Few things are as likely to stir ire (and lead to an extended post bag) than challenging some of the vocabulary of our best loved songs. It’s extraordinary really. I love hymns and old songs, but I have an equally strong distaste for archaisms. Singing, you see is a ministry of the word (I read that somewhere, in the Bible maybe?) and one, though not the only, reason we use modern Bible translations is that they are comprehensible. If we are to sing the word to one another we need to apply the same criteria.

Why don’t we? It’s in part, at least, because we’ve privatised singing. I’m happy and content singing what I like. It’s not about serving others. If the words mean something to me, then how dare you change them! We had some of the same debates when gradually moving away from the AV and we now need to resist the songword bullies and have the debates again with some of our sung ministry of the word.

I’m still going to sing hymns. Don’t put me down as one of those contemporary music only people. Not me! But in one sense I do want everything to be contemporary, by which I mean understandable. Otherwise we might as well be singing in another language, untranslated. And we all know what the Bible says about that.

I’m enjoying some audio books at the moment. Not Christian ones, as it happens, but some Len Deighton 1980s spy thrillers (please don’t tell!). These particular books (a set of nine) are my comfort books. I first started reading them when they were first published and must have read the series 15 or more times since. I know some people never read the same book twice, but I love going back to familiar territory to help me switch off and relax (just for those who are really worried I also read David Copperfield, my favourite book, once a year).

Just for a change I’ve been trying the audio version. It’s more pricey, for sure. But it’s a refreshing experience and the well known words have come with a newness I’ve not really experienced before. Even though I know what is going to happen, it’s almost as though I am hearing the text for the first time. I guess this is, in part at least, because these books are so familiar that I probably skip past some of the detail.

I’ve posted before about using an audio Bible and I continue to do that, it’s a valuable resource in the Christian armoury: ironically (for a modern product) it more accurately reflects how the word of God would have originally been disseminated. But what about other Christian books? Why not put some of these on your phone or iPod? Pilgrims’s Progress? £3. Disciplines of a godly man or woman? £10. Hole in our holiness? £11. Basic Christianity? £12. And so on. Worth a shot? I’ll take all the help I can get.

One of the benefits of my “Month in Philemon” is being able to really get to grips with the detail of the book. I’m really enjoying this: perhaps too much, I have to keep disciplining myself to read the whole letter again and again so as not to get over-immersed in the detail. Nevertheless, detail counts. Paragraphs are made of sentences, sentences are made of phrases, phrases are made of words and words count.

Take verse 6 of Philemon, phrase 1: “I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for….” (ESV) and “I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in…” (NIV). Two quite different understandings of a simple phrase. Or not so simple. This is, says Moo, “universally recognised as the most difficult verse in Philemon” – and it turns on how you translate koinonia and pistis.

In this case, both ESV and NIV have gone for the same understanding of pistis – faith as something you believe in. OK (though by no means 100% certain). But they diverge on how to translate koinonia. The ESV picks up the AV “communication of thy faith” – i.e sharing OF. This is also the RSV (which carried through the AV translation). The NIV takes it to mean partnership with Paul – i.e. sharing WITH.

Not a minor point – for it would lead you to two different applications. Obviously the work of the exegete is to ponder and think and pray to work out which is best. For my money, for what it’s worth, the NIV is better here. The ESV takes a translation of koinonia unknown in Paul and relatively unusual in the NT (only Heb 13.16, perhaps?). It is,says Moo, supported by few interpreters (though this in itself would not make it wrong). But you yourself have to work it out and decide.

And for that, you have to go slow, stop and wait a while.

We had an early morning phone call this morning – always, you imagine, the bringer of bad news. “Is this Celia?” Now, Celia, for the uninitiated, is the given name for Mrs R. Most of us call her Mrs R. But occasionally some people do call her Celia. So, what was the call? An early morning sales opportunity perhaps? That darn PPI we had forgotten about? No, the caller wanted Celia Hammond and her cat emergency line.

This was a double error. You see our phone number is very close to that of the PDSA (one digit different) and we often get calls asking how Rover is doing. But this caller had called the PDSA mistaking it for the Celia Hammond Cat Whatnot and THEN dialled the wrong number. Double Trouble.

We had a laugh about it (how those breakfasts in the Reynolds household just fly by!). It was unusual – and it took us some time to work out what had gone wrong. You see, when someone phones for the PDSA we can quickly say to them “you’ve got one digit wrong”.

This was more perplexing.

