Trinity Streetsville
A Conversation with Peter Blundell | Trinity Talks Podcast
(upbeat music) - Having already a nice conversation off screen here with Peter Blendell, who is joining us, goes away from one thing to the next today here at Trinity. You come, your dance card is full when you come to this church, isn't it? - There's no relaxing. - No. - You didn't say, did you wanna break? Did you want a cup of coffee? - I actually have a cup of coffee for myself here, but I didn't bring one for you, so anyway. - Sort yourself out first. - I know. - Go girl. - That's right, I know. Anyway, we have Peter here, and we are going to have a lovely conversation. He's laughing away, and we're just gonna get to know you a little bit better. We always say, when we have newcomers come, we'd love to get to know you, let us know who you are, and then we have a guest preacher come in, and we didn't wanna give you the boot out the door. It'd be nice to get to know you a little bit better, so thank you for taking the time here. - Thank you, Elizabeth. That is always good to be here. - Yeah, so you probably noticed that our summer sermon series is called Summer Playlist, and as Rob was saying, Rob, our senior minister here, was saying that we're gonna sing our way through the Book of Psalms. It's the Bible's song book, and we talked last week about the importance of singing and the power of singing. And I was wondering, when it comes to music, what type of songs do you like to listen to, maybe sing to, outside of the church? - Outside of the church, but only in the shower. - Okay. - Now there are musical people, there are musical people. I'm a musical. - A musical. - Yeah, there are crows and nightingales that are vultures. - All right. - When I sing, they literally cover their ears with the wings, and then they drop out of the sky. So you won't want me singing. Thank you for a great band this morning. - That's right. - Absolutely brilliant. - Love it. - I like, I'm a Victorian. I like musicals, so that's my go-to Christian songs. And I do like them. I like some of the oldies. I mean, a good hymn gets you going. - Yeah. - I don't know whether it's a new or not, but I like the news boys. - Yeah. - Right, but any song with Jesus, and that sounds terribly so simple, but it really is. - All right. - Yeah. - But it's honest. - It's true. - And we'll take on us. We prefer on us here. And simple is always welcome as well. - Oh, I need it. - Yes, exactly. All right, so for those of you out there who have never met Peter, maybe you're even watching online. Maybe you weren't here last year when he joined us, and I know you've been here a few years before that as well. Can you let us know a little bit about yourself? - I can. - Yes. - And the most important thing-- - The state is yours. - That was your third mistake. I've been apart from following Jesus. The most important thing you need to know is my wife, who said yes, and I do. In fact, she said, I guess, and then I made her say yes. She's with me now, and so my wife is as amazing and loves Jesus, and she's been my partner for all these years. - Yes, can I ask how many years? - We'll be 25 this year. - Okay, great. - Next month. - All right. - Okay, well done. - Hello, daughters, 25th, silver. Remember that? - Mm-hmm. - Yeah. - So we met, actually, in Africa. I was out there as a missionary. Have you heard of the Alpha course? - Yes, we're actually gonna get to that in my next question. - So I was the Alpha Chapter of Sub-Sahara, and she was working for Well Vision only. - Okay. - We've got links with that here, and so we met in Zambia, and she dragged me to this wonderful country. So we have two daughters who, one has just graduated this year at a month master, and started her job at the beginning of this month, very grown up. - Wow. - She's a radiographer at But Masters Children, or Hamilton Children. - Love that. - And daughter number two is, she's at UNLV, University of Las Vegas. - Really? - Yeah, doing professional gambling. No, she's not, she's not, that was a joke. She's doing engineering. (laughing) - I wasn't sure how to respond to that. Okay, yes. - She's gonna kill me for that. She's gonna kill me for that. And she's on her placement with a wonderful Christian theater group at the moment called Sight and Sound. - They have a place in Branson, Missouri, where she is and one in Pennsylvania. - Wow. - So, yeah. - And how often do you get to see your daughters? - Not enough. - Not enough. - Not nearly. I'm a very bad empty nester. A really bad empty nester. - Yes, well, your love for your family shines through, so thank you. But you did mention the alpha course. And we actually just wrapped up doing an alpha course here in mid-June, and it's something that we do try to do at least once a year here at Trinity. And we see great success, and there's a lot of excitement that comes out of it from our volunteers, the facilitators, and then, of course, the participants as well. So what was your role in alpha? Because I think there was some even foundational-- - It's a little bit foundational, but I don't get carried away with this. You might know Alpha started in 1977 at Harutunji Brompton in London, Charles Marnum. He left in 1981, and John Ervin, who, it's certainly not very well at the moment, so we keep him in our prayers. He took over the alpha course. And my brother, my older brother, became a follower of Jesus behind my knee, too, and did the 1982 alpha course that John was leading. I'd never heard of it, it was very small. And he went away for the Holy Spirit talks. The first time they were done, John had written them, came back a different person. And I was in the pub with him after the service, we go to the pub after every service there. And I kept looking at you, "Are you really my brother?" 