When preparation is preaching to yourself

Today I was privileged to be able to go back to my old university CU, University of Manchester Christian Union, to do a seminar looking at God's role and our role in evangelism. I'm going to post my notes in three parts over the coming week, looking first at Our role, then at God's Role and finally at some great truths we can hold onto as Mission Weeks approach.

But before I start posting, I thought I'd say that preparing for it was wonderful.

It was great to have an excuse to spend time re-reading JI Packer's brilliant Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, which I think might be one of the most influential books I've read so far as a Christian. It's one of those books that are available via Amazon's market place at a few quid, so buy it if you haven't read it and are involved in evangelism in some way!

And it was also a timely kick up the butt to remember that evangelism is not about me. It's God who gives belief (Ephesians 2:8), who gives repentance (Acts 11:18) and who rescues us (Colossians 1:13). We don't do any of that, all we do is tell people the gospel (Matthew 28:18ff). God saves. We do not.

It was a timely reminder because for the next three weeks I will be in some way or another involved with a CU mission week in Greater Manchester.

Next week is the Distribution week at Salford Uni CU, where they are aiming to hand out a couple of thousand FREE gospels (Mark's Gospel in trendy covers!) to students in Salford. During the day we'll be spending three hours chatting to students around campus, whilst in the evenings we will be knocking on doors in halls of residence.

The following week is Salford CU's Events week, where they will be holding three evening events during which Tim Hanson will explain the gospel to students. The events are a JazzCake (jazz and cheese cake, a bizarre combination which Salford students seem to love!) evening with a talk, a Grub Crawl with a talk, and a talk over tea and coffee. You might notice that CUs love providing food! I've yet to find an atheist society that is as keen to feed their fellow students!

The following week is Week 1 of the Manchester Mega Mission (University of Manchester CU, Man Met Uni CU, Royal Northern College of Music CU) during which I will be a CU guest, supporting the work of University of Manchester CU as they try and reach students with the gospel. I will be seconded to a few hall groups to support them in their evangelism in their halls of residence, as well as doing first contact evangelism on streets around the unis and talking to people at events.

So, it's good to remember that in these weeks that when I become progressively more exhausted (which I will!), God still remains strong and, as it's him that saves, I can remain confident that he will be at work convincing students of the truth of the gospel as I tell it the them.

There were some other amazing things that God really taught me as I worked through the prep, but you're going to have to wait for me to upload the talk for them...

53 years ago today...

53 years ago to the day, Jim Elliot (one of my missionary heroes) and his four missionary friends were martyred whilst trying to reach the Waodani people in the Ecuadorian jungle with the gospel.

I read Through Gates of Splendour, a biography about Jim Elliot, a year or two ago and it has been really influential in my growth as a Christian. One thing that's really struck me was that they were no different to you or me. They were just normal Christians who were obedient to God and took the Great Commission seriously.

Here's a brief video explaining the story of how the Waodani people were reached.



(HT: Justin Taylor)

Good Commentaries on the Cheap

Amazon are selling New International Commentaries very cheaply at the moment. Amongst others, they are selling Galatians by Ronald Y.K. Fung at£2.50 (down from £19.99!) and Genesis by Victor P. Hamilton, 2 volumes each at £1.99 (each down from £24.99!) Bargain-alicious.

I don't imagine they will last long at these prices. Thanks to Zac Wyse for pointing this out!

UPDATE: Amazon made a mistake, and all orders have been cancelled.

A Call To Spiritual Reformation

I don't often read books that I can truthfully say have transformed the way I do things, but this is one of those books. Before, I thought I "got" prayer but after reading this I realise I didn't - it has transformed the way I think about and do prayer.

In eleven chapters, Don Carson takes us through Paul's prayers in his letters in the New Testament, showing us Paul's view of God, his view of prayer and how he prays before looking at lessons we can take and apply to our prayer lives.

One chapter I found particularly interesting and challenging was on how prayer relates to God's sovereignty and to our human responsibility.

If God is completely sovereign, do our prayers do anything? Put another way, if things are going to happen because God has decided they should, then surely they would happen without our prayers? How do we reconcile this with the fact that the Bible tells us we are to pray for things and that God answers these prayers?

I'm still thinking this through so don't hunt me down for any heresies below! But, I think the way that Carson explains it is as follows (this is from memory so it might not be accurate!)

• If we pray for something, our prayers have already been ordained by God to happen at a certain time in order that they might bring about a certain result that he has already decided will happen.
• If we don't pray for something, God has already decided that we wouldn't pray, and that result that might have been brought about had we prayed had already been ordained by God not to happen.
• Therefore our prayer or lack of prayer from a human point of view brings about the result or lack of result - we are responsible for praying and to some extent whether or not something happens.
  
• But, from God's point of view, as he is sovereign he has decided whether or not we should pray. He also decides whether or not to answer the prayer - he's not a machine! So the responsibility is 100% his for whether or not things happen in relation to prayers made or not made.
  

This is something that I have only just started thinking about in any depth, so I'd love to hear thoughts and I'm sure will come up again in a while when God's sovereignty is covered in my Relay study.

Either way, whether I've heresied above or not, please read this book. It's by Don Carson, and it's sound (but please don't take my word for it - always be Berean and check against the Bible!) and it will probably change the way you view prayer!

Call to Spiritual Reformation by Don Carson is available at IVP books, and has a much better cover than before. It will cost you about £10.

The Bondage of the Will

Just posted some opening thoughts on Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will over at Manchester Dead Theologians Society.

Manchester Dead Theologians #1

The Manchester Dead Theologians Society met up for the first time yesterday. We meet semi regularly (every 5-6 weeks in uni term time) to discuss one of the great books written by the Puritans and Reformers in order to expand our understanding of Scripture and love for and devotion to our Lord and Saviour.

We had been reading (or at least the others had - more below!) Jonathan Edwards' History of the Work of Redemption and we had some good conversations! It sounded amazing and I'm pretty gutted I didn't decide to read it at the same time as the others!

I decided against reading the book because of a heavy work load (finals are fast approaching) and the fact that I've already got a whole bunch of Christian books to read... But as I said, I now wish I had read it, so I've just ordered the next book we'll discuss, Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will.

I think I might start doing as C.S. Lewis' suggested: "It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones."

Subscribe to the Manchester Dead Theologians blog to hear more of our thoughts and discussions on these books!

Young, Restless and Reformed

Dave Bish reviews Young, Restless and Reformed. Seems like its an interesting read. I think its written about things in the US, but to be fair I think I'll run out of fingers and toes several times over when I try and count people I know who fit the title here in Manchester, UK.