W.B.C Church News

Michaelmas: Fighting the bad guys.

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 17:08:16 GMT

How do we fight the bad guys?

And we do like to fight them, don’t we? We might say that we dislike violence, but that’s not totally true. So many of the films, TV series, novels, and computer games that we choose as entertainment are about war and conflict. We love the gripping endings when the hero defeats villain and justice is done.

And we long to see the same in real life, too. We want the Putin's of this world to get their comeuppance. But often the ways we go about this are counter-productive – violence has a habit of producing more violence, spinning out of control. So how should we fight the bad guys?

There’s a clue in Michaelmas, which is marked in the church calendar this week. It’s the celebration of the archangel Michael, who appears in the Bible’s book of Revelation. Revelation is an apocalyptic vision seen by Jesus’ disciple, John, when he was an old man imprisoned for his beliefs.

The narrative begins in striking style: “Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads” (Chapter 12 verse 1). This fearsome apparition pursues and tries to kill a woman with a new-born baby, then in its rage unleashes war and destruction on earth. It’s a depiction of how the powers of evil force themselves on the weak and vulnerable, wreaking terror and violence. Originally referring to Roman persecution of Christians, the ‘enormous red dragon’ represents every tyrant in every age.

When all seems lost, the archangel Michael suddenly blasts into John’s vision: “Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.”

This striking image has inspired artwork in churches for centuries. These always show Michael as a tough, heavily armed, dashing male soldier, who’d fit perfectly in a Hollywood movie or as a poster-boy for army-recruitment adverts. Not to disappoint us, we read that “the great dragon was hurled down.” That’s how to fight the bad guys, right? Smash them in the face.

Well, maybe not. The Bible passage continues that the people under attack triumphed over the dragon in battle, “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” John means this. Jesus defeated evil by self-giving enemy love on the cross, and his followers beat their enemies by copying him – telling the good news of that first Easter, and willingly giving their own lives rather than killing and fighting in return.

If that sounds like an insane way to fight the bad guys, maybe The Lego Movie and Lord of the Rings can help us understand it better.

In the Lego Movie, evil President Business is trying to take over the Lego universe and glue it all together so he can totally control everything and everyone. He is opposed by the Master Builders, the coolest and most creative inhabitants of the Lego world who are committed to stopping this evil plan.

However, they can’t beat the tyrant, and the hero of the story turns out to be an apparently dull character called Emmet. Despite not being creative or brave or smart, he manages to rescue the Lego world. But he doesn’t do this by blowing President Business to smithereens. Instead, he persuades him that he, too, President Business, is special, as is everyone. President Business is moved by what Emmet says, unfreezes his victims and abandons his dastardly plan.

In Lord of the Rings, the evil Lord Sauron is determined to take over the whole world by force and terror. The massed ranks of dwarf, elf, and human armies can’t stop him. But he is defeated ultimately by Frodo Baggins. This isn’t because Frodo is a better warrior or a more powerful wizard than anyone else. He’s a hobbit – a race of small, lazy, cowardly creatures. He has no obvious qualifications for job of saviour of the universe. But he finds a magic ring, the most powerful thing in the world, and to defeat Sauron he must destroy the ring and make himself weak, resisting the temptation to use it himself.

In these stories love and forgiveness and self-denial by apparently weak people defeat the forces of hell where tactical genius and physical strength fail.

The message of Michael and the dragon is the same. It tells us two important things. There is a battle between good and evil, so we shouldn’t be shocked or surprised when we encounter suffering. But God defeats evil in a surprising way. Jesus didn’t lead a big army and blast his enemies – he defeated the devil by loving his enemies and dying on the cross to forgive our sins and rising again to give us new life.

Unfortunately, the church in the past has often got this wrong, mistaking symbols and signs like Michael and the dragon for real life. When it does that it ends up blessing crusades, weapons and armies. Maybe because that’s the human thing to do – we really do seem enchanted by violence.

Michaelmas teaches us a much better message: that the sort of self-giving, humble love that Jesus showed us is much more powerful. And that’s how we should fight the bad guys.

Made in God's image?

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 14:40:31 GMT

Let’s mark Martin Luther King Day by asking how we can better value other people in 2022 - and seek an end to the practices and systems that dehumanise so many.

How much have you felt valued this year?

2022 started in a very upsetting way for Kashmiri journalist Quratulain Rehbar. She woke up on New Year’s Day to find herself listed on an online auction website “for sale” as a maid. She was not alone – around 100 prominent South Asian Muslim women, including activists, journalists, actors and politicians, were listed on the fake app. Although it was quickly taken down, Rehbar said that she found the experience, “shocking and humiliating.”

