Posted by Hugh in 
Today I went to the first day of a 3 day conference called the Evangelical Ministry Assembly, it’s run by the Proclamation Trust at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in central London. This is the 25th year of the conference and the theme this year is Preaching - “Him We Proclaim”.
Christopher Ash - Why Preaching?
He gave a defence of preaching, stating that preaching works because it transcends cultural differences - although we can add our own constraints to it. He spoke about the authority of the preacher (a borrowed authority) and the ‘prophetic’ nature of preaching.
Simon Austen - Ephesians
This was an expostion of Ephesians 1 and 2 focusing on the themes of identity and what it means to be Church.
Steve Timmis - ‘Getting in touch with God’s global mission’
This was my choice from the seminar stream, ended up sitting next to the Big Moon Man. Steve started with two underlying principles: Theology - Who is God? and Ecclesiology - What is the Church? He took us to Revelation 4 & 5, revealing that God’s mission is all about his Son. Then to Ephesians, seeing that Christ rules his Church (his body) and that it is called to live as “communities of light”.
He then went through ‘10 Top Tips’ answering questions along the way, here are those tips;
- Be ravished by Christ
- Preach, teach and gossip Christ
- Extend your boundaries of application beyond “read Bible, pray more, tell someone about Jesus”
- Plant churches among unreached people groups around you
- Get your church involved in another part of the world
- Work from a realistic, achievable activity to a transforming one
- Work from realistic giving, to sacrificial giving
- Give away your best
- Recognise mutual benefit
- Keep it about God’s Kingdom, not yours
John Woodhouse - Colossians
Whoever does the last session has a tough job, it’s pretty stuffy, a lot of people are tired from the day plus travelling to get there… I’ll be gracious and say I was too tired to concentrate.
Incoming Links (via Tecnorati):
Nothing Reported
