THINK 2019: Revelation

What kind of a book is Revelation?

Interpretative Frameworks:
Idealist, Preterist, Futurist, Historicist

Idealist readings:
- Imagery and metaphor denotes timeless spiritual truths which recur throughout human history.

STRENGTHS: transferable to everyone, doesn't go out of date, fits the genre.
WEAKNESSES: very elastic and unclear, doesn't really help since 'if everyone is special, no one is.', not very reassuring since 'soon' loses its impact since it's been 2000 years.

Futurist readings:
- Most of the text focuses on the events leading up to the end of all things and the return of Christ: what, where and when.

STRENGTHS: literal interpretation of the book. It requires less explanation to get the book to say what you want it to say. It's predictive, transferable to all subsequent readers.
WEAKNESSES: timeless present problems, easy to get tangled and complicated/convoluted, weird (someone asked Aj 'are the weird locusts things, Apache helicopters?' and inconsistent with genre

Preterist view:
- The main focus of the book is on events contemporary to the text, such as the fall of Jerusalem (70), or that of Imperial Rome (410? 476?)

STRENGTHS: anchored in first century, fits genre, reassuring, 'soon' = soon.
WEAKNESSES: dating problems, not easily transferable

Historicist view:
- The shape of Revelation predicts the shape of church history as a whole, from the first century to today.

STRENGTHS: fairly literal and predictive, transferable to each generation
WEAKNESSES: indecipherable, structurally confusing and anchored in first century.

GENRE:

Chapter 1:1-11 look at the amount of different genre types John himself acknowledges that he's using.

Verses and genre:
1 - Apocalypse
3 - Benediction
4 - Epistle
5-6 - Doxology
7 - Apocalypse
8 - Prophecy
9 - Epistle

He jumps between different genres and therefore it helps us by suggesting that a 'one size fits all' mishmash of genres isn't going to work for us.

Revelation is an X-Ray not a crystal ball. It allows you to see into and beneath the surface of reality rather than into the future.

It is an apocalypse: a revelation from God, which peels back the curtain on the world and shows what is happening behind it.
Revelation as letter: An epistle to a specific group of believer with specific challenges and issues (whether in Asia Minor or not).
Revelation as prophecy: A message from God that calls for repentance and obedience, based on who God is and what he will do.

Structure of Revelation:

The structure of the book seems to move backward through Israel's history. It starts in exile, then to the heavenly temple status, then to the wilderness and then to the mountain which is where Israel as a nation begins.

Four times is says 'In the Spirit' or a variant of that which gives us a clear structure to the letter:


Observation: the challenge that we rarely preach the parts of the Bible that contains lots of warnings.

SESSION 2: 

The 'plot' of Revelation as an acronym 'reveal'. Standing back, this is some of what John is wanting to evoke for us.

Romance. Beautiful. Revelation (see abve) starts with the lover and ends with the Bride and in between there is the other woman (the harlot). Then there is also the challenge of making her ready in between. The appearance of the Second-Eve via the other woman (the harlot). WOW WOW WOW!!!!

Exodus. It is an exodus story. The plagues and curses unleashed - locusts, the boils, the rivers of blood - all exodus imagery. Plagues upon the oppressors; saved by the Lamb, martyrs freed into heavenly promise land via wilderness. Don't worry about what a flying locust scorpion is.

Victory. The message of Revelation is not 'Jesus wins!' because he's already won... the message is We Win! by faithful witness and song.

Exile. 

Apocalypse. Though written in a particular context, it exposes the patterns of worldly empires and divine justice.

Liturgy. 
- it can also be seen as a worship service.
- There is a call to worship, a doxology, letters to be read aloud, praise in psalms and hyms, a reading from a scroll, prophetic preaching, bowls of win, a wedding feast, blessing, commission and a prayer.

INSIGHT:

John and the book of Revelation as a two volumed work. This is VERY interesting and fascinating... It is possible that John wrote Revelation first.



Revelation is the most sensual book in the Bible. Nothing gets close to its tactile nature.

Sound: Then I heard... Trumpets, shouts, waterfalls, harps, thunders, choirs etc.
Sight: Then I saw... Brightness, lurid colours, glorious visions, grotesque characters, evocative images.
Smell: (probably the one we're least used to) smoke, cinnamon, spice, myrrh, bowls of wine, incense.
Touch: He laid his hand on me. Hands holding sickles, stars, scrolls, palms, reeds, harps, cups, keys...
Taste: Because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth.' Sweet as honey.

For 'how to preach it':

1: Jesus Unveiled     -    Main application How to Read Revelation
2-3: The Victorious Christian life     -    Main application : Affirmation, Warning & Promise
4: The Throne of God     -    Main application : Worship
5: The Lion and the Lamb     -    Main application : Worship and the gospel
6-7: Who Can Stand?     -    Main application : Diversity, Hope and World Mission
8-11: The Triumph of the Church     -    Main application : Prayer, Suffering and Justice
12: The Woman and the Dragon     -    Main application : Suffering and Victory
13-14: A Call for Endurance     -    Main application : Politics, Empire and Persecution
15-16: Worship, Witness and Wait     -    Main application : Justice and Vindication
17-18: The Unmasking of Evil     -    Main application : Threats to the Church
19-20: The Victory of Jesus     -    Main application : Worship, Victory and the Gospel
21-22:5 The Bride of Christ     -    Main application : Eschatology, Comfort and Joy
22:6-21 The New Creation     -    Main application : Faithfulness, endurance and hope


The Revelation of Jesus Christ


The apocalypse of Jesus Christ is both the one who is revealing and the one who is revealed.

The 'coming on the clouds' is likely to be a reference to the resurrection and ascension and not the future coming of Jesus to the earth. In Daniel the one like a Son of man is coming in the clouds to the throne room of the Ancient of Days.

John turns to see a voice (how do you 'see' a voice), and perhaps with echos of his gospel where he stresses the Word at the beginning.

Rev. 1:4-5 favourite Trinitarian passage in the Bible:
Two 3s and a 7.
God the Father is described in 3 ways, God the Son is described in 3 ways and the Sevenfold Spirit is.

In the Greek they don't write out the Omega but just have 'the O' - so it actually says 'I am the alpha and O'

Sevens - are everywhere!

Seven is a number symbolising completion, but the reason for this is that this is derivative of the week. The seventh = the week is now finished and there is rest/shalom.




The Sevenfold Son



Notes:

• 'Mastoi' is used of Jesus' 'chest' which is the word 'breast'. Why? Possibly because this is the sort of language used of the beloved in Song of Songs and this is a head to toe description of the beloved. 
• 'White' is the colour of purity. Pastorally we have to be clear and careful to ensure we acknowledge the challenges of 'whiteness' around skin colour. Our (my) skin colour is not 'white' (a car driving past that was my colour would not be said that it is white) but instead it's likely that in Christian history, people of our colour saw the link between 'white' and purity in scripture and thought 'that's a good colour to describe us!' 
• Read all the love songs in Song of Songs and then read the letters to the churches and the parallels are a lot more obvious and impressive. Right down to the lover knocking at the door. 
• Voice of Jesus like the crash of Niagra that's so rich and thick and full that you can't speak or be heard and instead just need to listen.
• The sword is in the 'wrong' place for us. We're used to swords being in our hands, but for Jesus it is in his mouth making the point that the word of God is the only weapon we need and nothing else. 
• Any reading of revelation that leads you to fear anything other than God, then you've read it wrong.

The letters to the church

• Comment on the letters as a whole: we don't tend to preach the warnings in scripture and yet Jesus when he addresses the church addresses them with encouragements and challenges.

• Jesus speaks very strongly to the churches, more strongly than anyone else speaks to churches (even Paul when he's at his most feisty doesn't speak like this). Some people (usually online) speak harshly about churches and claims the model of Jesus as being their justification. That's a bit like saying 'Lionel Messi shoots from 30yds out and it goes in, so I can too.' The answer of course is: yes and if you were as good as he is, you could too, but instead you should come closer before you shoot. Jesus can speak to his church more harshly than anyone else, purely on the basis of who he is. 

• John write to seven gentile cities (as Paul does).

• In light of the issue that so many of the issues Jesus picks with churches that are tolerating sexual immorality among them it ought to make us concerned and listen up and learn. for churches that are on the 'affirming' side of the sexuality debate need to be conscious of these words.

