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INTERVIEW – Wallace Benn on Handing Over to Hugh Palmer

INTERVIEW – Wallace Benn on Handing Over to Hugh Palmer

Last updated on: April 20, 2008 at 3:41 am by Adrian Warnock

INTERVIEW – Wallace Benn on Handing Over to Hugh Palmer 2008-04-20T03:41:00+01:00 Adrian Warnock

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This is the final segment of my three-part interview with Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes and previous leader of Word Alive. Part one can be read here, and part two here.

In the concluding section, the Bishop talks about handing over the leadership duties to Hugh Palmer, and the role New Word Alive has in fostering continued cooperation between conviction evangelicals.

Adrian
Practically speaking, I know next year New Word Alive is moving on to two weeks and all that kind of stuff. Are you able to give us any insider tips about what it’s going to look like next year, or is that all still in the early stages?

Wallace Benn
No, because I’m no longer on the planning committee.

Adrian
Oh, I see. So you can’t . . .

Wallace Benn
No, there was a real hand-over. This year is a lovely opportunity for me, with great delight, to hand it over to my friend, Hugh Palmer. It really is out there, so I’m not on the steering committee. But I go on being, for as long as people want me to be, associated with and involved in New Word Alive, and am totally supportive up front in every way of their whole development.

Adrian
It’s nice to know, again, breaking down my caricatures, that there are evangelical bishops out there—in fact, there are several of you, aren’t there?

Wallace Benn
There are!

Adrian
You’re not alone, then.

Wallace Benn
Happily, there are!

Adrian
I know some people might be listening to this in America, and they may not necessarily have heard of Hugh, but Hugh (I think I might say this) is sort of filling John Stott’s shoes in a sense, isn’t he, at All Souls. Have I got that right?

Wallace Benn
Yes, well he’s the successor to the role that John Stott once held. There have been people there in-between—Richard Bewes, who is very well known, was the last rector of All Souls, so Hugh is the immediate successor of Richard Bewes . . .

Adrian
Right, got you. Okay.

Wallace Benn
. . . who, in turn . . . before him there was Michael Baughen, and before that John Stott.

Adrian
John Stott has just retired, I understand, hasn’t he, just this last year?

Wallace Benn
Yes he has. He’s retired from public ministry. He’s delightful as ever, and as sharp as anything, but not very mobile.

Adrian
Right, okay. There are some great names of evangelicals who have been around for years, and Stott was certainly one of them. I think Stott would have been happy to be here, don’t you?

Wallace Benn
Absolutely delighted, I’m sure! And my old professor and friend would also have been delighted to be here—Jim Packer—and people like Alec Motyer, another well-known stalwart in his generation of evangelicals.

Adrian
Yes, I’m sure that’s right. There is sort of a “handing over” of generations that is happening a little bit now. It will be interesting to see who rises to the fore, really, and obviously this is, again, another opportunity for some of those people to speak to large numbers of people.

Wallace Benn
I think the confessional evangelicals who are strong doctrinally on the big truths of the Bible will more and more find themselves pulling together and working together.

Adrian
I think you’re right.

Wallace Benn
And I think that’s a good thing in a way because we need one another.

Adrian
I think we do. And I think we can learn from one another, can’t we? It’s been great to see that in action here, with vibrant worship songs really sort of bouncing out from the stage, and then some hymns as well, of course, because we don’t neglect the hymns. I do believe in that. And then, obviously, solid biblical teaching. To see all that in one conference is great, isn’t it?

Wallace Benn
From your side of the church, the music of Townend and Getty has been fabulous in putting to music—very good music and singable music—really really well thought through doctrinal convictions and biblical convictions, and that’s a great gift to the whole Church. Increasingly, I think we need to be careful in different denominations that we just don’t build empires, because actually it’s God’s kingdom and not our own—it’s his Word that matters. So, in a world where we have a great missionary task to win the world for Christ, we need to work more together.

Adrian
Yes, I think you’re absolutely right. And I think it holds for people outside the Church as well, because there’s always that conception, “Oh, Christians! They’re all so divided, and they’re petty divisions. Some people might argue that about Christians. But I guess this week helps to show that, in a sense, that’s not right—that we can work with people across all sorts of boundaries.

Wallace Benn
There are secondary things here that we would disagree about, but none of them are important compared to the big truths of the Christian faith, and our total conviction that we need to live as Christians under the supreme authority of Bible.

Adrian
Yes. I think that’s absolutely right.

Wallace Benn
If you can prove to me from Scripture that something I hold to is wrong, I’m duty bound to change it. And I know you are, too.

Adrian
Yes!

Wallace Benn
So, that’s a great thing.

Adrian
And that’s the point, isn’t it? This is the thing for me. When I sat down with Tim Chester, as I mentoned earlier, we did dialogue. We had a bit of a debate going on, and I was bracing myself for what you do get when you talk to some people, which is just human reason, or it will be something to accommodate a culture. Do you know what I’m trying to say? Those issues we were talking about . . .

Wallace Benn
Yes.

Adrian
What was really striking was, as much as Tim and I might disagree, we were both coming at it from a conviction that we believed that this was what the Bible was saying. So we could agree to disagree in that sense because I respect somebody who follows their convictions because they believe they are biblical convictions. I might happen to think they’re wrong, but as long as they have that humble attitude about it, for me that’s good enough. And I’m sure . . . I don’t know if I’m expressing that very well.

Wallace Benn
No, no, that’s fine. I agree with that point.

Adrian
Do you think there will be other ways in which we will work together as well? Who knows? As you’re looking into the future, what sort of things do you think will come up? It’s a difficult one, I guess.

Wallace Benn
I think it is a difficult one, but I think a lot will depend . . . locally on the ground, and certainly around where I live and work, there is increasing cooperation between conviction evangelicals. And it’s lovely to see, I think, and very thrilling to see. I think it’s been over the last four or five years, there has begun to develop the kind of new wine-side of the evangelical movement and the reformed side of the evangelical movement that are actually, on fundamental convictions, saying the same things and sharing the same convictions. Just as a convinced evangelical Anglican and a convinced evangelical Newfrontiers man are actually focused on the cross, and convinced about all the central truths of evangelical Christianity. And I love what John Stott said years ago—that he was a Christian first, an evangelical second, and an Anglican third. I mean, that’s right, isn’t it? The way we should . . .

Adrian
Yes. I think that’s right. Well, look, I don’t want to take too much of your time. I’m sure you have other things you need to go to, but thank you so much for joining us.

Wallace Benn
It’s been a great pleasure.

Adrian
I look forward to, no doubt, seeing you again, and perhaps meeting some of your other evangelical colleagues at various points.

Wallace Benn
Thanks for the conversation, Adrian.

NWA08

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