This case of harassment was another unpleasant reminder of how the abuse of women and followers of religious faiths can so easily take place online. But I think it is also disturbing because it implies that human beings have monetary value.

We recoil at that. But in an age where so much of our activity and our lives can be costed precisely – when we can bid for practically anything on eBay – why is it that we find putting a price tag on people so disconcerting?

In theory it should be easy to work out what people are worth, because we are made of chemicals each of which has cash value. The average adult has enough iron in their bodies to make one nail, enough fat to make seven bars of soap, enough sugar for seven cups of tea, enough phosphorous to tip 2200 matches, enough water to fill six buckets, and enough sulphur to rid one dog of fleas. Add that all up and it comes to about £30.

If that seems a bit low, here’s another way to calculate it. We all know the expression that someone is “worth their weight in gold.” What are we worth if we take that literally? I weigh 83kgs, and as 24 carat gold currently sells for around £42 per gram that would set a price tag on me of about £3.5million. More flattering than 30 quid, but still less than our national debt grows in 12 minutes.

The USA’s Financial Accounting Standards Board prohibits companies putting financial value on individual staff for formal accounting purposes. However, a few years ago an article appeared in the Journal of Management arguing precisely that companies should work out each of their employee’s cash values, or what they euphemistically called the “financial valuation of the human capital resource.” They reasoned that this would help them inform “HR interventions.” This of course is another ugly euphemism for sacking, demoting or pressurising people if they don’t hit the right numbers in the CEO’s master spreadsheet.

From slavery to Human Resource Management, powerful people have long found ways to monetarise others so that they can exploit them. It reduces us to mere objects, to line items in someone’s accounting book. This easily leads to dehumanising behaviour – from the physical abuse of enslaved labour, to fear and bullying in the workplace or online.

What’s the antidote? A good place to start looking is the legacy of the Revd Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, the 20th-century’s best-known Baptist minister.

Today is Martin Luther King Day , a public holiday in America celebrating his birthday. It’s not yet a major event in the UK but it is growing in visibility each year. It’s particularly important in Tyneside, where King came in 1967 to receive an honorary Newcastle University doctorate shortly before his murder. In his acceptance speech, he spoke movingly of our collective need to tackle the three “great and grave problems that pervade our world” which he identified as racism, poverty, and war.

Racism is one of the most nakedly ugly ways in which people are dehumanised. But why did King oppose it? It wasn’t because that’s what civilised people do – plenty of nice, modern, educated, ‘civilised’ people in the USA (including churchgoers) supported segregation in the 1960s. To us it might appear obvious that racism is wrong, but much of human history hasn’t shared our particular opinion on this point. No, King opposed racism because he believed in what he called the “somebodyness” – the inherent and equal dignity – of everyone. And he believed this because of the Bible’s teaching that humans are made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1: 27). Theologian Richard Wills argues that a theology of the imago Dei was the central facet of King’s thought, life and work. Attempts to recast him as a sort of secular-saint fail to grasp what motivated and inspired him.

King reasoned that because “The innate worth referred to in the phrase the ‘image of God’ is universally shared in equal portions by all… Every man must be respected because God loves him.” He translated this into secular terms, referring to “the dignity and worth of human personality” in his 1963 ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail,’ and in his 1964 Nobel Prize-winning speech when he insisted that humans are not “mere flotsam and jetsam on the river of life.”

To what for some might seem an obscure theological argument proved to be political dynamite in 1960s America. King contended that the legacy of slavery made white southerners see the African American as just an “animated tool,” so that their “only concern is performance not wellbeing.” In contrast, King insisted, every human being must be seen as “sacred” and the bearer of equal dignity and rights. Therefore segregated buses, schools and the like must go, and everyone should be allowed to vote.

Most people in the UK would agree with that now, I hope. But King said more. War (which destroys human beings) and poverty (which deprives them of equal opportunity) must be ended too, he argued.

We can push King’s conclusions further. The odious languages and practices of workplace ‘Human Resource Management’ (including the proliferation of poorly-paid, temporary, insecure work) should be scrapped. Britain’s economic system, which produces both super-rich and desperately poor, needs a total overhaul. The money and technology that we devote to the military should be redeployed. The misogyny which lets men think it’s okay to pay money to rent women’s bodies for their sexual gratification, or mock them online, needs stamping out. Our misnamed ‘education’ system which values kids on the basis of their grades need junking. And so on.

Let’s mark Martin Luther King Day by asking how we can better value other people in 2022, and by seeking God for the courage and resolution to change, challenge and remake the places in which we live to make them fit dwellings for beings created in His image.

