It was discovered that Matt Chandler had a brain tumour and needed immediate surgery, that happened on Friday. It sounds like since then he’s been making good progress… but keep praying.
You can find updates from The Village Church and on Twitter.

But whatever you do, go and watch the video he recorded before surgery… Christ is All.

On Wednesday of this week I had the priviledge to spend an hour or so with Alistair Begg….

Alistair Begg has been in pastoral ministry for 32 years. Following graduation from The London School of Theology he served eight years in Scotland at both Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh and Hamilton Baptist Church. Since 1983, he has been the senior pastor at Parkside Church near Cleveland, Ohio.  He has written several books and is heard daily and weekly on the radio program, Truth For Life.  The teaching on Truth For Life stems from the week by week Bible teaching at Parkside Church. He and his wife, Susan, have been married 32 years and they have three grown children.

Me and my dad went to chat with him about Bible by the Beach… he’ll be doing the Bible readings in 2010. But we also got to chat about a number of issues…

We spoke about the Emerging Church and the effect that’s having in the States, and related to that, the lacking of good, solid Bible teaching that promotes Christians to grow in many churches either side of the Pond.

Two things really surprised me though… Alistair has never heard of ‘Federal Vision’, and has never heard Mark Driscoll preach… He also dislikes blogging – I kept quiet at that point!

In speaking one thing was very aparent… Alistair is a pastor at heart, despite being in another country, speaking at a conference, his clear desire is to be with his congregation, to be preaching to them, encouraging and pastoring them. Good times – he also has a very dry sense of humour, and supports Glasgow Rangers!

I’m a bit of a Matt Chandler ‘fan’… his teaching via podcast has often been a great encouragement to me. The good news is that he’s still preaching through Luke (part 39), although he’s been doing some thematic stuff on the Church and repentance… on the subject of thematic preaching Matt has a classic quote:

“I’ve got no problem with thematic preaching, as long as it’s done exegetically!”

I’m always intrigued by what makes people like Matt Chandler tick, below I copy Matt’s FAQ page from the Village Church…

Also, check out his blog…

What books have been most influential in your life and thoughts?

1. The Bible
2. Desiring God and Pleasures of God by John Piper
3. Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul
4. Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
5. Anything by C.S. Lewis but especially The Weight of Glory
6. Anything by Jonathan Edwards but specifically Religious Affections
7. Anything by John Owen but especially The Mortification of Sin

What ideas have strongly influenced you?

1. Christian Hedonism – The idea that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him has absolutely ruined me. It shook me out of trying to be good and created in me the questions: “Does this stir up my affections for Christ?” and “Does this rob me of my affection for Christ?”
2. Missional living – The idea of intentional living and contextualizing the Gospel for this generation and culture as well as engaging the world instead of isolating ourselves from it have shaped my preaching and living.

What books do you recommend for Pastors?

1. The Bible – I understand the need for books on leadership, theology and history. My hope is that you would feast on the scriptures, feel the angst and awe and be overwhelmed by the Gospel of our great God and King. This book is life changing and sufficient.

What books are you currently reading?

1. The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani
2. God, Marriage, and Family by Andreas Kostenberger
3. Total Church by Tim Chester
4. The Study of Evangelism by Paul Wesley Chilcote
5. The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever
6. Hearts and Minds by Kenneth Boa and John Alan Turner

What books have you read recently?

1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels By Craig Blomberg
2. In My Place Condemned He Stood by J.I. Packer
3. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity by Mark Noll
4. Culture-Making: Recovering our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
5. Till We Have Built Jerusalem by Philip Bess
6. Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright
7. The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like Minded America is Tearing us Apart By Bill Bishop
8. Who’s Your City? by Richard Florida
9. Approaching the Heart of Prophecy by Graham Cooke

So somehow, I’m still not quite sure how, I ended up on the Victoria Derbyshire show on Radio 5 Live (starts about 42 mins in) this morning talking about why as a Christian I wouldn’t have a relationship with a non-Christian. There was also a Jewish girl called Jade, and a Hindu guy called Amit as well as a couple of others who joined the conversation.

