Much harder to be evangelical in practice
The whole thing isn’t long, but here are a couple of paragraphs
Blog Category:
Pastoral Ministry
Perkins categories of hearer
I’m always trying to find these. So to save me hunting, I’ll put them somewhere.
(William Perkins, chapter 7 of The Art of Prophesying, entitled “Use and Application”)
What do I notice when I read what Perkins is actually saying (as opposed to what people imagine him to be saying)? He’s saying:
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Blog Category:
Election and the covenant / Creature and creator
Extremely helpful quotation.
(OK, I can't resist writing this: James reads David who quotes Barb listening to Lusk quoting Leithart)
http://davidpfield.blogspot.com/2006/09/baptism-and-covenant.html
In particular, I've never before seen the conceptual link between the covenant community / elect distinction and the creature / creator distinction. Thanks David for fishing these things out for us.
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The call to the ministry
The debate has often gone on: Should someone experience a personal call from God to pastoral ministry before they start out? Some say yes (DMLJ), others have said that there is no evidence for this in Scripture, and the wisdom of the church is what counts.
Does it help to consider the parallel debate about assurance (or, more properly, reflex faith). Can I know that I have faith or not? The Roman Catholic church teaches that this cannot be known. Scripture, by contrast, tells us to be motivated in certain ways by our reflex faith. This presupposes that it is possible to have this kind of assurance.
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Watered down gospel?
I've just read a beautiful phrase from my friend Dan Young.
The gospel should not "be watered down or diluted to taste, like orange squash".
Helpful for the vivid way it puts it!
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David Jackman's lecture is published.
The lecture from David Jackman on preaching that I referred to in this entry has been published online.
It's available free from this page on the Proclamation Trust's website.
Blog Category:
Bible in the driving seat?
Enjoyed a stunningly helpful and refreshing lecture from David Jackman at the Proclamation Trust's Evangelical Ministry Assembly.
He had a particularly helpful illustration on the difference between preaching that is expository and preaching that merely delivers our theological framework.
Is the Bible in the driving seat for the sermon - it decides the course the sermon takes?
Or is the Bible in the passenger seat? A useful point of reference, but ultimately we decide where the car goes, not the Bible.
I'm sure that oversimplifies things slightly, but a helpful illustration nonetheless
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