Aldersgate retrospective
At a couple minutes before 8:30 Saturday night I shook hands with Ben Witherington with a muttered "Thanks so much" and "God bless" as we traded positions at the Wesley Methodist Church pulpit. He had just concluded a stirring sermon based on Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4 - "A Vision of Worship", which was partly a critique of consumer-oriented worship so common today. Peter Teo was waiting in the wings to send him to Changi Airport and the next stop on his world tour - Ephesus. I then stood in the pulpit to lead the congregation in singing "Not by Our Might", a hymn written by Bishop Solomon with a dynamic tune by Jusuf Kam.
I was generally impressed by Dr Witherington, his erudition, his great sense of humor and his ability to connect to the audience. Some of the feedback I got was that he made people feel as though he were speaking directly to them. He is a good New Testament scholar, the kind that makes me want to go back to school and bone up on my Koine. His theme could be summarized as the hope of resurrection, with a heavy sub-theme on the errors of Dispensationalism. However, his time in Singapore was too short. I would have loved some follow-up discussion on what we do between the already and not yet of the final resurrection. Maybe another time. Probably folks here just needed time to digest his critique of so many readily-held assumptions. On the other hand, his Friday talk was so powerful that we could have had an altar call.
Dr Witherington has written about the Convention in his blog.
This being the seventh Aldersgate Convention that I have worked with, I recognise that success is not only in the visible and external markers - great speaker and large attendance numbers. The less visible marker of success is found in the process of people working together to make it happen. The Methodist Church in Singapore has 43 congregations, organised partly linguistically and ethnically, in three annual conferences. Over six nights and two morning sessions I worked with people from the Chinese, Tamil and English educated groups as they came together with with different insights and different language backgrounds, but with one common cause, to be Christ's holy church giving glory to God.
May this church continue to glorify God.
--georgos
I was generally impressed by Dr Witherington, his erudition, his great sense of humor and his ability to connect to the audience. Some of the feedback I got was that he made people feel as though he were speaking directly to them. He is a good New Testament scholar, the kind that makes me want to go back to school and bone up on my Koine. His theme could be summarized as the hope of resurrection, with a heavy sub-theme on the errors of Dispensationalism. However, his time in Singapore was too short. I would have loved some follow-up discussion on what we do between the already and not yet of the final resurrection. Maybe another time. Probably folks here just needed time to digest his critique of so many readily-held assumptions. On the other hand, his Friday talk was so powerful that we could have had an altar call.
Dr Witherington has written about the Convention in his blog.
This being the seventh Aldersgate Convention that I have worked with, I recognise that success is not only in the visible and external markers - great speaker and large attendance numbers. The less visible marker of success is found in the process of people working together to make it happen. The Methodist Church in Singapore has 43 congregations, organised partly linguistically and ethnically, in three annual conferences. Over six nights and two morning sessions I worked with people from the Chinese, Tamil and English educated groups as they came together with with different insights and different language backgrounds, but with one common cause, to be Christ's holy church giving glory to God.
May this church continue to glorify God.
--georgos
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