Thank you for Jesus - for prayer and meditation

Father God, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ,
for my union with him by faith in the Holy Spirit,
and for all the benefits which I have in him.

Thank you that he is eternally begotten of you and reigns for ever.

Thank you for the creation of all things by and for him.

Thank you for his sustaining of all things.

Thank you for his revelation under the Old Covenant,
for his mediatorial work in saving and leading your people Israel
and for the many prophecies and types concerning him.

Thank you for his incarnation in the womb of the Mary.

For his birth.

His circumcision.

His exile and return from Egypt.

His infancy.

His childhood.

His youth.

His obedience.

His growth in wisdom.

His life and work.

His baptism.

His fasting and temptations.

His ministry.

His teaching.

His miracles.

His death.

His burial.

His resurrection.

His appearances to his disciples.

His ascension.

His reign in heaven.

His intercession for us.

His gift of the Spirit.

His coming return to judge the world.

And the coming consummation of his Kingdom in the New Creation.

Or, no doubt better: The BCP Litany

Portions of the Day

Zac Eswine suggests that biblically the day can be divided up into four main portions:

The morning (6am / sunrise - noon)
The noon day / afternoon (noon - 6pm / sunset)
The evening (sunset / 6pm - 10pm)
The watches of the night

Each has its own themes, opportunities and temptations.

Even if you don't find all the details here convincing, it's worth reflecting on. Eswine cites a number of biblical events (e.g. from the life of Christ) and characteristics associated with each.

Each portion of the day might begin and end with a short time of silence, reflection and prayer.

Although Eswine doesn't make this point, these times might correspond to Morning Prayer, Prayer During the Day / Midday Eucharist, Evening Prayer, Compline / Night Prayer.

The Morning is resurrection time. It is time to rise up and give God thanks and praise. It is a time for singing. It offers opportunity and grace, a fresh start, possibilities. There will be work to be done, but first we can receive from God and offer him the day, looking to his strength.

The afternoon is the time of the greatest light and heat. It can be a time of scrutiny and pressure. We must toil and bare the heat of the day. We will be tempted to grow weary and droop. Or be distracted. It is not yet time to relax and we must resist the lure of Happy Hour! Again, we will need God's grace.

The evening is a time for grateful rest, for refreshment, perhaps for hospitality. We must not use the coming darkness as a cover for evil. We can rejoice that we have gone another mile, or at least another step. We must leave behind the undone work. God willing, there will be tomorrow.

It will do us good at some point to look back over the day: what flowers are there to celebrate and is there any muck that needs clearing up?

The night may be for sleep and dreams. In a way we will always be alone with God. There might be times of watchfulness and wakefulness.

And just as there are rhythms to the day, there is a weekly sabbath and seasons of the year too.

These quick jottings from memory might encourage you to get hold of the chapter if you can:

The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus, (Crossway, 2015) Chapter 11: Finding Our Pace esp. pp172-182

Emotional Work Load

It is easy for some of us to think of our work in terms of number of hours put in or number of tasks ticked off or the like.

But it might be helpful to think also in terms of "emotional workload". Visiting a bereaved family or taking a funeral will feel very different from grinding through some admin or working hard on a sermon.

Even if you really enjoy taking weddings, it can feel quite full-on if there is a lively and full church and you naturally want to concentrate on doing it as well as you can for the couple's big day!

You might want to factor in some down time or recovery time or walk the dog or something after particularly intense pieces of work. You could even think about praying and being quiet!

Wedding Meetings Checklist for Vicars

No doubt you will have better, perhaps paperless, ways of doing this but as a reminder to self and in case it is any help, when meeting a wedding couple, probably at some stage you will need either for yourself or to give to them:

Passports and proof of address / other ID checklist
Access to Parish Finder to check re banns
List of qualifying connections and evidence
Banns of marriage form / way of capturing all the data you need for the registers
Any other questions you need to ask about legalities and form of service
Suggestions on hymns, music, choreography, readings and prayers, who might take part (role of father / parents, best man, bridesmaids etc.)
Sort out witnesses and what will happen during signing of the register
List of authorised forms of service (Common Worship, BCP etc.) links / examples
Headings and other content for order of service (e.g. image of church if desired)
Rules about photos, videos, confetti, music, sound systems etc.
Your diaries to fix your next meeting, check for other weddings etc.!
Info on marriage preparation / suggested reading
Suggestions for organists / other musicians
Info on flowers in church
Details of costs, how and when to pay etc.
Some Christian literature e.g. a gospel and a tract
Your contact details
The parish magazine / newsletter / invites to other church services and events
Details of rehearsal and who is needed

What else?

