So here’s the latest news on New Word Alive 2009…

A new website has been launched with all the info on.

First, a correction on what I said a few weeks ago, New Word Alive 2009 will be in Pwhelli, NOT Prestatyn, as far as I know the Pwhelli site wanted us back and made a better offer than Prestatyn, which is annoying because Pwhelli is sooo far away!

There are still two weeks:

30th March - 4th April… mainly for students and adults without children (there is a crèche I believe)

4th April - 9th April… mainly for adults, families, young people

In week 1, the main speaker will be Vaughan Roberts. In week 2 it will be Liam Golligher.

Also, because they obviously loved it so much Don Carson and Terry Virgo will be back, proving the rumour that Richard Cunningham has a crush on Terry Virgo… or not.

Booking lines open on the 16th June for week 1, and on the 23rd June for week 2.

See you there!!

So, after about a nine hour trip we finally made it back from Pwllheli and the anticipated excitement was not disappointed! The site we were staying on isn’t as good as Skeggy, but in contrast to the Lincolnshire coast we had some sun, you could describe the scenery as beautiful and having Snowdon in the background is a plus.

First night we kicked off with Terry Virgo speaking on God’s Grace from Romans 5. It was a great start to the week to be reminded of our status before God based on his Grace mediated through Christ’s work on the cross. At the same time some of us felt he didn’t really give a balanced picture, yes we are under grace, but what about disciple, how does sanctification work? Terry Virgo did mention these things but had no time to explain - a shame. Nevertheless it was great to glory at God’s lavish grace.

Don Carson spoke in the morning Bible readings from 1 John, and the next two evenings formed a two-part message from John Piper - Treasuring Christ and a call to suffer… these two features deserve separate posts.

What else was there to do… Chronological Bible overview with Jason Clarke, a guide to understanding, interpreting and applying the whole Bible (using Daniel) with Vaughan Roberts, Trinity with Mike Reeves (mind blowing as ever), Humanity and Creation, 3 studies with Mike Ovey… Giving a Bible talk with Richard Coekin, Good News to the poor with Tim Chester… and loads of other practical seminars with great speakers like; Graham Daniels, Mark Ashton, Wallace Benn, Dave Bish, Andrew Sach, Jim Paul, Melvin Tinker, Jon Hobbs, John Benton, Roger Carswell… and loads more!

And if that’s too much for you then there’s go karts, crazy golf, swimming, peddlos, and a nice beach to walk on. In fact that usually is too much, I went to the main meetings and Mike Reeves on the Triune God… that’s more than enough! The rest of the time it’s good to just chillax, enjoy people’s company, think about what we’re learning, and to enjoy the beauty of Wales (and Sarah), more thoughts to come…

It was commented at the EMA that all of Vaughan Roberts’ books have no more than 3 words in their titles… I paused for a moment, reading and counting through the titles in my head - it was true. Interesting but somewhat irrelevant fact… shouldn’t judge a book by the length of its title!

Anyway, sometimes when I hear Vaughan speak I find him a bit dry, a bit too conservative in his style and sometimes content. But his writing is altogether different, it’s much more accessible, concise, easy to read and take in, and of course like his preaching thoroughly sound, true and Biblical. I haven’t read all of his books yet, need to read his Bible overviews at some point, but True Worship and Distinctives (2nd Christian book I read I believe, after John Dickson’s ‘Hanging in there’) were both excellent.

His latest book which I’ve just read is called ‘Battles Christians Face’ looking at 8 issues, or battles that Christians face in life. From the start it’s clear that this isn’t some kind of self-help book, a certain solution to win the battles, or a ground-breaking new perspective on the issues. No, rather Roberts sets out a Biblical example of the battle in question, takes us through that example looking at what we can learn about us and about God in these situations.

Roberts takes us through the issues with a related Bible text, looking at; Image (Col 3), Lust (David & Bathsheba), Guilt (Psalm 32), Doubt (Doubting Thomas), Depression (Psalm 42 & 43), Pride (Mark 9), Homosexuality (Matt 19 and 1Cor 6) and Keeping Spiritually Fresh (Luke 7).

I love Roberts’ simplicity and honesty, his realism and gentle approach to hard issues. There’s no great detail here, it’s a small book, so he gets straight to the point, but there’s enough here to give us both a firm biblical grounding and some practical application. There’s also a challenge here, where we feel we don’t struggle with the issue Vaughan bring God’s word to rebuke us - are we proud of our humility? do we judge others for their struggles?

Well worth a read - currently £7 along with some more reviews at the Good Book Company

So this week I’ve been at the Evangelical Ministry Assembly (EMA) at St. Helens in London. Was a good time to meet some friends, do some networking, and hear wise old men expound the scriptures and give their thoughts on evangelical ministry today.

Tim Keller - What is an Evangelical?

1. High view of scripture - full, final, and supreme authority of the Bible
2. Trust in the ‘old’ gospel - salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in the substitutionary work of Christ alone
3. Repentant (Luther - “all of life is repentance”)

Tim was very good. He graciously challenged UK evangelicals, particularly on being too middle class and not being engaging beyond that - hard to hear at a ProcTrust conference! He talked about the challenges we face both within and outside of the church… while our doctrine is right, some of our methods may rightly be criticised.

He concluded by looking at what an evangelical ministry would look like:

1. Reflects the balance of love and wrath in the cross - grace vs. truth, law vs. licence
2. Reflects the balance of the incarnation in contextualising the gospel
3. Ministry based on grace not gifts

Dick Lucas - Philippians

I found Dick hard work. He wasn’t doing straight, sequential expositions from the book, but rather took what seemed to me a series of random thoughts from the book about the church and Paul. I decided I could forgive him for this, after all he is 82. But anyway he was talking a lot about persecution and being prepared to stand and suffer for Christ - Philippians 1:29

Vaughan Roberts - Daniel

This was really good I thought. Two 45-minute sessions and Vaughan gave a clear overview of Daniel 1-6 and then 7-12. The latter was particularly good, an overview allows you to see the big picture, the key themes and how it points to Christ and God’s people. So Daniel 7-12, which once was a no go area of weird and wonderful dreams, now, having taken a step back looks almost comprehendable!

Richard Cunningham - Persuasive Preaching

Something I’d thought and discussed with others in the past is whether we need to be persuasive in the way we present the gospel… Do we simply faithfully preach the gospel and trust the Spirit will work? Or do we need to adapt to our audience? Present rational arguments? Is there a role for apologetics?? Richard showed us, mainly from Paul’s ministry in Acts (17 especially) for the need to adapt, to contextualise and to present rational, persuasive arguments.

There were a few other sessions, David Jackman spoke about training (advertised 9:38 and Cornhill), there were some seminars - I went to one by Jason Clarke on the Emerging Church, and a Q&A session with TK, VR and RC.