Doggie's Breakfast

Made the Jump

2008-11-24T12:45:00.005Z

Well, I have done it. I have been thinking about it for a while now and finally taken the step.

I have moved this blog over to Wordpress.

It's not a Blogspot any more. The old Blogspot will remain but I have switched off comments so that no one wastes time.

So, if you want to follow this blog still, please jump over there, tell your blog reader software etc.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

The problem with Atheism?

2008-11-22T15:47:00.001Z

David nails it.

Crisis and Cure

2008-11-22T12:20:00.002Z

One of our regular attenders at SPC said she was going to a conference at which Rev. David Carmichael was preaching. I have heard of Mr Carmichael before - he is minister of Abbeygreen Church of Scotland in Lesmahagow - but have not heard him preach. So, I found and I listened to his sermon "Crisis and Cure" preached at the Scottish Reformed Conference in Hamilton in 2007. (Obtainable from this page, or mp3 directly from this link.)

I can warmly commend it to you. Carmichael observes that the danger to the church does not come from liberals so much as from evangelicals who lost confidence in the word of God and so turn elsewhere for success.

Also, it is rare to hear a preacher preach with such intensity.

GTD and the Gospel

2008-11-21T17:08:00.003Z

Getting things done is a problem. Busy-ness, though, is not a problem. How is that possible?

There are plenty of motivational blogs and books about Getting Things Done (e.g. here, here). But none of them really get to the heart of things.

I have greatly enjoyed three recent blog posts by CJ Mahaney on the topic (see here, here and here), and there is more to come, I think. We can be lazy and busy at the same time, because we put off what is most important in order to do what we like (don't I know it!). Then we don't get things done. This is the sin of procrastination. It is a heart issue which must be addressed with the gospel.

Looking forward to the next installment.

The Baptism of Christ

2008-11-20T15:28:00.002Z

I and my family had to be away from SPC last weekend on family business. So we had the pleasure of one of our Assessor Elders (i.e. appointed by Presbytery) the Rev. Richard Holst preach to the congregation.

Richard preached on the Baptism of Christ from Mark 1:9-11, and I would strongly recommend that you listen to it. As Richard says in his preamble, some passages of Scripture have clear application to particular life issues. However, others simply draw our gaze to the Lord Jesus Christ. This sermon certainly helps me do that. You can download the sermon from here.

You Do Not Have, Because You Do Not Ask.

2008-11-19T16:03:00.004Z

I have had this sentence on my mind yesterday and today as I have gone about my business.

Of course, it is taken from James 4:2. James was writing about worldliness amongst Christians where passions and desires so drove people that they ended up striving and fighting amongst themselves. The underlying principle is that such Christians (and who is not in that number?) have yet to learn dependence on God in life. Hence, You do not have, because you do not ask.

The sentence has come up because I have been thinking about how things are developing at SPC. (They are never distant thoughts, truth be told.) The verse presents a challenge in two ways. Firstly, in the ever present temptation for me to think that our "success" depends on what I can do. Perceived self-sufficiency strikes at actual dependence upon God, and saps the prayer life.

The second challenge is for our church - for those who are committed in membership to this enterprise. There is always the temptation to believe that simply turning up on Sunday is enough. After all, what more can we do? The rationale kicks in as a backstop: in doing this are we not at the same time depending on God for the growth? Well, maybe so, and it is certainly great for people to "turn up". But, here is the question - have we asked for what we want at SPC? Are we continuing to ask God? Have we got together to encourage one another to keep asking God?

God is sovereign. He will do as he wishes, according to his own purpose, and his purpose is good. But God uses means, and one of them is believing prayer. There is no excuse for not asking for what is on our hearts and depending on God for the results.

Five Ways Satan Attacks Our Vulnerabilities

2008-11-18T09:00:00.001Z

Some thoughts from Genesis 3:1-7.

He Plays on Our Ignorance
The serpent said to the woman, "Did God actually say...?" If we lack a grasp of what God did and does say in his word, then we are vulnerable to this destabilising question. We may think we know, but when tested and faced with a choice which involves choosing to follow God's word or not, that little voice comes in, "Did God actually say...?" If we are unable to say "yes" unequivocally, then we are stuffed.

He Flat Contradicts God
The woman heard the serpent say, "You will surely not die!" We hear voices like this all the time. The Bible says one thing, but our culture says another. Who are we going to listen to? If we do not have a grip on truth, we doubt, and then we are vulnerable.

He Suggests That God Is Not Good
Satan tries to make God look bad. He suggests that God has ulterior motives which are not for our good. The serpent hints at this to the woman. We need to know and believe that God is good in all circumstances and that there is a bigger picture that we cannot see. (Romans 8:28)

He Suggests That God is Holding Something Back that We Think We Ought to Have
The serpent says that the woman will be like God if she eats. He suggests there is something more within her grasp that she could want, if only...

Isn't that how it works with us? Even though we may blessed in so many ways, yet we become open to suggestions from the Tempter. We become dissatisfied and harbour secret resentments against God. Then we are stuffed.

He Offers Keys to Blessing That Leave God Out
The apple represents a route to greatness. How ridiculous! How can a created apple give what she wants? It makes no sense.

In the same way, how can those other things - status, power, wealth, property, pleasure - fulfil what they seem to promise? The fact is they can't. Jesus was tempted in this way in the desert (e.g Luke 4:7,8). He was offered power. The catch was he had to bow down to Satan, and forever become a slave to him. (Impossible for the Son of God, yet still requiring the exercise of supreme self-control.)

No, there is no greater place to be than to humbly walk with your God, even if it leads along a path with many troubles. Like Jesus.

Home Libraries

2008-11-18T08:42:00.000Z

A good list of tips via Nathan.

Public and Private Ministry

2008-11-17T09:00:00.000Z

This is something I had not thought about very deeply, and worth considering as we have enjoyed the Lord's day yesterday - the relationship between public and private ministry of the word. The question is: as ministers of the gospel, how do we best conduct ourselves after public ministry so that what we have given to the people by God's grace gets rooted rather than snapped up by birds (Matt. 13:4).

Again, Bonar, after considering M'Cheyne's ministry, reflecting generally on ministry that is used of God:

Whatever he said in the pulpit, men will not much regard, though they may feel it at the time, if the minister does not say the same in private, with equal earnestness, in speaking with the people face to face; and it must be in our moments of most familiar intercourse with them, that we are thus to put the seal to all we say in public. Familiar moments are the times when the things that are most closely twined round the heart are brought out to view; and shall we forbear, by tacit consent, to introduce the Lord that bought into such happy hours? We must not only speak faithfully to our people in our sermons, but live faithfully for them too. Perhaps it may be found, that the reason why many who preach the gospel fully and in all earnestness are not owned of God in the conversion of souls, is to be found in their defective exhibition of grace in these easy moments of life. "Them that honour me, I will honour." 1 Samuel ii.30. It was noticed long ago that men will give you leave to preach against their sins as much as you will, if so be you will but be easy with them when you have done, and talk as they do, and live as they live. How much otherwise it was with Mr M'Cheyne, all who knew him are witnesses.
- Memoir, Bonar, p.82

What kind of leisure?

2008-11-15T09:00:00.001Z

Bonar on M'Cheyne's life:

... if compelled to take some rest from his too exhausting toils, his recreations were little else than a change of occupation, from one mode of glorifying God to another. His beautiful hymn, I am a debtor, was written in May 1837 at a leisure hour.
- Memoir, Bonar, p.81

I think this is a challenge for us Christians in our leisure/fun/entertainment driven world. I am tempted to think that taking rest means rest from God. Don't I realise that eternal rest is knowing and glorifying God? There won't be opportunity or desire to switch off from God and veg out!

Are we there yet?

2008-11-14T09:00:00.002Z

That's what I remember saying to my Mum and Dad as a little boy during a long car journey. Often we weren't far into it.

Listening to preaching can be like that. I remember a preacher tackling a 20-odd-verse passage and taking them one verse at a time. The first two verses took five minutes each, and the preacher managed to make it dull. Soon I was extrapolating to a hundred minutes of slow death-by-preaching. Thankfully, it only ended up half that length. But the childhood desire to cry out, "Are we there yet?" was almost irrepressible.

M'Cheyne did not have this problem. Here is Bonar on M'Cheyne's preaching:

"The heads of his sermons", said a friend, "were not the mile-stones that tell you how near you are to your journey's end, but they were nails which fixed and fastened all he said."
- Memoir, Bonar, p.72

O to preach like that! Preparation of the soul, orderly structure, prayer, the blessing of the Spirit of God.

Lessons from M'Cheyne

2008-11-13T11:45:00.004Z

I am very much enjoying reading Bonar's Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, (though someone should have told Bonar about the gruesome connotations of the title! Is it just me?)

Some lessons come even from his time before being called to his first pastorate as a young man in his early 20s:

He had a desire for fellowship with God. This was not simply a case of stoking himself up in the morning for the rest of the day. Manna was not intended to last. Rather he wanted to meet God and fellowship with him throughout the day.
He studied Scripture. And this was not simply in order that he had plenty to pass on to others. This was for his own soul. He did not want to pass on anything to others from the pulpit if it had not first affected his soul. "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matt 12:34)
He prayed. His he believed his ministry depended on prayer. He would seek solitude in order to pray.
He was conscious of his sin. He used a journal to track the progress of his soul and he regularly expressed his concern about hidden sin. Of particular interest to me was his often mentioned secret desire to be acclaimed for his preaching. What preacher is without this?

More to come, I hope.

Blog Interview

2008-10-27T10:56:00.003Z

I have been a follower of Guy Davies' blog for some time. It is an excellent example of a useful contribution to Christian blogdom. So, it was a great honour to be asked by Guy to participate in a blog interview. So if you want to know what I think about a few things, go and read.

Oh, and I will forgive you if you find Guy's blog so appealing that you don't get round to coming back here for a while.

Grace in Sweden

2008-10-20T10:38:00.006+01:00

We arrived back from Sweden last Wednesday pretty tired after a busy couple of days. I was going to write about our visit, but Richard has captured the substance of it on his blog. I only need add my appreciation of the visit. The picture shows, from the left, David Bergmark (Pastor), Gary Johnson (MTW missionary) and David Leander (Deacon). These three men and their families were the core group of a church plant that has grown to 40 members.

There are 40-people churches that are troubling because they are that size, and there are 40-people churches that are very encouraging. The Evangelical Reformed Church in Tranas is the latter. Solid doctrinally, a strong, thinking, humble eldership and a desire, with plans, to plant new churches (note the plural) to reach more Swedes with the gospel.

A good experience and very encouraging.

What Has John Calvin Ever Done for Us?

2008-10-20T10:15:00.003+01:00

The Legacy of John Calvin
David W Hall
P & R Publishing (2008), Pbk, 112 pages
ISBN 9781596380851

An excellent little book published in the run up to the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin in July '09.

Have you ever seen the Monty Python scene where the Jewish zealots are asking, "What have the Romans ever done for us?"? This book reminds me of it. I can imagine lots of people who might ask in the same spirit, "What has John Calvin ever done for us?" Well, David Hall lists the lasting legacy of John Calvin in Geneva for the western world, and it is pretty substantial.

Many of the things we consider as 'givens' of our day were not before Calvin. Geneva was the source of many great ideas we take for granted. In fact Hall states that for the 100 years or so after his death, Calvin was, by head and shoulders, the most influential man in Europe.

Add this to a brief account of his life and a string of appreciative testimonies of writers from various Christian evangelical traditions and you have an excellent little primer on Calvin which whet one's appetite for more.

The only minor drawback is that it is written from an American perspective with lots of references to the Republic.

Challenging...

2008-10-16T11:19:00.002+01:00

News Update

2008-10-13T09:32:00.003+01:00

I am about to head off to Sweden for a couple of days to visit these guys. It is a lone presbyterian church plant which is looking for closer ties with the EPCEW. I met the pastor, David Bergmark at the ILF conference back in April this year.