Light in a dark year

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 13:29:14 GMT

Reflection - November 2021

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 13:48:07 GMT

The first time that Wallsend came across my radar, as I was just finishing school in my hometown Scunthorpe, was in the Sting song,

‘All This Time.’ Sting – or Gordon Sumner, as he was called when growing up in Wallsend – wrote the song about the death of his father.

My favourite verse is this one:

“The teachers told us, the Romans built this place;
They built a wall and a temple, and an edge of the empire garrison town.
They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods,
But the stone gods did not make a sound;
And their empire crumbled, 'til all that was left,
Were the stones the workmen found.”

The Roman Empire, like the British Empire and so many others in history, saw itself as a great, unshakable civilisation that

was uniquely blessed by God. Yet as Sting’s song points out,

its gods and its certainties crumbled and fell and we now go and look at them in museums like Segedunum.

The writer of Psalm 102 spoke of a time of great distress, anxiety and sadness in his life.

He was so distraught and depressed that he was wasting away, losing his appetite and unable to look after himself:

“My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
    I forget to eat my food.
In my distress I groan aloud
    and am reduced to skin and bones.” (verses 4-5).

Misery was so much part of him that he said,

“I eat ashes as my food, and mingle my drink with tears.”

Life feels very fragile and fleeting to him – "My days are like the evening shadow, I wither away like grass” , he puts it in verse 11.

We can all relate to that at some time in life, when things get so hard we feel we can’t go on, that there’s nothing positive in the future for us.

Where does the writer of the Psalm find consolation and comfort? As he continues,

“But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations.”

Our human lives and loved ones, plans, jobs, buildings and countries pass away. The trust we put in other people, families, governments, institutions and even churches is so often disappointed.

But how wonderful that we can place our trust and hope in the everlasting God who reigns and rules forever. Not only that: this great God

“will respond to the prayer of the destitute, he will not despise their plea” (v.17).

His character never changes, he is just and merciful and tender and patient and loving, and will sustain us through all eternity.

Let us trust in him when our days seem dark.

Lockdown Reflections 8

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 12:51:07 GMT

Meditation: sustaining a joyful life during the pandemic

How do we not just get through our disrupted pandemic times, but live joyfully and well through them?

This summer I grew lots of pots of tomatoes, potatoes and beans on my patio. The most productive was a hanging basket of tomatoes. But because it was a small pot, and because I sometimes forgot to water it, it dried out very quickly on hot days. The stalks and leaves would wilt and the whole plant look very sorry. At times I feared I’d killed it. But when I gave it a thorough emergency water it would revive and it would spring up again in a few hours.

The psalms is a collection of songs and poems in the Bible. Psalm 1 begins using similar imagery about well-watered plants to describe people who thrive and lead good lives:

1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Palestine is much hotter and drier than Tyneside, so this image of a plant reaching down into sources of water is a striking one. For the psalmist, delighting in scripture and meditating on it is the key practice of the godly person, it is how God sustains them and enables them to live a vibrant life of faith. It is like the source of water that enables my tomato plant to thrive during hot weather. Note, this is a positive meditating on scripture (reading, reflecting, and praying it back to God), not a negative emptying of the mind. New Scientist recently reported on research finding that a significant number of people who used currently-fashionable mindfulness meditation techniques actually suffered a worsening of their mental health. In contrast, Christian meditation is not emptying our minds, but rather it is opening ourselves to the life-giving words and presence of our creator.

We do this by reading the Bible prayerfully every day, by regularly exposing ourselves to good books, blogs, sermons, and talks about the Bible, and discussing it with brothers and sisters in the church. If we don’t do that, our walk with God can easily become dry, formal, and unenjoyable. Find what works for you. Use a daily reading plan and notes like those made by Scripture Union , or work out your own one. Recently I’ve enjoyed online services from Redeemer Downtown church in New York, and the virtual Keswick Convention. If you’re new to our church site, I recommend our pre-recorded online services as short and accessible ways to help you meditate on scripture.

I write this on August 31st, the anniversary of the death of the great Baptist preacher John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress and about 60 other books, many of which are still read three and a half centuries on. Some of this work was done while he was in prison for his faith – this was no easy life. What was his secret? CH Spurgeon nailed it when he said of Bunyan , “ Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Biblical , the very essence of the Bible flows from him… his soul is full of the Word of God. " That was how he sustained his life and was able to write such joyful books from the ‘lockdown’ of prison. Can the same be said of us?

Peace – Nick

7: Loving your neighbour during Covid-19:lessons from Francis Collins, Wuhan, and Wallsend.

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 12:45:56 GMT

Professor Francis Collins is one of the people I admire most on earth.

