the ENd word
Lead on Good Shepherd
Jon Barrett
As a kid growing up in a Christian family I was always familiar with the 23rd Psalm, although for some while my young mind was confused about who “Shirley Goodness” was, or why she’d want to follow me all the days of my life.
I had a bit of a gift as a youngster for mishearing things, also spending time pondering what a “foggle” was after first hearing the song Bright Eyes – it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I realised Art Garfunkle actually sang “there’s a fog along the horizon!”
the ENd word
From fed up to fed
Jon Barrett
There was a time when I got a bit fed up with the 23rd psalm.
Admittedly, it’s not a great way to feel about a piece of Scripture, but I’d come to associate the psalm almost entirely with funerals of unbelievers. While an Anglican minister, before moving to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), I conducted many such funerals, and the default hymn choice for the generation of non-churchgoers I was burying was Abide With Me and The Lord’s my Shepherd, the latter always sung to the tune of Crimond.
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 God who is’
In recent years I’ve discovered and learned to appreciate the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It’s a bit of a niche thing – not that well known even in some evangelical circles – but, for all that it dates all the way back to 1647, it still contains some of the best and most concise doctrinal definitions to be found.
Its fourth question asks: “What is God?”, to which the set answer is: “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.” I told you it was good!