Reformation Faith Today

David Jackman of the Proclamation Trust (see post below for info. about the Trust) delivered a message last year on the occasion of the 20 year history of The Proclamation Trust. A couple of excerpts are below:

All our ministry is designed for the well-being of the Church and the spread of the gospel throughout the world, by encouraging, enabling and equipping pastor/teachers to keep at this central task, to make it their main commitment, their life work—to do it faithfully and to keep on keeping on, to pursue excellence in the work and to allow nothing to divert them from this greatest of all privileges and responsibilities: Preach the Word! The Word is the content and preaching is what we do with it. In the goodness of God ministries have been changed, pulpits have been re-won for the exposition of Scripture and the preaching of the gospel, a new generation of devoted Biblical ministers has begun to emerge and its numbers and competence seem to be growing. For all of this we should stop and praise God—to Him be the glory—and we should surely be thankful for our fellowship, opportunities and resources. And yet…we are barely holding our own. For every pulpit won, another seems to be lost, not necessarily to heresy, but to the Bible being relegated from the driving-seat to the passenger seat, where it makes a useful companion, a map to be consulted from time to time, but does not really determine the direction of the car. For every new church plant, another faithful, evangelical church is in terminal decline. For every zealous young pastor, there is a wounded, discouraged, exhausted and quietly despairing older brother. For every growing church staff in the wealthy areas, there are single-handed brothers in less affluent parts of the country who, as one shared with me the other day, cannot even afford a secretary to help with his administration one day a week. Are we really right to be so obsessional about Biblical preaching? Or are we just hankering after a by-gone age?

The full message may be found here.