Looking at Christ

  Other-centredness is a big theme in the letter to the Philippians. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ (Phil. 1:8-10) The 'you' and 'yours' are all plural. Paul is saying that as your love as a community abounds more and more you will be able to discern as a community what’s best next . Working out what is best next is not a solo thing. It happens in community. So as you explore gospel work: Seek the wisdom of your church family and leadership; Fully involve your spouse and children in the journey (if you have them) – they need to be on board from the beginning and all through; Listen carefully to family members and honour your parents (even if they are not Christians). And just as love drives good decision making, so love also sh

It has always been important to be trained in gospel work. Priscilla and Aquilla mentored Apollos and corrected his doctrine (Acts 18:26). Barnabas and Paul practiced a form of ministry ‘apprenticeship’, taking a succession of ‘ministry trainees’ along with them on their missionary church planting journeys. In particular we've talked before about Paul's mentoring of Timothy (Phil. 2:22 and 1 & 2 Tim). Doing a ministry traineeship year or two would certainly be something to strongly consider if you haven’t already done one.  Be aware that across the UK there is a variation between different ministry trainee programmes, with the proportions of practical service, mentoring, formal training and opportunities for Word ministry differing considerably. In addition, there are a wide range of theological and ministry training options now available – some online, some residential, some full-time, some part-time. In fact we live in an age of amazing opportunities to access excellent

On the one hand we need to be wary of the desire to strategise a life of ‘maximal effectiveness’ which is not in our power (as Christopher Ash cautions in Workers for the Harvest Field ). We simply do not know where we will be most effective. Gospel love and gospel ministry are often wonderfully unstrategic. God has regularly chosen the small, weak, foolish things to shame the big, strong, wise things and in the history of revival often chosen unexpected places as bridgeheads. In many ways it doesn’t matter where we concentrate our energies. There is gospel need everywhere. Often it will be right in front of us.  On the other hand, there is a clearly centripetal, outgoing, to-the-ends-of-the-earth dynamic to gospel mission (Matt. 24:14; 28:19; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8). Jesus considered the global harvest (Matt. 9:37-38) and calls his disciples to, “Look at the fields” (John 4:35). There are clearly some places with particularly dire gospel need – unreached, excluded or ravaged by false te

We all want to be concerned for the advance of the gospel, supporting gospel work, taking opportunities to share the word of life. But there are also some who are specially approved and appointed for gospel work, those like the people Paul calls his ‘co-workers’ or ‘fellow workers’: Timothy has proved himself …in the work of the gospel (Phil. 2:22) Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent (Phil. 2:25) I ask you, my yokefellow, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers (Phil. 4:3) These ‘fellow workers’ are those who have devoted themselves to gospel work (giving it a large proportion of their time) and, crucially, they are those who are recognised by the churches for their hard work, courage, doctrinal soundness and competence in gospel ministry. These ' gospel workers ' are not doing all the gospel ministry (that is for al

 When I ask, “What’s next?” it means I’m ready to move onto other things. (President Bartlet, The West Wing) At a career crossroads? Coming to the end of a period of studies or a ministry traineeship? Wondering whether to take the plunge into full time gospel work? At these times, as at all times, the Father calls his children not to lean on their own understanding but to trust in the Lord; specifically by bringing to mind his Word and having it on our heart (see Prov. 3:1-7 and Deut. 6:1-12 to which it alludes). And as we turn to his Word we find there a repeated call to ‘consider’ – to change our direction of gaze, to think carefully along new lines, to see things from a new (godly) perspective (Deut. 11:2; Luke 12:24, 27; Heb. 3:1; 10:24). So here are six things (in this and the following series of posts) to consider from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians which provide some possible ‘next step’ outboxes but more importantly provide some biblical ‘lines of sight’ and frame

This happened a few years ago now but I remember it vividly. I was at our local recreation ground in South London. A VW van drove into the car park and a tall athletic guy in sports gear, running spikes and a backwards baseball got out. He opened the back of the van and pulled out a harness and cable, put on the harness, attached himself to the front of the van and started to try to pull the van. Like they do on World's Strongest Man. He leaned forward, strained every sinew, pumped his legs. And nothing happened. He keeps straining. Eventually, the van moves a fraction. He pumps his legs and strains again. Finally he overcomes the inertia, gets some momentum and is able to start walking the van across the car park. I've no idea what he was training for but whoever this guy was, he was reminding me that getting something started is hard. That's where entrepreneurship and church planting are similar. Or starting any new thing, any good endeavour, any gospel work. You're s