In Depth:  Philip Hacking

The Decade of Evangelism is well and truly over, to the concealed (or unconcealed) delight of many.

There were advances made for the gospel in the Decade of Evangelism but, sadly, church attendance continued to slide and the Christian influence in our nation to wane. In my article last month I pleaded for a renewed confidence in the gospel. That must be paramount; then we need renewed confidence in how to proclaim it.

It is a New Testament principle that we should have boldness and confidence, but Christians currently fail to recognise its source and rejoice in its truth.

The first seven verses of the letter to the Romans is full of this note. The whole letter is a great manifesto of gospel truth. For four chapters we are faced with the reality of the bad news.

These words at the end of a famous World Cup victory by England in 1966 have become part of sporting folklore.

I heard them vividly myself in a very unusual environment, sitting on the sands of Montego Bay in Jamaica in the midst of a Convention ministry and rejoicing at England's victory on that epic day. No doubt many will be hoping for a similar end to the 1998 World Cup in France. But how can a Christian minister allow himself to be caught up in soccer fever?

Philip Hacking of Christ Church, Fulwood, Sheffield, has stood for biblical evangelicalism within the Church of England for more years than he would care to remember. As he approaches retirement, we asked him to look back over the years and, with the light of experience, to assess the future.

'Forty years on', thus ran my grammar school song back in Blackburn, plagiarised from Harrow, I believe. Now I look back at rather more than those 40 years of ministry. The Editor asked me to focus on some of the highlights of my ministry. It would not be difficult to pinpoint a number.