One of the perks of working at TGBC is getting a sneak preview of The Briefing before it comes out.
But I must confess that the title of the March issue’s main article, “The lost art of public Bible reading”, didn’t exactly grab me.
The piece itself, though, did. There’ll be more blogs on it soon (or you can just get a copy of The Briefing here): but here’s what jumped out at me as I scanned the first page.
The Bible says to churches “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Timothy 4 v 13).
And the word “devote” can also be translated “addiction”. So you could translate the verse:
“Be addicted to the reading-out-loud of the Bible”.
Wouldn’t it be great if “addicted” accurately described our attitude to God’s word? Hooked. Can’t get enough. Keep going back. Feel the lack of it if we go too long without.
I’d love to be addicted to Scripture. Unfortunately, too often I’m happy going cold turkey. Sometimes I kick the habit altogether.
But tomorrow, as I hear “the public reading of Scripture”, I’ll be praying that I get addicted, hooked on the amazing experience of hearing the God of heaven, the One who flung stars into space, speak to a bunch of his fallen, flawed creatures.
Can’t wait.
Being a home group leader is really not easy. For the three years I led a home group, I only rarely felt I'd "got it right", and I found it far harder than preaching or leading or one-to-oneing. How you teach the Bible, how you encourage and guide the discussion, how you phrase questions… these are all things learned mainly through experience/mistakes/stumbling across what works.
Now there's a bit of a short cut: at this new blog for home group leaders, you can find some "potted proverbs". Well worth going to if you're a home group leader, obviously, but also if you're a home group member, so you can see what home groups can and should be, and how you can be a really encouraging part of it.
Just a quick flavour of the latest couple of posts:
Here’s a helpful explanation for why the resurrection isn’t automatically ridiculous, from Paul Perkin, once a theoretical physicist and now vicar of St Mark’s Battersea.
Of course, just because Jesus could have risen doesn’t mean he did. Which brings us onto the wealth of historical evidence for his rising from the dead…
That strikes me as an answer which begins where most people are at, and helps people to see that you don’t have to rule resurrection out as an sensible explanation.
You’ll be able to watch Paul’s full answer, as well as many other great answers to common objections to Christianity, on the new evangelistic Christianity Explored website, which is set to be launched in April along with the new CE DVD and books.
If you’re anything like me, there’s an instinctive tendency to see some roles in the local church as “spiritual” and others as merely “practical”.
The “spiritual stuff” is the preaching, the prayer meetings and the latest evangelistic initiative. The “practical stuff” is writing the minutes, printing the newsletter and emailing the rotas round… obvious.
And then God goes and says that administration is a spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12 v 28). It’s right there in the list with teaching and healing and helping.
Why? Because God knows that if the body of Christ is to proclaim the gospel faithfully, then good administration is essential.
As far as I can see, church administration isn’t designed to be about bureaucracy. At its heart it’s all about helping the people of God to communicate, and ensuring the wonderful resources God gives us are co-ordinated, so that we can all play our part in the extension of God’s kingdom.
It’s “spiritual stuff”.
At its best, good administration:
It’s exciting, essential gospel work that helps bring people to Christ and grow in Christ.
As someone who’s done a lot of admin this really encourages me, particularly this week as I prepare a workshop on administration for the CRE exhibition in Peterborough next week.
And hopefully if you’re someone who does some admin work for your church, it’ll encourage you. Your work isn’t just “practical stuff”; it’s spiritual, and you’re using a spiritual gift to serve God. If you’re someone who has a different role in the church, why not make a point of “encouraging an administrator” every week this year?
After all, church admin is “spiritual stuff”—part of the way God’s people continue the biggest point on any church’s to-do list: to go and make disciples of all nations.
Been working on a seminar I'm running for home group leaders at CRE Peterborough next week, and keep coming back to a fundamental question: What exactly is a home group for?
When you ask a random selection of small group leaders, you get a huge range of responses:
But when you quiz people to find out how they actually spend their time in the small group, you often discover that many groups are given over to what we might call the human needs of the group, rather than on listening to God's word together. They eat, they talk, they laugh (a lot!), they share needs, they enjoy each other's company, they feel supported, loved, affirmed, prayed for.
I think I want to say (as gently as I'm able) that this surely has to be the tail wagging the dog.
In Acts 2 v 42, we read a familiar description of what the first Christian community did when they met together:
"And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." (ESV)
They did a whole lot of stuff—but the first thing they did was devote themselves to the apostles' teaching. All the other stuff they did sprang out of this fundamental activity—they listened to the authoritative word of God, delivered to them through His chosen representatives.
