Christendom bulletin

John Stott has been given a CBE. According to the press release from the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, "Dr. Stott says he is grateful that the citation reads 'for services to Christian Scholarship and the Christian World'. At the same time he is somewhat embarrassed by the continuing reference to the 'British Empire' which has long ago ceased to exist!"

For anyone who’s not quite sure who John Stott is, he was named last year by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Although this might seem far-fetched, given that at least in the UK few outside of Christian circles would have heard of him, I think it could well be true in terms of influence. In England he’s known for his books, his preaching and his leadership in numerous nationally significant Christian organisations. However, his significance internationally may well be greater, in his drafting of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974, and his far-reaching commitment to encouraging the emergence of strong church leaders in the majority world, as embodied in the Langham Partnership.

(For church history anoraks, how would you tackle this as an essay question?:
‘The Lausanne Congress is to evangelicalism as Vatican II is to Roman Catholicism.’ Discuss.)

John Piper has undergone surgery, which appears to have been successful. I recommend looking at his last sermon to his congregation before going into surgery.

Some interesting Christian-related stories in ‘mainstream’ media:Academics fight rise of creationism at universities, Bible stories ‘eyewitness accounts’ ("A leading biblical scholar is to use a series of prestigious Scottish theology lectures to make the controversial claim that the Gospels represent eyewitness accounts of historical events." - Shock horror!), 'God' faces name-change deadline ("A US man who signs himself 'God' has been told to use his real name by 14 February - or lose his driving licence. "), Italy judge throws out Jesus case ("An atheist who sued a small-town priest for saying that Jesus Christ existed has had his case thrown out of court. ").

Given that we’re partway through the HT church weekend on ‘The Holy Spirit and the Vibrant Christian Life’, I thought I might recommend Simon Ponsonby’s lectures on the doctrine of the Spirit for the ‘School of Theology’ at St Aldate’s, Oxford. This is an ongoing series over the course of this year. You can find them as MP3 files at St Aldate’s Media (this link will take you to all of their recordings of Simon Ponsonby – the School of Theology sessions are marked). Simon Ponsonby is the “pastor of theology” at St Aldate’s, having previously been in charge of student work. I think it’s an encouraging development that a church known for being “charismatic” has chosen to employ someone whose job is basically to study, teach, preach and write systematic theology.

Other things which are good fun: Together for the Gospel blog (four church leaders from different backgrounds chatting through issues and winding each other up), 9 Marks interviews (half these guys seem to have met in Cambridge, despite being largely American).