The Biblical theology in the book:

The Heavenly Liturgy

• 'Come up here' : the chapter (4) begins with a call to worship, this is what our musicians ought to do. 
• Praise : 'holy, holy, holy' (cmt: the Beatles sang 'love, love, love' but the angels sang 'holy holy holy.') Worthy are you... 
• Songs are central to Christian worship in a way that they aren't to others. Consider the centrality of singing in European sporting events in a way that isn't in other cultures/countries.
• Lament / Prayer
• 5:4 weeping loudly
• 6:10 prayer for justice
• Silence. 8:1 for half an hour
• Preaching of the Word
• The scroll is unsealed, the scroll is eaten and proclaimed.
• Bread and wine
• The earth is harvested, grapes are gather and wine is pressed

The Vision: Centred on the throne

God is at the centre, surrounded by torches and a rainbow. 

We pan out through concentric circles, zooming out which is the opposite direction to Ezekial 1. 

Eugene Peterson: worship is a meeting at the centre. Eccentric living is 'off centre' living.

Another way of seeing the heavenly throne room is the new creation and new temple.

 This is BEAUTIFUL and incredible again...

The whole cosmos becomes a temple. 

Chapter 5 is heaven's view of Jesus coming to heaven. 

The Scroll and the Lamb

This is like the scroll of Deuteronomy proclaiming the blessings and the curses, the purposes of God, judgment and blessing.

The first book of the Bible raises this theme 'the lion of Judah; and the question 'who is this lion?' is answered in the last book 'it's Jesus.'

The root of David and the shoot are the same thing.

All of the imagery leads us to expect a king who is going to conquer Jericho throw down idols and cleanse the land. When the lamb is revealed (who is a very different Joshua) the song cascades outwards, the four, the 24million, then every creature -  it emanates out form the epicentre. The blowing of the trumpets is falling of Jericho.

The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse 

The riders are agents of good sent to bring God's judgement. God is bringing his purposes of judgement through his appointed angelic emissaries. The rider on the white horse is Jesus.

The fifth seal represents te question of the whole of the book: How long O Lord, until you bring judgement. 

6:11 each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer and told to rest a little longer. There are going to be a lot more martyrs before you receive the kingdom you're waiting for.

Sixth seal: complete implosion of the cosmos. The world collapses in two sevens. It collapses int he things (earth, moon etc.) and people (kings, great ones, generals etc.). It is the collapse of the known world (symbolically), that occurred (like 'moon turned to blood' as Peter thought it had happened). That's how Jewish apocalyptic writing works. Who can stand? The answer is, the angels and the 144,000 redeemed. John looks and sees an innumerable multitude from every tribe and nation. He is shocked and astounded by the diversity of people. 

Seventh seal: The seventh seal ushers in silence. Chapters 6-7 are very noisy, the prayers of the saints are handled very carefully and ascend in smoke to the throne of God. In John's gospel, the time is significant. In his gospel it is 'the hour has come' the 'half hour' could be 'in the middle of the night.' Like Passover perhaps, rescued in the middle of the night, the darkness...

Trumpets: The End of the Beginning

Mapping John onto Ezekial. 

• The opening half of Revelation is about a book being opened and a prophet sent out. 
• The opening few chapters of Ezekial loom large in the background to Revelation 1-11

The first half of the book is the commissioning of John.

There are two kinds of trumpet in the OT: The Shofar (made of a ram's horn) is blown in Joshua, the silver trumpet blown in Numbers.

Silver trumpets are for jubilee and celebration/worship, the shofar is for war. Trumpets therefore = worship and war.

Judgement exposes what is already there. The Nile is already blood red because of the baby boys, Egypt is in darkness worshipping the sun god not the real God, the judgements expose (apocalypse) what is already there. That's how judgement works. 

Scriptures strangest chapter is the Locust-Scorpions vs the Horse-Lions

They are described using a seven-fold wasf. There is another place in the NT where you find these same things. Luke 10:17-20

The great mighty angel (messenger) is Jesus:

The Seven Visions:

After eleven chapters of build up, the seventh trumpet sounds and the heavenly vision proper begins. 

Chapter 12 - the woman and the dragon. 

The woman is Israel. The dragon is the Devil. The ten horns and seven heads matters. There areten horns in the tabernacle as well, hinting that this is a false priesthood as well. 

John is using pagan mythology and fusing it with biblical images and the Christ story. 

The throwing down of Satan takes place in the ministry of Jesus not before Creation. It's John Milton popularisation of pre-creation fall of Satan that has influenced our understanding of Satan. Before the fall of Satan (Jesus' ministry) he was the Accuser in the court of heaven, now he is the liar, because there are no accusations left that can be levelled at us since we're covered by the blood of Jesus.

The Beast Rising out of the sea

This is straight out of Daniel 7 representing the worldly empires that rage against the people of God: 

Lion = Babylon 

Bear = Persia

Leopard = Greece

Terrifying beast = Rome

The Dragon stands on the beach between the land (Israel) and the sea (Greece). Then we have a Beast who comes out of each. Andrew thinks: we will have a gentile beast and a Jewish beast and they will come together to fight the church. 

Beasts in the Bible are animals that kill humans. A beast is an animal that humans can't tame. There is a wildness

In mythology beasts originate from bestiality. Ezekial 16 the most sexually graphic chapter in the Bible. 

The Second Beast: 

Prevented from trade: Christians under Nero were persecuted because of their devotion. 

The two together: state power and religious power. An alliance between state power and idolatous religious power to attack the true church.

There is a paradoy between how the people of God are meant to be known. 

Buying and selling: worship, temple connection? Jesus driving out from the temple? The Herodian temple was the idolotous state temple, self-agrandisement for the one who would be king (Herod). 

666 = Nero : NRWN QSR = Nero Caesar adds up to 666. 

Also: 616 because for some people removed the 'N' which would make the number 616 in the game.

6 is man's number, because man was made on day 7. If instead of honouring the God who rested on day 7 you honoured the man who was amde on 6. 

666 appears with Solomon. Solomon is the example par excellence of what happens when a king pursues wealth and women and power instead of God.

This is Nero but also bestial worldly powers who are perportedly Christian, are the truest threat there is to the church.

The Harvest of the Earth

From heaven's perspective when you die it will be seen as rest and release. 

The idea of Resting in Peace (RIP) can be found to come from here. The martyrs can rest. 

There is a harvest. Jesus harvests 

Both the wheat and the grapes are the church. The winepress isn't the place where you judge grapes. The blood of the martyrs is the thing that is then poured out over the world to judge it. 

Matthew 13: sifting the wheat from the chaff. The martyrs are being taken up to heaven from the earth, they are being harvested. 

Most interpreters think that the wheat represents the saints, and the grapes represent the wicked. But given the parallels between the chapters, the vine imagery in Scripture, the treading “outside the city,” and the sacramental overtones, Caird argues, both represent the harvest of the martyrs. Grapes (=martyrs) are not judged in winepresses; their juice (=blood) is prepared for a cup (=wrath) that their enemies must drink. Martyrs are agents of judgment, not objects of it. When the city finally falls, it is covered in “the blood of the saints” (18:24).

The phenomenon of people working miracles who aren't believers/worshippers of God is common in the NT and early Christian mind. 

Chapter 15: 

The bowls of wine are the wines from the winepress.

Chapter 16: 

Exodus imagery is eevrywhere. Rev. 15 has reordered the events of the Exodus and plagues. Why?

The first battle of Armageddon was won with camping equipment: the battle between Deborh and Barak, won by Jael driving a tent peg through the king. 

Har-Mageddon - a hill near Megiddo. 

Har = mountain of Mageddon = of Megiddo

Also the site near Carmel where the battle between demonic gods and God in Elijah took place. 

The only way to make sense of the battle of Armageddon is that it is the fall of Babylon.

It is otherwise quite strange. The armies line up and get ready for a fight and then 3 chapters later we come back to the battle and there are corpses everywhere. Therefore it seems C17-19 is the battle. 

Chapters 17-19:10

The eschatology of Revelation is a recapitulation of the esch. of Ezekial, it is a very clear retelling of the narrative. It helps especially when you come to the millennium.

The harlot: is Jerusalem

The beast: is Rome

We (the people of God) have two enemies not one. Seven headed beast (Rome's seven hills).

The harlot in the OT is Israel. Israel is often represented as a whore throughout the OT. She is the unfaithful wife.

The woman dressed in priestly clothing with a name on her forehead: the priestly garments. She represents religious power, specifically Jewish. 

