Worth Chewing Over

How good is it that Phillip Jensen, who has been called "a once in a lifetime preacher" should put together his thoughts on preaching so that others may benefit?

In this book, you get Phillip Jensen's ideas, skilfully organised by Paul Grimmond, one of Jensen's admirers and followers.

Grimmond is well-placed to do this, because he has listened to Jensen speak for more than 20 years and has put his principles into practice in his own speaking ministry.

Tim Challies says that the image Jensen uses to depict preaching is too complicated and not one that people will be able to remember. He contrasts this with the simple, effective and memorable image of the trellis and the vine in Colin Marshall and Tony Payne's earlier companion volume to this one. He expects that image will be used by many to depict the administrative work in Christian ministry (trellis work) versus the task of drawing God's people into his kingdom through evangelism (vine work).

However in this book, the straightforward image used of an archer (the preacher) and his arrow (the sermon) is made more complex by Jensen's depiction of the arrow's head, shaft and feathers as illustrations of the elements of a sermon as message, exegesis and theology. But is it as hard to grasp as Challies makes out? I think that it is unpacked fairly clearly, and is a useful device for reminding us of all that is needed to create a successful message which challenges listeners to action.

The most helpful aspect of the book is the definition of preaching which forms the backbone of its contents. In chapter two Jensen gives us the preacher's mission statement:

My aim is to preach the gospel by prayerfully expounding the Bible to the people God has given me to love.

Through the rest of the book, Jensen explains his image of the arrow, showing how a Bible teacher needs to craft his sermon to make it achieve its goal, and takes apart his mission statement, bit by bit, and finally reassembles it.

Every speaker would benefit from reading The Archer and the Arrow because it compels you to think through the process of constructing a talk, while reminding us that the Christian preacher's aim is to enlist followers of Jesus, not to show people how clever we are.

Maitland Evangelical Church website has been remade and looks good. Simple, but effective. They're also letting us know they are around on facebook and Twitter. Kevin Reid is the webservant. I like his personal website, too which is called Grace Transforms. He has quite a few thought-provoking articles on his site. It is enriching to be partners with people and churches like these folk.

What should church be like? Do you think that this video portrays church as it should be? Could our church be a church like this [with an Australian accent]?

Top Ten Myths About The Resurrection

Did the resurrection of Jesus really happen? This should be a question that everyone and especially every Christian, should ponder.

Is it true? If it isn't, Christianity is meaningless because this teaching is the lynchpin of the whole story.

Mike Licona has made ten little videos in which he dispells some of the myths that people believe about the resurrection.

If you are really sharp, you might notice that the link is to another site pointing to the site where these ten videos are stored. This is because the hosting site doesn't seem to have a handy index to the videos!

These are the topics that Dr Licona discusses in his series of ten videos:

Myth 1: Contradictions in the Gospels
Myth 2: Pagan Parallels in the Mystery Religions
Myth 3: The Fraud Theory
Myth 4: Hallucinations
Myth 5: It's a Matter of Faith
Myth 6: Apparent Death Theory
Myth 7: It Was Merely Legend
Myth 8: Science Proves that Resurrections Cannot Occur
Myth 9: Not Enough Evidence
Myth 10: Lost Gospels

You will notice that each video gives some information quickly and then focusses on a set of DVDs on the topic. I have not yet seen the longer program, but if it is as good as the tasters, it should be terrific.

I'm convinced that Jesus really did rise from the dead and is alive today. I'm also convinced that the resurrection is by far the most logical explanation of the data we have concerning Jesus Christ.

What about you?

Top blogs

Two of our Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches pastors are writing quality stuff. Others may be, too, but these two are well worth following.


Science and the Gospel is an intriguing series in which Chris Little, pastor of Albury Bible Fellowship, is considering how faith in Christ transforms our view of science, through the lens of Two Ways To Live. His blog has lots of other great articles, too, on quite a variety of subjects.

Dave McDonald is another FIEC pastor, who is writing about his experiences as he undergoes chemotherapy for “inoperable” lung cancer It is not gloomy, but can be both confronting and compelling. Dave is currently on leave from Canberra's Crossroads Christian Church.

Outstanding resource

Getting more deeply into your Bible is an outstanding series of articles by Geoffrey Grogan, a Bible scholar who died recently. His son John is progressively releasing these articles which really do live up to the claim of helping you to get more deeply into the Bible. Highly recommended.

Genuinely free book

So often free book offers turn out to be less than free. And, all-too-frequently, in fine print, near the end of the offer is a line which says

available to US residents only

which really cheeses off this Aussie!
But George Verwer's offer is genuine. I received my copy a few days ago. George wants to get as many people as possible to read Fred Heeren's Show Me God. (I have inserted the link to the Amazon product page, so that you can peruse the book, and also read the mainly positive reviews.)

The book's subtitle is What the Message from Space Is Telling Us About God. In the book, Heeren shares interviews with leading cosmologists and gives his own interpretation of how what they say and what the Bible says about creation can be harmonised.

I thought this short review from an Amazon reader was worth quoting:

I bought this book because I was having some serious doubts about God and Christianity. This amazing book cleared up all those doubts! When I finished reading the book I couldn't believe how clear everything was. There is no way anyone can read this book and be neutral about whethere or not there is a God. It is an amazing book and I highly recommend it for anyone. (Christen Humphries)

To order a copy, head to George's own webpage and follow the instructions.