Busy?

Ask any minister how he or she is and there is a fair likelihood that the answer will include some form of "busy!"

Sometimes we say this to justify our existence and herald our hard work.

Often it is true: we are busy.

There's a balance to be struck in these things. Some of us thrive on a deadline. We don't want to be underemployed.

But some of us are sometimes too busy: stressed, frazzled, chasing our tails.

Why is that?

Perhaps pressures from the denomination, or congregation, or community. Sometimes there is just too much stuff that has to be done urgently and we've got to do it.

But more likely I think much of the problem is self-imposed pressure.

Maybe we actually like to be needed. Or we don't trust others to do a good enough job. Or we've worked hard but not smart. Maybe we've not invested in recruiting and training others.

Whatever the causes, too busy for too long is not good for us and our people. A meeting every night in the Vicarage for 10 days will take its toll on you and your family. You can't do too many 8ams to 10pms without wilting.

We do have quite a lot of control over our own diaries and we ought to try to use it well. Likely no one makes sure we clock in at 9am and out at 5pm. A few of us might be tempted to be lazy. But more often I think we're tempted to log in before 7am and check the phone at midnight and....

We and our family and friends actually need us to take our days off. Ideally a full 24 hrs each week as a minimum. Better still with the evening before thrown in if we can.

Saturday is probably not the best clergy day off with Sunday looming. Why not take a Friday? And if you've already done 60 hours by Thursday, you don't have to put in another 8 hour day on Saturday to have earned your merger stipend. Give yourself a break! Yes, work hard, but don't bust a gut!

You are meant to be set aside for the ministry of the Word and prayer so that is what you should do. I know there is the tyranny of the inbox and the treadmill of meetings and prep and the clamour to visit more and... But word, prayer, sacrament is your thing. Do this. Slow down. Be quiet. Think. Pray. Remember Jesus and his gospel. His love. Start the day not with the church's social media presence but in the presence of God. Hear him say to you again in Christ, "you are my child, whom I love. With you I am well pleased." That is the only basis for faithful and fruitful service.

How are you? Loved! Forgiven! Saved! Secure!

A prayer point

Sadly, often good godly Christians move around between churches for not the best reasons.

Pastors should discourage that. If people turn up at your church, it will often be best to suggest they go back! Or if they are determined to leave, at least to do so well by asking to see the pastor of the church they are leaving to talk and pray.

Of course it is great to see our churches grow. But transfer growth is not really what we are after.

Why not pray that this year we might see at least one person go from no contact with any church to firm faith in Christ and committed membership in our church?

And let's also pray for God's richest blessing on the other churches locally that they may grow too. If they are used by God more than our church is, let us resolve to rejoice in God's goodness. It is, after all, not a competition! There are plenty of not-yet-Christians so go around. Other churches and ministers are our friends and allies not our rivals and we are on the same side. Although we long to be fruitful for Christ, we should deliberately delight when God prospers our brothers and sisters down the road.  May he give us grace to do so. And perhaps, if we learn this lesson, it might be safe for God to allow us a measure of "success" too without it going straight to our heads.

Acts 1:12-end

Some jottings / headings:

The Bible a weird and fascinating book: the ascension and Pentecost coming and a PCC / synod meeting to sort out a technical admin issue?

Narrative and normative: this is not just a dusty history lesson, but what are we to learn from it exactly?

It was a church that obeyed Jesus and waited

It was an apostolic church – but of course it wasn’t just the apostles

It was a church that joined constantly together to pray

It was a church that made good decisions together:

It was a church that read the Bible in a striking way as significant and authoritative for its life and all about Jesus

It was a church which trusted in the sovereign plans of God

It was a church that intended to provide convincing testimony to the ministry, ascension and resurrection of Jesus

It was a church that saw itself as the New Israel

Nine Years In and Pressing On

My family and I have served three rural Anglican churches for almost the last nine years. Like all of life, there have been ups and downs. There are challenges and encouragements. The views are very lovely. There are only 2000 people on the whole patch. Our more evangelical church gets maybe 50 on a good Sunday. The others 20 each, allowing for Pastor Inflation!