She is a city 'drunk with the blood of the saints' which takes us back to 11:8. but before she was the woman clothed with the sun and stars. 

The fall of Babylon

There are compelling suggestions to associate Babylon more with Rome, but Aj feels it's more compelling to see it as Jerusalem and not Rome.

Empires often fall very quickly even when they look completely indestructible. 

Right hand column (above) is the preaching application even though the left hand column is more likely what John's early readers would have read it as. 

Ian Paul Q&A: 

Revelation is puzzling and contradictory everywhere. 

- Provisionally: John was intending to communicate something. John had an intention. Babylon is mentioned 6 times in contrast to many things being mentioned 7 times. 6 is man's number, 7 is Jesus. 144, 000 in Rev. 12: refers to saints/believers/christians everywhere - us! We are all martyrs: Jesus, take up your cross and follow. Paul, we have died.

Revelation doesn't make much distinction between those who are dead and those who are alive. 

The beast and the harlot are both Rome he says.

Evil is self-destructive.

Whenever revelation talks about evil it is all chaotic. In contrast the numbers associated with God are all round and square, symmetrical and perfect/beautiful.

Consider how revelation describes time and space. 

Metaphor: Two most obvious features of use of revelation

1) it is highly rhetorical and sued as a bit of a club. 

2) It's about the present day.

Both of them are explained by the use of its language. 

Revelation 19-20

Jesus when he appears again after a few chapters, he is no longer standing as a priest but seated as a king. There are four names of Jesus revealed in this chapter:

1) faithful and true

2) we're not told (a name so sacred that no one knows it)

3) The Word of God

4) King of kings and Lord of lords

The tattoo on his thigh is where you would expect a sword and his mouth, where you'd expect a word is a sword

The blood on his robe is the blood of the martyrs, those he died for.

Rev. 19: refers to the coming of Jesus into heaven at the ascension (compare the parallels with Matthew's gospel).

The Millennium: 

Discussion moderated by John Piper: between Sam Storms, Jim Hamilton and Doug Wilson "An Evening of Eschatology"

Final Judgment and Hell

C.S. Lewis : The door to heaven is locked from the inside.

Lewis's portrayal of Hell stresses well the idea that Hell is already at work in the world.

Joshua Ryan Butler's book: Skeleton's in God's Closet

Ryan-Butler: God's agenda is to get the Hell our of Earth (Aj 'and the Hell out of me as well)

New Creation in Revelation

Every generation puts the emphasis on different ones of the four components of the New Creation expressed in Revelation.

Instead we need to keep all four aspects of it in balance

NB: top right, there are 6 'no mores' in heaven.

Revelation 21

Arguably the most important chapter for understanding the doctrine of the church. 

The book ultimately doesn't culminate in the New Creation but in the bride being displayed - let me show you the bride!!!

In the end: we move from the land of 7s to the land of 12s

The contradictory metaphors (pure gold transparent as glass) imply John's attempt to explain something that is 'too beautiful to describe'

Fin. 

Amazing!

Understanding and Treating Sex Addiction - Paula Hall

1. Defining Sex Addiction. 

Sex addiction is a term to describe any pattern of out-of-control sexual behaviour that causes problems in someone's life. Furthermore it is a pattern of behaviour that cannot be stopped, or does not reliably stay stopped.

Psychological dependency has become recognised as a significant contributory factor to addiction, meaning that substances such as cannabis, which is considerably less chemically addictive than alcohol can still be classed as an addictive substance.

"Personally as a society we should be taking much more responsibility for the porn industry as we increasingly are with gambling since 'psychological gambling' entered DSM (Diagnostic and Statistic Manual or the American Psychiatric Association), but the financial ramifications are enormous.

In my clinical experience, sex addiction is not the same as a high sex drive. Many of the addicts I've worked with do not get sexual pleasure from what they're doing and it does not satiate their drive.

Perhaps one of the biggest myths about sex addiction is that it's a condition suffered by men with high sex drives that they can't control. This is simply not the case.

In many ways, sex addiction has more in common with eating disorders than it does with other addictions. In one study 38% of its sample had an eating disorder and in the UK 79% of those with another addiction cited eating disorder. In the same way as bulimia, anorexia and compulsive over-eating are about an unhealthy relationship with food, sex addiction is an unhealthy relationship with sex. In healthy individuals, both sex and food satisfy a natural, innate and primitive drive, but when the relationship becomes corrupt, sex addiction has no more to do with sex drive than eating disorders do with hunger.

Like Pavlov's dogs who salivated every time they heard a bell whether there was food or not, the addict may seek sexual gratification every time they feel a negative emotion whether or not they feel desire.

Neurochemistry of addiction

Pleasure is not purely psychological. It is a physical process triggered by chemicals in the brain - primarily dopamine, endorphines and adrenalin. The chemical addict manages to tinker with these processes by the addition of another substance; the process addict has developed a fast access root to the source of those pleasure chemicals through their behaviour. It is a bit like having a cocaine dispenser in your brain that you can activate at any time you like or need.

But while these pathways (the strengthened and developed pathways to pleasure through the addiction) become more fixed they become less effective at delivering the desired effect and hence the addict finds they need more stimulation in order to get the same affect. This is what's known within the addiction field as 'tolerance and escalation'.

This is the dilemma of the addict. Their sexual acting out has created a fast track to dopamine and in the meantime their other pleasure pathways have begun to fade away. They may still enjoy listening to music or spending time with friends, but compared to the instant hit they can get from acting out it's a poor substitute. But each time they access their reward system through sex, the weaker the other pathways become.

The neurobiology of addiction encompasses more than the neurochemistry of reward. People with addiction experience difficulties with impulse control, deferring gratification and making judgements about harmful consequences - all processes that involve the frontal cortex of the brain and underlying white matter. These areas of the brain are altered by addiction and since they are still maturing in adolescence this is why early exposure is believed to be a significant factor in the development of addiction.

The consequences of sex addiction

Feelings of shame                   70.5%
Low self-esteem                      65%
Losing a relationship               46.5%
Loss of employment                4%
Wasted time                             62.7%
Wasted money                         41.9%
Debt                                         14.7%
Impaired parenting                  14.7%
Physical health problems         15.7%
Catching an STI                       19.4%
Mental health problems           49.8%
A serious desire to commit suicide        19.4%
Sexual dysfunctions                 26.7%
Legal actions against you         6%
Press exposure                          0.9%

The dependency on some kind of sexual behaviour and the incessant pursuit of it in spite of all the dame it causes, is what kills self-worth. Unfortunately the lower self worth plummets, the less resources someone has to fight addiction.



Chapter 2. Assessment and diagnosis

Before any kind of assessment can begin, it's essential to understand to what extent someone is ready for an motivated to change.

Sex offending: It's estimated that 55% of sex offenders are also sex addicts and since escalation is a common feature of addiction, crossing a boundary into offending behaviour is a real risk for many addicts. In my survey 43% had viewed either child or animal pornography.

Added to this the shame that addiction creates robs many people of the ability to follow their own moral compass.

Adolescence and addiction:

Identifying sex addiction in adolescence poses a number of difficulties since many of the identifying factors might be described as 'normal' adolescent behaviours.

Clinicians and concerned adults should also be aware of changing cultural norms and not jump to conclusions about behaviours that they find challenging.

Within my survey (of sex addicts) 29% reported that the problem began between the ages of 17 and 25, 31% between 11 and 16 and 8.8% under the age of 10. [68% u18]

LGBTQ sex addiction:

Compared to heterosexuals, it's though there is a greater incidence of sexual addiction among gay men

Classifications of sex addiction

Broadly speaking, addiction is trauma-induced, attachment-induced or opportunity-induced or, in some cases, a combination of two or three.

Trauma-induced:

Significant trauma can also have a direct impact on the structure of the brain and the repetitive nature of the compulsive behaviour can become a way of soothing a hyperactive amygdala and limbic system and reduce symptoms of hyper arousal and hypo arousal.

Attachment-induced addiction:

When a child forms a secure attachment with their primary care giver they are more likely to grow into an adult with positive self esteem who is able to tolerate and manage strong emotions and mild trauma. But if positive parenting has been unreliable or absent a child is more likely to fear negative feelings and turn to an addiction for comfort during times of trouble rather than to a person.

Opportunity-induced addiction:

The internet now floods our senses with visual stimuli and sexual opportunities, and hence pornography and cybersex, like sugar, have become supernormal stimuli and our brains must work harder to control and manage our primal appetite.

