London Report Number 4: HTB and the Alpha Course

I've brought you back to Holy Trinity Brompton for this entry, which will cover our Monday and then our Wednesday night in London. Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) is the reason the Beeson Program was willing to pay for us to make the trek to London. HTB's work there is nothing short of miraculous. How many times have you heard that the church in England is dead? Well, reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.

St. Paul's Theological Centre

We spent Monday morning in the HTB crypt listening to a lecture by Graham Tomlin. This lecture is part of a new school begun by HTB to prepare people for the ministry. The need to prepare well-educated leaders without sending them away to theological college (uprooting them from their current areas of service) prompted HTB to begin St. Paul's Theological Centre. This school of theology allows students to remain in London and in their current jobs (often ministry jobs) while they work toward their theological degree.

The below pictures give you an idea of the setting. Most of these students became Christians through the Alpha course.


The lecturer for the day was the Rev. Dr. Graham Tomlin who is also a lecturer Oxford. He was knowledgeable and smooth all at once. If you want to know more about him you can read his blog click: here.

In case you are wondering how much validity there is in this new experiment in religious education in London, the faculty even boasts Jane Williams as a lecturer. Her husband is none other than Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. I suppose it is safe to assume that it has friends in high places.

Our Time with Sandy Millar

Wednesday afternoon we got to have some private time with Bishop Sandy Millar. Millar had just returned from Uganda where he was helping train leaders for the Alpha course. He is a man filled with genuine joy. For those around Asbury I would compare his graciousness to that of Dr. Kalas. For those around Grandview I would compare his graciousness to that of Frank Smith. It is such a treat for me whenever I am around ministers who have spent their life in the church and not grown bitter from the experience (there, of course, many who don't come through unscathed).

He dismissed the ridicule he originally received for not handling HTB in the traditional British fashion. He praised the loyalty and genius of Nicky Gumbel, for whom he had genuine fatherly and collegiate affection. He was, quite simply, an inspiration.

I appreciate that he is unashamed to pray for healing, even supernatural healing.

Now for the part of the day where I was listening very carefully, mulling the scriptures and the tradition that formed me . . .

. . . in the past, whenever I've been asked about speaking in tongues I've had to say that I know nothing about it (save what scripture says) and that I've never been around it. I could share stories--both good and bad--from other people. That much, at least, changed on Wednesday afternoon.

Millar believes in encouraging the gift of speaking in tongues in private prayer. We gathered in a circle and sang "I love you Lord" and then he encouraged us to sing in tongues. Right now you may be wondering what I was doing.

I was thinking through the scriptures. One thing that amazes me is that a restoration movement that claims to take scripture with the utmost seriousness so easily explains away the gift of tongues. If we read the texts on tongues with the same lens as the texts on baptism, we would be a very different group of people. I understand why we are uncomfortable with it. It can too easily be abused, and (quite frankly) it can too easily be the work of any kind of spirit, not just the Holy Spirit--that much I know from reading the great mystics in church history.

After the time of singing . . . I sang in English . . . we remained in a circle and Millar and others came around the circle and prayed for each of us individually. I very much appreciated their willingness to pray for me and for my ministry. While they prayed I got the sense that I am simply not being called to speak in tongues.

It was a powerful afternoon. I came away amazed at what God has done in one of the most upscale places on earth. Who would have thought that a ministry of primary evangelism, with elements of healing prayer and speaking in tongues, would be thriving just blocks from Harrod's!

I can't help but smile.

Below is a closer look at Sandy Millar as he greets Jason McIntosh.The above events took place on Monday. On Wednesday, our last night in London, we went to

The Alpha Course
HTB for supper and then we stayed around for Nicky Gumbel's presentation in the Alpha Course. I will talk about this course a little bit, but you can look into if further by clicking on the word: Alpha.

Everyone gathers for a meal around 7pm. This room is full of people with little or no connection to the church. They have all been invited by their friends who have already been through the course. My best guess is that there were 500 people there and that the average age was about 27. These were young professionals who had been at work all day, but wouldn't get home until around 10pm that night.

After the meal the band came out and led the worship time. This worship time was much shorter than the Sunday evening worship and a bit more muted, probably because so many of the ones singing were a little freaked out by the idea of singing to God. This time there was no hand-raising (that I saw) and there were a lot of looks of curious concern on the faces of the various groups.
Then Nicky Gumbel preached a short and basic message on who Christ is and why he had to die. There was no flash. There were no bells and whistles. It was all very straight-forward.
After the teaching time, the people returned to their small groups for discussion on what they had just heard. We didn't witness that because we had to get back to St. Katharine's and prepare to fly out the next day.

A testimony: I had the opportunity to talk at length with Ben, our van driver, who had come to faith through the Alpha course about 8 years ago. Ben was a drug user and dealer who was invited to come to Alpha by his sister. He said the first night of the course he was on full alert and that he thought it was clever of HTB to use Nicky Gumbel was a smart and likeable presenter (Nicky is the son of a German Jew and a former lawyer). For Ben the pivotal moment came when he realized that Jesus died for him.

"I had always heard that Jesus came to show how to live and all the rest, but I had never heard that he came to die for my sins."

Ben remembers living in a world without hope. There came a point during the Alpha course when he had to ask himself if he really wanted to become a Christian because it would mean that he had to give up dealing drugs. He said he wasn't sure he wanted to do that because dealing was how he made his money. He was obviously very aware of the importance of changing his life. This was no easy commitment.

Like I said, that was 8 years ago. Ben is now on staff of St. Mark's church (a church plant by HTB). His story is just one of many like it. A secular country with antipathy to Christianity is filled with people who have never really heard the message. The Alpha course is doing a great job of presenting it.