Day Off Week 21 2021

Last Tuesday there was time for some TV and a coffee out but most of the time went on reading. I had several books for my birthday and made a big dent in several of them. I have now finished the book onf Focus which is full of interest for fans. As so often with this sort of book the proof reading (if any was done at all) is appalling. Mr Lambe if there is going to be a second edition, please please let me proof read it. I'm happy to do it for free. I enjoyed the Gavin Peacock in the main. It is a football book really but with a few twists. As I read, I realised I had seen Gavin play for QPR back in 2001. I'd taken the older boys there on some sort of cheap tickets deal in connection with the local school. The Richard Osman is lovely and undemanding. So that is

Decades – Focus in the 1970s Stephen Lambe

A Greater Glory: My Journey from the Pitch to the Pulpit Gavin Peacock h/b

The Thursday Murder Club Richard Osman

John and Betty Stam: Missionary Martyrs Vance Christie

Captive to the Word of God: A Particular Baptist Perspective Stuart Brogden

Two interesting biographical documentaries

I have watched two interesting biographical documentaries recently. First, on ITV there was one on Cliff Richard - Sir Cliff Richard: 60 Years in Public and in Private. There was not much about Cliff's faith but there was one section suggesting he is a man who still prays and professes Christ. It is very easy to criticise such a person but he does seem to be seeking to live up to the light he has.

The other one was on the BBC more recently and was intended to be overtly religious as it is part of a series called My faith and me. No mention of Gavin's few months at London Seminary understandably but sadly. It was interesting nevertheless as he went from place to place capturing memories and telling his story so far. the move to Canada makes a great deal of sense and highlights how difficult celebrity can be.

Both are still available on iplayer or whatever at the moment.

Opportunities for intake last week

Gavin Peacock, Highgate Rd Chapel

The opportunities to hear others ministering last week were so many that it has taken me until now to write things up.

We started off last Monday (4th) in Westminster Baptist Church listening to Paul Yeulett from Grove Chapel speaking to the fellowship on Stress in the ministry. He began with some more general remarks on the subject of stress before narrowing down to stress in the ministry going to the Psalm and 2 Corinthians before finishing with some practical suggestions such as the importance of things such as rest, variety and delegation. It was a helpful paper and although our chairman was rather disappointed by the number present (about 16) it seemed none to bad given the subject and the day. I must say that although the folk at Westminster Baptist Church are extremely welcoming and kind, the building is not a great draw aesthetically. Such relatively superficial considerations do weigh with some.

The Westminster Fellowship was originally the brainchild of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones and on Tuesday evening it was the Dr Lloyd-Jones Memorial Lecture that I went off to at the LTS. This normally takes place during the annual John Owen Centre Conference but as the lecture is intended not to be only for ministers a shift of timing was felt desirable. A good number attended this year's lecture which was from Old Testament specialist Dr Iain Duguid. He spoke on The Song of Songs, on what love is and on marriage and singleness. He helpfully argued that marriage involves  a threefold bond - legal, affectionate and sexual. He spoke of marriage as friendship on fire. He closed with an appropriate focus on Christ and the cross. See here for a similar paper given at Westminster Theological Seminary.

Besides this public lecture Dr Duguid lectured to the seminary students on the Song. On the Wednesday afternoon  there was an opportunity for others to be present when we turned to another of the wisdom books Proverbs and how to preach it. Dr D made some helpful remarks on the subject and gave an example or two of how to go about it. It was good to be present for that too.

As if all that was not enough, there were three further opportunities for intake on the Saturday. The LTS was having an elders day with Garry Williams, Robert Strivens and Ian Fry (a minister and Director of Youth and Children’s Ministry Training at Oak Hill Theological College) [LTS here] and next door the Kensit church had a morning conference on reaching Muslims with Amjad Mahand. We opted for Gavin Peacock with is wife Amanda at Highgate Road Chapel, following up the Song of Songs work with a well attended day conference on biblical manhood and womanhood. There are difficulties when a group focusses only on one matter but it was good to look at the subject again with some very clear messages and an opportunity for questions at the end. More from cbmw here.

Duguid/Yeulett

 

JOC Calvin Extra

One of the nice things about conferences is the opportunity for informal fellowship. It was nice to speak to various people there, including some who visit the blog here from time to time. I guess I know around 60% of the people so a few strangers. It was nice to see the Evesons again and others. I had a nice chat with two fellows from Malta I'd not met before. From this church I believe. It was also nice to see Gavin Peacock too, mentioned here a little while back - see here. He is to study in LTS I understand. I saw he was sat next to Jeremy Walker (brother to Dan) in the evening. I wonder if they chatted.

Gavin Peacock

There was an interesting article in the Times today. See it here.
It includes these quotations

“Up until then football was my God. Suddenly, everything fell into its proper place. I realised who Jesus was and what He had done on the cross by dying for my sin.”

“When you score a goal you never feel more alive,” he says. “But that’s just a momentary high, it’s not reality. It’s not the truth, it’s just a glimpse of something. In the big picture my reality is my walk with God and it’s eternal and everlasting.”

“I feel that I could go into an inner-city area and speak to kids or adults belonging to a football club and feel connected. And say, ‘Your hope is in football, but there’s something that can give us hope and joy beyond that.’ I want to say to young kids, in a country that says success is fame and having ambition and money and cars and beautiful women and sex, ‘That’s not it, you hit the ceiling and there’s something else instead.’ ”

“Are we radically living for Christ or are we living in a lukewarm, plastic kind of Christianity?” he asks when we speak at his house after the service. “I don’t think people are radical enough, I don’t think they really are on fire and have it in their hearts.

We’re preaching a man-centred, therapeutic gospel now. It’s a make-you-feel-good gospel and it’s a small gospel. I see a lack of respect for the authority of scripture. We need to see who He really is and we need to live in response to that.”

Outside, the light fades and unseen in the distance skiers and hikers make their way down from the mountains. Tomorrow the sun will burn off the morning fog and wash the Bow Valley with a brilliant clear blue. “People worship the beauty, but they don’t worship the creator of the beauty,” Peacock says. “It’s not to be found in the mountains themselves but in the creator of those rivers, valleys and wildlife. They’re just an echo, a display.”

“Fans join together and experience it just for a moment with the player who’s scored or with the team’s victory. We want to partake in something of beauty, of glory, to take us out and up. Our souls were made for the majesty of Christ,” he says, not watching the screen. Voice calm, clear and certain, eyes ablaze.