Jonathen Leeman at Highbury

It was a good morning over at Highbury Baptist today. AGBCSE had organised a morning with Jonathan Leeman (over from Washington DC to speak at the EMA). He spoke on authority in a local church and had several helpfu thingsto say, includig the way authority can differ in its exercise. Time for questions at the end. Anyway, I bought the book. I had not heard Mr Leeman before for some reason. We were well looked after by the Grace folk who provided lunch. I guess there were about fifty of us there, mostly pastors.

Leonardo de Chirico

I was at the London Seminary once again today for two sessions. The first was a mini-conference with Leonardo de Chirico from Rome, the author of Same words; different worlds. He very helpfully described Roman Catholicism and spoke of the way to reach such people. It was a master class. So much in Catholicism seems to be the same as Protestantism but there are aubtle differences we need to understand. This meeting was organised by AGBCSE as a shop front for their group and was much appreciated. Jim Sayers chaired and Andrew King spoke about the association. Our churh does not belong to an association but if we did join one this would be the obvoous move.

James Hamilton on Typology

It was a great joy to be over at the seminary this morning, where the Association of Grace Baptist Churches South East had organised a double lecture and question session with James Hamilton from Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. About sixty gathered, mostly men and mostly ministers, I guess.

The first lecture set out the approach to typology that Hamilton advocates and the second looked at Isaiah 53 as a demonstration of how it works. There was an emphasis on the need to consult the Hebrew text and to read evangelically (believing the events recorded in the Old Testament really happened) but with that a willingness to see connections where the same words or phrases are used in different places, such as when Noah's ship is called an ark and Moses' baby basket is also called an ark. What Dr Hamilton, the author of a book on the whole subject that came out last year, seeks to establish is some clear rules for spotting typological connections. He certainly was very interesting and encouraging.

Andrew King took opportunity to draw attention to the AGBCSE which now has seventy churches. They even provided a nice goody bag of books for us to take home. This sort of event certainly serves to promote the work the organisation. Well done, Andrew (and team)!

The book on typology can be had here for a good price.

Lord's Day June 8 2014

As I am on sabbatical one thing I thought I might do is to visit nearby churches with whom we have a level of fellowship.

I started last Sunday with St John's Wood Road Baptist Church, a church in the Association of Grace Baptist Churches South East (though may be we would sound more strict than they do on the matter of who is invited to the table). It is just over three miles from us meets in a modern building near Lord's Cricket Ground. They are further into London than us and in a slightly more affluent area. Attendance appeared to be a little larger and younger than us and equally diverse. (Some OMers were there and other visitors which may have skewed things). Chris Hawthorne is also on sabbatical so the preacher was his assistant Simon Pethick. An enthusiastic young man led the service. The style is relaxed and informal but reverend. We sang from a screen traditional and modern songs with the music led from the front by three musicians and two singers. Simon preached a fine Kelleresque sermon on Jonah 2. Communion followed.

An excellent lunch followed and it was good to chat to a few I knew and others I did not. I would have returned for the evening get together perhaps but it was not on that day so I went to Childs Hill where our own assistant Andrew Lolley preached well from James 1 to about 15 of us.