Presidential Address 2003
COME HOLY SPIRIT, REVIVE YOUR CHURCH AGAIN!
The Installation Address, given by the new President, Rev. Jim Rea
Some of my friends know that I am very fond of ice cream, and there is nothing to beat the ice cream made on the Newtownards Road.
I always found it hard to pass Archie Desano's little shop and often used to speak to the late Archie about his delicious product. He would tell me how his father, an Italian Roman Catholic called Pasquali, ran away from home and eventually came to Belfast to set up a shop. In fact I was to discover that Archie's father was a really good businessman. He changed his Christian name to Sammy, became an Orangeman and did a roaring trade around the Shipyard. I used to say, "Archie if I only had the recipe for that stuff I would be millionaire." "I'll give it to you sometime," he would reply.
One day when I visited the shop Archie handed me a tiny piece of paper with the ingredients for the ice cream on it. "There it is," he said, and after a pause went on. "You can have; it but I tell you this, you'll never make it." I did not need to be told. I knew that only Archie and a few of the family had the full, secret formula. The correct temperature and timing were the vital but undisclosed dynamics in the creation of this delicious product.
I've never forgotten that comment. "You can have the recipe but you'll never make it." I can't help but see parallels in the Church. As I look at the churches in Ireland I see good recipes, good programmes in training and evangelism, and many wonderful new ideas. Things are changing. We are building new relationships with the Church of Ireland through the covenant, which gives us new flexibility, both in the deployment of our resources and in the sharing of mission and ministry. Programmes to resolve conflict and help us share the future have already made their impact. We are looking radically at how we manage the church through the Connexions Programme. Alpha is another programme that has impacted many people throughout this island in an amazing way.
These things are all most exciting and commendable. Yet in our quieter moments, as we reflect, we see that something is missing. Our society becomes increasingly materialistic and secular and sadly in some situations in the North even more sectarian. As the Churches struggle for relevance we ask," What is needed?"
May I suggest that what we most need is the dynamic of the Holy Spirit coming in full measure? I am happy to call it revival, a term in this dear land of ours which is often hackneyed and misunderstood, but not foreign to the secular world - sometimes even used in the sports columns of the press to describe the new found fortunes of the team. "Ports in revival," I read a couple of years ago, describing the Portadown FC renaissance. I regret to say the renaissance of this club has sadly waned, especially since I became their chaplain!
My theme then is, "Come Holy Spirit, revive your Church again", and I mean nothing that is exclusive. My prayer is for revival that will sweep over the whole people of God on this island. As we look at some of the manifestations of revival, may I say that to a degree some of the characteristics we will be considering are already present? They are not new dynamics; they do happen personally and corporately, even if in small ways. But it is the Spirit coming in revival power that will really revolutionise the church, and impact on this divided nation.
We are not there yet; the recipes may be present and some good things are happening, but the dynamic is missing. The Scottish theologian Sinclair Ferguson poignantly describes revival as, "when professing believers are aroused and non-Christians are brought into the kingdom in large numbers."
What happened on the day of Pentecost and in the early church is not in itself revival, but the ideal model, for which we must always look. It was the beginning of the mighty working of the Spirit in the early Church. Dr Ferguson referring to this says, "The early church was and is the model of what the Church should be like and somehow its dynamic has been evident in times of spiritual awakening and religious revival."
Sunday next is Pentecost. Today is the 6th of June, the anniversary of D Day in 1944, when 59 years ago the allied invasion of Europe took place. D Day meant there would be a VE Day. On this anniversary day we pray for the beginning of a spiritual victory for the Churches in Ireland and the beginning of a new Pentecost.
So what can we expect if the Spirit comes in full measure as on the day of Pentecost? Well lots of things will happen, but I want you all to catch the last bus! While I do not profess to know the mind of God, I see things happening in the early Church that I believe can happen again. Let me highlight five...
1. When the Spirit comes there is a transformation in relationships
The group who met on the day of Pentecost formed a motley crew.
Acts 2:8-11 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, I can go on; they were 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" (NIV)
However it was an amazing meeting. They were not there to hurl insults at each other or to express their differences, but, and I quote from the KJV, Acts 2:1 - And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. (KJV). These people with historic, cultural and ethnic differences and prejudices are now meeting together and relationships are being transformed. All are welcome in this new Kingdom.
