Keswick in Wales

I went with my father-in-law yesterday up the road to Llandrindod Wells to the Pavilion where the Keswick in Wales convention has been taking place this last week. The main speaker has been John Tindall and we heard him very helpfully on the woman who anointed Jesus at Simon's house. After a nice meal at the Metropole and a wander around Llandrindod we heard Ben Thomas preach on the end of Romans 8. Again, it was very good (although I nodded off at one point tired from yesterday). There must have been about a hundred there, most of them unknown to me though I had nice chats with the few I do know. Nice day.

A busy week passed by

The week before last was such a busy week I haven't quite recovered yet. I did want to report back, however, so better late than never I hope. There were four main things that took up my time.

1. The John Owen Centre 2012 Conference on Adam in the Bible the Church and the World. Monday 10, Tuesday 11. This was a very good conference featuring six speakers over seven sessions, of which I caught five. It was very orderly so we began with vice principal David Green on Adam in the Old Testament and ended with Michael McClenahan (a new name to me) on Preaching Adam to Adam's Race which looked at Psalm 1 and the parable of the sower. I only caught the first of Lane Tipton's messages on Adam in the New Testament, I'm afraid. Garry Williams on Adam in the covenant of works was the stand out paper perhaps though the whole thing is worth getting to hear. See here.

2. The September 2012 Kent Evangelical Ministers Meeting. Monday 10. On the Monday evening I was not able to be at LTS because I was speaking at Waterford House, Strood. The pattern there is to begin with a meeting for pastors and elders at 5 pm and a more open meeting later at 7.30 pm. I spoke first on the session of Christ and then on the men of 1662, which seemed to be appreciated and lots of people snapped up copies of my new book, which was gratifying. See here.

3. GBM's Engage get together in Guildford. Thursday 13. Grace Baptist Mission have organised a series of three get togethers for supporting churches to discuss future strategy. Some 40 gathered at this second session in Chertsey Street, Guildford, and it seemed very worthwhile given that GBM endeavours to be a church based society. The real test will be what happens I guess. See here.

4. The LIP Annual Meetings for 2012. Saturday 14. The fourth thing was a series of meetings down at Orange Street, Trafalgar Square. We began with a trustees committee. Then in public, we had first a report on the work and then a preaching meeting which I chaired with former worker Ben Thomas from Criccieth speaking on 2 Kings 6. The project is due to end next August. More here.

Recent preaching and listening etc

Yesterday we were in North Wales and went to church in the morning to Capelfron, Penrhyndeudraeth, where the minister, Peter Campbell, was preaching on the resurrection. We were among several holiday makers who doubled the congregation to over a hundred. Valiant efforts were made to serve us all with a cuppa after, which was appreciated. We met a number of people we knew including old friends who were based in London back in the nineties who now attend regularly. We have been to the chapel several times before and I have preached there more than once. It is a difficult time for the fellowship at the moment as some will know. We are praying.

In the evening, however, we went somewhere new - to the family church in Criccieth. The church has grown out of SU beach missions work. Again we knew some there including the minister Ben Thomas and his wife, Bethan, who also spent some years in London, this time as part of the LIP team in Covent Garden. It was one of their monthly gospel presentations so it wasn't a worship service as such but Ben preached well from Romans 5. We were about 40. They had had a large number for the morning service (150+).

Back home my new fellow elder Robert Strivens was preaching. I was in Childs Hill the week before (April 1) but had been away preaching the Sunday before that down in the little chapel at Pains Hill, where I have friends. They are good people there. There were some new faces but they are a little discouraged as they are about to lose a key couple who are moving to another needy situation.

I was also preaching last Thursday on the crown of thorns in West London, in Cranford, where a good number gathered from Cranford, Hounslow West, Hayes, etc. My good friend Robin Asgher led the service and it was nice to see so many familiar faces. I also met a lovely Panjabi man called Sanjeev and his family, who are new to these circles and loving it.

The other thing that has been taking up my time recently is the Holiday Bible Club we had at the church April 3-5. We only had about twenty along which is good but we wish there had been a lot more. Like Eleri's sister in Bradford on Avon the same week we used Run the race available from Go Teach, which was a great help, though I was sorry to see pictures of Jesus (though very subtle).