And this is a pattern that persisted: In Colossians 3 v 16 we read:
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
The first Christians did many things when they met together, but the thing that was at the heart of each of them was that the word of Christ was there, giving shape to their songs, their prayers, even the way they told each other off!
People come to home groups for many reasons. They may be lonely and need company; they may be hungry and need feeding; they may be discouraged or struggling in their lives, and need support.
But what I think my main point at this seminar will be is: if you are the leader of a home group, you need to have firmly fixed in your mind that the way you will meet their real needs is to let the word of Christ from the Bible take centre stage in your time together.
Bacon sandwiches help with the physical hunger, but the hunger in our hearts will only be fed by allowing the words of Jesus, and the Bible's witness to Jesus, to be the menu for the evening.
Great quote in Tim Keller's new book, King's Cross, on the judgmentalism of not judging:
"The self-discovery person says 'The progressive, open-minded people are in and the judgmental bigots are out—and of course we're the open-minded ones.'
"In Western cosmopolitan culture there's an enormous amount of self-righteousness about self-righteousness. We progressive urbanites are so much better than people who think they're better than other people. We disdain those religious, moralistic types who look down on others…
"[This attitude] leads to as much superiority and self-righteousness as religion does."
It’s so frustrating, isn’t it?
You wake in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep. Instead you toss and turn for hours. Or you can’t get to sleep in the first place. You just lie there worrying that you’ll be exhausted in the morning.
A long-term illness means I spend many night-time hours wide awake, my mind racing and my body aching. It’s infuriating!
Those small hours of the morning focus the mind—but the focus is you. Introspection reigns.
DON'T WASTE THE TIME
So what do you do if you’re awake when you don’t want to be? Naturally, I find my mind focuses on me. My worries, my busy-ness, my need to sleep! But that just makes things worse.
For me, the answer is to pray. Now that sounds dreadfully “holy” – but it grew from a pragmatic start. I needed to find a way to keep those night-time hours under control.
So now I ask my friends to tell me things I can pray for them. Nothing complicated—I don’t want to turn on a light to read a list. Short, simple requests that I can remember easily, and bring to mind when I’m awake.
All I do is think of a friend or colleague, and start to pray for them.
It’s a very simple idea (I’m ashamed it took me so long to think of it) but it’s made a huge difference. My focus is moved away from myself and towards others. I’m reminded that God, who also doesn’t sleep(!), is with me and hearing my prayers.
TIME WELL SPENT
And instead of those waking hours feeling like a waste of time, they become time well spent. That in turn reduces the frustration, which is sometimes enough to lull me back to sleep.
It’s a very simple idea, but for me it works. Next time you’re awake when you don’t want to be—why not try it?
And, if you’ve found times that can be well-spent praying for others instead of thinking about yourself—please put them in a comment below, so I can learn from them!
Happy Valentine's Day… and here's a Valentine-ish stat.
Of all the songs with the word "love" in the title, the most-played in public (radio, shops and so on) is…
Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis.
Of course, her song (which I have to confess I have on my iPod) is all about her bleeding love. But maybe on this, the day when love is most commercialised and soppy-fied, it's worth remembering that in her title, she's right.
Real love bleeds.
Real love, as Leona puts it, really does "wear these scars for everyone to see."
The BBC is running a fascinating analysis of wealth on its website (go here), and log in to do it.
It shows you how you're doing compared to everyone else in the UK. We did it as a family: cue predictable howls about how much richer our children's friends are, how we never go anywhere "special" on holiday, etc etc… And even I thought I didn't feel particularly wealthy. Wouldn't it be nice to have that bit more, like those other people. If only, if only…
But actually, we were well over half way up the lucre ladder. And of course, when we think in world terms—as you can here—that green-eyed perception-distorting monster lurking within us, the one which only ever compares us with those who seem to have so much more, goes a little quiet.
It reminded me of some free downloadable resources on our site, which look at the whole question of contentment.
Because actually, I need to remember that it's not about looking up or looking down: it's about looking at Christ, and seeing how far short I fall of deserving anything at all, and yet still seeing that in him, we will enjoy all the riches of God's grace for all eternity.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a little booklet to give to a non-Christian friend with answers to the big questions people have about the Christian faith?
It would?! We know—which is why our little I’m Glad You Asked That booklet has proved such a big seller.
But it’s nearly 20 years old now, and has been retired for a few years: so after two decades it’s time (like a Hollywood actress) it had a facelift and a comeback.
So we’re asking ourselves:
This is where we’d love you to come in. The current questions are listed below: please leave a comment, telling us one (or more of):
We’d really, really love your help with this, so that the new version won’t only look better, it’ll also be able to work better and in more situations (just like a facelifted Hollywood actress…)
Here are the current questions:
