Gracelife Summer Institute 2019 Day 1

Most often I spend the first week in August in Wales but this week I am in London attending the Gracelife Summer Institute in Clerkenwell. We had a good full day in a packed church - warm but bearable. In the end, slightly outside the original plan, Tom Drion led us off very well from Matthew 5:10 giving many examples of the trouble Christians are getting into these days when they take a stand for the truth. That set the tone well for the conference theme - remaining steadfast. During the day they played a message from John Macarthur to the conference and then, at different times, we heard two messages on Romans 1  - one here.  It is not an ideal set up but one understands how this has happened. We heard live from Paul Washer preaching from Daniel on Antiochus Epiphanes and other matters. I have not met or heard Paul Washer before so it was good to be there. We also had two sessions from Owen Strachan of CBMW. See here. I only knew three or four people here before coming but it has been good to meet others. Most people here are not ministers. Most are from the church here. We are quite ethnically diverse and dominated by under-40s. A very good day.

Summer Conference

I thought you might like to know about the conference being held in August down in Clerkenwell.What disitinguished company. I am looking forward to being involved. More details 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.

Steven Lawson

It was good to have the opportunity to hear Steven Lawson yesterday over at the Woodbridge Street Chapel over in Clerkenwell. I went for a number of reasons - to hear Dr Lawson who I have read but not heard. He was rightly basic but very good on expository preaching, perhaps best in answering the eager questions. I wanted to say hello to Tom Drion who is working hard church planting with others in a difficult area. I was sorry not to get to say hello to his wife Donna also. I was also curious to see who might be drawn to such a conference. Well, there were a lot of them (over a hundred), mostly under 40, ethnically diverse and 80% or more unknown to me. (Perhaps a large number were not pastors). I guess these are the new Calvinists we hear so much about (no slur on Jeremy Walker intended) . Most people I spoke to were aware of the event in connection with the Shepherd's Conference. The event was earmarked as a Ligonier and Good Book company event. That was my last motive - to get an eye at the books. I bought the Saving Eutychus, more as a souvenir than anything but I hope I'll read it. I notice that Dr Lawson now has a number of biographies out (I've only read the Calvin one). It was good to catch up with Ashley Jones from Caterham, a mere boy when I saw him last and (to this old man) not much more than that now. I had hoped to return in the evening but the exigencies of a hospital in North Acton visit meant it was not possible to get back in time. It was all duly recorded and will get to me at some point no doubt.