The Nativity

I'll be interested to see The Nativity, a drama about the birth of Christ, Mon 20th - Thurs 23rd Dec, 7-7:30pm, BBC1. Let's hope it gets people talking about Jesus.

St Mary's, Warbleton

You can now find some details of St Mary's Church, Warbleton (where I am due to be the incumbent) on The Church of England's A Church Near You website.

License to...

In case you are interested, my licensing as Priest in Charge at Warbleton & Bodle Street Green is being planned for 7:30pm on Wed 26th January at Warbleton Church (Church Hill, Warbleton, East Sussex, TN21 9BD) followed by a reception at Bodle Street Village Hall (BN27 4RE).

I think we probably need to know numbers, so please let me know if you'd like to come.

(There's been a bit of confusion about the time, but I think a 7:30pm kick-off has now been finalised).

Christmas Gags

Of course, Christmas sermons don't need spicing up with lame jokes, but just in case:

Q: Why doesn't Santa allow his helpers to ride on his sleigh?
A: Elfin safety

And thanks to Paul Huxley for commenting the following classic:

Q: How does Good King Wenceslas like his pizza?
A: Deep and crisp and even

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!

Bookings are now open for The Best Week of the Year: Danehill 1 Venture 2011. A fantastic life-changing Christian holiday for 11 - 14 year olds.

Ordinary Time

Just worrying away at the Common Worship calendar and lectionary. By my calculation, about half the year, something like 27 Sundays fall in Ordinary Time (5 Sundays from the day following Candelmas / The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (2nd Feb) to the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday and 22 Sundays from the Monday following the Day of Pentecost to Advent).

A prayer (possibly in the spirit of Ecclesiastes)

William Laud may not have been entirely a hero, but I quite like this prayer of his (quoted by Kidner in BST on Ecc, p110):

Grant, O Lord, that we may live in thy fear,
die in thy favour, rest in thy peace,
rise in thy power, reign in thy glory.
for thine own beloved Son's sake,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Message of Ecclesiastes

As I've been preaching through the book of Ecclesiastes, I've been helped by Vaughan Roberts' sermons (on the St Ebbes, Oxford, website). He suggests that two key messages of the book are:

(1) Face the Facts: Don't be Naive

(2) Fear God: Don't be Cynical

The book calls us to a mature, realistic faith that is able to live with questions, tensions and lose ends with practical wisdom. The Teacher would have us recognise that life is neither entirely starightforward nor entirely meaningless. The book encourages trust in God and enjoyment of life without ignoring the frustrations and difficulties of life. Believe, but not make believe.

The Cost of Living In The Countryside

As I am soon to move to the countryside, I was interested to read that it costs up to 20% more to have what people think one needs for an acceptable standard of living in the countryside compared to in an urban situation. (This seems to be largely due to the fact that a car is seen as essential in rural areas and homes are often more expensive to heat).

Sadly, I don't think this'll be reflected in my stipend!

Gideon Learnings

A few quick jottings of things we might learn from Judges 6-8:

Failure to listen to and obey God can lead to his judgement and to obvious defeat

We should worship God our Redeemer alone

When we are in distress we should cry out to God

God is all powerful and in control

With God, all things are possible

God can make the weak, fearful and insecure, strong and bold

God + 1 always = a majority!

God works through weakness so that he gets the glory (cf. Christ, the cross)

But God may also use our skills and abilities, such as cunning, planning, diplomacy etc. Sometimes these things are good and necessary.

We ought to trust God, take him at his word, believe his promises and do as he says, not demand miraculous signs

God is gracious and kind even in the face of weak, imperfect faith. He knows about our weakness and fear and may choose to encourage us.

We need to always remember our dependence on God. It is no good acknowledging him (formally with our words) when it’s too late if our actions, attitudes and words (or silence) have tended to deny him.

Even great and godly leaders can have serious weaknesses, character flaws, sins and problems. We must beware of worshiping our leaders or trusting in human beings.

Leaders should beware of arrogance, pride, love of money etc.

Believers can be terribly inconsistent and still be real believers.

We can be ensnared by the (lovely, precious) things we think we want.

Rural Ministry Seminar

You are warmly invited to:

The Rural Ministry Seminar

This is intended primarily for ministers of rural churches of any denomination, but space permitting, others are welcome.

9:30am Coffee available

10am - 4pm Tuesday 1st March 2011

Venue: Warbleton area, between Hailsham and Heathfield in the lovely Sussex Countryside (Warbleton Church Rooms, Church Hill, Warbleton, East Sussex, TN21 9BD - subject to numbers).

Cost: £5 including coffee, biscuits, soft drinks etc. & materials. Please pay on the door. Please bring a packed lunch or head to a near by pub.

Speakers / facilitators:

Rev'd David Hall is the Vicar of Danehill with Chelwood Gate nr Haywards Heath in East Sussex where he has ministered for over seven years. During this time the churches have seen significant growth, including in the music ministry and amongst children, young people and families. David is also a training incumbent supervising a curate. http://allsaintsdanehill.org.uk/. David's first degree was in Business Studies with Marketing Honours. After graduation, he joined the graduate training scheme of a top-ten public relations consultancy, before moving into a management role advising major companies on everything from consumer PR to crisis management. He has met with and learned from Christians all over the world from Africa to North America and firmly believes that small rural churches can have the ministries of large ones!

Rev'd Dick Farr was the senior minister of 3 growing evangelical churches in rural Essex for 19 years (Henham and Elsenham with Ugley in the Diocese of Chelmsford on the north Essex Hertfordshire border from 1990 - 2009) working with an ordained and lay team. http://www.heuchurch.co.uk/index.html He is currently the Associate Vicar at St John's, Tunbridge Wells. http://www.stjohnstw.org/

Please spread the word.

