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Topic Archives: Church & Ministry

The Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically study begins by assembling your church, small group or family to watch the session titled Introduction: Welcome to Behold Your God. Workbooks are handed out at that time and each participant in the study is expected to work through the first five days from home over the course […]

Category Announcements
Date April 7, 2015
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Francis of Assisi has little to answer for. Although the quotation of ‘preach the gospel at all times; use words if necessary’ has been attributed to him, the historical truth of the matter is that Francis was a prolific gospel preacher.1 However, in a contemporary world of increasing political (and seemingly ecclesiastical) correctness, the unspeaking […]

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Category Articles
Date April 6, 2015
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This article was published as a ‘Letter from the Manse’ in the church magazine of Grace Baptist Church, Stockport, Cheshire (March 2015). I spent last week with seventeen other men. We came together for a ‘study week’ and we studied. Seven hours together each day around the conference table and personal assignments to be completed […]

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Category Articles
Date March 27, 2015
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I am asked whether, in my judgment, it is profitable for the minister of today to read the writings of Jonathan Edwards, and (I suppose) those of other similarly notable theologians of the past. The question may perhaps have been suggested to my friend by my own remark that I had recently been re-reading Edwards […]

Category Articles
Date February 4, 2015
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One of the first, simple assignments homiletic students should be given is to assemble a team of prayer partners. Recruiting from their congregation, family members, mentors, and fellow students, the students are required to assemble a number of at least eight to ten people for their prayer team in the first week of the class. […]

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Category Articles
Date February 2, 2015
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I think that almost every reader of this magazine1 will recognize in these two lines the beginning of the hymn by William Cowper, ‘God moves in a mysterious way’. As far as I know that author is virtually unknown to Polish Christians. Although many Christians might not know the hymn, we know the truth that […]

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Category Articles
Date January 26, 2015
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The Quality of Urgency in Preaching Preaching, by definition, should be urgent in nature. By urgency we mean preaching that has, in the words of Merriam-Webster, a ‘force or impulse that impels or constrains.’ Preaching with urgency is done when the preacher not only hopes for but calls for and expects response to the Word […]

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Category Articles
Date January 23, 2015
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What is the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelistic preaching? First, consider the work of the Holy Spirit upon the preacher himself.1 Clearly the preacher’s private time with the Lord is vital. This includes his own personal devotional time when God speaks to him in prayer, and his own systematic reading of the word […]

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Category Articles
Date January 19, 2015
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They spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord who was testifying to the word of His grace (Acts 14:3). I very well remember in 1976, while working with Dr. Jim Baird at the First Presbyterian Church, Macon, Georgia, reading for the first time Arnold Dallimore’s marvellous biography on George Whitefield,1 […]

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Category Articles
Date January 9, 2015
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Herman Bavinck in his Reformed Dogmatics begins his exposition of the doctrine of God with these striking words: ‘Mystery is the life blood of dogmatics.’ Bavinck is not telling us that systematic theology is an impenetrable puzzle. Rather, he is saying that incomprehensible and inexplicable wonder lies at the very heart of God’s self-revelation to […]

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Category Articles
Date December 19, 2014
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I think you know my deep conviction that the church of Jesus must be intentional, earnest, and aggressive in going into our communities and nations with the life saving message of reconciliation to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to save sinners. Indeed, we must constantly look for ways to publish the good […]

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Category Articles
Date December 17, 2014
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. . . his blood I will require at your hand (Ezekiel 3:18). I have been saying for a long time now that what young people of this generation need, what they have always needed, is a direct, passionate, declaration of the truth as it is in Jesus. David Murray, in citing an article by […]

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Category Articles
Date December 5, 2014
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The First Service in the Grace & Truth Church in Israel A few weeks after completing all the municipal requirements, we began our worship services in the new building! This was after consulting with both our architect and a lawyer. It has been a long-anticipated event for the congregants. So many times we thought we […]

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Category Articles
Date December 3, 2014
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We seem to be in a stalemate in church and state today. Problems are multiplying. The situation becomes more confusing year by year and we are in danger of losing heart: people are at a loss what to do. There is a great deal of activity but where is the substance? Maurice Roberts has said: […]

Category Articles
Date November 24, 2014
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An extract from Al Martin’s What’s Wrong with Preaching Today?, published as a booklet by the Trust.1 Originally an address given to the Ministers’ Conference of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church at Westminster Theological Seminary in September 1967, the transcript was revised for publication by the author, who sought to retain the sermonic style. Preaching has […]

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Category Articles
Date September 11, 2014
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Go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel (Jeremiah 7:12). Thirty-seven year old Asahel Nettleton, the powerful Presbyterian evangelist, was exhausted. He had been preaching several times daily in […]

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Category Articles
Date August 29, 2014
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When your child learns to write, he is ready to begin taking sermon notes. Say, what? Let’s say that little George is 4 or 5 or 6 years old and he knows how to write his name and how to write all of his letters. Now he can get started! All you need is a […]

Category Articles
Date July 25, 2014
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I have now been in the ministry for 37 years and, looking back, deplore the fact that I have made so many mistakes that could have been prevented, had I known better. On the other hand, by God’s grace alone, I have been blessed with a ministry which has been rewarded in the sense that […]

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Category Articles
Date June 20, 2014
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This short booklet is reprint of an article that first appeared in the British and Foreign Evangelical Review in 1862. Having acknowledged that the work and help of the Holy Spirit is indispensable in preaching, the author concentrates on the human aspects that can lead to power in the pulpit. Three areas are discussed: the […]

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Category Book Reviews
Date May 23, 2014
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As according to Paul’s custom he went to them (Acts 17:26). On his second missionary journey, after heeding the Macedonian call to go into Europe and preach the gospel, Paul made his way from Philippi through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica. Luke tells us that according to Paul’s custom he went directly to the Jews, […]

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Category Articles
Date May 16, 2014
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There are two helps in remembering, first, how the deacon is different from the elder or the pastor-preacher, and second, what the deacons’ duties are. 1. A Three-fold Office The church is the body of Christ, and our Saviour has a three-fold office, and so his body also has a three-fold office. i] Christ is […]

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Category Articles
Date April 30, 2014
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Recently I attended the communion service in Magdalene College chapel in Cambridge. The service was rich in Trinitarian worship, in elevated God-centred prayers, in excellent hymns and a fine, if too brief, sermon. As I sat and shared in the worship, this thought came to me, ‘How diverse the church of Jesus Christ is.’ Here […]

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Category Articles
Date April 25, 2014
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This book consists of five recent addresses given by Iain Murray the veteran preacher and co-founder of Banner of Truth. The messages cover a wide range of issues: evangelical holiness, the Bible, apostasy, controversy and the fourth commandment. Mr Murray shows in each message how important the subject is and carefully and clearly teaches using […]

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Category Book Reviews
Date April 6, 2014
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Of all the casualties the church has suffered in recent decades, I wonder if many will have longer-lasting consequences than the loss of the evening service. There was a time, not so long ago, when many or even most churches gathered in the morning and the evening. But today the evening service is increasingly relegated […]

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Category Articles
Date February 10, 2014
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Some highlights from Mark Johnston and Ian Hamilton on Banner of Truth books at last year’s US Ministers’ Conference. Want to be there in 2014? Visit banneroftruth.org/us/events for US and banneroftruth.org/uk/events for UK conference information. Banner Book Room Tour Part 1 from Banner of Truth on Vimeo. Banner Book Room Tour Part 2 from Banner […]

Category Articles
Date January 22, 2014
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