Meanwhile, a few highlights from the last week or two:

SPC is now in its fourth year. We advertised in the press, issued invitations to neighbours to come to the 3rd anniversry. To illustrate the problems of reaching people, guess how many came (except for the 7 from other churches)? One. However, the good news is she came back yesterday for the second time.
Numbers at SPC have remained steady over the Summer, around the 20 mark. There has been a steady increase since the start of the year, for which we give thanks to God. I often say to people that planting in Solihull is like a car stuck in mud. The wheels are spinning furiously and slow progress is being made, but we wait on God's perfect time for the moment of real traction!
We were joined at SPC by Rosemary Grier yesterday, one of the local UCCF staff workers. It was great to have her with us for lunch. I am impressed by how much and the quality of she reads. Of course, this is reflected in her blog, which I thoroughly recommend.
I and the family were at City last night where Richard Cunningham, director of UCCF, was speaking. His message from 1 Samuel 14 was superb. I know it was geared toward the many new students that appear at City at this time of year, but it was very helpful to me as a church planter. The sermon should be up on the website soon. It is worth listening to.

Nuff for now.

gtg

Pleasure in Preaching

2008-10-07T20:09:00.001+01:00

I went to preach 'away from home' at another church last Sunday. It is a church that is struggling to remain viable. At the first service there were six others and me. At the second there were seven ... and me.

I have mixed reactions to such a situation. My emotions get involved too. My automatic reaction is, "C'mon, call it a day!". I have never been someone who thought that supporting a cause that was going nowhere was a good thing. Read the signs and make the hard decision.

However, my heart was in a different place. I had a strange sense of excitement while travelling to the church. I was champing at the bit! I wanted to preach. When I got there, yes there were few, but the experience was good. We sang well, the people were attentive and I experienced a degree of liberty I had not felt for a while.

I don't know what to make of an experience like that. I am happy to respond to any call to preach elsewhere as long as there is no adverse effect on Solihull Pres. I want to preach more that I currently am (at Sol Pres we only have one Sunday service). It is not for me to make the hard decisions in difficult places I have no part in. But should I not be fed up at preaching to small congregations in difficult places?

I don't think so. Paul helps us when he says, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Cor 9:16). When necessity is placed upon a man, he would preach to anything!

I thank God for help in a difficult time. I thank God for the fellowship with brothers and sisters pressing on. No one said this preaching business would be without trial. But the joy of preaching and hearing the gospel overshadows it.

"All true spiritual leadership has its roots in desperation."

2008-09-12T09:34:00.001+01:00

John Piper on spiritual leadership.

First Baptism

2008-09-11T10:02:00.000+01:00

Next Sunday at SPC we will have our first baptism, and it's the baptism of a new baby born to one of our member couples. It is a significant time for our church, and a significant time for me. It will be the first time I will have performed a baptism. I'm looking forward to it.

I am aware that there are lots of views on infant baptism, including rejection by credobaptists, superstition, "it's tradition", and biblical. We have all of these amongst our fledgling congregation. So, in order for the event not to be a surprise or shock, I have sought over the last couple of weeks since coming back from holiday, to do some groundwork. Two weeks ago we looked at the six great post-Fall covenants in the Bible. (Can you name them?) Then last week we looked at infant inclusion in the covenant dispensations and hence the reasons for baptising infants. All the time I have sought to show the biblical rationale, to show that it is not just tradition or out of superstition, while at the same time addressing some Baptist objections. That has been a tall order! I think if I were to do this again I would take longer over it. There were far too many loose ends left hanging, too many concepts to take in. It has shown to me clearly that teaching a congregation is a long term project!

However the reaction has been interesting, stronger than any other I have had, from the extremely positive, to the somewhat agitated rejection. It has been a little tricky to deal with these negative responses in a way that is helpful yet without compromise.

The whole process has been helpful for Susan and me. Before coming to SPC we were members of a baptistic church for ten years, a church we love. We promised to them never to raise the issue of baptism with members for the sake of the peace of the church. We were happy to do this. We know the score: if one choses to join a church one must be submissive on the issues one disagrees with by keeping one's mouth shut, or find a new church. However, having made that decision, for me there has been little opportunity to thrash out issues and objections to infant baptism. I have been able to do that now. It has also been true for Susan. Susan was baptised in a church where there was not much of the gospel. As a result, the understanding she has been left with of infant baptism has ben a bit muddled. It has been helpful to work through some of the issues with her.

So pray for us on Sunday, for the family, the child. Pray that the peace of the gospel would prevail in our midst.

Getting the Most Out of Bible Reading

2008-09-03T07:00:00.000+01:00

In recent years I have been using a Bible reading plan to make sure I get through the Bible at least once a year. If you want to know, I have been helped by Don Carson's daily email, 'For the Love of God'. Each day I get an email with the readings for the day and a few paragraphs of commentary from Dr C. The readings are based on the Robert Murray M'Cheyne reading plan with some minor modifications. You can easily find a copy of this plan by googling "M'Cheyne reading plan". There's one here.

While Dr Carson's commentary is good, and I would thoroughly recommend it, I have tended to use the email simply as a prompt for what to read in the Bible. I fear that we can too easily skip over the Bible to get to men's words without doing the work of labouring in the word. Besides, I like reading just the Bible.

For the last two or three years I have been using the email as a prompt for what Bible book to read. A problem with reading four chapters from four different places in the Bible is that it is easy to lose any sense of context and flow of the book in which each chapter sits. I don't want to lose that perspective. So I stick with a book till I am finished. Of course I don't need to use Carson's email for this. Simply making a list of the books of the Bible and systematically working through them would work too. However, Carson/M'Cheyne helps keep the balance through the year of OT and NT.

After coming back from holiday I noticed that Dave Bish had posted a link to another post by Dan Edelen about Bible reading. The post is interesting and takes Bible reading one step further. Why have a one-year Bible reading plan? Why not make it a rest-of-life Bible reading plan? His concern is that even with a one-year plan, people simply do not remember and understand what they have read. Amazing, but possibly true. With Dan's plan there is an emphasis on really wrestling with a book, not verse by verse, but by re-reading books in single sittings, looking for themes, ideas and application.

Seems a good idea and well worth reading his post. As Dan says,

This is about sixty years of discipleship. It's not about getting through the Bible in a certain length of time.

News Update

2008-09-02T11:56:00.002+01:00

Let me just update you on what has been happening. We have been back from holiday for nearly a week now. It is a bit surreal. We had two weeks holiday in Spain, thanks to a friend who owns an apartment, where the temperatures were 30C and above. For a Scotsman living in the Midlands that's hot! To be honest, the day we arrived I thought I was not going to survive. Sweat seemed to be pouring from everywhere. However, we learned to slow down and drink lots. The apartment was part of a complex that had a pool. So we had choices: go to the pool, visit the beach, drive to some place of interest. I did a lot of reading and resting. We watched the high points of the Olympics (didn't we Brits do well - most unexpected). Unfortunately our only source of news was CNN which seemed to spend all its time talking about Obama, Georgia or what was 'Coming soon...' and interminable ads. Dreadful.

Occasionally we bought a Telegraph. The shops there serve Brits well. In the region were staying in there has been massive building programs to satisfy the 'holiday home' demand. As a result it is mostly Brits, Irish and Germans around the place in the Summer. Those who are retired come for large parts of the year, school teachers come during the long summer holidays.

Not everything has caught up with the development. Our locality is five years old, but as far as I could see there were no street names. We had trouble explaining where we lived, especially when we were hiring a car.

The main road along the coast was constantly a traffic jam, especially in the afternoon siesta when everyone was going to or coming from the beach, because the roads simply could not cope.

In spite of all this, we had a great time. The apartment was comfortable, the pool was great and quiet. We were well rested.

Having come back, I am discovering it is raining a lot. What's new? But it makes the holiday seem a million years ago already. And I have to dig out my coat. I am all at sixes and sevens. I have had five days home and I do not feel in gear. On Sunday, I preached a sermon introducing covenants in the Bible. The sermon was fine, but I found my conversations throughout the Sunday strangely difficult. I did not seem to be able to concentrate. I seem to be still in holiday mode.

Now it is all piling up - meetings, planning, organising. Looking forward to the coming year at SPC. We are encouraged. Attendance is up by 50-60% on average over last year. Sounds great, doesn't it? What that actually means is that instead of low teens last Summer (I really wondered if we would survive), we are around 20+. We have four families with children regularly attending which is a great encouragement.

However, we still need to make a significant impact in the local community. So please pray for us, that Christ's name may be raised up in Solihull!

Yes, It Can Happen

2008-08-11T23:37:00.002+01:00

An intriguing story of conversion.

Update: More in the Telegraph

Lessons from a Pastor

2008-07-23T17:45:00.004+01:00

I recently discovered that David Strain, who used to be minister of London City Presbyterian Church but is now going to a church in the US, had moved blog from here to here.

David leaves some good thoughts for us to think about.

BTW, sorry to see you go, mate!

Time, Gentlemen!

2008-07-16T23:02:00.003+01:00

While some would argue that conservative evangelicals should leave mixed denominations (i.e. those which have evangelicals and liberals in communion) without delay, I have always hoped that with some patience, at least with the Church of England, we would see some reform due to their efforts.

However, I have almost lost hope. The recent decision to allow the ordination of female bishops has demonstrated the weakness of conservative evangelicals. Of course, it was an inevitable decision, having allowed female priests in the '90s. The horse has well and truly bolted. Provision for pastoral oversight of those who disagree with the recent decision would have been a pyrrhic victory. But they do not even have that. Now there is nowhere to run and hide. Will the conservative evangelicals stand up and be counted? In particular, will Reform, a group for which I once had high hopes, do anything?

John Richardson calls for urgent action, I must say with a degree of exasperation, from Reform. But as he points out, they have merely issued a press release expressing disappointment, and, according to John, plan to do nothing until the September meeting of the Reform Council.

September! Sorry, you guys. You have lost me. Are you serious about reform or just playing at it? The last chance saloon is here, now.

Another Man Set Apart

2008-07-14T22:01:00.005+01:00

Last Saturday it was great to be at the ordination and installation service of (now Rev.) Andy Young at Cheltenham Evangelical Presbyterian Church. I guess there were about 100 people present which included the congregation plus many from other EPCEW churches and some local church leaders.

I have only recently begun to know Andy, but I have been struck by his seriousness about the gospel, his desire to learn, his abilities as a preacher and his love for the Scriptures. (How many men do you know who want to get together with others to talk about the Scriptures in Hebrew!)

I found the ordination process quite moving. After the sermon was preached (by Ian Hamiton of Cambridge) and the ordination vows taken, Andy knelt on the floor while members of Presbytery laid hands on him and Richard Holst prayed. (This moment distinguishes presbyterians from independents and congregationalists since elders of the wider church set apart a man for the ministry to serve a local church.) The process of fifteen or more men reaching in, eager to lay hands on a young man who has been proven fit for ministry was certainly powerful. Chad van Dixhoorn then charged him to "be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 2:1). Notably, Chad also instructed Andy to stand while he received the charge.

The ordination was tinged with sadness because this was the final time that Tim Horn, the founding minister of Cheltenham EPC, would address its members. He charged them to use their gifts for the sake of the kingdom and warmly commended Andy and his family to their care. Tim, an MTW missionary, and his family returns shortly to the US on extended furlough.

The sermon and charges are worth hearing. I don't know if they were recorded. I will point them out if they are made available.

Post-GAFCON

2008-07-14T09:29:00.003+01:00

"We still have enough ‘family silver’ to be able to fund decline for decades."

I suppose naively I had been expecting that the evident slow decline of the C of E resulting from corrosive liberal theology ought to result in collapse of the liberal edifice some time soon. I was hoping that it would then bring gospel clarity. I guess not for a while yet. Read John Richardson's post-GAFCON review here.

Machen's Worrier Children Don't Need to Hammer Their Swords and Spears into Candlesticks and Incense Bowls

2008-07-13T07:45:00.002+01:00

...a word of comfort from Carl Truman, who writes on the 'new calvinism' in American evangelicalism.

Lessons for a Preacher

2008-07-12T07:55:00.003+01:00

Old Testament Evangelistic Sermons
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Banner of Truth, 1995)

Fascinating book, though I have always found Lloyd-Jones difficult to read quickly. Perhaps that's because they are sermons and meant to be heard rather than read. I could rarely take more than one sermon at a time. Consequently this book required some time to work through.

