Him We Proclaim – A Synopsis #5

(Synopses of previous chapters can be accessed by clicking here)

Challenges to Apostolic Preaching

The preacher is torn between the desire to preach Christ in all the scriptures, as he is the only means of salvation and sanctification, but also of being faithful to the text itself, where a Christocentric emphasis may feel artificial. “We want to preach Christ, but we also want to preach each text with integrity” (p.128).

Twelve Years

The other Sunday, we came onto the stories of the dead girl and the bleeding woman in Luke 8. You know the story I’m sure, where Jairus comes up to Jesus and says, “Help, my daughter is dying.” And then whilst Jesus is going a woman who’s been bleeding for ages reaches out and gets healed. In the meantime the girl dies and then Jesus goes and brings her back to life.

Him We Proclaim – A Synopsis #4

(Synopses of previous chapters can be accessed by clicking here)

The Complication, Chastening, Rejection, and Recovery of Apostolic Preaching in the History of the Church.

The aim here is not to sample the whole 200 year history of preaching but to sample a few hermeneutical controversies along the way. These have often centred around church authority in interpretation as well as context (historical and literary) and genre.

The Tower of Babel Vs The Church

I preached on sunday as you will gather from my tiredness on Monday. And I was preaching on the community of the Tower of Babel and how it compares or contrasts to the community of the church. I then discovered, with two minutes to go, that I was preaching in college Tuesday just gone. The funny thing is, I’ve been having a recurring dream (that interestingly, especially with my last post and how me and my dad are similar, my dad also has) where I get up to preach and I don’t have my notes. So as the nightmare had come true, I had to remember my notes of the top of my head…and I managed…and I survived.

The Physical Effects of Preaching

After the first time I preached in a church service, my dad told me that one preaching session is a bit like doing a day of manual labour. Maybe it’s just our genes, but I have to concur. It’s not necessarily the same every time, but generally I’ve found that about an hour afterwards I go into ’shutdown’ mode. I get so tired I find it hard to engage with people, though I can sometimes get myself to engage a bit more than not at all! (Especially if the company is more stimulating!) Then, the morning after, I’ve found that either I can’t wake up, or if I have to force myself, if I have something on, then I’m like a zombie. Anyone else get this?

Saint’s Stories! #2

SAINT CEDD, the Apostle to Essex

Cedd lived from around 620 – 26th October 664. He had a fictional college named after him and had three brothers whose names also began with the letter ‘C’!