In this post on Ian Jukes's blog, my friend—who I last saw when we had afternoon tea at Together On A Mission— is coming back to the UK. He will be taking on the leadership of King's Way Church, Exmouth, a Newfrontiers church. Some of my readers will know Ian, who I admire for following the call of God on his life, together with his lovely wife, wherever it takes him. He is also the tech guru that hosts my blog.

One of the joys of being a part of this online community is that I get to celebrate holidays I would not normally celebrate. As you read this, ironically I am probably over the Atlantic on my way to the USA for a business trip to Phoenix, Arizona. Although today is a national holiday in the UK, there isn't really a reason for it. We have a number of such holidays where the idea is simply to spend time with family.

But today in America is Memorial Day. I like the idea of a day to cherish the memory of those who have fought and died for our freedoms, and I understand, to also remember those loved ones who have passed away for other reasons.

So today I would like to remember some people who are no longer on earth.

• The soldiers of all nationalities who helped to ensure Europe did not come under the tyranny of fascism, and all those who have died since then fighting for freedom.
  
  
• My grandfather, Edwin Millington Warnock, whose faithful service to God in preaching the gospel inspired me, and who one day prophesied about me (although I am not sure he would have called it that) that I would also preach God's Word.
  
  
• Edwin's wife, my grandmother, who as I grew up, epitomised faithful selfless service to others as she, with great joy, would provide food for her grandchildren and cared uncomplainingly for her husband as his health declined.
  
  
• My other grandmother, mother to my Mum, who instilled virtues such as hard work and discipline into my mother, who then passed them on to me. I will also never forget the hours we spent playing Reversi/Othello.
  
  
• Henry Tyler, who has had more personal influence on me spiritually than anyone else, apart perhaps from my pastor, Tope Koleoso.
  
  
• My Uncle Stephen Hickley, whose trust-filled response to hearing he had terminal cancer was an inspiration to all who heard.
  
  
• Two of my sisters' close friends, whose sudden deaths as teenagers helped propel me towards a medical career.

Today I thought I'd tell you a little about an integrated approach I've set up to make use of the online social networking websites, and also to share with you some different ways you can access the content of this blog. Basically I have tried to ensure that a few of these sites will work together for me, that each of them, therefore, will offer you another way to follow the blog, and, where possible, point you to other material I think you should be reading before mine.

Before I get into all of that, let me first name and shame one of my real-world friends. Ian Jukes, who hosts this site for me, committed a cardinal sin using one of these social tools. I caught him calling me “The Warlock.” Now I can tolerate all kinds of misspellings of my name—I have been called Adrian Wamoch, Warnick, Warnack, Warnoc, Warnok, and all kinds of other things. But Warlock, I have always hated, for obvious reasons! So call me anything, just not Warlock, all right? For some reason the nickname that has always stuck to me has been “Warnie,” which I think was something to do with “Arnie.” The thing is, with this blog it’s not so much that “I'll be back!” as “I will never go away!”

On the subject of Warnies, I have made a significant change to the Warnie award system. I have decided that, as of today, I will award mini Warnies to specific articles that I like. Thus, the practical effect is that the Warnie Winners box in my left sidebar will now also include posts from other blogs and sometimes newspaper articles that I have come across and liked. If you spot one of your posts in the Warnie box, you are entitled to say, “One of my blog posts was given a Warnie today.” From time-to-time, I will still issue a Warnie to an entire blog, and from then on, all posts published on that blog will appear in the Warnie Winners box. Those blogs are also entitled to wear the “Warnie Winners” badge. That box is a great place for you to keep up-to-date on what's going on across the Christian blogosphere. You will find all the posts from such places as Tim Challies, the Pyromaniacs, and Terry Virgo, among many others. It is worth saying that you can subscribe to the Warnie feed in a newsreader, and from now on the Warnies will also appear on Twitter.

The observant among you will have already noticed that I have now joined the ranks of the Twitterers. Thanks to something called Twitterfeed, you can also read my blog headlines over there. Twitter has an option to allow you to export all your “tweats,” so you can find them at Twitter, here on the blog, in my Facebook profile page, and at my rarely used myspace page.

In addition, I use a program called MoodBlast to send some of my brief thoughts to both my Facebook status line and Twitter at the same time. There is also an option within Facebook that allows me to automatically import my external blog posts as Facebook notes.

Last, but not least, there are a whole range of ways people can read the blog using my RSS feed. All you need is an online or offline newsreader and you're on your way. There is no doubt that my own favorite way to read other people's blogs is by adding them to Google Reader. Google Reader allows you to subscribe to many blogs and scan their headlines each day looking for something interesting. If you want, you can befriend someone and share your favorite links with them. A few people have started doing that with me, and it sure helps me to find things to share (and as a result, put in my sidebar). You have to add someone as a friend to your GoogleTalk list in order to do this. Just search for me by my e-mail address — adrian.warnock@gmail.com. If you share blog posts with me like this, then they are just one mouse click away from receiving a post-specific Warnie!

When it comes to social networking sites, you very quickly have to make a decision. Are you going to befriend only those you know well offline? Or are you going to befriend a broad range of people, including many you have “met” only through cyberspace? It probably won't be a great surprise to you to find that I've taken the second approach.

If you are a regular reader here and want to connect with me on any of the above services, feel free to do so. It's always nice to know who's out there reading the blog, and to interact with some of you as time permits. At the moment I can still manage to answer the vast majority of my e-mails and online “friendship” requests. There are a few, of course, that do slip through the cracks, but if you send your e-mail again, the chances are good that I'll see it the second time around! This is truly a privileged position for me to be in—being able to connect to so many people, and yet not find myself swamped as those who are famous often are. I have enjoyed and benefited so much from my online friendships, some of which have eventually resulted in meeting face-to-face. So go on, don't be shy! Add me as your friend—just don't call me Warlock!

Hi, Andrée here!

People often ask if Adrian ever sleeps; well here's the answer . . .

It’s my blogoversary today. Five years is a long time. At the moment I can only think of a handful of other Christian blogs that I still read from time-to-time that were around back in 2003. Here are some of them, with dates they began in brackets (where I know them):

• Tim Challies (June 2003)
  
  
• David Wayne (December 2003) now at Jollyblogger
  
  
• Joe Carter (October 2003)
  
  
• Josh Clayborn (? Date) now at In the Agora
  
  
• Hugh Hewitt (? Date)
  
  
• The Bluefish Project (August 2003)
  
  
• Cindy Swanson at Notes in the Key of Life (October 2003)



• Neil Cox (October 2002)
  
  

If you know of a Christian blog I’ve forgotten and which started sometime in 2003 or before, drop me an e-mail. Also, if you have been reading my blog—even intermittently—since those early days, why not drop me a line, too!

I thought it would be a bit of fun to have a look at how the design of my blog has changed over the years. Perhaps it’s surprising, but there has been a gradual evolutionary note to my design changes. Rarely have I made a radical overhaul overnight. If you would like to join me in memory lane, I have shared a few links below, thanks to the Way Back Machine. April 2003 is a lifetime ago in blog time!

• April 2003 — The initial design was really quite simple. I would spend much of the next few years messing it up and then trying to fix it!
  
  
• January 2004 — I embraced a Spiderman design using a drawing by my child. At the top of this page you can also see a list of links to a larger number of old blogs than I listed earlier. The best thing is that the links will take you to the old versions of those blogs—lots of fun!
  
  
• April 2004 — The spider’s web remained, but was alongside what was supposed to be a funky psychiatrist’s couch!
  
  
• July 2004 — A rather plain design, with the sidebar on the right and a truly awful background color, although the psychiatrist’s couch remained.
  
  
• April 2005 — By now a navy blue banner had appeared, which would remain for quite awhile in differing formats. I rather like the short endorsement quotes in this design.
  
  
• September 2005 — the psychiatrist’s couch has finally gone, replaced instead by my face superimposed alongside the tower which houses Big Ben.
  
  
• April 2006 — Three columns have now arrived, a concept which remains today, and Big Ben and my face have become separated.
  
  
• June 2006 – Big Ben and my face are reunited in the photo I still used until two weeks ago, when it was replaced with the current photo. The blue banner is clearly on its way out as it has shrunk dramatically.
  
  
• April 2007 — The site is now beginning to look fairly similar to what you see today, although it’s still a bit more scrappy.
  
  
• June 2007 — The navy banner has finally gone, although I couldn’t quite let it die, so a line remains, which I have yet to remove today. This is the final design at my old URL. Shortly after this snapshot was taken, I took the plunge and ditched http://www.adrian.warnock.info/ in favor of http://adrianwarnock.com/. Shortly after that move, the last few tweaks were made to bring the design to what it is today.

I am not currently of a mind to make any dramatic changes to my design. But I thought I would give any budding designers out there a chance to offer my blog a birthday present. I reckon it might be time I got myself a logo to replace that persistent blue bar and the current “adrianwarnock.com” title. So this post also announces a competition to design me a logo — feel free to submit as many drafts as you like via e-mail. There is, however, no guarantee I will use any of them. No prize is being offered, except the reward of knowing I might use your logo, although I will, of course, acknowledge any winner in a blog post here. So if you think five years of blogging deserves a better logo than my current plain text, now is your chance!

Imagine my delight to read this post on my darling wife's blog. It was very kind, slightly cheeky, and brought real joy to my heart. It is easy to feel disconnected from the real world while at a conference. But just in case I needed a reminder of the fact that my real delight is back at home with my family, the surprise of seeing such lovely words from my delightful wife was more than adequate.

Family really does come first for me, and so should they. I am so thankful to God for Andree and for all she does to enable me to do what I do, and to care for the precious five children. I hope that being here will help me to be a better husband and father when I get home. If I didn't believe that, I would not be here right now. I look forward to seeing them real soon!

Lambs, snow, mountains, and streams. It sure beats sitting nose-to-bumper in London traffic!

This was a truly awesome journey, which I made to the accompaniment of Handel's Messiah. Somehow the music seemed suitably grand and majestic for the scenery.

Amazingly, I had my first sighting of sheep at the very same moment that "Behold the Lamb of God" began. A lump appeared in my throat. Somehow the baby lambs looked so innocent. How amazing that the innocent Lamb of God would willingly die for me!

We have now arrived at the countdown of the top ten most popular posts of all time with readers of this blog. No. 10 appeared on July 19, 2007, and of all the posts I have written, this one is probably my own personal favorite. It is a rallying call to a kind of Christianity that is not ashamed to embrace the best from many different backgrounds.

The last four words of the above title are not new to me, but they are certainly resonating with me at the moment — "I Want It All!" Why should I have to choose, for example, between being enthusiastic about theology and being charismatic?

I know what some of you are thinking as you've been reading my posts on the Together On a Mission conference. You're wondering why it is that someone who is so enthusiastic about what was obviously a very charismatic conference can also be deeply committed to defending and understanding biblical doctrine. I know it's hard for some of you to believe, but it really is the same me who wrote all those posts on the atonement who also was so deeply touched by this latest conference. For those of you who have never met one, I am indeed that rare breed — a Reformed Charismatic.

Too often, however, the temptation for me is to downplay one side of that equation or the other in order to appear "balanced." When I am with the charismatics, my reformed doctrine often appears alien to them, although in the UK, Newfrontiers offers a major exception to that with over 200 churches that are broadly reformed and charismatic. When I'm with the reformed, I'm tempted to soften my charismatic viewpoint and not speak too much of the things I have seen and experienced. Why is it that on this issue, as on so many others, the Church seems to be split in half? Why can't we be both radically reformed and radically charismatic? Why do we see a conflict and therefore try to play down both in order to be "balanced?" I don't want to be balanced, I want it all!

On the one hand there are those who care about theology enough to study God's Word in detail, weigh scripture against scripture, study great theological minds, and preach intellectually stimulating messages that would stretch even a PhD in Theology — which, incidentally, I am certainly not! Why is it that for the majority of us, if we want such a feast for our minds, we must sacrifice certain other things? Why are some leaders in the Church committed to theology almost exclusively? Is even great theology so captivating that it is the only need of the Church? I don't believe it can be, or God would have given us a Bible that was a systematic theology and not the one we have, which is essentially a collection of lots of stories with a few doctrinal portions.

Read more . . . I Don't Want Balance! I Want It All!

No. 28 on the list of most-read posts on this blog appeared on September 2, 2006, and was written in response to a request for a short "biography" of myself. That post provided a brief introduction to me, and included links to a number of posts I had written sharing my story so far. I am publishing the original short post here in its entirety. I really must get around to bringing my story up-to-date in 2008!

I have been asked to write a short "biographical" piece, so thought I would share it here. I am also slowly working my way through telling my story.

Adrian Warnock blogs at http://adrianwarnock.com/. He runs the Warnie Awards which recognize blogging excellence, and the Blogdom of God—a widely varied list of blogs written by Christians.

Adrian is a regular preacher at Jubilee Church in London, UK - which is part of a reformed charismatic group called Newfrontiers. He is a medical doctor trained as a psychiatrist, and now works in research. Adrian is married and a father of five children.

It's time once again to review another year's worth of blogging here at my place. I have made it something of a tradition to look back and reflect on the year that has passed. I have done this previously in December 2006, 2005, and 2004. The format is simple: I highlight some of the posts that I remember most, or enjoyed writing the most over the year. This time I will break it down into a series of posts.

This year I began January's blogging—after extending my customary Christmas break slightly longer than previously—by taking up my autobiographical story with a post entitled My Story Part Five—Learning to Value Being, Not Doing. I did not return to my story again this year, so this remains surely the longest running, as yet unfinished, series on my blog. I am sure that I will eventually return to this and catch up to the current day. In that post I talked about the value of silence and reflection.

In one of the shortest, but most personally challenging posts of the year, in the second post of 2007 I shared some Reflections of a Returning Blogger, citing Scripture that said few words were wiser than many. I suspect this contributed to a trend this year on my blog to shorter posts and, hopefully, to more careful consideration of what I say.

I also spent a few days in January on an interview with Wendy Alsup, a deacon in the Mars Hill Church—Seattle, where Mark Driscoll is pastor.

In February I began what would be an extended series on preaching with two posts that quoted the Together for the Gospel Statement Article 4, John Piper, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Expository Preaching.

I also mentioned that I had just heard a new book on the atonement would soon be released—Pierced for Our Transgressions. Little did I know then just how much I would be focused on that subject this year. I shared the audio of a talk I had given late in 2006 for Jubilee entitled What is the Bible?

