Noah at the John Owen Centre

Appropriately it was raining on the first day of the Annual John Owen Centre conference, as the subject was Noah.
The first lecture by Steffen Jenkins was excellent in content and delivery. It lead us through the early text of Genesis building up to Noah. Our attention was drawn to the the two genealogies, Seth's and Cains line, or as Steffen called them the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The crossing of these two line was noted in Genesis 6.
Noah was compared to Adam, Abraham, and Jacob. It brought the threads of family, land and food to the fore.
The next section was not for the faint hearted. Some integrate distinctions in covenant theology were drawn by Dr Gary Williams. For me personally I struggled to always see the flow of the argument and some of the distinction were semantic, but some good points were made. I look forward to re-listening to this when the MP3s are made available.
The Martin Lloyd Jones Lecture was delivered by Stephen Clarke, on Noah and the future, and was heart warming and challenging. Are we living for the future? Are we prepared for it?
The second day Tuesday brought better weather. The morning session, Delivered by Ian Hamilton from Cambridge was again excellent. He spoke on Noah and Faith. He was very careful to stick to what the text actually says, rater than what has been surmised from it. The particular focus was on Hebrew 11.
The afternoon season was a recorded lecture, followed by questions on skype by Dr Mark Garcia. All I will say about it was that the lecture was an exercise in theological vocabulary and obscure sentence structure, and I wouldn't have missed it if it hadn't been there. - Sorry it that offends but talking to others I am not alone in this.
The final lecture by retired pastor Geoff Gobbett was practical- Noah a preacher for preachers. I want to listen again to the five lessons he drew out. Interestingly he looked at what success at preaching is. A good end to the conference.
Overall it was good to meet up with friends and meet others who are in the ministry and discuss various issues. Discussions are always in good spirit, and that which unites brought to the fore, without compromising on the truth. It was well organised. Food was usual LTS standard. Price was too cheap.
Next years topic is Abraham. Looking forward to it already.

A John Owen Day - Covenant of Redemption

I have spent an taxing but enjoyable day at LTS London  John Owen Centre,considering the covenant of redemption. We looked at the parties, the terms and the benefits/ promises. Dr Gary J Williams presented his paper, which will need further digesting. Varies issues were raised and discussed. One area that was particularly beneficial was the application of the paper to ministry of, and the studying of various texts. Gary particularly focused on the assurance that the covenant of redemption gives. This was the forth such day Gary has given. I would thoroughly recommend them to anybody in ministry.