Renewing our Communion: the Banner Ministers’ Conference 2022

‘Are you well?’, one minister asked another in the foyer at this year’s Banner conference. On receiving a look communicating that the answer might take some unpacking, he acknowledged that it was a dangerous question to be asking. Dangerous it may have been, but at a time like this a failure to ask this question of ourselves also has its perils.

As we emerge from two unprecedented and draining years, it is a needful exercise to ask ourselves how we really are. Are we healthy, not simply in physical terms, but in soul? How have the Covid years affected us, and our ministry to others? Crucially, are we close to our Lord, experiencing the reality of communion with him? So it was that the theme of this year’s conference, communion with God, proved a most timely focus for the 220 ministers who gathered in Yarnfield, Staffordshire, at the end of April. As well as being pastorally pertinent, there was also deep significance in placing communion with God front and centre as we recommence our in-person conferences. Is there a theme more central to the Christian faith, or more necessary for the Church in an age of technique and quick fixes? As the Heidelberg Catechism reminds us, man was made to ‘rightly know God his Creator, heartily love him, and live with him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify him’ (HC, Q. 6). This knowing, loving, and living with and for God is the very essence of communion, and the very lifeblood of the Church.

Opening our time together, David Campbell (North Preston Evangelical Church) laid out afresh the great truths of electing grace from Romans 8. It is God’s free saving action, operating entirely by grace, that guarantees our enjoyment of communion with God for all eternity. What followed were precious reminders that while perfect communion with God will one day be ours, it is the practice of daily fellowship with God in the ordinariness of life which is meant to sustain us. This communion is the foundation of all Christian living and effective ministry. Jeff Kingswood (Grace ARP, Ontario, Canada), preaching from Acts 13, reminded us of the central role of communal prayer in the Church’s response to Peter’s imprisonment. How rare it is today to encounter the sort of sustained, shared wrestling in prayer to which the Jerusalem church gave itself so naturally. Helping us to see how communion with God ought to infuse each aspect of the Christian life were sessions from Robert Strivens (The Old Baptist Chapel, Bradford-on-Avon) on worship, Meirion Thomas (Malpas Road Evangelical Church, Newport, Wales) on the Lord’s Supper, and Jeff Kingswood on repentance. In three evening sessions, Conrad Mbewe (Kabwata Baptist Church, Lusaka, Zambia) took us to 1 John 1 to consider the fellowship believers enjoy with God and with one another.

A text which will linger in the minds of those in attendance is Mark 6, which was expounded by Andy Hambleton (Crumlin Evangelical Presbyterian Church) and Robert McCollum Jr (Lisburn Reformed Presbyterian Church). In this chapter, we see the heart of the Saviour to give rest to his disciples, even as he exemplifies communion with his Father on the mountain, and reveals himself to be all in all for his followers, even when they make headway only with great pain. Those wishing to explore further the essential role of godward communion in the life of the minister are encouraged to watch these sessions.

‘Next to communion with God,’ wrote John Trapp, ‘is the communion of saints.’ Throughout our three days together there were many opportunities for the horizontal communion, one with another, which should always accompany our vertical fellowship with God. As meals were shared, football played, prayer requests relayed, and the high praises of God sung, there was a strong sense that the time had come to renew bonds of fellowship, and to give ourselves once again to the twin forms of communion on which the Christian life depends.

Videos from the Banner Ministers’ Conference can be watched here. Next year’s conference, on the subject of the Church of Christ, will be held from Monday, 17^th of April to Thursday, 20^th of April 2023.