Robin Sydserff shares hopes for Proclamation Trust
New Proclamation Trust (PT) director Robin Sydserff has been sharing his hopes for the future.
In an open letter, he says: ‘My first stint at PT from 2004–2008, working with Dick Lucas, David Jackman and Christopher Ash, was life-changing. Their confidence in the ministry of the word as God’s means of transformation, and their commitment to serve the church, multiplying expository word ministry through training, equipping and encouraging preachers and Bible teachers, was used of the Lord to build a genuinely centrist renewal movement that united evangelicals. We live in the present, not the past, but can rightly take inspiration from those who have gone before us.
Bible colleges and training in a digital age
James Robson
‘The health of the church depends on the health of its colleges.’ I heard John Stott say this more than 25 years ago and it has influenced the path that recently brought me to Oak Hill College as Principal.
Stott quickly added that this was not a dogmatic conviction, but an empirical observation. As he had travelled around the world, he had noticed the organic connection between the life of the church and its training. That makes sense to me. Just as the source of our culture is the university, so the source of the church is the theological college and seminary.
Are seminaries failing in the teaching of New Testament Greek?
In 1453, Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Turks. This was a disaster for the Greeks but it became a blessing for Western Europe. It was inevitable that those who had the means, that is, the educated elite, sought refuge in the West and they took with them valuable manuscripts.
The spark that ignited the Reformation
For the first time there was significant interaction between Western scholars educated in Latin and Eastern scholars educated in Greek. Direct access to classical Greek works and the Greek New Testament was now possible. There was a keen interest in classical literature, art, drama and philosophy.