'Cause this is amazing. I'd never, honestly, never seen this transformation. And so I said, "What's happened?" And then he confessed he'd been doing this course. And I went back to the church, and I found John Ervin. It was the beginning of 1982, and I said, "I don't know about alpha, but I'm in." If it changes, my brother, like that. And he said, "Well, you're leading the next course with me." And so that was where I started. And when John was going to plant a church in 1985, he handed an alpha over to me to run it in '84, '85 at HDB, which was a huge honor, I'm very young. I'm not much older now, but I'm very young then. And took it and expanded the course to 11 weeks and introduced the supper, actually, by mistake. It was a complete mistake, but that's another story. - So you introduced the supper? - By mistake. - By mistake. - Yeah. - And it stuck. - Well, then it faded a bit, and then they brought it back, much more professionally. But we did it for a couple of years, and that was a lot of fun. - Well, that's fascinating. - Yeah. - But that's really great. So you also mentioned you were in Africa. So you have some background with missionary work, church planting work, this is where you met your wife. But what was that all about? How did you get involved in that type of work? - The church planting is because I went on that first church plant. So John, who deserves a medal, John Hovin, he's the most amazing man of God, discipled me for 15 years. I mean, that's not a medal. That's a medal with a bar and a knighthood. And he, when he went on that church plant to St. Barnabas, 100 of us went with him. It's the first church plant that church had been done over 100 years. And he and me were brilliant in supporting us, obviously. - Yeah. - But it was great. It was fantastic. So we got him to church planting. We planted a couple of churches from St. Barnabas as well. - Yeah. - Always been involved with that. But I was then invited to be... By the Bishop of Harareys in Barbway, I'd done an alpha conference down there, and he invited me to be his alpha chaplain. That didn't work out because of some issues that won't go into that. But it turned out that the role transformed it. And as God does, he takes a bad situation and just does what he does. And I suddenly became the alpha chaplains of Sahara. So instead of being one diocese in Zimbabwe, I became the guy. And if you look at a map, Sahara is very small, it's very big. - It's big. - And I wasn't paid. So somehow, that's what we did. And he was amazing. And I traveled everywhere. And God alpha going in lots of different countries. Not as many as one would have liked. - Right. - And there were always wonderful people who did all the work and hard work. - Yes. - And I just talked. - Wow. - Well, then I met Margaret. - Right, look at what could happen. - Look at what could happen. - Yeah, I don't-- - In one experience, right? Just snowballs into something you can do. - A man who's got-- - You're on your own. - No idea. You know, when I always joke, you know, if God can talk through a donkey. I mean-- - That's right. - The bar isn't that high, is it, you know? - You really can't do anything. Let's talk about something that you mentioned to me in an email. We had a little back and forth there. And you mentioned that I think these are your own words. So I wrote them down that you are full-on for the Holy Spirit and that you're very passionate about the Gospels. So what's this all about? - Well, I think it's normal, but I find that people don't feel that same way. The Gospel's just amazing. I mean, it's not good news for a reason. It's great news. - Yeah. - It transforms. And once you taste it, wow. But the Gospel-- I learned that when I try and explain the Gospel to someone, all I do is beat them up. - Mm. - I mean, I'm really good at condemning people. - Right, yeah. - Like, I get an agrade in condemnation. 'Cause I want to tell them the bad news. 'Cause then they're going to say, "Yeah, I need some help. I need a Savior." And all they go is, "How dare you touch me?" And I go, "Dang!" So I mean, anyone listening, you're going like, "Why is he so slow?" That's who he uses, okay? So it took me a longer than it should have done to realize the Holy Spirit does the miracle stuff and we're not supposed to. We're supposed to be full of the Spirit, but we're not-- - Yeah. - He does that stuff. So John 16, 8, the Holy Spirit convicts, which means bring to someone in victory, the unbeliever. It's the only verse I know of which directly deals with the unbeliever when it comes to salvation, maybe others, let me know. In regards to sin, the position of wrong relationship with God, righteousness, the position of right relationship with the Father, and judgment, if you have a position you are in, you're going to be judged in. I don't want you in sin. I want to depopulate, help populate heaven. But he does that work. I don't have to beat you up. He does it. So then I went like, "Well, what's my job?" - Yeah. - "What's our job? If he does that?" And then he said, "Well, it's simple. I'm the first witness. You're the second witness." The last words of Jesus, actually, up to 1 verse 8, "You'll be my witnesses. I need to give you the power of the Spirit, not to lord it over, but to be really powerful witnesses." And people are going to look at you because the only Jesus who's never going to see is you. And they're going to say, "Hi there. Well, that's what Jesus is. I want nothing to do with him." Or if that's what Jesus, "I want