The profile of the 'typical' sex addict is changing. Fifty years ago it would only have been those with significantly dysfunctional background who would have been driven enough to pursue their sexual anaesthetic. But now there is an increasing number of clients with only minor historic difficulties who stumble upon the joys of sex and pornography and become hooked. In my survey, 44% of respondents said they had no experience of childhood abuse or trauma and 26.% of respondents had never experienced any of the well-recognised attachment related issues. As clinicians it's important that we recognise this distinct client group and ensure we don't attempt to pathologise their past by trying to find trauma and attachment issues that either do not exist or are not relevant.

There are few of us who won't have used sex and relationships as an aneasthetic when life is hard.

The Assessment process.

Three questionnaires.
Q1: do i have sex addiction?
Q2: Measuring severity.
Q3: Defining the type of addiction.



Chapter 3. How sex addiction starts

Understanding how something came to be is almost always a complex interweaving of many different factors whether that's understanding how you got into the job you do or why a car crash happened. there are always multiple factors to be taken into consideration, many of which are dependent on another.

Diagram: mixture of Social, cultural, relational, biological and emotional

Opportunity-induced addiction

1 in 5 people said not knowing sex could be addictive was the most influential factor in becoming addicted and 1 in 3 cited easy access to sexual opportunities.

Why do only some fall into addiction?

1. Brain development. Addiction seems to run in families which supports a hereditary factor.
2. Dopamine dysregulation. The common denominator in all addiction is dopamine. Dopamine is the neurochemical responsible for the experience of reward and pleasure and is naturally stimulated by eating, drinking, and having sex... the more you do something to increase your dopamine the more you'll want to do it... there is research underway to explore if early exposure to pornography may have similar long term impact on dopamine regulation as happens with addictive drugs... Patrick Carnes' prediction at the annual conference of Addictive Disorders in May 2010 that we have a 'tsunami coming our way' will undoubtedly be right.
3. Personality.

Family environment also plays a part in the following ways:

1. Developing self-control. When we talk about self-control and its role in addiction is't important not to reduce this simply to impulse control... We begin to learn self-control in childhood and there are two ways in which parents can fail to teach this essential skill. The first, which is most common in sex addiction, is to have a strict and rigid home environment where a child is never allowed to make decisions for themselves... The second way that parents may fail to teach self-control is by having a home with too few or no boundaries.
2. Managing difficult feelings. 
3. Secrets and shame. Many with addictions learnt o keep secrets from a young age.
4. Sex education. Pornography used to be a masturbatory accessory, an extra treat, whereas now it is often seen as an essential foundation for it.
5. Adolescent loneliness. It's hard to know if some people are born shy or if social difficulties make them shy. Either way shyness can become a heavy burden that particularly impacts forming healthy relationships and developing support systems.

Attachment-induced addiction.

Where there is safe, reliable, supportive parenting it's possible for a child to make mistakes, learn from them and move on. It is also easier for them to consciously recover from trauma. But without that fundamental bedrock of what psychologists call 'healthy attachment' addiction has a greater chance to take root and flourish.

Attachment and the brain.

A child who does not receive its needs for attention, soothing, stimulation, affection and validation may find the consequences structurally written into their developing brain. the altered prefrontal function is associated with high risk of drug and alcohol addiction.



Chapter 4. How addiction is maintained and reinforced.

There are significant relational, emotional, societal and cultural influences that both maintain and reinforce the addictive behaviour.

What's important to recognise is that if the underlying causes of addiction have not been identified and resolved then the proverbial sword of Damocles is still hanging overhead.

Sex addiction has very little to do with sex.

Some people are not consciously aware in the preparation phase and need to be helped to become aware of their S.U.D.s 'seemingly unimportant decisions.'

The psychological strategies engaged during the preparation phase can be described as cognitive distortions. - strategies to help change how we feel about something and consequently change how we behave. -

Common cognitive distortions:

Rationalisation
Justification
Minimisation
Magnifying
Blame
Entitlement
Uniqueness
Mental filter
Victim stance
Normalisation
Denial
Helplessness

Chapter 5. The Partner's Perspective

A helpful chapter that acknowledges the impact on the partners involved and the need to provide adequate care for them. Worth a read but two quick quotes:

What's most important to recognise when considering who to ell is that a partner can share as little or as much as they feel comfortable, with the people they most believe can offer support. Furthermore there is no urgency.

And also:

Wherever possible services need to be provided for both so each can recover and rebuild their lives. 

PART II - Breaking the chains of addiction


Chapter 6. Treatment objectives and options

It has been understood for many years that successful treatment for any psychological condition is ultimately dependent on the relationship between the client and the therapist and on the motivation of the client.

Overcoming sex addiction is long-term work, especially for those with attachment and/or trauma issues. As discussed previously, addiction affects the brain and synaptic change can take between three and five years. This means that some element of long-term work is essential for many, whether that's alone, in therapy or as part of a recovery or 12-step community.

Treatment objectives:

UR-CURED

Understand sex addiction
Reduce shame
Commit to recovery
Understand and personalise the cycle of addiction
Resolve underlying issues
Establish relapse prevention strategies
Develop a healthy life

Reduce Shame:

It is said that shame is to addiction what oxygen is to fire. It has been shown that whereas shame is likely to increase addictive behaviour, guilt can be a significant motivator to overcome it.

Overcoming sex addiction should never be about changing an individual's taste in sexual behaviours, but about changing their compulsive use of the behaviour whatever it may be.

Many people who've struggled with addiction are reluctant to let go of their shame, as they believe it to be part of their penance or proof that they've accepted responsibility.

Commit to recovery:

It's vital to acknowledge that there will be times when either the desire of the ability to recover is questioned. Addressing these issues early in treatment and agreeing how to manage them can help to ensure that commitment is maintained.

--

Focuse needs to be on not just what someone wants to give up, but also what they want to gain.

Understand and personalise the cycle of addiction:

Everybody is unique and therefore every addiction is unique. In brief it means understanding the unmet needs and unresolved issues of the Dormant phase; identifying Triggers; recognising the cognitive distortions that happen during the Preparation phase; understanding the function of the addiction in the Acting Out phase; and becoming aware of how the Regret and Reconstitution phases are experienced and managed.

Resolve underlying issues:

Unless these are resolved a person will continue to act out. Relapse prevention strategies may help to stop and stay stopped for a while, but without resolving the deeper unmet needs and issues, recovery will be reduced to pure will power and the sufferer has no choice but to 'white knuckle' it.

This stage of therapy may be the longest, the slowest and the most painful as the root of addiction is exposed, examined and pulled out. An overview of treatment strategies is found in chapter 9.

Establish relapse prevention strategies:

Relapse prevention work needs to highlight not only the emotional and environmental triggers that reactivate behaviours, but also the thought patterns that have become automatic, and probably unnoticed over many years.

Develop a healthy lifestyle:

Someone once wisely said that 'recovery is not about learning to manage addiction, but learning to manage life.'

--

There then follows a list of different treatment options. Noteable:

Online:

The Kick Start Recovery programme is a free resource developed by Paula's team that can be downloaded from the web to provide a starting point into recovery. It covers three basic tasks: Face it, Understand it, Fight it.

Good website: https://thenakedtruthproject.com/ 

Partner therapy:

Ultimately, getting over sex addiction is about realising you're not alone and committing to recovery - howeve rlong it takes.



Chapter 7: Making a Commitment to Recovery

Terry V: thoughts on worship

'don't bore me with empty songs.' Terry's article

Presence of God gets manifest on planet earth.

Israel isn't the holy land, we're a holy people. Holiness has to do with where God is. When we worship we are gathering into the presence of God. Sinai was a holy mountain, so holy that not even animals were allowed to touch it and live. But what made it holy was that God was there.

"I fear that the sense of wonder in worship has drifted."

What's primary is coming into the presence of God. The church is the dwelling place of God in the Spirit. When we gather in his name our anticipation of an experience ought to be incredibly high.

Worship:

When we started things were very spontaneous, God is here and so there were gifts of the Spirit being used. Part of the concern about worship life is that we often delegate away half of our meeting to people who aren't/wouldn't be elders in the church.

Aspects of worship we ought to pursue:

Liberty - not of self-expression only, but in wonder at God's grace. It was the gospel, it was truth that freed us.

The first worship song in the Bible: Ex. 15, a celebration of the freedom that they now have.

