You might notice that the title of this blog posting is also the title of a new page on which  -  because of the interest it seems to have aroused  -  you'll find the text of my message at the service for the Conservative Party Conference.

The main thrust of my message was simply that the church has both the right to be heard and the responsibility to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Let me comment briefly on both of those things...

We have the right to be heard because of the truths we hold dear and because of the involvement of Christians in working to bring the reality of God's kingdom into every aspect of life.  But that means that the opposite is also true:  if we fail to live out the truths of the gospel and if we retreat from practical involvement in the world, then we have no right to be heard.  So the challenge is to continune to be both thinking and active disciples of Jesus engaging with the prevailing culture and responding to human need.

And we have a responsibility to speak for those who might otherwise not be heard.  The gospel has a bias to the oppressed and marginalised.  It is good news for the poor.  It is all about setting captives free.

This afternoon I took part in a debate on radio with Adam Harbinson.  Adam is a writer and journalist from Northern Ireland who is a follower of Jesus who has given up on church.  He just doesn't go any longer.  He says, 'I don't have to, I don't want to, and I don't need to.'  In all honesty I had more than a little sympathy with some of his criticisms of the church.  But I think he's wrong.  We can't give up on it.

Why?  Because it's the body of Christ on earth, called to do his work, called to live out the gospel, called to declare the truth in word and deed.  Of course, it's not exempt from the central condition of following Jesus  -  the church  -  just as individuals have to do  -  must die in order to live.  It must die to everything in its culture and its practices that is unlike Jesus.   But that isn't the death of rejection and abandonment.  It is the death that lays everything on the altar of mission and discovers resurrection and renewal.

And only insofar as the church is willing to do that will we win the right to be heard by politicians and the world at large.  But, as Bill Hybels has said, when the church is truly to the body of Christ it is the hope of the world.

But it's late and I must sleep!

If you have been, thanks for reading this.