some of that. I want that." I mean, I know they've got a mess, but oh, my goodness. And as Jesus said, in John, the Last Supper, a new commandment, it supersedes the whole one. The old ones love your neighbors yourself. Well, you know, if I don't happen to love myself very much, I have to love you very much. The bar is low, isn't it? But love one another in the same way that I've loved you. Well, he's just going to watch their feet. He's going to die for them. I mean, that's the bar up here. And then he said, "But if you do that, everyone's going to go like, "Oh, my goodness," said the side was a Jesus. There's only people who are just side was a Jesus. Do that. The church has got a weakness in the world's eyes. And we've got lots of weaknesses. But one of them is, we let anyone in. And we do. Look, did you see the congregation this morning? We let anyone in, including me. I mean, look at that. They go like, we wouldn't do that. We've got a club. We want a membership fee. We want to have that. We let anyone in. Yes. Well, that's odd. But then when they become family, the crazy bit the world doesn't understand is that we love each other. Yeah. And they go like, no, you don't get to choose your family. And we have problems with family. And these guys love each other and they sacrifice and they care. And they're there. And that's only the work of the spirit. You can't do that in your own strength. I'm a selfish. I want to do my own thing. So it's all that you see, you can't do anything of a ton of valium as you do it in the final spirit. Beautiful. And so it's all holly spirit. The fruit of the spirit, the maturity to hit the microphone, to tell people the gospel and then to live it out as Jesus followers. So people say, that's Jesus, feel me in. Thank you. I love the passion coming through. We just finished our sermon series on the fruit of the spirit. We are all full of the spirit and fruit. Actually, if you had been here, we had done some fun fruit things, but I just thank you for your passion. And thank you for the joy that actually just comes through you. We see it. It's natural. And we can just tell that the spirit is living through you. Like I said, we were also going through the Psalms this summer. Now, is there a specific Psalm that you tend to go to or one that has spoken to you maybe in the past? You gave me a warning on this one. Because if someone asked me this question, I would be like, not Psalm 91. Yeah, not Psalm 91. No, I like the Psalm. It was my old school Psalm, but it annoyed me at school. Oh, right. You mentioned it. Right. And I wasn't a believer at school, so I just realized this is nonsense. Yeah. That's why I had to tackle it, you know, and deal with it. But I think that's sometimes how God, right? That's how he gets to it. It's just like, it's living and active and it gets in here. Psalm 84 is probably my go-to Psalm. And for that reason, I probably never preached it because I don't want to ruin it. I can't do deep into it. But it is, it's just that Psalm. I mean, better as one day in your court, some of those days as well. And those who go through the valley of backing. It's the valley of weeping. It's a desert. But if you walk it, he makes it a place of springs. He may, you know, you go, oh my goodness, you are with me. Yeah. It's just a place of great comfort. It's a song of a sense. So they are going to Jerusalem to worship. So it's often I use it to prepare my heart for going to worship. But also in difficult times. And then it finishes the second last verse. No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Actually, it's righteous, which is a position. It's not going to have to be that good. It's just no Jesus. But no good thing does he withhold. What a wonderful promise. It also implies that he's going to keep back the bad stuff. Yeah. So lots of good reasons. But that's probably my favourite. Thank you. I love that. Maybe we'll even link it below when we put it on YouTube. Oh, have a read of it. It'll wrap your socks off. Well, thank you. So what, I mean, other than I know the highlight of your summer has probably been coming to Trinity. It's downhill from here. It's downhill from here. But what else do you have planned with the family perhaps? Or maybe any other adventures this summer for you? I'm not much in lots of respects. I'm going to be helping out lots of other churches in the summer. I find that some pastors, the facility pastors, when they're the sole pastors in a church, it's hard for them to get a vacation. And so I often get a phone call saying, can you cover? And I think that's a lovely gift that I can give to a pastor to say, if you can trust me with your pulpit, I'll preach the word, you have a good vacation. But what I try and save them is I'd rather you didn't just have one week off and I come in and do that week. If I can, can I come the week before so you're not working just before you go on vacation? And then, you know, stop. And if I came the week after, then you don't have to write a sermon on vacation. I'm not trying to find job, but it's more, it helps. And I hope that's what you're doing with Rob. I'm sure he's got lots of people here. Love your pastor. Take care of them. Take care of them. They really do love Jesus and they're trying their best. Yeah. Well, thank you. You will certainly be welcome back anytime because it's always a pleasure to have you here. But you also probably want to go grab a cup of coffee before we get to service number two. So I'm just going to say maybe decaf for you over there. All right. So I'm just going to thank you once again. Thank you. And we will see everyone in just a little while. [MUSIC]