Lord's Day November 17 2024 Waterford House, Strood

Last Lord's Day I was preaching in Waterford House Evangelical Church, Strood, Kent, for their anniversary. It was avery good day. I preached from the first part of Ezekiel 37 in the morning and in the evening on Philippians 4:6, 7 on prayer. This was followed by communion led by an elder and between the two services we had lunch together and I spoke (not very well) about my trip to Kenya earlier this year. I know the pastor Adrian Tribe mainly becasue we both served on the LIP committee for many years. It was nice to have time with himand his wife Andrea. The previous pastor, Norman Hopkins, is still in membership. I now him mainly through the Evangelical Library. Also in membership these days are Bernard and Linda Lewis. Now retired from full time ministry Bernard was a fellow student at the seminary. It was good to spend a little time with them too. Great day.

Wedding in Kent

So last Thursday my wife and I headed east to Kent. We stayed in a nice little (very little) Air BnB in Rochester for the night. We enjoyed having a wander in the historic town which we have only visited once before. Satis House is apparently the house that Dickens based the home of Miss Haversham on and Abdication House is where James II en route for the continent and no longer being king. We had an afternoon coffee and later a pizza at Pizza Express. Very nice. I bought a nice little book on Helen Keller for children, which I enjoyed. We also watched The Highway Men a Netflix film about the notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde.

The reason we were in Kent was to be at the wedding of Davd Mitchell to Alice Relf in Chatham. We have known David for years. He came to us when he was a student. One of my sons was bestman (great speech) and another a groomsman. Great day at churh and at the reception. Lots of ministers there one way and another.  One of the most enjoyable weddings I have attended.

Library Lecture on the Lollards

Around 15 of us gathered last Monday (a typical number for the lunch time get togethers) at the Evangelical Library in London to hear Norman Hopkins speak on the Lollard leader Sir John Oldcastle (Lord Cobham) and some of his Lollard contemporaries and predecessors. As usual with Norman this was with special reference to the county of Kent. He also made a point, as he often does, of including plenty of visual fare to help us. That was appreciated. I must take a leaf from his book when I lecture on Coggeshall in Essex next month. It is on the 18th - do come and join us. Oldcastle had his obvious faults but he knew the Lord adn even in such dark times lived up to the light he had.

Lunch Time Lecture at the Evangelical Library

There was an encouraging turn out for our latest lecture at the Evangelical Library last Monday. Norman Hopkins, who knows his history well and can put ti over well, spoke on some of the church history in connection with Kent mentioning various Lollards and later Reformers. It was a treat to be there.

Latest Library Lecture (Hopkins on Frith)

Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

We rather struggled to get up to double figures at the Library last Monday but we made it. It is probably too early in the month for some. Norman Hopkins gave us an excellent illustrated introduction to the Reformers and Martyrs of Kent, beginning with Wycliffe's Lollards. It was good to be reminded of this material and expecially of John Frith (burned 1533), a rather forgotten character perhaps. The lecture helped clarify for me that while thefive ssolas are the theological meat and veg of the whole period in England it was transubstantiation that was the critical point of contention. It was also a reminder of what a good man John Foxe was. In that regard this website is worth checking out.

Huguenots at the Evangelical Library

G.Garitan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

We had an excellent lecture this afternoon at the Library from Norman Hopkins at the Evangelical Library on the Huguenots in Kent. Norman has addressed this subject many times and has quite a knowledge of it. Some of us are quite ignorant and it was fascinating to get some of the background to the story of French Protestants and how the fled persecution. The word refugee is from this language and period and so the whole thing had something of a contemporary ring about it. Very many avenues were explored - their faith, their skill, their history, etc. Recordings are always made and can be obtained from the Library if you are interested. I noticed it was also videoed and a vdeo would be the ideal. We had a good crowd and as it was Philip's birthday we celebrated afterwards with a cake that someone had kindly provided.

Peter du Moulin above is one of several Huguenots mentioned specifically.

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.

SGU Bethersden

I was speaking for the Kent auxiliary of the Sovereign Grace Union on Wednesday night in Union Chapel, Bethersden. I'd not been there before and had failed to leave myself as much time as I should to cover the distance. There was heavy traffic at the Dartford Crossing. I ended up 10 minutes late for that reason but people were very understanding. About 40 had gathered in the little chapel there. The pulpit is a high one and there is a gallery so the preacher can't necessarily see everyone, not if they sit near the outer walls. I've not preached anywhere like that before.

Most of the people were strangers to me but there were a few I knew, including the young minister at Bethersden Steve Ridgeway, who I have met at the Westminster Fellowship, his fellow elder Andrew Muwowo from Zambia and another Bethersden member, Ian Jemmett. I also know our chairman Tim Field (Tonbridge) who had invited me. He had asked me for a title at the time and in a moment of inspiration had got back to him with "The sovereignty of God and human responsibility". It was only as I prepared properly that I realised what a difficult subject it is. Anyway with the help mostly of A W Pink I managed to put something together that was fairly thorough, not too difficult to listen to, hopefully not overlong (although I'm sure I was at least 50 minutes) and not merely dry and theoretical. Watch this space for more detail.

One of my fears was over just who I might be upsetting but not knowing most of the people I was fairly oblivious. They listened well and made lots of appreciative comments. I think most of the folk were from Bethersden but several other fellowships were represented, some coming from as far as Folkestone. I hope they felt it worthwhile. The doctrine of God's sovereignty is one of the most comforting doctrines in Scripture and the doctrine of our responsibility one of the most challenging.