Day off week 26 2019

My day off this week was fine. Eleri was in work then had the women's meeting at church - not ideal. I'm planning to go to the Benjamin Franklin museum but it is not open on Tuesdays. No dog to look after but I took a little walk and had a coffee. I like to read Private Eye which comes out fortnightly. For once I got hold of it on a Tuesday and read it through - the ideal pattern. I also read a book by Jim Packer I bought last week - Finishing our course with joy. According to Packer, I'm five years too early for a book like this but I found it helpful. His main point is that as you get older people want you to just relax and put your feet up but he says no. I think it is this that has been annoying me as I've reached sixty. Good stuff (and in larger print!). We have our friend from Germany Stefan here again. He has been enjoying the EMA, which is in Westminster Chapel this year. Good to catch up with him in the evening.

Lloyd-Jones Fifty Years ago yesterday

I believe this link here gives us the service fifty years ago yesterday in Westminster Chapel, the Sunday following the assassination of President Kennedy in the USA.

Catch up 22

It's been so busy lately that I haven't been able to blog a few things. I really enjoyed being at The John Owen Centre in LTS the other week with David Green and a group of others looking at chapters from Proverbs in Hebrew. There is nothing quite like getting down to the original text. That same week I was in LTS for a meeting about the mentoring scheme they run and which I am involved in, which was useful. Then on Saturday November 9 I had another opportunity with others to preach in Trafalgar Square. It was a little wet at times but the Square was as busy as I've ever seen it and there were lots of good opportunities.

Then the following Monday I was at Westminster Chapel for the Westminster Fellowship. We did a little bit of naval gazing and agreed to carry on, though our next meeting (which is in February) is planned to be held in Westminster Baptist Church, (my McAfee didn't like that link for some reason but I'm sure it's fine) not a venue I am at all familiar with. We are only around 20 at the fraternal these days but it is good to meet and frankly discuss with men who I am pretty much on a wavelength with.

The next day there was another fraternal, the North London one in Finchley. Trevor Archer FIEC Training Director spoke. It was billed as being on leadership but was really about the advantages of one to one work. This was not new to me. I remember hearing quite a bit of this at early Proclamation Trust meetings and doing what I could to implement it. Like all panaceas, it can be over-rated and should really be seen as just one optional tool. My fear is that an over emphasis on this may downgrade preaching.

Apart from a church officers meeting and the arrival of the book on the Dutch rock band Focus that I edited I think that's all I want to report this time. I'm at the Evangelical Library today and the Westminster Conference is fast approaching. Do book if you haven't already.

I Quite Like Mondays

The last three Mondays have been pretty busy ones and I've not really reported the good things I've been enjoying. So time for a quick round up.

This last Monday (13th) I was giving a historical lecture at Bulkington Congregational Church. My good friend Mike Iliff had kindly recommended me and it was good to be in the lovely little chapel there near Nuneaton for the first time and to meet their minister Peter Mackenzie. A good crowd gathered and it was good to see a mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces and to meet several when tea was served after the lecture (available here).

The Monday before was the first Monday in the month so I was down at the Westminster Fellowship. They have put us in a new room. It's a bit poky and has the humbling words Welcome to the creche on the wall but I'm sure it will do us fine. About twenty of us were there to hear Chris Jenkins of Christchurch, Baldock speak on his experiences with Evangelical Anglicans and then to discuss the matter. It seemed to me to confirm my suspicion that the Anglican approach is almost entirely pragmatic and that they really don't think at all as people like members of the Westminster Fellowship generally do. Chris's point was that may be we can learn something from them and may be we can or at least we can not bemoan the way things go with us partly because we have made the choices we have.

The Monday before that (if that's not considered ancient history) I was at the John Owen Centre leading a discussion group on the Paul Copan book Is God a moral monster? which we liked a bit because he was at least trying to defend the Bible against the atheists. Some of his exegesis got us nervous, however, and so we were reluctant to commend it too highly. It's one of those books that are worth reading even though you are bound to disagree with certain things. In the evening I was chairing the Cranford Support Trust followed by the support group meeting. Robin Asgher was then fresh back from Pakistan where, among other things, he was preaching in a church in the place where Osama Bin Laden lived and died, Abbottabad. (St Luke's Church, is as old as the town [see pic]. "A melancholy Christian cemetery can be found 500m up Circular Rd" according to Lonely Planet). Fascinating!

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.

John Blanchard

I was in the Evangelical Library the other day and I saw the latest Day One Travel With publication and took it to read. It's by Brian Edwards and is on John Blanchard - the first time a living person has been covered, I believe. John was born in Guernsey, lived in the Highlands and has travelled the UK and the world so he should fit the bill.

I was familiar with some of John Blanchard's story though there was plenty new to me. It was interesting to read about his call to Westminster Chapel and to ponder what might have been. Remarkably in 1982, aged 50, he got baptised by immersion. The statement that he is not one for small talk explained the awkwardness I had observed on the very few occasions our paths have crossed. The book does get slightly tedious in parts as yet further ports of call are listed but it is a fascinating book. One other piece of trivia I gleaned was the fact that Sam Ryder (as in Ryder cup) was a Christian (a member at Spicer Street, St Alban's).

There are now 18 such Travel Guides - 5 themed (Cambridge, Oxford, Israel, British Museum, Martyrs in Mary Tudor's time) and 13 on individuals.

Remember remember

I'm not sure how many (if any) members of the Westminster Fellowship happen this way but this is a reminder that the fellowship meets on Monday (5th - first Monday in November) and I am the speaker. We will be revisiting the subject of regeneration so do come if you can.