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Speakers
Dr Joel Beeke - Minister of Heritage Reformed Congregation, Grand Rapids, and President of Puritan Reformed Seminary
Theme: Called to a Distinctive Lifestyle
Dr Beeke returns to School of Theology to present the Puritan commitment to living non-worldly lives in the pursuit of holiness coupled with self-sacrificial service and zeal. Strangely, and sometimes to an alarming degree, the resurging enthusiasm for Puritan theology is not always accompanied by respect for a Puritan spiritual lifestyle. Dr Beeke will give four addresses bringing to life and commending the richness and fervour of Puritan Gospel service.
- The Puritan Teaching of Sanctification - How this was rooted in a deep realisation of God’s being; how it embraced both status and condition, and was carried out through spiritual discipline.
- Conscience and Counselling - How the Puritans maintained a biblical, tender conscience, resolved problems of conscience, and what may be learned today from Puritan counselling – such as counselling by theology rather than psychology.
- Puritan Sacrificial Zeal - How zeal for God’s cause coalesced with sacrifice and self-denial in Puritan thinking, to produce not only fruitful service but great happiness.
- Walking as Active Pilgrims - How the Puritans shaped their active ‘pilgrim’ mentality by consciously pursuing a biblical, devoted-to-God, two-world, warfaring outlook.
Dr Peter Masters - Pastor, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London
Theme: The Lord, Our Inspiration
- The Lord, Our Inspiration (1) - 'He Shall Glorify Me’ – the words of John 16.14 describe the divine work of the Holy Spirit both in New Testament revelation, and in the church’s evangelism through the unfolding centuries. Our grasp of Christ Himself is the foundation and prerequisite of all true zeal and Gospel instrumentality. Two addresses on Wednesday evening will show how the Person of Christ, when reflected upon, valued, and responded to by Gospel service, is the mainspring of any measure of instrumentality. It will not be by apologetics or entertainment that people are reached, but by the stimulation of preachers and people to love Him and make Him known.
- The Gospel - a Doctrine and a Life - The context in which the Gospel message is preached may seriously distort it in the mind of the hearer (ie: ‘the medium is the message’). This address traces the disaster of a sound message preached in the context of wayward, worldly church practice and living, and points to the right way forward.
- The Lord, Our Inspiration (2) - Please see above
- Expository Preaching - The welcome return to consecutive exposition has included some inappropriate approaches which do not help teaching, inspiration or evangelism. This address looks at the good, and the ‘less good’ aspects of the expository method.
Pastor Christopher Buss - Assistant Pastor, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London
Theme: Helping Seekers
- The Encouragement & Advising of Seekers - Often one finds seekers who have been assured too quickly that they are saved, leading to great hurt and confusion, or others who have experienced an obvious work of grace in their lives, but who have been left unassured, and treated as if they were outside the Kingdom. In one address Pastor Buss will focus on this vital theme.
- The Eternal Context of Gospel Service - This address will look at the way to maintain spiritual priorities, and see the Gospel as the highest privilege of life.
Pastor Chris Hand - Pastor, Crich Baptist Church, Derbyshire
Theme: Comprehensive Christianity
- Worldliness and the New Calvinists (1) - We are commanded in our evangelism to call souls out of the world and then to keep them unspotted from it, but the new trend is to preach salvation without calling people from worldliness. In Worldliness and the New Calvinists (two addresses), Pastor Hand will critique the new-style ‘comprehensive Calvinism’, and its dangers, including reference to widely applauded and imitated exponents.
- Worldliness and the New Calvinists (2) - Part 2 of address
Rev W Vernon Higham - Pastor Emeritus, Tabernacle Cardiff
- 'Love not the world...' - . . . ‘Neither the things that are in the world.’ Love of the world, says 1 John 2.15, is all-absorbing, and eclipses and eliminates love for the Father. Mr Higham will show the snare of worldly Christianity and, by contrast, the blessedness of the devoted heart.
Pastor Jack Seaton - Pastor Emeritus, Inverness Reformed Baptist Church
Theme: Horizons for Fellowship in Gospel Work
- Links that Endanger the Gospel & the Future - With whom can we work closely? While recognising Bible believers of all kinds, there cannot always be close Gospel cooperation, on account of significant unbiblical compromises in their positions or relationships.
- Positive, Encouraging Links - Please see above
Pastor John Thackway - Pastor, Holywell Evangelical Church, Flintshire, and Editor, 'Bible League Quarterly'
Theme: Culture and Worldliness
- A Biblical Definition of Worldliness - Evangelicals are increasingly lurching away from time-honoured detachment from worldly activities, and into friendship with the world. Pastor John Thackway will provide two addresses – A Biblical Definition of Worldliness, and a review of Culture and Lifestyle Issues for Christians. In these he will seek to dismantle some of the confused reasoning of our day, and present biblical reasons for categorising various activities as either acceptable to believers, or ‘worldly’.
- Culture and Lifestyle Issues for Christians - Please see above
Pastor James Zenker - Director, Crown College in Britain, and Pastor, Beeches Road Baptist Chapel, West Midlands
Theme: 'Approved unto God'
- Developing Zeal and Sacrifice for Service - An essential subject for preachers and all Christian people.
- The Character Required for Gospel Service - the servant of God is called upon to be an example in both godliness and zeal. Pastor Zenker will provide a searching challenge in reviewing the character required for Gospel service.
Pastor Jonathan Northern - Pastor, Baldock Baptist Church, Hertfordshire
- Pioneering in a Country Town - Pastor Jonathan Northern will describe the operation of an evangelistic Sunday School as a key part of the pioneering (over the last 8 years) of a church in a country town. Pastor Northern will also review the biblical principles behind this approach.
Ronald A Pierre - Hon President of US Board of Baptist Haiti Mission
- Haiti Update - Ronald Pierre will show the compassionate and spiritual endeavours of Baptist Haiti Mission's teachers, pastors, doctors and helpers in that earthquake-ravaged land.
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