Coming to a church near you?

Some of you know I was involved in a short tour last autumn with Lou Fellingham and Phatfish, which was great fun and seemed to go really well. I'm looking to do another series of events again this autumn, this time performing solo in a more informal low-key atmosphere - more Personal Worship than Monument to Mercy!!

The evening will be a mixture of worship, performance, sharing, prayer and informal teaching.

The available dates are between 28th September and 14th October, and I'm currently looking for churches or organisations that could organise and host such an event. So if you're interested, and are confident you could gather an audience of 250 people or more, please drop me an email, and I'll give you more details.

(Weekends tend to get quickly booked up, so if you thought you could run something on a weekday, that would be particularly helpful.)

Comments

[thoughtful]

Stuart,

Our music group love to play 'In Christ alone' and I think it has some deep lyrics. Some people have commented to me in complaint about the line 'The wrath of God is satisfied'I understand that you think carefully about every line so can you explain your view of the wrath of God in this context and how it could be satisfied through the cross. While some people just don't like the idea of a wrathful God I think some object to the idea that the cross was about satisfying God's wrath. I would like to pass on your thoughts on this.

[Stuart]

Thanks for getting in touch. Yes, the issue of the wrath of God is one that is exciting a lot of debate at the moment. There are those with far greater theological gravitas than me who are engaging in this subject, so I'm not sure my contribution will add much! Suffice to say, I take the orthodox evangelical position articulated by many (Packer, Carson, Piper et al) that there is punishment for sin, and God displays righteous anger over it (as demonstrated clearly throughout the OT), but the wonder of the cross is that Christ - willingly and in perfect agreement and unity with the Father - took that punishment upon Himself. The concept of a wrathful God in no way lessens or undermines His other attributes of love, faithfulness, justice, mercy etc.

[Paula Taylor]

where can i get the music for What wonder of grace (My desire)
thanks

[John McDougall]

I have just enjoyed listening to Stuart at the Keswick convention, along with a great number of people who loved the songs. The songs aren't just good music, they're theologically sound. They speak of the love of God, yet remind us that we do need forgiveness and what forgiveness cost, the blood of Jesus.

Of course the wrath of God was satisfied at the cross. That's the whole reason God The Father sent the Lord Jesus Christ. God was angry with sin and Jesus took the punishment we deserved, giving us the opportunity of forgiveness, cleansing, salvation & eternal life. If Jesus hadn't gone to the cross, we would all still be facing the rightful wrath of God against all ungodliness.

[Mrs Karen Olive]

It would be fabulous if you could fit in a session in Lancashire, we could definitely fill the "Guild Hall" in Preston, or there's Southport Grace Baptist, who would be delighted to host an event.
Please keep up the work you are doing, the Lord is ministering to many people through using your gifts to his glory. Thanks
Karen Olive

[Laurie Thompson]

Dear Stuart,

I am a committed Christian man, having consciously surrendered my life to Christ in 1971 as an 18 year old. I have been an Episcopal priest since 1979, and for the last 11 years have served as professor and associate dean of a seminary. And, as the Africans would day, I am the husband of one wife, father of three sons, and grandfather to 3 granddaughters with one more in waiting.

I want to tell you how grateful to God I am for your lyrics and your witness to the atoning work of Christ. During an election for bishop in North Dakota in 2004, I shared as part of my witness my desire as a leader of the church to bring back into balance the connection between Christ's crucifixion and his incarnation. In at least two of the Question and Answer times during the election process I was grilled and attacked on this point vigorously. The same has happened in my invovlement on the national Standing Commisssion on Liturgy and Music. Ther matter of atonement is a theological flashpoint without question.

Much of it goes back to a caricature of Anselm of Canterbury and his teaching as excessively forensic and vengeful. Nothing could be further fromthe truth. Most who condemn Anselm have never read his writing, and they will be surprized when they actually read it. It is easily accessible through the Library of Christian Classic series by Westminster Press in a volume entitled "A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham"". The section entitled "Why God became Man" [just about 100 pages or so] gives a wonderful explanation of what Christ achieved on the Cross. To quote but one sentence: "...he freely gave to to God, for his honor, a gift to which nothing that is not God can be compared, and which can compensate for all the debts of men" (page 175)

Anselm writes extensively about the mercy which God showed in the cross, disempowering the devil and acting in a way consitent with his character as as God, honring who God is and was. His primary focus is the character of God and not leaving his character of mercy unmet. Justice and mercy or not polar opposites in God, but parts of his whole, integrated being. Anselm explains this bertter than any I know, and he leans on Mercy as the explnation of the Cross.

I commend Anselm's writing to any who are troubled by the "satisfaction of God's wrath".

Your words say it well. Thank you for your good and biblical testimony.

in Christ,

laurie Thompson