As ever, Jones' preaching displays a remarkable ability to analyse the soul, not just of believers, but of unbelievers too. It is clear that he thought deeply about what motivates and concerns those outside the church. There are lessons for every pastor in this.

There are homiletic lessons too. One I appreciated was the way in which the message was applied. He was a master of the rhetorical question. This was illustrated by a remarkable passage on p.248 on which there was a deluge of 35 rhetorical questions alone! I can only imagine how this must have felt for the hearer!

Recommended.

What We Need to Be

2008-07-10T10:55:00.005+01:00

This a fascinating and thought provoking post from Pastor Andrew Webb. Particularly interesting is his quotation from John Angell James on four kinds of churches. (James ministered in 19th century at what is now Carrs Lane URC in Birmingham.)

So, we don't want to be just fat.

We don't want to be just frantic.

We don't want to be neither fat nor frantic i.e. dead.

We need to be

those, (alas! how few they are,) who unite earnest spirituality with activity and liberality no less eminent; whose spiritual life is all healthfulness and vigor, and in whom its developments are seen in all the operations of holy zeal.

Not Afraid

2008-07-04T10:55:00.001+01:00

David Anderson on recent events in Zimbabwe.

(See Telegraph article for background.)

Interpreting the Parables by Craig L Blomberg

2008-07-04T09:35:00.003+01:00

A quick review of Blomberg's book I put on Facebook:

Blomberg neither adopts the 'one-main-point-per-parable' common in the 20th century nor the detailed allegorisation of the early church, and which modern readers easily to slip into. Rather he sees that there are either one, two or three main 'characters' (which may be people or things) in each parable with the remaining details and characters as 'props' for the story. This is a helpful approach from which he can draw theological conclusions about the Kingdom and Jesus' self-understanding.

I have two obvious problems:

It leads to the uncomfortable conclusion that the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) says nothing about the reality of hell. The main characters are Abraham, the Rich Man and Lazarus and so Hades (v23) is relegated to a 'prop'! This is simply not credible. Thus Blomberg's scheme needs to be applied with care.
Blomberg sees his work supporting a historic premillenialist eschatology, a case which is unconvincingly made.

But overall, he helps build a framework for interpreting parables which is very useful.

Church in China

2008-07-01T08:58:00.004+01:00

The explosive growth of the church in China is gradually becoming clear to the rest of the world. Some have estimated that the number of Christians in China is greater than the total population of the UK. Such a large group can't but become a political and economic issue which the ruling Communist Party must come to terms with. This fascinating video report shows the how the underground church is becoming increasingly open in China, yet not without struggle.

(HT: Nicholas T. Batzig)

Dallying with Theological Liberalism

2008-06-30T23:12:00.001+01:00

Superb article by Martin Downes.

The Church and the Spread of the Gospel

2008-06-19T14:17:00.003+01:00

For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:8 (ESV)

Paul is thankful for the Thessalonians. In the verse above he is explaining the fact that they have become imitators of Paul and the others so that they have become examples to the other believers.

The effect is astounding. The word has gone out from them in turn. Also their faith has gone out. I am taking this to mean that there are new believers all over the surrounding region as a result of their witness. This is a missionary-minded church because of the gospel they received.

An Uncertain Sound

2008-06-12T10:09:00.002+01:00

The front page of the Times last Saturday had an article by Ruth Gledhill discussing a recent report by the C of E in which the writers complain of the secularism of the government to the detriment of the place of the Church in England. I have not read the report, nor am I likely to, but my first thought was, "At last they are beginning to stand up!" However, I believe that was a wrong response.

When any church declines and finds itself in trouble the reason is never some outsider's agenda, worldview, opposition. The reason is always internal. The church has got lazy or willfully negligent of doctrine, has a heart that lust after other things, other idols and the glory of God has departed.

On the whole the church has no place because it has lost its way, lost its message, lost its first love. It is seen as increasingly irrelevant to to the world because it has nothing of substance to say.

When this happens the answer is not to start trumpeting how much of a 'contribution' it makes, as this report does, so that everyone, especially the government, should take notice. Rather the realisation of its irrelevancy should drive them (and every other Christian too) to their knees in repentance.

The irony of the situation is captured on Holy Cows. (HT: Martin Downes.)

T4G '08

2008-05-22T08:26:00.004+01:00

I know the event was a month ago, but over the last few days I have had the chance to listen to some of the audio from the 'Together for the Gospel' conference in April. I would recommend that others do the same. You can get all the talks here. I especially recommend Mark Dever on keeping the gospel message clear, and Al Mohler defending penal substitutionary atonement.

An interesting development this time round is the publication of the audio of the extensive panel discussions which intersperse the main talks. (I don't remember these from '06.) These involve the original four men (Dever, Mohler, Duncan, Mahaney) and the other speakers as they probe the meaning, application and their reaction to the talks. They are excellent.

The Gospel and the Poor

2008-05-09T12:40:00.003+01:00

I read Murray's biographies of Martyn Lloyd-Jones over 20 years ago. They affected me deeply as I was growing in my understanding of the Bible and the church's mission. I have to confess , though, that I rather lost interest in MLJ, not because of the man and his teaching, but because of those who constantly referred to 'The Doctor' with hushed tones and the little sharp intake of breath. It was the perceived harking back to the halcyon days of MLJ in his prime that I found became rather disagreeable.

Well, I was searching for a quote from the first volume of his biography which came to mind while in sermon preparation. I did not find the quote, but I did start re-reading the book.

All that to introduce I quote I found this morning which struck me. MLJ was making the decision to enter the preaching ministry:

[MLJ] was also preoccupied with the need for evangelistic work among poorer, working-class people. This conviction arose not simply out of interest in them as people, but equally out of a persuasion that modern Christianity, unlike the apostolic faith (which was relevant to the 'Barbarians' and to the 'unwise' as to the 'Greeks' and to 'the wise'), seemed to appeal largely to only one social and cultural group. That was evidence to him that the transforming power of real Christianity was largely absent. He wanted to see the message which he believed had been given to him of God tested in a place where social habits did not support church-going.
- The First Forty Years, Iain Murray, Banner of Truth, p. 105-6

Am I right in thinking that this is a word for today? I am often struck that we in the reformed/evangelical world do our work in middle class, affluent areas, that once we are there that is where we stay. I sometimes think we are too happy in our comfort zones.

Of course, I speak as one planting a church in an affluent neighbourhood where there is less and less of a culture of church-going. We are doing pioneering work here. Yet we must not neglect the poor. It is my heart's desire that one day, if God should allow us to get established here and into a position to plant a daughter church, that we will turn to the poor neighbourhoods near us.

Links to ILF 2008 Material

2008-05-09T12:21:00.004+01:00

It has been a month since I was at the International Leaders' Forum in Malaga, Spain. I can't believe it is a month!

However, if you want to know what were heard and thought about, you can download the talks and sermons from http://mtwczech.org/ILF.html. I particularly enjoyed Derek Thomas's exposition of the Benediction (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Causes of Decline

2008-04-17T10:54:00.004+01:00

Churches all over the world subscribe to the Westminster Standards, and many others hold them in high regard. Yet, perhaps puzzlingly, Presbyterianism in England declined from the high point of the Westminster Assembly in the middle of the 17th century into heterodoxy and diminished numbers by the beginning of the 19th.

Drysdale, writing at the end of the 19th century (A. H. Drysdale, History of the Presbyterians in England), lists some of the reasons why this happened. I list the headings along with my brief summary.

1. The want of order and discipline.
At issue was the ineffectiveness of the wider body of presbyters to exercise discipline, forgetting that the ministry was made for the church. Even orthodox ministers were more concerned about "their own dignity and liberty than to protect the Christian people from ministerial supineness or laxity."

2. The mistaken notions they entertained about church confessions and subscriptons.
In the past men stood for conscience's sake against the impositions of the state, ultimately leading to the Ejectment of 1662. However, this noble attitude was later used as a reason to deny the need to hold even to the apostolic requirement of holding to a "pattern of sound words".

3. The churches had no control over the Academies, or their tutors and pupils, save to help sustain them and keep them going.
Some presbyterian institutions became seed-plots of heresy. As a result of the growing evil of family patronage and trusteeism, wealthy congregations accepted assistants from these institutions without congregations having adequate say.

4. The practical disuse of and departure from the more fully developed Presbyterial government and discipline, as an operative and influential reality, was an aggravation of other symptoms.
The leaven of heresy had free course to work, especially as Arianism was marked by cowardice and secrecy.

5. The age, being destitute of deep faith or warm earnestness, was impatient of all strong convictions and passionate enthusiasms.
This was not just true in the church but in other areas of society. There was general lack of conviction about anything. However, for the church vagueness conceals denial of essential truth.

6. The original set or attitude of the Presbyterians aided the process of the transformation.
The original desire of Presbyterians to maintain one church meant that after the ejection of 1662 Presbyterians continued to seek a route back in to the Church of England. Consequently they were too willing to tolerate heterodox views.

7. The state of the law respecting Trusts and Corporations is answerable in some degree for both the imperfection and the defection of Presbyterianism.
The law placed restrictions on who could own and build on land. Presbyterian congregations could not do so without expensively appointing trustees. This subtly undermined the presbyterial system of government.

8. Endowments helped to fix and perpetuate the Arianizing or heterodox congregations.
Pulpits supported by these endowments rendered the congregations mere audiences, as trustees and patrons possessed the main voices in appointments. Interestingly, these churches often became filled by Independents and Baptists whose churches had failed as a result of their heterodoxy. Indeed, the early decline of the Presbyterian church into Unitarianism is unfairly attributed to Presbyterians when in fact the greatest offenders were trained as Independents.

Back Home

2008-04-15T16:11:00.002+01:00

I have returned from a conference in Spain, you will be glad to know. You will also be glad to know that the weather was pretty bad. It rained almost the whole time we were there. Except for one day when it was sunny. But on that day it was blowing a gale. Never mind. It did not stop some pasty-faced Brits from getting on their summer gear and going down the beach.

I hope to post some reflections, even piccies, in due course, once I get through the bow wave of tasks that I didn't do last week. I may even tell you what it was about and who organised it.

Before I get round to that, let me point you to a relevant site. Last week I met lots of men worthy of honour for their work for the gospel. One of them, Bob Burnham, as well as being a missionary in Odessa, Ukraine is also a great photographer. As well as a newsletter, he also records goings on in his work through photographs. It's a great idea.

You can also find his pictorial account of the conference. (OK, I don't know who the couple getting married were. I don't remember that happening.)

Enjoy!

Snow

2008-04-07T10:59:00.001+01:00

Snow
Originally uploaded by Dancers

I can't believe that in April (after Easter) we have had a fall of snow. This is what greeted me when I got up to prepare for the Lord's Day.

Anyway, I'm off to sunny Spain now for a conference. Tell you all about it when I get back.

Reflections of a Pastor

2008-03-21T17:48:00.002Z

You have no doubt observed the tumbleweed blowing through this apparently uninhabited blog...

You have just got to listen to Sinclair Ferguson passing on his reflections on pastoral ministry at the age of sixty. (The link will take you to iTunes, so you had better have it installed. Otherwise I don't know what will happen. Maybe your computer will blow up or something.)

Of interest are:

his personal conversion
observations of Willie Still's ministry
John Murray's glass eye
a plausible impersonation of Martyn Lloyd-Jones
the value of catechising
the importance of reading old books that have stood the test of time
experiential vs. theological theology (!)

... and much more. Very engaging and powerful.

A Drunk and a Streetlight

2008-03-05T09:51:00.004Z

I read this article a couple of weeks ago in the Times about an Oxford research project where

[Justin Barrett] and his colleague Roger Trigg will be investigating whether religion is a part of the selection process that has helped humans survive or merely a byproduct of evolution.

It struck me as bizarre - a classic case that illustrates the saying, To a man with a hammer every problem is a nail.

