Last year, we welcomed 1,400 people to the EMA. It was a greatly encouraging time – to meet together, to sing together, to pray together, to listen and learn together. There is nothing else quite like it that brings evangelicals together – and for this we’re very grateful. Each year, we welcome a few hundred newcomers. Some of these are those starting out in ministry; others are those thinking seriously about ministry (indeed, that was how I first came to an EMA, invited by my pastor); others are those who are perhaps unfamiliar with PT but are brought along by friends.
We long to serve all that come, and we long that more would come – not for any reason except that we believe a deep commitment to expository ministry, worked out in a godly life and healthy church, is at the heart of God’s revealed plan to build his church and bring glory to Christ.
To make it easier to bring people along, we introduced a buddy rate last year. This gives you the opportunity to invite a friend who has not been before, or perhaps someone who has not been for a long time, at a reduced rate. The benefit is not only what they will hear, but the time you will be able to spend with them in deepening friendships and partnerships.
We can advertise all we want, but most people come to the EMA because they are brought by a friend. And yet, perversely, many of us lack deep friendships in ministry. Perhaps, just perhaps, this might be a year and a topic where you could use the EMA to foster just the kind of ministry relationships we need if, in God’s goodness, we are to keep going.
EMA 2016, Leaders who last, booking is open here.

Throughout the EMA we’ll be running seminar streams that take the issue of perseverance and develop it more thoroughly, alongside some preaching and teaching seminars which retain the focus of the EMA which is to promote expository ministry, as well as build networks of expository ministers.
The main seminar stream has three different topics – but all related to the main theme. Don Carson will give us a brief introduction to John’s letters. Don has been working on these recently and sees them as key to understanding how we – and our churches – persevere. This one off session will be accompanied by our launch of Mervyn Eloff’s Teaching John’s letters in our PT Resources series. For the second and third session we will be helped by Robin Weekes (Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon) and Graham Beynon (Graced Church, Cambridge & Oak Hill). They will address particular topics which we need to embrace if we are to make it to the finish line – Robin will speak on contentment, particularly as it relates to battling through tough times; Graham will address putting sin to death, the great call of Romans 8 to all of us, and at the heart of biblical perseverance. Both of these will have an interactive question time.
Other seminar streams are available to three -day guests.
Dan Steel (Magdalen Road Church, Oxford) will lead a three day stream for younger guys, specifically addressing issues that arise early in ministry and how we plan for the longer term. It is really important to think carefully about how to begin well.
Andrew Cornes (recently retired from All Saints Crowborough) will bring his unique and honest insights to those who are in the last 10 years of paid ministry. How can you end well? Again, this is a key issue for many.
Carrie Sandom (St John’s Tunbridge Wells & PT Women’s Director) will lead a stream focusing on perseverance as a woman in ministry.
Then we have three streams which are about our core work – expository ministry.
Nigel Styles (new Director of PT Cornhill) will lead a small preaching masterclass – just 20 guys in a boardroom style. This is for those with 10-15 years + experience in preaching and is designed to keep you going in preaching, at the heart of a persevering ministry.
Adrian Reynolds (Director of Ministry) will lead our preaching refresher. This is one of our most important streams as it introduces or reminds preachers of the some of the essential basics. It is suitable for occasional preachers and new preachers, or simply those who want to refresh their slightly tired skills. Adrian will use some of Dick’s original preaching instructions and material developed by the Simeon Trust to teach this stream.
These smaller seminar streams are limited to 50 people each (masterclass – 20) and places will be offered on a first come, first served basis.
EMA 2016, Leaders who last, booking is open here.

