10 things about Sir Alf Ramsey

With football in the news I have recently read Leo McKinstry's biography of Sir Alf Ramsey. The biography is not without faults but gives you a good idea of the man, I would guess. There are some differences of opinion, eg on whether he was withour a sense of humour or very dry. He certainly was not without humour. Here are ten things I learned about him

1. He is the only manager to take England to a World Cup final and to win the World Cup
2. He is the only manager to take a side (Ipswich) and win the top division the year they came up.
3. He was an essentially shy man
4. He was a man obsessed with football
5. He was a man who saw that it is teams that win football matches not individuals
6. He is one of only 15 football knights
7. He ws a man who generally did not swear but who could use some very ripe language at times
8. He was an Englishman who hated the Scots
9. He did not have a very good relatioship with the press
10. he was the first England manager to select the team himself, something he insisted on

10 Telewords

1. Telescope
2. Telegraph
3. Telegram
4. Telephone
5. Television
6. Telephoto lens
7. Teleprinter
8. Teleport
9. Teleconference
10. Telephotometer

Lord's Day July 15 2018

Great to be back in Childs Hill. We had (for us) large congregations am and pm with noticeable contingents of Nigerians and Filipinos in the morning as we were joined by visitors old and new. I preached another of the great texts in the morning - Ezekiel 36:26, 27. I'm amazed to think I've not tackled this as a text before now. So full of gospel. In the evening we started in Matthew 20 and the parable of the workers in the vineyard. That could have been done better perhaps. The heat did not make it easy for any of us. The evening meeting was preceded by communion where we looked again at Isaiah 53.

A day off in Aberystwyth

The old day off fell on a Satruday last week. It was my grandson Gwilym's fourth birthday party so we left London nice and early, drove without stopping and spent the day in Aber before heading home at the end of it, getting back here a little after midnight. My wonderful wife did all the driving. She likes to dive but still that was a stirling effort. The party itself was great with all five boys and wives there as well as people from Sibyl's family, local friends and people from the church. It is normally a fancy dress affair (this year's theme being Super Mario Brothers) but as it was optional no-ine dressed up except me. It's an interesting thing to know about yourself that you can be the only one there in fancy dress adn not be bothered. (One woman I'd not met before did wonder why I was dressed that way but did not like to ask). After most people were gone the family headed down to Tan-y Bwlch and despite the lack of swimming costumes most cooled off in the sea.

Midweek Meeting July 11 2018

Ten of us gathered last night for the midweek meeting. We had a little bit more from Genesis 18 and Abraham's friendship with God and then discussed topics before praying. Some churches shifted their meeting night I understand but we're not football fanatics here and I'm not sure it's a good idea anyway. As Gareth Southgate would say some things are more important than football. At least English fans will have less of a struggle on Sunday. (FYI I did with the first half. If only it had stayed like that). 

The Benedict Option

There was a quite a buzz about Rod Dreher's Benedict Option a year or so ago and on Monday our little group that gathers at the Pastors Academy in North London from time to time met to discuss it. As you might expect there was some antipathy to a book by a former Catholic Orthodox fellow who is basically advoccating that we learn from a Mediaeval monk. We tried to see past that and found many things in the book of interest. What struck me about the book was that it really contains nothing new. People have been speaking about it being a post-Christian situation at least since Schaeffer and the suggested answers - more community living, Christian education (not even the classical education idea is new), greater commitment, etc are also not new. If you have not read it you are not missing much but if this paragraph gets you curious it is worth getting a cheap copy or a paperback or borrowing one.

Next time

Calvin's Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536-1609 (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology) Oxford Studies in Historical Theology by Scott M Manetsch.

Lord's Day July 8 2018

I was down in Portsmouth last Lord's Day preaching for the folk at Grace Baptist Church, Copnor Road. (I was last there in 2009). A former member, someone who came to us as a student, is a member there and he looked after me for the afternoon. I know one or two other members of the congregation a little bit also. We were about 30 in the morning and something less in the evening. I preached on Ephesians 2:8-10 in the morning and Romans 8:28 in the evening. It was blessing to be there. More on the church here (the sermons are currently there also).
Alexander was preaching here for me and I think they got on well with several visitors.

Meal and Message with Mike Mellor

We had an encouraging evening last night. Mike Mellor came up from Bournemouth an gave his testimony and encouraged us all to faith in Christ. We were about twenty altogether, so not a large number, but about a quarter of us were people either new to us or near as. One lady comes often to events, another from time to time but the others (a Muslim, a Catholic, an Anglican, someone with vvarious trooubles who wandered in) were al fresh to us. SOme had simply read the leaflet and decided to come! How heartening. So not an achievemnet as such but a great opportunity. We pray something may come of it. The food, etc, as ever, was exceellent. Our members, especially the women, work really hard. If you don't know Mike's testimony you can get the flavour here (with Roger Carswell).

