TOAM Training Track 4: Lex Loizides: John Calvin's Mission

Lex is an elder at Jubilee Church Cape Town. He serves locally and internationally as an evangelist, including the Frontedge initiative within Newfrontiers. He is a really nice guy, with a fascination for cars and Church history in almost equal measure. I found the conversation while I gave him a lift to the airport with him last year fascinating, as is his blog.

Calvinism is often viewed as counter-productive to the gospel. The accusation is that it brings passivity and neglect to witness because it is “all in God’s hands anyway”

There is almost a sense that the believer needs to choose between Calvinism and the great commission!

“God is in ultimate control of the plan of redemption” has two clear objections to it, highlighted by greats such as Wesley and Finney. These boil down to election and the call of God to salvation.

Lex’s key claim was that CONVICTION ABOUT GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY IN ELECTION AND SALVATION DOES NOT REDUCE EVANGELISTIC VIGOUR using examples from real life and starting with scripture.

SCRIPTURE:

Acts 18:4 Paul is told to keep preaching for God has many people for Him there. This is quite clearly an evangelistic motivation to stay and engage in mission that comes from direct revelation from God. Calvin noted that God already called them “His” people to Paul even before their conversion.

This was a supernatural revelation to Paul.

• It was not a hunch
• The place and circumstances did not “look ripe”: it looked tough
• It came to Paul from a decidedly “Charismatic” experience of God speaking
• It was an ANTIDOTE to fear and apathy and enabled him to overcome his fear and persevere

In 2 Timothy 2:10 we see he won’t give up because of a genuine motivation

God had “Many” people for him in Corinth. By revelation 7 v 9 that “many” is expanded.

In Acts 13 there was seriously effective ministry happening in Pisidian Antioch and nearly the whole place was there. V48: as many as were appointed believed and v49 this spread across the whole region.

The scriptures relating to predestination in Acts promote or have the effect of stirring up evangelism. So if Calvinism is biblical, it should do the same.

FROM HISTORY:

There have been many Arminians and Calvinists zealous for mission who saw great fruit.

Both groups also have apathetic people and apathetic Churches who are not zealous for mission.

But the accusation that “Calivinism reduces evangelistic zeal” is simply not backed up a quick glance at some major historical figures.

Calvin’s original movement was pushing 2000 Churches across Europe and represented 3,000,000 people, with local Churches up to 9,000 people in number

Wesley and Finney were key critics of Calvinism, so let’s look at two contemporaries in each century they represent.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

• A strong Calvinist, but famous for being an evangelist
• His most famous sermon is an evangelistic sermon
• There are examples of both his Calvinism and his evangelistic successes right the way through his writings and sermons
• He had a clear focus on evangelism
• He saw a major harvest

GEORGE WHITEFIELD

• Again, a strong Calvinist and a strong evangelist
• He preached the need of new birth and gave a call for a clear decision, which is what we would expect from an evangelist today. The preaching became the “event” and massive crowds came to hear him
• His ministry was at the centre of great awakenings in both the UK and the US
• Wesley’s ministry, ironically, collected and organised many of the converts from Whitefield’s mission and turned them into a Church planting movement.
  

In both these cases holding a high view of the sovereignty of God certainly did not reduce either their evangelistic vigour nor their success

WILLIAM CAREY

He is known as the “Father of modern missions”. He did not just sent others, he went himself. He waited 7 years for his first convert.

Vishal Mangalwadi lists his contributions to India:

• He imported the first steam engine
• Then taught the local blacksmiths how to make their own
• Development of printing and publishing
• Taught locals and showed them how to develop their own printing industry
• He started local paper manufacture so he would not have to import as much
• 1st newspaper published in an oriental language
• Formed the first horticultural society
• Performed major agricultural surveys
• Wrote essays on forestry
• Developed the concept of savings banks
• Advocated new methods in leprosy treatment
• Wrote the first Sanskrit dictionary
• Developed Schools
• Developed libraries
• Campaigned against the oppression of women especially the practice of widow burning
• Translated the bible into 3 Indian languages, and sections of the bible into many others.