I remember being stirred to ask Should We be Optimistic or Pessimistic About the Future? and challenging my readers to find a quote I was sure I had once read from Spurgeon. That readers' challenge remains open and can be answered via e-mail on reading Spurgeon's Prediction of a Future Revival. I did manage to find one quote where Spurgeon asks the question Will More Be Saved Than Lost?

It was also great to publish the news that I was able to play a small part in restoring the works of Charles Simeon to a larger audience.

I seem to have been somewhat distracted from my posts about preaching, and only quoted C. S. Lewis on the Need for Plain English Preaching all month. I did quote one of my greatest living hero's impressions of one of my greatest preaching heroes of the past—I am speaking, of course, about John Piper on Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

In March I returned to the subject of preaching, and there were a significant number of posts which culminated in Ten Conclusions About Expository Preaching. In the middle of this I wrote about The Risks and Rewards of Using Technology in Sermon Preparation.

I posted about the T4G Articles 5-6—The Attributes of God and the Trinity, which included the audio of another talk I had given at Jubilee late in 2006.

One of the traditions of this blog is that every now and then I engage in a gloves-off debate with the Pyromaniacs. In March, one of these was summarized in a post I entitled Am I a Thrill Seeker?

If I remember correctly, that debate with the Pyros was, at least in part, sparked by possibly the most controversial post of the year anywhere in the Christian blogosphere. It was published over on Desiring God, and my reflections on it were entitled John Piper Hears The Voice Of God. I also remember the call that went out that month for Prayer for an Exhausted Mark Driscoll.

March was a hectic blogging month, but nothing would prepare me for what was to come in April, especially as I had written many of my forthcoming posts on atonement in a single sitting and thought I would have a quiet time as my editor faithfully published them all for me. That, however, must wait for the next installment of this year in review series.

For me, once I have prioritized my own personal inner life and relationship with God, then my dear family, a clear third place in my affections is given without a moment's doubt to my local church. Family does come before the church, but of course our church is like an extension of my family and we all love being a part of it. It is hard to believe that it was as long ago as 1995 that we first joined our current church.

This past year has been another amazing one for all of us at Jubilee London. Serving as part of the core team and a regular preacher in this vibrant, multicultural, growing church is one of the biggest privileges of my life. It is no wonder that so many of our leaders and people are saying things like, "I have no intention of leaving." I know, for us as a family, we currently believe that we will be here for at least twenty more years, and are thrilled at the prospect. Why would we want to go anywhere else?

Who could forget our international giving day or the day we turned our main service into church in the park, or for that matter, the day the whole church got an invitation to a wedding? (Sadly I missed both the last two of these events, with the latter happening while George was being born.) The memorable events went on—Alpha, new small groups, clusters of small groups meeting together, men's and women's days, and of course, lots of different kinds of food from all over the world. People becoming Christians, getting healed, and yes, a couple of them dying very well, still full of faith in the Jesus that has now welcomed them into heaven. These wonderful memories will go on and on, but they just keep growing as more keep getting added!

Over the course of the last year we were also thrilled to have a number of well-known preachers visit us. I am humbled that I am still asked to share God's Word with the congregation. I preached ten times this past year, and all the audio and notes are available on the pages of this blog as follows:

• How to Define Revival and be Revived Personally


• Reviving Prayer (1 Kings 17:1 to 2 Kings 2:14)


• The Reviving Power of God's Word (Psalm 119)


• Resurrection Hope—An Easter Sermon (1 Corinthians 15)


• Missional Bible Study (Psalm 119)


• Abraham—The First Missional Believer


• Jacob—The Missional Rebel


• Alive Together With Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10)


• The Christian's Warfare (Ephesians 6)


• The Risen Jesus (Revelation 1)

Many of you will never get to visit our church, although, of course, we would be happy to welcome any of you! But you can visit with us by listening to our messages available as a podcast or at Jubilee Church's website.

The past twelve months have been relatively stable for us as a family. It is the first year for awhile that none of us have started a new job, or a new school (although Joel did move up from the school's nursery class to reception). We have not moved, and we certainly haven't moved church. We intend for this stability to continue, God willing, for years to come. Certainly we hope that our children will see out their schooling from our current home somewhere in North London.

Of course, the top story of the year from our perspective has surely been the birth of George Nathan Warnock, who was born just one day before the tenth birthday of the first of our five children, Tamasin Joy Warnock. He has been a wonderful addition to our family, and it has been a joy to watch his siblings play their part in caring for him.

Ours is a busy home, and mostly a very happy home as well. One person holds the household together more than any other, and that is, of course, my absolutely gorgeous wife, Andrée. We have had twelve years together, and I seem to pile more work in her direction with every year. With our seemingly ever-growing family, the people-carrier is now full, so I really do think that five constitutes a full quiver for us. This time, no one even seems to be asking us, "When is the next one due?" So don't be expecting any more Warnock babies—we certainly aren't!

One family event this year which we all have appreciated, being a technology-loving family, was of course, deserting the Microsoft operating system. We delight in being a little bit different in our family, and going against that particular grain has been a real joy! It is one way in which we are all allowed to apostatize! Time slots for our Macbook have to be ordered in triplicate a week in advance. (OK, so we aren't really that organized, but probably should be!). Even Mrs W can get withdrawal symptoms, however!

I tried to express my gratitude to my better half in a post I wrote when recovering from my knee surgery earlier in the year entitled "Thanks to Those Who Keep My Life Going on as Normal". She will never fully understand how much she means to me, nor just how much I rely on her. As a good friend of mine recently said when his own wife was away, "My life is just rubbish without her!" With my frequent business trips and all the drains on her time, none of it would really happen if it wasn't for the sacrifices she has made to be an old-fashioned full-time Mum. It is no wonder many people stop at two children as it really is hard to imagine how both of us could manage to go out to work.

Next year we will see our eldest go to secondary school, which is shocking and makes me feel very old. Before that, however, we are looking forward to some uninterrupted time together, and also spending time with our extended family over the Christmas break. Much as I love blogging, you will no doubt excuse me if I don't spend the holiday season with you! Not that I have finished yet, as there are several more days of "Review of the Year" posts to get through first, so keep coming back as you hopefully begin to wind down towards a rest on Christmas Day—unless, of course, you are the one cooking that Christmas dinner, which here in Britain often looks very much like a copy of the U.S. Thanksgiving dinner). Have a nice time with your family, but I hope you will enjoy reminiscing with me for a few more days about the year that was.

It's that time of year again—the time when I reflect on the year that has been. I'm going to follow a structure in my reminiscing which will be as follows:

1. In this post I will think about my own personal life, and in particular my relationship with God.
   
   
2. In the next post I will consider my family.
   
   
3. Then I will consider my church.
   
   
4. Finally, I will spend some time reviewing the blog.

This order truly does reflect the relative priority I place on each aspect of my life.

I find this whole process sets me nicely in the mood to then switch off totally over Christmas and into January. Although I myself will continue my break, beginning on January 1st, thanks to my editor, Annette, we will be publishing a particular series of posts that I have already written and sent to her.

You will notice that there is a clear omission from my list—my job. This is because I don't like to mix my work and my blog. I'm keen to keep my professional life entirely separate from this hobby I carry out in my spare time. This is not because I don't enjoy my job—I very much do. It's just wise to keep some boundaries of separation between the multiple domains of my life.

I am a very busy person, although I'm sure I would have it no other way. If I have some spare time, I tend to fill it with something. I'm not a great believer in simply staring blankly into space! I try to make time for entertainment and relaxation also. Managing my competing responsibilities is all about making the most of every second available to me, and where possible, recycling time or effort so it benefits me in more than one way. Thus, I try not to re-invent the wheel, and find that things I'm thinking about in one aspect of my life often pop up in another area in a surprising way to help me there.

As I end the year, I am painfully aware that the person who can get squeezed out at times is the One Person who makes it all possible, and who is my top priority. I can honestly say that this year I have been better at taking time to pray and truly listening to what God has to say to me personally in his Word than I have in the past. But I do need more extended times when I forget all my other responsibilities and focus only on him. January will be a month very much devoted to that goal, alongside the responsibilities that I cannot lay down for such a season. I am looking forward to a weekend retreat that will help greatly, and by not blogging for several weeks, I will have some time to accomplish this on a daily basis.

If I don't make sure that I am connected to God, filled by God, thrilled by God, and empowered by God, I simply can't get those things done which God intends for me to do. Being well-oiled by the Spirit of God makes all the difference to everything else I do. I very much notice the negative effects on every area of my life when I have rushed this, or when I am shamefully treating God like just another drain on my time.

The good news is that although I am now, like many of you, in real need of a rest, I end this year significantly less worn out and weary than I think I was at this time of year in the last few years. While 2007 has been busy, I have been better at pacing myself and taking time out when I needed it. I still do far more than I sometimes think I ought to be doing. But I'm learning to say "No!" and, where possible, I've handed over things I don't have to do myself.

When we know we are doing God's work, then we can be confident that he will give us all we need to accomplish that work. I wear many hats, all of which he has given me—blogger, writer, doctor, father, husband, preacher, church leader, coach, friend. I need to make sure that I take off all those hats more often and just get before God in prayer as his son.

If you can spare some time, please do pray for me that 2008 will be a year when I learn how to pray more effectively than I currently know how to, and live in more obvious and active dependence on the One to whom I owe everything.

May God help me to continue all I do in the power that his Spirit supplies.

I am thankful today. It may not be my holiday, we may not have anything even remotely like it here in the UK, but as I said last year, I am very glad of the reminder this American holiday represents.

I know that at times I still have a sinful tendency to focus on things that are not going the way I want them to rather than to be thankful for everything that has gone well. I know that even after all these years of growing as a Christian, there are times when self-pity, criticism of others, and ungratefulness rear their heads. I know that in the corner of my heart their lies an area as yet not cleaned by the grace that is washing me day-by-day and making me more like Jesus. That area stubbornly refuses to learn that I am not the center of the universe. Neither will it accept that minor inconveniences to me are not worth getting upset about. It must continually be reminded that if I just learned to actually be more sincerely thankful rather than merely mouthing the words "thank you" in a ritualistic manner, my world would actually be a better place. So apart from all the other reasons I have to give thanks, my own selfish interests would be better served!

The truth is, we all find it hard to say a simple "thank you."

My dear readers, I do want to thank you today so much for your patience and ongoing interest in these voluminous and persistent writings of mine which threaten to encroach upon your coffee breaks on a daily basis! I do value the time you invest. I appreciate your interest in the matters that interest me. I am grateful to God for his grace, which has meant that some of you find that investment of time to be at times helpful to you.

* * * * *

One of the interesting things about blogging is the way it seems to go around in cycles. I suppose it's partly because of the way blogging obviously reflects the rest of our lives. I know that, for me, my blog is just an extension of me. Many times my friends have to stop me when I'm talking to them and say, "Adrian, I've already read that on your blog!"

So it felt rather strange when I realized the odd coincidence that this Thanksgiving I'm again returning to a theme that was bubbling up in my thinking at the same time last year. This culminated in a post just days after Thanksgiving titled "Making a Minor Tweak to My Comments Policy."

Interestingly, I had the same internal conflict then I find I have right now. On the one hand I was upset about some of the comments I received on the blog, and on the other hand I was thankful for many of the comments—"especially from those who disagree with me." The real problem I face is that sometimes it's really hard to decide which comments I am happy to publish and which ones I am not. It's difficult to set any clear set of rules that can be understood by both me and you, my readers. Tone is in the eye of the beholder, as my recent debate with the Pyromaniacs clearly demonstrated.

Last December I realized that my earlier tweak had not been enough, so I made a major change in how I would deal with comments here. I now feel that the change I made last year is no longer adequate. It served me well this past year, but now it's time for another radical change. My big problem moving forward is that, with all my other responsibilities, I am so busy that something has to give. I have decided that the time I spend making the often agonizing decision about whether or not to publish a comment (and which I probably sometimes get wrong) is going to have to be freed up.

So, at least for now, beginning today, I will no longer publish comments made on my blog posts.

What does this mean? Firstly, for the vast majority of you, it will make little or no difference. I know that only a tiny proportion of my readers even read the comments, let alone add to them. For some of you, though, this will be disappointing. Does this mean I am no longer interested in your feedback? Absolutely not! Does this mean I will stop reading e-mails sent to me? No! In fact, by freeing some time, it may even make it more likely that I can respond to an e-mail privately, or if appropriate and with the permission of my correspondent, on my blog itself.

I will still, as time permits, try to interact with those who disagree with me. I am not retreating into some kind of bunker! From time to time, I will also probably post a link here to such a post and answer it. I may even frequent the comment sections on other people's blogs.

Why am I doing this? It's mainly for my own sanity. It's because I need to reclaim the time I currently devote to scratching my head in deciding whether or not to publish comments. I feel responsible for the words which appear here in the comments section. I obviously do not have any similar responsibility for what people might post elsewhere. I may well find myself quite happy to read even quite critical comments made elsewhere, whereas reading the very same words as a potential comment for publication here would make me anxious about whether or not I should accept it.

I am grateful for my interactions with you, my readers, which have helped me to understand so many things more clearly. It is therefore with some sadness that I now pull the plug on comments. Because of my current time pressures, it is better to stem the flow of comments now than to wait until I am engulfed in a major comment storm at some point in the future.

If you have made any comments you want to save for the future, please go in and copy/paste them, since at some point fairly soon I will be removing all the old comments also.

The following verse has influenced this decision, and I hope will continue to influence my blogging in these post-comment box days:

"The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out." (Proverbs 17:14)

UPDATE
Not everyone is happy with my decision, as this post over at Peter's blog demonstrates.

People who know me well know that the football genes have skipped a generation. I am, of course, referring to the original game of football as invented by us British and called "soccer" by only one nation on earth (i.e. the USA). To the rest of the world it's just 'football'.

My father and brother love football and support Tottenham. My eldest son, Henry, has caused some consternation by rejecting this club and defecting to Arsenal instead. My brother and father are disgusted

But perhaps I should remind them of another defection that occurred decades before. I seem to remember that when I was a boy we supported another team, one which miraculously made it to the 1st division for just one season, if I remember correctly. That team was Brighton and Hove Albion! When their success ended I became disillusioned with football altogether, whilst the other members of my family simply switched teams! So guys, was that defection to a better team any worse than my son doing the same thing?

