I fully anticipate the majority of you will watch 'Amazing Grace'. Below are worthwhile discussions to be had based on the movie.

I think one thing that gets missed in the analysis though is exposure at a young age. Exposure to the evil of sin. It is a point made throughout the movie, but something I will jump on here. The passion Wilberforce had was an extension of his conviction that slavery was evil/bad. He only had that because of his childhood pastor. So, maybe we lack people of Wilberforce's conviction because we lack people who are willing and able to convict.

Think about that. Think about how much more convinced you would be to fight an evil if you were not soiled by it, but knew it to be bad without reservation from someone who had been soiled by it.

Puts people into different camps.. Preachers would be ex-sinners. And those who have not experienced the pain of sin can be the advocates of ending sinful practices.

I see a little of the David Solomon thing here. Interesting..

Talk Amongst Yourselves

I'll give you a topic ... :-)

I'm organizing a discussion on the Clapham Community with my church this weekend, following a viewing of the new film Amazing Grace. Here are the questions we'll be using to further our discussion. I'm posting them here in case they can prompt discussion in your own circles.

1. When we talk about the Clapham Circle “we are talking about something that transcends mere geography and is, more than anything else, a tangled skein of friendships and families, all bound up together with an irenic but nonetheless passionate evangelical impulse to serve God, most notably by ending the horror of the slave trade” (Metaxas, Amazing Grace, 193). How do you think we could see our normal relationships of friendship, kinship, and church community transformed into relationships of shared mission and encouragement? How could you personally encourage more intentionality within these relationships?

2. Wilberforce remarked that his friends of the Clapham Circle had been indispensable to him in effectively serving in politics. (Belmonte, William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity, 139). How could we better encourage each other in our particular callings and in our ministry in this community?

3. If you are a part of a small group, how do you think these groups could function more like little Clapham Circles?

4. In the life of Wilberforce and other members of the Clapham Circle, it is clear that their stand took a great deal of personal courage. C.S. Lewis once remarked, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the highest point of reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.” How can we embolden one another, encourage each other to risk for Jesus, and strengthen one another’s courage?

5. In Hebrews 12.1 we’re called to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Clearly, Wilberforce is an example of one who ran with endurance and perseverance, and these attributes were critically important in accomplishing his two great objects. What helped him to endure? How might these things help us run with endurance?

6. “Of the many societal problems Wilberforce might have thought needed his attention, slavery would have been the least visible of all, and by a wide margin. . . . Few British people ever saw the slightest hint of it. Only a tiny handful of the three million Africans who had been pressed into British slavery over the years ever set foot on British shores. . . .” (Metaxas, Amazing Grace, 78). What issues today do you think may likewise be in our cultural and moral blind spot?

7. Wilberforce wrote, "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners." By the latter he meant a moral reform. The Clapham Circle worked tirelessly for both. How could you and your church work toward moral reform in your area and in the world?