The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

Ministry December 17, 20, 24 and 25


The holiday vibe has left s rather behind with things so here is a combined report on four meetings over the last ten days or so.
First, on December 17 Eddie, my assistant, preached morning and evening from Luke 1 and 2 on Mary and the Shepherds. We had typical congregations for these days although already people had started to go away. Eddie got on fine. It was a strange week beforehand for me. I am not used to not preaching on a Sunday and didn't cope well.
Midweek on December 20 just a few of us gathered. We looked at 2 Corinthians 8:9 and spent time in prayer.
December 24 we had a decent congregation in the morning (eventually) with three sons and other family members present, loads of Iranians as usual (about 13 plus two visitors from Birmingham), two African families who we have been getting confused about, a new lady and her 96 year old mother and a few others. I managed to introduce two potential new members to each other. My head deacon has gone down with covid so he and his family were absent. In the evening it was just five of us Bradys and our chuch sevretary and PA man. I preached from Matthew 2 on the wisemen and on Herod.
Then on Christmas Day we gathered not knowing quite what to expect. In the end there were seven of us family, the PA man and the pianist and her husband and daughter, the new lady from the day before, five Iranians, a lady from Pakistan, a Nigerian lady, a man from Afghanistan, a new lady I hope will join us soon, two people who live nearby who we had never seen before. I've probably missed someone, I had a message on two women, two tress and two deaths, which was appreciated.

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