Please comment or email me (marc underscore lloyd at hotmail dot com) if you are interested in attending. Booking is essential. Places may be limited.

Please let me know if there are particular issues / questions you would like to see addressed. I will let the speakers know in advance and we will try to cover as many as possible.

Practical and theological issues will be discussed. Sessions will include material on Understanding The Rural Context Today and Ministering in a Rural Context Today as well as considering the particular challenges and opportunities of life and work in the countryside and of being responsible for more than one church building / congregation etc.

There will be some substantial plenary input but also lots of time for comments, questions, discussion and real interaction etc.

Other events may be planned in the future if there is an interest in some kind of on-going group / regular meeting.

Watch this space for more details.

Me / We

In his sermon last night, Rev'd Trevor Parkin pointed out that "Me" turned upside down is "We". We often need that 180 degree change of mind from me and my personal concerns and so on and to us and our needs.

Tomato wisdom

Last Lord's Day, I preached on Wisdom from Ecclesiastes 7.

A member of our congregation suggested to me that wisdom and knowledge might be distinguished thus:

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing that it doesn't belong in a fruit salad!

What to say to the JWs?

Mrs Lloyd would like to know, please, with special reference to the doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bible verses are required.

"Please go away and never come back" is also being considered.

Jono has suggested that perhaps we should put them in the bin and take them to the dump. A guest suggested that perhaps they should be recycled, though not in a Buddhist way, of course.

Pagan Eucharist

I heard a report on Radio 4 this morning of a pagan wedding service where, amongst other things, the couple ate bread and drank mead to represent the body and blood of the earth. The reporter mentioned that the rituals seemed largely to have beeen borrowed.

A New Name on the blogs

Mrs Emma Scrivner has entered cyberspace. Watch that space!

Towards a humbler science

Although its not cheap and I fear I may not agree nor find it entirely inteligible, this might be an important new book for Dawkins et. al. to get their heads around. It also might have some important things to say about the difficulty of proving causation. Discussion of it on Radio 4's Thinking Aloud made me wonder to what extent causes might (just) be thought of as God's habits or the way he likes to do things, as a rule, though I don't know what the authors would make of that idea as compared to convetional scientific orthodoxies, which they regard as unproven and perhaps unprovable. One of the authors described himself as agnostic but he said that he thought it was absurd to claim that science somehow ruled out faith.

The case for an evening service

The Old Testament commands morning and evening sacrifices on the Sabbath.

Psalm 92 (For the Sabbath day) v2.

Do Not Clap!

Apparently John Chysostom once preached a sermon against interupting the preacher with applause which was itself interrupted by applause!

Preaching Questions for "Us"

Some of these may be (!) leading questions and I ask them to myself too!

Do we contemporary British Conservative Evangelicals generally believe, with Luther and Calvin and the Reformed tradition, that the Minister's preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God?

How does our preaching compare to the preaching that is preserved in the written Word of God? Does our preaching tend to over emphasise instruction and application over and against the Bible which speaks the Word of God of Christ? Do we tell people about Christ (or indeed other things) or do we aim for them to see / hear / meet / taste Christ?

How is it that in the past preachers seem to have given fewer specific applications and instructions concerning marriage in their sermons, and yet many hearers had better marriages?

Does our preaching tend to produce an effect at the time, to be affecting there and then? Are we over concerned that our preaching should be memorable or helpful later rather than moving?

Do we preach to the heart, mind, will, affections, conscience, inner / whole person?

Is our preaching mainly thought of as a natural or a supernatural event?

Is preaching basically teaching with application or a visitation of Almighty God?

Would our people call our preaching powerful or rather faithful and clear? What do we pray for? If God were specially to bless your preaching one Sunday, what would that look like / how would you know?

Do people call your preaching somewhat engaging and interesting? Do people call our sermons "nice"? Are you satisfied with that? Would people say the same of the Sunday papers? What are your great aims and ambitions for your preaching?

Do people love to hear your preaching because it is the voice of heaven on earth? Does it contain the deep and infinite or is it rather light and breezy, even at times frivilous?

Does your preaching ever batter or break or thunder?

Is it clear from your preaching that you can see far more than you can express and that you know there is much more that you cannot see?

Is our preaching a tedious, pedantic, dull Bible class? How concerned are we to show our workings or to do the work?

How much warning, promise, encouragement, comfort and rebuke is there in your preaching? What replaces them?

Do we tell jokes and entertain and lighten it up or rather is our preaching basically a serious, solemn business? Is our preaching terrible, awesome and wonderful? Does it have a gravitas without pomposity or pretense?

When did someone (including you) last cry or cry out durring one of your sermons? Are people (ever) heart-broken or over-joyed when you preach? Are people appreciative of your sermons or rather silenced and awestruck by Christ as a result? Does our preaching tend to produce love, joy, faith, sorrow, zeal or rather smiles and nodding heads and better informed sinners?

When preparing our sermons do we hunt great game and make sure that we roast it and serve it up?

Is prayer the chief part, or indeed hardly part at all, of your preparation? Could it be said of your preaching that you "have not because you ask not"?

When you preach do you realise that you stand between your hearers and God on the brink of eternity? Do you preach as one who has the 4 Last Things (heaven, hell, death, judgement) in view or as someone looking at the prospect of some grand and beautiful scene to which he invites his hearers?

Do we read the great preaching of the past who move you?

Is your preaching consistent with your life? Do you ever speak of Christ outside of the pulpit as you seek to in the pulpit? Do your people sense that you have a moment by moment sense of what you try to say on a Sunday and that it moves you yourself?

Do your people want to hear 2 of your sermons on a Sunday? Why not? Would your people come to hear you midweek?

You are concerned for people to come to your church, but would it be worth their while?