Preachers strive hard to get everything right. That’s how it should be. And this little incident reminded me of two things: first, we’ve got to be careful at every stage. One mistake, one wrong direction, can often lead to another. In other words, there needs to be a consistency in our preparation which gives the same careful attention to every detail. It’s far too easy, isn’t it, to take one step askew, and then another and before you know it, well…. you can join the dots.

But secondly, it’s worth being realistic. We strive hard to get everything right, but we don’t always. Sometimes an issue in our exegesis is so perplexing that it could go either way. I think listeners will always forgive us one rare mis-step. If we serve them faithfully, they should. And the discerning may well be able to spot the missed digit, so to speak. But two steps are harder to fathom and we’ve got to guard against it. So, if in my preparation I am wrestling with a knotty problem and simply have to choose a path (with a little uncertainty), I will never allow myself to make another assumption on top of that one – I could get too far away, and that’s not good.

Celia Hammond cats can be reached on 020 7474 8811.

January is the month to start planning the year, so here’s something to put in the diary – our Spring Ministers Conferences. We run two consecutive weeks – Week 1 is 25-28 April and is focused on those who are established in ministry (7 years +). Week 2 is 3-6 May and focused on those who are starting out (up to 7 years). Last year, over the two weeks, we welcomed some 180 people to Hothorpe Hall in Leicestershire, our central luxury venue.

And here’s the reason why I think you should come in 2016: this year we’re focusing on application. We’ve got Bryan Chappell, Andrew Cornes and Simon Medcroft to help us, and boy do some of us need help! Application is one of conservative evangelical’s soft spots. We so pleased with ourselves at our superb exegesis that we fail to draw faithful, appropriate, warm lines to our hearers. Result – not much to be honest!

There are few preachers I’ve heard (and I listen to quite a lot) who need no improvement in this area, and I include myself. I’m personally looking forward to it a lot! As with all our conferences, this one is not just work! There’s plenty of room to catch up, pray, reflect, chill out and just catch breath in the busy ministry lives we lead.

Week 2 books up especially early, so now is the time to put the date in the diary. Why not use this year to bring along a friend? Perhaps someone who has not been before or someone you know who really needs the encouragement and help to keep going in ministry? These few days together would be ideal.

You can book onto the Spring Senior Ministers conference here, or the Spring Younger Ministers conference here.

Jesus outside the lines is my favourite Christian book of this year!

OK, so it’s my only Christian book of this year so far and so wins the title by default, but – nevertheless – it’s a worthy winner. It’s written by a Presbyterian minister in the US (Scott Sauls) who is tired of the angry polemic that Christians are constantly throwing around. He argues that we draw some (not all) lines too sharply and end up, therefore, throwing out true Christian tolerance. Moreover, even when we do hold proper convictions, the way which we present them is not always as biblical as we would like to think.

There is some really good material here and I found some of the chapters very convicting. True, it is written into a US setting, as will become clear in a moment. But it doesn’t take much of a thinking brain to take the US lessons and apply them here, even if the issues are not always quite so sharp this side of the pond.

He starts with politics – which for most US readers is black and white, or rather red and blue. We don’t, of course, have the same political divides. And evangelicals in this country are more likely to support a range of parties. Nevertheless, it feels like things are polarising and so his points are well made.

Chapter 2 applies the same principles to whether we are for the unborn or the poor. Again, this is a particular debate formed in the crucible of US politics where – to simplify – concern for the unborn is often seen as a feature of the right whereas concern for the poor one for the left. And, again, the lines are not drawn so starkly for us, but even so, Sauls’ approach is worthy of careful reading as he tries to steer us the Master’s Way.

Other chapters hit home a little more. Institutional church versus personal faith is helpful (though I don’t think I’ve ever seen Don Carson referred to as Donald before!). Money greedy versus money guilt is also a useful corrective – challenging the assumption that anyone who works in the city and earns a good salary must be greedy (this is essentially a chapter on contentment).

Then part II of the book comes closer to the bone as it deals not with moral hot potatoes but Christian essentials. One of the most difficult chapters of the book comes in the middle – affirmation or critique. The premise of this chapter is a rejection of the kind of Paul Washer relational evangelism where you just tell everyone how bad they are. It’s not – note – a kind of semi Pelagian manifesto. Far from it. But Sauls argues that Jesus affirms as well as critiques, and that this affirmation element has disappeared from our relational activity. I think Sauls is onto something here, but I can already hear the knives being sharpened. It’s a fine line, I think – and one that got me thinking and praying, though I was not, in the end, fully convinced by his arguing which (speaking personally) would rather let me off the hook somewhat when it comes to personal evangelism. I can think of others, however, for whom this would be essential reading.

