I don’t think anyone became a Christian that night, and it’s not that surprising. The passage was unusual, certainly, and I doubt if more than a handful of people there were familiar with it. But that shouldn’t really have been an issue because a good biblical theology would have been able to travel from there
I don’t mean the oddities of the people who turn up, or lack of prayer – but the clue’s in the title. When we come to a group Bible Study, what should we be expecting? 1. Bible It should be obvious that this is the centre – but my experience is that all too easily
I nearly drowned this week. Not physically, but mentally. I’d started work on a talk, and pulled four commentaries off the shelves. A couple of hours after I started using the first one I realised that I’d hardly begun. This commentary was B-I-G, with well over a hundred pages on my passage. Should I spend all
As Christmas comes round and carol services appearing the diary, I’m always reminded of one particular conversation, and of the reasons I’m a preacher, and a passionate evangelist. The church I was brought up was always packed for its Christmas services, and it did them well. There was a big choir, properly trained, and it
You do still have them in your diary, don’t you? Those regular pauses in your ministry life that make it possible to breathe, sink in God’s Word, and regroup your plans. Once a month, perhaps, taking a couple of hours for you, a Bible and a notebook. Once a quarter, perhaps, taking a day for
Here’s a free gift to help you develop as a preacher, or to help you help others. Compare two preachers I heard recently. One had been to college and the other hadn’t, but that wasn’t what we noticed. One was more confident than the other, one gave us too much information while the other weighed
I think the shortest time I ever had to prepare a talk, was around five minutes. It was all down to a blissfully simple misunderstanding. A friend was arranging an evening on world mission, with a variety of speakers from around the country, key folk from local churches, and a number of mission agencies. Quite
Out of the best of motives, at the end of my evangelistic talk, I invited the young people who prayed the prayer of commitment, to raise their hands as they did so. I wanted them to make some definite movement to show that they had given their lives to Christ. Why? To encourage them. But
I was a young assistant minister, and I’d been left in charge. The minister was away on sabbatical, and I had been given the keys of the kingdom. It wasn’t my first day there – in fact, I’d been there for three years already, and he had been quite straight and trusting. I was in
Are your home groups in a rut? Needing something to shake them up? Here’s an interesting idea – stop meeting in each other’s homes. I heard recently of a church was pushing back on the idea of being pushed to the margins. They realised they were colluding with the idea of being invisible to a
Life as a leader will be tough, and will demand self-discipline. But while it’s realistic to admit that it’s tough, it’s downright stupid to make it impossible. How do we do that? By taking on a role we were never intended to play. For instance, I frequently meet Christian leaders who think that their role
If you’ve enjoyed the impact of Sovereign Grace music in the UK, you won’t want to miss this conference with Bob Kauflin in March. Nathan Smith, pastor of Grace Church, Bath, who’s the organiser, writes this:- The conference will be held on 5th-8th March 2014, at The Forum, in Bath and hosted by Bob Kauflin
If there’s something wrong with the shirt I’ve bought, I take back to the shop. If the mechanic hasn’t fixed the car, I take it back to the garage. I’m a customer, I have paid, and I expect the level of service. That model of thinking is so prevalent in a consumer society, that people
Jesus taught us that our fundamental role as ministers is to be servants. He has served us, we are to serve each other, and those of us who are pastors are to serve as we lead. But words come in particular cultures and contexts. In Jesus’ time the word ‘slave’ was demeaning and potentially violent
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, it’s said. (Actually, I’ve failed to teach our dog any tricks, but that’s a different story) I was mulling this over while preparing a talk once for our Ladies Fellowship, a delightful group of saints, most of whom were in their seventies and many in their eighties.
‘They’re watching’ Not in a creepy sense, I hope, but every Sunday, every meeting, every conversation, you are being watched. Why? Because you are supposed to be a model of being a mature Christian. People learn from you how they are supposed to be Christians. Paul told Titus, ‘Show yourself in all respects to be
I got it wrong again this week. In public, which was a touch embarrassing. .. I was speaking to a group of pastors in training, looking at the priorities of ministry from Acts 6. You know the story – the needy widows were being overlooked in the food pantry, so the apostles arrange for a
Identifying your strengths is a key part of finding a job or moving on in your career at the moment. Knowing your contribution will lead to your personal satisfaction and worth, and to your being productive and energised. Perhaps the most engaging exponent of this view is Marcus Buckingham. A Brit living in the States,
There are several prayers that I regularly pray as a preacher. 1. Lord, show them what you have shown me. Paul told Timothy to ‘Reflect on what I am saying and the Lord will give you insight’ (2 Tim. 2:7) A sermon is always the product of hard reflection, thinking and study, but there’s the
I’m not a big fan of multitasking. I’ve been persuaded, both by the research and my own experience, that working on two things at once makes me less efficient at both. Phone calls while emailing mean we do less well on both fronts, making more errors. So I’ve never really listened to people who have
