Carey Conference 2014

There was as usual a variety of subjects addressed at this year's Carey Conference (7-9 January).

Dr Robert Oliver introduced us to a 'Baptist' regicide, Edmund Ludlow, and raised interesting questions about motivations for opposing the king - we could have done with more time to open this up.

Lewis Allen gave a heart-warming paper on the Sabbath, tracing a Puritan and Reformed theology of the Lord's Day in a most refreshing way. Questions were asked and the subject dominated the Q&A session on the following afternoon. Three things suggest themselves to me:

1. We do not value the joy of delighting in the Law of the Lord as we should. True spirituality is not so much doing what we want, even from a Spirit-stimulated mind, but obeying God from a desire to do so and out of love for God. Those who reckon the Sabbath is something that is convenient for us but not mandatory deprive themselves of the best motive for observing it, of the best opportunity for pleasing God, and for glorifying God.

2. Do those who argue against the Sabbath see that they are depriving themselves and the church of something that in the Old Testament is unequivocally looked on as a blessing? Why should we lose what is a blessing under the Old Covenant?

3. Are not those who hold the 'new covenant' (i.e. antinomian) position, being complacent and even audacious in overturning centuries of Christian, Protestant, Reformed and Baptist history? Our main speaker Gregg Allison of Southern Baptist seminary, said from the platform during the Q&A that he believes there are now only nine commandments. How many churches will one see with nine commandments on their ancient walls? Do we not pause and wonder that we are so willing to overthrow our heritage in this way? Now of course the Bible is our final authority, not tradition (though I firmly believe the Bible teaches the continuity of the Ten Commandments); but at least the weight of Christian history should give people pause for thought.

Elsewhere in the conference, Gregg Allison spoke helpfully on the church, but his addresses, I felt, were more noteworthy for the discussions they engendered than for the content.

John Benton gave an excellent address based on 2 Tim 3 on 'How well do pastors know God?', giving us challenge and encouragement from Scripture, helping us while not laying a guilt trip on us. His main thrust was that it is through obedience that as Christians we grow in knowledge of Christ and that he (with the Father) reveals himself to us - John 14:21-23. He was not suggesting that this is the whole of it, and of course he spoke of prayer, but it was a change from the urging to hours of prayer one rather expects in this kind of address.

Mez McConnell gave us middle class 'dudes' the lowdown on ministry in Edinburgh housing estates ('schemes') and challenged us all to cross cultural ministry and planting churches in the poorest areas. He wore a woolly hat all the way through, which seemed, I thought, like me wearing my Welwyn Sunday suit to lead a service in Niddrie. But it was great to hear of his work among people most of us would never meet let alone get close to. One of his main points was that 'mercy ministries' (and he was rather scathing about the influence of Tim Keller and 'Generous Justice' in this area) are only ultimately compounding the problem - they keep people where they are while giving us rich folks the feeling we are doing something for Jesus. Beware malevolent generosity/crippling paternalism/disabling help.

The conference was brought to an uplifting end by a stirring sermon on Revelation 21 from Luke Jenner, reminding us that we need a clear vision of what the church will be to help us serve in the present. It was a fine sermon, well exegeted, constructed and illustrated and applied helpfully and powerfully.

Overall a good conference.