In our churches and in our outreach, questions of ‘truth’ don’t seem so important any more. Is this is a loss, an irrelevance or an opportunity? Tony Payne reviews two significant books on this subject by David F Wells.
Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, David F Wells, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2006, 339pp (more…)
Oliver O’Donovan, Professor of Christian Ethics at Edinburgh University Divinity School, talks to Tony Payne in The Briefing Lounge about evangelical ethics (MP3).
Renowned British preacher and author David Jackman joins Tony Payne in the Briefing Lounge to talk about a lifetime of lessons in preaching (MP3).
They say that everyone has a book inside them, and fortunately, in most cases, it stays there.
Some of us have more than one.
Training multiplies ministry, but takes time.
It was 1985, and I was a fresh-faced recruit working as a ministry trainee on the campus of the University of New South Wales. It wasn’t called MTS in those days—I think ‘Santa’s Helpers’ was the closest we got to a label—but MTS is what it was. We were let loose to learn by doing—to lead Bible studies, chase up student contacts, evangelize, preach, stack chairs, and generally anything and everything else. It was an extraordinary and life-shaping experience.
Tony Payne and Gordon Cheng report from Hillsong Conference, 2006.
The sound hits you like a wave. The bass is throbbing. The drums kick through your diaphragm with each beat. The guitars thrum and swell. The lead singer is a good-looking guy with unkempt hair and stubble. He stands, arm raised, head thrown back.
If my kids were given the run of the place and were allowed to set the rules, what would their day look like? Apart from the absence of school, I’m guessing their activities would involve a copious diet of computer gaming, MSN (if you don’t know what this is, ask someone under 20), music downloads, TV, chocolate and chips.
I love a bandwagon as much as the next man. There’s a certain satisfaction to be gained from jumping on board the happy caravan as it passes by, to the cheers and back-slapping of your new fellow passengers. And as you join in shouting to the onlookers that they should jump on board too, there’s a delicious feeling of belonging to the righteous brotherhood of the truly aware. (more…)
Another year, another Bible study group. Time to sign up, turn up and get things rolling. Ho hum. Time also perhaps to ask some questions about your own contribution to the small group you are in. Are you making much of a difference in the lives of your fellow group members? Do you feel as if you just go along because that’s what you’re expected to do? What part are you going to play in this year’s group? (more…)
Being an editor doesn’t have many occupational hazards. A bladder weakened by coffee over-consumption perhaps; or bruises on the upper arm from having been punched by your teenagers for pointing out yet another appalling lapse of grammar or pronunciation on their part. (more…)
In the first part of this essay (in Briefing #316), Tim Chester looked at the strong case that can be made for Christian social involvement, as well as the strong case for proclamation of the gospel being central. We now come to the question that has bedevilled evangelical discussion of this subject for the past 30 years: What ought to be the relationship between social involvement and evangelism in Christian ministry and mission?
I recently had the pleasure of sitting in on a preaching workshop with David Jackman from the London-based Cornhill Training Course. David made some telling points from a survey of apostolic preaching from Acts 17-20, and one in particular struck me.
There is a certain mystique about newspapers—the piles of identical bulletins stacked in the newsagent, the solemn blackness of the headlines, the ink on your fingers, the wrinkly familiarity of spreading it out in front of you on the table. I’m not sure how the combination works, but whatever the reason, I still find it hard not to believe what I read there. There is a gravitas, a kind of aura of trust, that seems to emanate from the pages. Surely if it’s there in black and white, then it must have happened like that?
I am not by nature a grumpy person. I don’t often get very heated in debate or upset about things. You could even call me phlegmatic (love that word).
In this third and final essay in the series, Tony Payne looks at how the Bible describes our Christian gatherings, and what practical difference it might make.