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On November 9, 2016 By In Theology, Wisdom

101 Things I’ve Learned from David Field

David Field has been an Elder at Emmanuel Evangelical Church in London, England, where I serve as Minister, since we began in March 2009. Before that, he taught at Oak Hill Theological College in North London. It was there that I first met him when I trained there a decade or more ago.

Since that time, David has been everything I could have wished for as a mentor, fellow-Elder, and friend. I think I can say without fear of exaggeration that I have been shaped more by David as a Christian, husband, father, and Minister of the gospel than by anyone else I’ve ever met. Indeed, the whole Field family have been an immeasurable blessing to the whole congregation at Emmanuel ever since we began.

But the Fields have left Emmanuel and moved to Oxford. This will be wonderful for them, as they’ll be able to see a lot more of their second daughter (more…)

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On October 7, 2016 By In Theology, Wisdom

An alternative to therapeutic theology

There are many books designed to help Christians deal with issues such as anxiety, depression, alcoholism, loneliness, (lack of) fulfilment, bereavement, grief, marital struggles, addiction, low self-esteem, and so on. Many of them are very good – I’ve read a good handful myself. However, it seems to me that there might be a more fruitful way of addressing the issues underlying these symptoms.

(more…)

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On July 25, 2016 By In Theology, Wisdom

How not to miss opportunities in theological and ministerial education

I was chatting with a friend recently about ministerial and theological training, and I had a couple of thoughts about some of the ways in which the whole experience can go awry.

It strikes me that one of the problems that sometimes arises when people go to seminary or theological college is that they are frankly a little suspicious of their lecturers (whom they don’t know very well, after all), and about the books they’re asked to read (many of which are written by people they’re never heard of), and they therefore approach their studies with an attitude of rather unconstructive criticism. They adopt a “personal theological position” on a whole range of matters about which they profess sufficient knowledge to make pretty final-sounding judgments, and then proceed to assess what they read and hear on the basis of whether it agrees with what they already think they know.

As a result, their theological training is characterised by two major disappointments. First, they experience only the slightest incremental growth in theological understanding during their training, because they have innoculated themselves anything new, and it’s quite hard to have your world rocked by someone who is saying stuff that’s basically pretty familiar. Second, on the (rare?) occasions that they happen to encounter something genuinely new (perhaps by accident, or perhaps because it’s forced upon them), they respond with an unhealthy dose of critical-spirited-ness, because, after all, this stuff contradicts my “personal theological position.” It’s all pretty sad.

At the risk of causing offence – a risk worth taking in this instance – I’ll be blunt.

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On July 22, 2016 By In Wisdom

Bittersweet goodbye

It’s always sad for a church to say goodbye to our friends. It’s inevitable, of course, for people move house for many different reasons – work, family commitments, and so on – and very often this means leaving their church to worship elsewhere. But this doesn’t make it any easier when we suddenly realize that friends who’ve been a permanent fixture in our lives are going to be around a whole lot less often.

It’s even harder when the people moving on have been deeply involved in the church’s ministry. A church might lose an Elder, a family-full of wise listening ears, and a flock of behind-the-scenes servants who over the years have been responsible for a myriad of practical tasks from putting the coffee on before church to clearing up the mess afterwards.

This is the situation we’re going to find ourselves in at Emmanuel in the next few weeks with the departure of one of the families who have been with us from our very first service in March 2009. Frankly, apart from the fact that some other church somewhere is about to be richly blessed by some new arrivals, it’s hard to see the bright side.

But there is a bright side. There’s always a bright side. The God who disciplines us for our good so that we may share in his holiness (Heb 12:10) and who brings affliction so that we might keep his word (Ps 119:67) is perfectly capable of taking the bitter water of a friend’s departure and making it sweet (Ex 15:23-25).

So then, what are the good things that could happen as a result of our friends leaving the church?

(more…)

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On May 25, 2016 By In Wisdom

Socrates & Seeking the Truth in Love

socrates“Meno:  Somehow, Socrates, I think that what you say is right.

Socrates:  I think so too, Meno. I do not insist that my argument is right in all other respects, but I would contend at all costs in both word and deed as far as I could that we will be better men, braver and less idle, if we believe that one must search for the things one does not know, rather than if we believe that it is not possible to find out what we do not know and that we must not look for it.” (Plato’s Meno, tr. G.M.A. Grube)

Last month, I was honored to speak at a Collegium event held by New College Franklin in Franklin, Tennessee. I teamed up with a faculty member to speak about “Seeking & Speaking the Truth in Love.” I was “seeking,” focusing on Plato’s Meno, and my counterpart was “speaking,” focusing on Plato’s Gorgias. Actually, I did some speaking too, which is what I’d like to share with you here.