Of course, with us living in London the rivalry between these two teams is great. A friend of mine also challenged my son about his support for the 'reds' rather than the 'blues'. The typical boy arguments of who is better ensued. My son had the perfect reply to the Tottenham fan. To understand this, as you can see above, the logo of Arsenal includes a gun, and that of Tottenham, a bird.

Henry simply asked, "Who would win a battle between a canon and a bird?"

The results of a match between Tottenham and Arsenal a couple of months ago would seem to bear this out!

UPDATE

Adrian then . . .

Adrian now . . .

Hi! It's Mrs.W here again! The stage of life I am in currently involves spending a lot of time caring for my lovely 7 month old baby, George. He is now clapping his hands, rolling over, and sitting up. He also has his first tooth! He is such a cute little boy, and we all love him to bits. But he is also very vulnerable. He needs to be watched and cared for all the time, for he has no idea at all how to look after himself and keep himself safe. In Jesus' time I believe many children would die before reaching adulthood. Jesus made himself that vulnerable for us.


He Chose This Way

There are so very many things
That I will never know
But most of all I wonder why
You chose to stoop so low.

A birth amongst the cows and hay
Your earthly life began
Your babyhood and toddler days
Were all part of the plan.

You walked and talked and laughed and cried
And played as children do
But as you grew you never sinned
Because you were God, too.

Why did you choose to be a child
When you're the King of all
You suffered pain and took my shame
While I cared not at all?

You broke the power of sin and death
And freed me from the law
You rose again to give me life
And joy forever more.

What can I say but 'thank you, Lord'
What can I do but praise?
And by your grace to seek your face
And love you all my days.

— Andrée Warnock

We had a lot of fun with our American visitors over the weekend. Some of my kids and I went to London with them on Saturday. We visited St Paul's, the Westminster area, and the Tower of London, which we reached by boat. It was a great day, whose highlight for me was surely the following quotes:

Tamasin—"Why did you come all the way from America to look at all these dead people when there are plenty of living ones in our country as well?"

Henry—"That statue over there is supposed to be an angel! More like a demon, showing off its breasts like that. Disgusting!"

Tamasin and Henry of Darwin's tomb—"What's he doing in a church? Surely he's not welcome here?!?"

Charis—My legs are all shaky (after climbing up then down St. Paul's 400+ stairs).

The British and the Americans are at war once again. This time it is a more localized conflict than the War for Independence which, for a nation who has a history of over 1000 years, is really just yesterday. Fortunately the weapons of this latest war are words, although these are, of course, more deadly than nuclear bombs. (Proverbs 18:21)

We have American visitors at the moment. My kids are confused. They can't understand why a room that has a toilet and no bed or bath gets called a restroom or bathroom. But that is nothing compared to what I have just discovered. I mean, an innocent conversation about a lorry overturning on a motorway/highway met with blank looks from my friends. So I tried calling it an articulated lorry, an HGV (heavy goods vehicle), even the odd-sounding word "motor truck" (on Google's recommendation), and, of course, my favorite description of this type of vehicle—the juggernaut. None of this helped AT ALL. The blank looks continued.

The only way we could communicate was for me to say—'OK, so you are at Walmart. A vehicle arrives to deliver goods for them to sell. What do you call it?'

The astonishing answer given by these two otherwise sane American girls (who are, incidentally, Christians of marriageable age and available—apply by e-mail to me for prescreening!) was "A TRACTOR-TRAILER!"

My wife and I are not just laughing out loud (LOL) or ROFL, we are CRYING! To me a tractor is a farm vehicle which tows plows, or yes, a farm trailer! Since when does an all-terrain farm vehicle have eighteen wheels?! Wikki is very clear in its definition of a tractor, and it sure isn't something you would see very often on the roads.

Please, please, please, somebody help us! Give us a sensible name for the vehicle we have agreed to call (in the meantime) a big vehicle that is liable to jack-knife at midnight when the Warnocks are on their way home from holiday!

Observant readers of my blog will have noticed that I didn't post any larger photos of Rob Rufus when I spoke about Together On A Mission and interviewed Rob Rufus. One reason for this was that the snapshots I took while we were together were ruined in my hurry as I had the camera on the wrong setting. As a result the color was all wrong and I thought they were beyond salvation.

Well, my MacBook and the wonderful iPhoto software came to the rescue. I have never been able to understand photography software (although Picasa from google was reasonably easy) and so was thrilled to see Tamasin and Henry master it in no time. They took one of the following two photos each and were able to repair them admirably. At moments like this a father is proud of his kids and a relatively new MacBook owner is proud of his laptop!

Yesterday I was speaking of wanting it all . . . well, there are six very precious people who I want to spend some serious time with this summer. So this will be my last post for at least two weeks, and quite possibly longer. Certainly if I do blog at all in August, it’s my intention that it will not be much or very frequent. If you still want to fill your coffee break, come back and follow the links to Warnie headlines which will keep appearing in the sidebar.

Or, if you have missed reading some of my older posts, go right ahead and follow the headlines listed on the following pages from the last few months:

January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007

It has been an eventful and full few months of blogging, with interviews with John Lanferman, Liam Goligher, Rob Rufus, Terry Virgo, and Tom Shaw, and then Andrew Fountain turned the tables and interviewed me. Then there were all those posts on the Together On a Mission conference, preaching, the atonement, and the resurrection. Another highlight for me was visiting George Whitefield's final resting place, and in the same post I spoke of listening to a talk on the Lewis Revival by Duncan Campbell.

For the first time, I also found myself in the right place to break a news story. The debate around the true reasons for the split between Spring Harvest and Word Alive certainly rocked the blogosphere, and the events of the past few months seem likely to have lasting significance for UK Evangelicalism. I first discussed the controversy sparked by Steve Chalke a couple of years ago, and it shows no signs of abating.

I find it hard to believe that any of my readers have read everything I have written in the last few months, so I feel no guilt at all as I sign out to do something much more important than anything I have ever written — to spend time with the most important people in my life, my family.

UPDATE
In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 10th all-time most popular post with readers of this blog. The 11th most-read post was The Atonement—Wright Attacks Both Sides of the Debate.

Of all the posts I have written, this one is probably my own personal favorite. It is a rallying call to a kind of Christianity that is not ashamed to embrace the best from many different backgrounds.

***************

The last four words of the above title are not new to me, but they are certainly resonating with me at the moment — "I Want It All!" Why should I have to choose, for example, between being enthusiastic about theology and being charismatic?

I know what some of you are thinking as you've been reading my posts on the Together On a Mission conference. You're wondering why it is that someone who is so enthusiastic about what was obviously a very charismatic conference can also be deeply committed to defending and understanding biblical doctrine. I know it's hard for some of you to believe, but it really is the same me who wrote all those posts on the atonement who also was so deeply touched by this latest conference. For those of you who have never met one, I am indeed that rare breed — a Reformed Charismatic.

Too often, however, the temptation for me is to downplay one side of that equation or the other in order to appear "balanced." When I am with the charismatics, my reformed doctrine often appears alien to them, although in the UK, Newfrontiers offers a major exception to that with over 200 churches that are broadly reformed and charismatic. When I'm with the reformed, I'm tempted to soften my charismatic viewpoint and not speak too much of the things I have seen and experienced. Why is it that on this issue, as on so many others, the Church seems to be split in half? Why can't we be both radically reformed and radically charismatic? Why do we see a conflict and therefore try to play down both in order to be "balanced?" I don't want to be balanced, I want it all!

On the one hand there are those who care about theology enough to study God's Word in detail, weigh scripture against scripture, study great theological minds, and preach intellectually stimulating messages that would stretch even a PhD in Theology — which, incidentally, I am certainly not! Why is it that for the majority of us, if we want such a feast for our minds, we must sacrifice certain other things? Why are some leaders in the Church committed to theology almost exclusively? Is even great theology so captivating that it is the only need of the Church? I don't believe it can be, or God would have given us a Bible that was a systematic theology and not the one we have, which is essentially a collection of lots of stories with a few doctrinal portions.

Also, why is it that those who are most committed to following the Bible in everything also seem most committed to relegating a book like Acts to mere descriptive stories to tell our children? It's not even just the book of Acts; there are swathes of the New Testament that in some theologies become almost entirely irrelevant to us. That was for then, we are told. When I read passages like those found in the book of Acts, I find myself yearning for something more than I am experiencing currently, yearning for a dynamic sense of the supernatural presence of God, longing for God himself to surprise and astonish me by his dynamic actions. Why is it that so often I am left with the impression that we are being encouraged to merely learn about God rather than get to know him? Would I be satisfied if I had read hundreds of e-mails from my wife, but had never actually met her or seen her do anything?

On the other hand, I could find many so-called men of faith who have stories to tell of miraculous healings or of prophecies that have had a life-changing impact. Listening to them, especially if I suspend my natural British cynicism and reserve, I hear tales of powerful encounters with God. Sadly, however, theological truths don't seem to be emphasized at all by most of those committed to experiencing the supernatural presence of God. It is often even implied that it is all right for people to make glaring errors in their teaching or show little interest in what the Bible actually says.

Why is it that so many men who seem on first appearances to have such intimacy with God, such access to his power, such supernatural giftings, and such powerful prophecies, also have much less interest in the words that the Person they often describe as their best friend, the Holy Spirit, wrote 2000 years ago? Why is it that when listening to some of these men, the greatest miracle is no longer what happens in someone's life when they are saved, but rather the latest supernatural healing or encounter with God? Why do we put up with so much flakiness and even blatant deception from figures claiming to have an anointing of the Spirit? How has it got to the point that even hearing the word "faith" seems to raise antibodies in me and make me feel uncomfortable? Why, though, do I feel in honest moments that some of those people with whose theology I most disagree seem to have something that I haven't got, and that I want? Is it so wrong to want to learn more about faith and experience the supernatural acts of God without becoming flaky or doctrinally suspect? Is it not possible for me to both want and get it all?

This desire to "want it all" and have it all in extreme form rather than just a little of everything so as to become "balanced" is not confined to the issue of the truth of God's Word and the experience of the supernatural. There are so many other stalls in the modern marketplace that is the global Church of Jesus. I can see them all before me selling their wares, each of them sure they have the answer to the ills of the Church. How do I choose which one to follow? Can't I have it all? Can't I learn from each of them? Must I choose only one? Where is the person who will overturn all these market stalls and say, “You need a bit of everything — no, change that — you need A LOT of everything — you need it all!”

Let's consider those in the Church who understand the reason we are here on earth. They understand that we are here to enjoy God and bring glory to him by evangelizing the world and producing more worshippers. These guys have such enthusiasm that it is inspiring. Many are also so creative. They split into different tribes, however, sitting as it were at different stalls in the marketplace. There are those who believe in old-style tent crusades, those who want to fill stadiums again, those who knock on doors, those who tell strangers they are sinners, those who befriend sinners in order to evangelize them, those who run seeker sensitive services, those who speak of being missional and incarnating the Gospel, those who run Alpha, and those who preach a certain kind of evangelical "gospel" message every Sunday morning that has to include penal substitution. The different brands may disagree about the methods, but yet they all thrill me with their determination and commitment to see more people becoming Christians. Isn't there room for us to use some methods from almost all of these brands of evangelism?

What troubles me most about so many of these devoted evangelists and missionaries is that so few of them are also deeply devoted to and thrilled with the Church. Why does there seem to be a dichotomy between being "out there" reaching the world and building the community of God such that we love each other so much the world knows we are Jesus' disciples? Also, why does the message of the evangelist sometimes ring hollow in my ears and fail to inspire me like it should? Is there something wrong with me? Dare I even admit that there have been times in the past when I have felt I don't want to hear another "simple Gospel presentation" ever again? Why do the sermons I read in Acts sound so different to the vast majority of evangelistic messages I have ever heard? For that matter, if the Gospel is a handful of reductionistic propositions that we must preach on every occasion, and those few ideas are all that matters, why does so much of the Bible even exist? Much as I believe in penal substitution, it is not to be found in every verse of the Bible. Why are some evangelicals frightened to preach the whole counsel of God? Is it wrong to want to preach the message of the whole Bible?

Why is it, for that matter, that so many of us feel we lack practical wisdom of how to live our lives? I know I have felt like this many times in my life. How can it be that I can work through the Gospel from A to Z, listen to theologically-sound sermons, read the Bible, pray even, and do all the "right" things they tell me to, but somehow not know how to live? Why is it that the breed of practical living teachers are so rare in the Church that many feel they have to learn by watching programs like Nanny 911 because no Christian leader ever taught them how to raise their children? Why are there so few places in the Church to send someone who is struggling with a breaking marriage or with mounting debt? Why, when we find someone in the Church who is valiantly teaching us practical living tips that we should have learned from our parents do they so often sound no different to someone in the world? Where is the teaching that is biblically rooted, yet shows me how to run my life in the 21st century? Isn't the Bible supposed to teach me how to have a good marriage, hold down a job, be a parent, have friends? It's easy to condemn those preaching "self help" in the name of Jesus, but where are those teaching me how God wants to help me live wisely?

Again, why is it that as churches we are not all stirred to activism to help the poor? Adopting a village in Africa, helping HIV victims, befriending single mothers, housing drug addicts — the list goes on and on. Christians who really care, frankly, put me to shame. Why do I so shamefully neglect this? I know that I do give some money that is channeled to such projects by my church, but why do I feel I should be doing much more? Surely we should be demonstrating God's kingdom on earth for the world to see. And yet, why do some of the people who give themselves to this kind of work which is meant to demonstrate God's kingdom seem more like social workers than Christ's ambassadors? Why do we seem to allow the Gospel to be squeezed out of our attempts to help the poor?

I can go on — what of the worshippers? There are many people who love God, feel his presence, and "waste time" with him. Why do I find it so hard to squeeze contemplation into my busy life? Why should worship become an option that excludes other options? Why is meditation considered to be something for Buddhists when the Bible invented it? What about prayer — shouldn't it be more than merely reciting a shopping list of requests to some heavenly slot machine? Shouldn't it be something other than worrying out loud?

And what about a sense of belonging? Of a Church that loves each other and builds a community in this loveless world? Why are there some small churches that really are a family, and yet find it hard to grow? How can large churches retain the feeling that people are there for me and know me? How can we avoid merely having hundreds of superficial acquaintances and yet still feeling totally alone? How can we learn how to do things well for God without becoming just a commercial entity led only by the world's management techniques?

