An aphorism on evangelistic preaching
Written whilst listening to a sermon on John 3:16, which seemed to assume the subject of that verse was human faith, not divine love: ‘Our task is not to tell people that they must believe in Jesus, but so to tell them of Jesus that they must believe in Him.’
Read MoreAn aphorism on preaching
‘A preacher does better to deserve attention than to demand it.’ ( I used a version of this in describing the second volume of Colin Gunton’s sermons in my ‘Introduction’, but it was developed in reflecting on the ministry of a faithful pastor whose sermons never excited, but always nourished.)
Read More‘A heap of broken images’?
So, just as soon as I work out why every post is appearing in a different font, I will stop it…
Read MoreEvangelicals and Barth
Bruce McCormack was in town last week, giving us an excellent series of TF Torrance Lectures, and generously making himself endlessly available for conversation. I might attempt a summary of the lectures in the next few days, but one comment for now. He discussed Evangelical reception of Barth a couple of times. This seems a growth field: one book came out last year; one is due next. I didn’t write for any of the books, but found myself wondering as Bruce talked what I would have said if I had been asked. My views on aspects of Barth’s theology are no secret (most of my scattered thoughts on the matter have been published in various places), if rather eccentric (I tend to think he was absolutely right on the Trinity and was at least in danger of making a bit of a mess of election), but my appreciation of Barth is much deeper, and much more basic, than any appreciation of his theology or admiration of his intellect. There is a tale of Gustav Mahler visiting Niagara Falls. As he stood on the viewing platform at the bottom, assaulted by the sound of the crashing waters just a few metres away, he is reported to have said ‘Ah! Fortissimo at last!’ Coming to Barth in reading theology feels to me a bit like that: right or wrong about this or that, there is nowhere else I know that gives such an overwhelming, continuous, assailing vision of the awesome grace of God cascading endlessly down in the gift of Jesus Christ. There was a piece in our denominational newspaper, The Baptist Times, last week, I can’t remember the author’s name, examining various recent news stories and finding in them evidence for belief in original sin. Well, I might have chosen different stories, but yes. He went on to ask if we ‘proclaimed human depravity’. My gut reaction, instinctive, strong and immediate, was ‘Of course we don’t! We proclaim Jesus Christ, and look to the day when God will finally have done away with all depravity in Him!’ That reaction, for me, is what I owe to...
Read MoreCriticising worship
Andy Goodliff keeps an excellent blog; he recently posted an excerpt from Rob Warner on charismatic worship here. In the excerpt—and I haven’t read Warner’s book yet—a series of familiar criticisms are made with energy and verve (Warner writes well): charismatic worship engages in ‘a wilful disregard for reality’ in its promises of unswerving devotion and its expectations of revival; it creates an altered state of consciousness (‘the charismatic equivalent of clubbing’); it ‘commodifie[s]’ worship music, making it something ephemeral and disposable, and so ‘rupture[s]’ it from tradition. I have a rule to propose, no doubt forlornly: no-one should presume to criticise any contemporary worship style who has not read the whole of, and sung a good part of, at least two hymnbooks published before 1900. The simple fact is that there are very few failures in charismatic worship that have not been endemic in the Christian tradition, but because we only know the best 1% (or less) of the eighteenth-century material, we end up thinking it was so much better. A reading of the first edition of Hymns for the Use of People Called Methodists (still more the many compositions that John Wesley would not let Charles publish!), Olney Hymns, Sacred Songs and Solos, or Watts’s Psalms of David Imitated… will rapidly correct the impression, still more a reading of those whose hymns have justly been forgotten by history. (In my fairly extensive collection of execrable charismatic lyrics, I still know nothing to rival choice examples of the father of Baptist hymnody, Benjamin Keach…) But actually, even if we stick to those few songs of earlier ages that have come down to us, often fairly heavily edited, we can find greater excesses in most of these directions than is present in the general run of charismatic worship. To take just one example, for over-extravagant claims of devotion and spiritual experience, what about this? ‘Perfect submission, perfect delight, // Visions of rapture burst on my sight. // Angels desceding, bring from above, // Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. // This is my story, this is my song, // Praising my Saviour, all the day...
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