News, views, and other stories
(October 2007)
By Professor Emeritus Jim Parratt, Active Member Castlehill Road Baptist Church Bearsden – Formerly Honorary President of SBLPA. The request from Philip and Glen to contribute to the SBLPA website came as my wife and I were about to celebrate our Golden Wedding anniversary. This so happened to also coincide with the celebration of fifty years of basic medical research and, more appropriately, fifty years of preaching God’s wonderful word. What a privilege that is! It all started a year or two after my conversion at an University Mission led by John Stott when I joined a ‘preaching class’ led by the pastor of the Baptist church of which I became a member. The pastor, John Caiger, later became the Chairman of the Keswick Council. Week by week three of us grappled, somewhat inadequately, with a passage of scripture before preaching on it to each other – and to John. Much kindly and constructive advice! This training was then supplemented by classes at the London Bible College. The Principal’s lectures on homiletics were especially enlightening with hilarious ‘take offs’ involving how not to behave in the pulpit! During nine years in Nigeria, on the staff of the Medical School, there were many opportunities for preaching, especially to students, folk really hungry for God’s word. Then forty years ago in Glasgow, with an old friend, Gus McAulay, we had the doubtful reputation for closing a number of small places of worship due, I believed, to Gus’s solos. One of these, the old Seamen’s Bethel in Brown Street, is now, I think, a nightclub. After such a reputation it was therefore surprising to be given the opportunity of preaching in various parts of Scotland. I have never quite managed to preach an hundred times in the same place although this may well happen in a few weeks time. I suppose in all I have preached around a thousand times. But then fifty years is a long time! When I was in my late forties various people, from some of the Baptist churches in which I had served, asked if I had ever considered the ministry. This led to study, mainly at evening classes at the old BTI, to complete the Cambridge University Diploma in Theology – a most rewarding and, at that age, demanding experience. I did have a talk with the General Secretary of the BU (as the position was called at that time) but the door was firmly shut by one of my university colleagues, a Christian of wide experience and great wisdom. He persuaded me that I should remain in academia because my scientific research at the time had led to many worldwide contacts. The decision was the right one because it led to many interesting opportunities to witness to my friends and colleagues. This included, for a time, an evangelistic bible study group in my university department, and eventually the opportunity to work, and for a time to live, in Hungary. Looking back I think the Lord wanted me just to be willing and ready for His call but His plan was for me to remain ‘where I was’. So, for the last seventeen years or so, since before the fall of communism until last October when I finally retired from scientific work, Hungary has meant much to me – and to my family; two of our granddaughters were born there and two others began their education with Hungarian as their first language. I have valued, perhaps more than anything in my fifty years as a lay preacher, the opportunities to share God’s word in different parts of that fascinating country. How do I see the future of lay preaching in Scotland? The committee I know is concerned with ‘raising the barrier’ of training for lay ministry, rightly so I think. How, for example, do our requirements compare with those for becoming a Reader in the Church of Scotland? Are there vacant churches where perhaps a team of laymen can give more consecutive teaching, with perhaps some pastoral role for one of that team, retired from normal work? Is the Lord calling some of our members into the ‘full time’ ministry of the word? Can we become more effective by listening to one another, offering constructive criticism, as that group of three did for me all those years ago? I remember back fifty years to just before I was about to preach at an ‘outreach’ church in Sussex to when an old (or so it seemed to me that time!) friend said to me ‘Jim, preach Jesus. He is the One we need’. I feel increasingly the burden to preach Christ and faith in Him always bearing in mind that, when one gets to my age, that next sermon might be my last. After all I may never reach that ‘century’ of preaching God’s word in one particular church! As Charles Wesley wrote… ‘Happy, if with my latest breath I may but gasp His name: preach Him to all, and cry in death: ‘Behold, behold the Lamb! George Petrie, Active Member from Broxburn Shortly after I started to think about this article I read the following quote from the book PRAYER does it make a difference by Philip Yancey.
