I became a Christian nearly 46 years ago. I'd been attending a youth group at a local church where each week there was a short talk about Jesus. As I lay in bed one Tuesday night near my 14th birthday, it struck me that if Jesus was really who I thought he was, that I needed to get right with him. I repented of my sin, committed to living as his disciple and then (as far as I can remember) fell asleep.
I began attending church regularly and getting involved in church activities. In time I got married, moved to the outskirts of London and had two daughters. On 19 June 1983, my family visited Westminster Chapel in central London. Dr R T Kendall, who my wife and I had first met a few years before, preached on 1 John 3:16 and it remains the sermon that has made the most impact on me, although I cannot claim to have lived up to it very well. I quote the verse as Dr Kendall did that day: ‘Hereby perceive we love because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.’
On 11 August 1996, I again visited Westminster Chapel. Dr Kendall was on vacation and the guest preacher was the Rev’d Tommy Watson. As he neared the end of his sermon, I felt an overwhelming premonition that what he was about to say would apply to me. ‘God has something you can do’, he said. ‘And by the way, perhaps you’re the only one who can do it. Or you’re the only one who God has earmarked to do the job. And if you don’t do it, it will be left undone.’
As he spoke, I was thinking, Is he really looking at me or is that a trick of the light reflecting off his glasses? Later, I concluded that it was just a trick of the light. Nevertheless, I soon began to pray about what his words might mean for me. A year later, I resigned from the civil service (government) department where I had worked for 26 years and started along the path that has led to where I am now.
As a civil servant, I'd specialised in the enforcement of court orders for debt. I continued with this specialism and after a few years it brought me into contact with a group of people who wanted to set up a charity to help people stay out of debt. I agreed to handle the administration and, unexpectedly, soon found myself visiting schools to teach 15-18 year olds personal finance skills. It was a very steep learning curve!
I wanted what I taught to be consistent with what I believed as a Christian and so began a Bible study that I doubt will ever end. Ten years later, I joined All Souls Clubhouse and it was there that I begin writing these Reflections. I don’t see myself as a minister teaching what Paul called ‘the whole counsel of God’ but as a catalyst, adding a little something to stimulate ingredients already there. Whenever I teach about money, I want people to end up thinking less about money and more about Jesus.
Jesus describes the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for possessions as thorns that choke the spiritual development of individual Christians. More recently, two subscribers to the Reflections encouraged me to think how to express this in the corporate life of the Church, the Body of Christ. I struggled with this until last Friday.
Some readers will know that I've been unwell since November and that, if I hadn’t been, it's unlikely that I would have begun the series on JESUS and MONEY. Last Friday, after nearly five months without a diagnosis, we had a breakthrough when an MRI scan revealed two problems with my spine, one in just the place to cause the various problems in my lower abdomen. As I thought on this, I wondered if it might illustrate problems in the Body of Christ.
Christ is the head of the Church – no Christian doubts that – but in a strategic place on the Church’s ‘spine’ is the influence of money, disrupting the signals from the brain, or head, and causing parts of the body to malfunction. Like the problem with my spine, the point of disruption may not be significant, or large, but strategic.
I think James saw this. He wrote the first of the New Testament epistles and addressed it not to one but to many local churches where the influence of money was causing problems. Rich Christians were indifferent to the plight of poor Christians and the poor Christians were impatient with their rich brethren. That’s why James wrote about perseverance through hardship, the barrenness of faith without works, the responsibility and humility that should accompany wealth, favouritism based on economic status, the need to control our tongues and ‘wisdom from above’ – all of which are fundamental to authentic Christian discipleship.
We all need more light on this. When I finish the current series of Reflections, I may begin a series on James’ epistle, to explore three themes. (1) How should the Body of Christ function? (2) What is the influence of money that prevents this? (3) How can we restore the Body?
Postscript
Dr Kendall is currently teaching at Kensington Temple in London and his Sunday sermons are on preparing for Jesus’ return and the revival that will immediately precede it (he it calls, 'Isaac'). I’ve been influenced and helped by Dr Kendall's insights into this this since he first spoke about them at the Word & Spirit Conference at Wembley in 1992.
I recommend first listening to the sermons he preached at Kensington Temple on 12 May 2013 called The Midnight Cry and Staying Ready, before listening to the current series that began on 9 February 2014 with The Awakened Church. You can find them at www.kt.org/media .
© All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans 2014.
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