Slight change to blog

You may have noticed that this blog is now slightly wider. I've done that for personal preference as I have a relatively high screen resolution (1280 x 1024).

Please drop me a line if it doesn't work for you! It may mean increasing your resolution, or I can switch back if enough people wish :)

Steven

David Jackman - Preaching from Exodus

I am very tired!

So, from 'Walk 4 Bibles' to 'YF Christmas In May' to teaching Sunday School to David Jackman's seminars at the Queensland Theological College on preaching from Exodus. I'm looking forward to my sleep in tomorrow morning.

It was a very packed 2 day seminar. Four one-hour lectures covered Exodus, preaching, but also pastoral issues and concerns. Along with the Don Carson seminar from last weekend I was pleasantly surprised that both Carson and Jackman, whilst being academically rigorous were also pastoral at heart. So with Jackman I was glad to know that he was approachable with questions and just general chit-chat.

Lots to digest from the past two days. Plenty of notes to review. I know I wanted to post some thoughts on the Carson seminar also, so I guess I'll do that at the same time.

Watch this space!

Walk 4 Bibles

So on Saturday when Steph and I got home in the afternoon we fell into bed and snoozed like we had never snoozed before.

This is why:

Don Carson - QTC Year of Excellence

When I heard a few months back that Don Carson was coming to Brisbane to speak to say that I was excited could have been an understatement. To be able to hear and meet the man who has had such an impact on world wide Evangelicalism would be an honour.

Now, I say this not because I 'worship' the man himself. I think there's an unhealthy tendency amongst us to idolise particular speakers for the speaking abilities or prowess in the pulpit. My excitement was not in the speaker itself, but in his clear and precise proclamation of the gospel. Having heard his series on 'Revelation' from @the Castle, I was looking forward to hearing his thoughts on theology and preaching.

So we arrived on a rather windy Brisbane Autumn morning and were ushered into a rather cold lecture theatre for the first of four one-hour sessions with Carson.

His lectures covered four main areas:

• Preaching and Biblical Theology: Connecting with the big picture
• Preaching and Systematic Theology: Connecting with the character of God
• Preaching and History Theology: Connecting with History
• Preaching and Pastoral Theology: Connecting with life, connecting with the heart

Whilst I took as many notes as I could, I can see now that they were far from sufficient in capturing all the little nuances of his lectures. Therefore I ordered the mp3 talks which also include his sermons from Friday night and Sunday morning/evening - the seminar itself was one Saturday.

The first session was of great interest to me. Biblical Theology, from the time I heard about it, has excited me no end! Biblical theology has been the greatest reason why I am passionate about preaching from the Old Testament, and find preaching the OT much easier than the New Testament (which is ironic since most people find preaching the NT easier!). But that's also possibly because I've leaned towards the OT in choosing passages to preach from.

That said there were many nuggets of gold to be found in Carson's session on 'the big picture'. In all his eight-point argument for preaching biblical theology was very persuasive. I will endeavour to make these notes available incrementally.

The second session was a bit more heavy in both content and language. Carson is a man of many big words, his expression is clear and emphatic, yet his style is very high-brow. In some ways you can immediately see that he is a lecturer back home in Chicago! My notes on this seminar were less than the previous one, but there were many challenges in this session also.

The third talk regained a lot of interest. Partly because the air-conditioning had been switched off and partly because we were all a bit snoozy after lunch. I had never realised how important history is to the bible - it is so grounded in history that to remove historical events would be to undermine the faith altogether. For instance, you can take Siddhartha Guatama (Buddha) away from Buddhism and you would still have the fundamentals for Buddhism. If you approached a Muslim, carefully, respectfully and logically, they would agree with you that Allah's vision could have been given to another man other than Muhammad. But you cannot do this with Christianity. Take away Jesus and you take away everything.

Now, I had already known this, but goodness everything else in the lecture was fantastic!

By the fourth session everyone was feeling pretty drained. It was a full on day so far with many things to digest, and yet another hour was approaching with yet another topic. I knew that Don Carson himself had just come from a Monday to Friday preaching conference in Sydney, but I later found out that his talks there were the same here. Thus we were getting a condensed week-long preaching conference in the one day!

But in a lot of ways you could say that Carson left his best for last. Whilst he may have been a lecturer for the past 30 or so years, you can see that his heart is still connected with his pastoral days. There was plenty of practical thoughts from Carson as well as some excellent illustrations.

In all I learnt quite a lot from the day. Not only by way of information from Carson himself, but also quite a lot in his style and story telling. With his excellent preaching style I was able to reflect on my own style and areas I can improve in. Not to be in the image of Carson, but to better improve my speaking ability.

Waiting for lightning...

I remember a few years ago at the ‘Ministry Challenge Conference’ (previously known as ‘Club 5’) being interviewed on stage. Being from Brisbane I was asked to share my thoughts on why I was there that weekend and also do the bible reading.

