Last week I reflected briefly on the role of the listener in effective preaching. It’s probably an often forgotten element, but it is one of the implications of the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4. The same message has a different impact on the lives of different people.
Thinking a little more about preaching, this [...]
Entries from January 2008
January 31, 2008
Three more elements of effective preaching
January 29, 2008
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
We are still missing our carpet and the normal comfortable chairs, but we were again back in our normal building for Sunday. I only preached at the morning service this week. In the evening Michael Williams, one of the elders at PBC, preached on overcoming discouragement. His sermon was inspired from reading about the attempts [...]
January 25, 2008
New album from Stuart Townend
It’s not in the shops for a few more weeks, but Stuart Townend’s new live CD, recorded round the corner from us in Coleraine is available for purchase via his website.
January 25, 2008
A forgotten element of effective preaching
In our image-driven, entertainment-saturated culture it is easy to miss one of the key elements of effective preaching: the condition of a listener’s heart. I think this is one of the implications of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 4 about the way the message of the Kingdom works. The difference between the person [...]
January 22, 2008
John Lennox and the New Atheism
In the latter part of last year, Oxford professor John Lennox, took part in a debate with fellow scientist, the atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins. At the weekend Dr Lennox was in Belfast where he was in conversation about the New Atheism. You can watch a recording of the event on Glenabbey’s website.
January 21, 2008
Sunday at Portstewart Baptist
We made it back into our own building on Sunday. It will be a few more weeks until the repair work is fully completed, but folk were glad to be back in the building, even without carpet and sitting in less comfortable chairs!
I resumed the two new sermon series, preaching from Mark in the [...]
January 21, 2008
Big Four – Top Four?
The footballing media in Britain make a big deal of what they refer to as the “Big Four”. Funny that it does not quite correspond at the moment to the top four teams in the Premier League. I know the season’s not over, but perhaps one of the Big Four is not as [...]
January 17, 2008
Happy Birthday Pauline
Today is the birthday of a really great lady. Happy Birthday Pauline!
January 16, 2008
Just a little late for Christmas (07)
Maybe it is a bit like those people who buy their Christmas cards for next year in this year’s sales, but I just came across two new verses for the Christmas hymn O Holy Night. They have been written by an astronomer-poet friend in the US – Kevin Hartnett. Too late for Christmas 07, but [...]
January 16, 2008
Christians in the news – joy
Monday’s Daily Telegraph carried news of a call from one of their own ministers to the members of the Free Church of Scotland that they need to demonstrate some “serious joy.” Here is a quote from the Reverend David Robertson:
“Religion, especially of the Scottish Presbyterian kind, is doom, gloom, blackness, depressive and joyless. Let [...]
January 14, 2008
Sunday services in Portstewart
Yesterday our congregation – unable to use our own facility because of storm damage – enjoyed a very warm welcome from Richard Gregg and the congregation of Burnside Presbyterian Church. There were already guest speakers lined up for morning and evening so Richard and I shared leading the services. In the morning [...]
January 10, 2008
Broken buildings
Yesterday was the start of the clean-up operation around PBC after the destruction of Tuesday night. Today will see more work done and we will hopefully get to a better idea of what needs to be done to be operational again and how long it will take. We have had to come up [...]
January 9, 2008
North Coast Weather
We have had a bit of weather over the past week. Last Thursday Portstewart had a fall of snow – quite unusual for this part of the world. It passed fairly quickly within 24 hours, but this week we have had storm force winds. And it is PBC that seems to have had [...]
January 8, 2008
Sunday at PBC
Two new sermon series got underway on Sunday at PBC. In the morning we are into a ten week look at Jesus from Mark’s Gospel. I preached from the first 15 verses of chapter 1 on the theme of the gospel – a story told, a promise kept and a message to be [...]
January 5, 2008
The F.A. Cup
Another non-event for Everton this year after another one of those embarassing exits. This time, beaten at home by Oldham. At least there are still a few other things to play for.
January 2, 2008
The yoyo effect
After being on the wrong end of a fairly harsh scoreline on Saturday, Everton got back to winning by beating Middlesborough. In the top 5 at the moment, though it could be brief, and already with 36 points. 40 is the normal target for avoiding relegation and it is not so long in the past [...]
January 1, 2008
Seeing in the New Year at PBC
Last night we set up a special event that helped us see in the New Year. I ran a chat-show style conversation with Cal Thomas and Ross Wilson. Cal is a well-known American columnist who regularly spends time in Northern Ireland, and Ross is a local artist and sculptor.
We talked for just over [...]
January 1, 2008
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to the readers (accidental or intentional) of this blog. A couple of years ago I posted the text of the famous poem by Minnie Louise Harkins, made famous by its inclusion in the Christmas message of King George VI in 1939.
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the [...]
