News
Latest news & articles
On Sunday mornings we've been looking together at the Ten Commandments. We're taking two weeks to look at the fourth commandment, as it's largely ignored today, even by many within the church.
For an even more in-depth look at this commandment, we highly recommend this series of four sermons preached in Glasgow RPC by Rev. Kenneth Stewart.
Most ministers have probably been asked what they spend their week doing! This blog by the minister of the International Presbyterian Church in Ealing helps shed some light on the question. The review below was written by Stephen for the latest issue of the Messenger magazine. You can sign up on the website to receive digital copies of the magazine for free, or speak to Stephen if you'd like to subscribe to the print edition (£8 per year).
Blog Review: A year in the life of a minister
Have you ever wondered what a minister does all week? This blog, by a Welsh minister, with a Northern Irish wife, pastoring a church in London, helps shed light on that question. The author, Paul Levy, has been minister of the International Presbyterian Church in Ealing (where former Messenger columnist Robert Cromie now attends) since 2003.
Levy started the blog on the first of September and writes every day. This isn’t just a highlights reel – Levy writes about the good, the bad and the mundane. He writes about the days he feels his sermons fell flat, or he wasted a morning or he missed an opportunity to speak about Jesus. He recounts Session meetings, Presbytery meetings, 5-a-side football and meeting up with friends. Levy writes about what it’s like to parent a toddler with Down’s Syndrome, and the account of him and his wife watching the recent BBC documentary on it is especially touching. He’s also involved in a couple of church plants, and the excitement of being involved in a growing denomination comes across.
The blog isn’t earth-shattering or glamorous, but it’s real and it’s honest. Some entries are boring and nondescript, but that’s real life. Whether you’re an ordinary church member or considering the ministry yourself, reading some of the entries will leave you more informed about what day-to-day ministry looks like.
Of course, most of us aren’t living and working in London, so there will be elements we can’t identify with. Levy himself says: ‘I often think how blessed we are to live in a place where there is lots of movement of people and so we have people who move to the church’. And yet whether our churches are in London or Limavady or Leipzig, we find again and again that as Christians we have far more in common than what divides us.
The old joke says that ministers are invisible six days a week and incomprehensible on the seventh; this blog makes the life of a minister a little more visible.
I don't often agree with Stephen Nolan. Usually when the outspoken BBC presenter interviews Christians he comes across as antagonistic and needlessly provocative. Rather than getting to the heart of an issue, he seems more interested in provoking a reaction (and sadly often succeeds).
But watching his recent documentary with controversial Belfast pastor James McConnell, I think Nolan hit the nail on the head. The 79-year-old's family opposed his decision to take part in the documentary, given Nolan's coverage of controversial remarks McConnell made about Islam in 2014. They needn't have worried however. Nolan brought out the lesser-known, sensitive side of a man from a tough background, orphaned early in life. For his part, McConnell acknowledged his aggressive nature and anger issues.
But at the end of the 30-minute programme, Nolan raised his biggest concern:
'Can I level with you? I wondered before I met you, and I still wonder, how much danger there is in one man appointing themselves as a preacher in a local community ... That's dangerous. Is that fair?'
To his credit, McConnell acknowledged: 'that's fair enough'. And it's not just Nolan who sees it as a danger. The Bible itself knows nothing of self-appointed preachers. Nor does it know anything of independent churches, such as McConnell's Metropolitan Tabernacle. The Apostle Paul asks: 'How are they to preach unless they are sent?' The New Testament describes only inter-dependent churches which must submit to a wider body (eg Acts 15).
McConnell and Whitewell show us the practical implications of preaching the gospel but ignoring other parts of the Bible's teaching. The courts decided last year that his remarks about Muslims weren’t illegal. But who decides if what he said was harmful to the reputation of Jesus and his church? Contrary to the Bible's teaching, McConnell isn't answerable to any Christ-appointed church authority.
And what happens now the charismatic preacher has retired? Numbers have already fallen dramatically. What if his successor preaches a different gospel? Who is there to step in and stop him? Nor is that just a question that independent churches must face - many denominations have ended up in the same place because ministers and elders have been appointed who don't believe in Jesus and don't care what the Bible says.
I regard McConnell as a brother in Christ. But we ignore the Bible's checks and balances at our peril.
Published in Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 2nd February 2017