Ministry

Nicky Gumbel, vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, joins Graham, Mike and Jane to discuss the use of the Bible in public preaching and in personal spirituality. How are our different personality types suited to various approaches to spirituality? How can church leaders use the Bible in preaching and pastoral ministry? And what is the place of interpretation in our approaches to the Bible? [Recorded 19 March 2009]

HTB leaders past and present gather together during the church’s unusually sunny annual week away to answer questions from the congregation.  Graham is joined by current vicar Nicky Gumbel and associate vicar Archie Coates, as well as worship leader Tim Hughes and former vicar of HTB, Sandy Miller, with questions deftly fielded by Andy Emerton.  What is the relationship between the church and the Kingdom of God, and do Christians have a monopoly on living out the Kingdom? How should the church work with secular organisations? The panel also discuss the place of the Trinity in the theology of the Alpha Course, and of singing in worship, before moving on to the stewardship of money, and the books of the Apocrypha. They also touch on the sensitive issue of prayer ministry in the face of terminal illness.

Joanna Collicut-McGrath, psychologist and theologian, joins Graham and Mike to talk about her response to the work of atheist writer Richard Dawkins. Her book, The Dawkins Delusion?, was co-written with her husband Alister McGrath, and was published following the appearance of Dawkins’ bestselling book The God Delusion. In this GodPod, Joanna also addresses the question of generational sin and the role of prayer ministry.