Surviving Prague

Sorry to have been out of touch these last hectic days. Two international Baptist leaders' conferences in Prague have filled life to the max.... and left me reeling. Over the next couple of blogs or so I want to mention one or two things that happened while I was away.

But I suffered a shock the moment I registered for the Baptist World Alliance Meetings. I was given an extra green sheet that announced that I was to give a talk entitled: Jan Hus - His Journey from Faithfulessness to Scripture and Conscience to Martydom. Jan Hus is a towering figure in Czech history - a courageous Christian reformer who was burned at the stake on July 6th 1415. Of course, it was important to learn about Jan Hus.....but I was stunned to find my name attached to this task. This was the first I knew of it. Noone had even suggested this to me beforehand.

Mercifully several historians were already prepared to speak to this subject and stepped into the breach. Throughout the rest of the conference I was taunted (by friends!) over my 'non-appearance.' The common preacher's dream is to find yourself in front of a large crowd and utterly unprepared.....this felt almost as uncomfortable.

However, my two expected set pieces - addresses on the 'preacher's integrity' and 'new wine/new wineskins' - seemed to go OK. Actually, the latter is going to be published in the theological journal Reflections so it should gain wider readership.

And as I make my way back to the US I hope to regain some blogging poise with more regular postings. Thanks for your patience.