He is currently heading up work in the USA to develop a vaccine for Covid-19. Before that he led the project that in 2000 completed the mapping of the human genome, one of humanity’s the greatest scientific achievements of my lifetime. So quite a CV!

Mapping the human genome (the complete set of our DNA) allowed us to understand the cellular blueprint for building humans and will have a major impact on the medical and life sciences. In the year 2000 scientists and world leaders gathered in person at the White House and by livelink from across the globe for the formal ceremony to mark this achievement. US President Bill Clinton said, “we are learning the language in which God created life.” Francis Collins echoed this, saying

“It’s a happy day for the world. It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring, to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God.”

This direct reference to God surprised many journalists. It would have surprised Collins himself earlier in life. As a young man he was an atheist, but he came to faith in Jesus Christ through his scientific study, his work as a doctor, and after reading C.S. Lewis. “I was trying to prove my atheism and discovered that atheism is probably the least rational of all the choices,” he said.

In May 2020 he was awarded the Templeton Prize (the largest cash prize in science) for his work on linking science and faith. He told the media in an interview that his faith has informed his response to the pandemic. He said he has wondered why God allowed the pandemic to happen, but did not see the virus as a punishment. He said he was particularly fond of Psalm 46: 1, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble,” and said that this:

Makes it pretty clear, there is going to be trouble. But God is there as a very present help and as a refuge and a strength.

If we want to look at God’s role in the coronavirus pandemic, that’s where I’d look.

He added that as a Christian “our No. 1 priority that we are going to care for the sick and the vulnerable,” saying that for him this meant “I’m spending 100 hours a week trying to make sure were bringing every kind of idea, capability and resource toward finding treatment, vaccines and diagnostic tests.”

Collins stands in a long Christian tradition; from the earliest times of our faith we have sought to give practical help in epidemics, showing God’s love to the needy: “love your neighbour” was identified by Jesus as one of the most important things we can do (Matthew 22: 39). We are doing that now – from Francis Collins leading the research for a vaccine to Covid-19, to Christians in Wuhan province of China where Covid-19 first emerged, who handed out face masks and Bible verses to their fellow citizens when face masks were in short supply. At Wallsend Baptist Church, just days before the lockdown began we set up a Covid-19 mutual aid group on Facebook and flyered the neighbourhood offering practical support for those who were self-isolating.

As Christians, we are part of a worldwide church who have always done that sort of thing. We can do it because we are filled with God’s love for other people, and we don’t lose heart because we know the promise of Psalm 46: “The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Psalm 46: 7).

May we all hold on to that at this time,

Peace - Nick

George Floyd: Baptist Union response

Sat, 06 Jun 2020 13:24:23 GMT

We are a baptist church, part of the Northern Baptist Association, and the national Baptist Union.
The following statement comes from the Baptist union and can be found on their website
https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/579501/George_Floyd_our.aspx

The inhumane and merciless brutality demonstrated towards George Floyd last week was an appalling act of injustice and reveals yet again the ugly reality of deeply ingrained institutional racism in the USA. The authentic response of a people who follow a God who delights in justice and righteousness is to stand together in solidarity and protest in the face of such insidious evil.

The death of George Floyd must also drive us to some serious heart-searching of our own. The spotlight is not simply shining on 'them over there' but also on us here in our own context. Baptists Together hold a common value; that we are a Movement which shares a hunger for God’s coming Kingdom and seeks to confront evil, injustice and hypocrisy and challenges worldly attitudes to power, wealth, status and security both within and beyond our Union. Right now God is presenting us with the opportunity to grow more deeply into this value and, in doing so, to unleash a prophetic call and presence in our communities and nations.

It is so important that you read carefully and take to heart the articles and reflections that express the angry and frustrated voice of the oppressed and also of those who are in solidarity with them.

The time for superficial platitudes and excuses really is well and truly over.

My plea is that we seize this moment and take some giant leaps forward in terms of becoming the kind of Kingdom Movement that

God is calling us towards – beautiful, just, loving and rejoicing in the richness of the global church and the whole of humanity.

See the website page above for other relevant reflections and statements.

Lockdown Reflections 6

Sat, 23 May 2020 12:56:02 GMT

Human frailty

The pandemic reminds us that, as humans, we are much more frail and weak than we like to think.

At the time of writing, there have been almost 5 million reported Covid-19 cases worldwide. Just three months ago the virus was confined to one part of China, but despite of all our efforts to control, prevent or cure it, it has reached every country on earth apart from a few Pacific Island nations and Turkmenistan and North Korea (if we can trust the governments of those two countries, which I don’t).

The majority of people who contract Covid-19 survive. But it would not be hard to imagine a virus emerging that was far more deadly and which, despite our best efforts, we could not stop from wiping out much of humanity in a short space of time.

