Methodist Blogger Profile: Dave Faulkner

Dave Faulkner

I’m a Methodist minister in Chelmsford, fifteen miles north east of London. I am married to Debbie and our children are Rebekah (three) and Mark (nearly two). I became a Christian at the age of sixteen through the liturgy of the 1975 Methodist Service Book – the Promises and Professions of Faith encapsulated the Gospel for me. After a neck problem prevented me from going to university at 18 I became a civil servant. Later I studied Theology at an Anglican theological college (Trinity College, Bristol) and trained for the Methodist ministry at Hartley Victoria College, Manchester, during which time I researched an MPhil at Manchester University. I served in circuits in Hertfordshire and Kent before moving here in 2005.

Why do you blog?
In 2003 I had a sabbatical and designed a website. One of my hopes for that site was that an interactive discussion would develop. Unfortunately the discussion board was largely ignored and was then abused. Blogging seemed to be a better way to achieve my goals. I still keep the original site but mainly just post sermons, seminar notes and longer articles there. Stuff I used to write there about Gospel and Culture or humour now appears on the blog.

What has been your best blogging experience?
Apart from becoming suddenly popular with Americans when I had beta test invitations to give out for eBible, it’s probably been a recent debate following a British Methodist Conference decision on sexuality. I’ve had a very constructive discussion with a person who sees things quite differently from me.

What would be your main advice to a novice blogger?
Write well. Write concisely. Be yourself. Have something to say.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, what would they be?
Impossible question: Richard Hall’s Connexions comes very high. So does TechCrunch for all things Web 2.0. One other? Good grief! It would be Pete Phillips’ Postmodernbible if only he were able to post more frequently!

Who are your spiritual heroes?
Theologically, Howard Snyder mixed with Eugene Peterson and lately Brian McLaren (although I suspect he’s better sometimes at asking the right questions than all the answers – no bad thing, though).

What are you reading at the moment?
Brian McLaren, The Secret Message Of Jesus and Richard Bauckham, Bible And Mission. (Richard was my research supervisor for my MPhil.)

What is your favorite hymn and why?
If it’s a traditional hymn then Isaac Watts’ ‘Praise ye the Lord! ‘Tis good to raise’ for the verse commencing ‘But saints are lovely in his sight’. Contemporary stuff – ooh, that would change from day to day but going back to the 1970s can I count Bruce Cockburn’s song ‘Lord Of The Starfields’ or the more recent ‘God Of Wonders’ for their fusing of the doctrine of creation with praise? It’s rather lacking in the evangelical and charismatic tradition in which I am located.

Can you name a major moral, political, or intellectual issue on which you've changed your mind?
Maybe not a specific issue but my whole political views changed when I began work in the Civil Service in 1979 around the time Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister. I had been brought up Conservative and then I saw what her government did to the poor.

What philosophical thesis do you think is most important to combat?
‘Combat’ – that’s an interesting word. It implies confrontation. I know there is a place for that but is it the wisest approach in a postmodern society? Won’t we just put people’s backs up? I know that doesn’t answer your question: that’s probably because I don’t have an answer for your question!

If you could effect one major change in the governing of your country, what would it be?
Reversing the anti-democratic tendencies of our current government who have used too many devices to force through their views.

If you could effect one major policy change in the United Methodist Church, what would it be?*
Assuming I can take that as a question for the British Methodist Conference, then as regular readers of my blog will know I believe we need a broader understanding of ordination.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
A piece of advice I need for myself rather too much and it was on a poster my sister gave me many years ago: ‘Life is too important to be taken seriously’.

What, if anything, do you worry about?
Most things! See my answer to the last question!

If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything that you'd do differently?
Too many things in forty-six years to list here. But that’s the wonder of grace.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you do now)?
The north island of New Zealand – even though I’ve never been there.

What do you like doing in your spare time?
Computer and Internet stuff. I’ve just been getting back into an old hobby of photography thanks to a wonderful gift from my last circuit of a Nikon D50. I love listening to music.

What is your most treasured possession?
I want to say my family, but I don’t like to think I possess them. My wife would say it’s either my computer or my CD collection. The nice cheesy answer would be a Bible, wouldn’t it?

What talent would you most like to have?
To be musical.

If you could have any three guests, past or present to dinner, who would they be?
You can take all the famous people in the world, but I didn’t become a parent until I was in my forties and nothing can beat a meal with my wife and our two little monkeys.

*Oops! I sent the American, rather than British version of the MBP questionnaire to Dave. Sorry.