It has been wonderful to see a number of people come to Christ for the first time. And some people come alive in their faith and start serving. And people become real leaders. The ministries of the church have grown significantly. Toddlers and After School Club have been full. There is a new youth group and mum’s bible study and community choir and art group and people are reading the Bible together and….

But we have not seen the revival, for which we still pray! Things are small and fragile. Everyone who was here when we got here is now almost ten years older and 80 is different from 70. I am still good for the age demographic! My wife remains the youngest committed adult in one of our churches and my kids are the sometimes the only ones on a Sunday. In fact, if I did the graphs, I doubt I could even say that we have grown by 10% year on year. We expect the gospel to grow and the Word of God to bare fruit but the results really are down to God. It is really hard to persuade mature people that they should revolutionise their whole lives for the sake of the Biblical Jesus who, let’s face it, has some plausibility issues to your average secular Brit. With deaths and people moving away, I have decided that humanly speaking one is doing well if the congregation size more or less holds up, though we are not satisfied with that.

Three keen Bible believing families would make a huge difference. But I have resigned myself to the fact that the cavalry is probably not coming!

God calls us to love these people and to faithfully serve them and with them to seek to hold out the word of life to others. You must die to the what ifs and the lust for a bigger glitzier platform or a great name. The Senior Pastor for Vision and Preaching at 1^st Mega Church has his own issues and challenges. Biblical ministry is not easy anywhere. And even if you went somewhere else you would take yourself and all your baggage with you!

What are some things I would say to my younger self (or indeed myself today still)? There are so many things but let me restrict myself to three paragraphs:

·        Being the Senior Pastor and the only professional minister will feel and be very different from your time as Assistant Minister and there’ll be so much to learn. People might cc you on almost every email. You will feel responsible for everything from finance, buildings, safeguarding, to the quality of the coffee and the fliers. You can’t do it all. You’re not the Messiah. And what happens in the church (either good or bad) does not affect that you are a much-loved child of your heavenly Father.

·        You should find some way to daily deliberately delight in Jesus which works for you. Maybe what is sometimes called The Quiet Time! That really is key. And it is best for your people and work as well as your own soul. What your flock needs is not necessarily a better prepared sermon or a swifter response to its correspondence but a better prepared Pastor who is swift to pray. Guard your heart above all things. And seek out whatever help with that you need. SORT IT OUT!

·        Keep the main things the main things. Prayer. Jesus. The Bible. Dependence on the Spirit. People. Be bold in your evangelism and pastoral care and training in ministry. Who knows? Maybe the Brigadier would like to meet up with the spotty young Rector and read the Bible. And if he laughs and says “no” and dines out on what a silly sausage you are, that would be okay too! Jesus faced rather worse. It would be a privilege to share in a little of the scorn and defeat of the Crucified King.

Prescriptipn drug dependency worrying

From The Rectory

The BBC reported today:

Prescription drug dependency worrying - health chiefs

Hundreds of thousands of people in England are getting hooked on prescription drugs, health chiefs fear.

A Public Health England review looked at the use of strong painkillers, antidepressants and sleeping tablets - used by a quarter of adults every year.

It found that at the end of March 2018 half of people using these drugs had been on them for at least 12 months.

Officials said long-term use on such a scale could not be justified and was a sign of patients becoming dependent.

It is indeed worrying. But it is also extremely complicated.

Certainly doctors and patients should be more careful. An opioid drug, for example, will likely be addictive and indeed ineffective after time. Higher and higher doses may be given. Users may be distracted, anxious or dulled. There are all sorts of possible risks and side-effects. In the States, even more than in the UK, prescription drugs are very often a gateway to illegal ones. Detox may be needed and harm can be long lasting.

Depression, insomnia and pain are all chemical because that is what we are at one level. We are biological machines. But the answers to these “conditions” are not necessarily pills – or not pills alone. Medication can have a very important place but it often functions by stamping rather bluntly on a symptom, often with collateral damage, rather than addressing any other underlying problems. The place of pills can be as a safety mechanism to give us temporary space to explore other issues. For example, if we have terrible hip pain, we might take pain medication until we have recovered from our hip replacement surgery. Things might not be so different with our mental health.

We need to also think about how we think and feel. For example, diet, exercise and various social activities (like joining a choir or getting a dog) can make a great difference to some depression or lowness of mood. Talking treatments can work well for some issues and should be more readily available.

We are more than our brains. We are embodied minds in community. And we are made for relationship with others and with our Maker.

