The Simple Pastor

What do you know, my old tutor Carl Trueman has jumped on my bandwagon again; this time by writing about the Lord’s Supper. This is quite helpful as he adds some recommended reading towards the end of the post. Here are a couple of stand out lines: “The Lord’s Supper is one of the most basic [...]

I’ve just read the section on the Lord’s Supper in Louis Berkhof’s A Summary of Christian Doctrine and I have a question for those who practice infant baptism. Berkhof was a paedobaptist, a professor of theology and is probably best known for his Systematic Theology. Berkhof addresses the question of who can take the Lord’s Supper and writes, [...]

In the entry on the Lord’s Supper in Roger Olson’s A-Z of Evangelical Theology he mentions Stanley Grenz’s attempt to ‘breathe new life into evangelical celebration of the Lord’s Supper.’ Grenz emphasized three elements history, eschatology and community. “For him, the ordinance has three distinct orientations by which it establishes the individual believer’s identity in relation to [...]

I’m continuing to think through, the hows, whys and wherefores of the Lord’s Supper and what it might mean to be devoted to it (Acts 2:42). So I’ve begun by mining my bookshelves for insights and ideas, feel free to make suggestions. One of the first books I picked up was Roger Olson’s A-Z of [...]

When someone writes an updated history or account of the rise (and fall) of the new church movement in the UK from the 1960s onwards, this book will prove enormously helpful. It is the clearest exposition, so far, of the Newfrontiers family of churches position on the role of apostles today. For some, of course, [...]

My own experiences of breaking bread, communion, The Lord’s Supper, whatever you choose to call it; within a public worship context has often been underwhelming. That includes many of the times I’ve led it myself. Growing up in a small evangelical free church, we had communion on a monthly basis towards the end of the [...]

For a while now I’ve reflected on the four characteristics of the early church recorded in Acts 2:42. The thought occurred to me that I’m not sure what a church devoted to the breaking of bread looks like. You can make a fair case that the Catholics are because mass is at the heart of [...]

A while ago I saw this infographic about parents and kids views on money. Take a look at the question ‘what do your kids want to know about money?’ and the responses. Conspicuous by its absence is giving. So either it wasn’t an option that the survey offered (shame on them) or it wasn’t an [...]

One of the blogs I regularly read is Michael Hyatt’s. He regularly writes insightful stuff on a number of issues that are important or of interest to me; running, writing, technology, leadership, publishing, faith are all there from time to time. As a former CEO of one of the world’s biggest Christian publishers, writer of [...]

Over the last few weeks I’ve had the privilege and opportunity to meet a number of people. What’s been interesting to me, is how I met them. Last week I was in IKEA buying a chest of drawers. Actually I was taking one back and swapping since I managed to get it wrong first time [...]

For those of you desperately staring at your feed readers waiting for another blog post from yours truly; the wait is over! After several weeks of moving house, returning to England for a family visit, settling into our new house and getting a routine to family life the time has come to resume blogging. However [...]