A Review Of 2010 Part 1

The year began for me in Enfield Cineworld where I would of course spend most Sunday mornings, and many other meetings during the year. I love being rooted in Jubilee Church, it helps keep me sane! Tope’s sermon on prayer, and the prayer of blessing which began it helped set the tone for what would be a busy year.

Just a few days into the year my first book, Raised With Christ was launched. Response has been overwhelming to me, as I had no idea how it would be received. The publisher tells me that they are very happy with the first year sales. What interests me, however, is that perhaps unsurprisingly the total sales are still just a small fraction of the number of blog readers I have. That tells me that many of you have yet to buy the book. You know who you are! Don’t put it off any longer, buy it from Amazon.com today!

There is also a good deal for UK readers at Newfrontiers Resources. If you have bought a copy already, don’t forget to tell your friends and pastors about it or better yet, why not buy someone else a book about Easter as a Christmas present? I am also sure that many of you who have bought it have yet to read it. If you have read it, please do consider writing a review, perhaps on the Amazon site. Here is perhaps the best video introduction to the book, it’s an interview with Justin Taylor:

As the month continued, I did my first radio interview and was greatly helped by some tips from a journalist friend of mine. I also spoke for Newfrontiers North leaders on the resurrection, meeting and interviewing Jeremy Simpkins while there – if you are interested in the role of an apostle today, that is a great place to start. As the month drew to a close, I travelled to the USA to attend the Desiring God conference and a number of other events. For details of my other speaking events past and future, see my calendar page.

February was dominated by my trip to the USA which I reported on fully, and shared a number of interviews where I was either the interviewee or questioner or both as in the case of Sam Storms. I also made a rare excursion onto the subject of evolution. Towards the end of the month, Tope showed every pastor how it is done by selling 100 copies of Raised With Christ in ten minutes. He could definitely have been a salesman in another life!

In March I seem to have been feeling provocative, urging us to consider if a lack of joy equates to sin, shared a quote about why literal Bible translations are better, suggested we should be preferentially giving out John’s gospel to unbelievers, spoke of the challenges church leaders face from their own congregations, struck a blow for British independence, and told off everyone who doesn’t clap in church yet applauds elsewhere off, and shared a convicting story about an encounter I had on a train, before finally challenging us that our friends might not know what Easter is all about.

Exhausted by all that? Well, a few days into April I was off to New Word Alive in Wales where I reported on sessions and later shared interviews once more. Sadly my busy schedule for 2011 will not allow me to attend next year’s event, but I would strongly encourage you to consider going if you haven’t been already. I have enjoyed my times at those conferences. I shared some momentous research that showed sex, socialising, and eating dinner with others all make you happier. A big controversy raged online that month, and I firmly pinned my colors to the mast on the side of believing Piper was right to invite Rick Warren to his conference to speak. More controversially still, after sharing an interview with Wayne Grudem on Politics and the Christian I posted a mini-series on why I planned to vote Conservative, listing three main reasons: Social justice, Christian values, and leadership.

During May, I was able to share the rest of my interview with Wayne Grudem. We also had the honor of Matt Chandler coming to Jubilee Church. I got to film an interview and we have preaching sessions as well:

I also attended and live blogged the Dwell 2010 conference and finally met a real friend of the blog, Ed Stetzer. Finally, one of my favorite posts of the whole year was a quote from John Piper on how sentences change lives. Twitter users would be happy!

A review of 2010 part 1