I guess this all leads to a feeling that there is something wrong with the Church. I suspect many of us feel that way as Christians. But what is it that is wrong? Is it, as some would say, "Well, the danger is an overemphasis on feelings, so here we preach the truth of the Bible — that is what we need most." That sounds so good until you hear someone else say something like, "What the Church really needs to do is to learn to care more — we have to love each other and then learn to love the world — that's the problem with the Church," or someone else says, "Your problem is that you know the Bible, but you don't know God — you people just have a form of godliness, but deny its power."

I don't just want balance, however, and certainly not if it means we end up missing EVERYTHING. I thank God that there are those who are attempting to be balanced and have a bit of all of these things. Yet, I am concerned that in an anxiety to be balanced, we end up being mediocre at all of these things. I suppose as individuals we will always be better at some of them than others, but as a healthy local church can't we have it all?

Social action needn't be the enemy of building a nice community, nor should singing be a chore to get through until the preaching starts. Do we really have to wince every time someone begins to prophesy for fear of what our visitors may think? We shouldn't have to be anxious, when preaching, that our people are being bored or that we are offending visitors. These things are not enemies of each other.

Why shouldn't we have churches that are every bit as concerned about doctrinal accuracy and knowledge as John MacArthur, that love relational intimacy with Jesus as much as John Arnott, see miraculous healings that are every bit as dynamic as the ones the tele-evangelists claim to have seen, are as full of vision and purpose as Rick Warren, as skilled in leadership as Bill Hybels, as humble and committed to spiritual maturity as C. J. Mahaney, as relevant to practical life as the author of any self-help book you can think of, that impact social needs in the model of Shaftsbury, tackle political issues like Wilberforce, preach with both the passion for souls of Spurgeon and the passion for God's glory of John Piper, that hear from God as clearly as any modern prophet, are as aggressively missional as Mark Driscoll, have the apostolic drive of Terry Virgo, and yet somehow still feel as comforting as my wife's homemade apple crumble with custard?

Am I being greedy to say "I want it all, and I wish I could become an extremist for all of these things at once?"

Yesterday it was a delight to see my old friends, Ian and Megan Jukes, and their three lovely kids. We went to visit a church founded by George Whitefield where he preached and is buried under the pulpit. I took loads of photos so have turned them into a slide show for you. If you want to see his burial place, it is at The Old South Church, Newburyport, Massachusetts.The Resurgence also posted a sermon by George Whitefield just recently.

I have to say that this experience was one of the most memorable of any of the historical tourist things I have ever done. We were shown around the church by Norm, one of the elders there. To just stand outside the church and realize that we were standing on the very street where revival had been so strong all those years ago thrilled me. We have pictures of ourselves standing at Whitefield's preaching desk, and handling his Bible.

I have to say that I felt the presence of God in that church building today, and at one point I was praying silently, "Do it again!" It was a special moment to join Ian afterwards in praying that God would once again raise up preachers like George Whitefield.

I find myself very powerfully affected whenever I visit these sites connected with historic revival. Three such visits stand out in my mind. Today's visit, a trip to Wesley Cottage, and some time I spent on our honeymoon speaking with a lady who personally remembered the Lewis Revival. On each occasion I felt a stirring in my spirit, and the same sense of the presence of God was tangible to me. Once again I have been undone. Once again I find myself longing to experience for myself the joy of being present during such a sovereign touch of God's Spirit.

As I woke early this morning, I decided to remind myself of the events of the Lewis revival. Imagine my surprise to find that there are a number of recordings by Duncan Campbell (the preacher used by God on Lewis) available for free online. I listened this morning to a talk given in 1950 by Campbell about revival. It is powerful, engaging, and captured my heart again. The sense of God's Spirit on this talk was tangible to me, almost as though the Spirit himself is somehow contained in the words.

Campbell begins his retelling of the events with which he had been so intimately involved by saying:

"One evening, an old woman 84 years of age and blind, had a vision. Now don't ask me to explain this vision because I cannot, but strange things happen when God begins to move. This dear old lady in the vision saw the church of her fathers crowded with young people, and she saw a strange minister in the pulpit. She was so impressed by this revelation, because a revelation it was, she sent for the minister and told her story. The parish minister was a God-fearing man, a man who longed to see God working. Oh, he had tried ever so many things to get the youth of the parish interested, but not one single teenager attended the church. That was the situation. Well, what did the old lady have to say to him? I'll tell you what she said: "I am sure, Mr. McKay, that you are longing to see God working. What about calling your office bearers together and suggesting to them that you spend two nights a week waiting upon God? You have tried missions, you have tried special evangelists, Mr. Mckay, have you tried God?" Oh, I tell you this is a wonderful old woman. So he meekly obeyed and said, "Yes, I'll call the session together and I will suggest that we meet on Tuesday night and Friday night, and we'll spend the whole night in prayer." I tell you, dear people, here were men who meant business. The dear old lady said, "Well, if you do that, my sister and I will get on our knees at ten o'clock on Tuesday and ten o'clock on Friday and pray until 4 a.m. . . ." And in the prayers, according to the minister, they would say again and again, "God, you are a covenant-keeping God and you must be true to your engagements . . ." One night a very remarkable thing happened. They were kneeliing amongst straw, the straw of a barn house. Suddenly one young man rose and read part of Psalm 24: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord” (vv.3-5a). And then that young man closed his Bible. And looking down at the minister and the elders, he spoke these crude words (but perhaps not so crude in our Gaelic language): “It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.” And then he lifted his two hands and prayed, “God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?” That dear man got no further, he fell on his knees and then on his face on the straw. In a matter of minutes three of the elders fell into a trance . . . when that happened in the barn . . . a power was let loosed . . . that shook the whole of Lewis. God stepped down. The Holy Spirit began to move among the people . . . God seemed to be everywhere . . . "


— Duncan Campbell

I defy you to listen to that talk and not be moved deeply. The description of revival is amazing, and I can feel the presence of the Spirit as I listen. As I write this, with Campbell's voice resounding in my head, I am not ashamed to say that tears are welling in my eyes. Oh, won't you join me in crying to God, "Do it again! Do what you did on Lewis. Do what you did through George Whitefield. Revive us again!"

Photos from George Whitefield's final resting place.

This year I have decided (as I explained yesterday) to share the live-blogging with a dear friend of mine. If I am something of a veteran of Newfrontiers conferences, he is going to his very first. He will be covering the first three sessions, and sharing his own impressions of the week as it goes by.

I thought I would introduce him to you by sharing a video clip. I obviously need to learn not to shoot these next to a busy road as the sound is a bit noisy sadly. It is meant to be a fun video and was actually shot by my son, Henry. In the background you may notice the cinema complex in which our church meets.

I was going to try and think of something thoughtful to say today. I then realized that what I said last year couldn't be improved on by me, except that it already had, the year before. So here are the last two years of Independence Day blogging from me.

Incidentally, it is interesting to see that several of the topics I said I wanted to get back to blogging about, I still haven't! Having said that, there has been progress on a few of them this last year! So here's what I had to say on the last two Independence Days:

2006
Blogging can, because of this power for influence, be a powerful force for good and potentially a means of challenging those with established "off-blog" authority. Where that authority is being misused, or needs to be corrected, then I guess blogging can usefully be a tool - a bit like in the Reformation where pamphlets and the printing press led to a single obscure monk's weird ideas being spread throughout the known world. We should welcome this opportunity to be always reforming and holding those with influential voices to account.

But, for many bloggers - even sadly some Christian ones - the very concept of authority seems to have gone missing. Blogging can give people delusions about their own importance. It concerns me that in our drive to make a mark and stand for our own opinions, it is possible for us to denigrate those with whom we disagree, forgetting in some cases their positions of authority within the church. This wouldn't be so bad if some of the most vociferous critics of Christian leaders online were not themselves so unaccountable. The harshest voices are invariably the ones who do not tell us who they are, nor what church they go to, nor whose authority they are under. For many, of course, they do not feel the NEED to be under anybody's authority - let's be free, let's be "independent" they cry!

Of course, American Independence Day speaks to this. Few, even on this side of the Atlantic, would today doubt that throwing off the tyranny of the British king was the best thing the US could have done, both for itself and for the mother country. But imagine, if instead of a domineering and oppressive regime, there had been a king who put their interests first and exported not just "civilisation," but also the democracy we had begun to experience in England. Who knows? Perhaps we would now be living in some kind of mega-state - the United States of America and Britain or the British and American Federation or perhaps even the Anglosphere of which some people speak (see also the Wikipaedia entry on the Anglosphere).

Such thoughts are, of course, a bit fanciful, but what is perhaps less fanciful is to imagine the anarchy that would have ensued (and indeed nearly did!) if, in the history of the liberated America, the founding fathers had not learnt to balance the needs for freedom and for collective responsibility. For a country, like a church and like a family, needs to have some form of leadership and accountability. The truth is, we are not all "independent," and both in the modern family of nations and also in their constitutions (both written and in our case virtual!) this is recognised.

The pressure to be independent and stand alone is, we all often feel, never more powerfully felt than in the blogosphere. This blog has always stood for an aim to help us bloggers who follow the cause of Christ to try to stand together, even if only online! For, if we cannot learn from one another, disagree with each other honourably, and glorify Christ throughout all these interactions, there is something seriously wrong.

I have written in the past about principles for Christian blogging - we must remember that one of our characteristics as Christians is community. Let's blog to build one another up and support the leaders of the Christian movement out there in the "real world."

2005
It may surprise my American readers to know that until today I had never even read a copy of your Declaration of Independence, not a single line of it! So it really was about time I remedied that.

I hope you will forgive me a somewhat rambling post which just reflects my personal feelings whilst reading it. It felt kind of like reading a set of divorce papers which paved the way for the "special relationship" that we now share. It is of course not entirely unlike the relationship some divorced couples manage to attain- especially for the sake of the children. In a funny sort of way, at least on this side of the Atlantic it sometimes feels as if we still see many of the nations of the world as being dependent on us. The current state of interest around the G8 summitt certainly doesnt minimise that feeling. One Yank (Bill Gates!) who I watched briefly on the Televised Live8 concert seemed anxious to praise Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for their leadership on the issue of world poverty.

Of course we Brits have the dubious priviledge of having educated the world about "liberty" and "freedom" whilst at the same time oppressing them to such an extent that we spawned nation state after nation state when the population wanted their independence.

It would seem that we Brits were busy trying to rule the entire world whilst all the time believing we were spreading democracy around. Bizzarely even in Hong Kong we never actually implemented democracy before leaving, but expect the Chinese from whom we rented the territory to do so after we left without even for a moment considering that hippocritical! When asked about why he stays in Africa, the character of Gefferey in the film Six Degrees of Separation gives the somewhat trite reply that has at least to one interpretation of history a certain ring of truth to it- "One has to stay there. To educate the black workers. And we'll know we've been successful when they kill us."

There is a large portion of our history that the English are far from proud of. I remember well that as a child the whole period of the history of our empire was somewhat brushed over in our history lessons. We skipped from Oliver Cromwell to 1914. Somehow, and not at all surprisingly we seemed more confident with our roll as the champion of freedom in the 20th Century's wars than our previous one in building the largest empire the world has ever known.

Arguably the ideals of the document I will quote from below are not of course fully realised even today. But the ideas expressed in this document have power, and whilst we still have a monarch in the UK the fact that it would simply not be possible for that monarch to act in such a tyranical manner may in no small sense be partly thanks to the actions of our American cousins as we now like to call them.

In this video I share my first reactions to the Mac

Almost twelve years ago we finished our wedding service with the hymn, "Amazing Grace." It is probably the best hymn ever written in my humble opinion — not least because it calls us "wretches"!

We sang the hymn accompanied only by the same bagpipes that had welcomed Andrée in to the tune, "My Bonnie is a NutBrown Maiden." I never found out whether it was deliberate or not, but the piper stopped playing at the end of the penultimate verse. As we sang "When we've been there ... " with no instruments, I can well remember my eyes brimming.

Anyway, I said all that to say that I can fully understand the emotional reaction Terry Virgo reports to singing the same hymn at his own son's wedding recently. This post is, I think, the best one he has written so far. Luke Wood has pointed out that in the same post, Terry Virgo also commends marriage to singles.

[Incidentally, please pray for me as I am preaching tomorrow, and as always, these days do not feel adequate for the task. This post has been a great reminder to me of the fact that God's grace is there to equip and enable me — I need lots of it tomorrow, please God!]

The only problem with this latest post of Terry's is that he apologises for it — saying it's a bit too personal. I think we need to tell him that it's just that kind of post that makes for a fantastic blog. I think I've slipped up a little over here on my own blog by not being personal enough lately, so I promise I will try and do so more often, if that's what you want!

I will leave you with this quote from Terry's post — please let me know in the comments section — do you WANT more personal posts from your favorite bloggers, or would you rather that we stick to pure theology? Actually for me, even my theology is theology that I personally care about and am interested in — I hope the real me peaks through from time to time! Here is the quote that I liked so much today:

"... we began to sing. Within seconds I was in trouble. I was fighting back the tears. ‘I once was lost, but now am found …’ I stood in the front row looking past Wendy along the line with three sons; Tim, the groom, Ben and Simon, his two best men, the stunning bride and Joel, our other son, facing them about to conduct the wedding.

Just behind, recently flown in from Cape Town, was our daughter, Anna, with our daughters-in-law, Rachel and Kate, caring for the next generation, eight grandchildren!

As we sang, I couldn’t get past ‘I once was lost …’ I stood there suddenly reflecting on my earlier life, aimless, having no idea what life was all about, hanging out at pubs and snooker halls or going to parties and jazz clubs, often drunk, not knowing that there was a gospel or any kind of purpose to life.

I have no idea where I would have finished up. I can’t imagine the life I would have lived. I cannot believe that I would ever have been loyal to one woman or found a job which brought any satisfaction. How would you raise a family when you have no map or compass? I once was blind!"

— Terry Virgo

This is going to my last post before the weekend. This is because tonight I have Josh Claybourn and his mates coming to stay, and then tomorrow evening we go on our church weekend away. I will probably have to spend the vast majority of the weekend with my foot up resting my knee. As I am wanting to go back to work sometime next week, I'm hoping that it will go OK from a knee point-of-view, and be a great time. I guess it will be a good test.

Basically that's all folks — until Monday or Tuesday — when we'll get back to the atonement series.

Before I go, I wanted to point you to a post from Luke Wood on how parachurch and church can work together on a university campus. I'm not sure if some of the same flash points exist in the American student scene or not, but I'm glad Luke has addressed some of these things. I'm also glad that in many places the church and Christian unions are beginning to understand each other better and work together.