What is at issue here, if you are a bit baffled, is the underlying assumption of the research into the origin of religion that there is a naturalistic explanation. In other words, the idea that God has set eternity in the hearts of men (Ecclesiastes 3:11) is excluded on the grounds that God is excluded from the naturalistic worldview. Philosopher Alvin Plantinga wrote about the folly of this position:

[Rejecting the idea of God acting in the world]... is like the drunk who insisted on looking for his lost car keys only under the streetlight on the grounds that the light was better there. In fact, it would go the drunk one better: it would insist that because the keys would be hard to find in the dark, they must be under the light.

- quoted in The Reason for God, p. 86, by Tim Keller

Shameless Plug

2008-02-23T08:41:00.003Z

Been meaning to this for some time. My mate David Anderson has had a new blog since the new year. After successfully demolishing that august body, the British Centre for Science Education, with the power of reasonable argument he has moved on to wider topics.

So, without further ado, let me present, ladies and gentlemen, ... More Than Words!

(Note to my paedobaptist friends - David is a convinced credobaptist and takes us head on in some of his posts. But he does us the service of directing us away from straw man arguments. So, have a go ... if you think you're hard enough.)

Starting a Church

2008-02-21T16:37:00.004Z

Though I have a more definite view on ecclesiology and principles of worship, I find Tim Chester's comments here helpful. Well, in a wish-I'd-been-aware-of-that-before kind of way.

In passing, with the above parenthetical caveats, I would recommend his book Total Church.

A title which, for some totally inexplicable reason, makes me want to break into a geordie accent.

Disturbing

2008-02-21T09:19:00.002Z

Yesterday I took possession of Keller's "The Reason for God". I must add it to the lengthening FIFO stack of books I 'must' read. However, browsing the introduction the chapter begins with a quote:

I find your lack of faith - disturbing.
- Darth Vader

That's a good start in my view - it made me chuckle. I hope the rest is as good. Sean Lucas gives it a good press.

Excursion to Monyhull

2008-02-11T12:46:00.000Z

I had an excellent time at Monyhull Church last night.

Monyhull Church has been around for nearly 20 years and is one of the very few evangelical churches in the south of Birmingham. As a result its reach is pretty far, with members and attenders coming from far afield. They currently have a building on what used to be the site of a now-demolished hospital. Presently they have some 600 new homes around them. This instant community presents its own challenges and opportunities for outreach. They are actively encouraging any of their members who are considering moving house, to move into the area.

Colin Tamplin the pastor, whom I have been getting to know over the last few months, invited me to preach and say a few things about the work here at SPC. I am grateful to him and the other elders for letting me do so. For me it is a great privilege to be asked. For them, it is a great risk to hand the pulpit over to a new guy! I preached on the wisdom of God in the cross of Christ, from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.

Generally, I have been so thankful for the support and encouragement I have received from other evangelical churches in the area as we plant here in Solihull. I get no sense of rivalry or suspicion. Everyone sees the need for this great historic city to hear and see the gospel of Jesus Christ through many more healthy, vibrant churches.

Music, Worship, Emotion

2008-02-11T12:25:00.000Z

Interesting comments about music in worship by Greg Gilbert on the 9Marks blog:

I wonder if the whole “excellence in praise and worship music” phenomenon we’ve seen over the past few years—for all the good it’s done—hasn’t also had some less-than-desirable effects on young Christians. I wonder if it hasn’t created a generation of functional mystics who gauge their relationship with God by emotional experience rather than the objective reality of redemption.

Wow. 'Functional mystics'? I love phrases like that!

Greg goes on to speak of the effect of excellent music at conferences had on his experience of worship. All good experiences. However, he goes on to say this:

But then I went back to New Haven, Connecticut. The praise bands were gone, I didn’t have a group of people who’d gone with me and shared that experience, and the churches had a piano and thirty people singing Isaac Watts hymns. That forced me to learn how to stoke the fires of worship with truths and words, and not just with excellent music. I’ve learned how to be emotionally affected by the excellent words of hymns whether they’re played and sung “excellently” or not.

This is a very important lesson. The truth of the gospel must reach us again and again, week by week. The experience of this must not be confused with mere emotional response to to music. This is not to say that worship is to be emotionless, but emotion in worship is to be gospel-driven.

...though, I wonder if I would make the same argument if I had an excellent band playing excellent music at my church (which I don't)! The heart is deceitful above all things.

Read the whole thing. See what you think.

The Gospel in Solihull

2008-02-08T18:17:00.000Z

I did some sums the other day.

In the UK there are 60 million people and 38k churches of all stripes*. That makes one church for every 1600 people.

In Solihull (including Olton and Shirley i.e. the town of Solihull, not the metropolitan borough) there are 99k people and 22 non-Catholic churches. I think there are two Catholic. In other words, including all stripes, one church for every 4100.

I don't know if there is a right number. Would one for 1000 be healthy? Whatever, relative to the rest of the UK, there is a spiritual need in Solihull.

Furthermore, most of the churches are old and dying. SPC is 2 years old. There is a new Baptist church the other side of Solihull which is a year old. Then there are two, possibly three, that are less than 20yo, half a dozen that were formed in the 60s and 70s with the boom in housing. The rest are 100-200yo apart from St Alphege C oE which is 800+.

The picture is bleak. I did not mention the URC church that closed last year. Many others may well see the same fate if things continue as they are.

There is little genuine gospel preaching and ministry. And where there is, many hearers simply do not get it. One local pastor told me how, after speaking to a congregational meeting about the need to share the good news, one member came up to him and asked, "But what do we have that's good news to share?" The pastor was 'gobsmacked'.

We have a job to do here. Christ will build his church (Matt 16:19). He does it by planting churches (Mat 28:18-20). We need more.

May God help us, to his glory.

(* based on the figures in this CCPAS press release.)

The Point of Preaching

2008-02-07T23:23:00.000Z

I regularly hear people lauding the fact that some hearer of a sermon could accurately remember its main points at lunch, or the next day, or perhaps years later. The point being, of course, that it would be wonderful if preachers could preach in that way so that every hearer retained the main points. Indeed it would.

However, I confess to being suspicious of the thinking behind this desire. It does seem to suggest that the main point of preaching, is the educational benefit. While I believe there is educational benefit to be had, not everyone will receive it. The preacher may not be clear. The hearers may be at different intellectual levels. The preacher and/or the hearers may simply have an off day! All sorts of reasons.

Am I just being complacent? I don't think so. The purpose of preaching is surely something else. Michael McKinley of the 9Marks blog (which is all I know about him) puts it like this:

...as I sat down after inflicting 45 minutes of Hosea on our church last Sunday, I was struck by how information retention is really a secondary consideration. Do I care if people in my church can outline Hosea from memory at this time next year? A little, I guess. I mean, it would be nice. Certainly I hope the systematic teaching of the Bible will help my congregation understand the Scriptures more fully over the years.

But something much greater and more important is happening in a sermon. We are holding up Christ from all the Scriptures, we are exploring the ways that he is beautiful, we are feeding on him by faith and celebrating his works together.

Do you know, if I could convey something, just something, in my preaching that could be used by God to stimulate a love for Christ in my hearers, I could die happy. I am relatively indifferent to whether or not they can remember my 'points'. I just want them to love Christ.

Well written, Michael (whoever you are)! Read the rest here.

Keeping Up Contact

2008-01-31T17:06:00.000Z

In the absence of anything useful to say, I thought I would play around with some 'buttons'!

On the sidebar to the right, you will have noticed over the last few days I had a 'Twitter' micro-blog. Complete waste of time. Now removed.

An addition that will remain is a button to sign up for a SPC (Solihull Presbyterian Church) email newsletter. I have been in the habit of writing to a number of contacts regularly, telling them of what we have been studying in morning worship. Some recipients are believers from other churches who can pray. The other recipients are contacts we have made who are not Christian.

Someone recently suggested that we could use an online email service to do at least some of this work, so I am trying it out. It should save us money and time and deliver a better quality result.

If you want to receive what we are publishing, then feel free to sign up but be aware that the content is geared towards the latter category mentioned above. If you do sign up, as well as keeping you informed, it will help us road test the service during the 'Free Trial' period which runs for another 5 weeks or so. Any feedback would be welcomed.

International Development

2008-01-10T22:23:00.000Z

Interesting meeting this evening. A few days ago I received an email through our church website inviting me to a meeting with Andrew Mitchell MP, the Shadow Minister for International Development. The meeting was supposed to be a round-table discussion with leaders of churches and Christian charities about International Development (ID).

To be honest, what I know about ID can be written on a postage stamp. Like most people I have some sort of emotional reaction to the inequalities that are apparent in the world. So, no news there then. The only thing I feel reasonably strongly about is the need to reform international trade. Subsidy systems such as the EU's Common Agricultural Policy or the US's system are disastrous to the economies of developing countries. Those protective practices need reform.

Mr Mitchell spoke for about 20 minutes to the assembled group of about 20 people - church leaders, Christian charity leaders - outlining Tory policy. It had three heads: reform of the trading system (good), aid (0.7% GDP target), and conflict resolution. While interesting, to be honest I began to wonder why I had been invited. I was not alone.

The ensuing discussion was interesting. The Oxfam (a Christian charity?) guy was very keen on channelling funds through governments on the basis that only governments were able to sustain development. This was challenged by another person who works very closely with local projects in Nigeria who took the opposite view. Local, person-to-person development work is sustainable. I have to admit, I was sympathetic to the latter view, with my innate suspicion of impersonal and ideological governmental bureaucracy.

(Of course, there was someone who spoke up about global warming. In case, you haven't got it: I'm a skeptic.)

As a Christian, I cannot see ID without the lens of the gospel. Transformation of economic circumstances is an empty shell without transformation of lives brought to Christ. It is corruption of the heart leads to corruption of systems. Tim Keller speaks of the gospel bringing 'Shalom' to life, which he understands as 'interwovenness' of life, where relationships with God, others and self are restored. I find this view attractive. Any ID system without a gospel foundation which seeks to restore those relationships (which can only be done through Christ, not some general 'spirituality') will always be limited leaving an unfinished 'fabric'. It may only be rearranging the threads. Can it really be called a 'solution' to merely create more individualist, consumerist regions around the world ?

I may have strayed beyond the postage stamp, but there it is, for what it's worth!

Puritan Challenge

2008-01-10T08:47:00.000Z

I have noticed a few people issuing the "Puritan Challenge" on their blogs. I think it is a great idea - read a puritan classic each month. Your schedule might look like this...

January: The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes (128 pp)
February: The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel (221 pp)
March: The Godly Man's Picture by Thomas Watson (252 pp)
April: Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices by Thomas Brooks (253 pp)
May: Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ by John Bunyan (225 pp)
June: The Mortification of Sin by John Owen (130 pp)
July: A Lifting Up for the Downcast by William Bridge (287 pp)
August: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (228 pp)
September: The True Bounds of Christian Freedom by Samuel Bolton (224 pp)
October: The Christian's Great Interest by William Guthrie (207 pp)
November: The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter (256 pp)
December: A Sure Guide to Heaven by Joseph Alleine (148 pp)

Now, that doesn't look too hard, does it?

(Thanks to Steve Burlew for the above list.)

Rubbish

2008-01-07T12:14:00.000Z

Happy New Year!

As we were clearing up after the service yesterday, someone came up to me with a pile of sheets of paper saying, "These look like rubbish."

I said, "Those are my sermon notes."

Feasting, Poverty and Hospitality

2007-12-21T21:48:00.000Z

I read Leithart's blog. Well, at least I have a look to see whether his posts are worth reading more of. Most of the time I find him opaque. He treats subject matter I know nothing about.

He's also on a different theological team to me, so I am usually wary. I like to think my reading of him is analogous to my RAF Eurofighter shadowing his Russian Bear over the North Sea. In reality it is more like I am trying to keep up in my beat-up single-engine Cessna.

However, sometimes Leithart writes a gem of a post. See this one on hospitality.

Unattached

2007-12-20T11:07:00.000Z

I agree with Dave Bish here. The existence of unattached 'Christians' is not a matter of indifference. Rather it is a pastoral problem that the church wearily has to deal with.

He Can't Elf It Either!

