea.com/2021/03/30/letter-from-australia-86-a-new-beginning/

• What does the future hold?

I haven’t a clue.  I have no great plans.  I have dreams and visions – for without that I would perish.   But I also have this certainty – that God’s word will not return to him empty and will accomplish the purpose for which he sent it.   I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future.    I do have some basic principles/aims/ideas which are as follows:

1. Preach the Word and see what happens – hopefully people renewed, regenerated and restored.  Every evangelical church will see that as a truism.  But I don’t agree.   Too many churches talk about ‘ministry of the Word’ when we mean only one particular way of doing it and we have already predetermined how it will work – who we will reach and what our growth strategy is.   For some of us it is a methodology.  A virtue to be signalled.  A badge to be worn.  As a result we end up with lectures, memes, cliches, and the ‘one size fits all’ style of teaching…. safe, comfortable, short and generally useless.    But real ministry of the word is something profoundly deep, Spirit filled and powerful.

Incidentally, that does not just mean Sunday sermons.  It means in the public square as well as the temple.  And it means to the wider church as well.  I have been sorely tempted to adopt a position of just speaking in Scots Kirk and not saying anything in the wider church.  But it is a temptation that has to be resisted.  We have to listen to one another – and be encouraged and rebuked by each other.

2. Reintroduce the Psalms – Just as I worked to introduce hymns and spiritual songs to the Free Church – I want to reintroduce psalms to the Presbyterians here!

3. Recover the concept and practice of the Lord’s Day. I’m not talking about Sabbatarianism, but more the idea that we set aside one day in seven for rest and public worship.  I think that it is has been overall detrimental to Sydney Anglicanism (and because of its influence – NSW Presbyterianism) to have church reduced to an ‘o’clock’!   People belong to the 8 o’clock, to the 11 o’clock, or the pm!  The trouble is that having moved from attending church twice on a Sunday – we now have a situation where people are attending sometimes just twice a month (lifestyle, holidays, emergencies etc).  It is impossible to build a radical community on that.  No amount of staffs, programmes, media and training courses will compensate for losing the Lord’s Day.     Recovering the Lord’s Day will I think help us in building that radical community – not least because paradoxically it will free up time in the rest of the week for people to live, work and share within their local communities.

4, Establish a truly radical local church and by implication – national. We need biblical elders and deacons.   We need a community that welcomes, challenges, disciplines and loves all.

5. Encourage wholistic mercy ministries – the poor were a priority in the Bible and in the early church. They should not a be a side show in ours.

6. Develop the creatives – God the Creator has made us in his image. We are mini-creators and that should be reflected in every area of the church’s life.

7. Work with other churches. It’s not our church.  It’s His.  It may be that the Lord will not primarily build up Scot’s Kirk – but instead use us to build up and encourage others.  So be it.  I long to see our small building (150 would fill it) full at every meeting.  But we live in a city of 500,000 and a state of 8 million.   150 is a drop in the bucket.    We should be prepared to give up what is not ours anyway to bless others and build the kingdom.

8. Reach out to the Lost. I don’t believe in reaching out to particular groups or targeting people. We reach out to the Lost. Which is everyone without Christ – whatever social class, skin colour, religion, sexuality or any other means by which people identify.   We are all made in the image of God, we are all sinners, and we all need Christ.  He is the One we offer.    God has many people yet in this city.  He knows who they are.  We don’t.  Let’s go find out!

9. Be a hospital for the Lord’s people who have been wounded, broken and damaged.   I have far more sympathy and empathy now with those who describe themselves as ‘churchless Christians’.    It is not a good condition.  It’s like being a homeless human.  You may be without a home, but you are still human.  You need a home.   In the same way churchless Christians need a church.

10. Care for the lambs of the flock – the fact that we have only a tiny number of children is irrelevant. We need to prepare for those who in the providence of God will come.  St Peter’s for many years had only the ministers’ children!  When we left the Sunday school was packed.   In my view we need to care for the children through the old trinity of family, church and school.   Christian education, pastoral care of the young, and support for families is essential.

11. Missions – Encourage mission both at home and abroad. Use media, money and people.

12. Prayer – I leave this to last because it is the most important.

In that regard can I encourage you to pray for the following.

The Workers are few – thankfully the Lord appears to be beginning to answer that prayer.  Sending us some new and gifted people as well as stirring up some of the old ones!

Pray concerning the opposition from within and without that will inevitably happen.  Acts again makes that clear.

Finance – We are in a better position than most small churches, but we still need the resources to grow and develop.

My old minister in Buccleuch, Mr Ross, told me when he put me forward for the ministry of the Free Church, that although I was young (24 when I was ordained), ‘when you are 50 you will have had 25 years’ experience in the ministry – that will be worth its weight in gold – providing you keep your zeal”.   It was that last phrase that challenged me the most.  It still does.  Although it has been worn down, discouraged and damaged by my own, and other peoples sin; I am grateful to the Lord that I still feel essentially the same zeal.  If anything, perhaps more.  Because I know from experience that nothing I do will work, unless the Lord builds the house.   But also, that he is able to do exceedingly more than we can ask or think. Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

And please pray.  Pray for the Church.  Pray for me personally that the Lord would open the doors.  And pray for Annabel my helpmeet.  We do things together and in the providence of God our partnership seems to have worked.  But it is not easy for her.

Annabel was wise enough to suggest when we came here that this was the hardest thing we had ever done.  I thought she was wrong.  After all St Peters only had 7 people when we arrived.  But I now realise she was right.  This is a real tough gig.  But recently it has reminded me of St Peters – I see a cloud as small as a man’s hand.  There is a little sense of God beginning to do something. A few drops of spiritual rain.  Pray that there would be an outpouring!

I promised a while ago that I would send out a regular prayer request.  It is only now that I am prepared to do so.   If you would like to receive it – let me know at theweeflea@gmail.com  And I will send it to you.

I leave you with my two ministry verses

“‘Go, stand in the temple courts,’ he said, ‘and tell the people all about this new life.’” (Acts 5:20)

“But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, ⁷ and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.’ (Acts 17:6 and 7) …. although I prefer the old AV translation…these men who have turned the world upside down!

May the Lord send his own spiritual earthquake to turn this city and country ‘upside down’…!

Yours in Christ

David

https://theweeflea.com/2024/01/08/letter-from-australia-121-small-beginnings/