I am writing this with my leg propped up straight, and since it can’t really go under the desk properly, I am a bit twisted round and hence rather uncomfortable! Since my operation two weeks ago today, which removed significant amounts of cartilage from my right knee, I have been painfully aware of our bodies' inadequacies. I haven’t been able to do much. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t sit in a chair. At first I couldn’t even sit up in bed. I have been off work, and unable to type for long periods at a time. I haven’t even attended church, and left the house for the first time yesterday (apart from trips back to the hospital). I don’t say all this to make you feel sorry for me, but as an opportunity for me to thank the people around me who have meant that life has gone on as normal.

The most important person to thank specifically is, of course, my lovely wife. She has had to care for our five children, look after me, cook, and clean. She has had to do all that joyfully on hardly any sleep since little George Warnock hasn’t learnt how to sleep through the night yet. What can I say apart from thank you and that I love you? You light up my world and make life worth living. Thanks for being such a lovely wife and a great mother for my children.

The second person I want to thank is my editorial assistant. Annette has been tirelessly publishing the posts I had written in advance of my operation each day and tidying up the odd thing that I have managed to quickly type from time to time. As always her work in formatting and checking my writing for typos and grammar errors does not go unnoticed or unthanked by me. She has not seen this post, and would probably be embarrassed by it so don’t blame her for any errors in it. She does now have a few spare hours per week, so if anyone out there is interested in employing her as either a remote transcriptionist or editor, then drop me an email at adrian.warnock@gmail.com and I will pass it on to her.

The good news is that my knee is now starting to heal, so I expect life will gradually return to normal over the next few days. It seems the operation was a success, and that I can expect almost full function in the knee within another four weeks. I am very grateful to God, as I know that others are not as fortunate. This kind of experience makes me glad for my health and glad for my life. God has been very good to me. As my pastor, Tope Koleoso, likes to say, “We have a lot to be grateful for!”

My knee operation has been completed. I have been told that they have successfully removed the torn cartilage that was sticking into the joint.

Thanks for your prayers! I'm hopeful the recovery will be swift.

Tomorrow I will be going under a general anaesthetic. I have had increasing knee pain since just before Easter. Turns out I have a tear in the posterior horn of my medial meniscus cartilage on my right knee (for all you medics out there). Anyway, I feel like a professional footballer having to have an arthroscopy to repair it. This is, of course, the closest I will ever get to being a professional footballer!

Anyway, I would appreciate your prayers for me, and for my poor wife who is having to care for our five kids without as much help as I would like to give her.

The good news is that I have already written a bunch of posts that, thanks to my editorial assistant, will hopefully mean that there will not be any interruption to blogging here. Eventually I will complete this series on the atonement, honest!

Tim Sweetman has written a fascinating article which states that the rumors of the death of the blogosphere have been greatly exaggerated! There's a quote in the article that I gave him.

Today is my 36^th birthday. I really cannot say I am in my “early thirties” any more! Since this picture was taken a year ago, I have had yet another child! It is a real joy to have such a large and lovely family to spend my birthday with.

Tomorrow is also an anniversary of a day that is very special to me. One Good Friday when I was a young child, my Father first explained the Gospel to me. I made a commitment to Christ based on a simple Gospel that definitely included elements of punishment taken on my behalf by Jesus. I have explained more about what happened in the first post of "My Story."

This month is also another anniversary for me. In just a few days time it will be FOUR YEARS since I wrote My First Blog Entry.

It has been an amazing ride these last four years. In blog years that makes me positively geriatric. I honestly had no idea in the early days that I would gain as many readers as I have. I also had no idea of the number of real friends I would gain from this whole process. There are several people who I have met in the flesh that I would never have met if it wasn't for this blog. There are also a number of people who, although I have not met them yet, I would definitely call them my friends and from whom I have learned so much.

Thanks everyone for making blogging the real fun adventure it has been! Inevitably at anniversaries, one’s thoughts go to one question — "Where next?" Another question has to be — "How long will I keep this up?" Having made it to four years does this mean I will be a blogger until I die? Will I ever say "Well, that's it – I have said enough, it's time to quit?”"Will you all ever get bored of me — or will I get bored of YOU? Or, should I think about trying to find some people to do a “group blog” with?

On the other hand, it seems to me like it may also be time to begin to think of a bit of a spring clean around here. I'm a bit fed up with “Blogger” and would love to switch to something else. Anyone out there have any experience of making the jump to wordpress, drupal, or whatever? I've been doing a bit of thinking about what I like about the blog at the moment, and what I don't like about it. If you have any thoughts about the graphical design, the technology, the actual content of my blog, or my blogrolls (including the Blogdom of God) now is the time to speak up. Knowing me, I may not actually do anything about it for awhile, but I'm sure getting an itch to just mix things up a bit!

So to sum up, my question for you all this morning is:

“Where next for adrian warnock's blog?”

Ten years ago today I was experiencing very similar feelings to the ones I am today. I was exhausted, and in awe of my resilient wife for what she had just gone through. We had also had experienced a bit of concern about the birth which, like little George's, had been far from straightforward. Like today, we were thanking God for His intervention in our lives and a safe arrival.

Tamasin — on this your tenth birthday — I want the world to know how glad I am you entered our world on the 11th March 1997. I want them to know what a joy it is watching you grow. I want them to know how thrilled I have been that you never felt jealous when your brothers and sister were born as we have filled our lives with yet more children. Thanks for being a wonderful daughter, and I'm looking forward to years more of being your dad.

For those who are wondering, there will not be any blog paternity leave as such. This is because I have already written a backlog of posts that will be published this week. I am not sure when I will have time to summarise and comment on the rest of the Shepherds' Conference, however.

Real life trumps blogging, but this time I get to effectively be in two places at once. Those who know me well will realise that this level of organisation is far from common with me! Have a great week everybody, and enjoy the precious life God has given us.

Well, here are a few more pictures of the little boy meeting his family. We have decided on the name - George Nathan Warnock. Here he is with various members of his family.

We are pleased to announce the birth of our fifth child. He was born at 17-10 on the 10th of March 2007 (10/03/07 for the mathematically minded!). He was 8 lb. 13 oz. He took the Warnock family interest in the TV show "24" a bit literally. He was born exactly 24 hours to the minute after we first entered labour ward.

Mum and baby are both doing really well and are home already tonight.

Just before Christmas, someone I know asked me what I was going to do on my blog to “follow” my interview with Wayne Grudem. In that moment I knew exactly how I was going to follow it — with silence. Sometimes the best way to try and follow something is quite simply not to! To be honest, I felt like I needed a break anyway. The good news for me (I think!) is that not one of my readers wrote to me asking me to write something on my blog. Either that means you haven’t missed me — perhaps because you have been busy yourself — or that you simply took me at my word that I was taking a “prolonged break.” Or perhaps more likely, it shows the place of a blog in the average reader’s day — it's a piece of light entertainment that we can live with or without — read in a snatched moment in-between everything else we do that is much more important. So my little “sabbatical” hasn’t cost you guys anything — there is always another blog to read — and in any case, if for some strange reason someone was desperate for a dose of “Warnie,” then this blog has been around long enough that simply looking in the archives would uncover something you hadn’t read yet.

So putting ourselves to one side for awhile to reflect is no bad thing — indeed it has biblical precedent, as does the thought that God tends to do things in “waves” or “seasons.” I really felt it was right for me to just stop blogging for a few weeks. It also coincided with a needed pause in my preaching commitments, and although I have still been working my day job, it has felt almost like a holiday. I thought that it might be a nice idea to start the blog this year with a personal post reflecting on a period of my life when it was God who put me on the substitute bench, and for a period that lasted several years and not just a few weeks.

It has been over a year since I posted part 4 of a series I have entitled “My Story” (and before that I wrote part 1, part 2, and part 3.) At this rate it will take me a long time to arrive at the present day in this tale, as back then, in my telling of the story, I had only reached the age of 18. But here goes with the next part . . . .

At 18, I had a lot of the over-confidence of youth, but that was tinged with the realization that I had a lot to learn. As I left the safety of my parental home and launched out to London to study medicine, God had a plan to teach me one of the most important lessons of my life — one which this recent relatively quiet spell over Christmas and the New Year reminded me that I still do not fully live in the good of.

My youthful enthusiasm for God was, at least in part, because in a church environment I felt I could hold my own socially much better than I could out in the world. It's funny, because like many outwardly confident gregarious people, I was far from confident on the inside. Although all my evangelistic activities at school made me feel like public enemy number one, I would console myself that surely God was pleased with me despite the views of my school colleagues. In church, I had a different role and I took a lot of solace from feeling that people there valued my contribution. As I already described, I had been given leadership and preaching experience and received a lot of encouragement. I was convinced that some sort of ministry awaited me having had a sense of “call” since early childhood. I foolishly persuaded myself that if life at school was hard, at least my work for God’s Church showed that I had something to offer. God was about to go to work to begin to destroy the pride that I didn’t even realize I had.

God has a way of taking a dream and killing it — stone dead. Sure, He will often resurrect it years later, but you don’t tend to think much about that at the time — all you can see is (to paraphrase Monty Python) your dream is “stone dead, demised, passed on, no more, has ceased to be, a stiff, bereft of life, snuffed out, up the creek and kicked the bucket, extinct in its entirety, an ex-dream.” This is what happened to me over the course of a few years, and much as you might think that it couldn’t have been of God, as I look back, I am more and more convinced it was, in fact, just that. I remember well that one time during those years, when someone suggested that I might preach, the thought that went through my mind was simply “no way!”

I am glad of two things — both of which suggest that perhaps the dream wasn’t totally dead. Firstly, although in a different kind of church, I kept my links going with newfrontiers by attending the Bible Weeks, and also through a friendship with a pastor — a dear man named Henry Tyler (who was my mentor for many years and who comes back into the story later on). Secondly, I did not lose my relationship with God, nor my love of reading theology and the biographies of preachers of the past. But I'm rushing ahead of myself — I haven’t told you how my dream came to die.

When I arrived at university I was suddenly a small fish in the big pond of London. The successful CU didn’t seem to need me to exercise the gifts of which I'd sadly become proud, nor did the charismatic church I attended in the morning or the evangelical Anglican church I attended in the evening. Suddenly I was not “doing things” for God anymore — no preaching, no leadership, not even leading Bible studies. This carried on for several years, and I didn’t press for things to happen, but instead slowly, and initially reluctantly, began to refocus my relationship with God from “doing” things to “being” His child.

Terry Virgo describes receiving a prophetic word early-on in his Christian walk that told him he was called primarily to be a worshipper of Jesus, and that anything else was a bonus. That was the lesson God was trying to engrave in me in those “fallow” years as a medical student. I only wish that I could honestly say that my teenage years were the last time I busied myself with too much activity and not enough falling in love with Jesus. The truth is, sadly, that like so many of us, there have been many times in my life where I have been so caught up with what I was doing for God that I forgot that the most important thing He wants from me is for me to simply be His son and worship Him. In fact, these last few weeks have left me wondering whether just maybe the busyness of 2006 was exactly one of those times.

How foolish we are to believe that we can give anything to God with our hard work. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 4:7 - “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” God has given us everything we have, and even our serving Him is just another expression of our dependence on Him. He is the one who gives us every breath that we take as a gift of grace, not our right. How often do we get cross because our so-called “rights” are violated, or because we didn’t get what we wanted, or because our hard work wasn’t appreciated, or even because our “ministry” isn’t recognized by others. The true servant of God is immune to such thoughts for he realizes that even the strength he uses to serve is given him by God, and that it is God who decides what paths He wants us all to take.

I wish I could learn this once and for all, but I guess we are put on earth to struggle with this issue all our lives — there is something within us that longs for self-sufficiency, self-fulfillment, and self-worth. God instead wants us to be God-dependent, God-fulfilled, and worthy only because of what Jesus has done for us.

In this new year, I want to refocus my life once more on Jesus and knowing Him better. Everything else will flow out from that. There is a sense of dissatisfaction within me once more with filling my life with activity and not leaving enough time to reflect and grow as a worshipper of Jesus. I am brought back to the passage I preached on in November.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith — that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:7-16)

Anyway, these so-called quiet years were a time of pruning. There were, however, a couple of things going on in addition to my education. Firstly, God had arranged for a family to mentor me during those years in understanding other cultures, which would prove very helpful later on. But secondly, my reading was slowly turning me into someone who thought he understood theology, and as the years went on, sadly I became more and more focused on having theological arguments with other Christians. I am ashamed to say that it got to the point where pretty much every time I met someone, I would sniff out the areas of theology I disagreed with them on and engage them in debate. I became someone who wasn’t always very pleasant to be around. Fortunately, God had a plan to help me to learn better social skills, and also to revive my dream of serving Him in some way. But you will have to wait for the next post in this long-running series to hear about that . . . .

UPDATE

Henry Warnock has started a new website. Follow the link to visit it.

Over the last few days Charis, my younger daughter, has been writing stories all by herself. Here are the first two she has ever written:

Baby Plays

Babies are a gift from God. Thank you for baby laughing, baby crawling, baby bouncing, baby rolling, baby playing peekaboo hide your eyes!

This first one was, in fact it turns out, copied from a book. The second one was made up by Charis.


The Princess and the King

They lived in a big castle, where there lived a dragon. The dragon took the princess away to a big tower wot had no doors.

Andrew Fountain and his fanily have been fantastic hosts for this short stay in Canada. They are in the process of planting Newlife Church Toronto which has been meeting on Sunday evenings since March 2006. The church is part of newfrontiers - the same family of churches of which I am thrilled to be a part.

The following clip was taken just outside the meeting place for the church and shows Andrew speaking about the vision towards which they as a church are working. The church is being supported by Kings Family Church, Oakville, which along with The Meeting Place in Fredericton, New Brunswick make up newfrontiers Canada - which I hope and pray will grow in the future.

I met someone on the plane on the way out of Toronto who said they were looking for a church which is somewhere in between the traditional and the wacky - I reckon they might find what they are looking for in one of these churches!

I am now in deepest America, so you won't be hearing from me for a couple of days . . .

 
 
 
  

This is Andrew and I outside the Toronto Airport Church which was, of course, the church in which the so-called "Toronto Blessing" originated. There was no prayer meeting going on today. This is not the place for me to comment any further on that movement, which over the last thirteen years has seen hundreds of thousands of people visit their facility from many different nations.

It was, however, a great privilege to be shown around the building today and to have a short meeting with Steve Long, the successor to John Arnott as main pastor of the local church that meets there.