We always think carefully about who we ask to speak from the platform at our annual EMA conference. On the whole, we want preachers to speak to preachers, so even when we ask well known writers or scholars to speak we do so because of their experience as preachers of the word of God. We know, we’re sure, that we must keep things real, and for no topic is this more important than for the one of ministry perseverance.
For 2016, we’re grateful to God for a number of top quality speakers, including our very own Dick and Don (Lucas and Carson respectively). The morning expositions will be led by Simon Manchester, a wise and gracious preacher from St Thomas Church in North Sydney. Simon is himself no stranger to the struggles to persevere and his preaching will set us up each morning.
Don Carson joins us for the first time since 2009 to give us a biblical theology of perseverance. Many people have read Don’s book about his father’s ministry and know that his background is rooted not in the cut and thrust of mega church politics, but rather in the crucible of a small struggling ministry where the temptation to give up – financially, spiritually, physically – was ever present. Don is going to show us why and how we should persevere, whatever stage of ministry we are at.
Vaughan Roberts, PT’s Director, will lead us in one session with one of his pen portraits – this time around looking at John Newton, another great pastor who persevered and had an extensive ministry in encouraging many others, old and young, to do so as well.
To close the day, we have asked three UK preachers to bring us back to the gospel and how we are to keep preaching to outsiders, to the church and – crucially – to ourselves. We’ve asked three preachers from different stages of ministry to show how the topic of perseverance is one that we all need to address: Jonty Allcock from the Globe Church in London represents a younger generation who often think themselves bullet proof, Alasdair Paine (St Andrew the Great, Cambridge) flies the flag for the middle stages, where many simply coast along, and we’re pleased to say that Dick Lucas has agreed to take the last session, representing someone who has kept persevering and continues to do so.
EMA 2016, Leaders who last, booking is open here.

Statistically speaking, many of us in ministry will give up. Some of us will suffer moral failure and have to step down. Some of us will burn out and have to step away. Some of us will keep going in body, but not in spirit. Those are the statistical realities.
Not me, of course. I will keep going! Won’t I?
Possibly not.
If we are going to love God and love our people, we MUST think about ministry for the long haul. We MUST think about how we cultivate and nurture these loves. We MUST build in patterns and structures that enable us to flourish in our own walk with Christ and our ministry to others.
The trouble is, such proactive management is well down our list of priorities. If we’re near the finishing line, we think we will be able to limp over, even if we do so in neutral, coasting to the tape. If we’re just starting out, we feel we’re invincible and don’t need to worry too much about perseverance; that’s for the oldies. If we’re in the middle stages – well, we’ve made it this far, haven’t we?
The pastoral epistles are full of perseverance language, applied equally to the young pastor Timothy and the old apostle Paul. Put it another way, the man or woman in ministry who gives no thought to this important topic is already walking along the cliff edge and neither the gospel, our people nor, ultimately, the glory of Christ, deserves such lazy and thoughtless attention. We can’t afford NOT to persevere.
We must be leaders who last.
The EMA booking is now officially open. The 2016 EMA, Leaders who last, is at the Barbican Conference Centre in London from Tuesday 21 – Thursday 23 June. There are standard rates, student and apprentice rates and buddy rates.
Details are here, booking is here.

Preaching the psalms is harder than it looks. I’m pretty convinced about that every time I pick up a psalm to preach or, as is the recent case, a few psalms to write study notes on. They’re rooted in the Old Testament, like (say) OT narrative and therefore we have to apply some of the same rules and guidelines we apply there. They’re poetry, like the prophets, and therefore we have to apply some of the same rules and guidelines we apply there. But they’re also heart songs and therefore sermons that reduce them down to logical truths expressed in cold language are hardly doing justice to the text; in which case that’s hardly expository preaching.
No, they’re a tough nut. Ironically, we often say to new preachers or those with little experience – “just choose a psalm and preach on that.” That’s a difficult gig for someone starting out and we ought to be more thoughtful.
Of course, when we get them right, the results are immensely rewarding. Take Psalm 127, for example. I think this is an example of where getting it wrong could actually be pastorally damaging. If we tell the childless couple that children are a reward from him, what are we actually saying? But what if, instead, we realise this is a covenant song sung by a covenant king, Solomon. What if it’s about him rather than us, in the first instance? What if it’s about The King, rather than us, in the second?
Then your first stanza (1-2) would be something like “the king and his city prosper when the Lord builds” and the second stanza would be something like “the king and his family increase when the Lord rewards” (3-5). These points could then unpack the richness and depth and colour of the poetry whilst being rooted in the real covenant meaning – with obvious, encouraging, challenging and helpful lines of application. Altogether better, I would suggest.

