word | spirit | world | church
We have an intellectual problem in the modern West. We’ve forgotten the intellectual underpinnings of all knowledge. That’s Jesus by the way. The resurrection of Jesus is the central beating fact of all existence. Our response to it is the core of our lives. Christians whose lives look the same as their neighbours are a… Continue reading Christ is the start of all inquiry
There’s a sort of language in charismatic culture that love the word ‘freedom.’ That’s great, right? Who wouldn’t like our freedom? Who would want to give up our freedom (cue William Wallace memes)? Who would want to live in… unfreedom (the opposite of freedom is ‘bondage’ but people really get the wrong idea these days)?… Continue reading Freedom isn’t a thing
There is no greater unknown, no more difficult question that we can face, than whether we are ready to die. Matthew Lee Anderson, Called into Questions, 35. I think he’s right. We are scared of death. We live in a culture scared of death. It’s much commented on that the Victorians seemed prudish (to us)… Continue reading The art of dying
In a previous post I explored the third commandment to see what it means to bear the name of God and how it applies to us. We live in a moment that needs to understand this—to name yourself is an act of rebellion against God, I argued. It certainly can be an act of rebellion… Continue reading On Names and Naming Again
The church is facing a number of issues right now. Here in the UK the ongoing crisis of leadership in the wake of numerous high-profile cases of Pastors abusing their positions might be the most obvious. I’ve written about another crisis, of discipleship, where the average Christian’s faith doesn’t touch the sides of their life.… Continue reading Navigating the Crises
It’s Christianese for “I want to.” Maybe that’s harsh, but I suspect most readers have thought that too. I’ve had many conversations where someone is suggesting doing something which is somewhere on the spectrum between ‘surprising’ and ‘deeply unwise,’ where they tell me that God has called them to do it. I suspect for some… Continue reading What is Calling?
All of us pattern our lives after something. All our church’s do too. For many that’s the agrarian calendar or the academic one. For your church it should be something of God’s life in the world. I’ve argued before that there is great wisdom to be found in the church calendar. Most churches follow a… Continue reading Church Calendar and Preaching
The Church isn’t in a hurry. Neither should Christians be. You can apply this in so many directions in our hurried world, but I’d like to think about our questions (again!). Questions require time. Fast answers are usually trite ones. Some intellectual curiosities can be settled quickly by a swift Google, but real questions can’t… Continue reading Is Your Church Slow Enough?
Charismatics and Pentecostals have a reputation for being anti-intellectual. Although we’d love to say this was a myth, the reason it’s so often repeated is that it, unfortunately, does have some grounding in reality. We Pentecostals and Charismatics aren’t well known for being thinkers. That's the opening paragraph to Eucharisma, a new home for charismatic… Continue reading Eucharisma
“God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” Is this a helpful ‘creed’ for thinking about the faith and the Bible? I don’t think it is. There’s a lot of commend about this approach, people who say either the cliché or a more nuanced view of it tend to trust God. They tend to… Continue reading Ask Why
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