I only got a couple of questions to briefly say why faith is a key factor in looking for a partner, I made it clear that while there are many factors, the key factor for a Christian relationship is to look for someone who loves Jesus. I was at a bit of a disadvantage in the conversation as I was sitting in a small room by myself in Brighton while the others were up in the studio in London.

It’s an interesting discussion, but I felt it missed the point – most of what was talked about was cultural differences, Jade (the Jewish girl) talked lots about cultural differences with a Catholic boyfriend and pragmatic differnces in potential partners. So I felt the point was missed as we were seeking to discuss how FAITH is a factor in relationships… given that I was expecting to hear about what the Torah says to Jade about relationships, and what the Hindu gods say about this stuff… I was expecting to talk about what the Bible says about relationships, but we never get round to this question!

Anyway, good fun, a good experience and they taxied me to and from home which was cool.

Blogging

Blogs are surely one of the fastest growing forms of media in the world, and blogging is an increasingly popular hobby. Cyberspace is now teeming with news reporters and cultural/social/political commentators, sharing their thoughts and opinions about anything and everything.

The word ‘blog’ is short for ‘web log’, which is whatever you want it to be: an online diary/journal, links to your favourite sites on the Internet, comments on the latest news and events, or thoughts and reviews about recent book/film/music releases. When it comes to blogging, there’s massive potential for anyone to write about anything and share it with the world.

Why blog?

There are many reasons why people might blog – let me share with you why I decided to blog, why I still blog, and how I try and use blogging to glorify God – my kind of worship if you like.

When I started at University three years ago I started meeting lots of new people, doing exciting things and learning lots. I thought that I really should write some of it down, and being a bit of a computer geek the best place to have this ‘diary’ had to be on a website!

My blog developed beyond just stuff about my life. I started blogging about God stuff too, I’d blog about things that God was teaching me or about difficult theological issues. I wasn’t coming up with all the answers, a lot of the time it was just more questions, but it was a helpful place to think through some big issues and it turned out that others found it helpful too and enjoyed reading along.

So how can you glorify God through blogging? Talking and writing about the good news of Jesus gives God glory! We can worship Him by writing words that will encourage and build up other Christians and will help those who are not yet Christians to understand more of who Jesus is. Those are simple things, and we may use simple words, but who knows how God might use our words?

What to blog?

Blog about what you know and like. Don’t fake an interest or knowledge about a subject just to put it on your blog, anyone can do that and it’s not going to be worth reading. Lots of people have been blogging about the American election recently, but there’s no point in me doing that, I know nothing about American politics!

I’ve found that blogging can be a good tool for evangelism. It’s not an excuse to not actually talk to people about Jesus but a lot of people will read what you write! I started importing my blog posts into Facebook and pretty soon this lead to conversations about Jesus with a friend, which wouldn’t have happened without those posts! So write about Jesus, write about things that you learn, stuff God teaches you, books or people that have encouraged you.

How to blog?

Find a blogging site to host your blog for you. Best places to try are either wordpress.com or blogger.com, it’s really easy to get set up. Then start writing! It’s really that easy.

Add pictures to your posts, they make it look more interesting to read. Remember to read what you’ve written before you post it! Don’t write something that you wouldn’t say in public – the Internet offers a certain amount of anonymity, but don’t be ungodly in what you say. Add some links to your favourite websites and blogs, that’s often how you find good blogs to read

Where to read?

Now reading blogs can be quite time consuming, and while they can be very thoughtful and encouraging always remember that you’re better off reading a good book, and it’s no substitute for getting down to just read the Bible! Having said that here’s a couple of good blogs to whet your appetite and maybe they’ll give you the inspiration to start blogging yourself…

Emily Woods  - http://unfurlingflower.blogspot.com/

Hugh Bourne (that’s me)  -  http://www.hughbourne.co.uk

Last month I won the Young Christian Blogger of 2008 award, Emily Woods won it in 2007 – next year it could be you!