Archive for Reflections
iPhone app review: Logos vs OliveTree BibleReader
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The iPhone Bible app market is really hotting up since Logos entered the market back in November. Since then I’ve been using both Logos and OliveTree’s BibleReader on a daily basis, so you can think of this as a long-term test. It’s worth saying at the outset that both apps are can be downloaded with a small number of bibles and books for free, so you can try them out for yourself. But although you can do a huge amount for free, you’ll need to pay to get the most benefit, and some of the features I refer to below are not available with the free packages – you’ll need paid upgrades. I’m reviewing the top-end packages: Logos Portfolio (version 1.3.0) and BibleReader Scholar’s Collection (version 4.11).
Popularity: 2% [?]
How should Christians give?
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I was once quizzed by a man whose adult daughter had become a Christian and applied for church membership. He himself was not a church-goer and had many questions. One was, ‘What will she have to pay?’. I assured him there would be no charge! ‘But the church must need money,’ he told me. I explained that attenders gave voluntarily. ‘So what will she have to give?’ I told him it was entirely up to her. He kept pressing me for an appropriate amount. ‘What do other people give?’ he wanted to know. I replied, ‘Many Christians believe around 10% of their income would be appropriate’. There was a long silence. My answer had come as a bit of a shock — he’d apparently been thinking that around £50 a year would be adequate! Read More→
Popularity: 1% [?]
Moving from Logos 3 to Logos 4
Posted by: | CommentsWith the release of Logos version 4, a number of users are complaining about features that are missing in the new version. They’re right – but only partially so. There are some important features missing, but Logos has promised to add these back in fairly soon. But more often, the missing features are not missing at all. Logos hasn’t removed things you can do, so much as changed them. As a consequence users need to change their habits in order to make best use of the new features. The video below shows some of the ways I’ve tried to do that. The main point really is that we should not be asking “Why is this feature missing in Logos 4?”, but rather “How best do I accomplish this task in Logos 4?”
If the video above does not work, you can view it on Vimeo.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Two new WordPress plugins
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Forgive the off-topic post, but those of you using WordPress might be interested in two new plugins I’ve written.
Quick Admin Links
Quite possibly the most simple and useful WordPress plug-in you never knew you needed! Quick Admin Links is a small widget. Put it at the top of your sidebar, and it adds some useful admin links on every page, allowing you to add new posts/pages, edit existing posts/pages, go to the admin, or log out. If your theme doesn’t already include edit buttons, and you notice a typo in your post, you have to click on “Site Admin”, then “Manage”, then “Posts”, then type in some search terms, and click “Search”, then click on the post you’re looking for. With Quick Admin Links, you can go straight from your post to the edit screen in just one click.
Style Tweaker
If you’re anything like me, you’re never quite satisfied with WordPress themes, and like to tweak the CSS. Style Tweaker allows you easily edit CSS without uploading files. You can also use it to test CSS before launching it to the world. You can add CSS to the entire website, regardless of what theme is being used, or add it to just the current theme. You can even add CSS that displays only when you are logged on – very useful when you’re playing with a new look, and it’s not quite ready for public viewing.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Reforming the church of England
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I’m currently on holiday in London, and one of the great things about holidays is that it gives you an opportunity to worship with Christians that ordinarily you wouldn’t meet. On this holiday, we worshipped at All Souls Langham Place, and Grace Church, Hackney (a plant from St Helen’s, Bishopsgate).
It was particularly good to be able to worship with evangelical anglicans. Both of the churches we visited are firmly at the centre of true evangelicalism, and are fully committed to the authority of Scripture, and a biblical understanding of justification by faith alone. In both, the sermons were helpful, and (as you’d expect) expounded the Scriptures clearly. Rico Tice’s powerful preaching on the plagues in Egypt was a particular highlight – I could happily have listened for several minutes longer.
Unfortunately, however, the most significant impression left on me from the two services was the contradictions that seem inevitable within evangelical anglicanism. Welsh evangelicalism and evangelical anglicanism have not exactly seen eye to eye, particular since John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones very publically disagreed on how evangelicals should respond to the liberal denominations they find themselves in (oversimplifying, Lloyd-Jones said they should get out, Stott said they should stay in). It is only recently that those barriers are beginning to come down, so I welcomed the opportunity to express that unity, albeit in a very small way.
Popularity: 3% [?]
A plea for strategic, planned investment in theological training
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In this final post looking at funding theological education, it’s time to (finally!) come to some answers. Most men starting in the pastoral ministry are in their thirties, with a little life experience and some theological training behind them. I don’t know the exact figure, but thirty to thirty-five would seem a reasonable estimate of the age of most first-time ministers. If so, by God’s grace, that man should have thirty to thirty five years in the ministry before retirement.
Surely churches who will receive these ministers will want to bear some of the burden for training them. If this is the case, the figures above would seem to suggest that churches with ministers ought to be setting aside around £750-£850 a year to ensure that when the time comes for them to call a new pastor, they have contributed sufficient funds to train one.
Popularity: 2% [?]
