The Proclaimer

Please, can we ask you this week to pray for the EMA? You may well not be coming, but even so, we still covet your prayers. Each day this week we will post a particular topic to pray for. Today we're praying for the EMA organisation.

When we were used to running the EMA at St Helen's, everything worked like a well oiled machine. We knew what had to be done where and when. This year, at the Barbican, everything, and we mean everything, is new. Even things that, to outsiders, may look the same, have had to be replanned under the bonnet from scratch. 

• Please thank God for all the work that has been done by our able team, led by Rachel Brabner, so far. We've known God's help meeting deadlines and getting things ready.
• There's still lots to do this week. We've got a secular venue staff to liaise with and witness to. We've got caterers, photographers, sound engineers, video people, stage hands, stewards, greeters, prayer teams, musicians, bookstore staff and many more to organise, brief and oversee. And that's before we even try to keep the speakers in order!
• Please pray that not only would the staff team here handle the new venue well, but that we do so in a godly way. We want to serve Christ by being like him.
• Do please also pray against crises and difficulties. We believe in the significance of getting together 1,100 gospel men and women and that the devil would love to disrupt us.

Thank you for your prayers.

Please, can we ask you this week to pray for the EMA? You may well not be coming, but even so, we still covet your prayers. Each day this week we will post a particular topic to pray for. Today we're praying for the EMA delegates.

We have something like 1,100 people coming to the EMA next week (Monday through Wednesday). We have prayed and planned this conference so it will encourage those in Word ministry, and the test is, of course, whether it does just that. So, please do pray for the Spirit's work:

• pray for safe journeys and the ability for people to arrive freshly enough to benefit from the three days together
• give thanks for those who are encouraged in ministry, that during this EMA they will be able to encourage others and be enabled to walk even more closely with Christ
• remember those who are struggling in ministry for all kinds of different reasons. Pray that this EMA will be just the tonic for them and that God would ordain meetings and encounters which will be just what they need.
• please pray that people will be able to sift well so that they can remember, reflect on and apply that which is useful and discard that which is not. 
• pray for teachable hearts. It is remarkable how battle hardened ministers can be when we get together. We tend to listen critically and we are praying that those who attend will listen with hearts ready to receive what the Lord intends to teach. Join us in that prayer.
• please pray for newcomers. We have about 300 people coming who have not been before. We long that they would feel right at home from the off, benefit from the conference and discover and build relationships that will last. 

Thank you for your prayers.

The work of the Proclamation Trust is based on three foundational convictions: our belief about the Bible, about Bible ministry and about Bible ministers. We have tried to capture this in three short videos, which we will show over the next three days.

The Proclamation Trust Convictions #3 from The Proclamation Trust on Vimeo.

The work of the Proclamation Trust is based on three foundational convictions: our belief about the Bible, about Bible ministry and about Bible ministers. We have tried to capture this in three short videos, which we will show over the next three days.

The Proclamation Trust Convictions #2 from The Proclamation Trust on Vimeo.

The work of the Proclamation Trust is based on three foundational convictions: our belief about the Bible, about Bible ministry and about Bible ministers. We have tried to capture this in three short videos, which we will show over the next three days.

The Proclamation Trust Convictions #1 from The Proclamation Trust on Vimeo.

One of the things we've done for this year's EMA is to make the Bookstore more focused. And that doesn't just mean heavyweight books for ministers. Ministers need to browse books with several aims in mind and we want to incorporate those aims into our book selection. In fact, we are deliberately stocking books for ministers as:

• preachers and teachers - perhaps as you would expect
• leaders of congregations - being able to review books which will both help ministers lead and be suitable to use in congregations. This means it is entirely appropriate, for example, to have a children's book in the EMA Bookstore.
• disciples of Christ - we have tried to select books which will build ministers in their own walk with Christ.

To select books we have used PT staff and a selected BookPanel made up of 7 men and women in ministry. The end result is 800 books and 200 commentaries. We can't stock every book of course. And we have tried to ensure we have a balance of the categories above. There will also be staff from publishers on hand to help out and a Christianity Explored consultancy service helping you think through running evangelistic courses in your church. We think you will like it. 

One of the things I've been longing to do has finally arrived. We've built into this year's EMA a specific overseas mission project. This is a recognition that God has given us so much here in the UK and we need to acknowledge his goodness by being generous to others. Coming together at the EMA is a great opportunity to express that gratitude. This year, we're going to be supporting Johannesburg Bible College. The college works with a great range of poeple in South Africa, equipping them to teach and preach the Bible faithfully. Our support will provide resources for students and pastors - often from the very poorest backgrounds. We're asking people to consider buying an extra book in the Bookstore which we will then post over to our friends in Joburg. Also, Crossway have very kindly let us sell the ESV Global Study Bible (a full study Bible) for £5 if it is intended for missions use. So, visitors to the EMA can buy a copy of this great resource (we have 100) and we will send them to where they will make a great difference. You can also give by text.

There are more details about this in the video below. Please do have a look and, even if you are not coming to this year's EMA (still time!), please do consider supporting this project. We're really pleased that an opportunity to review the EMA and build this into the program has arisen. We hope you will share our passion and concern for the developing world.

Well, here's a thing. A primetime BBC documentary on Tyndale presented by Melvyn Bragg. On TV last night and actually very good. Well worth an hour of your time. Tyndale is, according to Bragg, one of the most significant Englishmen ever to have lived. Agreed. You can watch it on iPlayer for a couple of weeks. 

Boys.

There are certain pastoral issues that will hit you like a train. You'll get a phone call and you will have to respond immediately. To be honest,  for most pastoral emergencies you'll have at least a little chance to catch your breath (and work out what you believe), but I think the one issue that there is no time to do that is the sudden death of an infant or young child. The phone call comes and we need to respond immediately. It's a tricky issue too, far from being straightforward.

If someone phones saying they're getting divorced, you've generally got time to think, pray, study, consider before you see them. But the phone call announcing there has been an car accident or some medical emergency and a little one is dead allows no such time. So, here's my plea. Know what you believe biblically about this subject. Know how you need to respond pastorally. And even if you only have to use it once in your ministry, it will not be time wasted. 

I've been teaching this subject on one of Cornhill+ study days this week and it's reinforced in my own mind the importance of the topic. The best summary, I think, is in Eric Lane's book Special Children. Naff cover. Really naff cover. But superb contents. Five squids well spent. 

I started my holiday last week with really good intentions. I deleted my work email account from my phone - no chance of picking up work messages, I thought! But people send texts, Facebook messages, home emails (though I try to keep the two accounts separate). So it may not have been a great success. Except....

...except that I found myself on holiday without a mobile signal. Mrs R didn't have one either (different network). We were not exactly in the middle of nowhere (here, if you're interested): in fact, only a mile or two from a city centre. But no signal. No emails. No texts. No Facebook. No WiFi. No Viber. No nuttin'.

What a blissful holiday! Not planned, but providentally just what was needed. And next time, I'm going to find ways to actually recreate the same conditions. Can I encourage you to do the same...? And just to make you feel jealous (in a Romans 9-11 sense, jealously that leads to you also taking a holiday), here's a holiday snap to share - me cycling around Cambs and Northants villages. This is Fotheringhay, birthplace of Richard III and deathplace of Mary, Queen of Scots.