Living

I'm greatly heartened to read Richard Perkins' recent post: 5 ways to profit from a rubbish sermon.

(Mercifully,) a sermon can fall far, far short of what it should be, and people can still profit from it. That doesn't mean it's OK not to try, but for me just to settle for preaching badly. But isn't it good to know that preaching badly also doesn't mean it's OK for the hearer to have to settle for hearing nothing? In patnership, as the preacher unfolds the text as well as he can, the congregation can seek to hear the voice of God as clearly as they can. And then they will.

Go on, read it! He has some excellent suggestions.

I've finally finished reading William Still's fine The Work of the Pastor (paid link). Perhaps a better heading for this post would be the need for perspective. Anyway, here's a word for our own day:

There are some very helpful distinctions and other points made in an article by Doug Wilson on Lent. With a month to go before the season begins, I'd commend it to readers of this blog.

Those wishing to pray for the church in Iran may like to read this recent report that has documented the persecution there since June 2010.

The headline is this: “We know for sure that at least 202 Christians have been arbitrarily arrested in 24 cities in Iran since June 2010. 33 remain in prison today. This has happened against the background of government officials publicly speaking out against Christians.”

The report is available from http://www.elam.com/articles/202-arrests,-33-still-in-prison.

There are a few similar videos doing the rounds on Facebook etc. at the moment, but this is the best I've come across. It would have taken a lot of work to put together!

Apart from one small anachronism over the e-mail address Mary chose for herself, it's excellent.

I think this post from Steve Jeffery is very helpful

2 Samuel 6 describes what King David did when the Ark of the LORD was brought into the city of Jerusalem.

"Once you are convinced that your people need — I say need — the whole Word of God, and you get over the shock to your indolent flesh that you are not in the ministry for an easy job, you simply roll up your sleeves, and having gathered, or being in process of gathering, the most helpful library of commentaries and reference books you can find, you get down to it: and book by book you give your people a balanced diet of the truth." (William Still, The Work of the Pastor (p

For those of you who belong to a small group at church, Richard Perkins has a couple of excellent posts on how you can belong to one so as to make it thrive, and how to belong to one so as to make it struggle.

Church Society have just launched a new series of publications entitled The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Library. Lee Gatiss, the editor of the volumes in the series, recently dropped me an e-mail to point them out, and they look promising. In particular, I often feel that the wisdom we most often seek out is that from our own generation, but those of former years and centuries so often have much to teach us.

Finally, we have an announcement. It was announced this morning that the new Bishop of Rochester is to be Rt Revd James Langstaff, currently Bishop of Lynn in the Diocese of Norwich.