Wesley, charms and church planting (Part III)

Everyday Ministry

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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.

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Borers in the pulpit?

Pastoral Ministry

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Boring sermons are often the bane of church life. However, it need not be so. Rob Smith offers some reflections on how preachers can minister the word of God more faithfully and more effectively.

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In defence of doctrine

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The whole business of doing ‘doctrine’ has become quite unfashionable in the Christian world. But, as Michael Jensen argues, nothing is more important and essential because the gospel itself demands it. (more…)

The tract is back

Resource Talk, Sola Panel

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Quick quiz: of all Matthias Media’s different resources—now more than 200 of them—which do you think is the all-time bestseller? Is it:

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This is not real church

Interchange

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I suspect I might be the ‘elderly relative’ referred to in the article by Tony Payne on ‘This is not real church’. But even if I’m not, I want to comment on the change of ‘doing church’ over the years and the cut-down New Testament church of today. (more…)

An abominable word

Up front, Sola Panel

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When I hear the word ‘abomination’, a vivid image comes to mind. Perhaps it’s from a comedy sketch on TV. I see a man dressed in old-fashioned black clothes, with a black hat and, in reference to some aspect of modern culture (perhaps homosexuality), he declares in a slow, but passionate voice, “It is an abor-min-ay-shon”.
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What is a tree for?

Up front, Sola Panel

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A tree is good (Gen 1:12).

A tree is beautiful (Gen 2:9).

A tree is for food (Gen 1:29).

A tree is a blessing from God for his creation, even in those wild places where no human being has set foot (Job 40:20-22). (more…)

“Evangellyfish” by Douglas Wilson

Review

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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…)

Reading the Bible with your ears open

Up front

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You read what you hear. Even with the Bible, you read what you hear.

Let me explain. Study leave got me to England in 10 inches of snow. Beautiful. Because it closed the airports, it almost got me to France. How would I have explained that to the college board? Then driving around a country not my own just confused me; there were so many signs supposedly telling me what to do, but I didn’t have the right framework to assimilate them so that they actually made sense. On the freeway: “Spray may be possible”. What, was I going to be ambushed by a tomcat? Coming into Colchester: “The oldest town in Britain. Please drive carefully.” If I don’t, will it break? In an alley way in London next to a huge dumpster: “Fly tipping will be prosecuted”. It’s going to take a lot of flies to fill that bin, for sure.

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To mourn or not to mourn?

Up front

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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.

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Review: “Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament”

Review

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It always bothers me when the author or editor of a book starts by telling me what their book is not. So it was with some concern that I began my reading of Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament—a book that, the editors say, neither surveys, summarizes nor takes a position on the debates over the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament. However, it was not long before I became pleased with it. (more…)