I was part of a group recently when a wonderful, faithful, godly older pastor told us about something that had happened in his church. During an important public meeting, a man had risen to his feet and started shouting abuse at him. It was a tirade full of invective and malice and hatred. How would you have responded? (more…)
Archives: paul-grimmond
No hope without character
Life
I was in church on Sunday morning, listening to a sermon on Romans 5. In spite of having read it hundreds of times in my life, I was struck by my lack of understanding. Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope (Rom 5:3-4). Why have I never thought about how those things fit into the context of Paul’s argument in this chapter?
Authorities and the preacher’s unbelief
Life
After two decades of living the Christian life and almost a decade of preaching the Bible regularly, it’s easy to think that I trust God’s word. But this week I’ve been confronted by my unbelief.
What’s your instant reaction to reading this passage?
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. (Rom 13:1-2)
A call to plant more churches
Pastoral Ministry
It’s time for the start of a new Saturday series, and in light of the recent Church Planting conference, I thought it might be time to stop and reflect on some of the challenges to plant churches that we’ve made in The Briefing over the years. I’m reproducing these in the hope that they will stir our hearts to pray to God to raise up new congregations of his people through the preaching of the gospel all over the world.
We need more pathetic preaching
Pastoral Ministry
I’m not sure exactly where Tony is going next with his series on emotions, but his post connected with some other thoughts I’ve been having—specifically, the importance of addressing the whole person when we preach. I’ve come to the conclusion that we need more pathetic preaching.
Women and the Bible
Up front
We read the Bible as a family each night after dinner. On this particular night, the story is the feeding of the 5000. Well, more specifically, the feeding of the 5000 men. (more…)
Smart planting, right planting
Pastoral Ministry
Tony and I spent Thursday and Friday last week at the Church Planting conference held at Moore College. (Tony did Thursday and I did Friday.) It was a brilliant couple of days, and I couldn’t help but be thankful to God for so many people who are working hard at making Jesus known in so many places. What an amazing gift to sit in the room with so many godly and gifted people whose great goal in life is to make Jesus known. Awesome.
I thought I’d post a couple of reflections on the day I attended. Here are three key things I have been thinking about since:
How to stay in the middle of the road
Life
I have been thinking about the nature of Christian truth recently—in particular, what it means to live the Christian life. And I keep coming across these poles to avoid: one the one hand, legalism, and on the other hand, licentiousness.
But what would happen if you tried to drive your car down the middle of the freeway by adopting this strategy—whatever you do, avoid the right hand and left hand edges of the road? (The golfers all know the answer to this question already: “Don’t hit it left, don’t hit it left … Doh!”).
Miraculous godliness
Life
I was part of a group a few weeks ago where a wonderful, faithful, godly older pastor told us about something that had happened in his church. During an important public meeting, a man had risen to his feet and started shouting abuse at the pastor. It was a tirade full of invective and malice and hatred. How would you respond?
Agreeing with the opposition
Life
It’s not often that I agree with Bob Carr, the former Labour Premier of New South Wales. He’s a pro-abortion, pro-embryonic stem cell research and small ‘l’ liberal. (Why do so many small ‘l’ liberals join the Labour party? BTW, I really don’t need this question answered.) But I think in ‘Rights charter like a dead parrot’, he gets it spot on.
The secret to getting along
Life
The weekend before last, I spent a wonderful time away with the folk at Christchurch Currumbin up on the beautiful Gold Coast. It was an enormously encouraging time as we looked together at what the Bible has to say about the resurrection. On the Friday night, the meeting leader exhorted us to love each other:
You’re about to spend a weekend together. You’ll eat together, sleep in rooms separated by not-so-thick walls, share bathrooms together and be with each other 24/7. This isn’t like chatting after church on Sunday. This is going to mean learning to be gracious and patient with each other.
Well, they were certainly very gracious and patient with each other (and with me, which is remarkable indeed). But it made me wonder: what is the secret to living together in the same space without biting each others’ heads off?
Wesley, charms and church planting (Part III)
Everyday Ministry
Drawing the longest bow yet in this series, I am going to attempt to connect child-raising techniques and the history of word changes in Wesley’s ‘O for a thousand tongues’ in order to talk about contextualizing the gospel. If you’re as interested as I am in how I’m going to do that, read on.
Name ’em and shame ’em?
What is false teaching, and how should we respond to it? Paul Grimmond investigates. (more…)
“Evangellyfish” by Douglas Wilson
Review
What do you get when you mix up a megachurch sex scandal, a Reformed pastor in a fistfight, an ambitious blonde TV reporter, a zealous but slightly misguided youth worker who likes Brandy (a girl, not a drink), an officiously small-minded middle-ranking accountant, a seasoned detective and an ageing ex-Christian New Ager called Mystic Union? The answer is Evangellyfish, a web novel by American author and pastor Doug Wilson. (more…)
To mourn or not to mourn?
Up front
I was talking to a friend the other day who told me this story:
I was in a prayer meeting this week with a lady who asked us to pray for her relationship with her parents. They were getting divorced after having been married for several decades. She doesn’t live at home anymore, and she talked about the whole thing quite matter-of-factly. I told her that that was really sad, and the sharing of prayer points moved on to the next person.