Firbush Retreats

Firbush retreats are organized and led by Robert T. Walker. Firbush retreats are designed to make the best theology accessible to as many people as possible and especially those not trained in theology and often not familiar with routine technical terms. They combine times of worship and prayer with reflection on a theme related to Torrance theology. For more information see https://tftorrance.org/firbush.

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Firbush Retreat Summer 2015
Robert T. Walker, "The Gospel and Evangelism in T. F. Torrance"
https://tftorrance.org/firbushS2015

The audio recording for this presentation is available on the Firbush Retreat section of the website for the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship. The following AI transcript is too rough to rely upon, but perhaps useful for word searches and time-stamps. It is unretouched; if anyone wishes to listen to it and clean it up we will be happy to post an improved version (contact the webmasters). We invite speakers to send us slides for their talks, which we will post alongside the audios and transcripts. If any speaker wishes to have their talk removed from the website, just let us know and we'll take down both the audio and the transcript.

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00:00-00:16
The Gospel and Evangelism in the Theology of T.F. Torrance. A quick sketch of T.F. to start with.


00:16-00:27
There are many sides to him. He was the minister of the Gospel, a theologian, tremendous energy, intellect, warmth and interest in people,


00:27-00:36
a prodigious memory and an astonishing breadth of knowledge. When he came back from the Second World War, he said to his mother,


00:36-00:46
"Mother, I'm not cut out to be an academic. I'm a man of action." And that was very typical of T.F.


00:46-01:02
He was renowned as an academic and yet he was primarily a minister of the Gospel and he was guided throughout his career by a keen evangelistic impulse.


01:02-01:15
That came out in everything he did, whether it was parish visitation, preaching, new college lectures or his dialogue with science and modern culture.


01:15-01:29
In his groundbreaking work on science and theology, he regarded himself as "helping to evangelize the foundations of scientific culture."


01:29-01:38
So all the various parts of his career were knit together by what was his initial calling as he felt it to be a mystery to China.


01:38-01:49
It was H.R. McIntosh at New College who persuaded him that the best way to fulfill that was to equip people with a thorough understanding of the Gospel,


01:49-01:55
which in the long run would be more effective and of more benefit to the Church.


01:55-02:05
The twin evangelistic impulse of the Gospel. There are two grounds why we have to take the Gospel out to the ends of the earth.


02:05-02:14
One is the unconditional love of God for all, which means the command to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.


02:14-02:24
But second, there's the significance of Christ's humanity in incarnation, death and resurrection.


02:24-02:45
The fact that God himself has become man in Christ means the breaking into humanity of the very life of God and the establishment of the kingdom in Christ's risen humanity.


02:45-02:55
The resurrection and ascension mean the new creation has actually begun in the person of Jesus.


02:55-03:03
And it is this which imports such an overwhelming sense of joy and triumph to the Gospel,


03:03-03:12
and is something that comes across especially strongly in Atonement, the second volume of Torrance's lectures.


03:12-03:21
The Gospel as Christ himself. This can't be overemphasised.


03:21-03:31
The Gospel is Christ himself. It's nothing more and nothing less than the living Christ himself, Christ in all his wholeness.


03:31-03:37
It is not just about Christ. It is Christ himself.


03:37-03:45
And here we have the fundamental point that God, when he makes himself known, always makes himself known.


03:45-03:52
He doesn't give truths about himself. And that just simply cannot be overemphasised.


03:52-03:58
It means that in all our preaching we're not simply telling people about Jesus,


03:58-04:07
but preaching and praying in such a way that they will meet him themselves.


04:07-04:15
And we'll come back to that later, but that can't be overemphasised.


04:15-04:26
We are preaching Christ himself and trying to do it in such a way that we're not using rhetoric or our own personality,


04:26-04:30
but pointing to Christ.


04:30-04:35
Next question. Who is Jesus Christ?


04:35-04:44
And this is the fundamental priority of the 'who' question above all 'how' questions.


04:44-04:48
Most questions in the Church are 'how' questions.


04:48-04:51
We're not doing so well, how can we do a bit better?


04:51-04:59
And the Church of Scotland at any rate sets up committee after committee to try to work out how we can do things better,


04:59-05:01
how we can stop the decline.


05:01-05:06
And when that question comes first, then it's a disaster.


05:06-05:11
All 'how' questions can only really be answered by the 'how' question.


05:11-05:16
The primary 'how' question is 'who is Jesus Christ?'


