Visit to ancient Ephesus

5 men and a boy

using the ancient toilets at the gym

The trip to the ancient city of Ephesus in 2009 was wonderful. The day was sunny and warm but dry. We walked for as much as two hours, stopped for photos and for historical information on display. The apostle Paul preached the gospel for over two years in Ephesus and the message spread around the whole province by word of mouth. In this city, God did extraordinary miracles through a small auditoriumPaul the missionary “so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them”(Acts 19:12). Large parts of the city’s ruins remain well-preserved. As I walked the streets of stones, tested the natural acoustics in the auditoriums, and peered into halls, homes, libraries and gyms and toilets, I imagined Paul and his work in that thriving city. This was my second visit but found it astounding and eye-opeing.

Kenny and Stephen TayA group of us went to visit our friend, Stephen Tay, who had lived in Turkey for 15 years. He was homeward bound. We were there to visit him and carry some of his barang-barang back.

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Preaching to change lives

Tim Keller

Is secret in the method?
Some say that the secret of life changing preaching lies in verse by verse preaching, and preaching through the Bible, book by book.  It is still vaunted that expository preaching is the only way to change lives and grow a church. Then recently Rick Warren have popularised the user-friendly sermon. Of course, accusations of compromise and watering down of the truth swirled around this method. Preaching of the Readers’ Digest sermon with its practical “How to” themes, made sermons more accessible to unbelievers and even believers too but did it really change lives at a deeper level?

Content not methodology
I noticed a cry in the wilderness in recent years. It is a cry for preachers and pastors to preach a gospel-centered and Christ exalting message. I hear it mainly from the reformed and other charismatic pastors. They point us to content not to methodology. There is something here all preachers need to really grasp. When they do it will bring much blessing to their congregations.

Tim Keller on preaching the gospel
Listen to this teaching by Tim Keller. I first heard him at the Global Leadership Summit, Singapore. He gave a word that affirmed what God had been stirring in my heart about the need for Singapore churches to be more “indicative” in their preaching and less “imperative”, as they tend to be now. Tim Keller was speaking at a conference for pastors and the main outline of his talk is that good preaching must be (1) Gospel-centered, (2) Christ-centered, (3) Life-changing on the spot, (4) Culturally transforming. Its about an hour long, with questions and answers at the end.

Tim Keller Feb’09: Preaching the Gospel from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

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