In the Bible, the prophet Isaiah said this:

“All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall

when the breath of the LORD blows on them;

indeed, the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God stands forever.”

Isaiah’s words ring in my ears at this time. We like to think that we are invincible, as individuals (‘nothing is going to stop me!’) and as civilisations (‘We can master this world through our scientific achievements and wealth’). But the truth is we are indeed weak and frail.

However, this frailty should not lead us to despair or fear. On the contrary, as John Scott’s lovely old hymn Immortal, Invisible puts it: “We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree / And wither and perish, but nought changeth Thee.” Being reminded of our own weakness leads us to the worship and praise of our everlasting God, because “the word of our God stands forever.” He is unchanging and his character is constant, always loving of his people and mighty to save. He alone is a dependable foundation on which to build our lives and face eternity.

In the first chapter of his first letter in the New Testament, Peter quotes this passage from Isaiah and says, “you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (v23). Because Jesus died for our sins and rose again to make us right with God, we know that if we believe in him we have everlasting life and do not need to be afraid of our frailty and weakness. Instead, it points us to joyfully praise the unchanging God of Heaven:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.

The Big Questions Series

Thu, 21 May 2020 19:06:00 GMT

Tonight was our last of our Big Questions during the pandemic.

We have covered some many difficult questions. We have had many difficult questions,

Does life really have value, meaning and purpose?

How can we know whether God exists?

If there's a god, why does he allow bad things to happen?

How can we make sense of death – and is there anything afterwards?

How can I make the most of my life (when I can’t get out of my house)?

We've had many people joining us online and taking part in the discussions, and may catching up on the videos after the online discussions.

We hope you have enjoyed our series, and we hope you continue to stay safe during the pandemic.

You can still catch up on our big questions page and continue the discussion
or through our youtube channel

Lockdown Reflections 5

Fri, 15 May 2020 09:24:18 GMT

Eternity in our hearts

In the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3: 11 says that God “has put eternity in their hearts .” It’s an intriguing verse, that is usually interpreted to mean that each of us has a God-given, in-built sense that there’s more to life than what we can see. We know deep down that the material life of been born, keeping alive and reproducing the species, and then dying, isn’t what life’s essentially about. We all yearn for something more – for value, for purpose, for meaning, for justice.

Even people who say that they are atheists sense that yearning and fill it with something else –career, pleasure, shopping, relationships, good work, etc.

These never satisfy. As Christians, we know who the source of that yearning is, and who alone can satisfy it – God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ. As Saint Augustine famously prayed,

‘You made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’

We can try and forget this sense of ‘eternity’, but the nagging questions about value, purpose and meaning never go away. At a time like this it is harder than ever to forget them.

Questions like ‘What’s the purpose of life?’,

‘What happens after I die?’,

‘Is God there?’,

‘Why do bad things happen?’ and

‘Am I in control of my destiny?’ are simply harder to avoid at the moment.

Francis Thomson (1859-1907), was an opium addict living rough in London, who came to faith in God after years of evading these ‘big questions.’

He wrote about this in his famous poem where he depicts God as ‘The hound of heaven’ in pursuit of him:

I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’

In these difficult times, we may sense ‘the hound’ hot on our heels as we think about life’s big questions.

At the end of the poem, Francis encounters ‘the hound’ personally, as God says to him:

All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!...



‘Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!

Is the hound on our heels, too?

Peace - Nick

Lockdown Reflections 4

Tue, 05 May 2020 10:11:39 GMT

God is with us

The Bible repeatedly shows that God tells his people not to be afraid, because he is with them. For example, “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God” (Isaiah 41:10) or “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28: 10).

I was reminded of this recently when reading in the news the account of Coronavirus survivor, Hylton Murray-Philipson. He was very ill, in intensive care for ten days. During this period he father died but he was unable to attend his funeral.

“Before I knew it I was fighting for my life,” he said later. “I couldn’t breathe, it was as if my lungs had been paralysed. I couldn’t cough and it felt as if I was drowning.” Hylton survived, and there are moving images of him being wheeled out of hospital with the corridors lined by NHS staff clapping him out.

In interviews afterwards, Hylton spoke of how his Christian faith helped him. “The story of Jesus calming the waters for his disciples on the Sea of Galilee appeared in my mind,” he said. It comforted him not just to know Jesus was with him, but that He would be with him as he faced the possibility of death. “After a while, I began to have doubts as to how much longer I could do this for because I was wiped out by my struggle for breath. I had flashbacks to all sorts of different times in my life. I have a strong faith and the idea of falling into the arms of a loving God became quite appealing. I would be able to rejoin my wife, who I love very much and who died four years.”