Faith - the possibility of people's faith growing is huge. Creedal faith. Luther taught the gospel through hymns because they were a non literate people. Terry speaking to an African pastor who said: in England they sing about mountains and streams, I want to sing about Jesus! We need songs that inspire strength in the storms. Faith and singing go together. When you believe and you sing it underlines your faith. Unbelief and singing don't go together. We don't want to get into triumphalism or over the top. But is that our danger? Not so much.

If our preoccupation on Sundays is for the sinner, when do we gather to meet with God?

Devotion - We fought for a new kind of church where devotion to Jesus and heartfelt, wholehearted expressions of affection is what we do. It has a sanctifying experience on us. People make big decisions when caught in the throes of devotion: he decided to give away 7 years worth of savings. Do we anticipate wonderful things will happen in the worship? The question isn't 'shall we have gifts of the Spirit in the worship?' but the question ought to be: 'are we going to meet with God?'

Rant over.

Research: Impact of social media

From Church and Culture blog:

Instagram is ready to serve by now offering an “academy” designed to “teach teenagers how to become social media stars.” As reported by the Telegraph: “… the photo sharing app is running three days of free workshops to train would-be influencers in how to become an online success. The curriculum covers everything from camera angles to how to make your content ‘relatable.’”

Think: Future of Complimentarity

Andrew:

All theology is contextual. No theology is done in a vacuum.

Complementarity : a relationship or situation where two or three different things improve or emphasis one another's different qualities. Represents Christian orthodoxy even if we disagree how we can work that in the local church. Complementarity = beautiful difference.

Complementarianism : is different has taken on a narrowerer application of complementarity.

Complementarity is a word that Christians on all sides can use to describe our position on male and female.

Creation. There is a complementarity in everything. Jewish

Abolishing the difference between heaven and earth has led to a society that looks to abolish the difference between male and female. We are not wholly the same and not wholly different.

Camille Paglia on difference and harmony:

Female / male
Earth / sky
Land / Rain
Internal / External
Invisible / Visible
Curves / Lines
Cyclical / Linear
Eastern / Western
Dinoysianan / Apollonian
Chaos / Order
Chtnonian / Structured
Cycilcal / Linear
Body / Head
Nature / Society
Pagan / Judeo-Christian

Camille's understanding is that the Christian vision of difference won and that that was good for women. In the Christian vision of reality, polarities like these are ultimately reconciled within the Godhead.

The Christian vision is of harmony and not conflict.

Jen Wilkins:

Genesis. God declares not good and then, before he creates eve, parades the animals in front of man for naming. For Adam, this is
Before Eve is prepared for Adam, Adam needs to be prepared for Eve. Adam's 'at last, she is bone from my bone', is a statement of declaration that honours the sameness of men and women. The first word in scripture is that we are same. Empathy for one another comes from the starting point of 'this person is just like me.' Focusing so much on our difference leads to an objectification 'mars and venus.'

Let's talk about what's not in this story. God doesn't create a buddy for Adam.

There is no such thing as a church where the men or women thrive and the other doesn't. They may give the appearance of thriving but it doesn't happen.

Root the difference in biology, what's a 'trans-culutral' difference. If we start with biology it stops us saying things that are stupid:

- Men have physical dominance. On the whole they are physically stronger. That's the context of 1 Peter, not emotional or intellectual difference. Men outgrow vulnerability as they age, women do not.

Women / Men difference:

• support - report
• relationship - individuality
• asking questions - avoid question
• cooperation - assert
• holistic - focused
• consensus - orders
• relate - resolve

Think of the difference between men and women as the difference between a lion and an ant. Ants are team and together players, lions may go with others but know they can go alone. At that's why women go to the toilet together! It's how vulnerability affects a woman's psyche. 

Moral. 

Men and women are both moral but how they process morality is different. 

Women tend to base morality on relationship but men focus on outcome. 

Emotions. 

Use them differently. One is more like the women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety than men. Most women internalise stress, men find something to hit with a stick, they externalise pressure. Use our emotions in different ways.

Think about the way women understand the gospel in ways that embody the gospel. Men only bleed when something is wrong, but women every 28 days bleed, that has a profound affect on how men and women understand things. 

What does the church need from women?

• Their unique perspective. Women got the vote in 1920 but weren't allowed to serve on jury boards until 1960. Since getting the vote we have fairer divorce laws, domestic laws have come to fore, women's health... During WWI more American women died in child birth than American men died on the battlefield. We pass through life as embodied males and embodied females. If all input I'm getting in my church is from men think what gaps I may have! Women are going to have eyes for the powerless. They'll see things that we think are secondarily important but are crucial.
• We need women's relational capital. 
• We need their visible leadership. How visible? As visible as your churches complimentarity allows. We need to make participation as easy as possible for women in leadership. It's very important for the next generation of women coming along but also men. 

What women need from the church?

• To be shepherded. We disciple them as though they're exactly the same. Women can gather as women. What trends in the marketplace are attracting women? Do you know anything about essential oils? Can you name 10 dominant female voices? Women are looking for mothers in the church and if they don't find them in your church they will look outside your church. Need mothers.
• Need to be leveraged. Our practice on complimentarity is broken and a lot of women assume our theology is broken.
• Actively help them to find their voices. That means, we should hire them. Understand that the barriers for women in the church are many. Women will volunteer and volunteer and volunteer until Jesus comes again. Will you dignify her by commending her publicly?

Physical dominance is a form of privilege. Because men have physical dominanece they have used it to conquer. There's a reason why you see men in power and a reason why 1 in 4 women have been victims of sexual harassment. Just by virtue of being an embody male you have privilege. How will you use it?

Livy:

Complimentarity was best understood by her in thinking through the metaphor of an orchestra. Difference exists and even the potential for bands within the various instruments exists: a string quartet or a brass band. But God's design isn't for strings and brass only but for an orchestra where they work together.

Complimentarity is less about conflict but instead is about the harmony of one piece of music.

SESSION 2: Hannah Anderson
Society, History & Culture

What do society, history and culture have to do with the discussion on complementarity?

Is gender a social construct?

Genesis: God creates engendered sexes. From a scriptural standpoint there is a deep connection between our creation and our cultural mandate. there is no society without male and females expressing themselves in community together.  If we do not have a vision of the complementarity of male and female, we don't even have a society. Our conversations about these things can't be divorced from society.

BOOK: Nate Collins: Almost Invisible.

Part of building society's that are complementarity are building societies where you know who you shouldn't have sex with. We have cut off part of how men and women should relate to one another because we removed those restrictions in our society. Genesis 2 is about sending the man and woman out into the world to form a society where they act and live alongside each other.

Gender cannot be separated from all of the other things that are happening in a society.

One of the main ways that we recognise the influence of new culturally acceptable ideas is through second wave feminism.

Society and gender work together as a puzzle fitting into one another.

A Rubix cube.
A completed cube is society as God intended it to be, it is all the pieces doing what they are supposed to do. But that is how a rubix cube comes when you buy it, but then your children get hold of it and mess it up and you have to try and resolve it. Therein lies the issue for discussions on gender.
There 43 quintillion ways for a rubix cube to be messed up and then solved. Society has that many variations to it as well. We mustn't compare one society with another and think one is better than another, they are just messed up differently and so require a particular and different way of solving them each one. We compare ourselves to the word of God not to each other, the past or other societies.

• The first thing that a just society will do is honour both of the genders, with the responsibility and the privileges that come with that. Have a vision and mindset for the vision and maturity of women. 
• A just society will honour their authority that comes with that. They're both privileged and responsible for their authority as well. There are many different forms of authority based on our different responsibilities and if we don't have a vision for how a woman can have authority then we are not creating a just society.
• Honour their work as image bearers. Both of their works were also cursed. If we don't have a vision of work for women then they 'become a nuisance' 

We cannot neglect the value of our differences. If we do then women are not going to be valued for the vulnerability.

1 Peter 3:7 In the context of roles. Honour them not just because they're human beings but because they're women. Understand that even though you are not like them, I want you to learn to value something that you may not initially value. Honour our differences. Honour women not because they resemble men but because they are women. The same thing is true for men. We must honour men for their manhood not because of the ways they're like a woman.

What does all this mean for our witness in the world?

We see a different vision in the scripture than we see from the world all around us.
What we've done in the church in the wake of the cultural advance on demolishing gender is that we have built a retaining wall and said 'we're going to hold back the flood' (by upholding male only roles.