2007-12-19T15:19:00.000Z

If you watched it, you might have been amused/horrified by my elfin family. Today I found that we are in good company. Here's Philip Ryken, minister of Tenth Pres, Philadelphia, with a bunch of other blokes...

Horror Story

2007-12-18T11:08:00.001Z

Not so long ago a friend of mine, Gordon (not his real name), told me an evangelistic horror story. Gordon had many years experience as a pastor and had learned a thing or two about people and evangelism.

Gordon once had a neighbour whom he got to know by sharing gardening tools and talking over the garden fence. In doing so he had discovered that his neighbour was very anti-Christianity. There had been some difficult issues in his life which had brought some bitterness. He had also been on the receiving end of a few 'sales-pitch' evangelistic conversations in the past and considered Christians with little more than contempt.

Nevertheless, Gordon persisted, treating his neighbour as ... well, a neighbour, and a positive friendship developed. Of course, his hope was that one day he would be able to share the gospel with him and he prayed to that effect. But for now he needed to remain patient as he sought to overcome the prejudice that had grown through past bad experiences. Gordon sought to love his neighbour.

One day Gordon had a visitor, Jim (again, not his real name). Jim saw himself as an 'evangelist'. Regularly he was out street preaching. In everyday conversations he sought to bring the conversation round to Christ. Then he could outline the gospel message to his hearer. Getting to this point made it worthwhile.

He had done this for years, but to his knowledge had never seen a single conversion to Christ. Yet he was faithful and persistent to his 'calling'.

When Jim was with Gordon, they both met Gordon's neighbour and got talking. Sure enough Jim started 'turning' the conversation. Jim did not know the neighbour or about the patient work that Gordon had been doing in reaching this man. No matter. Here was an opportunity to be seized. Sure enough Jim got to his outline of the gospel message and delivered it.

As soon as he was finished, the neighbour made an excuse and left, not without some visible signs of impatience.

Gordon never had the same relationship with this man again. While persisting with his patient approach, he was always treated with some suspicion. Eventually, their lives parted company as circumstances brought about a relocation.

I think the lessons from this story are clear.

We Can't Elf It!

2007-12-07T22:12:00.000Z

If you want a laugh at our expense, watch this.

Happy Christmas!

Five Reasons Why Christians Do Not Know They Are Saved

2007-11-29T16:35:00.000Z

William Guthrie, in his The Christian's Great Interest, shows how the Bible is clear that a person can know he is saved. Nevertheless there remains still the phenomemon of widespread uncertainty amongst people. Guthrie gives five reasons why this is the case:

Ignorance of God and his ways.
Dealing deceitfully with God and their own consciences.
Slothfulness and negligence.
Having no fixed idea of what evidence would satisfy them.
Their dependence on changeable evidence.

The first three seem obvious and eye-opening to me. (Isn't that often the case? The obvious thing is the one we are most likely to neglect!)

The fourth item Guthrie links to a lack of seriousness about knowing the answer. The Bible gives plenty of reasons. They just have to be found.

The final point is the problem of looking inwardly to my own diligence in spiritual disciplines. Guthrie lists: success in defeating sin, a 'successful' prayer life, the inner witness of the Spirit as the evidences that are changeable. Clearly, we keep sinning, our prayer life can be perplexing and the inner witness can be hard to detect. But none of these experiences have any bearing on the fact of our salvation.

Mortification of Sin

2007-11-28T10:13:00.000Z

Challies has got some kind of reading club going where they are studying Owen's work Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (in volume 6 of Banner's edition of his 'Works'). I thought I would tag along since I have been meaning to read this part of Owen's work. Having a sequence of deadlines can't be bad.

Of course, since Owen thought about his writing in Latin, but wrote English words, his sentence construction is a little odd. Rather like reading Yoda but in longer sentences.

I am a couple of weeks behind, but here is some thought on Chapter I.

Summary

In this chapter Owen uses Romans 8:13 as the starting point. He makes five points from this verse:

1. The conditional 'if' shows the certainty of the coherence between mortfying the flesh and living. The connection is that between means and end, not cause and effect. The end is that which is freely promised. The means is the mortification of the flesh.

2. The persons to whom this is promised are those who are in the Spirit (8:9-11). Pressing this injunction on anyone else is the fruit of a self-righteous spirit.

3. The efficient cause of the performance of the duty of mortification is the Spirit of God. Anything done by self-effort for the the purposes of self-righteousness is false religion.

4. The instruction is to mortify the deeds of the body. Three things need to be clarified:
a) the body: this is the corruption of our natures (i.e. indwelling sin) of which the physical body is a servant.
b) the deeds of the body: that is, the outward practices. However, Owen understands that the means of mortification of these deeds is to deal with the root cause, not simply chop off the branches.
c) mortify: indwelling sin is compared to a person ("the old man") who has to have the principle of life removed. It is slain by the cross of Christ. We are dead with this "man" when a new principle is placed in our hearts at regeneration. But the work is by degrees. The intention is that it may not issue forth in sinful deeds.

5. The promise of life. Not the essence of it, but the "joy, comfort and vigour of it".

Discussion

Owen immediately confronts us with an issue that we rarely consider in the modern day. And if any of us do consider it, we do so in a superficial way.

Firstly, many of believe that holiness of life just happens. I am a Christian, and now God will do the rest. I just need to dance around with joy while he does it. I suspect this idea comes from a misunderstanding of Rom 6:14: "...for you are not under law but under grace", which is often interpreted as not needing to be guided in life by any principles. However, this verse, and Owen bring us face to face with the command to mortify. It is something that we do.

Secondly, we think it is a matter of simply altering behaviour. Stop doing this or that. However, Owen shows that it is a much deeper problem. To mortify the deeds means destroying the motivating principle that gives rise to the behaviour. This can only be a spiritual work, achieved on the cross and applied at first in regeneration but continuing throughout life.

Interestingly, Owen does not understand 'to live' to be the giving of eternal life. If that were true, then I suppose we would be tempted to make salvation dependent on performance. Instead, Owen understands this to be the exercise of life. In other words, eternal life may exist, but the 'vigour, power and comfort' of it may be lacking without the mortification of sin. This is an important insight and probably explains why so much of Christian living seems so anaemic today.

The Dawkins Letters

2007-11-23T18:25:00.000Z

Everyone has heard of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. I am reading it at the moment. But you may not have heard of David Robertson. Robertson has written a book, The Dawkins Letters, dealing with the myths about Christianity that Dawkins assumes in his book. Well, if you are in the Birmingham area on Thursday 29th November (yes, next week!) at 6pm, Robertson will be at the Borders bookshop in the Bullring shopping centre speaking, taking questions and signing books. This is a bold step by Borders which I applaud.

Especially when people say things like:

Roberston is a prat. And not only a PRAT, but a dangerous PRAT. A complete loser. I've never read such a dogmatic, vicious diatribe as this. WHEN WILL THEISTS LIKE ROBERTSON actually provide some EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE of their own - something we can really scrutinize and say - 'Hey! You know, there could be a God, judged on this evidence.'
(in the blurb for the book)

A completely objective statement, then.

To get a flavour of his arguments you might like to watch this:

Then go along next Thursday.

Flying Humans?

2007-11-21T10:25:00.000Z

A sweaty-palms experience to watch this. As one voice says in the clip, "Dude....!!!"

[HT: Dembski]

The Beasts of the Heart

2007-11-16T00:50:00.000Z

One of the things I have really enjoyed recently is being invited to attend the Cambridge Presbyterian Church Theology Group. They are a pretty high-powered bunch! Hosted by the minister, Ian Hamilton, the group meets once a month to discuss pastoral issues found in the writings of great men of the past.

Last Wednesday our study was in John Chrysostom's "On the Priesthood", led by Dr. Chad van Dixhoorn. I had never read any Chrysostom (born around 349AD) before but was amazed by what I found. Chrysostom shows remarkable sensitivity both to the limitations of his own soul and to the needs of the men and women under his care. This book is no theoretical treatment, but one born out of personal experience.

The book is in the form of a (one-sided) dialogue between Chrysostom and his friend Basil, probably written after he himself had become a priest, but set in the earlier time when his friend Basil had just taken priestly orders. In the dialogue, Chrysostom, speaking of his own fears about the ministry to which he was ultimately called, says,

8. ... I know my own soul, how feeble and puny it is: I know the magnitude of this ministry, and the great difficulty of the work; for more stormy billows vex the soul of the priest than the gales which disturb the sea.

9. And first of all is that most terrible rock of vainglory, more dangerous than that of the Sirens, of which the fable-mongers tell such marvellous tales: for many were able to sail past that and escape unscathed; but this is to me so dangerous that even now, when no necessity of any kind impels me into that abyss, I am unable to keep clear of the snare: but if any one were to commit this charge to me, it would be all the same as if he tied my hands behind my back, and delivered me to the wild beasts dwelling on that rock to rend me in pieces day by day. Do you ask what those wild beasts are? They are wrath, despondency, envy, strife, slanders, accusations, falsehood, hypocrisy, intrigues, anger against those who have done no harm, pleasure at the indecorous acts of fellow ministers, sorrow at their prosperity, love of praise, desire of honor (which indeed most of all drives the human soul headlong to perdition), doctrines devised to please, servile flatteries, ignoble fawning, contempt of the poor, paying court to the rich, senseless and mischievous honors, favors attended with danger both to those who offer and those who accept them, sordid fear suited only to the basest of slaves, the abolition of plain speaking, a great affectation of humility, but banishment of truth, the suppression of convictions and reproofs, or rather the excessive use of them against the poor, while against those who are invested with power no one dare open his lips.
John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, Book III:8,9

When I read this, I seriously wondered whether I would have entered the ministry had I read this before my ordination! The 'beasts' that he fears are not from the outside but arise within under the temptation of office.

Chrysostom's treatise is a valuable reminder of the gravity of the office we hold. Who is up to the task? The answer is obvious, yet the arguments are intended to persuade Basil that he has done the right thing. No one is up to the task, except by the grace of God.

Arm-Swinging and Yelling

2007-11-14T16:24:00.000Z

'Intelligent Design' is one of the more politically potent, if intellectually dishonest, weapons in their quiver. ...

Science is not a thing but a process. In particular, it is a cumulative process, fiddling with the model until the next bit falls into place, then fiddling with it some more until the next next bit falls into place, then ... But 'Intelligent Design' won't have it. There are gaps in the scientific model, it correctly points out, and so the model is no good and incomplete and it's time to stop fiddling and factor an Intelligent Designer into the equation.

Michael Bywater, Big Babies, p.147

So Bywater caricatures the reasoning of those who promote Intelligent Design. But that's not my main point. Did you notice how he understands the scientific process? You could be forgiven for missing it. After all, it is the process that is described in virtually every science school book: a gradual process of step by step, incremental progress towards greater knowledge. Slowly the boundaries are moved back and the net is widened. (I remember me and my fellow post-grad research students often saying loudly at the end of lunch break, "Well, can't sit around here all day - I have more boundaries to push back!")

Obviously Bywater has not read Thomas Kuhn. Most people have not.

Kuhn realised after reviewing the history of science and its major steps forward that, far from serene gradual change, progress was made by a series of undignified lurches. The interesting bit is the phase before the lurch, rather like when a person is off-balance. Will he go back on to the path he was on, or will he stagger off in a new direction? There is a lot of arm-swinging and maybe shouting before the next step is determined. In the same way, science often gets to a point where the old way of thinking doesn't seem to work any more. There is too large a body of collected data that says the old paradigm is not valid. Science for a while is off balance while a new paradigm is sought. The transition is marked by shouting and arm-swinging as schools of thought in the scientific discipline slug it out. Finally, a definitive lurch is made and calmness is restored. A new paradigm prevails.

The reason there is slugging out at all is that hitherto most people get comfortable with the existing paradigm. Within it, science is marked by gradual progress: the gentle filling in of gaps in understanding, the gradual extension of the field of its application. If you are an advocate of the paradigm then for you, science is gradual. But, when you then believe that all scientific progress is gradual, and always has been, and you set about convincing others that it is so, then you are attempting lock out real future progress which necessitates a paradigm shift.

