A Note From John Bunyan's Hometown

We have just come through an amazing time at the Newfrontiers International Leadership Conference in Brighton, England. Terry Virgo, who leads the movement was our main speaker. God clearly used him to not only bring clear perspective regarding our past but also pointed the way forward into the future. I felt he wonderfully modeled for us how an apostolic leader of a movement can prepare that movement to move into the next generation. I heartily recommend downloading those talks from the Newfrontiers website at www.newfrontiers.xtn.org

Right now, Marlene and I are in Bedford, England. Bedford is especially famous for being the home of John Bunyan who wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan wrote this allegorical story while in prison in Bedford for holding church meetings that were not under the authority of the Church of England. This book is a wonderful example of the power of a narrative in conveying the ways of God in the life of a person. This allegory has had amazing appeal to those who are highly educated as well as to children. If you have never read this story that comes to us from the 17th Century let me recommend it to you.(If you don't like to read 17th Century English try the edition in today's English.)

Telling God’s Story

As you may already know, Marlene and I are passionate about sharing God’s Great Salvation Story with others. The Bible is not just a collection of isolated stories. It is a purposeful, flowing narrative of God’s workings in human history. It really is an amazing story that comes from many human authors writing under Divine guidance from different times and places in history. To understand well the individual stories of Scripture it is important to catch something of the panorama of the whole story. That is best done by carefully reading the Bible through chronologically, paying attention to the threads that stitch the whole story together.

I would also like to recommend a book I just finished reading, which I found very helpful in recognizing these threads that run through the Bible. The title of the book is ‘Telling God’s Story’ written by Preban Vang & Terry Carter. If you share in this passion to make God’s story known to others I believe this book can help you.