Busy days

These are rather busy days and it is proving difficult to keep up. On Monday evening The Bible Preaching Trust met. This is a small funding agency for Reformed ministers in financial need. I then spent most of Tuesday at London Seminary as I sit on the board there. Once again it was a full day with many matters on the agenda.

Links here and here.

Busy Past Week

Last week was so busy that there was no time to make note of it all. On Monday morning I got myself over to the LTS where I had planned to meet with one of the students (Paolo Patuelli, who is from Italy). We are so glad to be mentoring someone again this year, especially a family man. Then it was on to the Evangelical Library to hear a very good lunch time lecture on the Pentateuch from Dr Ian Densham. This was a helpful look at some of the issues and included helpful pointers on preaching from that part of the Word. I was only sorry that we didn't have more people there. I picked up a couple of books on Jansenism which I have begun to read. I then drove to a home in Wembley to visit the oldest member of my church. It's always good to see Lilian. In the evening I was over in Ashford for a Bible Preaching Trust committee. The Bible Preaching Trust makes small grants to ministers in financial need. It was good to agree on grants for men in Scotland, the north of England and Spain this time.

Then on Tuesday I was supposed to be involved in a prison Bible study but that was not possible so I went over to Highbury and Andrew King very kindly helped me get my forms sorted out for getting into this work more thoroughly with CPR. I then went on to the Royal Free Hospital to visit my longest standing church member. It's always good to see Ken too.

Wednesday began with attendance at a funeral at Golders Green Crematorium. I got to know South African David Strauss when he moved in next door to the church and started attending. The place burned down a few years later and he ended up in the north of the borough and keeping contact was difficult, although we would see him from time to time and he would phone fairly often. David was a most interesting character and not always the easiest to deal with, very much an Afrikaaner I guess he was a professing Christian. I then headed down to Clerkenwell to meet up with Tom and Donna Drion (like the Kings, home schoolers I discover) for lunch in the chapel there where Tom is heading up the GraceLife work with Ross Orgil. Tom studied in John Macarthur's Master's Seminary. They seem to be making real progress with a multi-national congregation,. It was good to meet. From there I went on to a regular appointment speaking at a BUPA home in Golders Green. In the evening it was our midweek meeting on Providence, making further use of John Flavel's excellent Mystery of Providence.

The rest of the week was less busy in some ways but with a regular meeting with my fellow elder, sermons to prepare and a newsletter plus two short talks for the Friday night clubs I was not twiddling my thumbs and appreciated the extra hour.

Augustine: Prayer before preaching

(Saw this quoted in an essay by Bishop Wallace Benn)

It is from On Christian Doctrine, Vol 4, Chapter 15, Section 32

And so our Christian orator, while he says what is just, and holy and good (and he ought never to say anything else), does all he can to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure and with obedience; and he need and so far as he succeeds, he will succeed more by piety in prayer than by gifts of oratory; and so he ought to pray for himself and for those he is about to address, before he attempts to speak. And when the hour is come that he must speak, he ought, before he opens his mouth, to lift up his thirsty soul to God, to drink in what he is about to pour forth and to be himself filled with what he is about to distribute. For, as in regard to every matter of faith and love there are many things that may be said, and many ways of saying them, who knows what it is expedient at a given moment for us to say, or to be heard saying, except God who knows the hearts of all? And who can make us say what we ought and in the way we ought except Him in whose hand both we and our speeches are? Accordingly, he who is anxious both to know and to teach should learn all that is to be taught, and acquire such a faculty of speech as is suitable for a divine. But when the hour for speech arrives, let him reflect upon that saying of our Lord's as better suited to the wants of a pious mind "Take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." The Holy Spirit, then, speaks thus in those who for Christ's sake are delivered to the persecutors; why not also in those who deliver Christ's message to those who are willing to learn?

Bradford on Avon

I was preaching yesterday in the old Baptist chapel in Bradford on Avon. It's only just over two hours away so we were able as a family to go up and down in the day.