05:16-05:24
Jesus Christ is God and man. God and man.


05:24-05:28
He is the living God become man.


05:28-05:36
In all he is and does, therefore, Jesus Christ is not just God, but man.


05:36-05:47
And he includes in himself everything that he was and is and did and taught as man.


05:47-05:55
So his humanity and everything he did in his humanity is a fundamental part of who he is.


05:55-06:02
Jesus Christ is his person and his work.


06:02-06:10
One whole Christ in his living person in unity of word and act.


06:10-06:13
The first 'how' question.


06:13-06:20
How do we preach Christ?


06:20-06:23
Four points to answering this.


06:23-06:32
The first point is that Christ preaches himself and that's back to a 'who' question.


06:32-06:34
How do we preach Christ?


06:34-06:42
Only Christ can preach himself and that is part of his heavenly ministry as king, priest and prophet.


06:42-06:46
But he wills to do it through our witness.


06:46-06:53
TF makes the point that in his ministry on earth it's appropriate to think of Christ as prophet, priest and king.


06:53-07:01
But once he's ascended it's appropriate to think of king, priest and prophet.


07:01-07:05
So Christ preaches himself through our witness.


07:05-07:09
And here prayer is fundamental.


07:09-07:17
Because we can't preach Christ but only witness to him in all our attempting to preach Christ we have to pray that he will speak.


07:17-07:28
And the point I think is extremely important is that everybody in the church, everybody in the congregation should be praying in the same way.


07:28-07:34
And we should educate our congregations that they should all be praying all the time.


07:34-07:39
That the word they hear is Christ preaching to them.


07:39-07:46
So the whole church becomes aware that this is not simply something that we're doing, it's Christ doing it.


07:46-07:52
And if we all prayed that the word would speak that would make a real difference.


07:52-07:56
So one, Christ preaches himself.


07:56-07:59
Two, only through the spirit.


07:59-08:09
Christ speaks his word to us and to others through us, through his spirit opening us up to understand it.


08:09-08:15
And all that he has done and is for us in his person, word and act.


08:15-08:18
And again we have the critical need for prayer.


08:18-08:31
It's only through the spirit we can have magnificent theology, a beautiful way of putting the gospel across in accessible language.


08:31-08:38
But we cannot give people the means to understand what we're saying, no matter how simple it is.


08:38-08:41
That's only the spirit who can open their eyes.


08:41-08:46
And so again prayer is fundamental.


08:46-08:50
The third point, how do we preach Christ?


08:50-09:01
It's a point that T.F. made a lot of, although it doesn't come across very often in his published writings.


09:01-09:04
When I was licensed to preach, he preached at that.


09:04-09:11
And it's the point that I remember vividly, his making this point.


09:11-09:17
He speaks about it as the arcane discipline of the Christian.


09:17-09:22
An arcane is a slightly older fashioned word, but it just means hidden secret.


09:22-09:25
Something that lies behind the surface that most people aren't aware of.


09:25-09:29
He calls it the arcane discipline of the Christian.


09:29-09:38
And what he meant was that behind all ministry we had to have the essential making of time


09:38-09:46
for the hidden discipline of daily devotion, study of the Bible, worship, prayer and theological inquiry.


09:46-09:55
And for him that was absolutely fundamental to all ministry, certainly to his ministry.


09:55-10:04
When he gave us his lectures at New College, he used to pray in his room before and after each lecture.


10:04-10:09
When he gave his lectures, he always opened in prayer.


10:09-10:15
Some of the Americans used to joke that they couldn't understand a word he said.


10:15-10:21
But they're always very capable to write down or try to write down every word of his prayer.


10:21-10:25
Because they said if they had the prayer, they knew what the whole lecture was about.


10:25-10:29
And the prayer was a beautiful summary of the whole lecture.


10:29-10:37
And he used to shut his eyes really tightly and it was though he was shutting out everything but the word.


10:37-10:40
And his prayers were certainly beautiful.


10:40-10:46
So that's the arcane discipline of the Christian that should apply to everybody.


10:46-10:53
Whether they're supposedly ministers or ordained clergy or not.


10:53-11:01
Fourth point, how do we preach Christ? We need to preach the whole truth of Christ.


11:01-11:07
All theological doctrines are interconnected.


11:07-11:12
And weakness or distortion in one affects all the rest.


11:12-11:18
And this is very similar to what Paul says about the Christian body.


11:18-11:27
The metaphor of all being parts of a body and when one part isn't working or sick, then that affects the whole body.