My lecture was entitled “Seeking the Truth in Love,” and it focused on seeking the truth through Socratic dialogue–not Socratic dialogue generally, but specifically, as in the ones Plato wrote. After some introductory remarks and an historical introduction to Socrates and Plato, I walked through the first half of Plato’s Meno, all the way up to the end of the geometry problem with the Slave Boy. My application and conclusion summarized what I have been learning as a Christian studying Plato and how I see those lessons trickling down to my neighbor, who is also seeking the truth.

If you already enjoy Plato, I hope you enjoy this somewhat informal rehearsal of the dialogue. If you are unfamiliar with the study of Plato’s dialogues and have no idea why Christians even spend precious time reading them, then I invite you into one of my favorite things to talk about: Seeking the truth in love, and loving your neighbor through it.

 

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On April 1, 2016 By In Culture, Wisdom

Social media and the death of human society

So much has been written about the impact of social media from a Christian perspective that it’s hard to imagine how anyone could contribute anything new. But my friend Arthur Kay, Minister at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Bolton, Lancashire, UK, made some remarkably profound and insightful comments in a recent email exchange with a few friends. Here, with his kind permission (thanks Arthur), are some reflections prompted by what he said, including some large chunks straight from his pen (of course, I’m to blame for anything that’s inaccurate, irritating or confusing):

People today have fewer and fewer reasons for getting together. Many of the things in the ancient world that reinforced tradition and kept people together geographically are gone. Travel is much easier; we no longer need to go to the local market to exchange goods; many cultural and social festivals are disappearing.

But even today the constraints by which cities have arisen in the past are being stripped away. Technology is enabling more and more personal isolation. For example, consider the impact of:

  • Instant remote communication
  • Remote diagnosis and even remote surgery
  • Online shopping and drone deliveries
  • Online multi-player games
  • Working from home
  • Virtual meetings
  • 3D printing
  • Superb all-round sound and vision reproduction over vast distances so that it is no longer worth the hassle of attending concerts and art-galleries

What all this means is that human selfishness is easier than ever to indulge. Human community does not arise “naturally”; it must be formed deliberately, and it takes a considerably effort to do so.

This prompts some interesting thoughts about what the local church community will look like in the future. Assuming that we don’t capitulate to the virtual church movement (Lord preserve us), perhaps God is bringing us to a point where pretty much ther only communities around are those gathered around the Lord’s Table. Though our cities may be larger than ever before, there may come a time when there might simply be very few actual localised, embodied communities left.

Perhaps God is handing us over to the consequences of our individualism, giving the world in an extreme form what we’ve been foolishly been seeking for many years, and daring the church to stand against the cultural tide. Churches that have the courage to do this may find that they suddenly become havens for large numbers of fragile, splintered people who have been stripped bare by the folly of (post-)modern, post-romantic individualism and are desperate for a community that will hold them together.

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On March 8, 2016 By In Wisdom

No, you DON’T need to read those books

In a recent article, Matt Smethurst of the Gospel Coalition asked 20 church planters for their list of 3 books every church planter should read. It provides a very instructive insight into the character of the modern western evangelical church.

Looking at the combined list, I have to say I’m dismayed, though not as surprised as I might have been a few years ago.

There are over 60 books on the list (some of the contributors took the phrase “3 books” slightly loosely). A quick glance reveals that almost all of them were written in the last 15 years. Yes, seriously. Unbelievable, right? But true.

There are a few exceptions – a shout-out to Lloyd-Jones; a couple of texts from the 20th (Leon Morris, Ronald Allen) and 19th (Spurgeon, Charles Bridges) centuries. And you need to look carefully at the lists, because in one or two cases the dates given are the dates of reprints, not the dates of first publication. But once you’ve worked through this, you discover that just four of the works hail from earlier eras: Richard Sibbes, Richard Baxter, John Flavel, and Thomas Brooks.

While it’s encouraging to see this nod to the Puritans, there’s little cause for excitement about their overall contribution of around 7% to the total. What’s astonishing is that none of the books come even from the early Reformers, never mind the Medieval or Patristic eras. (more…)

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On February 4, 2016 By In Wisdom

Should we always follow our conscience?

Yes, obviously.

