About 80 people of varied ages and from a range of church groupings – including Independents, Anglicans, Brethren, Presbyterians and Baptists – rose to sing, unaccompanied, Amazing Grace, and so ended the John Newton at 300 Conference, which was organised by York Evangelical Church and hosted by City Church, York.
The conference included Dr Graham Beynon, Head of Local Ministries, FIEC, giving an engaging and thoughtful biographical sketch of the main events in Newton’s life, interspersed helpfully with lessons that we could learn from them, including our need to appreciate the sometimes complex nature of conversion, and the recognition of how we may all have blind spots as we are influenced by our pervading culture.
Before the second session, there was a delightful short video, especially produced for the conference by Marylynn Rouse of the John Newton Project, entitled John Newton in Yorkshire.
Professor Ian Shaw looked at Newton’s “fellowship and Christian judgement”, stressing his appreciation of fellowship for himself and his giving of it generously to a remarkably large number of people from many denominations (rather like the audience for this conference), including: Samuel Brewer; David Jennings (both Dissenters); the Baptist John Ryland; George Whitefield; and, of course, William Cowper. Wesley saw Newton as a unifier and reconciler through his wise and generous counsel.
After lunch, a highlight for this reviewer was the short slot in which the children shared what they had learned in their parallel meetings. Children are not always accommodated at such conferences: rarely are they given the opportunity of following the same programme as their parents in an age-appropriate way. Conference organisers take note!
The final session, on Newton’s hymn writing, was given by Dr Daniel Johnson of the London School of Theology. It was fascinating to be introduced to some of his lesser-sung hymns; to see how he followed in the “evangelical heart tradition” of Isaac Watts, to be shown something of the evolution of Amazing Grace to its current most frequently sung version, and to be pointed to the “all-sufficiency of Christ” that suffused his hymns.
The subtitle of John Piper’s book 21 Servants of Sovereign Joy describes these servants as being “faithful, flawed and fruitful”; this excellent conference showed that to be true of John Newton, but ultimately it pointed us not so much to him but to his flawless, merciful God of such amazing grace.