“The well-known pastor Haddon Robinson begins almost every sermon with the same brief confession. ‘God, if these people knew about me what you know about me, they wouldn’t listen to a word I said’
Tension and anxiety were the common factors that I experienced on the nine occasions as I drove to take Sunday services and mid week Bible studies over this summer. By what right was I going to stand, or sit, before people and lead worship and preach? “Should I be taking this service?” was a question in my mind occasionally in recent months as it has been over the years as I have settled behind a lectern and eyed a group of people sitting in the safety and comfort of the seats in front of me, waiting for the service to begin. Do you ever wonder what that expectant group called the congregation are thinking in these moments before you stand up to launch the service? Is it: No doubt many more questions drift in and out of the mind of the congregation, perhaps on some occasions - “not him/her again!”. As I think about myself and as I think about the congregation who will be subjected to me, I am very aware that something very complex and very important begins when I respond positively to the request, usually made during a telephone conversation, asking me to take a service or preach at a service on a certain Sunday a few weeks later. It involves an enormous privilege which should not be abused. It involves a huge responsibility which must not be ignored.
It involves God who must be central in the planning, in the preparation and in the service itself. Writing this is helping me to sort out in my mind what has been an evolving and developing approach over the years. As I look back a pattern has emerged that has taken account of what I have experienced both as someone who has taken services and preached many times each year for several decades and who has attended many services and listened to many sermons. Prayerful reflection on these experiences has not always been comfortable, but it has been valuable. Books on worship, preaching and communication have also helped in changing many of the naïve, arrogant and narrow views I once held. The result is that I feel less sure of what I am doing then I once did, preparation time is now more than twice as long as it was ten years ago. The mechanics are easier, the recognition of inadequacy greater. The blessing, at a personal level, from the whole exercise, more meaningful. In most cases I have several weeks notice of an engagement. A last minute request would not be turned down. Time to prepare is valued. I begin the minute the phone is placed in the cradle and the process of preparation goes on intermittently until the evening before the service and just occasionally during the service. I almost always aim to have a final draft complete a week before the service, spending the final days rereading, reflecting and editing. (The ‘day job’ and family commitments can sometimes make last minute preparation difficult; my motto is ‘start early’) Be God focused and God centred, avoid arrogance by remembering the Haddon Robinson quote ‘God, if these people knew about me what you know about me, they wouldn’t listen to a word I said’ Establish a clear theme and aim, if I don’t know where I am going how can the congregation Be organised, without stifling the Holy Spirit Do not bore - needs to be emphasised – DO NOT BORE. Could a service actually be enjoyable and fun? Do not be bound by tradition, without throwing the baby out with the bathwater Be provocative, but never offensive Be relevant with meaningful, realistic and active application Where possible include PowerPoint an outstanding aid (I here and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand) Involvement of the congregation with no, ‘no go areas’ (what about the sermon being dialogue rather than monologue? - it can work but leaves the preacher vulnerable!)
Take care with the Bible reading. There needs to give prayerful consideration in choice and length of the reading and then considerable practice at reading the Scripture passage chosen – congregational involvement. Focused prayer including the use of written prayers – congregational involvement. At a Baptist Church always include the BU Prayer Link for the week Is the service/sermon about affirmation or exploration? If the service includes Communion then be innovative, avoid this regular element in many services failing to impact through familiarity and routine. If you would like to comment, discuss or debate any of the above please feel free to email me on george@gmpetrie.plus.com or give me a ring on 01506 856274.1. A Preacher's Golden Jubilee
(Jim (on the left!) preaching in Szombathely Baptist Church in Western Hungary with, on the right, the Rev. Arpad Revesz, former President of the Hungarian Baptist Union and now the evangelist for Hungarian speaking people in Hungary and beyond.)
My worldwide travels have also given opportunities to minister in countries as far afield as Ghana, Australia, India and Germany. And, because of links with a number of interdenominational missionary societies (SIM, Interserve, SU, IFES) to see at first hand God’s work in many parts of His wonderful world. Perhaps one of the most satisfying experiences this year has been to take a group of African students through John’s gospel as part of the Philip Project in Edinburgh. Maybe in my 75th year I am better prepared and more free to share the good news about Jesus than at any other time. 
The Szeged Baptist Church choir in action2. Ready to preach?
Here are a number of words, phrases and questions that sum up the way I approach taking a service.