11:27-11:34
And if one of our doctrines is lacking or distorted, that affects all the other doctrines.


11:34-11:41
So Christian doctrines are interconnected and each doctrine affects the whole.


11:41-11:50
But there are large chunks of doctrine we never hear a sermon on.


11:50-11:54
How many times have you heard a sermon on the ascension for example?


11:54-11:58
You can name quite a list.


11:58-12:04
So if we don't preach the whole truth, we are weakening all the different strands.


12:04-12:08
But when we see the whole truth, it's much much more powerful.


12:08-12:12
So it's important that we try to preach the whole truth of Christ.


12:12-12:17
So that's the first question, how do we preach Christ?


12:17-12:20
The second is, how do we reach people?


12:20-12:23
Two points here.


12:23-12:26
One is we reach them where they are.


12:26-12:33
Using their language, their social media, speaking to them in ways they understand and that makes sense to them.


12:33-12:40
We've heard from Baxter, he spent a lifetime trying to do that.


12:40-12:44
But that's what we're all aiming for.


12:44-12:49
There's a book, Gospel Church and Ministry, it was edited by Jock,


12:49-12:58
which is papers of T.F. that are either out of print or some even haven't been printed or hard to get hold of.


12:58-13:06
There's an address he gave to the presbytery quite early on,


13:06-13:15
it's really quite instructive how foresightful he was about the need for the church to keep up with modern media.


13:15-13:21
There are some very strong things to say about the way the church has become antiquated.


13:21-13:26
So we need to reach people where they are.


13:26-13:32
While at the same time being true to the whole meaning and demands of the gospel.


13:32-13:36
And both of those things are important.


13:36-13:46
Because next mean heading, the gospels perennial conflict with human patterns of life and thought.


13:46-13:50
There's a fundamental conflict between the two aims we have,


13:50-13:56
to reach people where they are and to be true to the gospel.


13:56-14:03
For example the whole difference between Hebrew emphasis on word and the Greek and modern emphasis on sight.


14:03-14:11
Between covenant, unconditional love and contract.


14:11-14:15
The living God and a dualistic distant God.


14:15-14:24
Somehow we have to reach people where they are but be aware of the pitfalls of falling into their frameworks.


14:24-14:29
And the need for the gospel in its power to transform their ways of thinking.


14:29-14:37
Dualism. I was interested that this was mentioned by Jenny last night.


14:37-14:48
Dualism is a deep seated presupposition of a rigid axiomatic fundamental gap between God and the world.


14:48-14:54
Such that God is automatically excluded from the world.


14:54-14:59
And that affects all of us much more than we are aware of.


14:59-15:04
Right down to the very roots of our whole way of thinking.


15:04-15:11
And TF theology is a sustained attack on all the basic presuppositions of dualism.


15:11-15:17
And it's a relentless working out throughout the whole range of Christian doctrine,


15:17-15:22
of a thoroughly incarnational, Christocentric and Trinitarian theology.


15:22-15:31
The dualism that TF attacks is a damaging presupposition with far reaching consequences.


15:31-15:36
Not just for our whole culture but for both sides of the theological divide.


15:36-15:46
Where both evangelical as well as liberal can find their doctrines unhealthily slanted if not drastically distorted.


15:46-15:58
For example, if you are on the liberal side and you are a dualist, then automatically there is no incarnation.


15:58-16:08
Jesus cannot be God, only man. There are no miracles, there is no breaking of scientific law.


16:08-16:14
Because God can intervene and act in creation, the two are held separate.


16:14-16:24
Now paradoxically, evangelicals can also be badly affected.


16:24-16:31
There can be an overemphasis on the work of Christ apart from His person,


16:31-16:37
that we are saved by what Christ did on the cross, not by who He is, for example.


16:37-16:47
Or on scripture, apart from the living Word that Christ is, there can be a rationalism and a shallowness as a result.


16:47-16:53
Or on our bringing in the Kingdom apart from the person of Christ.


16:53-17:03
These are all things that can be pitfalls.


17:03-17:08
Next main heading, Incarnation, God became man.


17:08-17:16
As McLeod Campbell said, "God has saved us by becoming man Himself", with all that that means.


17:16-17:21
He has become man Himself in order to reach us and that for two main reasons.


17:21-17:26
One, to share to the full in all that we are.


17:26-17:33
And two, and if there is one point I would like to emphasize today, it's this next point.


17:33-17:41
He has become man in order to act as man for us.