In the Bible, God speaks to his people through the prophet Isaiah (chapter 43, verse 2) saying, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” That’s an industrial-strength promise to hold onto in these hard times.

Peace - Nick

Big Questions. Session 1

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 12:26:49 GMT

On Thursday evening we had our first session of our Big Questions.

Does life really have value, meaning and purpose?

The first of a series of questions being asked over the next 5 weeks.

You can catch up on the talk delivered by Nick on our Youtube Channel, or on our Big Questions page.

Journal Article - A very Different Easter

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 14:31:03 GMT

A Very Different Easter

Last Friday our Minister, Nick had an article about Easter in the midst of the pandemic

published in the Journal. The article was titled:-

A Very Different Easter - But the crucial message remains

His message.......
Should we cancel Easter because of the pandemic? What are you planning to do this Easter Sunday?
Last year my family and I began Easter day with a sunrise celebration on Cow Hill. We thought it was quite an original idea to take hot drinks and meet up with friends, but when we got there, we found that people from across Tyneside had thought exactly the same thing.

So we all joined together sharing food and exchanging the traditional Easter day greeting and response of ‘Christ is Risen!’ – ‘He is risen indeed!’

I remembered that beautiful morning this week, as we’ve had to cancel plans to repeat it this Sunday. Like so much of normal life, Easter is going to be very different this year. No Easter egg hunts in the park with friends, no visits to the grandparents for chocolate eggs, no belting out of joyful hymns at church. Many people are isolated, frightened, unemployed, exhausted, ill, or bereaved in the face of this terrible pandemic.

Should we just add Easter to the list of cancelled events this year?

Of course, we should follow government instructions on containing the virus by not meeting together. But the Easter story – that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again in Palestine 2,000 years ago – is in some ways more relevant than ever.

Firstly, it tells us that God is in control and brings good out of evil. We like to think we’re in charge of our lives. We fill up our calendars for months in advance with plans for meetings, holidays, and social activities, all seamlessly synched across multiple devices. Yet, as the government struggled to contain the spread of the virus by imposing new restrictions, all our carefully-crafted plans were ripped up and our lives turned upside down in ways that were previously almost unimaginable.

The Easter story in the Bible depicts the government, the military, and the religious authorities plotting and scheming to kill Jesus. They thought they were in control; yet on Easter morning he broke out of the grave, and their plans came to nothing.

We’re not in control of the world, nor are we subject to blind fate and random luck. Easter reminds us that, in the words of the old song, ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’. Furthermore, Easter tells us that we are loved and that we matter. ‘Self-isolation’ and ‘social distancing’ may be sound medical advice, but can exact a heavy personal toll.

I spoke to an older person this week, living by herself and without internet access, who was desperately lonely and worried.

The Easter message is that everyone is important and loved by God.

‘For God so loved the world’, writes Saint John in the Bible, ‘that he gave his only son, that all who believe in him shall not die but have everlasting life.’

Finally, Easter is about hope. We give each other chocolate eggs because they represent new life. We are wondering whether life will ever be the same again. Many of us will get sick, and some of us will die. But
Jesus’s resurrection is the ultimate symbol of hope. Death is not the final word in our lives.

This isn’t just personal comfort:
Easter is the promise of a whole new world. The Rev Martin Luther King Jr, who made a historic visit to Newcastle University in 1967 to receive an honorary degree, found in the Easter story a source of encouragement for
the civil rights movement.

“Good Friday may reign for a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumphant beat of the Easter
drums,” he wrote. “So… we can walk and never get weary, because we know that there will be a great celebration in the promised land of freedom and justice.”

How are we going to work for a kinder and fairer society, after the pandemic?
Easter’s message of hope and new life speaks to us all, whether we are religious or not, and is worth celebrating in these dark times. People across our region will be meeting up in livestream church services this Sunday morning. Why not
join them?

Just keep a safe social distance and, hopefully, I’ll see you on Cow Hill, Easter morning, 2021.

■ Nick Megoran is Professor of
Political Geography at Newcastle
University and Minister of Wallsend
Baptist Church

Lockdown Reflections. Week 3

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 10:23:43 GMT

Easter – Jesus knows what it’s like to live under lockdown.

We are spending this Easter in lockdown, and many of us will be struggling as we miss friends and family. Did you know that the first Christians began the first Easter in lockdown, too? So Jesus knows exactly how we feel.

One of the most vivid parts of the Easter story for me is when Jesus appeared to his disciples the evening of Easter Sunday. The gospel of John (chapter 20) tells us that they were isolated and confused, “with doors locked for fear.” Then Jesus appeared, and “showed them his hands” (v20).

What did they see in those hands? Have you ever wondered?

