Fragments

Monday

Sarah and I attended Graham Harrison's funeral at Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Newport where he had ministered for 47 years. Seeing his coffin arranged in front of the pulpit from which he used to preach was a sobering sight for any Minister. In his sermon Stephen Clark referred to Harrison's use of the words of Richard Baxter, "I preached as never sure to preach again, as a dying man to dying men." But, like Abel being dead, he still speaks, calling us to herald the good news of salvation from sin and death through Christ crucified and risen. 

The simple service was a fitting tribute to Harrison's memory and a powerful witness to the gospel he lived to preach. One of the elders, Trevor MacMillen spoke warmly of Mr. Harrison the man and the Minister. Stephen Clark's message was based on 1 Corinthians 2:2. In Harrisonesque fashion Clark called upon any non-Christians present in the service to come to Christ without delay. He offered gospel consolation to those who mourned Mr. Harrison's passing.  Preachers were urged to proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified, seeking empowering presence of the Spirit. 

At the graveside Hywel Jones prayed one of the most amazing prayers I've ever been privileged to hear. It was theology on fire, directed to God on behalf of his grateful, hopeful, yet sorrowing people. 

Before heading for home we called in on my mum in nearby Bassaleg, which was nice. 

Tuesday

Took an assembly at a local Primary School in the morning on 'Friendship and Trust', with special reference to Matthew 14:22-33. Jesus is a friend in whom we can trust. He will never let us down.

In the afternoon I went along to a Governor's Training Session, where we were encouraged to evaluate our performance using twenty questions suggested by an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Education Governance & Leadership, see here. It was a useful exercise that will hopefully help us be a more effective governing body. 

Wednesday

Prepared for the evening's Bible Study on Hosea 6:4-6. Visited a couple of church members. Led the Prayer Meeting/Bible Study. On the first Wednesday of the month we pray for other churches in our FIEC Cluster Group, using a Prayer Diary. 

Emails ping back and forth all day. Church stuff, Fraternal stuff, Governor stuff, Grace Baptist Mission weekend stuff etc. One day I'm going to get confused, send a deacon on a Teachers' Pay training session and book the Clerk to the Governors into a theology seminar. That'd be a shock for 'em both. 

Thursday

Prepared Sunday morning's sermon on Matthew 5:17-20. Pastoral visit. Managed to get a bit of reading done - Imagine Church by Neil Hudson and On Christian Doctrine by Augustine. 

Friday

Hasn't happened yet, Proverbs 27:1. 

A Tribute to Graham Harrison (1935-2013)

Yesterday morning Graham Harrison was called into the presence of the Lord whom he had served most faithfully. Even as we mourn his death, many people, myself included have reason to be grateful to God for the impact of his life and ministry. I was never a member of Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Newport where he ministered for over forty years, but I often attended the church and sat under his preaching. While he was never given to pulpit histrionics, his authoritative, pastorally sensitive and gospel-centred ministry never ceased to move me. His pattern was to preach a series of sermons on a Bible book on Sunday mornings and preach one-off evangelistic messages in the evenings. His evangelistic preaching was invariably fresh, punchy, and gripping.

One of the reasons why I opted to study at the London Theological Seminary (1988-90) was that Graham Harrison was one of the lecturers. He used to visit the seminary every other week during term time to teach Christian Doctrine, or Systematic Theology. His lectures were sound, clear and insightful, the product of wide and deep reading in the field of systematics. But he was ever the pastor-theologian and would give plenty of time for students to discuss the pastoral relevance of whatever subject he had been teaching. In discussion his intellect was sharp and his wit dry. 'Know it all' students were soon cut down to size. 

Graham Harrison was a shy man and could sometimes seem a little forbidding to those who did not know him well. But this did not stop him from throwing himself in to the everyday work of pastoral ministry. He was no extrovert, but in his own way Mr. Harrison was a real people person and had a deep and abiding love for the flock at Emmanuel. This only really struck me when I did a couple of 'Summer Pastorates' at the church when the preacher was on Sabbatical. I would do a little pastoral visiting and elderly church members would speak warmly of their Minister, telling of his regular visits and the support he had given them during times of sorrow and trial. The powerful preacher and incisive lecturer was above all a local church pastor. That is what made him such a fine role model for budding Ministers of the Gospel. 

Graham Harrison was a 'Lloyd-Jones man'. Not that he followed his teaching slavishly. He was a Baptist after all. But he was a big admirer of 'the Doctor'. We had him speak at Providence Baptist Church on 'Martyn Loyd-Jones 1966 & Today' back in 2006, the 40th anniversary of Lloyd-Jones' call for Evangelical Unity. Harrison shared Lloyd-Jones' great emphasis on the need for the empowering presence of the Spirit in the Church. While a student at the London Theological Seminary, I wrote a thesis on The Sealing of the Spirit under the guidance of Mr. Harrison. The comments he offered on my work were typical of the man, 

May this subject not simply interest your mind but grip your soul and drive you increasingly to pray for its fulfilment in your own experience. Remember there is always more with God. 