The sexual revolution is over. When we saw the #metoo movement it was as though the game was over and we saw the reaping of the whirlwind that was sown in the SRev. There is a sense of distrust of male sexuality. Our culture has mishandled our sexuality and now people are in a position of fear about how they relate to one another.

Christianity gives us an ethic and vision for union and community that something is going on that is larger than anything else we're part of. Vulnerability is not a liability. You won't find this communal ethic anywhere else! The gospel gives a vision for how strength and weakness can complement each other.

Alastair Roberts

Shelve questions. The Bible isn't primarily a set of proof texts on which we can build our casess. Once the authority of scripture is so 'atomised' we fid ourselves throwing up our hands and saying 'who can tell what we should believe about these things!'

Our approach to scripture shouldn't be to try and win an argument over our neighbour but instead to pay close attention ourselves. Everything must begin by trying to hear what God is saying to us.

In Medieval commentaries the book Song of Solomon is treated as the Holy of Holies.

Step back and ask questions before stepping forward to specifics. Pay attention however not just to scripture but to the place we're coming from as contemporary society. There is a way that we perceive the world that has been trained by all the things we have and live around, mass produced everythings everywhere that isn't connected to a deep world. The Bible talks about blood, sweat, menstruation, hooves, hair, bodily emissions in the night, specific rivers, memorial stones, wheat and barley harvests. Wombs, foreskins, skin diseases... It is a very different book from the sort of book we're looking for.

The Bible pays a lot of attention to the families people are connected to whereas we see people as interchangeable, individuals. The Bible is concerned with particulars, sons of and daughters of...

We live in a world of abstractions, shallow, airless and relatively weightless world. Detached from the soil of reality.

The contemporary fixation with whether or not men and women are different would have struck the original readers of the Bible as odd. Like asking which is better the cello or the violin, is a strange question. But in a society that values economic value and productivity we approach the Bible with those questions. It might be a valid concern but it isn't the same concern as people had in the past.

Genesis 1: It is a literary account. It is a story that has a rhythm and pattern to it that we need to pay attention to as it's pattern is part of the meaning. It's a dance, it's an orchestra it's an assembling of all the different parts into a whole.

Two sets of three days;
Forming, naming, taming, ruling
Filling, collecting, communion

The whole story begins with time. The light in the first day isn't primarily a division of light and dark, it's a separation of night and day, it's a time based one. Then on to more times, seasons etc. Time isn't just day and night but yearly, seasonal and finally, the rest sabbath day. There are patterns and dynamisms to creation. It isn't just a bare structure of systems but of life. As God fills there are different things he does. Creation partakes then in God's own creation ability it teems it recreates. Forming basic structures and filling.

They are all good in their particular parts and then very good.
We read it from the persepctive of human beings, we're the centre of the universe and everything rotates around us. But, human beings are late on the scene. Almost all the other creatures are well settled in to their places before we turn up. We don't make or pay much attention to the animals but the animals are good, good in themselves, not just because they can be food or pets.

Animals are helpers for us. They are not comparable to us or suited for us but they are helpers for us. Creation is a source of joy and delight to God and we're supposed to share in that. They are given to us that we would share it and care for it.

What does this have to do with us? Humans are created for the good of creation, not to be despots but to be household servants within this realm, those who represent God's presence within this realm. It isn't a picture of the man in the centre and everything else around him, he is there to care for and fulfil the world and creation mandate.

Adam is created from adamah, from mother earth.

Man and woman are intervolved with one another not just involved but intertwined. We are distinguished in a way that means you can never understand one without reference to another. One note on it's own is lacking and means very little but placed alongside and within a symphony it becomes charged.

We tend to think of the standard unit of humanity as being the individual. But the SI unit of humanity in scripture is man and woman made in the image of God. Male and female are akin to to magnetic poles structuring time always in reference to one another.

Humanity is irreducibly two, it cannot be broken down.

We live in a society that tries to have universal principles. Money. We want universally understood terms of meaning.

Two hands of humanity, we feel lacking without both hands
Two eyes of humanity, we lose perspective with only one eye

The Bible doesn't say that the man should be the head... it says he is the head. The question is is the man going to be the head in a way that's good or in a way that beats people down.

Guardian: only 3% of articles and books on subjects of gender mention motherhood.

When we detach ourselves from the physical and gritty reality of life we lose so much of God's good creation.

God is the father, the earth is the mother that Adam has come from.

What do father's do with their sons? They teach them their trade. God teaches Adam the trade of creating, of filling and forming. God makes adam a participant in his creating.

Not good to be alone is not a statement of loneliness, it is that man needs a partner.  Adam can form but he can't fill without eve, he can't give life, he can't give the future, he can't bring the perfection that God has planned. In creating the woman he creates her and creates the realm of fellowship and communion, presence.

Man is meant to serve the earth, to be it's servant to care for his mother.

Headship. We see it as being 'when things go wrong, that's when we see headship.' Adam's headship in Genesis however isn't meant o be over the woman but for the woman so that she can go out and fill the world. He is there to empower her. For Christ to be the head of the church, does that mean that he is the 'boss' of the church? Eph. 1 says: 'he put all things under christ;'s feet and gave him to be all things... to the church.' He does that for the benefit and building up of his bride. It isn't about two people loving each other but it's the way that God wants us to participate in his pattern of creation.

The forming and filling pattern is the relationship between christ and spirit. There is a deep parallel in scripture between the Holy Spirit and women. The woman coming out of his side, like a bride being presented to his groom.

Imagine Adam naming the animals and then suddenly breaking out into song.

The Sabbath book of the Bible is the song of songs. Not as two people opposed to one another but as two people joined together in rest.

God's answer to our questions may seem strange but we may need to revisit our question again.

Q&A

Wealth comes from the word 'weal' - it has to do with our well being. Our society has become very good and generating money but not much wealth for our families and households.

500 years ago the home would have been the centre of production, of education. When we talk about returning to the home we're talking about developing the vision of the home as seen in the Scriptures.

If the man is the head, the woman is the heart, the one that everything revolves around.

Christ comes as the second Adam, what is the second Eve, it's the bride.


SESSION 4: Hannah Anderson - Anthropology

What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

Shift identity away from the language of image bearers but instead think of it in terms of our vocation.

Our confusion about our sex/gender is more than that, it reflects a confusion about our humanity. When we look at gender confusion it is a symptom of something larger.

Imago Dei has been used by people to mean different things. By some it's our reasoning capacity, by others it's about our ruling, or by others our social division between male and female. Image also has to do with representations. Pilate was representative of Caesar's rule, or coins and statues.

Jesus re coins: 'who's image is it?'

We bear the image of God.

Acts 17. In his logic Paul is calling them to see God as creator but also as Father. He is calling them to understand that they are his children in ways that the rest of creation is not.
Paul: 'he gives life and breath'
Genesis 2: 'he breathed into the man'

Image bearing is an act of inheritance and begetting.

It is the fact that a woman is a daughter of the creator father and a man the son that forms our bond with one another, that we are each under the authority of our father. In Paul's mind image bearing is linked to having children.

The significance of Jesus' baptism was that the Father stepped up and said 'I'm his dad' like a man does at the birth certification of a child. It is him saying 'he is made in my image.' I'm his dad. That's why after the flood when God reissues the cultural mandate he says 'but you may not shed the blood of man because he is made in my image.' The law of the jungle isn't to apply to humans, because they have a Father who has imaged them.

We need to think of being made in the image of God as a vocation to be his children, a family endeavour. It is a family business. There is unity in our vocation. Humanity and womanhood are not at odds with one another but are bound up holistically with one another.

We do come a certain sexed way. We should validate it and acknowledge it.

SESSION 5: Alastair Roberts

The garden is a kindergarten, it is a preschool. They will need to go out from the garden.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil; rule and wisdom. The knowledge of good and evil in scripture is associated with kings, Solomon requests it to help him rule this great people. In scripture we see a description of the child who has not yet attained this knowledge of good and evil.

Alastair: I believe that they would have one day been given the tree to eat but not yet, they needed to mature toward it. The problem was that they were like teenagers who wanted to steal their father's car keys before they were ready and as a result everything gets broken.

Why is the woman deceived? In part because she hasn't received the prohibition to eat the tree. Only Adam is given that command.

Adam is addressed singularly as 'you' he disobeyed outright whereas she was honestly deceived. God's rebuke 'you listened to your wife' is that he listened to her over God's command.

The women in the story of scripture outwit the serpent by outwitting them. The very person that the serpent deceives will be the one who deceives him.

