Welcome to RevLex
Learning, empowerment and excellence: the ideas behind RevLex.
Learning. Empowerment. Excellence.
Those three words have been associated with RevLex for some time, and they still capture much of what I want this site to be about.
I have spent most of my adult life preaching, teaching, leading churches and developing people. More recently, writing has become an increasingly important part of that work. In many ways, though, they are all expressions of the same thing. I enjoy learning. I enjoy taking something that can seem complicated and making it easier to understand. And I particularly enjoy seeing the moment when someone begins to grasp an idea for themselves and realises that it can actually make a difference to the way they live.
That is part of the reason for this website.
Learning
I am still learning.
After decades of ministry, theological study, leadership and teaching, I find myself asking more questions rather than fewer. Sometimes I return to a familiar passage of Scripture and notice something I have never seen before. Sometimes a conversation causes me to rethink an assumption. Sometimes preparing to preach sends me down a path I wasn’t expecting at all.
I enjoy that process. I don’t think Christian maturity means reaching a point where we have everything neatly worked out. Following Jesus involves continuing to listen, think, learn and grow. That is certainly what I am still trying to do.
Some of the most interesting moments for me come when something I have believed for a long time suddenly needs to be looked at again. That does not necessarily mean abandoning it. Sometimes looking more carefully makes the conviction stronger. At other times it means recognising that my understanding needs to grow.
Either way, I hope I never lose the willingness to keep learning.
Empowerment
But learning shouldn’t end with us.
For much of my ministry I have been involved in developing other people — pastors, students, church leaders and ordinary Christians who simply want to understand their faith more deeply. Good teaching should do more than transfer information. It should help people think, give them confidence to engage Scripture for themselves, help them recognise what God may be doing in their own lives, and ultimately help them become more like Jesus.
I don’t particularly want people to become dependent upon me for answers. I would rather help them grow in their own ability to ask good questions, think carefully, engage Scripture faithfully and respond to God for themselves.
That is one of the things I hope my writing does as well.
Excellence
The third word is excellence.
I don’t mean perfection. Anyone who knows me well knows that I can keep working on something long after I probably should have stopped. Excellence and perfectionism are not quite the same thing.
For me, excellence is about stewardship. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing thoughtfully. If God has given us opportunities, abilities and resources, then we should use them as well as we reasonably can. That applies to preaching a sermon, writing a book, leading an organisation, teaching a class or having a conversation with one person.
Sometimes excellence means putting in more work. Sometimes it means recognising that something is good enough and getting on with the next thing. Wisdom is probably knowing the difference.
What You Will Find Here
This site will reflect the different areas in which I am already thinking, teaching and writing.
Some posts will grow out of sermons I am preparing or have recently preached. A sermon often begins with a biblical text and a question, and sometimes the process of working through that question produces ideas worth exploring further.
Other posts will deal with prayer, discipleship, leadership, mission, Scripture and the Christian life. I will also share material connected with books and resources I am developing.
But I don’t want this simply to become another place where I put information. My hope is that something here will help you think. Perhaps it will make a familiar passage of Scripture come alive in a different way. Perhaps it will raise a question you haven’t considered. Perhaps something I have learned through ministry will help you in yours.
And perhaps occasionally we will simply explore an idea together.
After all these years, I remain convinced that there is still plenty to learn.
Welcome to RevLex.