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The faculty of impromptu speech

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“You nearly found your preaching voice today.”

Those were the kindly, but slightly troubling, words of an elderly Christian gentleman after he heard me preach recently.

What he meant was that in my preaching I tend to be too tied to my notes, and to speak more to the head than to the heart.  In other words, in his view I tend to lecture, rather than to preach.

A number of somewhat random thoughts occur to me as I try to reflect on this:-

  1. I am by training and profession a teacher (of nursing), and I wouldn’t dream of speaking from fully written-out notes in my day job.
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Heb 7 – Completely, for ever – sermon notes

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“This Melchizedek”. I’m trying to imagine a conversation you might have with a friend tomorrow. “How was your weekend?” you are asked. “Pretty good. Went to church yesterday evening.” “Oh yes? What was that all about?” “Melchizedek.” I’m really not sure where the conversation might go after that. Straight back to the Olympics, presumably.

The writer to the Hebrews seems to have had his own doubts about broaching the subject of Melchizedek. He’s been edging up to it for a while now.…

2 Tim 2:1-12 – The Christian race – sermon notes

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These are the notes of a sermon preached on Sunday 29th July 2012.  The Olympic Games had just opened in London, and a deliberately topical (rather than expository) approach was taken on this occasion.  The underlined portions refer to the slides in this Powerpoint presentaton:

Well, it’s not been a great start for Team GB in the medal stakes.  But my aim this morning is to make sure that everyone is a winner in this matter of running the Christian race.…

Apt Alliteration’s Artful Aid – Arrgh!

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It is good for written and spoken outlines to be striking and memorable.  One technique that some writers and preachers use is alliteration – using key words that begin with the same letter.

Used sensibly, alliteration is a handy device.  John Stott was not greatly given to its use, but I think it was he who noted from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that the apostle writes about (a) revelation, v15; (b) return, v14; (c) resurrection, v16; (d) rapture, v17; (e) reunion, v17; and (f) reassurance, v18. …

What is ‘spirituality’?

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Words change their meanings over time. To deny this would be silly, and to try to stop it happening would be futile.

Moreover, at any one time a word can mean different things to different people. A word can have a broader, everyday, meaning, as well as a narrower technical meaning.

But sometimes a word has its meaning changed and extended so much and so fast that it becomes difficult to pin down what it anyone means by it any more.…

Some thoughts on Young Earth Creationism

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According to Young Earth Creationists (YEC) the cosmos came into being not more than about 10,000 years ago.  I must admit that I have tended to regard this view as unnecessary from a biblical point of view, and implausible from a scientific point of view.

But let me just note, without irony or mockery, what kinds of arguments could be used to support it.

1.  YEC regards its theory as theologically coherent. 

YEC is committed to a high view of Scripture. …

Adelphopoiesis: ‘the making of brothers’

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It is interesting that both human rights activist Peter Tatchell and politician Adrian Trett have asserted that in times past the Christian church has actively endorsed same-sex marriage.  And in both cases they have appealed as their sole source of evidence to John Boswell’s book The marriage of likeness: same-sex unions in pre-modern Europe.

Boswell argued that the ancient rite of ‘adelphopoiesis’ should be regarded as equivalent to same-sex marriage.  It would follow, then, that sections of the modern Christian church are denying its own history when it opposes same-sex marraige today.…

Instone-Brewer: the destruction of the Canaanites

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The Bible records several acts of hostility that would be probably regarded as ‘war crimes’ today. The problem is made worse by the fact that God is said to have commanded these acts.  Perhaps the most notorious involved the command to utterly destroy the Canaanites (see Deut 20:16).

What follows is based on an article by David Instone-Brewer:-

Curiously, it may be that this particular act of genocide never happened. Although Palestine contains many remains of ancient towns destroyed by warfare, very few date from the time of Israel’s conquest.…

Has worship music lost its soul?

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Writing in a recent issue of Christianity magazine, Andy Walton asks if some of our modern worship songs so lack freshness, creativity and effort, that they could easily have been written by a blindfolded monkey.

I must admit to having some sympathy with this position, even though I certainly don’t want to seem ungrateful for all the skill, effort and commitment that musicians put into our worship ‘experience’.

I’m not going to comment on the musical quality of today’s worship songs, not because it’s unimportant, but because its importance is secondary.  …

Miracles yesterday and today

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Many Christians must have wondered: If so many miracles are recorded in the pages of the New Testament, why are few (if any) witnessed today?  For sceptics, the answer is that the New Testament accounts of miracles cannot be believed.  For some believers, the answer is that although the New Testament accounts can be believed, the gift of miracles ceased when the canon of Scripture was completed.

New Testament scholar Craig Keener has recently published a work that bids fair to blow both the sceptical and the ultra-conservative views right out of the water. …