350th Anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer

Bishop Paul Barnett give thanks for the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and points out three characteristics –

1. The BCP expresses a faith that is ‘catholic’.
2. The BCP expresses a faith that is ‘reformed’.
3. The BCP expresses a faith that is defended liturgically.

He goes on to comment on some recent trends –

“Post-modernism puts emphasis on the individual and evangelicals tend to be robust individuals. Many depart from the principle of commonality and uniformity and design their own services away from BCP. There is one Bible reading (or even none); there is no creed (or just occasionally); there is no calendar and no collects.

For them preaching the preacher is the all-important thing. The loss of liturgy means that the voice of the congregation is substantially silenced. Leaving only a single voice of the leader or preacher.

The preacher has replaced the liturgy as the defender of true doctrine…”

– But read it all here.

Even Barry Jones gets it wrong…

“To disagree with Barry Jones feels like taking on the Encyclopaedia Britannica. You know he knows more than you do before you start, and whatever you do know, he will be able to show you that you are wrong.

This, of course, is to do him a great disservice. As a previous Federal Minister for Science and a keen educationalist, Barry Jones has always promoted the idea of inquiry, challenging ideas and public debate.

So, with some residual reservation of a child listening to the quiz show where Barry’s prodigious knowledge first came to public attention, I would like to challenge the public intellectual’s understanding of the relation of church and state in Australia. …”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column.

Why Johnny can’t sing hymns

The latest White Horse Inn broadcast –

“What is the impact of technology on the way we live and think as Christians? How has popular culture changed the way we worship on Sunday mornings? On this edition of the White Horse Inn, Michael Horton discusses these issues with T. David Gordon, author of Why Johnny Can’t Preach, and Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns.”

– Plenty of food for thought for ministers and congregations. Well worth listening. 36 minutes.

When to jump ship?

“Anyone in a mainline denomination infected by liberalism, or some other divergence from the evangelical faith, will have faced the question of when to stay or when to go? How bad does the denomination have to get before you decide to abandon ship? Recently, this question came closer to home as an evangelical Anglican pastor in Australia, when a bishop in another diocese knowingly appointed a clergyman in an open same-sex relationship to charge of a parish. …”

– Over at The Briefing, Sandy Grant mulls the question – with help from John Charles Ryle.

Applying the Bible to applying the Bible

Tonight’s public Moore College Lecture for 2012 – given by the Rev. Chris Green from Oak Hill College in London – was streamed live on the web. If you missed it, you can watch the full lecture here.

Info on the upcoming lectures here.

Challenging equality Britain

“George Orwell’s famous allegory, Animal Farm, gave us the wry phrase, ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’. It brought out the way that you could have all the talk about equality and rights, but that it actually worked out with inequalities and with favoured groups. In Animal Farm, you remember, it was the pigs who ended up more equal than others.

I suspect that is how many Christians are coming to think about equality Britain. It’s a Britain where comedians are feted for their ‘daring’ in taking on the Christian religion on national TV, while never quite having the bottle to dish out equal satire to the equally fervent Richard Dawkins. It’s a Britain where major human rights abuses against Christians in countries such as North Korea or Syria are not reported as such.

It’s a Britain where you pray with someone in hospital at your peril, in case some third party takes offence. It’s a Britain where a prime minister appears to be under the impression that he can change what constitutes marriage. I suspect many of us find ourselves both frustrated and bewildered. How did it come to this?…”

– Oak Hill Principal Mike Ovey writes in the latest issue of Oak Hill’s Commentary magazine – available as a 6.4MB PDF file. Download it for the many worthwhile articles.

Preserving the Gospel in the Seminary

in March last year, Albert Mohler (President of Southern Baptist Seminary) and Peter Lillback (President of Westminster Seminary) spoke about the history of their seminaries. It’s a good reminder of what needs to be preserved. From ‘Christ the Center’. (Audio & video here, or on YouTube – via Justin Taylor.)

The Two-Pronged Strategy of a Master Evangelist

“It’s amazing how culture changes and we don’t notice it. The practices that one generation took for granted become unknown, and slightly shocking, to a later generation. Even for those of us who live through the change it happens too incrementally for us to observe it. It is when we revisit the old times that we detect how much we have changed – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and often without any real difference.

Recently, I had the privilege of publicly interviewing John Chapman as he recounted his many decades of Christian ministry. In the interview, he unwittingly challenged us about changes happening that neither he nor we had noticed. …”

– Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column. (Photo: John Chapman, 1980.)

Dick Lucas — The race set before us (2)

Dick Lucas preached on Hebrews 12:1-3 last Sunday at St Helen’s Bishopsgate.

Most encouraging.

See or hear it at the St. Helen’s website.

On preaching and preachers

“This is an article about preaching that is meant to be read by non-preachers. … As someone who is rather new to the pulpit, I thought it might be helpful to tell you what some of the surprises have been as I’ve somehow transitioned to a person who preaches on a regular basis…”

– Tim Challies shares some thoughts about preaching. Perhaps you could use these to inform your prayers for preachers.

Devote Yourselves to Prayer

Encouragement from Gary Nelson, Bishop of North West Australia:

“There’s no escaping the emphasis on prayer that comes to us from the Scriptures – whether we look to the example of the apostles, or the response of the Pentecost converts, or Jesus’ clear teaching on prayer. We’re called to pray!

So what a joy it is to share with you in this key ministry. Here in the North West we could not survive without prayer and the encouragement we receive from the army of pray-ers across our nation. Please keep praying.”

– Read his letter here. (And please remember the people of the North West in your prayers.)

The Spiritual Athlete – the race set before us

Dick Lucas preached this edifying sermon on 2 Timothy 4:1-8 on Sunday morning at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.

Themelios 37.2

The latest issue of Themelios (issue 37.2) is now available as a free download from The Gospel Coalition.

It includes articles by Don Carson and Mike Ovey, and many book reviews (a review of Paul Barnett’s The Corinthian Question: Why Did the Church Oppose Paul? is among them.)

 

Marriage in Gospel Focus — Tim & Kathy Keller

Tim and Kathy Keller spoke on “Marriage in Gospel Focus” at the Gospel Coalition’s Women’s Conference in Florida recently.

Video of their talks can be seen here on Vimeo – 49 minutes well spent, and worth passing on. Would be ideal for watching in a Bible Study group.

The collapse of the liberal church

“Two weeks from now, the United Church of Canada will assemble in Ottawa for its 41st General Council, where it will debate church policy and elect a new moderator. The top item on its agenda is a resolution calling for a boycott of products from Israeli settlements.

Fortunately, nobody cares what the United Church thinks about Israeli settlements, or anything else for that matter, because the United Church doesn’t matter any more. … the church is literally dying.”

– This opinion-piece by Margaret Wente in The Globe & Mail on The United Church of Canada has a similar tone to several articles published recently. See also:

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