“He saw India not as a land to be exploited but as His father’s land to be loved and served”

Is a list like this the work of a dull and fatalistic Calvinist who thinks he does not have to bother because God will sort it out anyway?

CHARLES SPURGEON

Believed conclusively in justification by faith, in the doctrines of the grace of God and in the sovereignty of God

• He was one of the most successful evangelists of his century
• He is the widest read preacher in history
• He saw over 200 Churche splanted including overseas
• 900 pastors were trained
• He opened 2 orphanages
• He wrote lots of books and pamphlets
• He almost always spoke to the unbeliever in His sermons. It is estimated over 15,000 responded in his own Church meetings during his ministry and the Church numbered in the thousands.

Spurgeon was Calvinist and passionately evangelistic.

CONCLUSION

Both Scripture and history give us examples which disprove that accusation.

There are other reasons why people may choose to reject Calvinism but the accusation it produces apathy in witness just does not hold water.

Because God is sovereign, we should want to address the unbeliever with a relevant gospel.

This has implications for our neighbours, our street, our Church, our Town, our Nation and the Nations

This begs the question why are people so hostile?

• Often people disagree with a caricature not a reality
• They take an experience of the extreme fringe of Calvinism and stereotype all
  

Lex finished with a call to read and honour the contribution of Wesley and Finney because they did things really well and God used them in amazing ways, so we can learn much from them. If we hold to the doctrines of grace we need to extend that grace to those who disagree with us and remain open hearted.

This excellent session finished with questions and then a powerful time of prayer for the extension of the gospel.

TOAM Training Track 4: Greg Haslem: John Calvin's Legacy

500 years on, what still stands?

Greg leads Westminster Chapel in London.

There was quite a bit of overlap between this and the last session because of elements of Calvin’s life story being retold.

Greg started by suggesting the caricature of Calvin being a joyless, legalistic, penny pinching, aggressive, heretic burner needs to be weighed against the evidence for his life.

Much of the “history” was written by people in direct opposition to Calvin, both in his day and in future years.

Calvin was a theologian, a reformer and a teacher

A classically trained, French, humanist, lawyer – he became an influential preacher and biblical commentator.

His life is marked by opposition, tragedy, controversy and influence in equal measure

CALVIN THE THEOLOGIAN

• Centrality of the scriptures in everything
• The value of the Lord’s supper and water baptism
• In some ways he looked to reconcile differing views within the reformation

CALVIN THE PASTOR

• He was known to work very, very hard
• Sent out massive correspondence all over Europe
• He was involved in a huge amountof preaching, giving lectures and training leaders
• He had an open home, often with travelling preachers / leaders passing through
• He had a very poor health history, in all manner of pain
• His 3 children died in infancy and his wife died after just 9 years of (happy) marriage

CALVIN THE REFORMER

• He trained new leaders in Geneva who took his message far and wide
• He preached over 200 times a year
• He printed books and commentaries that went all over Europe and greatly influenced the reformed Church

CALVIN THE TEACHER

• Above all Calvin was a bible teacher
• Where the text went, so did Calvin, but no further
• He believed that faith brought repentance
• He gave unprecedented profile to the work of the Holy Spirit, in revelation, in the word coming alive and in sanctification
• He was obsessed with the glory of Christ as Prophet, Priest and King
• He emphasised the sovereignty of God.

Greg suggested Calvin's stance was:

1. Theism in its fullness
2. Religion coming from purity, prayer, sanctification and biblical values
3. Evangelicalism at its best: utter surrender to an over-arching God

Calvin’s contribution is way, way more than the “5 points”

He had much to say about the Trinity, the deity of Christ, being saved by faith, the second coming, faith in the marketplace, sanctification and biblical ecclesiology.

To package “Calvinism” as simply 5 points does his legacy a huge disservice. Those 5 points were a reaction to Arminian teaching, not a shortened version of the teaching of Calvin which was much, much wider in its range and reach.

