I see Mark Driscoll has had a go at my old country. Well, not really. Only foreigners really talk of 'Brits.' Those of us from the UK never think of ourselves in those terms: we are English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish, especially during the Six Nations. To have a go at the old country, you have to be...

Congratulations to Ligon Duncan who was obviously convicted and convinced by my post on bivocational pastorates. He is now the John E. Richards Chair at R.T.S. The man who would be Derek Thomas.......

It is something of a truism that seminaries are not great at teaching preaching. Thinking does vary on this: some believe that preachers cannot be taught, simply improved; others that you can take someone who cannot preach and make him a preacher. What is certain is that any student who simply...

I notice Frank Turk at Pyromaniacs linked to this piece by America's favourite fount of all wisdom. So you can forget Mark Driscoll and even Tim Keller: the way to a happy marriage is to imagine that you have invited me or Del Thomas or Paul 'I'm really not an avatar' Levy to stay as houseguests...

At the weekend, I had the truly great pleasure of leading the congregation in prayer at the installation of a former student, Hunter Powell, as one of the pastors at Guilford Baptist Church just outside Washington, D.C. The charge was given by Phil Ryken and the sermon, on 1 Corinthians 4, on the...

Phil Johnson has a great post on the trend in evangelical exhibitionism here . The last paragraphs are particularly pertinent: It's yet another sign of evangelicalism's growing conformity to worldly values and worldly behavior. The various evangelical coalitions and young Reformed movements that...

From JIP's Collected Shorter Writings 4, pp. 84 and 87: "In some way there was in the Doctor's preaching thunder and lightning that no tape or transcription ever did or could capture -- power, I mean, to mediate a realisation of God's presence.... Nearly forty years on, it still seems to me that...

I notice that the Met Tab not only stocks no Trueman tosh but also lacks the `Je ne sais quoi' which a volume or two by Derek Thomas always provides: surely one of his many, many books on Job would be a nice addition? Still, on the positive side, the sole volume by Lloyd-Jones is his one on why God...

Thanks to a well-wisher for bringing this article to my attention. Well worth a read and I assume the follow-ups will be too. Multi-site represents yet another aspect of the undoing of the Reformation -- perhaps one of the most dangerous because one of the most subtle. To me it looks like a strange...

For a couple of reasons I have been revisiting some of the formative influences on my thinking as a Christian. Writing an article on atonement, I have been re-reading essays by James I. Packer; and preparing to review the recent collection of essays on the life and work of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, I...

I wonder if there is a more neglected text in the New Testament in the current revival of interest in reformed theology than Eph. 5:12? In the reaction to the taboos of old-style fundamentalism, there is surely a danger that we have lost all sense of what is biblically appropriate when it comes to...

A group of Italian Presbyterians and Baptists have united to see if they can sponsor a translation of Machen's great little book, Christianity and Liberalism , into Italian. To those who have never read the book, it is a succinct and precise expose the basic issues at stake between orthodox...

The Aquila Report, source of all world knowledge for confessional Presbyterians, has published its list of the top fifty stories which it ran this year. At the head of the list is an entry from Anthony Bradley. It is nearly a year old and I missed it first time around but, for any who do not yet...

Has anything good come out of the Black Country? Ok, it did provide us with Slade and some of the great heavy metal bands of the 70s, and Tolkien with the original for Mordor. But has anything happened since then? Well, the Rev. Mike Smith, who recently picked up some Black Country in my own accent...

In light of my recent post on Ed Young's risible `sexperiment', a friend asked me this week about the current trend among some pastors for referring to sexual matters in graphic detail in books and sermons. Having been rightly rebuked by my wife once for using the phrase `pole dancer' when...

Two new books have come out in the UK which do not seem as yet to be available in the USA. One is edited by my old Aberdeen colleague, Brian Rosner, and is a collection of essays on the cross in 1 Corinthians. The other is Serving God's Words: Windows on Preaching and Ministry , a Festschrift for...

In trying to write a brief summary of the Refusenik21 writing experience this year, especially as it relates to commentary on events out there in Christian la la land, I have found myself reminded of the fact that some things can be said while other things can only be shown. This year, I fear, can...

Congregational life getting just a bit so-so and routine? Has that electricity that marked your call when you were first installed at your current charge gone flat? Worried that the eyes of your congregation may be starting to wander flirtatiously to ogle younger, better looking pastors? Then you...

For those who have not seen it, friend John Starke has an interesting and important article over at the Gospel Coalition about a legal situation facing his church and others in the New York area. This is a matter worthy of prayer. John has only been pastor at his church for two weeks. No honeymoon...

One of the most intriguing passages in the New Testament in terms of Christ's advent is the song of Simeon. When this old man meets the Christ child in the Temple, he reacts by telling God that he is now ready to die. `Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.' The words are very...

Yesterday, I raised the issue of preaching the Incarnation and underscored the fact that the mystery of the Incarnation really means that it must be proclaimed rather than defended or accommodated. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of God in the flesh. The infinite clothes himself in the finite;...

Two years ago, in good Puritan style, I preached at my local church the Sunday before Christmas and took as my text Judges 3:31. It was simply where I had arrived in my exposition of Judges and I saw no reason to deviate from my plan; and, as it happens, I did manage to extract the Christmas...

Reading Paul's last post whilst working my way through the MLJ volume for review, I too was struck by the Macleod comments. Monopolising of influence remains a problem today. It was pointed out to me recently that an increasing proportion of women at women's conferences seem to have the same...

Five books for Christmas: Gregory K. Beale, A Biblical Theology of the New Testament (Baker). Monumental work. My students know I have a thing about people who use `eschatological' every other sentence (the Reformed equivalent of quoting Bono among trendies) but in Greg's case, I'll forgive him...