Midweek Meeting July 4 2018

We carried on with the next bit in Genesis 18 on Wednesday evening. This time it was on the God who knows where sin lurks and who sternly opposes it. Great themes. A couple from Slovakia turned up out of the blue and it was good to meet them and hear of their Brethren assembly in the north of the country. They travel regularly to London. Mikhael prayed in English as did all the regulars present. We were praying in particular for our evangelisitc meeting due the next night as well as plenty of other things.

Another two good days at the Met Tab Days 2 and 3 2018

I managed to get most of the rest of the Met Tab School of Theology. Ibrahim Ag Mohamed gave a matching message to his one on Ephesians on the first day with something on Philippians. I missed Dr Masters on the Wednesday evening as I was at our own midweek meeting. He closed the conference with something on Leviticus to match his earlier message on Psalms. Once again we were reminded that Classical music is kosher but Rock is unclean.

Dr Kurt Wise gave a further four power point presentations on the young earth, creation and the flood adn its aftermath. These wer excellent presentations - popular but erudite and full of good things. I am an instinctive young earther but I had not really heard a proper presentation before but this was quite dynamic. I thought that the argument that if we take Genesis 5 and 11 as complete genealogies we not only learn the age of the earth but gain a rationale for inscipturation at the point it comes quite persuasive.

Scott Aniol gave both his second and third papers to Christian cultural engagement. The first was a word study but the second was an excellent presentation of the two kingdoms view.

Nick Needham is always worth hearing. This time on the Synod of Dort he wassurefooted and wise as ever. The first paper covering the history was the more demanding.

All the message were videoed and will no doubt will appear on the website in due time. (The Wednesday evening message is already up). I guess around 300 adn more were there in the day time sessions adn more in the evenings. A worhtwhile conference. Good to see lots of old friends.

Good day at the Met Tab 2018 Day 1

It was great to hear Kurt Wise at the Met Tab last night as he gave a PowerPoint presentation covering six areas where the Creationist view makes more sense than the Evolutionary one - things such as the anthropic principle, beauty, the origin of life, etc. Very encouraging.

We also had an excellent paper from Scott Aniol of South Western Baptist Seminary clarifying Isaac Watts and his Trinitarianism. That was helpful and good lessons were drawn - the difficulty of drawing doctrinal boundaries, the importance of historical creeds and the vital place of hymns in determining people's theology.

Ibrahim Ag Mohamed and Dr Masters himself also spoke helpfully on benefiting from Ephesians and Psalms. I was sorry to miss the pastor from Colombia speaking about the work there.

A slightly different day off

My day off was slightly different this week as I took a different day to my usual one. The bonus here was that I got to have lunch with my wife, always a joy. (We're back on salads after a short respite). I began with a long walk to Highgate (no dog this time) followed by a coffee and puzzles but first I made sure I had breakfast and devotions (learning from last week). Later I worked on this book I'm trying to write, did some reading, a little blogging and watched most of the Brazil Mexico game.

In the evening we were scheduled for door to door work. It was gratifying to find we were six all told in the end (and one is going out another night). By this stage we are mostly leafleting. We do hope people will come to our meeting on Thursday evening.

Now, of course, you could say, is it a day off if you are working for the church in part of it? There are constant little issues like this for the minister. Given that everyone else was doing what they were doing on their own time I don't see it is a problem just because it fell on my day off. The church does not support me on an hours worked basis but in a way that means I do not have to do other work. On the same basis I was happy to do a few emails and take some phone calls.

I watched the dramatic end of the Belgium Japan game and did some ordering on Amazon for something I have planned then headed for bed.

Sloop John B live at Capitol Studios 2016

Lord's Day July 1 2018

A new month so we started with communion. I read Isaiah 53. In the morning I preached from the text John 15:26 (part of my hundred texts project again) on the Holy Spirit and in the evening when we were down to about ten of us, on the final verses of Matthew 19

By the end of the day I was quite discouraged. I know from the photo last week there were 39 of us. It also tells me that 13 of those were not there this week (if I add the ten or so not there last week that is some 23 gone astray). Having said that three last week were visiting and one has now left us for South Africa. Seven of those missing were away in Sri Lanka, Turkey and Bedford. Further, another three of the ten were back plus at least two visitors. Someone also shared with me an seemingly intractable situation they are in which is sad too.

I've been here before. The only answer is to humble yourself, repent and press on. No-one ever suggsted it would be easy.

10 Drummers who led bands

1. Dave Clark (Dave Clark Five)
2. Jon Hiseman (Colosseum, etc)*
3. Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac)
4. Stewart Copeland (The Police)
5. Buddy Rich
6. Gene Krupa
7. Jack Parnell
8. Eric Delaney
9. Art Blakey
10. Chick Webb

* This list was prompted by the recent death of Jon Hiseman