I don't really know if this is one of these transitional periods for the science of origins. But it does seem as though there is a lot of arm-swinging and yelling going on, and an amateur like Bywater is one of them.

Big Babies: Why Care?

2007-11-13T15:39:00.000Z

I have just finished reading Michael Bywater's 'Big Babies'. His theme is what he calls the 'infantilisation' of society. Business and government in the West conspire to keep us from truly growing up. We are kept in a 'Mummyverse' in which we are protected from dangers, our every need is provided for. We resort to tantrum behaviour to get what we feel is still lacking. Indeed, business constantly feeds us messages about what we still lack, creating an underlying sense of dissatisfaction, and then tells us how we could feel so much better if we had such-and such a product.

I like how he likens much consumption of goods as little more than what kids used to do when dressing up as cowboys or princesses. Age 6: Put on a super-suit and become Superman. Age 30+ Put on the new flash car, become the smiling driver in the ad - cool, well dressed, beautiful partner in the passenger seat, foot down, no other traffic, wind in hair etc.

Bywater makes a compelling diagnosis. Dissatisfaction is real in our society, if not well acknowledged.

The book is intended to be entertaining as well as informative. It is funny in places, though crude in others.

My problem with his argument, if indeed it was intended ultimately to be taken seriously, was that I felt a strong sense of 'so what' about it. Let me explain.

Bywater has a pop at Christians (and other religions, since they are all basically the same, aren't they?!). They are the ultimate Big Babies who are told what to do by a Book. He reserves special ire for those who promote Intelligent Design. Several times he speaks of life as a biological process of self replication (contra one advertising slogan, 'After all, life is just a journey'). Thus we see that Bywater is a Darwinist.

Now the problem with any Darwinist making any kind of social comment is that, within his own intellectual framework, why should I or anyone care whether he is angry about Big Babies? Why should I listen to his 31 ways to avoid being a Big Baby? (Bywater recognises the irony of this closing chapter!) What exactly would be wrong, within the Darwinist worldview, of a world populated by Big Babies? Isn't that just the way society has evolved? It's like being angry that cats evolved whiskers. What's wrong with that?

Well, nothing, if you are a true, consistent Darwinist. There is no rational basis within the evolutionary worldview on which to complain about Big Babies. It is what is.

Nevertheless, I share his pain at the infantilisation of society! Why? I know why I do - because I am a human being made in the image of God. I am made in a certain way, to relate, to love, to grow, to rule and bear God-given responsibility. Notice I say that, not just as a Christian, but as a human being. Therefore it is no surprise to me that fellow-human Bywater feels the same thing, and no doubt to a much greater degree since he felt the need to write a book about it! It would be no surprise to me that others who read it feel that it strikes a chord. But it only works because people fundamentally don't believe that Darwinism is true.

There may be someone who says that I am being too po-faced serious about a book which is really intended to entertain. Well, perhaps. It was reasonably entertaining. But I think it is still worth asking the question why it is funny, why it strikes a chord, why the arguments makes sense. And the answer is not found in Bywater's own view of the world.

Decline of the Church of England

2007-11-13T14:35:00.000Z

John Richardson analyses the latest statistics from the Church of England. Worth reading the whole thing.

Interesting (to me, at least) is his comment about women clergy and liberalism:

[A] 2002 study commissioned from the Christian Research Association by Cost of Conscience showed that women clergy were demonstrably more theologically liberal than their male counterparts.  

Thus the statement ‘I believe Jesus Christ died to take away the sins of the world’ was ‘confidently asserted’ by 76% of male clergy, but only 65% in women clergy. Again, Jesus as the only way to salvation was asserted by 53% of male clergy but only 39% of female clergy. Confidence in the bodily resurrection of Christ divided 68%, and 53% between male and female clergy, and confidence in the Virgin Birth divided 58% and 33%.

I think I kind of knew that.

The Church a Battle Hospital

2007-11-12T14:59:00.000Z

Paul Levy points to a good quote which I thought I would nick and put here:

A happy church is one that is giving and going, one that is reaching out, that does not have time to think how it feels today, because it is in the business of sharing the life of Jesus with the world in which Christ has placed it. And that should be the purpose of our fellowship. We do not just gather together as the be all and end all of everything. We gather to scatter. You do not go to church on Sunday morning and night only in order to have a good time together with other Christians. you go in order to prepare to penetrate your world during the week more effectively for Christ. We are not to devote all our resources to pampering ourselves. The church is not a health farm, nor is it a beauty parlour. The church is a battle hospital.
(David Jackman - Understanding the Church, p65,66)

The Need and Support of an Educated Ministry

2007-11-10T13:26:00.000Z

I recently had an email from Mike Partridge who used to be one of the teaching elders at Woodlands and who is now studying at WEST, where I studied. Perusing Mike's website pointed me to a couple of great articles by Dr Robert Letham (currently at WEST) entitled, An Educated Ministry, and Support for the Ministry. Both articles are worth studying. Here's a taster: writing of the tendency to deride the need for an educated ministry, Letham makes the following observation:

It is a striking fact that the average tenure of a pastorate in the United States is little more than two years. Why is this? In recent decades many seminaries have focused on practical matters, shying away from the theoretical or merely cerebral. Surely, our pulpits need men with experience who can address real-life issues?

Well, yes. But without the tools to unlock the Scriptures and to place those Scriptures in historical, theological and contemporary context, many end up preaching the same sermon over and over again — an enigma with few  variations!

Sanballats and Tobiahs

2007-10-26T23:30:00.000+01:00

The model of church planting we are adopting here in Solihull is probably not the easiest. Send a guy in, guy makes contacts as best he can, guy starts worship service, guy keeps making contacts with others, guy develop leaders, etc. Thanks to God that Dr Al Lutz was that 'guy' to start with! We now have a small group of people who are growing in the Lord in various ways.

(If you are reading this, Al, it was good talking to you on the phone the other day.)

There are other models of planting and perhaps they are easier - say, if you've got lots of people. Send group in, group makes contacts as best they can, group starts worship ... you get the idea. That's fine if you have a group! If not, what should you do? The EPCEW wants to plant churches, so it just gets on with it, under God. It is careful with resources and training men. But it gets on with the task in hand - the Great Commission to plant churches.

No matter what the model used, one thing is certain - it isn't easy. I say that, not to try and gain sympathy. I don't need or want that. I say it, because I have known what to expect. With three years of church-planting experience now (I know, I'm a mere pup still) I know enough to know that there are going to be struggles, joys, pain, opposition, confrontation, fun all mixed in together.

Amongst those who come to a new church plant are those genuinely seeking salvation. That's wonderful. To see them find faith in Christ and to see a growing love for him is superb. Just the best thing.

But I am under no illusions. There are those who are more like wolves in sheep's clothing. They come with an air of spirituality, they talk the talk. But soon they start complaining. Things are not quite right. Small things. They start explaining how they like their church 'served up' to them. When they realise they are not going to get it the way they want it they go somewhere else. But they don't quite let go. They spend time behind the scenes explaining how 'that church' is not right, sowing seeds of doubt and discontent. Those small things are now big things. Sheep-worriers.

We are getting a little of this kind if thing now at SPC. I am not discouraged. Sanballats and Tobiahs are to be expected. We just keep building with one hand while taking up our swords in the other for the spiritual battle. "I will build my church" says Jesus. Yes, Lord, build it! Make it strong! The gates of hell will not prevail.

We will work side by side with those willing to work while believing the promises of God, and do it with joy.

What of those complainers, sheep-worriers, church-consumers? I can only pray that in time they get a right perspective on this kingdom work. I fear for them. I want them with us sharing in the sheer pleasure of building for the Lord. But only for that.

stop-start

2007-10-26T12:14:00.000+01:00

one day I'll get in a routine with this thing!

What Paul Learned

2007-10-16T22:59:00.000+01:00

Paul. What a guy. I stand in awe of the kind of thinking and experience that leads to this kind of statement:

...my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:4,5, ESV)

I wonder how long it took him to learn to say that and mean it. He was clever enough that he could have used the plausible words of wisdom of the philosophers of his day. But instead of fabulous rhetorical techniques he had learned to use simple speech. Instead of adapting and 'improving' the message', he just delivered what he was given.

I find this to be so counter-cultural. So against the grain. So much so that it would be easy to dismiss: 'Ah, but Paul, if you were in my situation...' etc etc.

Paul had learned that the heart of man will run after all kinds of impressive things. Paul feared that people would trust him. He may even have feared that he might want people to trust him!

True saving faith has God and his work as the object.

So Paul, though in the forefront of proclamation, paradoxically, must be in the background. Surely, only God can do this in a preacher.

In or Out?

2007-10-15T11:16:00.000+01:00

I agree Dave Bish on children and Sunday Schools.

Saving Faith

2007-10-15T08:30:00.000+01:00

I read some great stuff on what saving faith is and isn't the other day, by William Guthrie. As well as writing the brilliant The Christian's Great Interest (Banner of Truth, 1969), Guthrie was also an Ayrshireman like myself, ministering in the 17th century in Fenwick some 15 miles north of where I was brought up.

Guthrie says that,

...justifying faith is not to believe that I am elected. or to believe that God loveth me, or that Christ died for me, or the like ... I say, true justifying faith not any of the aforesaid things; neither is it simply the believing of any sentence written, or that can be thought upon ... None of these, nor the believing of any such truth evinces justifying faith or that believing on the Son of God spoken of in Scripture; for then it were simply an act of the understanding; but true justifying faith, which we now seek after, as a good mark of an interest in Christ, is chiefly and principally and act or work of the heart and will
(pp. 61,62)

This may seem quite shocking, especially since, as I have sometimes heard, Christians will often encourage a prospective new Christian to believe that 'Christ died for you'. True: this is essential. But Guthrie goes beyond this kind of statement recognising that knowing these things and believing them to be true is merely an intellectual state. Faith, however, goes deeper, affecting the motives and principles of life.

Guthrie goes on to illustrate this with the following statements and Bible references,

The Scripture hath clearly resolved justifying faith into a receiving of Christ ... The receiving of Christ is explained [in John 1:12] to be the believing on His name. It is also called a staying on the Lord (Is 26:3); a trusting in God, often mentioned in the Psalms, and the word is a leaning on him. It is a believing on Christ ... When God maketh men believe savingly, He is said to draw them unto Christ; and when the Lord inviteth them to believe, he calleth them to come to Him. (John 6:37,44)
(pp. 62,63, emphasis Guthrie's)

'Receiving', 'staying on', 'trusting', 'leaning on', 'believing on', and 'coming' are all participles of response which cannot be done without a change of heart and will. Justifying, saving faith can never be a matter of mere understanding.

Now, in this section of his writing Guthrie is seeking to show that because it is not a matter of the intellect, but a matter of the heart and will, saving faith is therefore not as difficult to discern as some would make out. He goes on:

Now, I say this acting of the heart on Christ Jesus is not so difficult a thing as is conceived. Shall that be judged a mysterious difficult thing which doth consist much in desire? If men have but an appetite, they have it; for they are 'blessed that hunger after righteousness' (Matt 5:6).
(p. 63)

This is the clincher. Asking someone how he knows he has saving faith is not a matter of listing doctrines. It is the same kind of question as asking how he knows he is hungry. Silly question - he has an appetite. He can feel it as a desire for food. In the same way, a person with saving faith has an appetite for his Saviour, Jesus Christ. He has a desire for him. We see this exemplified in Paul,

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— (Phil. 3:8b,9, ESV)

This is what saving faith does. It wants Christ. Let's settle for nothing less.

No Pretentiousness

2007-10-12T09:35:00.000+01:00

In many ministries, there is relentless pressure for constant growth: Every year the numbers have to be bigger, the results more impressive, so that donors will be moved to write another check. By contrast, I once heard Schaeffer speak at a conference where he was asked what would happen if, someday, the money didn't come in. He responded simply, "I guess we'll be smaller." The conference hall errupted into applause at such a refreshing lack of pretentiousness. His mentality was that God had a time and a purpose for L'Abri, and when it had fulfilled that purpose, it might simply end.

Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth (Crossway, 2004) p.376.

Got to read more Schaeffer.

John Richardson on youth crime...

