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The Sola Panel is dead; long live the Sola Panel! by Tony Payne (4 comments). Regular Sola Panel readers will no doubt have detected a little slowness and quietness over the past six weeks or so. … more
Kids’ culture watch spot: Facing fear by Gordon Cheng (3 comments). By popular demand (two people asked), here is my next script for a culture watch spot I did with the kids … more
Daniel 2-7, Harry Potter and Narnia by Gordon Cheng (1 comment). It's a Sunday as I write this, and I'm speaking on Daniel 2 and 7 later this morning at a friend's … more
A constituent on same-sex marriage by Sandy Grant (34 comments). Last year, the Australian Parliament agreed that its Members of Parliament (MPs) should seek the … more
A tribute to John Stott by Sandy Grant (2 comments). Friends, I'm not ashamed to say I shed a tear when I opened up my computer on Thursday morning to read … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 3): On giants’ shoulders by Scott Newling (26 comments). This is the third post in this series; you can read part one, and more
Bible reading with kids by Sandy Grant (0 comments). I was asked for recommendations for resources that would encourage parents to read the Bible with their kids, especially … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 2): Stepping aside (not out) so others can step up (not in) by Scott Newling (3 comments). This is the second post in this series; you can read the first post, Unassuming … more
One more sip of the coffee by Tony Payne (8 comments). Sandy Grant is a man of integrity. Back in the early days of Sola Panel, I wrote a post … more
Talkin’ ’bout my generation (part 1): Unassuming generations by Scott Newling (30 comments). There is a model of ‘intergenerational theological decline’ that has been doing the rounds of late, and perhaps you … more
Tony Payne
Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.
Sola Panellists
- Tony Payne (convenor)
- Jennie Baddeley
- Mark Baddeley
- Andrew Barry
- Peter Bolt
- Gordon Cheng
- a local church and a certain Christian publishing house. (Sometimes the latter vocations can happen without the first.) Many people call him a nerd, which he prefers to geek. He\'s keen on biblical studies, languages, great technology, science fiction, coffee, photography, frisbee, family, jazz, and hats. You could call his tastes eclectic. ");'>Sam Freney
- Sandy Grant
- Scott Newling
- Gavin Perkins
- Ben Pfahlert
- Peter Sholl
- Claire Smith
- Nicole Starling
- Jean Williams
- Lionel Windsor
Some other sites
we like (Why these?)
- Matthias Media
- The Briefing
- 9Marks
- Albert Mohler
- Anglican Church League
- challies
- David Ould
- ENTRUST
- EQUIP book club
- Girl Talk
- Gordon Cheng's Blog
- The Gospel Coalition
- Jean Williams's blog
- Justin Taylor
- Lionel Windsor
- Monergism
- Moore College
- MTS
- Nicole Starling's blog
- Phillip Jensen
- Pyromaniacs
- The Proclamation Trust
- Reformers' Bookshop
- The Simeon Trust
- The Ugley Vicar
Tony,
Have the ideas set forth in your and Col’s book been influenced in any way by Total Church? If so, where’s the overlap, or what premise is further expounded?
Hi Michael.
Interesting question. No influence as far as I know. These ideas were worked out and in practice well before ‘Total Church’ came on the scene.
As to overlap, there is some—as you would expect, given that we share so many theological convictions as Reformed Evangelicals. So like us, Steve Timmis and Tim Chester emphasize the importance of being prayerfully gospel-centred.
However, the approach or ‘model’ (not sure I like that word) is quite different in emphasis. I hate to say this, but you will probably have to read ‘The Trellis and Vine’ to see what I mean! (Too hard to elucidate here without writing an essay)
You might be interested in the online conversation Simon Flinders and I had with Steve Timmis about these issues.
TP
Hey Tony,
I have been challenged over the last 12 months and especially recently as I have been reading Cloud and Townsend’s ‘How People Grow’ to ask: how do the emotional and the relational aspects of life fit in with disciple-making?
I suppose what I am getting at is: what I have understood from my experiences is that issues not of a spiritual kind (ie. the emotional or the relational etc) can hold people back from or slow their spiritual growth.
If this is the case, should discipleship include working harder at helping people work through these other issues in addition to “the prayerful, Spirit-backed speaking of the message of the Bible” so that they would neither be held back nor slowed in their spiritual growth?
Hi Matt
Sorry for the delay in replying.
At the risk of opening a can of worms, I think my answer to your question would be that the message of the Bible often has a lot more to say to our emotional and relational problems than we might at first think. Not in a simplistic proof-texty way, but in the deep, personality-transforming way that the Spirit reshapes us over time through the Word. I think we can be too quick to partition emotional or relational problems off, and label them as purely medical. They may be medically (or psychologically) treatable, and this is good, but that is usually not the whole story.
I believe Tim Chester’s new book ‘You can change’ addresses these issues. I haven’t read it. Has anyone?
TP
Hi Tony,
Thanks for the reply.
My intention was to keep the worms where they are as well. And if I knew how to edit my previous comment (I don’t do computers), I think I’d prefer to phrase:
“issues not of a spiritual kind can hold people back from or slow their spiritual growth”
as a question.
I think we’re on the same page as one another… I certainly think it’s true that the Bible helps us with those issues
“in the deep, personality-transforming way that the Spirit reshapes us over time through the Word”. I think my concern is when someone has a “just read the bible” cure to those issues without actually engaging with those issues.
Matt
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