17:41-17:49
But if Jesus is not just God acting in person, but man acting, God acting as man for us,


17:49-17:55
does that mean there are two Christs? A God Christ and a man Christ?


17:55-18:00
And the answer of course is no, as the other church so clearly.


18:00-18:03
There is only one Jesus Christ.


18:03-18:18
The significance of God acting as man is so important that at this point we are going to have a theological examination behind some of the theology behind it.


18:18-18:22
And that will help us to understand its significance.


18:22-18:28
So I've written this very carefully, chosen my words very carefully.


18:28-18:37
I have a full hand out of this, but I thought it was better for you to listen to it.


18:37-18:42
Because if you read it, then you're not listening.


18:42-18:50
Next heading, the one person of Jesus Christ, he who is God is he who is also man.


18:50-18:55
He who was and is God is now man also.


18:55-18:59
Such that the very same person is God and man.


18:59-19:05
And there is only one person who is both, fully God, fully man.


19:05-19:09
That is the New Testament mystery of Jesus Christ.


19:09-19:19
But if there is only one person of Jesus, and if that person is the person of the eternal son become man,


19:19-19:25
does that mean that Jesus is not a fully real individual human person?


19:25-19:34
How can we maintain in faithfulness to the New Testament witness both the unity of the one person of Jesus


19:34-19:42
and the undoubted fact that he is and was recognised as not only the eternal son of the father,


19:42-19:47
but a real human individual person?


19:47-19:59
How can we hold on to the unity of Jesus without losing the reality of his human person?


19:59-20:08
Or in emphasising the reality of his human person loses unity and have adoption of two persons,


20:08-20:11
a divine and a human side by side?


20:11-20:15
And that was one of the key questions wrestled with by the early church.


20:15-20:19
The answer of the early church was that yes, there is only one person,


20:19-20:25
that of the eternal son of God, second person of the trinity.


20:25-20:37
But that in, that word in, in the person of the eternal son, Jesus is a fully real individual human person.


20:37-20:44
In other words, even though apart from the incarnation there would have been no human Jesus,


20:44-20:51
there was no pre-existing human Jesus that the eternal son came and joined himself onto.


20:51-21:00
He was going to be a human Jesus apart from the incarnation.


21:00-21:03
So even though apart from the incarnation there would have been no human Jesus,


21:03-21:08
the son of God became man in such a way that in the person of the son,


21:08-21:14
he is as fully human and personal as we are.


21:14-21:22
Apart from the eternal son, his humanity is a non-person.


21:22-21:26
And the Greek word there was an-hypostatic.


21:26-21:33
And to simplify it, that means there is no personal reality to the humanity of the son.


21:33-21:39
So apart from the incarnation, his humanity is a non-person.


21:39-21:45
It's an-hypostatic. Hypostasis was the Greek for person.


21:45-21:50
But in the incarnate son, his humanity is an in-person.


21:50-21:56
It's an-hypostatic. It's real in the person of the son.


21:56-22:03
And those two Greek words, as they were coined, an-hypostasis and an-hypostasis,


22:03-22:06
go together and they're inseparable.


22:06-22:14
They're a very good handy tool to help us understand how Christ can be fully God and fully man and yet one person.


22:14-22:20
And we'll come back to the importance of the point that he is both fully God and fully man,


22:20-22:25
but there are not two persons, there's only one.


22:27-22:39
So apart from the eternal son, his humanity is a non-person.


22:39-22:46
But in the incarnation, his humanity is a real person, an in-person.


22:46-22:52
Next heading, the crucial significance of Christ's an-hypostatic humanity.


22:52-22:58
In his incarnation, Christ took on our fallen human nature.


22:58-23:10
And in his humanity, in his own individual humanity, he has bent that fallen humanity of ours back to God.


23:10-23:21
So that in his risen humanity, he is, that's in capitals and in bold, is our ever-living salvation.


23:21-23:25
He's taken on our humanity to make it his.


23:25-23:34
And in his own individual humanity, he has made the response for each and every one of us to the Father.


23:34-23:40
In his risen humanity, he now ever lives to pray for us.


23:40-23:47
And in his risen humanity, he is our life, our prayer, our righteousness, our worship.


23:47-23:51
We go on wisdom, sanctification, etc. Redemption.


23:51-23:57
We live by his prayer, his righteousness, his life for their hours.


23:57-24:02
His risen humanity is the lifeblood of the Christian.


24:02-24:08
Paul says in Romans, if we were saved by his death, how much will we be saved by his life?


