A Pretty Epic Sunday

I had a rather busy Sunday 7th June 2009.

First up was the Adult Bible Study at BoA. It seems we’re rather unusual at Bradford (probably in a lot more ways than I’m about to mention), we have our kids’ Sunday School before the morning service. While the kids’ are kept busy, the grown-ups have their own meeting, which for anyone used to Small Groups at Bath Uni (and possibly elsewhere, I don’t know), is a kind of similar thing, but not such a small group.

Recently, we’ve been using these meetings to talk about worship style (I say “we”, I haven’t been during term time, so this was my first one since Easter, and I don’t generally say much myself anyway). Our pastor is keen to introduce some new ideas, while being careful not to modernise just for the sake of it. And by ‘new’, I mean new to Bradders, but sticking to biblical stuff.

I’m definitely up for some new things, for example, having gone to CU meetings for 4 years, I’ve grown to like the use of instruments other than the organ. It is a bit odd that the only instrument we currently have is one that’s never mentioned in the Bible, unless you use the AV, in which case it is somehow mentioned 4 times despite not existing at the time of writing. You’d find it pretty hard to argue with the use of other instruments after reading Psalm 150.

Then, at the end of the morning service, I made my way home fairly sharpish to grab a light lunch before heading to Bath for another Baptism. Rather than write much about it, I’ll just direct you to the guy who got dunked so you can read what he has to say about it.

After spending a while there, I went back home to eat my re-heated Sunday Roast before our Communion service. Again, Bradford seems to be pretty unusual in that we have our Communion before the main evening service.

Then after the evening service I headed back to Bath for cream teas at Jerram’s. I wish I could make scones (scone is pronounced like cone, by the way), my most adventurous bit of cooking this year has been fajitas, which don’t require a lot of effort.

iBautismos!

(for anyone not familiar with Spanish, that’s supposed to be an upside down exclamation mark at the beginning, not the letter i)

Yesterday I went to Holy Trinity Combe Down for the first time, for a baptism. The guy I went to see has a story that features sexual abuse and cocaine addiction, but he’s the happiest guy you’ll ever meet, because he now knows Jesus.

Afterwards we went to Victoria Park for lunch, meeting up with the people who went to the baptisms at Widcombe (there were at least 7 people baptised in Bath on one day). It was pointed out that people in the CU generally formed into groups based on the churches they go to. I’m not sure it’s a completely fair observation, but since we’ve been looking at passages in Romans focussing on unity recently, maybe people should try harder to mix with everyone?

Being a member of Bradford-on-Avon Baptist Church* I don’t really fit into any of the groups that the CU supposedly splits into.

*That’s a bit of a mouthful, so it’s usually shortened, it could be known simply as Bradford, or Bradders, B.o.A., BBC, The Bappy:) It was formerly known as The Old Baptist Chapel, until it was realised that that’s just the name of the building, it’s not really appropriate to call the church that. We’re not all old.

The two biggest student churches in Bath seem to be Widcombe and HT. These are the only two churches I’ve been to in Bath so far.

I’ve been to Widcombe for a total of 3 services, which is apparently frequent enough for some people who go there regularly to forget that they don’t see me there every week. It’s quite similar to Bradders in some ways, in that they really focus on Biblical teaching as the main part of their meetings, while others might focus more on music, for example.

There’s a large difference between morning and evening attendances at Widcombe, I’ve always been to 2 services on Sundays, and Bradford has nearly the same number of people in the evening as the morning, so I find it a bit odd when people only go to one. Now there’s nothing in the Bible to say you must go to church twice on a Sunday, but it does make me wonder what people do with the rest of the day. If I was not going to go to the evening service, I would be lost for what to do with myself. Have people found something that’s better for them than going to church in the evening that we at Bradford have not discovered?

Holy Trinity was a bit different to what I’m used to. Applauding testimonies, baptisms and prayers would not happen at BoA. Of course this is a joyful occasion and it’s right to express joy, but applause usually expresses something like “Well done”, so I was glad to hear my friend make clear that he knew he hadn’t done anything to save himself. I think I prefer what we do at BoA when people get baptised, which is to sing “Praise ye the Lord”, so there’s absolutely no doubt about who’s the object of our praise.

Debaptism

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7941817.stm

I’m actually sort of with the atheists on this one.

You can’t make someone a Christian by pouring water on them (or dipping them in water).
Baptism is for people who have made a conscious decision to follow Christ.

I had to look up ‘perfidious’. I think what they’re saying is that original sin is a concept made up for the church’s own gain.
Basically I disagree with this, as far as I’m aware, no child has to be taught to be bad, it comes naturally.

However, it’s an interesting issue, because I doubt babies make a conscious decision to reject God, so I do wonder how those that die in infancy (and even those not born yet?) are judged. At this point I just have to trust that God is just, he knows whether people would have repented given the same opportunities as others (see link below).

Matthew 11:20-24
Matthew 11 on Bible Gateway (NIV)