Here is their main auditorium, which is a very versatile room, easily adapting from housing the 1000 or so who attend that campus on a Sunday (there are also three other campuses for the church) to hosting the large conferences that continue to occur there.

Steve spoke of how they have felt a need in recent years to refocus their efforts on the local church after surviving years of a constant stream of visitors for prayer ministry. They are to be commended for their goal to multiply cells and evangelise their city.

John Arnott still preaches at the church from time to time, but he now largely focuses on the many requests for help internationally they still receive.


Steve is clearly a humble, passionate pastor. I was left with the impression of a man deeply in love with Jesus. The time when he lit up most was when he started to explain what they mean by "soaking times." In a way, I think it is a real shame that they use that novel phrase to describe something that basically seems to mean communing with God and meditating on Him. He described it as finding time individually for contemplative prayer or so-called "wasting" time intimately with God. From what he was saying, this seemed largely to represent a recovery of a timeless Christian practice rather than, as some might assume, something novel and therefore dangerous.


This picture says it all about the passion of this church. They are only too well aware, it seems, of the possibility that people visiting them might become overly focused on an experience of God. So, on the way out, you are faced with a text which perhaps more than any other urges us to remember the lost.

Those who criticized the Toronto movement the most predicted that a departure from the Gospel was inevitable. Thirteen years later, this church is led by a man who gets all his leaders to go through significant periods of theological training, and from what I saw and heard today, remains as evangelical as he ever was.

I have heard of grey squirrels, I have heard of red squirrels . . . but until today, I ain't never heard of no BLACK squirrels. This was the view from my window at breakfast this morning!

Like the poor grey squirrels of England, these little fellas are being blamed for the demise of their red squirrel cousins. It's all because they get down from the trees and go hunt food - that's what makes them successful!

This is the area of Toronto where I stayed last night. Apparently there are few areas like it anywhere in North America- a vestige of colonial Victorian life. It was great to wander around for a few minutes and see the area where Andrew Fountain is planting a church.

The Fountains have a pet iguana - seen here with its owner- Jessica Fountain.



I was quite struck by this building - coated with gold leaf! If this was in the UK it would probably get nicked!

Well, I made it - at least as far as Toronto. I had an eager sense of anticipation as I got off the plane. As I met my now dear friend, Andrew Fountain, it was amazing to me to realize how true it is that being a Christian makes you part of one big family of God. For those of us like Andrew and I, who are also part of newfrontiers, that sense of family is strengthened still further. When we meet, we realize that we all share the same spiritual DNA!

In what seemed like a blur, we were seated in a Keg Steakhouse with two other great blogging buddies - Tim Challies and Paul Martin. There is lots that I could say about the dinner we had together. The first thing is that, in fact, the whole thing was an internet date. Only Paul and Andrew had known each other first in real life - all the other relationships had been formed online. It was a real advertisement for internet "dating" - at least as far as friendships go.

We all shared so much - a love for the Lord, a basically reformed Baptist position (albeit with Andrew and I having a bit of a bonus add-on in the form of a charismatic theology!) and were all part of relatively young churches, none of which had a building they owned between them. Paul and Tim's church is practically a house church!

The other nice thing was the way in which Tim managed to dispel all those myths about him being quiet, reserved, and never smiling. I have photographic evidence that he smiles, and I can assure you that he spoke at least as much as any of the rest of us.

We avoided the whole "Stop saying that I read it on your blog!" by pretending that none of us actually reads the other one's blog at all!

Tim and Andrew broke off into technobabble at one point. In fact, for a moment I thought that they were both speaking in tongues as they discussed the intricacies of the databases that can power websites.

I then chipped in with a few comments about how to be a friend of Google - in particular my bugbear that we should all try and remember (I often forget this myself!) that when we link to other webpages we should try and use appropriate keywords. So, for example, if I wanted to link to Tim's most recent post (and I do!) I should write something like this:

Tim Challies has updated and republished his post ironically enough on the updating and publishing of old Christian hymns.

Rather than what we all (including me!) tend to do, which is this:

Tim Challies has updated and republished his post ironically enough on the updating and publishing of old Christian hymns.

Google already knows that Tim's site includes information about himself - the first example signals to Google that it might want to consider that page as a resource on Christian hymns, too. I have checked and right now Tim's site is nowhere to be found on a search for the phrase "Christian hymns" - it may be that my link alone will change all that once Google indexes this post. What is certain is that if just a few good blogs were to link to him like that, his page would definitely end up appearing in the top ten for such a search.

I want even more people to find Tim's site than already do - don't you?

Anyway, back to our dinner. I banned any theological debates as I felt that it would be unfair to me having just got off a transatlantic flight, but that didn't stop us from a few gentle digs at the areas about which we do disagree. More than that, though, we had a lot of fun and laughter. For example, the waiter took a photo of all of us (which I will share at the end of this post and whilst doing so told us to "look like we like each other and sit closer together" - to which the inevitable "not like we like each other too much!" and "not TOO close!" were the instant retorts and at the time seemed as hilarious as they were predictable with a bunch of us guys eating dinner together.

I had a great time, and I was left with a sense that as great as online friendships can be, it is no substitute for meeting face-to-face and seeing the whites of each other's eyes, the smile as a slightly cheeky point is made, and feeling the warmth of the friendship and respect mutually held.

We discussed how perceptions can be distorted online. Certainly Tim and Paul were a whole lot funnier than I imagined them to be (at least until our crazy email exchange over arranging this dinner!) I also gave the specific example of Phil Johnson, who I also met a while back. I am sure Phil won't mind me sharing that here. In person, and in his audio messages, his genuine warmth, respect for those with whom he disagrees, and general nice-guy nature is abundantly apparent. Sometimes online, our personalities don't always come across as we want them to, and we can surprise ourselves by the way we are perceived.

Every now and then Phil will say something that, if said face-to-face, the twinkle in his eye would have given the appropriate context to it. I hate to admit it, but there is then a peculiar fascination in watching the wave of indignant reaction that sometimes hits certain corners of the blogosphere after Phil writes something which at the time I guess he had no idea would offend anyone. The wave of anguish is then almost inevitably followed by a genuinely puzzled Phil trying to figure which part of his comment caused the reaction The trouble is that the whole thing is not as funny as all that, as every blogger knows he could be next - and indeed has probably been there himself - I know I have been, and probably will be in the future.

I am not sure that there is any reliable way we can guard against being taken the wrong way from time to time as we write. So for every time in the future some unguarded un-nuanced comment I make here on my blog will offend someone, I apologise up front! I am afraid a few "smileys" definitely cannot take the place of all the non-verbal communication we miss when we read the written word.

What happened last night over a dinner near the Toronto airport was a precious thing - it involved a strengthening of trust. If a relationship is like a bridge, then our bridges were reinforced last night. For me, once a connection has been made face-to-face, it makes electronic communication much more enjoyable and, I guess, even safer in a funny kind of way.

Tim, Andrew, and Paul . . . thanks for a great evening. Thanks for being brothers fighting together on the same side. I commit to never seeing any of you as the enemy as we go about this blogging business and possibly even interact and disagree publicly. You guys have my permission to critique me privately or online.

I pray now that, together with many other bloggers, we will always find ourselves in this online world to be "standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel" which was "once for all delivered to the saints." (Philippians 1:27, Jude 1:3)

UPDATE
Tim Challies and Paul Martin have both posted about our dinner. I just want to point out, that if my memory is correct, it was the Holy Spirit and not cessationism as such that I brought up, but it was only in passing and I could be wrong!

Well, it's happening again. I'm traveling with my work once more, and this time I'm going to be traveling to America via Toronto. The way things have worked out, I'll be able to meet up with some great blogger friends - all of whom I feel like I've known for years already! Believe it or not, it's taken us more than 60 emails so far to organise this meeting - most of which were peppered with humour and deliberate sporting references intended to leave me out! I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun meeting face-to-face with this band of fellow nutters - sorry, bloggers! Tim Challies, Paul Martin, Andrew Fountain, and me in the same restaurant - the other diners better watch out!

Whenever the time comes around for me to travel and I mention to those who know me that I'm once again going abroad, there are at least three different reactions I observe. The first, which is more prominent immediately after a terrorist incident, is one of concern for my safety. It's interesting how irrational our fears can often be; for example, the risk doesn't change just because yesterday the head of MI5 announced that there are some 1600 people involved in some 200 terrorist organisations in the UK that MI5 believes want to plan other attacks. Statistically, I'm still safer flying than any other form of transport, so such worries really don't concern me that greatly when I plan a trip. I do pray more these days, however, before a trip.

The second response that I get is - "Wow! What a jet-setter!" The truth is, as any frequent business traveler will tell you, the glamour of seeing the world can soon fade. At times we can zip in and out of a city and not see anything at all. Sometimes it's possible to squeeze a few hours out of a schedule to spend time outside of a hotel room or restaurant. It can mean setting an alarm earlier and walking around the city center (if the hotel is based there), or sometimes flights can be organised to give a few extra hours on either end of the trip. That kind of carving out of "me-time" is worthwhile, in my opinion, as it is a major way to avoid the cynical disinterest that is the constant temptation of every business traveler. If, on at least some trips, the sights and sounds can be absorbed rather than spending the time merely rushing around, something of the wonder and appreciation of the privilege it really is to actually be paid to visit other countries instead of having to take a holiday and pay for your own flights, will return.

The third response - perhaps by some who know what excessive travel can be like - is one of pity. Thoughtful comments are made about the difficulties involved in leaving a family behind, and of the hassle that travel can be. But, in a funny way, I think most of us go through a bit of a U-shaped curve when it comes to our attitudes towards flying - I know I have. At the beginning you love it, then the hassles come and you start to hate it. Then, if you are smart, when things go wrong and you end up spending your first unwanted night in a foreign country - or worse still, having to sleep in an airport - you start to remember how much easier we have it today than our anscestors did in their day. All kinds of rationalising thoughts come into your mind. I remind myself how amazing it is that we can do these trips in a day when in the past they would have taken weeks. Traveling becomes something to which you resign yourself, and you do it because you have to. So when someone said to me that they were shocked I was preaching just before getting on a transatlantic flight this Sunday, my response was twofold:

1. I'm glad I'm not preaching after getting off the flight.
   
   
2. To me, flying is just another form of commuting anyway!

I take a book to read, or things that I need to work on for my job. I program myself to think "Well, if I wasn't sitting here in this airport or on this plane, I would probably just be sitting somewhere else anyway, so what difference does it make?" You can get a lot of reading done - no emails, no phone calls, usually no conversation. And at times, for a bookaholic like me, it's almost a dream come true! I am really beginning to ENJOY flying! I suppose that makes me sound mad.

In summary, life is what you make of it - you can either think, "O rats, we are circling Heathrow again, waiting for a landing slot, and my taxi driver is going to be annoyed at me like it's my fault when I'm delayed", or you can say to yourself, "Cool, I get a bit longer to read this book without any interruptions", or "Hey, isn't this a great opportunity? I get to sit next to someone who actually wants to talk!"

I think a lot of this new attitude of mine to traveling is simply a common sense way of coping with it. But, I'm sure that a good proportion of it is God helping me to learn to be content with the situations life sends my way. I need to learn this lesson in every area of my life, not just in traveling. All this makes me think of Paul's words:

"I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:11-13)

It is a real pleasure to welcome to my blog today, Dr. Albert Mohler. Dr. Mohler should need no introduction to most of my readers, but I include a link to his biography for any who need to know more, as well as a link to my Together for the Gospel Conference Round Up Post.

This interview began yesterday in part one and will be serialized over several days here on my blog.

Adrian
Al, I get exhausted just thinking about all the strands that you hold together - it seems to me that you combine leadership of a Bible college with the academic and educational work of being a professor, but at the same time have some form of leadership within a local church, influence over the leaders of many other churches, preaching, conference speaking, serving on various boards, and a radio program, not to mention prolific blogging. Have I missed anything?

Dr. Mohler
Well, I’m sure you have left something out—my more pressing fear is that I have left something out. I end each day with a sense that much remains undone. I serve as a teaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church here in Louisville and, beyond that, much of my time is taken up in denominational leadership and affairs. The Southern Baptist Convention is a vast denomination, and it requires a great deal of time and investment as well. Adrian, I must admit that I truly enjoy and find fulfillment in all of these responsibilities. I have no one to blame but myself, because no one has forced all these responsibilities upon me.

Adrian
Do you see all these roles as separate roles or entwined? When you are doing your radio program or blogging, do you think of it as another form of preaching or as something else? Your bio says "Dr. Mohler's mission is to address contemporary issues from a consistent and explicit Christian worldview." Is that the vision that holds everything you do together?

Dr. Mohler
I am absolutely certain that these roles are entwined. The interrelatedness of these responsibilities is clear to those who work alongside me and know how I think. I do not think of blogging or the radio program as another form of preaching, but I do see these new opportunities as a way of addressing an audience with Christian truth. My first responsibility is to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, visible in local congregations. I do believe my calling is to address contemporary issues from an explicitly Christian worldview, but my greater responsibility is to serve the church in all that I do. My sense of mission is fundamentally theological, and all of my involvements emerge out of that sense of theological responsibility for the church.

Adrian
Are there any of your many jobs that you feel fit less comfortably within your life's work? Are there some roles that you do because your know somebody must rather than because you take delight in them?

Dr. Mohler
My answer to this question is easy. Travel is the least comfortable part of my work. I truly enjoy being in other places and with people and churches all over the world. Nevertheless, the reality is that travel is becoming more and more of a complication. Even so, I do it because it is absolutely necessary and central to the accomplishment of my ministry. In my most honest moments, I would have to admit that, even as there is no part of my involvements that I wish to relinquish, I look forward to a reduction in travel. I do not delight in sitting on airplanes, and I take even less delight in waiting in airports.

Adrian

Is it really possible that ONE MAN does all these jobs on his own? How much do you tend to rely on a team of researchers working behind the scenes and how much is purely your own personal work?

Dr. Mohler
All of the written and spoken material is my personal work. I am thankful to have a team of interns who help to collect and organize material for me, but I simply could not work with someone who would assemble the projects for me. For me, this is a matter of both integrity and pride. I write all the material attributed to my name. At the same time, I do want to recognize a wonderful team of interns and co-workers who make all this possible. They know my weaknesses. For example, one of the first things they learn is never to put a piece of paper in my hand that they ever want to see again. If they do not retain a copy of a document, it is likely to disappear within the thousands of items that flow through my office on a regular basis. Furthermore, they are a wonderful first audience for my writing and speaking. I value tremendously their response and critique.

