My theological convictions have not changed — they remain firmly Reformed evangelical — but my approach to ministry has changed radically through the privilege of serving a small church in a South Yorkshire parish. Inevitably, this is a personal journey and so is bound to be subjective, but hopefully will help other evangelical ministers, especially perhaps those starting out in frontline parish ministry for Christ.
Sydney is more than capable of arguing its corner in terms of the bad ministerial practices it felt needed correcting in the UK: too much emphasis on psychological counselling — ‘stop counselling! The problems are too deep-seated for you to be able to solve’; too much sick visiting — ‘when I’m sick I don’t want a Bible teacher’; not enough time on growing leaders — ‘guard your diary! Spend your time with young Timothys’. In short, too much hand-holding and not enough focus on multiplying ministries.
I certainly believe there was some justice in Sydney’s criticisms as articulated by Archbishop Peter Jensen and his brother Phillip, dean of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, and they may well want to qualify or nuance some or all of the above statements. But I am more concerned here with how Sydney has been interpreted and applied by English evangelicals such as myself who came under its influence, particularly through the Proclamation Trust. Sydney certainly impacted strongly on my own ministerial formation in the 1980s and 1990s and I remain grateful to God for much of what I learned.