24:08-24:10
I.e. his risen life in heaven.


24:10-24:21
And that's the crucial significance of all that Jesus is for us in his living, risen human person.


24:21-24:25
And that's the I AMs of John's Gospel.


24:25-24:34
And here we get to the part of the heart of it.


24:34-24:43
Apart from the key thing of God acting as man and the full humanity of Christ,


24:43-24:47
the next heading is 'The lynchpin of the one person of Christ'.


24:47-24:54
It is the one person of Christ which is the absolute lynchpin of our salvation.


24:54-25:04
For his incarnation means that God and man, the full reality of God and of man are now united forever in his one person.


25:04-25:10
So he himself is the union of God and man.


25:10-25:21
Just as we cannot undo the incarnation, it has happened for all time, or divide the person of Christ.


25:21-25:27
So God and man can now no more be separated.


25:27-25:30
Even if you contradict that, refuse Christ.


25:30-25:37
You cannot undo the fact that God and man are now one forever in Christ.


25:40-25:52
Both remain fully real, fully God and fully man, but both are now in the one whole reality of God and man,


25:52-26:02
indissolubly united for all time in the person of Jesus Christ, in the unbreakable bond of his person and work.


26:02-26:17
So we are not just preaching what Christ did, we are preaching Christ and we are trying to get them somehow to begin to see that it is Christ himself who is the salvation


26:17-26:22
and he is it because he himself is the union of God and man.


26:22-26:31
The word coined in the early church to describe this union of two natures, God and man in one person, is 'hypostatic union'.


26:31-26:41
Hypostatic is the Greek word used for person, which literally means 'hupo', 'under', 'static', 'standing'.


26:41-26:47
We have the same word in English, 'substance', and substance refers to the reality of something.


26:47-26:51
So hypostasis became used for the personal reality.


26:51-27:06
So literally it means 'personal union', but that is misleading because it could be taken to mean a union of two persons as in marriage,


27:06-27:10
but in Christ there are not two persons, but one.


27:10-27:17
Hypostatic union therefore means the union of God and man in one person. That is key.


27:17-27:25
There is one other critical point here and one which is a fundamental guiding principle throughout all theology.


27:25-27:38
The miracle is that in the hypostatic union God and man are one and indivisible and yet each retain their own full identity as God or man.


27:38-27:43
God is not changed into man but remains God.


27:43-27:53
And though one with God and Jesus, man remains man. That is absolutely important, we don't become God.


27:53-28:07
Similarly, there is no confusion between the two, but though each remain fully what they are, they can no longer be divided or separated.


28:07-28:17
The hypostatic union is a union of two natures in one person without confusion, change, division or separation.


28:17-28:27
And all this theology comes out in T.F.'s first volume of lectures on the person and life of Christ.


28:27-28:38
In some ways he is laying the ground for understanding the gospel and it is a fantastic book.


28:38-28:46
But in some ways it is only when we read volume 2, which is neither bigger book, that the impact really starts to come across.


28:46-29:01
Because we see the implications of all the Christology he has laid out, how it pans out in the options of reconciliation, atonement,


29:01-29:07
redemption, second coming, etc. The options of the church.


29:07-29:20
Final question, how do we begin to get across the depth of the gospel? Point one, the arcane discipline.


29:20-29:28
Before we can communicate the gospel in its depth, we have to understand it ourselves.


29:28-29:43
It is only when we have so thoroughly absorbed it that it has become a part of us that we can best find the appropriate illustrations and ways of putting it into language people can understand.


29:43-29:52
But all that takes time, a lot of time. In fact it has taken 30 years to do it.


29:52-30:02
I have taken a lifetime of trying to think everything out. It takes time and it can't be achieved without sustained effort.


30:02-30:12
We have to begin to thoroughly understand the gospel in depth ourselves before we can begin to help others to do so also.


30:12-30:29
As we engage in the daily discipline of devotion, Bible study, worship and prayer, we need to be continually looking to deepen our own theological understanding and find ways of making it accessible to our congregations and others.


30:29-30:46
You will find that it is normally the professor who can speak simplest to a class and that is because the professor knows their subject better and has so thoroughly absorbed it that he can get it across.


30:46-31:02
This takes time and discipline to think it out carefully until it has become so much part of us that we automatically find or are given illustrations and ways of putting it.


31:02-31:21
Second point, how to begin to get across the depths of the gospel. Of course I would say that every member of the church should be aimed at getting across at least something of the depths to every member of the church.


