Please pray for the Autumn Ministers conference which began yesterday. Christopher Ash is speaking on Ruth, and I’m speaking on Principles of Application. Plus a couple of sessions from Vaughan Roberts, our hallmark preaching workshop groups, and time for relaxation and fellowship.

The Proclaimer blog is not going to be doing quite so much proclaiming as it has in the past. As you will know if you read the blog regularly or read the Christian news in the UK, I’m moving on next Spring to take up a role with the FIEC. Before that I have a three month sabbatical starting very soon and in this changeover period for The Proclamation Trust we’ve come to the decision to suspend the blog for a few months while we take stock.

Do keep us in your feed in the meantime as the blog will be used for news items so you can hear about conferences, resources and other plans. But there won’t be a daily feed from me from after today.

I’ve been posting to the blog for 7 years plus. I’ve lost count how many posts that is. And I noticed the other day when I searched for a particular post that I’d written it several times over those years. In other words, there are times when I’ve sounded like a cracked record. Sorry about that!

But I’ve tried not to lose the aim behind the blog which was to provide a daily encouragement, challenge or thought to those who are called to the high calling of ministering God’s word to others. I know it can be a lonely furrow. I’ve been there. I know it can be discouraging and there are times when you wonder “Is it all worth it?” I only ever really wanted to do one thing with my posts which was to say to you “Keep going!”

Someone once said to me that reading the Proclaimer Blog was like having a cup of coffee with us in the office. I think that is one of the greatest encouragements I ever received for that is precisely the tone and balance we were trying to achieve.

I’m not precious about our blog: there are lots of ways we can get this kind of encouragement, of course. But encouragement we do need. And we need to be those who encourage others too. And whether it’s a note, an email or a text message, the state of preaching would be much healthier if those of us called to this task gave at least some of our time and energy to helping fellow servants.

What could you do today?

As (in ministry terms at least) Christmas gets nearer very quickly, our thoughts soon turn to evangelistic resources, and rightly so. There are lots of good ones and those of us in church leadership should be praying and planning for how we make the most of this golden opportunity.
But it’s not only a good time to reach unbelievers. Christmas is also a good time to exhort and encourage believers. And I’ve recently read two books that will do just that. The first is by Willie Philip and is called “Song for a Saviour’s birth.” It’s not out until end October, but it’s worth putting on pre-order. It’s a classic set of five sermons working through the songs in Luke’s gospel. Each is (or was) a sermon, I guess, so you can imagine the sort of thing. It’s clear, careful and heart-warming.
Slightly different is Tim Chester’s new advent book. Called “The One True Story” it is a series of advent devotionals numbered – surprise, surprise – one through twenty-four (like a proper advent candle, there is no twenty-five). I read this in the summer, as far from Christmas as you can possibly get, and it stirred my heart greatly. We shall use it in our family devotions this year, and I encourage you to do the same – and get your church reading it too. The idea behind the book is to trace through Bible themes as they are fulfilled in Christ, some obvious (the anointed one, the suffering servant) some less so (the new ark, the whisper). So, and here’s the clever part, as you read you are not only being encouraged with Christ, you’re learning biblical theology and how to read the whole Bible well. For that reason alone, we leaders should be encouraging our people to read it.
Christmas is not just for unbelievers.

It’s getting near Sunday. So, a dose of the preachers’ prayer is not amiss! However, I can’t reproduce it due to copyright restrictions. That’s sad, but you can follow the link or buy the book. Many of these ‘prayers’ are not prayers, of course, but were turned into prayers from the writings of various puritans by Arthur Bennett. Someone said to me recently, “I wish there were a footnoted version” – but there isn’t, and that’s in part, at least, because they are composites. You won’t find these precise prayers in the writings of the Puritans.
That’s not to say that the book is less helpful for it. No, not at all. And in fact, given that they are not verbatim prayers for the most part, I would love a gently modernised version that I could use in church. For there is a depth and breadth here that is sadly lacking in much of our public praying. It is perhaps churlish to keep asking this question but I do wonder how much of our public praying would be of the profundity that would make it into such a collection. And why not?
Of course, we want our public praying to be simple. We want it to be accessible so people can genuinely say “Amen”, but where’s the depth? Where’s the breadth? Where’s the deep doctrine? Most often, sadly lacking.