“Conscience” is simply a way of referring to “What you think is the right thing to do.” So it’s certainly wrong to disobey your conscience. Equally, it’s wrong to ignore or silence or suppress your conscience. You ought to do what you think is right.

But if this is all we ever say about our conscience, we’re only telling half the story. To illustrate the problem, consider what happens to the Christian whose conscience tells him that it’s always wrong to drink alcohol, or that abortion is OK because every woman has the right to choose, or that (as someone once famously said) evangelism is unnecessary because when God is pleased to convert the heathen he’ll do so without your help or mine?

Clearly there is something wrong with the Christian’s conscience in these instances. And this highlights that we have a two-fold duty in relation to our conscience: not merely to follow it, but to educate it. It’s not good enough to say simply, “I’m following my conscience, so that’s fine,” because your conscience may be wrong.

If you’re not open the the possibility that you may have read the route incorrectly, you’ll walk off the edge of a cliff convinced that you’re heading in the right direction.

Psalm 25 says the same thing using the imagery of the “ways” and “paths” of the LORD. Clearly, we must walk in (what we think are) the ways of the LORD. But the Psalm doesn’t stop there. David prays that God would “Make me to know your ways, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth and teach me” (vv. 4-5; cf. vv. 8-9). David wants help not just in following God’s ways, but in knowing what those ways are. If your conscience is pointing in the wrong direction, following it will simply lead you into trouble.

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On January 4, 2016 By In Wisdom

A Bible-reading plan for Ministers and theological students

It’s the time of year when people start to re-think their Bible-reading plan, and as ever there are lots of great ones available (like this one right here at Kuyperian.com from my friend Brian Nolder). I’ve been chewing over this old chestnut, and for the following year I’m planning (Lord willing) to work through a slightly unusual plan – one designed specifically for Ministers and Theological Students.

You might ask why Ministers and Theological Students need a different Bible-reading plan from anyone else. The simple reason is that Ministers (and everything that follows applies equally to trainee Ministers) should have slightly different aims in our Bible reading from everyone else.

To begin with, we have a responsibility to be reading the Bible more than others in our congregations. Everyone else has to hold down a day job, but full-time Ministers are supported by their congregations precisely so that they can devote ourselves to the ministry of the word and prayer.* It doesn’t seem unreasonable for a Minister of the word to spend an hour or so each day in personal reading and study of the Scriptures – besides the time required for specific preparation. The greatest of our forefathers in the faith would hardly have settled for less; many of them aspired to much more.

For the same reason, we should be in the habit of studying the Scriptures in greater depth than those we serve. This calls for slow, patient study – sometimes many hours on just a few chapters of Scripture, accompanied by a decent commentary or two – and it’s hard to factor this in if our plan simply just gives us half a dozen chapters a day. We may not be able to study every chapter of the Bible on the same detail, but it’d be wise to have some kind of plan for chipping away at it. So alongside the “Reading”, I’d suggest an element of “Study” too.

I’m also inclined to say that a regular dose of Psalms and Proverbs would be a good idea.

Naturally, the time that we have available for reading and studying the Scriptures may not be spread evenly throughout the week. Sometimes a pastoral crisis will erupt at just the wrong moment (is there ever a right moment?), and we all know that once we’ve fallen behind with a daily plan it’s perilously difficult to get back on track. So a daily plan might not be the most helpful; perhaps a weekly plan (with implied daily targets?) may allow us to use the time we have available in the best way. (more…)

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On December 21, 2015 By In Culture, Scribblings, Wisdom

Olasky and Myers: A Conversation on Culture

Marvin Olasky turned the tables on Ken Myers, conducting an intelligent, sweeping conversation on things ranging from modern dance to radical Islam. Per usual, when Ken talks about anything he talks about everything, deftly showing cultural connections between seemingly unrelated artifacts. Those who listen to Ken’s bimonthly MARS HILL AUDIO Journal won’t be surprised by the themes emphasized:

  1. Life is a gift and the Spirit is the giver.
  2. You can only believe what you can imagine.
  3. Religion is a modern myth.

If you don’t have time to listen to the whole interview, skip to minute 58:30. There, Myers attempts to answer the question, “why does God allow Islam?” Following Peter Leithart and William Cavanaugh, Myers says Islam is a rebuke to the Western church which has succumbed to the temptation to privatize the faith. Perceived this way, the church can engage Islam by critiquing not its outward stance, but its dogma; that it’s a public outworking of a faith lacking a Trinity, an incarnation, or indeed grace.

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