God
has no other plan!
Episcopal
Church Missions Community (ECMC) Conference
23-27 April 2003
Once again, it has been our amazing
privilege in Wellspring to provide the music and worship for the 2003 New
Wineskins conference that we last took part in 3 years ago, in April 2000. The
conference was the fourth in a series of meetings organised by the ECMC to
encourage the growth of mission within the North American Episcopal Church, and
the second we have attended.
It was a remarkable conference in all
sorts of ways. The prayer backing and the support from the organising team from
ECMC was unmatched. Rarely do we see the kind of backing from a group of people
that we experienced this time. The faithfulness in prayer and constancy in
encouragement were the two most obvious hallmarks of the love and maturity that
this group of Christians possess. Along with this was a superb range of
teaching, from different angles and with different emphases, all seeking to
portray the world of mission as God sees it, and encouraging everyone there to
walk with God to achieve it – as Gary Haugen from International Justice
Mission said – God has no other plan!
From left to right: Jonathan & Sarah Blamire, Marcus
Pagnam, Graham Roberts, Corinne Frost, Sally Thornton, Huw Humphreys, Richard
Williamson, Helen Pitstow, Alan Tokeley, Chris Swain and Roland Faux
The team that went this time was
almost the same as in 2000 – Chris Swain, Sally Thornton, Huw Humphreys, Helen
Pitstow, Alan Tokeley, Corinne Frost, Richard Williamson and Jon and Sarah
Blamire were all returning to a familiar scene. We were joined by Marcus Pagnam,
Graham Roberts and Roland Faux, the latter having never set foot in an aeroplane
before. He has now!! Roland was asked to come to run the PowerPoint and
multimedia side of the services. This was a really significant addition to the
worship, and released a lot of Richard’s time.
Some
of the surrounding countryside – note the sign on the right!
Not that the pace wasn’t hectic.
Breakfast was followed by a long morning meeting followed by an hour’s break
before lunch, followed by a rehearsal followed by a briefer break than the
previous one, followed by another plenary meeting followed by supper (early!)
followed by a prayer meeting followed by a third (long) meeting followed by a
search for pecan pie or cheesecake (the early suppers seeming to conflict with
our biorhythms!). We were accommodated in a very nice stand-alone conference
complex – more like a hotel really, that had been built since we were last
there, and which gave lovely views of the surrounding hills and woods. It was an
ideal place of rest for us. As before, the openness of American Christians and
their willingness to talk and share their lives, was wonderful.
The main conference themes involved us
learning to see the church through God’s eyes. Paul Gordon Chandler opened the
proceedings, teaching us that the church is no longer – and maybe has never
really been, a western organisation – God needed us to know this to gain a
global vision of where the church was and what it did. He stressed in particular
the massive contribution of the Coptic and Russian Orthodox churches in
enlarging our understanding of the size of God. Baroness Caroline Cox spoke very
movingly of the pain of Christian communities in the midst of persecution, which
had many of us shell-shocked into prayer afterwards. We had our hearts lifted by
the amazing story of how God has enabled Youth With A Mission to receive
accreditation as an NGO in the United Nations, and were amazed by God’s
passion for justice as Gary Haugen told us of how the Lord had raised up
Christian lawyers, investigators and prosecutors to bring justice to those
trapped in forced prostitution and bonded child labour. Tito Zavala, the Bishop
of Chile, urged us not to back away from cities, where most of the world’s
poor are. He has a passion for bringing the gospel to families and to marriages,
to build a strong society through the gospel. He has a principle – you’re
not really a church until you have planted another church!
All the time, it was clear that the mission of God was forever outward,
working together on building relationships and active warm church fellowships so
that the world might be blessed and nations redeemed.
Leading
the worship at New Wineskins
As before, we were incredibly well
received, with many people clearly refreshed by both music and song. Although
there were some who were fairly unused to the style of worship we played, (quite
a lot at the front, actually!) there were a large number who were aching to sing
their love and praise to the King! The song that expressed their longings most
deeply was without a doubt “In Christ Alone”. For mission-minded people to
sing heartfelt worship to their God whilst describing his amazing mission to
mankind had a beauty about it beyond words. I have sung the song many times, but
rarely have I been moved as much as here. We were encouraged by the inimitable
Slater Armstrong from Knoxville to help him with a powerful and heart-tugging
song of devotion that he had written while in the Sudan – “Follow Him”,
with the chorus in Zande “Yesu nga gi
gbia mina ida ka peko” – Jesus is
my Lord I want to follow Him.
And, of course, amongst the teaching,
were the questions to think about….
Good questions from Gary Haugen (IMJ):
Are Jesus and I interested in the same
things? 25,000 children died today – what is God’s plan for letting their
families know that He is good?
Good questions from Zac Niringiye
(Church Mission Society): Do we behave as
though God has come down in Jesus? Do we behave as though He wants to introduce
Himself to others through us? And on another note…Is
it time now for the Western church simply to stand and listen?
Good questions from Nancy Hogan
(YWAM): What gets you out of bed in the
morning? What’s worth sleeping on the floor for?
Good questions from Paul Gordon
Chandler (Rector Designate of
A good question from Caroline Cox
(Christian Solidarity Worldwide): When
one suffers, all suffer. Do we?
At the final communion, John Senyonyi,
the chaplain of the
There was much to give God great
praise for in what we saw and in what we were called to offer. I had the
impression that there was a greater expectation and deeper passion in this group
of believers than 3 years ago, and to build on and strengthen the relationships
we had had in 2000 was a great privilege. Naturally, there were a few
lighter/more dodgy/genuinely pleasure-seeking moments as well. A sample
– Alan playing a ‘horn’ longer than he was on the steps of the
conference centre, Wellspring being bundled into a stretch limo on the last
night courtesy of the Airport Taxi firm, Marcus using a bass amp in which he
could most likely have slept, Graham needing a drill and hacksaw to assemble his
drum kit….(don’t ask), Huw and Jon making off with the last of the Pecan Pie
from the “Clouds” café – pursued by the indignant (but VERY Christian)
protests of those behind us in the queue…and a pleasant, uninterrupted, Air
France-free zone over the Atlantic, ensuring a pleasant
trip home for everyone.
Alan
and his ‘horn’!
- Huw Humphreys
More pictures from this trip can be seen here
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