Yesterday we saw how the context aids understanding. Many preachers are OK with this, and – to be fair – pretty good at it. But context also aids application. It’s when we see a passage in its context that we begin to see the thrust of why it was written and, so, the primary lines of application today.
Take yesterday’s passage – John 15.26-16.15. My struggle was, in part at least, with lines of application. Is it simply a case of “this is what the Spirit does, Hallelujah!” No (though that would at least be a good start). In this section of John’s gospel there is a residing tension. Jesus is going (14.28). That’s tough for the disciples because the chief call is for them to abide in Christ – i.e. to keep going (15.4). Here is a big ask: keep going, says Jesus. I’m going, says Jesus. How can the two be reconciled? Answer – gloriously, Jesus will send his Spirit, another Helper, so “I will not leave you as orphans.”
So far, so good. But those truths in themselves do not really give you the sharp application the passage deserves. Because, in fact, the presence of Jesus in the world brought opposition, and so too the presence of Jesus by his Spirit, carrying on his work, is going to bring the same opposition (which is the thrust of the immediate context in 15.18-25). There is a tension here – the same Spirit who will aid us and bring us the presence of Jesus will also, precisely because he brings us the presence of Jesus, lead us into the world’s hatred.
Ah! Suddenly now the passage has bite. It makes it harder, as it happens, to apply. But once you get there, you’ve got application that has real zip and does what the passage does. No generalities here – “isn’t it nice we have the Spirit?” No – at one level, it’s not nice at all. Just read 15.18-25 again! But it’s precisely into this context that the application really takes hold of us.
Context isn’t everything here. The application is in the passage, not in the surrounding verses. And yet it is the surrounding verses that really sharpen and shape the application and turn the general into the particular. This is what the passage is about, and this is what your people need to hear.

One of the rotten tomatoes that sometimes get thrown at us is that we are obsessed with context. I hope – I really hope – that’s not true. If we’re obsessed with anything, it’s getting the text right, and there is absolutely no doubt that using context appropriately is a key tool in that process. Of course, as with every tool, once it becomes the master rather than the servant it’s a dangerous weapon. Two common errors: one – making context an integral part of the sermon rather than letting it shape the sermon (as though one were giving a lecture); two – letting context so dominate that you end up preaching the surrounding verses and not the passage itself. Both outrageous mistakes.
Nevertheless, context is important. If our heart’s desire is to say what God has said (which surely is the core of expository preaching) then we must consider context. The danger is we simply distort the truth, otherwise. It’s not that we necessarily preach things that are wrong (I hope we’re not that naïve), but if we don’t preach what the text is saying, the sermon is robbed of its power: it’s just us and not the Bible.
Take my passage from last Sunday. It was John 15.26-16.15. I confess to really wrestling with this passage. I found it dense, deep and stretching. Fortunately I was given 60 minutes to preach (!!!!!) which helped a little (though could easily make me a very lazy preacher, not thinking clearly enough what to include and what to discard). At one level, it’s relatively straightforward: Jesus himself gives us three useful headings – the ministry of the Spirit is to testify about Christ (15:26), to convict the world (16:8) and to glorify the Son (16:14).
But it is only when you see these truths in the context that they begin to take on the significance they must have. The ministry of the Spirit is not some abstract concept or general encouragement for those who are saved. No – the Spirit is “another Helper” who both brings aid but also opposition – hence why the passage (and the section) are so interspersed with warnings about falling away (e.g. 16.1). It’s only when we see the context that the passage itself makes sense.

There is a growing trend amongst evangelical preachers and pastors to want to make celebrities born again Christians. I understand this and have even indulged in some (unhelpful) speculation myself. For the most part, we hear one or two things that people say and assume this somehow translates into a fully orbed salvation of the kind of which we approve.

It’s a dangerous path that can quickly backfire. Someone who says something vaguely religious today turns out to be heterodox tomorrow on some other key doctrine (no names!). If we hold up someone uncritically, perhaps quoting them to try to appear down with the kids, we can end up doing more harm than good.

I think these kinds of people fall into two camps. There are those, first of all, who just speak about God in very vague terms without any apparent relationship with him in and through Christ. I got that feeling about Ayrton Senna, whilst watching the excellent documentary film about him yesterday (free on Amazon Prime!). It’s not that I’m saying he is not born again or is, I’m not his pastor, and it’s not my place to judge, but I certainly don’t want people following his lifestyle.

Then there are those who speak about Jesus, but it’s never quite clear whether their interest in our wonderful Saviour is personal or religious. A number of public figures come to mind. Again, we can be quick to latch onto any crumbs, wanting to validate evangelical Christianity, forgetting that the best people to validate our faith are those we know and for whom working out faith in action is a daily pursuit – i.e. your own church members!

