In April 1967 I attended the first National Evangelical Congress at Keele University with some 1,000 delegates, including 110 theological students of which I was one. There were 30 observers from the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and other churches. The purpose was to do some serious up to date thinking, and to grapple with live contemporary issues. We were divided into six study groups based upon a book of essays entitled Guidelines by the Congress speakers which had been sent to us beforehand to provide the theological backdrop. I have just been rereading this book after 57 years. It is still stimulating and enriching to me. Unfortunately it is unobtainable now. I was privileged over the years to personally get to know the writers and to appreciate their contribution.

First of all, John Stott spoke on Jesus Christ, our Teacher and Lord, the centrality of the Scriptures in All aspects of belief and behavior and that to differ from the Bible is to deviate from the truth. James Atkinson wrote on The Salvation of Christ and my dear friend Robin Nixon addressed the whole scope of Christ’s saving work, the depth of human sin and the extent of God’s grace. Michael Green developed his concern for the centrality, significance and challenge of Holy Communion as the normal nourishment for every Christian. Alec Motyer in Law and Love in Christian Salvation addressed the issue of Perfectionism and Self-Fulfilment and the challenge of conflict through the temptation to indulge in one’s feelings rather than face Christ’s call to self-denial in order to find life in all its fullness. Philip Edgecumbe Hughes on The Credibility of the Church asserted that the Church becomes credible when its members show by their visible lives that the gospel actually works, when the good news they proclaim is shown to be dynamic news, doing lasting good to those who believe it. William Leathem on Renewing the Local Church called upon the need for shared ministry by both clergy and laity, reform of liturgy and competent preaching for much preaching is too small to be believed, to easy to be effective and too confident to be true. Norman Anderson on Christian Worldliness called for involvement at every level of society for the reformation of the culture. He discussed many hot button issues of morality and what Christians should do about them, social justice, race relations, finance, war and matters of state responsibility. Finally A.T. Houghton dealt with the missionary challenge in the modern world in a Total Commitment to Christ’s Command to fulfill Christ’s commission. A Statement of the Congress was published for further study and action.

In September 2003, Antoinette and I attended the fourth National Evangelical Anglican Congress held at the historic Winter Gardens in Blackpool, England. The opening emphasis was on world mission, salvation to the ends of the earth. Michael Nazir-Ali, spoke on the uniqueness of Old Testament Israel whom God had chosen that all the world would be blessed as a preparation for Christ. Similarly, today the church has the same vocation but can be as ineffective as Israel was. Graham Cray talked about the role of the Bible as objective truth in a post-modern age that elevates subjective interpretation, and the uniqueness of Christ in a pluralistic age. Seminars on the challenge of contemporary Islam. Presentations by Anthony Thiselton on the Cross and Peter Jensen on the Atonement. Gerald Bray spoke on Biblical exegesis, exposition and application. All three are needed in preaching. We met many old friends and new ones. We had lunch with John Stott and enjoyed the fellowship of many acquaintances

.These Congresses and other conferences were stimulating and encouraging to those of us who labor in local churches. They kept me going in the ministry and introduced me to innovative ideas that I needed in order to be relevant to those in my congregation.