word | spirit | world | church
Autumn’s final blast of anger against Winter’s unthinking hate is over, every leaf that cannot cling to life has lit the match to self-immolate in protest. We have enjoyed the beauty of that unconstrained rage. This is the story the seasons tell—or one of them at any rate. Snow lay on the ground earlier this… Continue reading Winter’s Story
This is a time full of feasting. Everywhere you go it seems you’re offered a plate of mince pies or piece of stollen, perhaps with a glass of mulled wine. You can’t escape it—biscuits and coffee at church become wine and cake week after week. Or at least that’s normal in the UK, I’m told… Continue reading Christmas is for the Church
I wonder if you’ve ever cut down a tree? I’ve done a few small ones over the years, and it’s a hard job. We’ve mostly gone the route of chopping off all the branches with a big pair of loppers or a reciprocating saw, so that you’re left with a tall trunk in the ground… Continue reading The Axe is Laid at the Root of the Tree
Advent is a time for silence. Or, to put it a little better, Advent is a time for facing up to the silence of God. We don’t like to admit it. This is the time of year for declaring the Emmanuel—that God is with us—and for saying that God is the one who steps into our world… Continue reading When God is Silent
I’m experienced at waiting. I know how to wait with God for things that feel like they’ve been promised and haven’t come. Well, I say I know how to, and what I really mean is that I know what it feels like to live in the between, hanging suspended between hope and hurt. If I… Continue reading On Waiting
I’ve spent six months now blogging about what I’ve dubbed the discipleship crisis: our collective Christian mind is poorly formed and our lives don’t look that different from everyone else around us. We’re meant to be Christians in everything we do. We live in a particular moment where in the UK the cultural power of… Continue reading The Discipleship Crisis Part 2
We live in an attention economy. Increasingly this is causing an attention crisis. We are divided against ourselves by the many claims on our eyes and ears. A house divided cannot stand. Modern life is frenetic. Everything is lived at breakneck pace, and sometimes we do trip and break our proverbial necks. That’s one of… Continue reading We need Advent
Stretching Minds V We’ve been talking about how to stretch minds in this series of posts, and I’ve suggested fours approaches that aren’t about scheduling events. However we can schedule things that address whatever we think needs addressing. In this final post I’d like to suggest some events you could schedule. I imagine Pastors reading… Continue reading Teaching the Church
I recently read Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls. It’s a wonderful book and should be widely read by Pastors and Elders in all kinds of churches. The book is trying to plumb the wisdom of the Church Fathers for pastoral ministry, exploring what an elder in a church is and what they do… Continue reading A Theological Vision for Ministry
Stretching Minds IV If we want to stretch our minds, we need to hear the Bible. This is the form it was designed to be interacted with. There’s nothing wrong with reading—it’s very good—but it can be very solitary. It is good for us to read the Bible together and hear it together. Most evangelical… Continue reading Read the Bible, Together
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