We do it with the oldies too, of course. I have gained great benefit from reading CS Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and even Richard Baxter. All, however, need to be read carefully and critically. I would not want to give my hearers the impression that everything they said and wrote can be digested without question.

How would your children’s teachers in church react if you told them they needed to do a series on Ezekiel in Sunday School? I bet it wouldn’t be met with universal enthusiasm. Why not? After all. All of scripture is God breathed. Teaching prophecy is not on too many curricula though, I would guess. Here are seven reasons why we don’t do it. And one good one why we should.

1. Kids’ leaders don’t hear prophecy taught well in church and so don’t have confidence to do the same. Their chief learning experience for teaching others is almost certainly your own preaching; if they are too scared to teach prophecy to kids, you need to ask yourself some pretty searching questions first.
2. We don’t have a huge quantity of good material to draw down on. Truth be told, some of our kids material is a bit Ho-hum anyway. And that’s for the easier parts of the OT. A friend ministering in Surrey told me this week that he was using The Gospel Project  in their Sunday School. They’ve done a minor prophet a week, he told me, with this material, and both kids and adults love it. Look it up.
3. We don’t have confidence in poetry for kids. I’ve been away at our Women in Ministry conference this week. Almost 100 women, many of whom teach kids: and we’ve been focusing on prophecy. What has been astonishing is how those who are experienced in teaching kids have seen very quickly how the images of poetry actually resonate with youngsters better than they do with adults. We probably imagine the opposite.
4. We don’t know the prophets well enough ourselves. We are purple passage prophet lovers (try saying that with a mint in your mouth!). We know and love Isaiah 53, but not 54. Say no more.
5. We don’t know how to properly teach Christ from the OT, so prophecy is especially difficult. We either ignore Christ and make kids into Old Covenant children or we flatten everything and impose a kind of shapeless Christology which has no bearing on the text.
6. Many of our occasional teachers have got used to preparing lessons on the fly or without adequate thinking and prayer. Most of us have churches where this kind of teaching is voluntary, undertaken by full time workers, mums and dads. Teaching prophecy is just, well, harder, and so we imagine we don’t have time.
7. All of these are perhaps symptomatic of a deeper malaise. We simply pay lip service to 2 Tim 3.16. The ‘all’ is particularly problematic. We are pretty content actually with being selective.

There is of course only one answer to each of these points: it is a resurgence of the full acceptance of the authority, sufficiency, clarity of Scripture. A robust doctrine of the word of God will make us as confident in Malachi as it will in the story of the golden calf. And if these 7 reasons ring true, at least in part, perhaps the first thing we need to do is to teach our Sunday School leaders a better doctrine of the holy Book.

There’s another curious phenomenon when it comes to the words we sing: it’s that some of us (hmm, myself too, if I’m honest) are curiously sentimental about song words when we’re often not sentimental about anything else at all. Don’t get me wrong, there’s not anything fundamentally wrong with sentiment, but I see in my own heart how often sentimental words (whatever that means for you) can sometimes trump truth. Perhaps, more common is that we end up singing things that we love but don’t necessarily resonate.

Here’s an example. Just to extend my post bag a little more you understand. I minister in the East End of London. Few of us have any kind of daily or even semi-regular experience which sounds like this:

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze
Then sings my soul….

This hymn is encouraging us to praise God, inspired by the nature around us. But what if that is not our nature around us? My middle class sentimentality might like this hymn but will it really serve and resonate with an urban, working class group of people. No. Of course not.

Interestingly, Stuart Hine’s translation of a translation of a translation (it was Swedish, then German, then Russian, and only then English) is pretty loose. Well. When I say, pretty loose, he ignored some verses and added new ones. Including, I understand, this one above, which Hine penned as he crossed the Carpathian mountain range. I might sing these words too if I was a mountaineer. But an earlier translation is probably better, even though it itself includes an archaism in line 2 which needs resolving (see yesterday’s post, suggestions on a postcard please):

When I behold the heavens in their vastness,
Where golden ships in azure issue forth,
Where sun and moon keep watch upon the fastness
Of changing seasons and of time on earth.

Now, living in London, that is something I can see, and therefore, I can sing… How great you are!