Packer: Playing the Numbers Game
“I have found that churches, pastors, seminaries, and parachurch agencies throughout North America are mostly playing the numbers game—that is, defining success in terms of numbers of heads counted or added to those that were there before…”
– J. I Packer, via Justin Taylor.
Packer’s testimony to the reality of weakness
Dr J I Packer speaks about his experience of weakness in this short video to introduce his forthcoming book on 2 Corinthians, Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength.
h/t Justin Taylor.
A book Packer thinks you should read three times
Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds quotes J. I. Packer writing about Don Whitney’s Spiritual Disciples for the Christian Life –
“I can go on record as urging all Christians to read what Don Whitney has written; indeed, to read it three times over, with a month’s interval (certainly not less, and ideally, I think, not more) between each reading. This will not only make the book sink in, but will also give you a realistic picture of your seriousness, or lack of it, as Jesus’ disciple.
Your first reading will show you several particular things that you should start doing.
In your second and third readings (for each of which you should choose a date on the day you complete the previous reading) you shall find yourself reviewing what you have done and how you have fared in doing it. That will be very good for you, even if the discovery of it comes as a bit of a shock at first.”
J I Packer interviewed by Carl Trueman
Carl Trueman recently interviewed Dr J I Packer. He writes, “the testimony to God’s grace in his own life, his reflections on the Puritans and on Lloyd-Jones and his advice to young ministers is invaluable”.
Wonderful interview – watch it here (16 minutes).
J. I. Packer: Fighting heresy in churches and small groups
“[I]t’s my firm conviction that churches ought to foresee this unhappy possibility of heresy getting in when lay-folk are leading. And they should counter the possibility by what in the history of the church has been called “catechesis.” We hardly hear of it these days, but in the second and third centuries A.D.—and indeed for some centuries after—it’s rather amazing to discover that inquirers into the faith were fed into catechetical classes.”
– J I Packer was interviewed by Christianity Today International for SmallGroups.com (h/t Anglicans Ablaze.).
‘Remember your leaders’ — J I Packer on John Stott
Dr Packer preached from Hebrews 13 at the memorial service for John Stott in Vancouver on Friday evening.
The video is in three parts: part 1, part 2, part 3. (Total, 33 minutes.) Very encouraging.
J I Packer’s preface to Griffith Thomas’ Principles of Theology
In 1977, Dr J I Packer wrote the Preface to an edition of W.H. Griffith Thomas’ The Principles of Theology.
“As in general terms Calvin’s 1559 Institutes rounded off the forty-year Reformation era in European theology, so in general terms The Principles of Theology may be said to have rounded off a four-hundred year era of Protestant Anglicanism, and in particular to have summed up a century of vigilant scholarship which, in face of what looked like Rome’s Trojan horse in the Church of England, had sought to vindicate historic Protestantism as authentically Anglican and as the only position with more than squatter’s rights within the Establishment.
This was the scholarship of such men as William Goode, George Cornelius Gorham, T. P. Boultbee, T. S. L. Vogan, Nathaniel Dimock, E. A. Litton, Henry Wace, Handley C. G. Moule, J. T. Tomlinson, W. Prescott Upton and Charles Sydney Carter – giants in the land in their own day, however little remembered now.”
– Read the rest on the Church Society website.
Learn more about Griffith Thomas here. (Photo: Theopedia.)
The Death of Death in the Death of Christ – Packer’s introduction
Dr Jim Packer’s introductory essay to The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owen remains a classic essay on Christ’s atonement. Written in 1958, it is probably even more relevant now than it was then.
Among other things, Dr Packer gives a helpful introduction to Calvinism. The essay will repay careful reading.
There are several copies of the essay on the Internet – Monergism has one here.
J I Packer blows the whistle
Dr J I Packer:
“In the sixteenth and seventeen centuries, the Reformers – the Puritans – the evangelicals, seemed to know their Bible backwards. They could quote it, appropriately, and apply it, in relation to just anything that came up in conversation. We simply aren’t like that. And yet we think we’re being loyal to the Reformational heritage. I want to blow the whistle here.”
On this week’s White Horse Inn broadcast (‘Grounded in the Gospel’, February 28 2010), J.I. Packer and Gary Parrett, discuss their soon-to-be-published book Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old Fashioned Way.
The challenge to us is – Are we actually catechising the people in our churches?
Worth listening, and then prayerfully considering what to do. (Image: Anglican TV.)
Packer on The Fall
“It may fairly be claimed that the Fall narrative gives the only convincing explanation of the perversity of human nature that the world has ever seen.”
– This excerpt from J I Packer’s Concise Theology is a good reminder of what’s wrong with the world and why all need to hear of Christ.
J I Packer interviewed at Oak Hill
In May 2009, Dr Jim Packer spoke at Oak Hill College’s annual School of Theology.
While at the college, he was was interviewed on camera by Principal Mike Ovey.
Each segment runs for about 10 minutes.
Part 1: Knowing your stuff – theological training in a climate of cultural scepticism.
Part 2: The faith taught not caught – the challenge of being a pastoral theologian.
Part 3: Training the congregation – the greatest challenges facing Christian ministers today.
Also see the new Commentary magazine online.
J I Packer on New Mission
Dr J I Packer recently preached on “New Mission” from Acts 8:1-25, at St. John’s Shaughnessy.
Characteristically helpful, encouraging, and challenging. Hear it from the St. John’s website. (Direct link to mp3.)
Photo: Oak Hill College.
The Church and Schism — Packer at Oak Hill
Dr J I Packer spoke on “The Church and Schism” at the Oak Hill 2009 School of Theology in London.
Thanks to Oak Hill, you can read or watch the lecture here.
Worth watching!
‘Get into the Bible’ — Packer to a new believer
Dr Jim Packer gives sound advice a new Christian.
See the 3 minute video file at Vimeo.
(Recorded by Mike Anderson – h/t Justin Taylor.)
Short and Packer honoured
Distinguished Anglican theologian JI Packer and the Rev David Short have been appointed honorary clerical canons of Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral.
Both Dr Packer and Mr Short had their licenses removed by the Canadian Anglican leadership when their church, St. John’s Shaughnessy in Vancouver, voted to realign with the Province of the Southern Cone. …
– Russell Powell reports at SydneyAnglicans.net
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…