I very much enjoyed being back with Kings Church, Hastings this morning, where I spoke on “Hasn’t Science Buried God?” It’s material that I have presented many times on university campuses, but only once before on a Sunday morning. So I was encouraged by some positive feedback afterwards. I argued that when you look at the origin of the universe, and the fine-tuning of the universe and the origin of organic life, that rather than science burying God, scientific discoveries have provided support for several theistic arguments, especially the Kalam Cosmological argument for the existence of God. The whole talk is aimed at atheists so I am hoping that some will come back or come to Alpha, where they can find out more.
It was great to see Tony & Val Bailey who did marriage prep with myself and Julia back in 1997-98, and also Alwood Wick, who now lives in the Philippines with his wife Rosie, another friend from our Reigate days.
I then did some teaching for 2 hours after lunch with a group of 15 people who gathered with elders Paul Mann and Santino Hamberis to explore the subject of healing. What Jesus says about healing is somewhat shocking to our minds and certainly counter-cultural and we tried to make sense of it, as we seek to go forward in obeying passages like John 14:11-12.
I’m now getting ready to go back and speak at the evening meeting. The church bought an indoor cricket school some years ago, and they have now completed a marvellous refurb of the vast structure so that it includes a large coffee shop, and the evening service is in there. I guess there are about 500 different people attending services there now, adding together the two meetings.
I noticed this morning that the church has grown considerably during the time Paul & Chloe Mann (pictured) have been leading, and it was a very encouraging Sunday all round.