Greg went on to explain that he dislikes much of what he sees in Calvinism today. A joyless, experience-less, proud, judgemental expression of Christianity that is entirely unattractive to Christians and non Christians alike

Many of the “greats” of the history of the protestant Church have been heavily influenced by Calvin, and even now the self styled “New Calvinist” movement appears to be gathering pace.

Greg believes the following are just some of things we can recover into Church life from looking at Calvin:

1. Every calling is valid, as everything is done for the glory of God. There is nothing “secular” except sin!
2. Great worship: for we have something great to worship
3. Not viewing God “all-matey” but God Almighty
4. A sense of purpose and value in our lives and in our mission
5. Freedom from legalism (although oddly, this can be very closely aligned with some expressions of Calvinism)

Overall: very thought provoking stuff. The one thing I will remember is that both speakers so far have had far, far warmer things to say about Arminians than about hyper-Calvinists who they believe give other Calvinists a bad name.

TOAM Training Track 4: Andy Johnston : John Calvin's Church Planting

These three seminars really have given me a lot to think about. It was Calvin's 500th birthday on the friday of the conference, hence the idea to use that as a springboard to discuss his life. I will blog them bit by bit over the next few days.

Andy leads Christchurch Hailsham and has published several books on the reformation.

Andy’s basic assumption was to look at Calvin in the light of what we understand about “apostolic” gift.

If Calvin were alive today we would recognise his gift for:

• Theology and preaching
• Building a “blueprint” Church that others modelled
• Mission and Church planting

Calvin finished his preaches with a prayer “Let Him work his miracle of grace not only here, but for all the people and nations of the earth”

Does that sound familiar?

10 Points of interest & comparison:

1) Calvinism was a “second generation” movement of the reformation. While other movements were running out of steam Calvin’s influence continued to spread.

Newfrontiers is really a second generation movement of the Charismatic renewal in the 1960s

2) Calvin was apostolic in his gifting although would not have been comfortable with that title

It just kind of happened, he was not in a rush to claim a badge. Sounds a bit like Mr Virgo?

3) Calvin was an outstanding theologian, one of the greats of the last 500 years. He focussed on the “Big picture” of the biblical narrative: the glory of God

Newfrontiers remains commited to historic evangelicalism and the doctrines of Grace

4) Calvin built a “Model Church” in Geneva which was a genuine attempt to be true to the biblical pattern of Church life

We are looking for the recovery of New Testament Church principles. Some of our Churches have served us as real “model” Churches to encourage others.

5) Calvin overcame huge opposition within his cultural context in order to change his culture

This is a major challenge from the Driscoll / Keller camp. How can we become a city within a city?

6) Calvin was, in the first instance, a fairly reluctant Church planter. He offered no help or support to such ideas before 1554

Newfrontiers only started planting Churches properly in the late 1980s

7) In the last phase of his life (1555-1564) Calvin inspired a huge momentum to Church plant, both in his native France and across Europe

This is a great encouragement

8) This remarkably successful phase of Church planting was “Calvin inspired” not “Calvin organised”. No one individual could oversee 1,700 Churches being planted across France. Training helped, but in the end the movement had a momentum of its own. Only 88 pastors were sent from Geneva but 1700 Churches started: you do the math!

The vision to plant first 400, then 1000 Churches in the UK is aided by strategy and training but ultimately it must be organic and come from a snowballing effect of having mission in the DNA of each local Church

9) Calvinists saw themselves as “family” and “on a mission”. There were regular offerings and fast days which provided both material and spiritual support for co-workers

Do those expressions sound familiar?

10) Seeds of potential problems in the future were sown at the very end of Calvin’s life as he softened his stance regarding secular power which opened the door for armed uprising against the state amongst some of the Calvinist groups.

What do we really need to “hold true” to?

There was also an interesting look at how in many ways Calvinism was a deliberate attempt to oppose key elements of medieval Catholicism.

Calvin was rooted in the primacy of the glory of God. Therefore he rejected outright any practices or doctrines which could reduce the glory of Christ such as

• Intercession through the saints
• Elevation of Mary
• “Continual” sacrifice
• Elevating the role of tradition alongside scripture

It was into that context that the doctrines of the sovereignty of God took precedence.