2007-10-12T08:36:00.000+01:00

... here.

Total Truth

2007-10-11T09:08:00.000+01:00

Compartmentalisation is a problem for Christians. What I mean is that we have got into the habit of looking at the world in different ways depending on the situation we find ourselves in, whether at home, with the church, at work or wherever. It's an indication of a lack of a coherent 'worldview'. Any new Christian experiences this to some extent as the gospel brings new eyes to life. The hope is that over time the maturing Christian's worldview becomes well-rounded and consistent over all areas of life. However, many Christians seem to get stuck at an early stage and just decide to live with the tension of compartmentalisation.

Nancey Pearcey's book, Total Truth (Crossway, 2004), brings a spotlight to bear on this issue and shows that the problem is wider than simply personal discomfort. Rather the problem has been around for a long time, and has resulted in the containment of Christianity in society to the private sphere, while the public sphere is left to practical materialists.

The book is divided into four parts. The first traces the roots of the public/private divide, starting with the medieval nature/grace dichotomy, showing the emergence of the fact/values dichotomy of the modern period.

Part 2 examines the foundational question of any worldview: the question of origins. Here Pearcey presents an analysis of Darwinism, which she shows to be not simply a scientific theory but the basis of a materialistic worldview which is the accepted premise of many other disciplines. The implications of Darwinism are critiqued. Pearcey also compares the merits of Intelligent Design.

Part 3 looks at the development of Evangelicalism (in the USA) since the Reformation. In particular the relationship between early naturalist philosophies and early American political theory are explored. The confluence of political sceince and the changes brought about in the church by the First and Second Great Awakenings, leading to spiritual individualism, if anything made a virtue of the public/private split. The advent of Darwinism made the split permanent as evangelicals lacked the intellectual weaponry to resist. As a result, evangelical Christians live effectively without a coherent worldview.

Part 4 draws us back to the nature of true spirituality and the need for the complete renewal of the Christian mind. Only Christian theism can make sense ot the world we actually experience.

This was a facinating and enthralling book. It is well written, has many personal anecdotes and also pays due respect to the influence of Francis Shaeffer on Pearcey's life. Only in part 2 does the argument become somewhat technical. For those without some knowledge of science the section may prove difficult.

It gives a satisfying explanation as to why we are where we are – why evangelicals seem so weak in the public sphere. We are weak privately and we have not seen it coming. Evangelicals have been like the proverbial frogs boiled slowly in water. We know something is wrong but we see no need to jump out.

The book closes with the reminder of the kind of Christian lives we must live. We must follow in the footsteps of Christ, taking up our cross daily, putting self to death, and following him in new life. Pearcey furnishes us with plenty of anecdotes of how this is absent in Christian ministry in the USA.

What I find interesting here is that Pearcey is laying out the practical outworking of the doctrine of sanctification – the ongoing, daily living in the gospel, a life marked by daily repentance. Pearcey's conclusion flags up that the failure of evangelicalism in the public sphere is really a failure to grasp the gospel in its fullness. Recover the gospel and destroy compartmentalism.

Buy the book.

Faith

2007-10-02T16:09:00.000+01:00

A while ago I quoted Richard Dawkins and his description of 'faith'. Do you remember?

Faith means blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence.
(The Selfish Gene, 1976)

It is a definition no Christian recognises.

Here's a much better one. Geoffrey Grogan, writing of the historical basis of the New Testament, and referring to John 20:30,31 and 1 John 5:13, says

Here then we see that the purpose of this literature, and this appears to be true of the New Testament as a whole, is to elicit and to strengthen faith; faith, that is, in Jesus as the Son of God, faith in Jesus as theologically interpreted. Faith grows as it feeds on facts, not on feelings nor on fancies. Faith is greedy for facts; it has an insatiable appetite for them.
(The Christ of the Bible and the Church's Faith, Mentor 1998, p.86)

Now, I get that description.

Framework

2007-10-01T18:15:00.000+01:00

We went to City again last night. Six days of Creation this time. General point good: creation ought to stimulate our praise and worship.

But - Framework hypothesis. Not so good. I have never really understood why evidence of poetic structure in Genesis 1-3 means it is not to be taken as literal history.

Just because I sing about the Atonement or the Trinity in poetic forms in hymns does not cause me to doubt that these things are literally true.

Am I just being thick?

R. Scott Clark on Wikipedia

2007-10-01T18:08:00.000+01:00

We've traded one set of elites for another: scholars for nerds.

City

2007-09-24T10:33:00.000+01:00

At SPC we don't have an evening service. But it is in my family's 'DNA' to go somewhere to worship. We have been floating around a little over the last few weeks, but last night we went to City Evangelical. City is blessed by being next the Birmingham University campus. Last night was the first influx of new and returning students. (As John Stevens, one of the elders, said to me once, they benefit from the faithful 'home' churches from which students come looking for a new church.) It looked like there were 120 present.

It was refreshing and the sermon from Neil Powell was one of the most encouraging I have heard for a while. Coinciding with the presence of these young intellectuals (!) was the start of a series on Genesis 1-3, starting with "In the beginning God...". I tell you, if I had not been a believer already, I'm sure I would have been convinced!

Some other practical points:

The church is really friendly. People sitting next to us introduced themselves after the service. If we are having coffee afterwards people come up and say 'hello'.

They are well organised. They rent space in a school. There are marshals in the car park, plenty of signs to show you the way, people making sure you have all you need, ushers to show you to a seat. Just what you want.

The new location at the Octagon certainly has the feel-good factor. New, modern, clean, comfortable!

So, a pretty good night and much to be thankful for.

Why Does Nobody Want Preaching?

2007-09-21T00:54:00.000+01:00

I listened to a pastor at a fraternal recently make a loosely camouflaged attack on preaching. His complaint was that there was preaching at every meeting - two on Sunday, once midweek - and not enough 'fellowship'. Why don't churches have more fellowship? he asked.

It has been playing on my mind because I believe this is an indication of a much wider problem within the evangelical church in the UK. People in churches over the last few years have been asking for less preaching and the pastors seem more and more to have spinelessly acquiesced in this desire.

But the question remains - Why do people want this? Is it because they have discovered long lost parts of the Bible which show that the need for preaching is overstated? Hardly. The OT prophets preached, Jesus preached, the apostles preached. We could pile example on example. Preaching is mandated on pastors: Preach the word! says Paul. (2 Tim. 4:2)

So, why do people not want it? As a preacher, I have my heart in my mouth when I say this, but preachers generally do not model great preaching, for whatever reason.

I ran a preaching workshop with some lay preachers some time ago. I came up with the notion, which I kept to myself at the time, that a preacher could be measured by the length of time he could hold attention. I realised that some men are 5-minute preachers, some 1-hour preachers.

Sadly, the 5-minuters often seem to think they are 1-hourers and try and prove it time after time.

All this to lead to my sweeping, unscientific assertion: there is a lot - and I mean a lot - of bad preaching around. If my assertion is true, and it continues unchecked, with no oversight or follow up mentoring, then why should there be any surprise that people want less preaching! Lets have 'fellowship' instead!

Sorry, that's dead wrong. And it is killing the church. If Scripture is authoritative revelation of God, by definition it has to be declared. The nature of the revelation demands it. In other words in must be preached. Preaching is the appropriate mode to bring that revelation to men and women. It brings faith. It makes dry bones live.

If there is not preaching then we undermine the place of Scripture and the gospel in the church. If there is not preaching we cut off our source of life and breath. The church dies. It is that simple.

So the answer is not less preaching, and more 'fellowship'. The answer is better preaching, better training, better selection and discernment of gifts, better mentoring, all to bring forth better men fitted to the task. These men set loose on the world, who knows what would happen under God?

Let's pray that God would bless the preaching of the word and that we would want more of it!

Everything depends on God

2007-09-17T22:26:00.000+01:00

I expect by now everyone (or two) of you who read this blog knows how to give the perfect man-hug and are getting fed up with the tutorial below.

Good. Lets move on...

We Dancers have actually moved house and are very much settled in. The removal guys were magnificent, our land lord is fine and friendly, the neighbours are good. Susan is getting into her new job and girlie-wirlie-daughter is making new friends at her new school.

My work really starts now. The plant has been treading water, I think, over the last few months. Having got to know the people who have been coming along a bit better, it has come home to me how difficult it is for people to form relationships, and especially ones that have the gospel at the centre. People's lives are busy, complicated and confusing. In the midst of this melee I continue to pray for 'A Few Good Men' who can handle the Truth.

It would be easy for me to get frustrated. There are things I would want to make happen. But I have to remember that the work required of and in people is only a work that God can do. Paul tells the Philippians to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling". Yet this exhortation cannot be separated from the fact that "it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." (Phil. 2:12,13). While this reminds me that I can exhort others, I must pray that God be at work. Everything depends on God.

Some good things over the Summer:

A break in Devon with the family. Restful. Fun.

Reading Letham's The Holy Trinity. I realise now how much evangelicalism is missing in its neglect of this great subject. Difficult in places, but deeply refreshing.

Some amazing signs of God at work in some regulars at SPC. Amidst the grit of church-planting, some real gems.

Things to come:

Christianity Explored starts next week. But we need more people!

Midweek study/prayer/fellowship meeting has just started. This seems to be working well. It is good to study a few verses, pray, share our lives a little.

Second Anniversary Service - 7th October 2007, 10.30am. Nearly two years since the start. Really? I don't believe it!

I covet your prayers for God's glory to be known.

So, how do you do it?

2007-08-02T12:10:00.000+01:00

Here's how...

(HT to someone, but I can't remember who.)

The Cost of Mission

2007-08-02T11:30:00.000+01:00

I don't think it has been mentioned prominently in the news media here in the UK, though you can find out about it here, but the plight of a group of Korean Christians in Afghanistan reminds us of the risks of gospel mission. These people knew the risks, yet have been willing to take them for the sake of the name of Christ and out of love for the people of Afghanistan. Now two of the original twenty three are dead, and others may follow.

There are those who would criticise them and the church who gave its blessing to the venture. However, on the Warfield list, Pastor Andrew Webb reminds us that,

In prior centuries, it was understood that becoming a missionary was an assurance of an early death. It was said that the young men and women who served Christ in the mission field went out bearing their coffins with them. They went because they loved their Lord, they heard his call and they saw the need. They saw the sin, the sickness,the want, and the darkness in which many whom Christ died to save were living and their desire was to bring light in that darkness, to feed the hungry, tend to the sick, and bring the eternal hope of the gospel to a world without hope. So they went out with Christ's assurance: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."

Read the rest of his comment, especially his quote from M'Cheyne.

Goodbye Blogroll

2007-07-30T17:59:00.000+01:00

I have decided to get rid of my blogroll (usually to the right and down) completely.

Over time the list of blogs that I read has been growing. Until recently I have been keeping track of them through Bloglines, and now after a recent change, Google Reader. My pattern of reading is not constant but varies with time. Many blogs I get interested in and read for a while but then I lose interest and don't. Some I read because of the mood I'm in. Some I read that I wouldn't recommend to others. (Don't ask!) More and more the list I keep on this blog does not reflect what I actually do and, to be honest, I can't be bothered updating that little list all the time.

Which got me thinking about the 'blogroll'. Why do I bother with it? Why does anyone bother with it? If a blog is good enough then I might link to it in a post. But it may be still good and not merit a mention. After all, I don't feel the need to go about telling everyone about what I read in the newspaper today. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.

So from now on, what I read will remain a mystery, unless I link to it in a post. Then you can read it too and it really will be worth reading. Trust me.

Catching Up

2007-07-29T23:42:00.000+01:00

Again, it's been a while. I am having difficulties with this blog. I think the problem is that I'm not sure what it's for at the moment. I started it as a theological student. It was fun to explore ideas, rant, share news etc. My circumstances have now changed and therefore I feel I need to review my objectives. This will happen over the summer, so watch this space.

Meantime, we are almost on the point of moving from Little Eaton to Solihull. Just one more week to go before the removal van appears to take us away.

Our New House

Last week we acquired the keys to the property we will be renting over the next year. I have posted some photos on Flickr, so have a look around. It's not quite like being there, and it was difficult to get good indoor shots with my camera, but hopefully you'll get the idea of the place.