They are without a pastor at the moment and so I happily went and preached on the deaths of Elijah and Elisha. They are lovely people and it's always good to be there. I slipped into the Sunday School (on God's jealousy) first then joined two members to pray before the morning service. There was a prayer meeting before the evening service. They were saying how in their open air work there is not much response from townsfolk but others are interested. They had a good chat with a young Muslim fellow last week.

In between services we were with Eleri's sister and family. That was great fun as ever. Good day.

Kenya 03

My third day in Kenya was the Lord's Day.It was spent mostly at the church. They begin at 9.15 am singing the hymns for the day. (The hymns from Grace Hymns are sung unaccompanied, originally by necessity rather than choice but it works well despite the narrowed repertoire). All age Sunday School begins at 9.30. Keith has reached Chapter 28 of the 1689 Confession on the sacraments (like the 1689 itself, he prefers the word ordinances). People seemed a little slow to respond but it was fine. I preached then in the morning meeting led by Keith. They sang just one Swahili hymn, the others in English. The hymns are projected onto the wall. I preached on 1 John 1:7 and that went okay. We then had lunch together in the church. In the afternoon i spoke to the women's meeting. There was a new baby (Kala) and so first I gave a short message on Romans 12:15, 16 and then they presented gifts they'd bought to the mother for the baby. The evening meeting started at 4 pm with Keith preaching on Genesis 21. It's often a blessing to be with another congregation for the day, even more so one so far away from home yet clearly united with us in the things of God.

Feltham Bible Focus

It was a great privilege to be the speaker at Feltham Bible Focus last Saturday on Keep yourselves from idols (the message will appear on the Feltham website eventually). I had a lovely meal beforehand with the pastor of Feltham Evangelical Church Phil Venables and his family (like us it's all boys, home schooled but also learning Chinese, part of their maternal heritage). About 40 gathered mostly from the Feltham church but also from other churches nearby. There was a good age spread and a happy atmosphere. Refreshments were served after. What a good evening.

Southport Proverbs

I have agreed to give three talks on Proverbs for men this Saturday in Southport Grace Batist Church.

Mitchley Hill Evangelical

It was my privilege to head 20 miles south into stockbroker country yesterday to preach for the first time in Mitchely Hill Evangelical Church in Sanderstead.

An independent evangelical church with a nice sixties building, the fellowship started in the late fifties and has Brethren roots (I spotted an exclusive Brethren "fortification" nearby, there is also a Catholic Church, etc but this is the only evangelical witness for some way). Despite the roots, it has had ministers in the past and is seeking one at present. We were about 40 in the morning 20 in the evening, rather on the elderly side and generally white and middle class in make up, but trying to reach children and young people and all who will come in. That morning there were around 5 or 6 younger ones there and I took opportunity to speak to them before they went off for Sunday School.

I preached on the young girl in 2 Kings 5 in the morning and Romans 10:1-13 in the evening. The morning sermon on "A pointless life" was well appreciated as I think we all to get to feeling at some point we are wasting our time. (I think you can hear them on the mhec website or on our own chbc one). See our website here). I hardly know anyone in the congregation but inevitably there were a number of points of contact with at least some as we talked, I was very well looked after for the afternoon by Mr and Mrs West, the senior members of the church. Lovely day.

Ted Donnelly on Peter

On Monday I was with the twelve who met at the John Owen Centre for the Theological Study Group discussion on Ted Donnelly's book Peter Eye Witness of his Majesty.. Our chairman was Austin Walker from Crawley. Numbers were slightly up on the norm due mainly to the presence of three LTS students, all on their first day of a three week placement. it was good to have them there. The book, which began as a series of messages to ministers and was published by Banner about 12 years ago is a little more popular in style than our usual fare but none the worse for that. ted looks at Peter as Disciple, Preacher and Pastor and makes a number of important and useful points. We all agreed that it was a fine book that could be commended to someone preparing for ministry as a brief guide or someone in the ministry as a brief refresher. Also, it would be useful for someone not in the ministry to read in order to help them understand better the work of the pastor.

