Tim Chester on From Creation to New Creation

The second part of a three-part interview with Tim Chester. Here, Tim speaks about his new book, From Creation to New Creation.

Why write a book unpacking the storyline of the Bible? Why is it important for the health of the church to understand and embrace the overarching story of the Bible and how it “fits” together into a coherent whole?

I’m convinced it’s absolutely vital for the church to have a strong sense of the Bible story as a whole and how we fit in that story. It’s vital if we want to read the Bible properly. But it’s also vital is we want to understand our identity as Christians. Too many Christians are influenced by the individualism of our culture. We think of the gospel as all about how I get saved by God. It is that, but it’s much more than that. The Bible is the story of God saving a family, a nation, a people. Our identity is communal and missional.... continue reading

On to a Good Thing

Your weekly filter of news and interesting stuff from the internet.

Just a brief note on the picture to the right. A number of my colleagues have asked me what on earth it is, so to clear up any confusion, it's a colander. Something often used with vegetables...


Promoting Easter
Those guys in Sydney have gathered together some ideas about how to market Easter at church this year. Now is the time to be thinking about how we're promoting our services. How are you going to reach out?
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/ministry/technology/hows_your_church_promoting_its_services_this_easter/

Should a pastor preach or clean toilets?
I think the title says it all. Article from US blog Practical Shepherding.
http://practicalshepherding.com/2011/03/14/should-a-pastor-preach-or-clean-toliets/

Google your body
Christ Church down in Kingston-Upon-Thames points us to the new body search of the human anatomy which Google are working on. As their minister says, 'discover more of how well God has made you'.
http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com

Reverse thinking
The Resurgence have posted a link to a video by Deo Volente Media which is a great little word play. Make sure you get to at least 1min 15.

An interview with Tim Chester

Read Part One of a three-part interview with Tim Chester, church planter and author, where he discusses his new books, Delighting in the Trinity and From Creation to New Creation.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? Your background, interests, and passions? What current projects are you working on?

I grew up in Reformed Baptist circles. I’m part of a missional church now, but theologically I’m still Reformed and still baptistic!... continue reading

Resources on suffering

Each day we’re seeing more suffering from Japan on our TV screens and in our newspapers. We blogged on a Christian response to friends' questions here: but we also wanted to point you to some great, helpful readable books which deal with the subject in a bit more depth.

For a readable, practical and heart-felt look at faith in the face of suffering: If I were God I'd end all the pain, by John Dickson. Currently £4.79 (20% off).

For a single chapter on the issue, which requires careful reading but is well worth it (as is the rest of the book): The Reason for God, by Tim Keller. Currently £7.65 (15% off).

For a more in-depth look at suffering and how Christians should deal with it in our own lives as well as in the news: How long, O Lord?, by Don Carson. Currently £13.

If there is another resource that you’ve found really helpful in thinking through this difficult issue, do let everyone know about it by commenting below. We can then point people to it on our website, or locate it cheaply elsewhere if we don’t have it.

Responses to Love Wins

Here's (probably) the last thing we'll be posting about the new Rob Bell book - a round up of some helpful responses from the US blogosphere, where this has been the hottest topic this year.

• A 20-page review of Love Wins by Kevin DeYoung
• A follow-up post from Kevin on the controversy.
• A useful summary of the 20 page review from Justin Taylor.
• Ligon Duncan has an article on how preachers should speak about Hell and eternal punishment.
• Albert Mohler has written on the reemergence of liberal theology how there's nothing new under the sun.

And finally, Martin Bashir interviewing Rob Bell on the controversy (in a very Paxman-esque style):

It changes nothing

What effect would persecution have on your evangelism?

For the last few days I’ve had the privilege of spending some time with a Christian who lives in one of those countries where Christians are persecuted, and where there is political upheaval and significant unrest. It’s a life so dangerous that very few people know who they are or where they come from.

But what they said is worth being made public.

I asked them how discrimination and the risk of violence affect their mission and ministry. They smiled and said something that will stick with me for years.

“It changes nothing.”

Which is a great challenge to those of us in the West. There is no such thing as being in a situation where it is OK to give up serving. No context is a “get out of mission free” card. If our speaking about Christ produces laughter, derision and scorn; if our living for Christ means we lose out at work, in relationships or with our family; “it changes nothing.”

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2 v 10).

A tsunami of questions

A major topic of conversation in our office today, like in most offices up and down the country and round the world, has been what’s happened in Japan.

How do we respond to such horrendous suffering? How do Christians begin to trust a good God in the face of such facts?

In some ways, now is not the time for anything other than sorrow. giving what we can, and, in a Christian’s case, prayer. But still, some people demand answers from us: here, for what it’s worth, is what we think we might try to say.

• It’s natural that suffering like this makes us question very deeply whether there’s a God, and what He is like. That’s because we instinctively think suffering is “wrong” and a “problem”, even when it happens to people we’ve never met.
• What’s strange to think is that if there is no God, then our feelings that suffering is “wrong” have no basis; suffering is just what happens to happen to some people who happen to be the wrong place at the wrong time. As long as we’re OK, it doesn’t really matter.
• If there is a God and since there is suffering, then our feeling of “wrongness” makes sense. Something has gone very wrong, either with God or with the world. And God in the Bible says that it’s the world that has gone “wrong”. It is less than the very good world he made, and this has had catastrophic consequences.
• Jesus gives uncomfortably clear answers to why the world has gone wrong, and the significance of suffering. But actually, answers are usually what people watching from half a world away demand. What people in the middle of suffering want and need is hope. Not an answer for the suffering; but a hope beyond the suffering.
• Again, atheism has no hope for the injured, the destitute, the bereaved. Many religions (including Shintoism, the main religion in Japan) don’t either. But Christianity does.
• One day, there will be no suffering. There’ll be no pain, or even death. God will remake the world perfectly for people to enjoy, “and he will wipe every tear from their eyes”. God will dwell in this world, and His presence will guarantee its perfection (Revelation 21 v 3-4).
• That’s a world open to anyone, simply by asking God-as-man, Jesus, to give them a place in it. That’s hope; and the people I know who’ve suffered far more greatly than me need hope more than they need a neat pre-packaged answer.

Some other helpful and interesting resources:

• Boston.com has a series of photos showing the destruction.
• John Piper has posted a Prayer for Japan.
• US blogger Denny Burk has gathered a few resources from the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, which are helpful for dealing with the questions that many will have about God's sovereignty.

Simple

Albert Einstein probably wasn’t thinking about the gospel of Jesus Christ when he said this, but it’s a great reminder for Christians who teach the Bible to adults or children, or who are trying to tell people the gospel message (in other words, all Christians!):

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”