They saw working-men’s hands, marked by a labour of work as a builder, a carpenter. There’s no favouritism with Jesus, the Christian faith comes to all equally, whatever social background.

They saw hands that were powerful, that could calm a storm and turn water into wine.

They saw hands that were tender, that healed the sick and touched the outcasts.

They saw hands that were strong to challenge injustice, overturning the traders who were desecrating God’s temple, and drawing in the sand to save the woman facing death by stoning.

They saw hands that were pierced. He was nailed to a cross, dying to bear the sins of the whole human race – everything we have ever done wrong – and to restore us to a right relationship with God.

Finally, they saw hands that were real. This was no ghost. The Christian faith is no myth. It is founded on reality. Jesus really did rise from the dead, the disciples saw it and it is their eyewitness accounts we have. John records that after he showed them his hands, “the disciples were overjoyed when the saw the Lord.”

Jesus is alive and this Easter he enters our locked down lives and shows us his hands, calling us to live a new life in hope and joy. He knows what it is like for people to live afraid, isolated, and in lockdown. He comes to use with his comforting, loving, hopeful presence. And if we will take his hands, and trust in him, we can know that same joy. That’s why the traditional Easter Day greeting and response we share with each other is ‘Christ is Risen!’ - ‘Hallelujah, he is risen indeed!’

Lockdown Reflections. Week 2

Wed, 08 Apr 2020 10:20:46 GMT

Covid-19 isn’t the most dangerous virus we face right now

This week I’ve been thinking that while we are all, rightly, scared of the coronavirus, there’s a much more deadly virus we face – sin, which has distorted and contaminate all of human life.

‘Sin’ sounds like an old-fashioned word, but it’s actually an insightful way of thinking about our condition and saying, ‘it could be otherwise.’ what it means is that as a society and as individuals we haven’t lived up to what our Maker wants of us.

He made humanity to live in harmony with Him, with each other, and with creation. We all know we haven’t done that – we yearn to be better people, a better society, and to care better for the planet. ‘Sin’ means we’ve not done that, and have suffered the consequences of death and brokenness entering our world. “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God,” the Bible says (Romans 3:23).

The majority of people who contract Coronavrus survive it, but sin has a 100% mortality rate: “the wages of sin is death”, the Bible says (Romans 6: 23). That means death as the brokenness of our lives and world, and ultimately the death of our bodies. But there is a cure, given by God in the death of Jesus on the cross: “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” continues the Bible in Romans 6: 23.

Mark Oden, pastor of a church in Naples, puts it very clearly: “The story of the Bible is the story of a God who entered a world infected with this virus. He lived among sick people, not wearing a chemical protective suit but breathing the same air as we do, eating the same food as we do. He died in isolation, excluded from his people, seemingly far from his Father on a cross—all that he might provide this sick world with an antidote to the virus, that he might heal us and give us eternal life.

Hear his words Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die (John 11:25–26).” Do you believe this?’

Lockdown Reflections - Week 1

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 11:57:15 GMT

Are we in control of our lives?

The Covid-19 pandemic reminds us that we are not in control of our lives.

William Henley’s famous poem, Invictus , boldly declares,

“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

Human pride loves that.

We fill up our calendars for months in advance with plans for meetings, holidays, and social activities, all seamlessly synced across multiple devices.

In February, I spent two hours gluing together some large sheets of paper and using different coloured pens to draw up a detailed work plan until August. I carefully plotted what I was doing each week, the articles and the three books I was going to write, the talks and sermons I was going to give, with trips across the UK and to the USA, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and the South Korea-North Korea border.

Yet, as the government struggled to contain the spread of the virus by imposing new restrictions every day, all my carefully-crafted plans were ripped up in just a few days. That work plan is gathering dust in my deserted office building.

I was reminded of Mother Theresa’s old quip that ‘If you want to hear God laugh,

tell him the plans you have for your life!’

In the Bible, James writes, in chapter 4: 13-15

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.’ You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.’”

This crisis can remind us that we are not “the masters of our fate,”

and we do not even know what will happen tomorrow.

That’s an important lesson to learn.

We’re not in control of the world, nor are our lives subject to blind fate or random luck.

God is the Lord of the world, and is able to bring good out of evil. As the old song puts it,

‘He’s got the whole world in his hands.’

Let us look to him in trust and faith at this hard time.

WBC - Lockdown Reflections.

Mon, 06 Apr 2020 11:42:45 GMT

Updates from Nick

The Covid-19 pandemic turned our lives and world upside-down in a few days.

