Letters to Peter, 1

My friend Peter has set me a challenge for 2024: each month he is going to ask me a question for me to answer. I want my answer to come from the heart, so I won't use books, except the Bible. And I will try keep it to 500 words. 

Thanks for the challenge Peter. I hope others find it helpful too.

1.      How do you encourage and build the prayer life of your local church fellowship?

Background is that we have been plugging prayer over the last year or more and have a number of prayer meetings and opportunities to pray yet the leadership generally feel that prayer is still a weak area of the church at the moment.

January 2024

Dear Peter,

Thanks for prompting me to think about prayer in the local church. What an vital question! There can be few things about the life of the local church that are more important.

And there can be few things about the life of the local church with which we can feel more of a sense of failure.

The great exhortations of Scripture – “Be…faithful in prayer” (Rom 12:12); “…always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Eph 6:18); “…in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil 4:6); “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Col 4:2); “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess 5:17), etc., – these great exhortations are a huge challenge.

And they might be crushing, were it not for the great promises and encouragements that go along with them: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:28-30); “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13).

And that same Lord Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to help us and be with us for ever (John 14:16). And he is the Spirit of truth (17), the one who has inspired the Scriptures to teach us, rebuke us, correct us, and train us in righteousness, so that we may “be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17; John 16:13). And that includes the work of prayer.

We are exhorted to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Eph 6:18). Prayer is something the Spirit both empowers us for and guides us in: “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Rom 8:26). 

And what wonderful examples of prayer we have in the Scriptures: the prayer the Lord Jesus taught his disciples (Matt 6:9-13); the prayer of the disciples in those early days after Pentecost (Acts 4:23-31); and Paul’s great prayers in his letters (e.g., Eph 1:15-23 and 3:14-21).

But the greatest motivation to prayer is surely the gospel itself, isn’t it? We can organise prayer meetings, download apps, and sign up for prayer letters from all over the world. We can instruct, exhort, and challenge till we are red in the face. But none of these will fire up a church to pray like the gospel will.

So more than anything else, my prayer for you and your church, Peter, is that you would once again be captivated by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That you would be thrilled as you listen again, in the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, to the wonderful reality that, “God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19).

Favourite Books of 2023

Theology and Culture

Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, by Christopher Watkin.

Watkin is a Yorkshireman who teaches French Literature in Australia. In this chunky book Watkin uses Augustine's City of God as a model of how to use the Bible in cultural engagement. I have found it bristling with insights and hope to go over it again to try to retain some of the stuff I have learned from it.

Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds, by Chris Brauns. 

This is the one book (apart from the Bible) that I took into hospital with me in November. Chris is an American Presbyterian pastor with a lot of experience of helping people work through the pastoral issues related to forgiveness. He lands squarely on the need for repentance to precede forgiveness. Some people are horrified by such a stance, and many would be puzzled, but Brauns makes a solid case that, to me at least, is convincing. I am still working through issues in this area myself and this book has been a helpful guide.

Into His Presence: Praying with the Puritans, by Tim Chester.

Tim is an old friend of mine, and I have benefitted from so many of his books - he is a prolific writer. I am not normal big on written prayers, but having enjoyed The Valley of Vision a couple of years ago, thought I would give this a try. I was not disappointed. Gave copies to the family for Christmas.

What Makes Us Humans? And Other Questions about God, Jesus and Human Identity, by Mark Meynell.

Mark calls this a "short book about a big subject". There can be few subjects that are so important in our cultural moment. It is so vital we get a proper view of what it means to be human when all around us people are questioning reality and coming to grief. If you haven't read anything on this, please give this one a read. It is one of a series on hot topics by The Good Book Company called 'Questions Christians Ask'. They are bite size, biblical, and brilliant.

Reality and Other Stories: Exploring the Life We Long for through the Tales We Tell, by Matt Lillicrap and Peter Dray.

Stories are fundamental to what it means to be human (see above). Matt and Peter reflect on seven kinds of stories that we tell each other. This book started as a series of talks by Peter at Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union and then reworked with Matt, using the framework provided by Christopher Booker in his The Seven Basic Plots. It's brilliant.

Missiology

Motus Dei: The Movement of God to Disciple the Nations, edited by Warrick Farrah.

News from far-flung places suggests that great numbers of people around the world are turning to Christ. And we are told that a leading factor in this movement is a relatively new method of church planting or disciple making. Motus Dei (Latin for the 'Movement of God') is a multi-author work that reflects on this phenomenon in a number of contexts around the world. It's a mixed bag. I offered to review this book for the International Journal of Frontier Mission but the project snowballed and now a whole issue is to be given over to it with my review article being followed by responses by other writers. Spoiler alert: I am sympathetic but have serious misgivings.

Bibliography

A Camaraderie of Confidence: The Fruit of Unfailing Faith in the lives of Charles Spurgeon, George Müller and Hudson Taylor, by John Piper.

This is the fourth book that I have read in this series of potted biographies by Piper. They spring from papers that he has given at his annual pastors' conference at Bethlehem Baptist Church. They are always super-encouraging and challenging. Piper doesn't focus on critique or analysis, though he could, but he does think freshly on his subject. His concern is to bring the faith of these three great men into focus so that we would emulate that faith in our day. I gave copies to a bunch of pastors in my area, with whom I hope we too form a camaraderie of confidence in the Lord.

Fiction

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie.

I am not an aficionado of crime fiction as some of my friends are, but this has got to be one of the best. An excellent plot with a stunning plot twist.