Early in the life of Grace Fellowship Church I realized that a number of my sheep had very little sense of where we fit in the long line of God's chosen people. Names like Whitefield, Huss, Constantine and Fanny Crosby were lost to them - they had no reference point. And there might have been a tendency to think of ourselves as novel, when in fact we were just doing what saints through the ages had been doing - seeking to live for Jesus to the glory of God.
So, I had this idea. What if you could pack the entire history of the church, from the cross through to the present, into one day of teaching. Historical theology force-feeding! Of course, you would not get all the details or all the names, but such a fly-by technique would help to put the whole progress, the "big picture" if you like, into perspective.
Now, an idea like this is great if you happen to be friends with one of the world's leading church historians. [insert smile!]
So, I approached Dr. Michael Haykin and asked if he would be up to the challenge. I envisioned the day as, "Haykin's History of the Whole Church!" He didn't care for the title! So, we changed it to, "No Other Foundation: The History of the Church in Four Parts."
We crammed well over 100 folks into our gym and for one Saturday climbed aboard a luxury airliner with Dr. Haykin at the helm, guiding us over 2004 years of Christ's work in preparing His bride. It was glorious!
These lectures have been off line for a little while as we have been changing things around at our church home page, but they are on-line again as of last night. You can download them here.
No Other Foundation (1): History of Christianity, 100 - 500AD
No Other Foundation (2): History of Christianity, 500 - 1500AD
No Other Foundation (3): History of Christianity, 1500 - 1700AD
No Other Foundation (4): History of Christianity, 1700 - Present
Each file is also accompanied with a pdf of lecture notes that you can print off and follow along - a great tool to use in a Bible study or Sunday School class.
This is vintage Michael - enjoy!
Nothing like a little free advertising! Hope you all have a GREAT day tomorrow Andrew!!
ReplyDelete- Paul
I realized that a number of my sheep had very little sense of where we fit in the long line of God's chosen people.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff, Paul. I had in mind the same thing when I asked Cowboy Clint to teach for four Sundays on four dead guys in my Young Adult class - Calvin (1500's), Owen (1600's), Edwards (1700's), M'Cheyne (1800's). He starts on November 12th. I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately it will not likely be recorded.
If one can't get Dr. Haykin, the next best thing is to get one of his former colleagues. I'm hoping a little of Haykin has rubbed off on Humfrey.
I think that more than a little of the Historian has rubbed off on the Cowboy. It will be a great time!
ReplyDeleteThere is much good in knowing our heritage!
What a blessing to find these links. Dr. Haykin was a great help to our family in locating a local church and this weekend our pastor and several others from the church will be at the conference in London. We'd hoped to go as well but that's not going to work out.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess I'll just have to head on over to those links instead! :o)
Thanks for this,
SDG,
Carla
You are welcome, Carla!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy!
I just tried to listen to these. Am I the only one who found the audio unlistenable (yes, I made that word up)? It's not just poor quality, I can't understand it at all.
ReplyDeleteDavid - I downloaded a couple of the sermons on iTunes and they appeared to work.... no doubt they are not the best quality, but that is becuase we host them at sermonaudio.com. They control bit-rate.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry they are not working for you. Maybe you could try downloading a second time, then if you still have problems send me an email and we will try to fix it for you. You can reach me at [info at gfcto dot com]
It's not CD quality, but certainly sufficient quality to listen to.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about sermonaudio.com quality, but this is really bad. Since you and others apparently have no problem, it must be with my system.