John Sherbourne 
In terms of explanation some images need very little help. Here for example Rod, Cassie, Rod’s cousin Gerry, Sheila, Malcolm, Jenny, Brian and Malcolm are pictured soaking up the glories of Wednesday evening’s sunset in Whitby.
Marvelous, thanks Rod
Jean Wyatt, The Judge is the Savior: Towards a Universalist Understanding of Salvation
Resource Publications, Wipf and Stock, 2015 (xviii + 223 pp)
Here is a book that comes from decades of caring thought and spiritual wrestling. Jean Wyatt begins with a story from 1974 when she and her family were worshipping in a friendly Baptist Church. The worship and preaching were dynamic and the fellowship warm, but there was one drawback: the church had a formidable doctrinal basis to which all members should assent. It was the last statement that I found so difficult: We believe in the judgment by the Lord Jesus Christ at His coming again, of all men, of believers to eternal blessedness, of unbelievers to eternal condemnation.
That provoked years of study out of which this well informed, sensitive book, rich in story and quotation, comes to us now. It could help many kinds of people to think again. Some say there is no God, who calls us to a final accounting for ourselves, with possibly serious consequences. Some are confident that, because God is love, God will not be hard on us so no one need worry. A few still believe God is holy and just and cannot tolerate any shortfall, which implies that sinners may deservedly be sent to eternal punishment. Other Christians hold that faith in Christ assures them of escape from deserved punishment, while those who don’t believe are excluded. And maybe that leaves a lot of people who are confused and don’t know what to think, although they have an uncomfortable feeling there might be something important here, if only they could get a grip on it.
Jean Wyatt argues in a constructive way, from the Bible and theology, that God’s judgment is not condemnatory or destructive of God’s own creatures, but that it is disciplinary and restorative. It consistently aims at what is good, however badly things have gone. So God’s Judgment is God’s salvation – there is not a simple Either-Or. And this salvation-judgment is revealed and worked out in the life, death, resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, God in human being, for human being – ‘Oh, generous love! That he who smote/ in man, for man, the foe….’ God does not leave the crucial task of achieving salvation to human beings in their self-deceiving sovereign apart-ness: God takes the business in hand without emptying human action and responsibility of meaning.
As I now understand the good news of Jesus Christ, it inescapably involves the quest for a ‘universalist understanding of salvation’ which is not careless about human sin and judgment. It is good to say clearly, The Judge is the Saviour. It is also foundationally good to say, The Saviour is the Judge. That means judgment is finally, decisively executed in the realisation of the salvation God is working at and will complete rather than in the dismissive condemnation of sinners. Jesus, God in humanity, received sinners and outsiders into the fellowship of the kingdom of God. He ate with them, concretely showing God did not exclude them according to some readings of the law. And then he said to his critics, this is what the salvation of God is like: the blind receive sight, the hungry are fed, the poor have good news given to them, the estranged and humiliated and fearful people come in. Critics, insulated by in their own sense of goodness, were called to notice and understand what was going on in these feasts from which they excluded themselves. Jesus said, with the ultimate seriousness of final judgment, there was no hope for such people unless they liked what God was making of, and for, the people they despised and feared. The well-off, who need no physician for themselves, are called to be glad that those they looked down upon were being included in God’s welcome. People with pride and confidence in any superior quality or achievement are not saved by virtue of what they are in themselves, but only by giving up self to find themselves with, in and through the salvation God brings to the humble, by his own humility.
That is how the father appealed to his older son, when the wayward younger brother returned, a broken and disgraced man. Could the older son not see the goodness in his brother’s being found, coming to life out of death? What does it reveal about him that he refuses to share in the joy of it, because he has ‘standards’ which prevent him seeing goodness in his brother’s recovery? Whatever his other qualities, he lacks love which rejoices in the good (I Cor.13. 6). The story in Lk 15 is left hanging at the end as the father tries to persuade his son to love generously and to have convincing reasons within his own mind for loving even this brother.
Such a salvation enacted and displayed brings us into the place of searching and being judged. So the Saviour is the Judge.
As Jesus said, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him….This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than light… (John 3.17-21).
Haddon Willmer
Bookings are now open for this year’s New Wine event in August. FIRE SAFETY – Evacuation of the Building during a Service
Meeting Point: In the event of a fire, people should calmly leave the building by the nearest exit (see below) and meet on the grass by the telephone box to the right of the car park exit.