Now the question remains, can the Holy Spirit transform relationships in Ireland today? I believe he can. In Northern Ireland we have had the Belfast Agreement, and for a while our optimism was realised with an assembly; but now there is breakdown and regrettably no elections in the foreseeable future. Despondency, disillusionment and worst of all apathy bites again. The reason for this needs no in-depth analysis. It is clearly because people do not trust each other. Honesty and integrity are constantly being questioned and relationships in many places continue to be polarised. Sadly people at all levels in public life engage not only accusing but abusing one another.
However many of us grew up with it. As a young lad living in North Belfast my neighbours told me never to trust the other side. This intolerance is ingrained in many of us and it fuels the sectarianism that some of us are quite unwilling to admit to.
What can change us is the Holy Spirit. To hear the memorable words of Gordon Wilson, when he prayed for those who killed Marie, or the testimony of Michael McGoldrick after the murder of his son, or to listen to Jim Tate a former loyalist para military with Paddy Kelly a former member of the I.R.A. sharing their stories together, is a living testimony to what the Spirit can do. It has been for these people painful and sacrificial.
I will never forget being at a prayer breakfast and listening to Michael Cassidy, leader of African Enterprise, tell the amazing story about the Church in Rwanda, at the time of the terrible civil war. During a Church service one morning men appeared at the door of the Church requesting that all Hutus leave the building and asking that the Tutsi members remain. Those making this order were part of the Hutu army militia going ballistic over recent killings by Tutsi tribesmen. Their aim was to slaughter all of the Tutsis who remained in the Church and to let the Hutus go free.
The leaders begged for time and went inside to discuss the situation with the congregation. After some prayer there came the answer to the militia. It was simple; "In life we belong to Christ together, and so in death belong to him also; we are brothers and sisters together in Christ." There was silence and then the shooting began. Within half an hour 500 people were dead. Relationships transformed by the Holy Spirit brought the ultimate sacrifice. Michael Cassidy told me some days ago that the Rwanda people have been inspired by that example and have seen amazing results with new Churches coming to birth. Truly the blood of the martyrs has become the seed of the Church.
If we seek the Spirit's power are we ready to say, "Whatever the risks, we are neither orange nor green, Protestant nor Catholic, we belong to Jesus Christ." Will we begin to repent of the 'God of Ulster' mentality or the link between Irish culture and Christianity? Will we lay aside the mistaken view displayed on T-shirts that 'God's a Prod', or, for that matter, an Irish republican?
While we criticize our politicians sometimes for not doing enough are we giving the lead in transformed relationships? Can we truly say with Paul in his letter to the Galatians?
Gal 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
Paul further engages us in the Corinthian letter as he challenges us see people differently, to see them no longer from worldly or human point view but rather what they can become and what Christ can make them to be.
But then there is something else...
2. When the spirit comes there is a commitment to social concern
Truly these early Christians had radical social attitudes. They shared their resources and ventured into community living.
Acts 2:44-45 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. (NIV)
The early church was known for its radical social action. Remember, Mr Wesley said that there was no holiness that was not social holiness. As we celebrate the 300th anniversary of his birth on the 17th let us not forget his amazing commitment to radical social change in England. Dr Skevington Wood writes, "Wesley was to come face to face with the poor and they were to become his constituency throughout his long years of gospel ministry. He has also been described not only as a preacher of the gospel but as a prophet of social righteousness."
Our own Dudley Cooney comments in "Methodists in Ireland": "To the working classes of eighteenth century England, with whom the Church had largely lost contact, and who had no vote in the government of the country, the Methodist preachers delivered the liberating idea that each individual was important to God."
And we should be encouraged when we realise that Methodism has been deeply committed to the cause of social concern. Our missionary work and the work of our City missions shine as lamps in dark places. The Container Ministry and the visits of Irish Methodists to work on third world projects are an inspiration.
Yet in the 21st century someone has described Methodists in Ireland as "middle class, aged 55 and homeowners." Sometimes those who are most critical of our outreach to the poor, the marginalized, the asylum seekers and the immigrant workers are those within our Churches. We should feel ashamed that when William Booth sought to reach the prostitutes and vagrants of London his critics were among his own good Methodist New Connexion members. But Booth pressed on and formed the Salvation Army.