Adrian

What is the secret of working successfully with so many different people and in so many different contexts?

Dr. Mohler
I guess the operational secret of working with so many different people in different contexts is finding enjoyment in them all. I can state honestly that I enjoy each of these contexts and, as varied as some of these constituencies are, I serve them all gladly and with a sense of genuine honor in being granted the opportunity.

Continued in Part Three . . .

UPDATE
In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 28th most widely read post on my blog. The 29th most-read post was my interview with Josh Harris.

This post provides a brief introduction to me and has links to a number of posts I have written which share my story so far. I really must get around to bringing my story up-to-date in 2008!

***************

I have been asked to write a short "biographical" piece, so thought I would share it here. I am also slowly working my way through telling my story.

Adrian Warnock blogs at http://adrianwarnock.com/. He runs the Warnie Awards, which recognize blogging excellence, and the Blogdom of God—a widely varied list of blogs written by Christians.

Adrian is a regular preacher at Jubilee Church in London, UK—which is part of a reformed charismatic group called Newfrontiers. He is a medical doctor trained as a psychiatrist, and now works in research. Adrian is married and a father of five children.

Having visited this church on Sunday, I can see why C.J. frequently describes his home church as "the dearest place on earth." Somehow I suspect if I, too, had been a part of this church for decades, then I would feel the same way. It was a real joy just to be able to pose as "guests" on a fairly typical Sunday morning, and even get to observe some baptisms.

I know some of you will want to know what the church was like. Well, it is hard to put into words. What I can say is that their commitment to the Bible and pursuing the active presence of God was clearly reflected in the service. Their bookshop is probably the best quality Christian bookstore in the world — their careful selection of books means every resource in there seems like it is guaranteed to feed your soul. Their facility is beautifully designed and well cared for.

I want to pass on a big thank you to all the people from Covenant Life Church who have been so kind to me. This is a church which is characterised by incredible humility, gentleness, generosity, and warmth. I did have the advantage of knowing a few of these folk before, of course (in some cases purely online) — but every single person who shook my hand at the church welcomed me in an amazing way. It was great to be among the family of God.

I believe that the global Church has much to learn from these people. I certainly learnt a lot myself this weekend, and the memories will remain with me for years to come.

There is no doubt that meeting Travis Earles once again, and being introduced to the rest of his family for the first time, was one of the highlights of my trip to Washington. Here we have a family who love God, and whose gentleness, humility, and warm welcome to us was much appreciated. I do so hope that my third meeting with Travis is not another thirteen years after the second. It amazes me to realise that I last met this man back in 1993! So much has changed for me in that time.

One thing that hasn't changed is my love for this amazing man and my instinctive recognition of a kindred spirit. Friendships like this that span the globe are one of God's most precious gifts to us. So, Travis, when are you going to bring your wife and kids to meet mine??

 

The weekend passed in a whir, so I thought that I would finish off my travel blog in a time-delayed format.

The experience of visiting the Washington monuments was very impactful for me. I had a lovely time. The thing that struck me about Washington was the incredible sense of intelligent and intentional design. It seemed clear to me that the smallness of the White House, and the grandeur of the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument were designed to communicate a message. Sometimes when you hear phrases like "government for the people, by the people," "freedom from tyranny," "equality," and "liberty," you can be in danger of thinking they are just slogans. The buildings of Washington, and especially the inscriptions inside the Lincoln Memorial, ensure that the visitor realises that this idea - for which many have bled and died - is every bit as potent and inspiring to the average American today as it was all those years ago. To me, the architecture is like a message engraved in stone for all time. I hope we listen to it. I trust these hopes and aspirations continue to be renewed for future generations, even as they were for Martin Luther King, Jr.

David Wayne has been my truest and closest blogging friend for what feels like a decade in blog years. My respect for him knows no bounds, and his blogging is the most gracious, yet insightful, I have ever come across. Today I met David, together with his wife and daughter, and became even more impressed. They are truly a jolly family.

You can tell a lot about a man by his children. There is no doubt that the Jollette is a credit to David. How many 13 year olds are self-assured enough to be outgoing and friendly to two of their father's friends? How many are interested in their father's blog? I hope Tamasin, my 9 year old, remains interested in my blog when she is 13. The Jollies homeschool, and the Jollette is living proof that a homeschooled kid can be even more sociable than the average school-educated child.

We all spoke about blogging, and it was amazing to me how well I felt I knew David already. I'm really glad that the first Presbyterians I have ever knowingly met in the flesh were the Jollies.

We resisted the temptation to get into any theological debates - that can be done online! David was amazed at the almost total absence of Presbyterians in England. He then said that if I wanted to meet Baptists, I should head south where "there are more Southern Baptists than people!"

David spoke about his reasons to start a blog, which were very much like mine. He wanted to practice his writing and organise his thoughts. We reminisced about our blogging through TULIP and what we thought was the first charismatic/cessationist debate ever in the blogosphere. Our tag blogging days were great fun - I hope we can return to that level of interaction one day.

I had a fairly typical lunch for this trip, and despite my wife's sensible advice, we didn't order one meal to share between three!

We had a fun time, and we had a wander with the Jollies through the National Air and Space Museum. Seeing the vision, drive, and determination of the Wright brothers and the space pioneers was striking. On this trip I have seen the first car, made only a decade or so before the first plane, and the first space capsule. Amazing to think of the progress made in the last 120 years!

UPDATE
Sorry, John Schroeder! How could I forget you are Presbyterian?! So I am afraid I was wrong to say that the Jollies were the first.

One of the things that has struck me on this trip is the global family of the Church. I have been so well treated by Christians here (and in the last town I was in, too). Being in Christ's family gives you brothers and sisters wherever in the world you may be.

It's an amazing thing for me as I begin to be immersed in the life of Covenant Life Church. Travis Earles, who is an old friend of mine, is serving us wonderfully. He selflessly picked Tope and me up late at the airport. He will show us the sights today.

Food is very important when you are traveling. I always like to sample the authentic local cuisine. In this case that meant a "small" 14 ounce steak. The largest on the menu was 32 ounces - that's enough to feed a family!

So, two heavy meat-filled meals (not to mention breakfast!) and I have been exposed to America's finest. Beats the French restaurants which always give you TINY portions, but I think I had enough calories yesterday to last me for a week!

Off to D.C. later today . . . .

Well, I was lucky enough to get some time to take in some U.S. culture today, as you can see from the following photos. It was great to meet a Christian brother who took time out of his day to show me around. We had a lot of fun. There are two questions posed by these photos:

1. Will I be able to eat anything at all this evening?

2. Will Mohler and the rest of the SBC guys denounce me as a heretic for drinking American beer?

Well, here I am . . . sitting in a hotel business centre marveling at what we all take for granted these days. Having been able to deal with yesterday's emails on the plane (yes, it was in flight-safe mode!) thanks to my Blackberry, and today, thanks to that and the fax machine, all my work can be dealt with just as though I was in the UK! The thought of being in America so quickly, let alone being able to carry out business here so easily, would have been unimaginable by our ancestors.

In a funny way I quite like traveling, as it seems to prompt me to think about life and things that are often taken for granted. Technology really is fantastic, but what is so valuable is the way it brings people together across continents. This has really struck me today - I have connected this morning, either on the phone or via GoogleTalk, with my secretary, another colleague, my wife, my mother, the JollyBlogger (whom I will meet face-to-face for the first time on Friday), two friends from home, a Christian brother who is going to show me some sights today, and my editorial assistant. People brought together by technology - again something we take for granted and shouldn't.

Thanks to the technology God enabled us to create, I also made a connection I would never have done otherwise with several people in D.C., which has led to the fantastic opportunity I have to be immersed in Covenant Life Church this weekend. The boundaries between real life and my online personality are beginning to blurr in a big way this week! Putting faces to names with which I've become familiar will be a fantastic experience, I'm sure, as will seeing all the places that I've grown to love through watching my favorite TV show - the West Wing!

Every journey comes to an end eventually. Having spent almost no time in the last 48 hours asleep (I was packing when I should have been sleeping) and 20 hours since my taxi collected me from my house, I am finally in my hotel. This should be by far the worst travel day of the whole trip. Both flights were delayed for an hour on the tarmac - it's strange how knowing we are not making any progress is frustrating. I almost missed my connection as well! Now it's over, and I am just glad to be here!

I am on a journey that will take me through five different airports in the next week. Already I am missing home and my lovely wife and kids, who were all sleeping as I left. But journeys like this pay our family bills, and I think this time I will bring the kids home some presents!

Time in airports can be put to good use, redeeming the time by reading or just in thinking. Right now the words from one of Tim's posts at WorshipGod06 are going round in my mind - the idea that the Bible is not a biography of a dead God. I am eager that these few days will lead me to living the reality of authentic experiential Christianity more than before. I want to know the God of the Bible better each day!

I am thrilled to have the chance to spend a weekend immersed in the home church of C. J. and Josh. It's a great church, and I want to learn from them.

Well, I'm off for a three-day blog hiatus. This is caused neither by a holiday, nor sickness, but by work.

You know the score by now . . . if you are desperate to read good stuff – what are you doing here anyway? Follow the Warnie headlines, or read some MARTYN LLOYD-JONES or JOHN PIPER posts or explore the rest of my archives. Failing that, you could always go buy yourself some discounted Logos Bible Software and get into studying the Bible in depth with this fantastic tool.

What have you got to look forward to on my return? Well, more on the charismatic debate with Dan Phillips – I honestly haven’t forgotten; I've just been too busy. One thing which I was busy with is a major article which uses Greek and everything. I used the Libronix Software heavily for that, and it is currently giving my editorial assistant nightmares! The article will probably be serialized in the end.

There will, of course, be lots of other stuff, but like I always say, the best stuff on this blog is the stuff not on this blog. Whilst I am busy working, why not go read some stuff written by the Warnies . . . it will do you good!

Hello, Tamasin here! I would just like to tell you a funny story about my youngest brother Joel.

Once we all went to the prayer meeting together as a family and near the end there was a time where people were praying for one another. My mum was looking after Joel, and asked him to pray. So Joel said, assuming that this was the only prayer that existed, 'Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for this lovely food, Amen!' And I thought it was hilarious!!

Well, here I am — just back from holiday — and what do I find? Talk about whilst the cat's away the mice will play?!?

Over at TeamPyro, Dan has a four part response to my set of questions on tongues and gifts which I bashed out quickly before I left. I have read all of Dan’s posts and every one of the comments. Sadly, it seems that there are few, if any, charismatics who read TeamPyro, or if they do, they seem too frit of Dan to respond!

I want to say right at the outset that I respect and admire Dan for taking the time to take me to task so comprehensively. I have never read a better theological discussion on “the other side.” It is my opinion that theology should be written in community, and to be honest, this kind of interaction helps me to understand how and why people whom I respect come to different conclusions than I do. Perhaps blogging may eventually lead to some kind of theological convergence on these and other controversial issues. I love the fact that in Dan I can interact with someone who is no straw man of my creation. Dan does, at times, extend what I said in my post further than I would have wanted to go myself before demolishing the morphed viewpoint, but even in so doing, it is helpful for me to understand how I am perceived by others.

I loved the broadly generous nature of his comments, and the discussion that ensued — for example, the way in which one of his commenters, Centurion, said, “Unfortunately, Adrian is the other side right now." It seems to me that behind that comment is a whole bunch of "other stuff" that could be said, and which would go something like this . . . “Adrian is someone who, most of the time, we're happy to agree with — if only he didn’t have those crazy charismatic ideas!” If I have “interpreted” this comment correctly, well then guys . . . the feeling is mutual!

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, there have been a few other responses; here are the ones I've found — by all means use the comment box on this post to let me know of other posts on blogs you know about — you can use the following code within a comment: <a href=”http://yoururl.com/”>your link text </a>

Other posts on the tongues debate:

• TrueGrit

• Sam Storms

• Dan Phillips' own blog, Biblical Christianity

• Wilderness Voice

• English Muffin (a fair few comments also here)

• Intellectuelle

• Centurion (over at TeamPyro)

• Lig Duncan (perhaps wisely) steers clear of the tongues issue, but has a definition of being filled with the Spirit with which I fully agree.

• Mathew Sims promises to join the fun too. (Incidentally, he is just TOO far ahead in his blogging through the T4G statement series — I will have to get back to that soon myself!)

• Charis doesn’t talk about the tongues issue, but has a great post on harsh words and gentle words which we would all do well to continue to remember as well . . . and as we have done so far in this debate!

I will, of course, have to find the time to answer Dan’s great posts. (As I have said before, I don’t have to agree with the conclusions of a post for me to think it's a great one!). I can't promise when I will get to them, however, as it is my intention (at least for the present) for this to be a relatively light week of blogging — sort of like easing my way back into "normal life" a bit slowly! I am sure that some of you will suspect that I will find the bait of these posts irresistible . . . but I plan to try!

Perhaps you, my readers, can help me resist the temptation — as of yet, the charismatic view does not seem to have been well represented in the discussions in Dan’s comment section or elsewhere in the blogosphere. I fear that many charismatics may have deserted TeamPyro whilst cessationists may have deserted this blog! So, my charismatic friends, now is your chance to show why I do not need to respond to Dan just yet! When I do get round to it, what should I say? How should I reply?

For that matter, any cessationist readers I have left are welcome to discuss any aspect of this matter here where I have none of the foibles of Dan about off-topic comments. Comment away — just keep it civil!

Well, I am back! Normal blogging will resume around here shortly – well, maybe not normal – it is me we are talking about!

Anyway, good old Paul Schafer, the King of Lists, has generated a list of most of my personal and family posts from the previous years. I have had a lot of fun going back and re-reading some of these – some of the ones which report what my kids said are priceless – you can expect to see more of such personal stuff here in the months to come!