Chapters on hypocrisy (“I’m a Christian hypocrite!”) and chastity (he’s for it, don’t worry!), suffering and self-esteem are excellent. Overall, this is a needed book, encouraging Christians to retain convictions and yet present themselves and relate to others in a way that is still, well, Christian. I think that even if the touchpoints are different for us in the UK, this is still a message we need, and therefore a book worth reading.

For occasional preachers, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, small group leaders, study leaders….

Here’s a one day training event to help you preach and teach faithfully. If you’re in Bournemouth, it’s with Christopher Ash on Old Testament narrative on Sat 30th Jan. If you’re in the South West (ish) come and see us in Bath on Sat 6th Feb (that’s me teaching that one, also on OT narrative).

OT narrative is part of a regular diet of our teaching in church, but many people struggle with it. This day will help – it’s deliberately low cost and high quality. Spread the word, send along your teams and book here.

Here’s a thought: if preaching is going to flourish, then preachers need to flourish. If married preachers are going to flourish, then their wives need looking after too. There are remarkably few initiatives that even try to do this – and that’s why our wives conferences are both so important and so popular. In fact, our Spring conference (7-10 March) is pretty much sold out (just one or two spaces remaining) and our Summer conference (4-7 July) for those whose husbands are in the early years of ministry will soon start filling up.

And it’s why we’ve added a third. Starting this autumn we’re trying something new – a weekend wives conference. In one sense this is just like the others – it’s for preachers wives to come and be encouraged, pray together, learn together and have fun together. But we’ve scheduled it for a weekend because we know midweek is just too hard for some: it may be paid employment, it may be home schooling – a host of things, in fact, which make midweek difficult and add a whole other set of pressures to being a ministry wife.

That’s why we need this extra conference.

It’s going to be at Horwood House near Milton Keynes – we’ve tried to find somewhere reasonably central and a venue that will pamper already tired bodies and minds. This is it! The dates are 7-9 October 2016 and it may be just the thing you or your spouse have been waiting for. Spaces are limited so book soon. And pass it on.

You can book onto the Weekend Wives conference here.

For 2016, I’m setting myself a slightly different Bible study challenge – this is my personal devotions I’m talking about. I’ve selected 12 short Bible books and I’m going to study one a month. My aim with each one is to memorise it (at least for the month, we’ll see how recall goes!), read it through every day, write it out several times and study it slowly. These are not sermons, not yet anyway. This is just personal study. For 2015 I did a few things, including a Bible in the year and some longer books. For this year, I want to get deep into shorter texts. It’s a different discipline, you know. I’m discovering that, even a week or so in. Reading and re-reading countless times really makes a difference. I’m finding questions I want answers to that I would never have thought to ask. It’s not a long time each day – just 20 minutes or so. But it’s fruitful and stimulating. I encourage you to give it a try.

And this month I am mostly studying… Philemon.

Welcome back Mr Preacher! Here we are, a new year, a new opportunity to serve, a chance to make some resolutions? Yawn! There are only so many lists of resolutions you can read, so instead here is something I read over Christmas that challenged me afresh when it comes to preaching. It’s not telling you anything you don’t already know, but is a useful reminder. It comes from a book I’m editing on 123 John, written by Mervyn Eloff and due for publication in June 2016. It’s a great read and in his section on 2.28-3.10, Mervyn makes a very important and always timely observation about two great extremes to avoid, especially in complex passages. This is advice I want to particularly take on. Let me invite you to do the same. In other words, just the one resolution this year!

‘Given the exegetical and theological complexity of the passage, it is perhaps easy to fall into one of two errors. On the one hand, we may be tempted to gloss over the passage and to preach our theological framework, thus failing to show our hearers how the passage itself makes the points which we want to make. On the other hand and in a genuine attempt to let the passage speak, we may find ourselves and our hearers bogged down in the detail of the text and so end up missing the expository wood for the exegetical trees. Thus as we approach what is a difficult passage, we are reminded both of the necessity of hard work in the study and of the importance of weighing carefully which work is to be brought to the pulpit and which is to be left behind closed doors. And here perhaps more than anywhere, we will benefit from a clear statement of the theme and aim of the passage as a guide for exposition.’

In a nutshell, make sure you give your people the expository wood, not the exegetical trees!