You see, when the spirit comes we will be powerfully moved. Paul says in Corinthians, "the love of Christ compels me." When Tommy Coey, an alcoholic, discovered the power of Jesus and his Spirit, he saw the need of the men and women in East Belfast. His love for those who were unloved was without question and so he started a day centre. Some Church members were sceptical. Tommy is now in glory, but what he developed was to become the East Belfast Mission.
If the Church is to experience the Spirit in any measure we will live uncomfortably with the world. We will not always be in line with public opinion on subjects such as the promotion of alcohol as a necessary ingredient of modern living, the exploitation of the poor by giving endless opportunities to gamble on the lottery, or the concerns we have about how the people of Iraq are given back their freedom. And what about third world debt? Are we comfortable with the attitudes of many Western leaders on this one, and their unwillingness to take the debt burden from the poor?
G. K. Chesterton once pointed out that one does not switch on the light to gaze at it, but to look at what it illuminates. When people are illuminated by the God's Spirit they will be deeply committed to the need around them. I remember a lady once saying to me, "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care."
Then, of course...
3. When the Spirit comes there is a sense of wonder in worship
I have to admit I am a bit of a traditionalist. I like the hymns of the Wesleys, and my dad ingrained in me a love of the Old Gospel Hymns of the Sankey and Moody period. But I am not averse to new forms of worship. I guess if I have to work the PowerPoint in heaven I will be in difficulty, but then there is more to worship than methods and order.
Sadly I have observed people in Methodist Churches singing the great hymns with faces that suggest that "they are standing over a bad smell." - (a Donegal saying, according to Ivan McIlhenney). A.W. Tozer, considered worship as the "missing jewel of the evangelical Church."
Many of our young people seem far more excited about worshipping God than those in the older age group. It is moving to listen as they speak about awe and wonder in their midst. I will not easily forget my experience. There he was at the Holy Week Service, kneeling at the communion rail taking bread and wine but sobbing uncontrollably. I found it a little embarrassing. As the service came to an end I approached him and asked why he was upset. "Oh" he said, "I am not upset! I am overcome by the grace and love of Jesus. I am so thankful for what he has done for me." I should have known better, for some years before I had knelt with him in a psychiatric unit as he sought the power of Christ to deliver him from his addiction. Deliverance became his experience and for the twelve remaining years of his life there was wonder in his worship.
The singing was poor and untuneful, but I'll not easily forget the experience of wonder at a prayer meeting on the Shankhill Road as we sang, "Can you wonder why it is I love him so? When I think of all he's done, And for me, the guilty one, Can you wonder why it is I love Him so?"
But it's not about the songbook or about the hymns. Wonder is found in the great liturgies of the Church, in the traditional forms of worship and in the free worship of the Renewal. Let us show tolerance and balance in our understanding of the different ways of worshipping, but essentially in the sense of wonder we look for.
William Temple put it so powerfully when he writes, "Worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, To feed the mind with the truth of God, To purge the imagination by the beauty of God, To devote the will to the purpose of God."
The early Church experienced it, as in Acts 2:43 - "Everyone was filled with awe, and the apostles did many wonders and miraculous signs." (NIV)
And then fourthly...
4. When the Spirit comes there is confidence in the message
Have you ever considered the transformation in Peter? We see him in the gospel story not able to stand up to a little girl as he denies Christ. But now transformed by the Spirit at Pentecost, he engages with the archenemies of Christianity: Acts 4:10 "Then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified."
When the Spirit anoints us our confidence is renewed. In an age when we are up against secular society, when demands for conformity at times has restrained us, when we have wrestled with difficult and complicated issues, when the Church sometimes, sadly, has lost its witness by the failure of its messengers, the Spirit alone can bring back confidence.
In the late 1980s I was in the USA and scheduled to speak to some of the students at the University in Columbus, Ohio. The night before I stayed in a rather run down motel. The heating system sounded like a mini earthquake in perpetual motion and I didn't get a wink of sleep. "Why did I ever let myself in for this?" I thought. My talk at the University the next morning didn't seem all that inspiring and drew the usual questions about Christians at war in Northern Ireland.