There are very few helpful resources on transgender that argue carefully and clearly from a biblical standpoint. We need lots of help in this area. Up to now, Mark Yarhouse’s Gender Dysphoria is about all there is. It’s good, but it’s complex. That is why I was very pleased to read Vaughan Roberts’ latest book called, innovatively, Transgender. It’s not quite out yet, but is available from our friends at The Good Book Company for pre-order.
Now, I don’t want to overplay this book. It is not a comprehensive guide and theology to the subject. And for pastors, the theology section is well trod already, although no less helpful for that. Where this short book really scores for me is in two ways.
First, it is simple (and short). It is therefore easy to read at one sitting and get a grasp of some of the issues. It is easy to pass on. It is relatively easy (therefore) for Christians in church to be reading. It’s not overwhelming to be handed a copy. In other words, it is a superb starter.
Second, there’s a very useful section at the end entitled “wisdom” about how Christians should best react and deal with this particular issue. Again, the pastoral team of a church would probably want to discuss this more with greater depth, but it is an excellent starting point for pastoral wisdom in dealing with others who struggle in this area.
For these two reasons alone (though there are more), I warmly commend it.

It will not have escaped your notice that next year is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther and the church notice board incident. It’s worth celebrating in your church. There seem to be fewer Christians who know very much about it. Of course, Luther can be a stumbling block for some because of his view on the Jews: I found Carl Trueman’s church history lecture on this subject very helpful (it’s available through iTunes podcasts here). Notwithstanding this difficulty, we should surely be celebrating the birth of the Reformation.
For those who know nothing about it, I found the Hollywood makeover of Luther quite compelling. Joseph Fiennes is pretty good (especially as tortured Luther) and, whilst there would be some other things you’d want to say, it’s a solid starting point. Why not plan for a cinema showing in your church as part of your evangelism next year. Popcorn, pop and the 95 theses. What’s not to like? [Clare Cox is a bit too good looking to play Katharina, by all accounts].
Or, come and hear Garry Williams at next year’s EMA. He’s taking a one off session on Luther which, knowing Garry, will be typically stirring and provocative all at the same time. We’ve opened the bookings specially!

Every now and then you sing a hymn that is crying out for a better tune. Even a slightly better tune. This is one that is in my head now and I’m glad not to be able to shake it off. 18th Century finest Moravian:
Jesus, your blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
mid burning worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy I shall lift up my head.

2. Bold shall I stand on your great day
and none condemn me, try who may;
fully absolved by you I am
from sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

3. When from the dust of death I rise
to claim my home beyond the skies,
then this shall be my only plea:
Jesus has lived, has died for me.

4. O give to all your servants, Lord,
to speak with power your gracious word,
that all who now believe it true
may find eternal life in you.

5. O God of power, O God of love,
let the whole world your mercy prove;
now let your word in all prevail;
Lord, take the spoils of death and hell!

6. O let the dead now hear your voice;
let those once lost in sin rejoice!
Their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, your blood and righteousness.

I explained very briefly yesterday how texts rightly understood in context bring a sermon a power that it cannot have otherwise. This is, I guess, “rightly dividing the word of truth.” But I want to go further and say that this context also drives application. Take just one of those texts from yesterday’s passage: “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here.”
In my teenage Bible this is underlined a few times, highlighted too, but I’m not sure I ever bothered to understand it in context. It’s an obvious truth, as a standalone verse. It is about the difference that being born again makes. It is about how significant the change is. I could make a sermon out of that!
But the context makes you think quite differently, even about application. The context is Paul defending himself against the super-apostles: Paul doesn’t mind even if they claim he is out of his mind, for – if so – it is for the Lord’s sake. And though the super-apostles are assessing Paul from a worldly point of view (in terms of the spectacular that he lacks) he will not be drawn into the same slanging match (2 Cor 5.16). Why? Because even his detractors, if saved, are new creations! The old has gone, the new has come.
Suddenly there is pointed application. This is about how Paul relates to others, especially those who are his detractors. To paraphrase the late Bob Horn, he “starts with generous assumptions.”
And so must we.

I preached at the London City Mission thanksgiving service last week, on 2 Cor 5.21-6.2; not a straightforward passage at all, but I hope I did it justice. Preaching it is complicated by the fact that the passage is jam packed (or ram packed, per Corbyn) of well known texts: “Christ’s love compels us….”, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…”, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors….”, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us…” and so on. In fact, per column inch, there are more “poster verses” here than almost any passage I’ve preached recently.
It’s easy to get distracted by these, especially as we have often ripped the texts out of their contexts. We thus often end up conveying Bible truths but hanging them on verses that Paul (in this case) intended for a different meaning – what some people call “the right message from the wrong text.”
I am convinced that, under the sovereignty and power of the Spirit, the power in preaching lies in allowing the text to say what the text says. In other words, using the text to say something it was not intended for, even when that something is a glorious Bible truth, must rob the sermon of something. After all, I could equally shoehorn something that was wrong onto a text and make it sound genuine. Where’s the difference? – only that one is a truth and one a falsehood, neither is using the text as it was intended. The only guard therefore against falsehood and imposition is to use the text, in its context, as it was intended. That’s where the power lies.