With mission season coming up, we're featuring a series of posts this week on the Christianity Explored website, a great resource for churches and individual Christians to point interested non-Christians to this Easter.
In this first post, Carl Laferton, one of the creators of the website, talks to The Good Book Company's David Berkeley about why there's a website at all… what it does… and how you can use it.
To grab a load of cards with the web address on, go here.
Or why not link the site to your church's website ...
Let's face it. Youth work is a fashion victim.
I'm not talking about the clothing fads that teenagers go through. (Hey, I went through that myself, and if enough people like this on facebook, I promise I will publish some of the more outrageously embarrassing teen photos of myself so you can see what a fashion victim I was at 16!).
No. I’m talking about the "latest way" that we should be doing youth and childrens' work that is presented as the answer to all our problems. Since being involved in youthwork for the last 30 years, I've noticed the pace quicken. We're now down to something new and revolutionary every 2 years.... continue reading
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
(1 Corinthians 13 v 8-12)
All of the things we value now will seem insignificant when we experience life in perfection with God. We will know God so much more clearly and it will be awesome. So we should live with our eyes fixed on eternity.
There are moments when the children and young people in our churches are less than calm. Times when the pain and frustration and rebellion of their hearts overflow in spectacular ways. Mornings when they just lose control and scream ... or suppress their ire and seethe.
In short, there are occasions when anger in young people is a big issue for Christian youth and children's workers. If you would value some help in thinking through how best to respond to such situations, why not listen to a great seminar on Dealing with Anger in Children and Young People, given at this year's Bible-Centred Youthworker conference? Click here to begin.
There's only 9 days until Mothers Day and we've got some great ideas for presents.
We're very excited about Different By Design by Carrie Sandom which has just been released this week! We're offering 25% off this new title.
We're also doing 25% off on both What Women Really Need and Disciplines of a Godly Woman, as well as the stylish and compact pink zip up Bible! Simply use the code mothersday at the checkout.
This offer runs until Thursday the 15th of March so don't miss out!
Can you help us come up with a title for a new Good Book Guide?
We're looking for a title for the new Good Book Guide on Esther and would be glad of any suggestions you may have. Major themes of the book are God's deliverance, perfect timing and sovereignty even over the superpowers of this world, and our need to trust in God's sovereignty and faithfulness to His promises.We'd love to hear from you!
1 Corinthians 16 has, rather unexpectedly, helped me put into words a thought that’s been buzzing round in my head ever since Mark Driscoll wrote his “Blog for the Brits” a few weeks back. Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church has been much in my mind because I’m editing Mark Dever’s second Good Book Guide volume on this book which is out next month—the second early in 2013).
What struck me about chapter 16 is that Paul clearly thinks it would be good for the Corinthian church for a pastor “from the outside” to spend some time with them. He himself can’t come for a while (v 7-9); so he’s sending Timothy, who will “carry on the work of the Lord” (v 10). It seems it was quite common for a Christian leader from a different country to come and spend some time with a church—in Titus 3 v 13 it seems that Apollos—himself from Corinth—has been spending time in Crete.
Which makes good sense. Think of it as church-management-consultancy. When a firm wants to see how they can do better, where they’re being complacent or unprofitable, they don’t get someone who works for them to analyse them; they get someone from the outside. Someone who knows how things are done elsewhere; who can challenge assumptions; who can ask the difficult “Why” questions; who can give the church what Mark Dever calls a “larger vision”.
It’s really helpful to hear what Christians who aren’t from “round here”, but have come to spend some time “over here”, think of our church which exists “right here”.
All of which brings me to something Driscoll said to British evangelicals: “Please ask … why, when there are big events for evangelicals, a speaker often has to be brought in from another country to preach?”.
UK evangelicalism has its weaknesses (as did the Corinthian church, the Cretan church, and as in fact does every church). But perhaps one thing we’ve got right is our willingness to listen to, learn from and be challenged by pastors from other countries.
It’s not that when there’s a big event the organisers have to bring in a foreign speaker (after all, it’s the word of God, not the standard of the speaker, that matters). It’s that they often choose to—because an overseas speaker’s gospel-centred perspectives will be different to ours.
And here’s my provocative thought to finish off with: what proportion of American “big events for evangelicals” invite a headline speaker from overseas? What perspectives and challenges would a UK pastor bring to American assumptions and approaches to ministry? (I can think of a few, but that’s a whole other blog!)
It’s not a sign of something wrong with a church that they do ask outsiders to come and speak to them, critique them, help them. Perhaps it is troubling when a church network doesn’t. Is the issue more with US evangelicalism than British? Comments below!
The arrest of two priests in Eastbourne on Tuesday highlights a growing issue for the place of the Gospel in public life.
Many Christians will have applauded the Cardinal Keith O'Brien's statement about Marriage over the weekend. But scroll down the responses to online articles, and you will find a huge amount of hostility. And not just the usual, and often orchestrated, response from gay lobby groups. There is a growing groundswell of opinion that the Church has lost all its moral authority to comment on these things because of the rank hypocrisy it has displayed over child sex abuse in recent years.
Admittedly, the Anglican church has reacted better to revelations of scandal than the Roman Church, whose cover ups have been its undoing in the US and Ireland in particular. The Anglican hierarchy has had the sense and courage to deal more openly and decisively when these things have come to the fore. Let us pray that they do the same with this developing story.
Scandals of ministers involved in immorality will be with us all the time. They will always be shocking. They will always be unexpected. They will always leave us thinking : "How could this have happened?" And they will continue happening despite all our best efforts to be CRB'd, mentored and accountable to each other. Because, as the proverb says, it is the human heart that is deceitful and wicked above all things. It will find ways of wriggling through the cracks of the barriers we put in the way.
Scandals like this, in God's goodness, should spur us on to renew our efforts at getting our structures accountable. But it should also spur us on to examine our own hearts afresh, and to ask how we are contributing to the growing view that the church is just "a bunch of hypocrites".
OK, I confess – I’m not universalist in my understanding of the gospel. But I do believe the gospel message is universal. The offer of new life in Christ is available to all irrespective of age, education, nationality or taste in music. No one is too bad to be forgivable through Christ – or too good to need forgiving. The gospel is perfect for anyone – but evangelistic courses are not. That’s why I was delighted yesterday to put the finishing touches to the latest member of the Christianity Explored range: Christianity Explored Universal.
The idea behind the Universal range is that it uses clear, simple English that is accessible to as many people as possible. It is ideal for internationals for whom English is a second language, but also for anyone who would find this feature useful. The course doesn’t involve listening to any talks. Instead, there are eight straightforward Bible studies in Mark’s Gospel. The questions and concepts are kept as simple as possible, and don’t make any assumptions about previous Bible knowledge. There are short summaries and illustrations as you go along, and plenty of help to understand tricky Bible words or phrases.
I’m excited about Christianity Explored Universal because it works with such a wide range of people – groups of international students, a homegroup that wants to study Mark, or someone exploring the life of Jesus on a one-to-one basis. And if, as we hope, the Lord graciously uses this course to bring many people to know Him for themselves, there’s a follow-on course – Discipleship Explored Universal – to help them begin to grow in their love and knowledge of Him.
Christianity Explored Universal will be launched in September in the UK (it will be a few weeks earlier if you are in the States). Discipleship Explored Universal is available now, as is a range of short “Access for all” tracts that again use simple, clear language to explain the gospel message.
Sometimes you come across a quote that just needs to be shared:
"A nominal Christian is content with proving the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer. But the true Christian loves it, delights in it, glories in it, and shudders at the very thought of glorying in anything else ... Let all your joys flow from the contemplation of his cross."
Charles Simeon
