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Dr. Craig Ireland

@craigcireland

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Strategic ecclesiologist, Spurgeonologist, author, pastor https://t.co/lAdXWXAj7J // Lecturer at Haddon Institute.@wearehaddon & @kingsdivinity

Brisbane, Queensland
Joined November 2009
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
15/15 The journey from Keach’s 20-year campaign to Spurgeon’s confident hymnody reminds us: today’s “traditions” were yesterday’s innovations requiring courage and patience. When you next sing in worship, remember you’re both preacher and congregation, declaring truth in harmony.
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
14/15 Spurgeon emphasized the democratizing power of congregational singing. Unlike sermons (pulpit to pew), singing creates horizontal dynamics where every voice contributes. The elderly saint teaches the new convert while learning from their faith. Beautiful reciprocity.
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
13/15 When we sing together, we participate in “embodied theology” that engages our whole being. This is why we recall hymn lyrics decades later while sermons fade. Melody, harmony, rhythm, and text create multiple pathways for truth to enter hearts and minds.
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
12/15 Unlike many contemporaries, Spurgeon advocated comprehensive singing: praise, doctrine, testimony, evangelism, and penitence. Not just emotional celebration, but the full Christian life expressed in song. Every hymn was a teaching moment and evangelistic opportunity.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
11/15 Spurgeon’s theological breadth was remarkable: “A good hymn has not been rejected because of the character of its author… so long as the language and spirit commended the hymn to our heart we included it.” Truth over denominational prejudice.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
10/15 Biblical foundation: Spurgeon used Colossians 3:16 as his guide: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” He saw congregational singing as biblical education in action.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
9/15 Spurgeon’s governing principle: accessibility over complexity. He watched visitors struggle with hymn books, noting their “futile researches” and “looks of despair.” His conviction: if people can’t participate due to unnecessary barriers, the church is failing its mission.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
8/15 Through “Our Own Hymn Book” (1866), Spurgeon revealed his mature philosophy. The same church that fought over one hymn now published 1,000 carefully curated hymns. From controversy to confidence: one of history’s most dramatic worship transformations.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
7/15 Fast forward 150 years: Charles Spurgeon pastors the SAME CONGREGATION that once split over singing one hymn. By his time, the battle was won. He could focus on deeper questions: HOW should congregational singing serve the Gospel?.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
6/15 The irony? Maze Pond maintained their “non-singing” stance until 1736, when they called a pastor who refused the position unless they agreed to sing. They surrendered to the very thing they had rejected. Keach’s patience had outlasted their opposition.
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
5/15 The cost was real. When the majority voted for Sunday hymn singing in 1691, twenty-two members left and formed Maze Pond Church, explicitly condemning congregational singing as “a gross error equal with common national set form prayer.”.
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
4/15 Keach’s strategy was brilliant: he started with the children “because they loved it.” The timeline reveals incredible pastoral patience: 1673: ONE hymn after communion (objectors could leave first). 1679: Singing on thanksgiving days. 1693: Regular worship singing.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
3/15 Keach’s members were convinced that singing was “foreign to evangelical worship” and a corruption of pure biblical Christianity. Sound familiar to any modern worship debates? The opposition was fierce and deeply theological.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
2/15 But here’s something shocking: Baptist churches once considered congregational singing “dangerously worldly.” In 1670s London, Benjamin Keach (co-framer of the 1689 London Baptist Confession) fought a 20-year battle just to introduce hymn singing to his congregation.
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
🧵 When Baptists Never Sang: From Controversy to Mission. 1/15 Most Christian worship services don’t just have one sermon. They have three, four, five, or even six. The hymns and songs we sing together as a congregation are also proclaiming the Word of God. Each hymn is a.
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
Amen.
@DylanG0126
Dylan Grubbs 👑
7 months
Churches should offer free seminary-level bible and theology classes
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
Based on my tweets and interactions who would be my top 5 mutuals? Tag who and explain why. @grok.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
“…laughter is HOLY WAR!”. — Spurgeon.
@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
🧵 THREAD: Spurgeon didn’t just use humour to win souls, he weaponized it for spiritual warfare. His declaration: “I do not know why ridicule is to be given up to Satan as a weapon to be used against us, and not to be employed by us as a weapon against him.” 1/8.
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Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
His legacy challenges us: Have we surrendered satirical humour to those who use it against Christ? “God’s servants” shouldn’t become “mere entertainers,” but neither should we abandon powerful weapons for defending truth. Sometimes laughter IS holy warfare. 8/8.
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@craigcireland
Dr. Craig Ireland
2 days
But Spurgeon distinguished “holy cheerfulness” from “general levity”: “We must conquer our tendency to levity… A great distinction exists between holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that general levity, which is a vice.” Not all battles required the sword. 7/8.
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