My wife, Caroline, and I enjoyed a really restful break last week, staying in a friend’s residential caravan berthed on the shores of Loch Lomond. As well as walking and enjoying the glorious scenery and spending time together I got a lot of reading done and managed not to get withdrawal symptoms from not having access to the Internet! Now we’re back and I am looking forward to settling into a new rhythm of life with my new ministry at the Bible College and increased opportunities for studying, reading and ministry. Later today I’ll post the latest ‘Preacher’s Choice’ and then over the next couple of days bring my ‘Book of the Week’ reviews up to date.

However, I wanted to mention a couple of other things at this point. My own Pastor, Craig Dyer, at Harper Memorial Baptist Church in Glasgow has recently started a series on Sunday mornings in the early chapters of Genesis. He is taking a very fresh approach to this vitally important part of Scripture and his expositions have been searching and strengthening. I would commend them to you, especially the latest two in the series where he addresses the issues of the complimentarity of the genders and marriage. Links here

Much of my own efforts this week will be focused on the Preachers’ Workshops which we have been planning at Harper for some months now and which start next Saturday, 15th, God willing. In the morning, Dominic Smart of Aberdeen will be our guest expositor, encouraging preachers, and in the afternoon I will be beginning a series of training seminars seeking to develop preaching skills in would-be preachers. I am really excited by this new venture and its potential and warmly commend it to the prayers of the Lord’s people. We will be uploading the sessions in pdf and mp3 format and possibly also as PowerPoints with sound embedded, so watch this space.