Believers may suffer from all the problems which we have mentioned and more. But, other things being equal, they do have one of the basic building blocks of mental health in place: God!  

God does not promise his people good health or good mental health. But right thinking involves relating rightly to God. To do so is to align ourselves with reality and is the best way to live in God’s world.

Habits of quiet, prayer, Bible reading, worship and Christian fellowship are also, unsurprisingly, good for us.

How To Read The Bible and Pray In Church

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE IN CHURCH / LEAD THE INTERCESSIONS IN OUR PARISHES

A BEGINNERS’ GUIDE AND MASTERCLASS!

THANK YOU for being willing to do this!

What are your loves and hates?

You can’t please all the people all the time!

Threshold learning outcomes… Stand up, Speak up, Shut up!

In an ideal world…

Style of services: not a slap dash game show and not a stuffy military parade?

Relax, enjoy it (but not too much!). It will be okay! You are amongst friends!

Engage with the congregation before and after – try to make eye contact etc.

Pray, prepare, think!

WHAT? / WHY?

(1) Worship of God

(2) Edification

Everything must be done decently and in order!

We are aiming to please God and help others. The congregation may not like it but it might be good for them!

HOW? / WHO?

WHEN? The Rotas and arranging a swap if necessary

OTHER QUESTIONS / ISSUES YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS?

At Warbleton we aim to have a few moments prayer before the service around the keyboard (say at 10:50am) for all those who are taking part in the service. Please do join us if you can.

You might think some of this is stating the obvious but…

READING THE BIBLE IN CHURCH

Of course, in a way it’s not rocket science but it does matter and make a difference and can be done so badly or so well.

You are reading the Word of God! God is speaking, addressing us. We encounter Jesus in the power of the Spirit here.

“This is the most precious thing the world affords. These are the lively oracles of God!”

Pray. Think. Prepare. Practice?! Serve.

Please use the same New International Version as we have in the pews. Either use the lectern Bible or a pew Bible or print it out or write it out or bring your own! If you are feeling really keen and have the time and energy you could even try to virtually memorise the reading so that you can concentrate on your delivery not on reading.

There is no harm in checking you have the correct reading and that there is a bookmark in the Bible and that you know where the reading comes in the service. Does the other reader think they are doing your reading? You might like to turn to the second reading after your reading if you are he first reader. It is normally OT then NT or OT / Epistle / NT then Gospel.

E.g. Ephesians is a New Testament Epistle – Ephesians 2:1-10 / John 1:4, 6-9, 12, 14-end / 1 Kings 3:5-5:2

Or “v” / “vv”

The contents page is your friend!

We normally sit for the readings and stand for the gospel readings at Communion services. Standing for the gospel is just traditional but it perhaps is a way of recognising the centrality of Jesus and his incarnate ministry?

Slow down a bit.

Speak up a bit. Use the microphone provided. You need to speak into it and probably be closer to it than you imagine or really project.

Breath.

Try to begin clearly and strongly with confidence.

Do not under or over interpret especially if the interpretation is unclear.

If there are rhetorical questions, do you know what answer they are expecting? E.g. Romans 8

Try to think about the theme / tone / aim / genre etc.

Be yourself but you could probably put a bit more life and feeling into it but don’t go crazy!

Your reading may be more dynamic if you slightly emphasise the key verbs (and adverbs) of action etc. e.g. try this sentence: “Suddenly coming to the house he threw them out with great force for he was angry with them beyond measure”. If you print out the passage (e.g. from Bible Gateway) you can mark on it where you plan to pause and underline words you wish to emphasise and so on.

Think about how emphasis / commas (pauses) etc. can change the meaning: “I am opening the door already (?)”; “Let’s eat Grandma”

Serve the text and the people. You wouldn’t be tempted to show off of course.

Consider a suitable and sensible variety of pitch, pace, pause and volume.

Plan your introduction and conclusion.

“Our first reading is taken from Acts chapter 7 verses 3 to 5 and can be found on page 3333 in the church Bibles. Acts 7v3, page 3333.” Pause. Normally no further introduction is needed. Or Marc might say something by way of introduction.

If the first pronoun is ambiguous and you know to whom it refers either change it or add in the correct answer e.g. not just “He said” but “He [that is, Jesus] said:” or just “Jesus said:”

Give them a moment to find the passage if they want to.

Pause before the ending response.