Afterwards a lecturer with a broad Irish accent called Dona introduced himself and soon declared himself as a one-time sympathizer with the Provisional IRA and advocate for the arms struggle. I was bit shocked. He explained that he had gone to America to advance his career as an academic but wasn't forgetting what was happening back in Ireland. He took me to dinner and the story began to unfold. He told me how, after coming to the States, he had taken up jogging and how after an injury he required the services of a physiotherapist. "You know," he said, "that man while he worked on my leg told me about Jesus Christ and as a result my life was turned around and my attitudes completely changed."
As I left him I walked on air. I came away with my confidence restored. Ringing in my ears were Paul's words, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation." That encounter reminded me that nothing does more to engender confidence than when people are converted to a living faith in Jesus Christ. Three thousand new converts in one day in one place, no wonder their confidence was high!
The early church was now to be encouraged by phenomenal growth and it is my prayer that everyone in this island, from every religious tradition, would be similarly encouraged as they experience the Holy Spirit falling in power on our churches. It seems often like 3000 days before we bring one person to Christ. The early Church brought 3000 in on one day! Acts 4 tells us that 5000 men alone were added.
This is phenomenal growth, and revival brings growth. It was with such confidence that Mr Wesley rode 280,000 miles on horseback to preach at least twice per day. What a legacy he has left! He put aside all ecclesiastical propriety to share the gospel with the people of these islands and saw thousands of them enter the Kingdom.
Finally:
5. When the Spirit comes there is constant engagement in prayer
Acts 2:42 - "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." (NIV)
It must be said that if prayer was the continuing experience of the early church it has been a forerunner to revival through church history. The name of James McQuilkan may be known in these parts. He with Robert Carlisle and John Wallace started praying in an old school house only a few miles away at Kells, the result being that they were to see the kindling of the 1859 revival in this part of the Island.
It was Corrie Ten Boom who once asked, "Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tyre." Often in this country we have come together in moments of crisis and prayer has been wonderfully answered. I do commend initiatives for prayer pioneered by people like Brother David Jardine and Derick Bingham, which have rendered amazing results in times of great crisis. It was Archbishop William Temple who said, "Coincidences happen when people pray." It has been said, "When people work people work, but when people pray, God works."
Can I ask that we make prayer our steering wheel in these days and not just the spare tyre? That once again we seek the face of the living God? My Calvinist friends remind me that revival is an act of a sovereign God to which I say, "Amen"; but that very same God reminds us, as he did Solomon of old, that if we fulfil these conditions he will answer.
2 Chr 7:14 - If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
We have much to repent of in this island. A book by Sandra Wilson caught my attention recently, "Hurt people, hurt people," and although we, hurt people, hurt each other, yet there is hope. This is a sermon from an optimist! God can change this community, this country, its churches and its people, through repentance, prayer and transformation of personal attitudes.
The Christian Renewal Centre in Rostrevor is now one of the houses of prayer for Ireland and daily they pray for revival. Great things are happening in places like Stoke-on-Trent, where church leaders are praying and God is working. Prayer rooms for praying 24 hours each day are being set up around the country. Can we do it? I believe if even small numbers of people gather in prayer, radical changes can happen in this land of division and hatred, for God makes special promises when his people pray.
In 1787 Mr Wesley preached in this town in the Presbyterian Meeting House. The large congregation was deeply affected by the power of the spirit in their midst. In his book "The Hammer of the Lord", published in 1973, Dr. Colin Morris suggested that if Methodist Church membership in Britain were fed into a computer and a prediction requested, the predicted life-span of the denomination would be 36 years; so according to that we will be out of business in 2009! Well I would have only one year left to retirement, so it would not be so bad!
But then he observed that if computers had existed in 1872 when transportation was horse-drawn, the prediction might have been that by 1972 the whole world would be covered seven feet deep in horse manure! Fortunately factor X, the combustion engine, has nullified that hypothetical prediction.
And for the Church, in our bad moments, when we feel despondent from hearing negative predictions for the future, factor X is the Holy Spirit. Let Peter have a final word...
Acts 3:19 - Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. (NIV)
It is my prayer that such a revival, modelled on the New Testament pattern, will do more than increase our piety, that it will radically change our attitudes in this community. And so I shout aloud tonight to every corner of this island - and what I pray is the cry of all of us:
"Come Holy Spirit revive your church again!"