31:21-31:40
Second point, we do it with others thinking in fellowship. While there is a great deal we can do and have to do on our own, it remains true that, here is a quote from TF, page 376 of Atonement,


31:40-32:02
it remains true that "a theology is not primarily the function of individuals but of the church, for Christian thinking is essentially joint thinking, thinking in fellowship, in which we share with one another and learn from one another in Christ."


32:02-32:28
"In the increasing pace of life and demands of ministry it is quite simply essential to make time, not only for our own arcane discipline but for regular prayer and study with others, as otherwise there is burnout, aridity, you become dry and there's loss of real effectiveness."


32:28-32:44
So in the long run, unless we make time for it, our ministry just isn't effective. Luther once famously said he was so busy the only way he would get through a day was to spend three hours in prayer.


32:44-33:03
But that is part of what should be the fruit between an arcane discipline, making the time more than repays what we think of as losing time in terms of how much we have to do.


33:03-33:22
"In the increasing pace of life and demands of ministry it is quite simply essential to make time, not only for our own arcane discipline but for regular prayer and study with others."


33:22-33:36
It may be two or three ministers meeting together monthly to study a text of theology, the two people who come to these streets do that regularly.


33:36-33:59
Or home groups or Bible study groups meeting fortnightly or weekly, but it's essential. So the more we can try to set up groups with whatever group of people, however often is practical, and encourage people to think in depth and learn together, the better it will be.


33:59-34:14
Third point, also very important, shared ministry, elders, deacons, laity. All ministry is necessary a shared ministry by the whole church in the ministry of Christ, it can never be so though.


34:14-34:25
One of the things we need to learn most in the Church of Scotland not least, but no doubt in every church, is empowering the whole body of Christ to share in Christ's ministry.


34:25-34:39
The whole church needs to be trained to make time for their own arcane discipline, trained in some of the tasks of leadership and then delegated to get on with it.


34:39-34:54
And delegation is key in ministry, far too often ministers have been led and pressurized and thought it's easier just to run everything themselves, but it's fatal.


34:54-35:14
Four, little by little. In the nature of the case, the depth of the gospel can only be communicated little by little, gradually, as people are able to take it in, just as Jesus with the disciples.


35:14-35:25
The Jesus with the disciples was little by little, gradually by word and by deed, even then they didn't understand it until the Spirit came.


35:25-35:40
Without giving people too much at one time, it helps greatly to select one by one key points of doctrine or reflection, nuggets of wisdom,


35:40-35:55
throw away aphorisms that make people think, counter-attusive opinions and just throw them out in order to attract people's attention and get them slowly to begin to think.


35:55-36:06
It doesn't matter how we do it, find ways of getting people to think. That's the next point, getting people thinking.


36:06-36:20
Once started, they will go on thinking. Children think, they ask questions and then our educational system, etc means that's squeezed out of them.


36:20-36:27
So we have to get adults to think, get everyone to think really deeply.


36:27-36:37
The key is getting them really puzzling and enquiring, looking for understanding. Here I think of Jesus' parables and illustrations.


36:37-36:51
Why do you speak in parables and illustrations? Partly he's trying to get across to people in simple things that connect with them, but also he's trying to give them something that they don't quite understand, so they puzzle about it.


36:51-37:02
What does he mean there? But also he's not giving them the truth, the whole truth explaining it, because it would just be pearls before swine and they couldn't understand it.


37:02-37:10
So he's giving them enough to make them think and in secret he explains things to his disciples.


37:10-37:27
To me it's absolutely key that we get people thinking. We're aiming to give them the whole range and depth of theology and all Christian doctrines that we do little by little and try to find key points that would set them thinking, that connect with them and get them moving.


37:27-37:44
And finally, briefly, involving the whole person. As God has made us a unitary whole of body, mind and soul, and as we have to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, so we are to reach people in their wholeness.


37:44-38:07
TF used to make a lot of the fact that how often do Christians love God with their mind? He said we should apply the same effort and skill to understanding God as we apply in our jobs as a physics or doctor or whatever.


38:07-38:21
But there's this gap. Our Christian lives are puny, they're baby, often compared to the amount of intellectual understanding we employ in our daily lives.


38:21-38:27
So we have to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and all of those are important.


38:27-38:40
This is the need to challenge people at every level, keeping the preaching and the diaconal ministries together, which is another point that TF emphasized. Thank you.


38:41-38:47
[Applause]