Dr Paul Allen

Scott Harrower When I first met Marcel, he was slowly rubbing the side of his head, a small figure sitting alone at the back of our church. Tears streamed from his eyes as he told me the sermon had moved him. Over the next few weeks, I began to get to know Marcel, his dog Winkie, and his dislike of loud noises. Having been a nurse for a decade before I became a pastor, I slowly came to understand that Marcel was suffering from severe depression and anxiety. One day, he asked if I could help him stop feeling so “worthless and nervous.” I was faced with how to best care for Marcel. Should I refer Marcel to healthcare professionals and basically leave his mental health issues to them to care for? Or would it be best to care for his mental illness within the church community alone? Or could we develop a hybrid approach: a therapeutic model whereby our pastoral team and the wider church played a vital role within a more extensive professional approach to his care? What would it look like if...

One of the things I love about the Bible is its sheer realism. The irony is that the world thinks the Bible is full of fairy tales. Yet, when you engage with its teaching, you find that it fits our humanity. The God who wrote the Bible “knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” ( Ps. 103:14 ). The teaching of Scripture is wonderfully realistic. While studying Galatians in house groups, I was struck by this passage: “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” ( Gal. 6:9–10 ). Paul has expounded the gospel, the glorious freedom that Christ brings. One hymn puts it like this: for those who are in Christ, “the terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do.” We must guard our hearts against falling back into a pattern of thought that thinks it is what we do, our external acts, that make us acceptable to God. I...

In 1 Corinthians 14:34 Paul says, “Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak but should be subordinate, as the law also says.” 1 Timothy 2:11–14 raises perhaps more problems: “Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” These two passages constitute a genuine puzzle for modern readers, not least in light of the following four factors. First, Paul’s statements in 1 Corinthians 11:3–16 presuppose that women will take a full speaking part in public worship and prayer. This at once suggests that his hesitation in 14:34 cannot be understood to be a universal prohibition for women not to speak in public worship. (The one problem of these verses is that Paul does appear to invoke the argument that “man was not made from woman, but woman from man” in 11:9. We shall try to address this later.) Second, in Paul’s epistles, at least half a dozen women do have leadership posi...

Spiritual failure at this level — among those who love the world and thus abandon Christ for it — injects tremendous pain into families, into marriages, into friendships, into local-church communities, and into the ministries, these people leave behind. 1. Paul writes, “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (2 Timothy 4:10). I think Demas was once a faithful partner because, over in Colossians, Paul says, “Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas” (Colossians 4:14). And now he’s gone and he’s forsaken, Paul. That’s number one. 2. Just being alone in the ministry, not just forsaken, can be a trial. Paul says, “Crescens has gone to Galatia” (2 Timothy 4:10). I don’t think that means he forsook Paul. I just think there were some ministry things that Paul wanted him to do. “Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me” (2 Timothy 4:10–11). So once upon a time, there was quite a team here. And now it’s just ...

As Jesus moved from the obscurity of life in Nazareth and entered into public ministry, He carefully chose companions who would help in the work on which He was embarking. These companions would ultimately become the ‘first-fruits of a worldwide movement and be greatly used in God’s service. The men chosen were not the rich and famous. They were not from the elite political or religious circles in Israel. Instead, Jesus chose men from the lower stratum of society, men who were intelligent, hard-working, and willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the gospel. John lived and worked in the town of Capernaum. He was a fisherman, earning his livelihood on the Sea of Galilee. He worked with his father Zebedee, his brother James and partners Simon and Andrew. His life was radically and irrevocably changed when Jesus called him (and James, Simon, and Andrew) to leave their jobs, for the vital work of winning souls for heaven. It is interesting to note that Jesus did not choose idle peo...

Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:3–4) So, ministry is war. Fighting for faith in my heart is war. Fighting for the souls of men is war. All aspects of the Christian life are war. If I were to ask you, “What’s the most crucial text on warfare?” you would all say what? Ephesians 6. Let’s read a little bit of it. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6:12–13) Then comes the list of the armor. Life is war. The enemy is awesome, and you can’t see him. Universal Spiritual Conflict Most people do not believe this. How are you ever go...

This article is by Kevin Deyoung and identifies the arguments against women having a teaching ministry. I find this whole argument swings on the concept of 'Authority.' The article is below. What do you think? I believe the authority issue is answered if there is a male district or national leader. It’s not surprising, given the volatile nature of sex in our world, that the divinely designed complementarity of men and women is a disputed topic. On the one hand, we want to be humble before the Lord and before each other, acknowledging that we can make interpretive mistakes. On the other hand, we don’t want to undermine practical biblical authority by declaring that all we have are “interpretations.” The existence of rival interpretations does not preclude that one of them is right or at least more correct than another. “Come now, let us reason together” is necessary advice for God’s people today as much as it ever has been (Isa. 1:18). With that in mind, let me address a number ...

What exactly is an Apostle?   The New Testament, and especially Paul, uses the Greek word apostolos (apostle) in at least two senses.  Broadly, it means one who is sent on a specific mission as an envoy or representative of the sender. For example, when Titus’ two companions travelled to collect the Corinthian church’s full contribution for the saints in Jerusalem, they arrived as “messengers [apostoloi] of the churches” in Macedonia (2 Cor. 8:23). Likewise, the Philippian church dispatched Epaphroditus as their “messenger [apostolos] and minister to [Paul’s] need” (Phil. 2:25).  This broad use of the term apostolos may reflect an older Jewish legal concept that the messenger resembles the sender insofar as his activity reflects the sender’s will and authority. As Jesus observed, “A servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger [apostolos] greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:16). In its more focused and familiar sense, the word apostolo...