All children’s/youth group leaders are responsible for evacuating the children in their care except for crèche (see separate note under Crèche Room)
Foyer: Exit through main front door
Sanctuary: (as seen from the front)
Rear balcony: Down front steps and through the main front door or down side steps and through the corner room
Left hand side (front half) exit through door between Sanctuary and Music Room
Left hand side (rear half) exit through main front door
Right hand side (front half) exit through door by offices
Right hand side (rear half) exit through main front door
Music Room: Exit through door between Sanctuary and Music Room
Offices: Exit through external door by offices
Disabled toilet: Exit through external door by offices
Meeting Area: Exit through external door by offices
Lounge: Exit through Sports Hall fire exit
Sports Hall: Exit through Sports Hall fire exit
Kitchen: Exit through Corner Room fire exit
Corner Room: Exit through Corner Room fire exit
Crèche Room: Exit through Corner Room fire exit (NB those with children in crèche should pick up their children from the Crèche Room by the door near the ladies toilets and exit by the Corner Room
Gents Toilets: Through main front door
Ladies Toilets: Through Corner Room fire exit
Service Leader to direct from the front of church
Stewards on duty to facilitate exit and to sweep the building following exit
All stewards in attendance to assist elderly and infirm
Administrator or substitute to call emergency services
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FIRE SAFETY – Fire extinguishers situated:
One in Foyer by window
Three in Sanctuary – one on platform by sound desk, one next to organ, one at the entrance from the office corridor
One in corridor by offices
One next to photocopier
One in Corner Room next to emergency exit
One in Sports Hall next to emergency exit
Two outside Corner Room (one is specifically for use on kitchen fat fires)
There is also a fire blanket in the kitchen
Fire Call Points (break glass if you discover a fire)
One in corridor by offices
One in Sports Hall next to emergency exit
One in Kitchen by rear door
One in Corner Room next to emergency exit
One by the external door between Music Room and Sanctuary
Doors and Fire Exits
Main front door
External door by offices
External door between Music Room and Sanctuary
Corner Room
Sports Hall
In the event of an emergency evacuation, all “off duty” stewards will be expected to become “on duty” stewards.
It will be the responsibility of the two “on duty” stewards to check both the ladies, gents and disabled toilets
No heroics! A safe, calm and speedy evacuation of the building should be your main priority. Don’t put yourself at risk. Leave the fire fighting to the professionals.
Published three times a year, the latest edition of ENGAGE, BMS World Mission’s brilliant magazine is now available either in print (completely free through the post) or on line via https://www.bmsworldmission.org/get-involved/stay-informed/engage/
Issue 41’s cover is taken up by a picture of BMS World Mission surgeons Andrea and Mark Hotchkin. The couple who have spent eight years living and working in Bardia, Chad “live in a two room mud and stone house with a reed roof, no windows and no running water.”
Inside there are stories from Uganda, India, China and Nepal as well as a hard hitting three page feature about modern day slavery here in the UK.
You can support BMS World Mission in a number of ways including through its novel Birthdays Scheme; each year, on your birthday, instead of receiving a gift you commit to send the BMS a donation. Last year this simple but most effective plan raised over £300,000.
Roger Robson is MBC’s BMS World Mission representative so if you would like more information about any of its work he’s the man to see.
In September 2017 MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) sent out a heartfelt plea to Help us buy a plane! (You may recall David Casson talking about it at MBC).
As a result of that appeal, and within just 250 days of its launch more than 10,000 people sent a gift towards purchasing a Cessna 208 Grand Caravan (like the one pictured above). This means that today the aircraft is being prepared for take off ahead of joining MAF’s South Sudan fleet.
Ruth Whitaker – the project’s UK Chief Executive describes this amazing response as “a magnificent outpouring of love towards men, women and children of the world’s youngest nation.”
You can find our more about the success of this appeal and about MAF’s amazing work across the world by going to http://www.maf-uk.org/how-we-help or you can of course speak directly to David Casson.
At MBC, whenever a child is Dedicated or receives a Blessing he or she is always given a simple certificate on which it says this: Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19.14.
Last Sunday (May 27th) it was our pleasure to give just such a memento to Jayden, Nathaniel, Reggie Lynch. However, what made the Service extra special was mum and dad, Debi and Jason’s request that they too should receive a blessing.
Debi and Jason have kindly given us permission to use some pictures taken at the Service, so many thanks and God blessings on you all.
To view a larger version of any of these pictures just click on the image.
After decades in the doldrums MBC is once again fielding a cricket team. That’s because Moortown Baptist Church are currently playing in a four team, 20 over tournament running on Wednesday evenings in May and June at Harewood House. The teams are Mosaic, St George’s, Leeds Pathology (links to Bridge Street) and Moortown.
Our Man of the Match was Graham (right) with a fine performance as both wicket keeper and batsman; indeed it was Graham who secured our victory by dispatching the ball to the boundary for the winning four. 
I think it’s fair to say that no Sunday morning service at MBC is ever what you might call quiet or straight forward. Besides all the traditional elements there’s very often a mission slot, or our children come back in to share what they’ve all been up, sometimes we have a visiting preacher or maybe some weeks just an up date on one of our many and varied projects. Sunday May 20th, however, was even busier than normal.
This was because after a shortened service (one hour, five including Communion) we held the second of our special open Church Meetings.
On the agenda this time was the election or reappointment of deacons, confirmation that Howard Dews is to be our GDPR guru and the latest news on our ongoing search for a new youth worker. Then, an hour later it was time for the top side of a hundred of us to share lunch.
The gallery below shows a selection of images taken on the day. This includes pictures of a splendid new “stained glass” window, specially designed and built for Pentecost by Kate Slater, our two new deacons – Paul Smith and Phil Laws and a shot taken in the lounge showing what some of our kids were doing during our meeting.
So there you have it, Sunday May 20th, just another day in the eventful life of Moortown Baptist Church. Fortunately everything ran smoothly even if it was a bit of a struggle getting everything cleared away before it was time for Shona and Graham to clock on again, this time to lead a 4pm Tea Service.
You can view a larger version of any of these images simply by clicking on the picture
