Church Life

I love discovering new hymns.

Like this one by Josiah Conder, entitled My Lord, I did not choose you.

I have huge respect for Christopher Idle. I love the hymns he writes. And he's a godly man with a wise, pastoral heart. I was searching for some of his hymns, when I found something rather different.

Doubtless, many readers of this will be familiar with Henry Scott Holland's poem Death is Nothing at all. For those who don't know it:

Death is nothing at all. It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you, and the old life
Death is Nothing at all

Leithart again:

Historically, a pastoral candidate’s desires often had little to do with the Church’s call to serve in pastoral office. Far from seeking out positions of leadership, the greatest of the church fathers resisted with all their strength.

Lovely quotation from Leithart in Against Christianity on what a Spirit-filled church looks like:

Christian myth and ritual shape the people of God, by the power of the Spirit, into conformity to Christ, creating within the Church a palpable aroma of love, peace, purity, joy, ministry, mission and forgiveness. That aroma spreads from the Church to the city around it.

blockquote

Neil’s 8 biblical personality types offers a very helpful analysis of the kinds of people we find in the church and in the world at large. I, for one, find his Venn diagram most helpful to see the map at a glance.

He concludes with one of the right questions: “As a minister, the question is, how should God’s word be ministered and applied to each personality type?”

See also my earlier post on William Perkins’ categories of hearer

I most enjoyed Jam’s discussion with himself on the issues surrounding work on a Sunday.

Many of us, instinctively, think that refusing to work on a Sunday is a bad thing. Ideally we wouldn’t do it very often, but we mustn’t make a rule out of it. Surely, in this day and age when grace rules, Sabbath observance has had its day?

Not quite so simple. It’s all about how we use our freedom.

Anyway: Enjoy reading New Jam in dialogue with Old Jam

Having finished reading Reformed is not Enough, I’ve done some reading of those who interact with the material.

I’m delighted to see that David Field is putting a series of notes about the relationship between Science and Christianity on his blog.

How I love having “good news stories” to report.

“Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven”

Quite so. The question is, when will this happen?

What I’ve recently come to realise is that there are two mistakes to make here.