It was similar to working on the mains electricity of a house, but doing so with the electricity still switched on!
This was how the scholar-clergyman J.B. Phillips explained the experience of working on a paraphrase of the Bible some years ago.
It was an extraordinary experience – the book was ‘live’; it was powerful and energising. As the 16th-century Reformer Martin Luther put it: ‘The Bible is alive – it has hands and grabs hold of me, it has feet and runs after me.’
Dynamic impact
This is the reason why our local churches should be committed to listen to, understand and explain God’s Word, and why the Keswick movement continues to be focussed around Scripture. It is because we believe that God’s Word has the same dynamic impact today. It transforms understandings and attitudes; it changes lives; it draws us into a living relationship with God.
In a previous article I mentioned the vicar who launched the Keswick Convention on his front lawn, Thomas Harford-Battersby. He reported on the 1880 Convention with a simple but profound statement: ‘Our prayer was for deep, clear, powerful teaching, which would take hold of the souls of the people, and overwhelm them, and lead them to a full, definite, and all-conquering faith in Jesus.’
In fact, this explains why hundreds of thousands of Christians the world over have been committed to the Keswick movement. The purpose is nothing other than to see believers more wholeheartedly committed to Jesus Christ in every area of life, and the means is the faithful, clear and relevant exposition of God’s Word.
All around the world the Keswick movement has this purpose and this means. Whether it is to encourage discipleship, to call for holiness, to urge for mission, to appeal for unity, to provoke for life-change, to long for the Spirit – expounding the Bible is central to fulfilling these priorities.
Nehemiah 8 describes a week-long Bible convention. God’s people had returned home from exile and had begun to reconstruct the city’s walls. But once that task had been completed, there was a remarkable turning-point in the reconstruction of their national life. Their first act was to call for the book. Nehemiah describes the grassroots desire that the law should be read, and everyone listened carefully. The Word of God represented the foundation articles, the new constitution of the people of God ‘which the Lord had commanded for Israel’. And that’s why Ezra and Nehemiah were so concerned that everyone should understand what was being read. If God’s Word was to be the foundation for their families, their day-today living, their relationships and even their economic activity, then it had to be clear and accessible to everyone.
Mind-set over method
Throughout its history, the Keswick movement has sought to ensure that God’s Word is central and accessible. In 1881, six years after Keswick started, expository Bible readings were introduced and these have remained a notable feature of the Convention. The term ‘Bible reading’ describes a teaching style which works steadily through a Bible book or sequence of Bible passages, and ‘exposition’ simply means making God’s Word clear and plain. It is to bring out what is there, opening up a Bible passage in order to expose its force and power. In that sense, Bible exposition is not so much a method as a mind-set: our attitude is one of submission to that Word, ensuring that what is preached flows directly from that divine revelation.
Over the years, speakers have come to Keswick from varying theological backgrounds, whether Free Church or Anglican, Reformed or Charismatic, but all with the same desire to allow the Scriptures to speak. The concern of the Convention has been that the first priority for speakers is that they should wrestle with and apply the biblical text. That is why the Bible expositions at each Keswick week, working faithfully through Bible books or passages, have formed the backbone of the Convention.
Just as in the account in Nehemiah 8, not only must the Bible remain central in the Keswick movement, it must also be accessible. This always demands creative effort, as we teach the truth of God’s Word to children of all ages, as we apply God’s Word to young people growing up in an increasingly secular culture, and as we make it available on all kinds of platforms, whether mp3, DVD, radio or TV. We must make the Word accessible to as wide an audience as possible.
Celebrating God’s goodness
Hearing God’s Word is meant to lead to change. That’s the significance of the Jerusalem Convention that Nehemiah records: hearing God’s Word led to celebrating God’s goodness and then obeying God’s laws. It is truth in action. And that has been the driving force behind the Keswick movement. Despite their differing denominations, their diverse views on secondary issues, their various preaching styles and personalities, a key strength amongst Keswick speakers has been the serious engagement with the Scriptures, and the desire for that engagement to provoke a powerful impact on people’s lives.
The strapline for today’s Keswick follows the same sequence that we find in the Jerusalem Convention, now expressed in New Testament terms: it is Hearing God’s Word – Becoming like God’s Son – Serving God’s mission.
Authentic Christians not only speak the message; their lives embody the message. That’s the purpose of coming to the Bible, and the purpose of the Keswick movement. Hearing God’s Word is to lead to determined faithfulness, to changed lives, to consistent Christian living. As Michael Wilcock once said: ‘Our understanding of God’s Word has to do with our obedience, not our brains.’
