Preaching to People

At the recent Leicester Conference for ministers there was a session entitled, Where are all the Preachers? I wished to add to the discussion the fact that there is more to preaching than getting a text and preparing an accurate exposition. We must take into account the congregation; we must think of their needs and if we are pastors we should know what they are. So I have put on my other blog Writings and Ramblings a fraternal address - partly in note form, given a few years ago.

A strange, strange, world

A person who clearly has a male body but who feels he ought to be female can easily get help which may result in a sex change. A person who is gay but who would prefer not to be may not be able to get help because advertisements for such help can be banned.

Easter poem

THE STONE ROLLED BACK

Such stones as this -

shaped, rounded, massive -

are the boundary stones

between life and death;

holding at bay the sight

and stench of corruption.

In the garden, trees and flowers

reach up in the light,

bowing in the breeze;

life budding and blooming,

wakened by Spring.

Just as a grass blade

pushes through tarmac

with the strength of weakness,

so this stone -

beyond women’s power to move -

rolls at the touch of an angel’s finger

as life invades

the dark night of the tomb:

and Christ, Jesus, man, God, is alive

and death is dead

and the stone rolled back for ever.

Church buildings 1

This is an old picture of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. My paternal grandmother's family had seats in the Tabernacle for a year while Spurgeon was still there, though I am not sure how old she would have been then. They moved further out to the suburbs so they ceased attending there. If only walls could speak. I have no idea whether my grandmother was a believer at that time or not, but I think she must have benefited from such a year.