Here are my notes from the final session I attended at New Word Alive, except for the bloggers’ session: Everyone needs a theology. Many people see all kinds of negative connotations to that word, e.g. that it is “heavy.” It is not doctrine instead of experience. It is not theology instead of how to live life better. We can’t leave theology to the experts. God doesn’t want understanding to be locked away in some ivory tower. We must live in... Read more
Lindsay Brown spoke on Friday evening about mission, which he defined as “proclaiming the truth, wonder, and power of the gospel by word and deed.” Some argue that mission is only for those who feel called or are really keen. But the God of the OT is a missionary God. Though there is a people of God, many foreigners are reached out to. Psalm 96 shows there is a link between worship and mission. You cannot separate them. The Christ... Read more
Richard Cunningham interviewed Rebecca Manley Pippet from Salt Shaker Ministries one evening at New Word Alive about evangelism in place of a sermon. She spoke about how “torpedo evangelism” was not helpful. She gave the example of a woman who quite literally threw a gospel tract at her once. People are afraid of evangelism. We are afraid of offending. Becky’s recommendation is to try beginning the conversation by telling the person, “Look, I want to tell you about Jesus, but... Read more
In the third session on Thessalonians, Hugh honed right in on our purity. He urged all of us listening to make a decision to stop playing games with God. He warned us that if we reject the teaching on sexual purity we are not rejecting our preacher, or even Paul, but God himself. But as Hugh explains, Paul begins by saying, “Be what you have been made by God.” We start with the gospel, but then must live in light... Read more
The following comes from a review of Raised With Christ on Operation Actually Read Bible: I loved, loved, loved this book. For me, it was an amazing read. It reminded me of why I read Christian nonfiction in the first place.I feel I learned so much–so very, very much–by reading this one. I can honestly say this one made me think. In a good way. It made me pray.The way Adrian Warnock presented his message, well, it worked for me.... Read more
One of the features of New Word Alive is the series of Bible readings which, over the course of each morning, covers a book. This year Hugh Palmer is covering 1 Thessalonians. I missed the opening session which focused on how the word was being twisted and assaulted in Paul’s day. Hugh began by speaking of the intolerance against Christians happening right now in the UK, the likes of which we would never have imagined. Christianity and British culture have... Read more
There is no more foundational subject than the doctrine of Scripture.  All the current theological arguments that are causing such disruption in the Church today stem from a lack of confidence in the authority of Scripture. There is no systematic teacher of God’s word who I would rather hear on the subject of why we can trust the Bible. To see a marquee rammed full of people of all ages gathering to listen to Wayne Grudem as he endeavored to... Read more
I decided to attend the students’ event on my first evening at New Word Alive. This was partly because I wanted to pretend I was young again, but largely because I arrived too late for the “Adult” celebration. Here are some brief notes I took during the session: V1 ff Gods glory in creation Psalms tell us god is enormous though we think he’s small, and we are small tho we think we are enormous. God is a God of... Read more
Yesterday evening I went to the adult celebration.  The student celebration covered the same psalm but by a different speaker.  In both cases the preacher aimed to help us to be overwhelmed in a godly way.  I heard reports of many being moved to tears during the student celebration where Nigel Styles was speaking; my good buddy and normally emotionally stable friend Sam Allberry looked quite moved afterwards when we met up. Here are my notes from the first session:... Read more
Here at New Word Alive until mid morning on the second day there was no Internet on the whole site except slow phone connections if you are able to find the right spot. As a direct result of this I was unable to get the following piece I wrote for the on-site newspaper to them to print. This is quite ironic considering the content below. I thought that rather than wasting it, I’d share it here though no one here... Read more
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