Significance is redeemed.

Who are the women who make history? Who are the men? They are small people behaving faithfully and doing what God has called them to do. Done in the secret place, often small. Abraham is tied to his home as well, his identity is tied to his home as well.

God's work has long gestation periods.

God's history is not made where we think it would be made. The biblical account of history subverts so many of the ways we think history and power are made.

There is a strategic foregrounding of women to set history right. If we're going to be a society/church that promotes and honours women it isn't that we mustn't just get them up to do the things that men usually do. We mustn't idealise the societies we see in scripture, they are dysfunctional, but grace is at work! The story of the gospels begin with women.

Joseph (Jesus' dad) is a model for masculinity. We see women at key points, associated with Jesus' body, the gospels are teaching us something here not that we must fit everyone into this model of how we value people. Notice, listen, pay attention, where does God place his attention, where does God act? Not where we think he would. Life as it is seen by the eyes of the flesh or faith?

As people of faith we should be people who protect and strengthen seeds of faith.

Application: Church

How can we reorder the church so that it isn't primarily about what's done at the front but about what's being done in the life of the church.

Joseph played the role of a husband in a way that took the spotlight off him.

Our societies values are so mixed up and messed up that until we get our value systems reordered by the Bible we're not able to answer our questions of application.

SESSION 6: Hannah Anderson : Ecclesiology

Selection of quotes from a variety of authors to show the historic nature of the discussion.

The conversation about women's roles is not a new one. The questions and pressures people are articulating are common.

It requires imagination and creativity but we are not without a host of witnesses. We are not grappling with this on our own.

NB: when we say 'gender' we often just mean 'women'.

True complementarity isn't just focused on the role of women. The future of complementarity advances in a setting where churches believe that we're on mission. It's going to be churches that have this drive of mission are going to pick up this conversation with that in mind. Asking: how do I mobilise the differences between men and women to reach that goal.

Bride of Christ - 2 John: the elect lady and her children a term for the church.

Think of ferns: each little leaflet mirrors the pattern of the larger leaf but it'd be silly if a leaflet said of itself 'I'm the real deal!' yet that's what we do about our families within the family.

Household and mission need to be rejoined. Building the estate.
When the household has mission then every member is valuable to it.
If we can begin to understand that the household of God is tasked with mission to make every member of it fruitful, it's going to answer a lot of questions about where men and women fit?

When Paul speaks to what people should do in the household of God whether overseers or leading women they are strikingly similar.

We have different practices based on our 'house rules' of church life. Just like playing cards at a friends house, you play by the house rules there. It will look different depending on the way fathers operate in each house.

If we don't give attention to this conversation we will inevitably just adopt cultural norms. Because, isn't that what happens in our biological family? The outside culture shapes and fills everything unless we stop and critique it. We, in our own contexts, depending on our ecclesiology and systematics need to go through the hard work of capturing a vision of the church as a household that allows for both men and women to be parents of the household.

SESSION 7: Alastair Roberts : How we got here

The principles of the sexual, morality of our culture:

1) Sexual acts do not have intrinsic meanings or purposes. The act has whatever meaning you want to put on it, they need not involve the making of one flesh, meaningless sex is a genuine possibility
2) sexuality is a subjective self and intrinsic in who we are. Christian opposition to non-marital sexual acts push against the prevailing
3) Sexual agents are autonomous, rights bearing individuals. Appropriate sexual relations presuppose equal in their agency and no imbalance of power between them. Polygamy isn't where we'll go but polyamory is. Because polygamy has an inequality of power in it.
4) freely giving consent is the watchword for sexual relationships. When advocates of traditional sexual ethics oppose same-sex relations or others are seen to opposing this deeply held belief. Christians believe in consent but it goes further than just consent. We need to think about whether this is for the best for both parties.

You will never win an argument with your spouse because as you fight you are fighting against your own best interest.

5) Beyond the prevention of harm sex should be beyond the

There are important good principles here. Emphasis on autonomy overrides the possibility of seeing someone as objects.

We are not trying to return the past, rather we should be drawing people toward a vision that is greater than anything we have in the past or present. Companionship in a marriage has never been emphasised as much as it is now. For most marriages in the past that was not a reality. We have something new that we should celebrate.

Marriage creates a space for commitment that isn't just about our autonomous bargaining power, what we can get for ourselves. Every single one of us feels these changes. We have all experienced divorce in our own lives, whether ourselves or friends or as children. Abuse, divorce etc. are very powerful realities. We find ourselevs in this wasteland left by the destruction of sin.

Being sexual individuals is more basic than being male or female, engaged as consumers or self-realisers and radical choosers.

Consider the rise of divorce: the family is no longer something passing on from one generation to another, it is something that might dissolve. The home is gone. That is significant.

We are bound up in time on different axis: inward, outward, backward and forward (where time is concerned), we can be extended on each one of those axis. If you can't keep promises you're not connected ot the future. Ina . society where people are not assisted in keeping their promises we can't build forward and extend who we are to the generation where we won't be.

Abraham is told that for 400 years his people will be in slavery and then they'll be brought back. What does it take for a man to be able to look that far into the future?

Complementarity isn't that women should stay at home and men should go out to work, but rather than both men and women should be rooted in the home.

Pornography. Every woman is now going to be compared to 100 of other women who exist to act out male fantasies and have nothing to do with true womanhood.

Abraham's world is world where people are 'fucked or fucking others' and it's an act of violence, that's all it is. It is an ugly reality. Sex in our society becomes a form of play. Sex is meant to be an act of sacrifice.

Results: loss of any sort of weight where sex and procreation have been detached.

Astronauts: 7 dawns in a single day, muscles weakening.
Modern society is like that. We're having these relationships in zero gravity. It's why we struggle to define masculinity or femininity.

We end up with a pursuit of a superficial manliness or femininity. We construct masks to hide the insecurity. We become actors, constantly representing ourselves. Anything we say on facebook is a form of self-branding that is weightless. Internet: all detached individuals trying to appear in the right way, it changes how we see others and ourselves, how we relate to ourselves. Mirrors in the rainforest for example. On the internet we are constantly preoccupied with the representation of ourselves, it's a deep fragilisation of identity.

Such a society will struggle (and that isn't surprising) to understand many of the things we're talking about.

To be a son: privilege, responsibility, authority, power, family name, honour, duty
In the NT the son: is the adult son, the one who does his father's business, like John from the cross, the son provides for his parents.

In our world is means almost nothing and especially if you're an adult and unmarried. Singleness can be so disorientating for us therefore.

In the church: What it means to be a son of the church is a powerful thing. They do the work of the household and are engaged in its business.

Things become weak when we don't put any weight on them - and that's why marriage has weakened so much, because we don't use it for anything.

It's the same for churches. Get a mission to go for, otherwise you'll just create a drifting community of believers who become consumers.

Family and sex. The family is where the children are raised in the faith.
The family isn't meant to be a private huddle of exclusivity but rivers that extend out to give life to the world around it.

Michel Houellebecq:
https://aviewofthewest.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/4/7/11477003/the_elementary_particles.pdf

Children existed solely to inherit a man's trade, his moral code and his property. This was taken for granted among the aristocracy, but merchants, craftsmen and peasants also bought into the idea, so it became the norm at every level of society. That's all gone now: I work for someone else, I rent my apartment from someone else, there's nothing for my son to inherit. I have no craft to teach him, I haven't a clue what he might do when he's older. By the time he grows up, the rules I lived by will have no value -he will live in another universe. If a man accepts the fact that everything must change, then he accepts that life is reduced to nothing more than the sum of his own experience; past and future generations mean nothing to him. That's how we live now. For a man to bring a child into the world now is meaningless. 

Your marriage isn't just something for this age alone, it's bearing a treasure that will last into the future. See our relationships against this horizon. We are 'heirs together' of the grace of life.

Where are the deepest wounds we bear? Born in our bodies and guts, our bodies need God's grace, we feel violated in our bodies. Our bodies are where we feel mortality, death and pain, where we feel the judgement of other people. That is what we feel so deeply.

A long excursion into the significance of our bodies in human relationships and the gospel.

SESSION 8: ANDREW

Complementarity is immensely important in the context of understanding the Christian faith. If you don't hold to complementarity generally then it's going to be very hard to resist anything that the sexual revolution throws at you.

The key is championing complementarity.

The future is beautiful but is also different.

We are going to need different ways of trying to land this.