1. Children are a blessing


2. Learning to cope with partners who travel


3. Out of the mouths of babes and infants


4. A simple faith


5. Children are a gift


6. My son's trust in Jesus


7. Which came first the chicken or the egg?


8. Blogging for the children


9. A Warnock family joke


10. Tamasin awaits...


11. How to treat your wife?


12. Christmas through the eyes of a 4 year old boy


13. Valentines Day - Urgent Reminder


14. Out of the mouths of babes...(Tamasin).


15. Out of the mouths of babes...(Henry).


16. Out of the mouths...


17. What are the most important things in life?


18. Rip Uncle


19. A personal Christmas message and season greeting...


20. My Story part 1


21. My Story part 2


22. The Simple Gospel in 10 points


23. Why I love a Simple Gospel


24. Tamasin's children story - The Sornocks


25. Poems about school colours and bedtime


26. UK Mother's Day Poem: My Mum is


27. Henry Warnock's first story


28. My Story part 3


29. Tamasin's art


30. My whatever the famous whatever - by Tamasin Warnock


31. 10 years on and still in love


32. The Gigantic blogger - by Henry Warnock


33. Setting life goals


34. What is love?


35. Teaching kids about life's knocks


36. Children's book review: most of all Jesus loves you


37. Nonsense poem


38. My Story part 4


39. A Christmas poem by Tamasin


40. Father Warnie


41. Mother Warnie


42. Warnie Junior


43. Running the race


44. My father the slouch


45. Tamasin again


46. My dads most embarassing moment


47. Crazy Adrian


48. Goalie Adrian


49. My wife the cake decorator


50. Birthday boy


51. Happy Birthday Tamasin 9 today


52. 4 reasons why blogging has been light


53. My fifth reason not to blog


54. A family at play


55. Enjoying London's green belt


56. Tamasin's lauches her own website


57. Totally Tamasin (updated today!)

Tags family

The last three days have been the first since the onset of my shingles that I have attempted to sit up at a computer desk for a full day's work. (I have worked other days, but mostly from my bed - half-lying down puts less strain on the affected nerve!). Unfortunately the nerve pain has reminded me that it is still very much there and ready to punish me for foolishly thinking I should not spend my life lying in bed!

I am fortunate, though, that over the course of the last few weeks the pain has been slowly improving. Some people suffer the severe - literally excruciating - pain for months or even years. It seems that if my current progress to date is anything to go by, I will not be one of those. For that, I praise God, and thank you all for your prayers.

This enforced inactivity has made me more grateful for the times I am able to get out of bed. It has also made me glad for the job I have that allows me to work from home, and - at least after the first ten days or so after the pain eased - from bed.

All this has also made me very thankful for the wonderful wife I have who works so hard for me and the family. I intend to treat our family holiday this year with the respect it deserves. There will be no Internet cafe trips. No email access. No blog posts. In short, I will be en famille for a little over a week. I will, of course, read, but I am eager, as much as my pain allows me, to get off my bed and make sure that my darling Andree gets a break this next week.

Having shingles has also made me realise how glad I should be of the strength to do practical things. So, as I continue to improve, I am hoping to get out and do stuff a whole lot more - doing mundane things like loading a dishwasher actually makes me feel so glad these days to be healthy enough to do them!

Right now, I wish I could be out of this bed and up and helping my wife who is busying herself getting our stuff ready for the holiday. Once I am physically able, I plan to make sure Andree gets a whole lot more help from me than she sometimes has had.

But, don't go away quite yet - I still have one more post for you tomorrow which will contain a fantastic special offer for you, my blog readers - which will also give you loads of stuff to read while I am away.

In fact, you don't need to go away at all - now that I have the "Warnie Headlines," you can find some of the best Christian bloggers' latest work by coming right here!

I will leave you with a list of my favorite posts, just in case you are one of the very few people in the world who are as addicted to reading this stuff as I am to writing it! If this isn't enough for you, book reviews and interviews can be found in the sidebars!

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE POSTS

A New Perspective on Paul
Apostles are Meant for Today
Blogging Principles
Churches that Change the World
Del.icio.us Fun for Bloggers
Disagreeing with the Jollyblogger
Don't Listen to Me - What Do I Know?
Free From the Yoke of Legalism!
How to be a Successful Blogger
It's All About You, Jesus - Calvinism and Worship
Loving Even Our Blogging Enemies
My Favorite Living Preachers
My Story
On Pastoring and Christian Counseling
Preaching to the Unconverted?
Preaching with Passion and Imagination
Sex Survey Results
Sufficient and Efficient Grace - Spurgeon, Tongues, and the Toronto Blessing
Teamwork that will Change the World
The Simple Gospel Explained
The Toronto Blessing
Together for the Gospel Conference 2006 - My Round-Up Post
Together On a Mission – the newfrontiers Conference Summary Post
What Does True Preaching Look Like?
What is a Neo-Liberal?
What is a Reformed Charismatic?
What is Love?
Year in Review - 2005

This photo should join the series of "Adrian trying to do physical activities and looking quite silly in the process" shots. Still, at least I tried!

Dave Routledge posted this picture of me looking remarkably relaxed before the England World Cup game. Whilst some of his comments about the day are 'filthy lies' and half-truths (!) he's right about one thing - my mind was on the sermon, not the game. I thought I would try and understand the attraction of soccer this time round for the sake of my son, Henry, however.

With a bit of help from her dad, here is Tamasin's Website.

Here is the text of the site, in case it ever changes . . . .

Totally Tamasin
Hi! This is Tamasin here. Welcome to MY website! My cool friend, Finlay, also has a webpage of her own called ChocolateCats3 - go and leave her a message!

My Favorite Jokes
Why did the dinosaur cross the road?
Because it wanted to crush the cars! ... (I made this up and then shouted it out to a whole load of people when I was just seven and everyone laughed!)

Doctor, Doctor! I think I need glasses!
You certainly do, sir, this is a restaurant. (This is really my Dad's favourite joke. He ALWAYS laughs when we say it!)

Why don't you see giraffes in pre-school?
Because they are already in high school!

What's a barbeque?
It's a line of people dancing like barbies!' ... (I made that one up myself!)

What is a blogger's favorite meal? (A blog is an online diary.)
Spaghetti Blog-onase! (My mum made this up!)

My Dad's blog - Posts about me or written by me.

Happy Birthday Tamasin 9 Today!
My ninth birthday.

A Christmas Poem by Tamasin
Here is a Christmas poem that I wrote, and I also performed it in front of my school.

My Whatever the Famous Whatever
Another poem by me! Read it! In my opinion it's quite funny.

My Dad's Most Embarassing Moment

Dad took pictures like this in his boxers. DON'T MISS THIS ONE, WHATEVER YOU DO!

A Warnock Family Joke
What to say when your Dad embarrasses you by telling you he loves you.

My Father the Slouch
See how lazy my dad really is!

My Mum Is
A poem for Mother's Day.

Thought I'd share a few photos with you from my recent trip to Hungary. Enjoy . . .

The plan at the moment is to return to the �Sealed with the Spirit� quotes next week, but for now let�s allow MLJ to reply to C. J. Mahaney�s question �What is the gospel?� The Doctor does seem to agree with Mohler that in a sense the gospel is simple, and in another it is incomprehensible, but what strikes me about these quotes is the stress on the RESULTS of the gospel in our lives. Letting the gospel do its work before we fully understand it sounds like a very sensible approach, especially as, this side of eternity, we are clearly NEVER going to fully understand it! This piece reminded me of the controversy that surrounded a previous post of mine where I tried to explain the simple gospel.

I will let the Doctor speak for himself, but notice the way in which, after he has addressed the simplicity and directness of the gospel, he almost seems to begin addressing the exact same vagueness that is so prevalent today in those who would like to reinterpret classical Christianity. There really isn�t anything new under the sun! His words live on to challenge and inform a new generation�

� . . . we are impressed at the very outset by the fact that the gospel, in complete and entire contrast to all rival ideas and theories, is characterized above all else by an essential simplicity and directness.

�I would not be understood as saying that the gospel is simple in the sense that I or anyone else can understand it or grasp it fully with the mind, but rather that it is essentially simple in its view of life and in the way it deals with life. As regards the gospel itself and all it means and implies, we have nothing to do but to acknowledge our feebleness and our nothingness and to cry out with St. Paul, �Great is the mystery of godliness� (1 Timothy 3:16). It is baffling in its immensity. Its very presuppositions transcend our highest categories of thought and of philosophy. We shall never fully understand the gospel itself to all eternity; but while we cannot claim that we can understand the gospel, or say that it itself is simple, we nevertheless can understand its view of life and grasp it. Hence we may say that its main characteristics are simplicity and directness.

�. . . there are large numbers of people outside the church and outside Christ at the present time solely because they have not grasped that all-important distinction. They have confused understanding the working of the gospel with understanding the gospel itself. They seem to have determined not to allow the gospel to work on their lives until they understand the gospel itself. Their reason for this course, they say, is that they do not desire to commit intellectual suicide and to submit themselves passively to what they do not understand.

�The fear of passivity is a genuine and good one, for there are many powers about us which are ready to possess us; and it is generally the uncritical, those who refuse to think and who will not discriminate, who become the first victims of the latest craze or cult. The gospel places no premium on our ignorance. Indeed, it teaches us that we must use the mind and the powers with which God has endowed us. But when it is suggested that by submitting ourselves to the gospel and by allowing it to influence our lives, we are committing intellectual suicide simply because we cannot understand the gospel itself, then it seems clear that we are guilty of a fallacy and are behaving in an unreasonable and irrational manner.

�Let me illustrate. It is clear, is it not, that we know much more about light and heat than we know about the sun itself? In other words, we understand a great deal about the functions and the working of the sun while the sun itself in its essential nature and constitution remains a mystery to us . . . .�

�In the religious and the theological realm it is much the same. The mystery of godliness remains a mystery and will ever remain so. The thing itself, as it was conceived and planned in the mind of God, is inscrutable and infinite; and as we contemplate it, our minds are baffled. But that is not the case with regard to the effects and the results and the working out of the gospel. Here we can apply a number of tests. We can compare the Old Testament and the New Testament. We can compare Scripture with Scripture, and we have expert manuals of instruction written by the apostles and others, and afterwards expounded by the saints and fathers, none of whom can be charged with lack of intellectuality. It is then in regard to the gospel view of life and its proffered remedy for the ills of life that we can say that the gospel is characterized above all else, and in contradistinction to all other ideas, by this essential directness and simplicity. And this is the explanation of the apparent paradox whereby the gospel has baffled and is still baffling the greatest philosophers the world has ever known, and yet the gospel can save a little child . . . .�

�Indeed, it is possible to go further and say with reverence that there is nothing so characteristic of God�s work in every realm as its essential simplicity and order. Look where you will, you see that God ever works on an uncomplicated design. See how He repeats the seasons year by year�spring, summer, autumn, winter. Examine a flower, dissect an animal, and you will find that the basic pattern of nature is always simple. Simplicity is God�s method. Is it then reasonable to believe that in the most vital subject of all, the salvation of man and the ordering of his life, God should suddenly jettison His own method and become involved and complex? To suggest that is to suggest a contradiction in the mind of God Himself.

�But one has more than a shrewd suspicion at times that the objection to the directness and simplicity of the gospel is not so purely intellectual as it would have one believe. The real objection is to be found elsewhere. There is nothing quite so convenient and comforting as a sense of vagueness in connection with religion. As long as it is kept nebulous and indefinite, and as long as its followers can be busy with various activities, they can persuade themselves that all is well with them. In the absence of clear, precise definitions no discomfort is caused. The more complicated the religion, the more accommodating and comfortable does it prove. There is nothing so disconcerting as a plain, direct gospel which, stripping away all mere decorations and embellishments and ignoring all nonessentials and make-believes, exposes the naked soul and flashes on to it the light of God. How much easier it is to appreciate the ceremony and ritual, to indulge in high-sounding, idealistic generalities, and to be busy with philanthropic actions�how much more gratifying to the natural self are these than to face the simple direct questions of the Word of God. Idealists and humanists are rarely, if ever, persecuted.�

�. . . That there is nothing so characteristic of it as its essential simplicity is seen most clearly perhaps if we look at it in the light of some words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, �The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.� (Luke 11:34). If we work out the picture found in those words, we shall see plainly the simplicity of the gospel.�

�Bearing that in mind, let us now see what the gospel has to say about life. The first principle is that . . . there is only one thing that needs to be examined�namely, the eye, the centre, the soul . . . Everything . . . depends upon the eye . . . . How masterly is the gospel, and how thoroughly it knows us! How direct it is in its approach! Ignoring the trivialities and the nonessentials, it comes at once to the heart of the matter . . . .�

�How complex and how complicated is the modern treatment of the parts of man�s life! How futile, too, when the central principle is not right. If the eye is evil, the whole body also must be full of darkness, however great the struggle to make the different parts light. If the well is poisoned, the stream issuing from it must constantly contain poison . . . .�

�What needs to be treated therefore is the centre, the heart, the cause of the trouble and not the various manifestations . . . It is not what man does, or what he knows, or anything about him which needs to be put right, but man himself in his fundamental, central relationship to God. It is a poor physician who treats the symptoms and complications only and ignores the disease. And the disease is the soiled and tarnished condition of man�s soul as the result of sin. His spiritual eye is beclouded and blinded. The light of God cannot enter it. All the darkness within is due to that and that alone. That alone needs to be treated. How simple and direct is the gospel!�

The above excerpts were taken from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Truth Unchanged Unchanging, Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1993, chapter 4, pp. 81-98.

In the introduction to the book, written by Lane T. Dennis, Ph.D., President, Good News Publishers, in February 1993, he writes:

"The message of Martyn Lloyd-Jones clearly stands the test of time. More than this, it speaks to our own generation like a prophetic voice from the past. With penetrating insight into our own situation today, he calls us back to the timeless truth of the gospel�to Truth Unchanged, Unchanging.

"The chapters in this book were first given by Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones as lectures at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, in 1947. They were in fact the inaugural lectures of the Jonathan Blanchard Lecture series and were presented at the invitation of Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, then president of the Wheaton Alumni Association."

My first born is nine years old today and quite the young lady. Fortunately, however, she is not too old for a new cuddly toy friend! My responsibility as a husband and father takes the prime call on my time, so no more blogging for me today!

 

This photo of Henry proves that there is hope that at least the next generation of Warnocks might have more prowess with a ball than me! What concentration! What racket control! Wimbledon here we come........?

 

Some of you that know me will be interested to learn that I have finally taken up football in the interests of encouraging my eldest son, Henry. If you think I look scared, you are right!

 

Over on Together for the Gospel Al says of CBMW: "Randy Stinson does a great job as executive director and Lig as hairman". I reckon that it was a deliberate mistake and was a joke at poor CJ's follicularly-challenged state (ie CJs bald and Lig isnt!)

I am enjoying their blog more than ever go read its much more interesting than mine is at the moment, especially as Tamasin and Henry have been hijacking it!