The gift the church hasn’t been given

My attention was drawn to this on the Amyand Park Chapel website for September 26.

The gift the church hasn’t been given.

We have a gift missing in our church which if it were present would do a great service to the saints of God. It’s not a gift found in the Bible. It is the gift of the raspberry blower. Just think of the possibilities. Here are two believers griping, complaining and spreading discouragement. From behind comes the sound of a particularly large, ripe, wet raspberry. They turn but no one is there. The conversation comes to an abrupt end and we all share in the blessing. Just a thought.

Evangelistic preaching 01

We were all at Gerard Hemmings' again for a Monday morning fraternal today in Amyand Park (about 12 or so were there). This time he'd arranged for Suart Olyott to address us. Stuart took opportunity to speak to us on evangelistic preaching as he fears there is not enough of it about. He warned us against Lutheran Amyraldianism then made six good points from Acts 2. This was followed by a nice time of discussion followed by lunch for those who could stay.

1. EP is not a different species of preaching

2. EP aims at seeing every person converted now

3. EP sets about accomplishing its aim by establishing guilt. It does this in a variety of ways but is always 'collision evangelism' (not "crematorium evangelism or pipette evangelism")

4. EP answers the question that a guilty heart will ask

5. EP seeks to accomplish its ends by means of persuasion

6. EP concludes with the preacher having personal dealings with those who are concerned

Stuart Olyott is always stimulating and we all found this helpful. I wanted some clarification on "collision evangelism" and was assured that it is not the same as being nasty. He does have his own take on Acts 17 as a hard sell rather than a soft sell, which was interesting.

Stuart Olyott sermons available here.

Also check here for Olyott and Hemmings stuff

Great Weekend 03

The final element of the great weekend (yes, I know it's Wednesday by now!) was Geoff speaking at a ministers fraternal in West London. For the last few years I have been involved in a fraternal made up of Reformed men from West and North West London meeting in Gunnersbury. Our convener thought we were getting too large but some are still keen and so for the first time we met at Gerard Hemmings house in Amyand Park on Monday. One of us four Welshmen present (not me) had spotted that Geoff was due to be in London and so asked him to speak.
About 12 of us were treated to a lovely morning as Geoff reminisced about Lloyd-Jones - recalling meetings and confessing failures to appreciate him in his time. He spoke of an eight-fold legacy.
1. The example of his devotional life 2. His reading of the big books (though there were some gaps like Spurgeon) 3. His preaching 4. His controversies (with Graham, Packer and Schaeffer) 5. His pastoral work 6. Lloyd-Jones churches all over Wales and beyond 7. Iain Murray 8. His failures - such as not speaking out against abortion.
Geoff himself is 70 and so it was a very special morning, one on which it felt good to be alive. It prompted me to start reading Iain Murray's new book on Lloyd-Jones, which is excellent.
PS I notice that you can download the text of John Peters biography of Lloyd-Jones here.