Traditional endings (see Common Worship / Prayer Book / Service sheet or book):

Either, This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Or, in a Communion service, This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you O Christ.

(Or, Here ends the second reading.)

“May God add his blessing to this reading from his Word”

Or just stop!

We never read the headings as they are not part of the original text (except for the titles in the Psalms, which we should read, followed by a pause.)

Come up in time so you are ready and go away afterwards (without rushing)! You could sit on the end of a pew to make everyone’s life easier!

Tricky pronunciation: don’t worry! Just be confident. Virtually all pronunciation is only a best guess / convention (Sheep noises and ancient Greek!). Do ask me if you want to know my guess but don’t feel the need to bother! Or copy a good audio Bible such as David Suchet’s reading on the NIV which is available free online. Be consistent. (It is more distracting if you mumble apologetically and say a name three different ways)

Anything else?

LEADING THE INTERCESSIONS

(Marc will normally say the Collect and announce the Lord’s Prayer)

There are many ways to skin a cat.

Be sensitive. Respect confidentiality. We should only mention people by name if the thing in question is public common knowledge or we have their permission. Do not announce that Smith has cancer in the prayers unless you know for sure from himself Smith that he is okay with that and you think it is helpful! (The people mentioned in the notice sheet will have given their permission but that does not mean that we need a run down of all their symptoms and issues!)

Are there children present? If so, can you make your prayers child-friendly without them being too childish! A shorter word might work just as well as a bigger one.

Normal English and your normal voice are fine, please!

Read the Bible passages and allow them to influence your prayers. Or you could base your prayers around some other passage of Scripture or Scriptures. It is good if our words to God are a response to his words to us.

These are INTERCESSIONS.

What are intercessions? ________________________________________

You are talking to Almighty God our loving heavenly Father so be respectful but not cringing. You come in Jesus, righteous in him, as a much-loved child and the Holy Spirit helps you so be confident (bold in Christ!) rather than self-confident.

You are leading corporate public prayer so “we” / “us” not “I”

Normally we do not need lots of extra CONFESSION, or THANKSGIVING, or PRAISE or LAMENT or … We are not really looking for extra sermons, or poetry readings or….

We want to pray according to God’s will with a sense of his priorities. We ask for what we need not just what we want. We pray for the progress of the gospel and the coming of the kingdom and our conformity to Christ etc. The Lord’s Prayer is the classic pattern. There are lots of other Biblical prayers we could read out or use as inspiration. See e.g. Don Carson, A Call To Spiritual Reformation on Paul’s prayers.

It is traditional to pray for the CHURCH and the WORLD.

You could write out the prayers in full or have some notes, which ever works better for you. There may be something you want to slot in on the day if we find out the Queen or a key member of the congregation has died for example! I do not suggest total winging it on the day improvisation!

You could use a mixture of set and extempore prayers, some more formal, some more informal.

The Collects provide another kind of pattern:

1. The address - a name of God

2. The doctrine - a truth about God’s nature that is the basis for the prayer

3. The petition - what is being asked for

4. The aspiration - what good result will come if the request is granted

5. In Jesus’ name - this remembers the mediatorial role of Jesus

We might pray for all people and all Christians, maybe especially those persecuted for their faith.

We might pray especially for the Anglican Communion, for Archbishop Justin and for our own Bishops Martin (Mark and Richard). We might pray for the deanery, benefice and parish. We have a special responsibility to pray for the parish. It is fine to pray for ourselves and those whom we love, but of course we also want to lift our eyes from the merely parochial.

We might pray for the Queen and her government and for the leaders of this and every nation.

We might pray for those known to us who are in need and for those who have asked our prayers.

We might pray for one or all of our mission partners (the partner of the month) but not for all of them by name every time please.

We might pray about something significant from the news but not everything!

We could have some silence.

We could use responses. Traditionally:

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Or, Lord hear us; Mercifully hear us.

And at the end maybe:

Merciful father, accept these prayers for the sake of your son our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Or other appropriate responses, but maybe that is tricky and distracting? The responses should fit the prayers. They could be planned in advance and so included in the service sheet or on the screen. Or, when I say, “Father in heaven” please respond “bring in your kingdom.”