The acts in a play illustration: we have had Acts 1 & 2 with their various scenes, now we've had Act 3 scene 1. We know how the play will end but how we get from here to there is for us to work out and fill in the gaps between here and there.

The first and best questions aren't always the 'so what does this look like in the church.'

Reflections on how we should land on the practise of how we should apply them:

We ought to see the church more as a household and family rather than a workplace and organisation. God has put us in families (church not just nuclear) and we should work and live mindful of them. This cashes out in seven ways:

1. Evangelism means bringing to birth rather than recruitment. That involves mothers and fathers. The natural language in scripture is familial image. We have desexualised the language of 'birth' as though it is a process of recruitment. New life and nurture gets us off on a better starting point. Paul sees himself as a father but also a mother 'I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.' 
2. Discipleship: we need to think of it as parenting and not orientation training. It is a familial image rather than a business one. When you enter an organisation you are oriented for a week or so to 'get you up to speed' and we have tried to map that onto the Christian life too. The process of bringing someone to maturity is part of what it means to be a parent. 
3. Relationships. We ought to see one another as siblings and not colleagues. We need to be in a setting where we don't lust after one another but where don't avoid one another either. Relate to women with the honour and respect you would with another woman. Men need to ask 'am I erecting needless barriers between me and women?'
4. Home lives: our homes are 'households' of production and activity and power and influence. Our homes ought to be treated more like that than as though we are atomised workers, who go out, do a job and consume. It must be a question that we ask: is living in a nuclear setting where it's just our own family always best and right? 
5. Working: Work for the common good as stewards in the family of God not in the city of men. 
6. Governing the church. We need to think about this as fathers and mothers and not as managers or just leaders. (David Starling: uncorinthian leadership). Fathers are ones who defend the church and die for the church but don't necessarily need to be the ones who have all the ideas or who communicate all the ideas. 1 Timothy are fathers rather than mothers. Titus 1 he says the same things about eldership to show almost that it isn't just the context of Ephesus that made the difference to what he says. We may have swallowed the assumption that to be a visionary has to be a fathers job, or even that leading has to be a fathers job.
7. Church: Being the church ought to be a family on mission and not primarily and organisation. Romans 16 is just as important for understanding what Romans is about. Listen to how he talks about the women. Greet one another with a holy kiss; regard one another as family members. 

Raising Leaders seminar stream

Hezekiah. An outstanding leader in his generation. 

Stop trying to be the hero and start trying to release and make other leaders.

BOOK: The Hero Maker. Stop looking at yourself 

We need to learn to bring through people to be themselves. 

Why don’t I?

1- distraction : remember 2T2:2, consider the difference between football and rugby. Football is all about kicking the ball foward to get the glory. Rugby instead is about passing the ball backward in order that the person behind you can for further and you can add your weight to their advances.

2- the tyranny of the urgent : there’s a difference between delegating and developing leaders.

3- too small a vision : we think ‘I can do it, the vision is small enough for you to do on your own.’ / there’s a part of us that thinks if we’ve grown 10% in a year we’re doing alright, but that’s not the vision.

4- insecurity in a leader : a lot leaders are middle-aged men who find their value and meaning in ministry. 

5- sin and self-centredness : we want to get the glory. Of course we want Jesus to get the glory, but with us standing next to him :) 

HEADINGS to help us talk around these issues together:

1) Selection : 11 of the disciples came from Galilee. He chooses people who were constantly getting it wrong. Peter is the guy who thinks chopping off someone’s ear was an appropriate part of Christian ministry. Jesus basically saw Christian ministry as ‘hanging out with people’. Have we tipped the balance too far toward task and not enough toward people? Jesus was actually quite picky in ministry but it wasn’t based on gifting it was based on their willingness to learn. Jesus (in John 1), spends a of time telling people what he sees in them. He calls people what he sees in them. He sees the good in them. WE NEED TO GET BETTER at seeing things that aren’t wrong. We sometimes think, and get trained to think, that intelligence is measured in being able to spot what’s wrong. Instead Jesus is good at spotting what’s right. Finding fault is easy but seeing God’s grace is what’s needed and is what’s hard. 

It all begins with seeing the good. 

Eldership isn’t about monopolising leadership but about mobilising leadership. 

Jesus chose. And so we get to choose, and release people into their destiny. Jesus chose 12 and reached the crowds.

WHO are yours? 

- Jon, Matt, Ross, Martin, Polly, Shaun, Luke, Alex? Jason? Claire. 

2) Association

We’re good at meetings, but Jesus was more committed to meet ups.

Jesus is the only person ever who could have done it all on his own. Jesus, himself, raised up others and spent time with them.

Examples for mistakes: raising up others to do what I want them to do rather than take some time with the people God’s put in front me for them, and to raise them up to do what they want and feel called to do. 

Jesus in Matthew’s gospel spends the majority of his time with the few rather than the crowds. Jesus sees his ministry as being pouring himself into the few rather than reaching the mass crowds. 

If you’re trying to do the 12 and the crowd, your 12 will get crowded out. Jesus: I’m going to invest my life in the few for the many.

We’re into programmes but Jesus seems to be into picnics. Hang out with people a lot.

3) Consecration

Devoting yourself to Jesus. When you raise up young leaders you realise early on that character is going to be a big issue. The world is fighting for our young guys and we’ve got to teach them that following Jesus requires us to give up everything. 

It isn’t about being a perfect leader, it’s about being honest and not wearing any masks. 

Challenge: Are we perusing popularity or holiness? Are we willing to address challenging things in people’s lives?

Consider the qualifications for eldership: ‘look at his kids.’ Has he had the courage to confront his own kids?

Jesus led people at their pace. He seems very patient with people. 

4) Impartation

It gets a lot easier when people realise that they haven’t joined your club, instead this is about developing them. Jesus challenged them on their sin but then made it clear that he was there to help them. Jesus came to give himself to us as a gift. He came to serve us. 

Jesus didn’t feed the 5000, it was the disciples who fed them. The parable should be named: ‘the disciples feed the 5000’ it’s key because it’s what we’re called to do. Jesus has given gifts to the church, why - so that ‘the church will be built up for works of service.’

The word for ‘to prepare the church for works of service’ is the same word as ‘make you fishers of men.’ Prepare men for works of service. 

All we need to do is build the people in the church and let Jesus ‘build the church’. 

Jesus is forever giving us away. 

Consecration: Jesus tells them to give things up, but he’s given it up too. He turns water into wine but he doesn’t get drunk on it. 

Christ’s love for the Father won over the disciples. Christ’s love in the disciples for one another, then one the world.

5) Demonstration

Jesus didn’t ask anyone to do something that he hadn’t first done himself.

6) Delegation

Helping others to do the work alongside you.

7) Supervision

John 3:22 ‘Jesus and his disciples went out into the judean countryside where he spent some time with them.’ ‘Spent time’ in Gk. = to rub off on them.

Jesus didn’t dump people in it. He didn’t send the twelve out until after two years. Then when he sends them out he gives them an extensive debrief of teaching. Jesus doesn’t send them out to relieve his own work load. 

Jesus isn’t in a hurry to reach the crowds, instead he pours himself into the individual leader. 

there is a danger to raise up loads of people and not really supervising any of them. 

On-the-job training. Classroom settings aren’t the most effective. You can train someone in the barracks how t clean their rifle, and they’d be interested, but if you train them on the front line how to do it, they’d be really interested. 

Succession should be how we live our lives. 

Paul Tripp: Gospel-centred discipleship paper on addressing the heart.

8) Reproduction

Many of us might be quite good but if the culture of reproduction is lacking it won’t carry on beyond us. 

Key that we’re not just trying to raise up leaders into a role and stop the leadership multiplication in the church if this person hasn’t got what leadership is about. 

Fruitfulness is not ‘what can you achieve with your life?’ But what can others achieve through us? This is the Christian task, that’s key. 

Someone asked Billy what would do again if you casual start over?

Billy Graham: Get a small group of 8-10-12 people around me and meet for a weeks and then release them...

Where’s our focus? Is it on what we can achieve in 2018 or are we playing a longer term game? How can 2025 can there be more people doing what I’m doing...

Getting people into leadership roles is not the end goal. Getting people into roles to understand that this (see all of the above!) is what we’re doing.

Michael Fletcher: shoulder tapping

‘I don’t want to recruit volunteers I want to recruit leaders.’ Don’t recruit doers, recruit leaders. Recruiting people to vision is what’s needed.