The Pastor for Pastors

In the FIEC's Spring Together magazine there is an article on pastoring pastors. Obviously it is concerned with how pastors can be pastored by other pastors, elders and the church, but I would like just to add another dimension. I think it is always valuable to remember that Jesus Christ is the supreme pastor of us all: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. We teach this to our people, but those who are pastors must also exemplify it in their lives. However much we value the advice, guidance and prayers of others our Lord Jesus is the best pastor of all. I would have to say that there have been one or times in my pastoral experience when I felt I had no one else to go to except the Lord and, looking back, I am glad that was the case. Pastors are surely called to prove the reality of the loving care of the Saviour so that they can testify out of their own experience that everyone, whatever their circumstances and needs, can safely and fully trust his shepherdly care. 'When all things seem against us, to drive us to despair; we know one gate is open, and you will hear our prayer.'

The influence of the Bible

Last year celebrated the 400^th anniversary of the King James Bible and saw the publication of many books explaining its virtues and influence. The following is a review I wrote for Evangelical Times of one such book (in full).

Among the many books written on the King James Bible this year it may come as a surprise to see one by Melvyn Bragg (Baron Bragg of Wigton in Cumbria), the well-known writer and broadcaster. Some may have seen his programme on the same subject on television, or read a recent article of his, My first steps back on the road to faith. For several reasons, therefore, it is likely that some readers of Evangelical Times will also read this book. It must be borne in mind, then, that it is not written by one who is a Christian believer. He says himself: ‘The whole idea – God, Genesis, Christ, Resurrection – is now to me a moving metaphor, a poetic way of attempting to understand what may forever be incomprehensible.’ But he adds: ‘When I was six it was the truth about all of life.’

The book is inevitably like the proverbial curate’s egg, good in parts. There is much that is interesting and informative, and sometimes surprising. The twenty-five chapters are divided into three main sections: ‘From Hampton Court to New England’; ‘The Impact on Culture’; ‘The Impact on Society’. Quite rightly he emphasizes the contribution of William Tyndale in the production of the early English Bibles: ‘As for his English it reads like a rare, perhaps transcendent gift.’ Bragg is good, as would be expected, on the literary quality of the King James Bible and its enormous influence on nearly all the major English speaking literary figures right up until quite recently. He even has a chapter on Richard Dawkins, who does not impress him.

However, although he recognizes the immense influence for good that the Bible has been over the past four centuries – the abolition of slavery, the rise of democracy, even its influence on science – he nevertheless sees it as a mass of contradictions. He also seems to me to attribute to a translation what actually belongs to the Bible as Bible. We must be deeply grateful for a translation used to change so much in the world, but it is the fact that it was the Word of God that was translated that is vital. The worst chapter in the book, in my opinion, is entitled ‘The Bible and Sex’: ‘The modern secular world has reached back to the classical world and the waters have closed over certain unsustainable prejudices in the Bible.’ And is the modern secular world the better off for it? Surely not!

If he sees contradictions in the Bible there is also a fundamental contradiction in his book. Granted that the Bible has been misunderstood, misapplied and misused by fallible humans, it is nevertheless a contradictory position to maintain that a book as flawed as he sees it to be can actually be such an agent for good as he shows that it has been. I cannot recommend this book to the average Christian reader but I do pray for its author.

Now I want to draw attention to another: The Book that Made Your World, by Vishal Mangalwadi. Here he is how he almost ends – I say ‘almost’ because he finishes with verses of Scripture: ‘Rome’s collapse meant that Europe lost its soul – the source of its civilizational authority – and descended into the “Dark Ages”. The Bible was the power that revived Europe. Europeans became so enthralled with God’s Word that they rejected their sacred myths to hear God’s Word, to study it, internalize it, speak it, and promote it to build the modern world. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West is again losing its soul. Will it relapse into a new dark age or humble itself before the Word of the Almighty God?’ This is a big boys’ (and girls’!) book, and the more impressive being written by an Indian.

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.

Testimony

If you are not someone who attends Grace Baptist Church, Lancaster you will find it a great encouragement and blessing to go to the website of the church and listen to the testimony of Walu Sitale, given at his baptism the Sunday before last. www.freegracelancaster.co.uk