The local church has just done a course called “Apprentice” (Walking the way of Christ) – with interesting results.

The church already had 67 of its 94 members in small groups and during the 5 weeks of Lent 5 ‘new’ people found their way into small groups – we shall see whether this is a permanent arrangement over the next few months.

Anyway . . . let me tell you why we sourced the series “Apprentice”.
1. At ‘Leading Edge’ last year we recognised that the speakers were all using illustrations from Steve Chalke’s book “The Apprentice”. So they must have been reading it.
2. The church at large has moved its J word to Journey (hopefully it will return to Jesus soon).
3. The local church hates all things American (alledgedly), and Steve Chalke is one of the very few passionate public evangelical preachers left in England - discuss.
4. Steve Chalke was the main speaker at ‘Spring Harvest’ this year.
5. We settled on ‘discipleship’ as a core value for the year.

Here’s the interesting bit:
All of our groups were impacted by the videos – the response ranged from great interest and debate (the modern world with its need for a new image every 3 seconds) to intense dislike.

Half the groups found that the material generated much discussion and people who had previously not engaged in discussions suddenly found their voice – a very welcome result.

BUT – and here’s the discussion that I have just had as a result of this course – Who are the preachers of our generation in this nation, who speaks for me and my faith in a convictional, convincing, attrcative way???

Cuddly Rowan? – no
Arch Bish Sentamu? – possibly – but more an issues man than a preacher?

Googling “great English preachers” returns a ‘top ten’ of the twentieth Century – see how many you have heard of . . . . . . . . and can you tell whether any of them are English?????

1. James S. Stewart (1896-1990)
2. Billy Graham (1918-1992)
3. George Buttrick (1892-1980)
4. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
5. Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969)
6. G. Campbell Morgan (1863-1945)
7. William Edwin Sangster (1900-1960)
8. John R.W. Stott (1921- )
9. 9. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)
10. Clarence Macartney (1879-1957)

Do you want to know the next 10?

11. Leslie Weatherhead
12. George W. Truett
13. R.G. Lee
14. Norman Vincent Peale
15. Peter Marshall
16. E. Stanley Jones
17. Donald Grey Barnhouse
18. Ralph Sockman
19. W.A. Criswell
20. Gardner C. Taylor

THE QUESTION REMAINS – who speaks for me? As a mentor or friend of preaching?

Supplemental – why do the Americans have so much more ‘strength in depth’ even in the present day?