The following quotations may help give something of the flavour of the book:

On discipleship and the close connection between strength and weakness: "There is scarcely a gift that the devil cannot pervert" (31)

On preaching Christ doctrinally and the underestimate often made of Peter in this respect: "We expect him to be vigorous and earnest, but not particularly deep. If this has been our view, we are mistaken." (69) "We must preach Christ theologically" (71)

On bold preaching: "It is so very hard to be direct and, at the same time, gentle and loving." (77) "He must hammer home the nails of conviction" (78)

On faithfulness in the ministry: "all Christian service carries an inevitable price-tag" (106)

On the specialised nature of pastoral work: "it is a mistake to hand over a significant part of the work of the training of pastors to men who have never done the work for which they are preparing others" (114)

We prayed for Ted Donnelly at the end, thankful for his book and conscious of how unwell he is at present. We would love to hear him declare such truths once again.

(The current notice on the church website here reads: Pastor Donnelly became ill in November 2010 and had to spend a number of weeks in hospital. He is now able to attend morning worship services but it is anticipated that his recovery will be a slow process. Please continue to remember our pastor, his wife Lorna and their family in your prayers.)

Another busy week

I have been busy with various things recently.

1. Planning Grace Baptist Assembly 2011. Next year's dates are May 24-26 and we are again in Swanwick. Among the speakers we are hoping to be with us are Stuart Olyott, Geoff Thomas, Barry King and Gary Benfold. Do pplan to join us.

2. A trustees committee for The Bible Preaching Trust. On a charity page elsewhere you can find these details:

Eligibility Ministers of the Evangelical Christian faith who are in need. Theological students may occasionally benefit.

Exclusions Funding is not given for social causes, group projects, or to any person who cannot agree to the trust's doctrinal statement.

Type of grants Usually one-off grants ranging from £250 to £2000.

Applications This is usually either by recommendation or by letter; application forms and trust deed extracts are then sent out. Trustees’ meetings are held every four months at which applications will be considered. ‘Mass-targeting’ applications or those outside the terms of the trust may not be answered.

Grant provided by Bible Preaching Trust

The Bible Preaching Trust supports ministers of the Evangelical Christian faith who are in need.

Contact Details: Bible Preaching Trust 5 The Crescent Egham TW20 9PQ

Telephone: 01784 436139 Email: richard.mayers@tesco.net

3. As usual Wednesday night (29th) it was the midweek meeting (still in Titus 2) and on Thursday a members meeting. There are baptisms in the offing  which always encourages us and building work in progress, which always costs a lot of money. Friday night it was the clubs for children and young people. Numbers are quite low currently.

4. On Friday and Saturday we had Eleri's sisters here with their families to see our new extension. They were suitably impressed. I missed out on a walk up on the Heath. Eleri's brother-in-law managed to lose his wallet there but got most of the contents back thanks to an honest chap who traced him via Facebook!       5. On the Saturday I was preaching again in Trafalagar Square. We managed mostly to avoid the rain and it was a great opportunity once more. I was also preaching in Childs Hill Baptist Church on the Lord's Day, of course. I took a Harvest theme in the morning and Romans 8:18 at night.                                                                   

6. Monday it was Westminster Fellowship. We had Stephen Clark (Bridgend) preaching and then speaking on the gospel and contemporaneity. We pretty much agreed though some emphases I thought were not so helpful. I was glad not to have been slowed up by the tube strike.

7. That was followed by an Evangelical Library committee meeting. I got snarled up in traffic en route, like others, but we were only half an hour late starting.

8. Yesterday I was at Spring Court for a regular brief service. One or two of my mbers live here. Meanwhile I've been busy trying to complete a book I am writing. We're getting there. Watch this space.