We are faced not only with the practical difficulties of life under lock-down (I couldn’t buy pasta for about three weeks), but more profound challenges of loneliness, fear, unemployment, uncertainty, stress and overwork, sickness, bereavement, and even death. Can the Bible help us make sense of this, and help us to live better and more authentic human lives as a result?

Over this period I will look at different claims about and aspects of human life in the Bible
that the pandemic helps us see more clearly.

Covid-19 Update

183:776616619 (Donna Mear) — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 12:39:37 GMT

Covid-19 (Coronavirus) Update,

In response to the call of the government’s Chief Medical Officer, we are suspending all church services and meetings until scientific advice changes. During this time sermon outlines and material will be available on our site. We will be continuing to pray for our community and the wider world, and seek practically to look after each other and those around us.

If you are in self-isolation and need help collecting shopping and prescriptions, posting letters, etc, we would be delighted to help if we can and have organised a mutual aid Facebook group for the church community and neighbourhood to facilitate practical help and to remind us that we are not alone. We would be happy to phone you if you are lonely and would like a chat. Please see contact details below.

To get through this we need to stick together and support each other. However even at this bleak and lonely time we are not alone, and we are not without hope. God is Lord of the world and the Easter hope is that his people are safe in his hands for all our lives, as we face death, and for all eternity. As one of the most famous poems in the Bible, Psalm 46 says,

“God is our refuge and strength,
An ever-present help in times of trouble.
Therefore we will not fear”

The Leadership team, WBC, March 18th, 2020

Art Exhibition

Sat, 15 Feb 2020 17:00:06 GMT

Join us as we celebrate art from our local artists!

This May we will be holding our first Art Exhibition showcasing art from our local artists. Join us for a drink and scone while also socialising and admiring our local art from a range of artists.

If you are a local artist and would like to showcase some of your work, contact us.

Nick's Induction

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 14:13:27 GMT

Join us as we formally welcome Nick as our new minister

We would like to invite you to the induction service for our new minister - Nick Megoran.

A fun relaxed welcoming service.

26th January 2020 at 10.45am

A buffet lunch will follow in the church hall

New Minister!

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 15:10:11 GMT

This Month we bid a fond farewell to Ray who has been our moderator for the past 3 years, and welcome Nick Megoran who has the pleasure of steering us on the next leg of our adventure!

Dr Nick Megoran

Nick is joining us on a part-time basis. Nick also works as a lecturer in Political Geography but has a passion for Jesus and is keen to help us move forward. We atrer very excited to welcome him into our community.

Baptism Service

183:776616619 (Donna Mear) — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 17:55:14 GMT

We are excited to announce that we will be having a Baptismal service on the 18th August

We will behaving a special baptismal service on Sunday 18th August as our member Christine will be stepping in to baptism.

The service will be followed by a fellowship lunch to celebrate.

All are welcome!

Strawberry Tea & Climate Change letters

Sun, 16 Jun 2019 18:06:52 GMT

Join us this Saturday, 22nd June. 2-4pm. For our Strawberry Tea.
We look forward to seeing you!

Climate Change

We have been asked by Wallsend Churches working together and North East call to action to encourage people to write letters to our local MP about how important climate change is, and why you would like to urge her to push this in parliament. We need letters in to the church by sunday 23rd, for us to pass them on.

Easter

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 19:25:28 GMT

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 16

Join us this Easter

Over 2,000 years ago Jesus changed everything about our world. As He rose from the grave He redefined our future giving us freedom from hopelessness, addiction, and brokenness. We’d love for you to join us as we celebrate Easter and are reminded that Jesus is our source of hope.

Maundy Thursday: 7pm

Good Friday: 10.30am Followed by March to Park, and fish and chips

Easter Sunday: 10.45am Family service

AED Fundraising

Thu, 14 Mar 2019 11:46:45 GMT

We have decided to aim to acquire an AED (defibrilator) for outside of our church building.

We have decided to aim to acquire an AED (defibrilator) for outside of our church building, to benefit the whole community. We have created a dedicated page for AED updates and fundraising.

We have applied for funding and will be fundraising. We are planning on using money from our next coffee morning, and are also planning a fundraising concert. Let us know if you would like to help.

We have also been working with Hadrian Safety Management , to get training in how to use an AED and will be running First Aid Courses at W.B.C. We will be advertising courses with available spaces, or get in touch!

Our new Church Logo

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

We now have a new church logo and our website has had a revamp. We hope you enjoy it!

Welcome to our new site. If there is anything you would like to see please get in touch.

Welcome to our blog

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to our new church blog.

Keep up to date with what is going on at W.B.C

We hope you enjoy our new website. As well as this Blog, you can follow us on social media.

Facebook: wallsend baptist north tyneside
Instagram: WallsendBaptistuk
Twitter: wallsendbaptist