Welcome to another edition of five minutes in church history.

If you've been counting, we are at our fifth episode.

We have reached a milestone.

I thought it would be helpful to pause here and ask why are we doing this why are we looking to the

past why in other words bother with church history I suspect I'm preaching to the choir. You're listening because you already know the answer. You know why we need to spend some time in the past and listen to the voices from church history.

But it doesn't hurt to spend some time thinking about this question.

Even choirs need to be reminded from time to time.

So back to our question.

Why church history? Why is it important?

For the answer, I want to go back to the 1800s and I want to go to London.

I want to go to Charles Haden Spurgeon.

Now, I like Spurgeon for a lot of reasons, but I especially

like him because he helps me with my friends from the different Isles, or should I say my

friends from the different pews.

Spurgeon is great for my Baptist friends because he was a Baptist.

But he's also great for my Presbyterian friends because he smoked cigars.

And my Lutheran friends love him because he's a 19th century reincarnation of Martin Luther

himself. So there you have it. Spurgeon rules. Charles Hadn Spurgeon

pastored the Metropolitan Tabernacle, a great

church and a great part of London known as Elephant and Castle. The Londoners

would flock to hear Spurgeon preach.

In fact, people even travel the Atlantic to hear him preach.

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