Just how much more, Graham Harrison is only beginning to realise now that he is absent from the body, but present with his Lord in glory. We thank God for the life and ministry of his servant and pray that Mr. Harrison's wife, daughter and her family will be comforted by the hope of the gospel at this time. 

Graham Harrison on Engaging with Lloyd-Jones: Round Two

Here Harrison gets to grips with "1966 And All That". A taster:

[Jim] Packer was to complain that Lloyd-Jones’ 1966 call was a ‘campaign of words without plans.’ (p.272). This position was elaborated years later by Carl Trueman who complained that Lloyd-Jones’ vague alternative to Anglicanism was ‘a non-ecclesiastical, non-confessional disaster.’ (p.272). Presumably he means that the Doctor had not produced a Presbyterian blueprint on which the forthcoming seceders could structure their theology. This is interesting as it betrays either an ignorance or, more likely, a rejection of Lloyd-Jones’ often argued distinction between the primaries and secondaries in the pecking order of evangelical doctrinal priorities. It is well known that into the latter category he was willing to place matters of church government, Independency, Presbyterianism and even Episcopacy. Important as they were they simply did not compare with the fundamental issues that were and still are at stake in a situation which calls into question the very nature of the gospel.

I think Harrison hits the nail on the head. Simply because Lloyd-Jones did not propose the post-succession restructuring of Evangelicalism along Episcopal or Presbyterian lines does not mean that he he had no concern for ecclesiology. On the contrary, what he wanted was a union of Evangelical churches, although those churches might have had differing patterns of church government. 

Graham Harrison on Engaging with Lloyd-Jones: Round One

I was never a member of Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Newport where Graham Harrison was the Minister for so many years. But I often sat under his preaching when living in Bassaleg, near Newport, and when visiting family back in South Wales. In addition, Graham Harrison was our systematic theology lecturer when I studied at the London Theological Seminary from 1988-1990. In one way and another he has had a formative impact on my life and ministry. I did a summer pastorate at Emmanuel some years ago, standing in for Graham when he was on sabbatical. We stayed at the Harrison's home for a month. Our son was a baby and Sarah was carrying our daughter, so it must have been a while back. What impressed me most about my time there was not so much Mr. Harrison's well-stocked library, but the realisation that the theologian and preacher was also a pastor. Talking to members of the congregation, it was evident that Graham cared for his people, visited the elderly saints regularly and comforted those who had lost loved ones.

But  Mr. Harrison could also be a bruiser, taking no prisoners in the cut and thrust of theological debate and discussion. If you were going to disagree with him you had better be able to put up a fight. Back in 2006 I had Graham come and speak on 'Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1966 & Today'. You can see a report here. While not agreeing with everything Lloyd-Jones said and did, Harrison is convinced that 'the Doctor' was right on the big issues, such as evangelical unity and the need for revival. It was with interest, then that  I read  the first part of his review of Engaging with Lloyd-Jones. Harrison the Heavyweight is to the fore.

Seconds out for Round One of this rumble in the theological jungle. 

Here's an excerpt to get you going,

One other thing is lacking overtly from the book. It is the dimension of the effect he provoked on the part of those to whom his presence and the powerful expression of his views constituted something of an alien intrusion. That he was not English was a fact that soon became apparent. Nor did he come from Scotland which in a peculiar way (despite Gordon Brown) is still somewhat fashionable in London! He could not abide snobbery in any shape or form – whether or not it was expressed religiously, politically or merely socially. Many will have said - although Lloyd-Jones would no doubt have disagreed most strongly with them - that he was a self-made man who came from a remarkable family. Undoubtedly he possessed a boldness in advocating his opinions and something of a temperamental inability to be intimidated by persons or views contrary to his own. There can be little doubt that he was viewed as something of an irritant to the settled equanimity of the circles into which his gifts thrust him. It could not be gainsaid that he was intellectually brilliant, well able to hold his own in any company; he was a Christian of Calvinistic convictions and a preacher of remarkable power. But he was Welsh and unafraid to say so; he was not an Anglican but a dissenter and a nonconformist; furthermore, swimming against the tide was something that rarely seemed to bother him – particularly as usually and eventually he seemed to do it so well. Some find this hard to take – and, dare we say it, still do! Signs are not wanting in this volume that this attitude is still there, lurking, as it were, under the surface. Perhaps an open, full-blooded expression of such criticism would have been useful, if only to clear the air!