You can say something by way of introduction if you like but keep it brief: “e.g. A prayer for ourselves:”

It could be one long prayer but probably several with a chance to say AMEN between them is better. Perhaps 3 longer prayers or 5 or 6 shorter ones? It might help if we can see the AMEN coming e.g. “In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Give some content. “We pray that you would give the PCC wisdom as they plan the year ahead” is better than “We pray for the PCC” but too much specific information and unnecessary information is off putting: “We pray for the PCC which is meeting at 7:30pm tomorrow in the church rooms.” God does not need your lengthy explanations. People might benefit from a bit of context / info. but keep it short. You might even include why we are praying for this stuff (e.g. the glory of God) and what we want to result (e.g. the praise of his name).

God seems to welcome argument in prayer! Lord, we have no one else to help us, remember your promises, keep your covenant, save your people, honour your name etc.!

We could pray for some big broad-brush stuff (we pray for the spread of the gospel) and some details (that Jimmy will be given a school place).

We normally pray to the Father, through the Son in the Power of the Holy Spirit: address God (the Father), do not swap around between persons of the Trinity or you will likely get into a muddle and end up saying, “Father, we really just thank you that you died on the cross for us”, which he did not!

Pray prayers that we can join in with – not too idiosyncratic or sectarian e.g. avoid, “We pray that Wales would beat England…”

Less is more. 5 minutes maximum. 2 or 3 minutes is fine. Leave them wanting more not wishing you would shut up!

Not everything every time. No need to pray for all the PCC, their partners and pets by name ever week!

Please avoid praying for the dead. If you wish you can say something like “We remember with thanksgiving all those who have died in the love of Christ and we pray that you would bring us with them to your eternal glory”. Or “we give you thanks for all who trusted in Christ and for all those whose faith was known only to you.” We of course pray for the family and friends of those who have died and for all who mourn.

We pray in fellowship with all the church around the world and down the ages.

Anything else?

RESOURCES

http://oakhill2.ablette.net/blog/entry/david_suchet_on_reading_the_bible_well_in_public

Common Worship

An English Prayer Book

The C of E website

Grove Booklets

This 5 point list of hints is a good and practical beginning:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/.../5-tips-for.../

This longer interview from The Briefing is helpful on public bible reading:
https://matthiasmedia.com/.../how-to-read-the-bible-aloud/

Check also this helpful advice for choosing a public bible reader:

https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/.../reading-the-bible.../

I am always happy to help and give training, feedback etc.

A Brief Review: Daniel Strange, Plugged In

From The Rectory

I don’t manage to read as many books as I’d like. And I have a dreadful memory. But I think my stand out Christian book of the year so far is by Dr Daniel Strange, the Director of Oak Hill Theological College in London, where I trained. Dan’s Plugged In: Connecting your faith with what you watch, read and play (The Good Book Company, 2019) is a really great read which is born out of years of teaching this stuff to would-be vicars and others. This is a book from which every Christian could benefit.

Even if you’re not interested in the question of Christ and culture, you ought to be. It’s one of the old chestnuts of theology.

Culture is how we do stuff. It’s our art and books and music. But also, our way of life, our habits, whether we bow or shake hands or do a high five.

Theologians have asked to what extent Christ is interested in culture. Is there a Christian culture or many? Does Jesus judge culture? Or abolish culture? Or save culture? Or transform culture or what? What cultures will there be in heaven and the New Creation?

One of the best things in the book are the worked examples of Christians engaging with culture by Dan’s students which he included at the end. Extraordinarily, Dan shows us how we can think Christianly about Zombie movies and even Japanese domestic toilets. Those are just examples, but we can see from them that Christ has something to say to and about every area of human activity.

Anyway, you should read the book. It’s only 160 pages long. And it costs less than £7. And it’s remarkably engaging and readable. I like to scribble in the margin of my books and I was tempted to underline something on almost every page.

One big idea of the book is what Dan calls subversive fulfilment. The subversive bit is to do with judgement on culture. Nothing in our world is perfect. And everything has the potential to be a kind of false god whom we worship, who offers us some version of salvation. So, Jesus always says some kind of NO to culture. For example, Jesus would say to Celebrity Master Chef that there is more to life than fame or food.

But there is also fulfilment of culture. Everything comes from God and rightly understood points to God. He is the source and goal of all that is good in culture. So, all the deepest longings which we often express in inordinate or misguided ways can be satisfied in God. Celebrity Master Chef should point us to true glory and to the heavenly banquet of the New Creation when there will be no unhealthy competition or elimination of losers or food that is horrid or poisoning or….

You know what to do! https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/plugged-in

The Revd Marc Lloyd