Is our apologetics ‘frightfully early 2000s, darling’?
Jon Barrett
Controversial opinion: much of our evangelism and apologetics fails to scratch where non-believers are itching, because it seeks to answer questions they’re not asking.
Or, perhaps more accurately, we remain methodologically committed to answering questions they once were, but are now no longer, asking. With the exception of that old chestnut of theodicy (the ‘why suffering’ question) much of our apologetics output still seems to be looking to undercut the objections born out of the Enlightenment or the era of scientism, and I’m less than convinced that those once-pressing issues now represent the focus of the emerging generation’s attention and curiosity.
the ENd word
How questions about the resurrection are changing in 2025
Jon Barrett
Alistair Begg recently said that preaching is often “less about telling them something new, but more about reminding ourselves what we mustn’t forget”.
He’s right. As a preacher I’m well aware that, to borrow a line from Oscar Wilde, “I have nothing original in me but original sin.” That’s not to say that I steal other preacher’s sermons (I don’t), but is an admission that I’m very unlikely to spot something brand new in a text that’s never been spotted before by anyone else. The truth has already been “once revealed to the saints” and my job is to bring out the meaning of what God has previously made known in the pages of Scripture.
the ENd word
How vulnerable was Jesus?
Jon Barrett
One of the habits we’ve developed as a church staff team is to have a book that we commit to reading and discussing as part of our weekly staff meeting. Normally we opt for something theological but occasionally, to keep things lively, we go a bit rogue.
Recently we’ve been on one of our excursions into left field and have been working through Brené Brown’s bestselling book on the subject of vulnerability, Daring Greatly. In all honesty, to employ a clerical metaphor, it’s a bit of a curate’s egg of a book.
Trust and obey like Joshua
Back in the sultry, sunny days of the summer just gone, I spoke at an event that is an annual highlight of my year. It’s a bit of a niche gig, but it’s a weekend-long camp for Christian anglers.
From Friday evening until the middle of Sunday afternoon we live under canvas and pass the time sharing fellowship, eating together, fishing, and meeting for short Bible talks, times of prayer and worship, and an outdoor communion service on the Sunday morning. This year we took “Courage” as our theme and we began by looking at the first chapter of the book of Joshua.