We are really pleased with it. God is good. Our hope is that as well as being a family home, it will serve as a centre for hospitality and ministry as we seek to reach out to the neighbourhood. Though I don't feel that I know Solihull well yet, I feel that many live lives of limited interaction with others. This is Suburbia! But the gospel of Jesus Christ creates a new community of God's people, new creatures forgiven and cleansed, who love one another in Christ and want to share their lives together. They have a common purpose and destiny. They have one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

God's Patient, Longsuffering Love

2007-07-10T11:06:00.000+01:00

It was a pleasure to have the theologian Dr. Robert Reymond and his wife , Shirley, at our service last Sunday. Dr. Reymond was fresh from his visit to the Metropolitan Tabernacle for their School of Theology the week before. On Sunday he preached on the marvelous topic of God's Patient, Longsuffering Love. Go to the SPC website to hear the sermon.

Questioning Evangelism

2007-06-20T00:28:00.001+01:00

It has been a while since I read a book on evangelism. I was not disappointed by Randy Newman's publication, Questioning Evangelism. This is right up my street. The author has worked with Campus Crusade for 20+ years so he is an experienced evangelist. He has thought deeply about evangelism in the post-modern age.

This book assumes that you know the objective truths of the gospel and that you have a personal testimony to share. However, the issue of this book is what you then do with this knowledge. Newman notes that bald declaration creates less and less interest in an age that is used to simply shrugging shoulders at you, saying, "That may be true for you, but not for me."

Newman shows that use of good questions can help the shrugger see the presuppositions he holds and whether or not they are reasonable. Newman takes us through conversation scenarios centred around common objections to Christianity showing how questions can help get people a bit deeper into the gospel. Questions such as: why does a loving God allow suffering? why are Christians homophobic? why is the church full of hypocrites? and several others. These are very helpful.

The book also addresses possible hinderances in the hopeful evangelist himself: lack of compassion for the lost, hidden anger at the lost (remember Jonah?), and the tendency to talk when he should shut up. In the the last of these Newman has a useful section on the need to develop listening skills. These days, less is more, as they say.

The risk with this book is that the reader might want to use the conversations as templates to be learned, and the author is wise to this. This approach would be a big mistake. The goal of this book is to get us to think about the real people we meet and show real love to them.

On the downside, Newman's theological perspective comes out in some of the worked-out scenarios, where often God is portrayed as being dependent on man's response. However, this does not detract from the central theme that a questioning approach towards people is better able to engage people in this modern age.

Search Me

2007-06-19T16:05:00.000+01:00

The Bible has much to say about idolatry. We have found it in 1 Corinthians 8-10 at SPC. It is a form of spiritual adultery, it is infidelity to God, it is a loss of one's true love.

We must not be deceived. It is not about bowing down to statues in a temple, having figurines on your mantlepiece or pictures on the wall, though it could involve those. It is about giving your heart to another. A person, a possession, an idea, an ambition, a feeling, a plan, nostalgia, a football team. Even a regret. Each can rule our hearts when on the face of it we submit to God.

Knowing your own heart is a difficult thing. We need God's help:

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 139:23,24 (ESV)

Can't Concentrate!

2007-06-19T12:20:00.000+01:00

While I have been writing and responding to emails this morning, within my field of vision has been this sight out of my study's window. I'm afraid the sight of a guy climbing a wobbly ladder up to a roof affects my concentration somewhat and gives me sweaty palms. It must be an age thing.

Roll on lunch break.

Minister Spotted

2007-06-13T23:41:00.000+01:00

Rev. Dr. Al Lutz at the PCA General Assembly. Who's that other guy? Obviously much less famous.

Irrational Rationalists

2007-06-03T23:00:00.000+01:00

Most Christians will by now have noticed a growing militancy amongst atheists against religion, and Christianity in particular. See for example recent books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and now Christopher Hitchens.

One of the interesting things about Dawkins is his unusual definition of faith:

Faith means blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence. (The Selfish Gene, 1976)

This is a definition of faith which many atheists will believe, repeat and argue from. Their assumption is that faith has no basis and, accordingly, Christians are completely irrational, unable to reasonably present the Christian faith to the world.

Therefore, it is interesting to see how atheists, when interacting with Christians, are sometimes so confident in this assumption that they themselves see no need to put together any reasonable, substantial argument. Why bother if the person you are arguing against is fundamentally irrational?

I have been following Doug Wilson's online debate with Christopher Hitchens hosted at Christianity Today. You can read about it at these posts: one, two, three, four, five and six. Hitchens is a very gifted polemical writer. However, as you will see as you read, it is clear that he simply does not understand the question which he is being asked: on what rational basis can a darwinist atheist chose one morality over another? (Hitchens , like other atheists, asserts that Christianity is immoral and therefore to be rejected.) He does not provide an answer.

It seems clear to me that most atheists are not able to argue their case. They simply assert it as self-evident, but are unable to see the logical inconsistency of the choices they make. To see this, read the Hitchens/Wilson debate. If you have to read only one, read part 6.

Global Warming

2007-05-29T23:15:00.000+01:00

David Field points us to an article which casts doubt on the theory that global warming is a result of human activity. The arguments are similar to those found in the Channel 4 documentary, The Great Global Warming Swindle.

Both the article and the documentary ask important questions which I have yet to see answered. Can anyone point me to any recent attempts to answer them?

I have to confess I am increasingly skeptical of the claims made by the environmental lobby and of scientists who, as Field alludes, tap into the gravy train that has grown up around it.

Confessional, Compassionate, Contextual

2007-05-29T14:55:00.000+01:00

A few days ago David Strain of LCPC wrote about his reflections on the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly which took place in Edinburgh last week. Of particular interest to him was the moderator's opening address to the assembly. David subsequently posted the complete transcript on his blog, and you can find a pdf on the FCS site. David encouraged us to read the address.

Well, I have done so, and I liked it too. It is one of the most interesting things I have read on the net for a while.

As a resident in Glasgow in the 1980s I had a grudging respect for the FCS. It was, and is, strictly confessional (i.e. doctrinally sound). But I have to confess there were some barriers for me:

it held, and still does, to exclusive psalmody
it seems to be mostly a church for highlanders in the north or ones exiled to the cities of the Scottish central belt.
it was inward looking, only concerned about doctrinal details and not about mission, though it has always had missionary interest on foreign shores.

To me the evangelicals in the Church of Scotland seemed to be where God was at work with a more outward facing gospel ministry. I heard it said, so the rest of this sentence is third-hand or more, that Donald MacLeod (of the FCS) believed that if revival was going to come to Scotland it was going to come through this evangelical ministry in the CoS.

Rev. John Ross's address to the FCS assembly has knocked my long-held views sideways. Whatever the limitations of the text compared to the address itself, the text was pretty moving. It seems to me to present a vision of the church and its mission to Scotland which is firmly in the spirit of Thomas Chalmers' legacy. It is summarised in the memorable alliterated headings: Confessional, Compassionate, Contextual.

Confessional, seeking unity with other Westminster Confession churches (I have been to villages in the north where there are four churches serving tens of people) and seeking to link arms with other evangelicals.

Compassionate, following our Lord Jesus in our being moved by the whole spectrum of human suffering. Mr Ross said, "Compassion authenticates the gospel".

Contextual, following the Lord who "...accommodated himself to us." Ross quotes J H Bavinck,

Abstract, disembodied and history-less sinners do not exist; only very concrete sinners exist, whose sinful life is determined and characterised by all sorts of cultural and historical factors… I must bring the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ to the whole man, in his concrete existence, in his everyday environment. It is obviously then a great error on my part if I do not take a person’s culture and history seriously.

Yes, abstract, disembodied and history-less sinners. What a description! Who has not thought about people like that?

I urge all of you to read it and see what you think.

One Was Enough

2007-05-28T23:14:00.000+01:00

The Rams have done it! Next year it's Premier League football.

I can't let the event go by without noting that it took a Scotsman to score the winning goal and a Scotsman manage the club to success. The PL will be choca with Scots managers.

Pity we will have moved before the new season starts...

Tips on Reading

2007-05-23T22:33:00.000+01:00

David Field writes about how to read. Very helpful.

However, far be it for me to point out the shortcomings of others' work but, in my humble opinion, missing out, "Move eyes from left to right" is a serious omission.

Latest News

2007-05-23T14:57:00.000+01:00

We (i.e. the Dancer family of Little Eaton) are thankful for the progress of events to do with the family over the last 4-6 weeks. Here is what has happened:

Susan has managed to get a job which starts after the Summer holiday. She will be Deputy Head of a secondary school in the north-east of Birmingham, larger than her current school in Derby.

We have agreed the lease on a house in Solihull. We have only to sign the contract. It should have ample space for living and for ministry purposes.

We have secured a school place for our daughter. The way system works here is that the local authority handles all the placings. We submit a prioritised list of schools, but one may not get the top choice. However, on this occasion we got the choice which we feel will best suit our daughter.

So, we are very pleased and thankful to God. We move sometime at the end of July/early August. We still have a lot to do before that can happen!

We hope that with the move, with God's blessing, we will also see a step change in progress at SPC. It has been pretty tricky ministering at a (50-mile) distance. We have had some awkward pastoral situations over the last few weeks. To be honest, we have been unable to minister in the way we would like.

Nevertheless, this lack of control and influence is a valuable reminder that the church is not my church or anyone else's. It belongs to Christ and he will build it as he sees fit.

All glory to him.

No-name, the Preacher

2007-05-15T15:22:00.000+01:00

It's been a while.

On Sunday night I was at a service where a young guy was preaching. I think it was his first time. This guy does a great job ministering and working with teenagers. But preaching to a mixed congregation was a new experience and pretty daunting.

He did a good job. He dealt with the text, explained it well, used illustrations, spoke intelligible English. Good stuff. I hope he gets constructive feedback and does it again, even better.

Thinking about this reminded me of early feedback I got in my early days of preaching. Frankly, I didn't understand what I was hearing. So I heard similar things several times over.

"You obviously haven't done much preaching."

"You are very nervous."

"You need to grow in confidence in the Word."

This last one was from a pastor who wrote three sides of A4 of constructive criticism. I didn't understand this comment at the time. I thought I did have confidence in the Word.

Now I realise that I was proud, thought of myself and my abilities too highly, expected praise every time. I had no confidence in the Word, just in me. Hence my preaching was self-conscious and woeful.

Over the last three years I have been discovering the truth. I am nothing, Christ is everything. I am called to be a no-name servant who rolls up before the congregation to deliver a message from the King. And they must know it is from the King of Kings. This means

The no-name preacher must have a deep appreciation of who his Lord is. Christ has absolute authority. No-name must demand to be heard. When he speaks all people should be silent.

The no-name preacher must know the message, its point, its application. He needs to steep himself in it and spend a lot of time with God about it, wrestling.

No-name must receive the message himself. He is both a servant and a subject.

As No-name preaches, he must seek the approval of his King. No-name may not like the message. The congregation may not like it. But that doesn't matter if Jesus Christ wants it said.

When No-name preaches he must demand the full attention of the hearers. Not because of himself but because of Jesus Christ. That means he must preach with certainty, conviction and clarity. (Thanks to John MacArthur for this alliteration!) He must not be happy that some people look out the window, fiddle with their watch, look bored. If that is the case something has gone wrong. It may be something wrong with them, but most probably with No-name.

A no-name preacher must be willing to die for preaching the King's message. Yes, die.

I have had several opportunities over the last three years to speak to other preachers about preaching. Often the conversation gets down to these things. Not "methods" or "techniques" but about heart: preaching as a man who belongs to Another.

I didn't get a chance to speak to this young guy after the service. But I would have told him the essence of what I have listed above.

Finally, having ranted a little on this, I have a confession to make. I have much to learn about this. Last Sunday morning was probably the worst sermon I have preached for a while. As I was preaching I was thinking, "What is your point?" Without certainty there is no conviction. Without conviction there is no clarity. Without clarity the people do not hear. If they do not hear they cannot believe. They get nothing but sore ears. What good is that?