That evening the chairperson asked, “So Steven, why are you here?” I remember preparing myself to answer that question, but all afternoon I couldn’t come up with a good sounding reason. I had gone through the thinking hoops on the various reasons people consider entering full-time paid ministry:

• ‘I’m here because I’ve been challenged to consider ministry work as of utmost importance…” – well, no. Ministry work is important, but I couldn’t honestly say that ministry work was more important that any other work: it’s a false idea. I’ve yet to find a place in the NT which specifically says, “Ministry is of more importance than any other labour…”
• “I’m here because I’ve felt called by God…” – well, no again. There hasn’t been any calling, no sign from heaven, no feeling of ‘you’ll know what it feels like when it happens’. There simply hasn’t been any experience in which I can say, “Yes, I am going to do it!”
• “I’ve been challenged to consider full-time pastoral ministry as a priority…” – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I should give up work to do so. All Christians are in full-time ministry from the moment they become a Christian!

So in my fumbling thoughts my answer, on stage, in front of some of the big-wigs of Sydney evangelicalism, was, “Well, people have identified certain gifts in me and I’m here to find out if I have what it takes for ‘full-time ministry’.”

I wanted to crawl into a hole because I sounded so fake – how dare I not know for sure that this was my certain path! For a long time I’ve felt an undercurrent of guilt because I haven’t had this ‘calling’ that so many people speak of.

Until I read an article in Michael Bennett’s ‘I feel God is calling me…not!’ booklet. The second chapter in this little booklet deals with this very issue – whether or not it’s right for Evangelicals to use the term ‘calling’ in reference to people going into ministry.

To summarise the chapter, here are the main points:

• The NT uses the term ‘call’ in two different ways: firstly you are called by God to be a Christian, and secondly you are called by God to be holy.
• Ephesians 4:11-13 talks about the nature of Christian ministry. Christian ministry does not belong solely to the Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors/teachers. The Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors/teachers jobs are to equip the saints. The equipped saints then do the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ (God’s people). Hence ministry belongs to all the saints!
• Why have I never felt called into ministry – because I was already in it!
• But the question remains – does having the skills and the gifts constitute a sufficient reason to enter ‘full time paid ministry’? The answer is a simple as this: if the person desires to do it!

On that last point 1 Tim 3:1 puts this simple, yet shocking, truth into perspective, “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” (ESV). Note the words there – if anyone aspires to be a pastor/teacher then they desire a good thing.

What is Paul saying? He is saying that the motivation to enter full time paid pastoral ministry is human desire. Of course, the person desiring this must be appropriately assessed (1 Tim 3:2-7) and his motivations must not be for money or pride (1 Tim 3:3, 6). But the ultimate factor in a person deciding whether or not to consider paid ministry is their desire to do so.

So now I don’t feel so bad about not feeling ‘called’ to do this. And I hope that others will see, too, that they don’t need to ‘feel called’ to do the same.

CCCB Church Camp 2007 – Reflections

The lead up to CCCB Church Camp 2006 was hectic to say the least. Steph and I were asked to assist with the music coordination, but it turned out to be a much bigger job than just selecting songs and making sure the powerpoints had both Chinese and English.

But as big a job as it was, the Camp still managed to run smoothly with few hiccups (some sound balance problems and slideshow mishaps). Whilst at times it was stressful, which unfortunately was also expressed in less than godly ways to those serving, playing music was a joy and privilege.

I was confronted in a number of ways by the talks given by Michael Bennett. The clarity of his talks and the way he opened up the Sermon on the Mount for us was both breath taking in its sweep and cutting to the heart. I was challenged in a number of areas:

• To purposefully evangelise we must not only be the salt of the earth (that is, people of such good repute that we can't help but positively affect those around us) but also lights that shine (that is, openly saying with words the gospel). I have, for many years, thought that my ‘saltiness’ was an adequate witness. How wrong I was…
• I need to be constantly aware of which road I am walking on and leading others down. The wide road seems to easy, the narrow road is tough.

Lots to be appreciative for as well – particularly (in my case) for the music and sound team who work so hard given the limited time we had and the many challenges and hurdles thrown at us! Thank you guys.
Steven

Michael Bennett, the author of the above resources for sharing
the Gospel to non-Christians, shared with us from the 'Sermon on the Mount'.

Umm...I think Steph took my cutler...

What every morning should begin with...

Proving to Ben Ho how well my diet is going :P

Not a strange form of prayer but a warm up exercise from our resident Pilates instructor!

Hidden talent...

Public health announcement for more men to get a pedicure...

Brian and Andrew posing for the camera

A new name :)

Finally, after lots of 'umming' and 'ahhing' we have settled on a name for our newsletter.

I was also finally able to send it out this evening to our googlegroup - after I had realised I inadvertently turned every member to 'no email/web participation only' as part of their membership. Good work Steven.

So without further ado, introducing...'Homeward Bound'







The basic concept of the name came from a number of sources:

• After tossing up lots of silly names (ie 'On the MAP Front') we started listening to a couple of Steven Curtis Chapman CD's. We flicked to the song 'Not Home Yet' - a song which has resonated with both of us deeply. We like the concept of not being 'home' yet, of being on a journey towards home.
• The picture in the background is from Malaysia. It was taken at the Mulu Caves resort and has been altered slightly. The end result is Steven's artistic attempt at conveying an idea of 'greener pastures on the other side'. Combined with the concept of 'not being home yet' we came up with...'Homeward Bound'

Please drop us a line and let us know if you'd like a copy of the newsletter and/or to be included on our mailing list.