word | spirit | world | church
Advent starts on Sunday, though I suspect many of us will be opening calendars to starting devotionals on Friday. Advent is dark. Advent is bleak. Advent is about staring at the wretched core of the ash we clutch onto so that when our eyes are lifted and the thrice holy God comes with the dawn… Continue reading Advent is Coming
Jesus tells us to render to Caesar what is Caesar's (Mark 12), what bears his image, meaning coinage; he continues that we should render to God what is God’s, what bears God’s image, meaning us. Our whole selves are supposed to be offered to God, such that the offering of my self to God becomes… Continue reading An Order of Loves
In Genesis chapter 18, Abraham has an encounter with Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth. Not so strange, by this point he’s had multiple across his life and as readers we’re expecting God to deal with Abraham as a friend. Except, this time, the Lord most high comes for tea. It sounds like the… Continue reading When God Came to Dinner
I recently read Danny Webster’s response to the report into Mike Pilavachi’s abusive leadership. Pilavachi’s fall has rocked the charismatic evangelical world here in the UK. He was a strangely unifying figure who cut across streams and denominations. His abuse was longstanding and covered up by the charity’s trustees. Like many I attended Soul Survivor… Continue reading Leadership Development needs to go somewhere
In Matthew 16 Jesus declares to Peter that he is the rock on which he will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. What does that mean? In popular piety it’s most often quoted when we feel under attack by the forces of the Enemy. We’re most likely under… Continue reading The Gates of Hell
There’s probably a lot to be said about using commentaries to prepare preaching, but I’m going to address one very narrow aspect: how I’ve developed a way of knowing which commentaries to regularly consult. I’m a pastor but not employed by the church, I preach approximately monthly and so don’t have the luxury of lots… Continue reading Developing a ‘canon’ of commentaries
Chris Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory has been much lauded in evangelical circles over the past year. Because I clearly suffer from extreme FOMO I decided to read it too. No, that’s not fair at all, it’s lauded by people I respect greatly so I hoped that it would be a useful and beneficial read. I… Continue reading Biblical Critical Theory: A (Modestly) Critical Review
I’ve spent the last few months working through the works of St. Irenaeus. Which to most readers probably sounds utterly uninteresting. You aren’t going to do that. That’s OK, though if you’re an Elder or Deacon or anything similar I’d like to gently suggest it would be good for you to read some Christians from… Continue reading Why Read St. Irenaeus?
As I write, Christianity Today have just published an article extolling the use of ChatGPT for Pastors in their preparation for preaching and Bible studies. It has gone viral for all of the wrong reasons. I am, as you’ll have picked up, committed to ‘cold takes’, so I’m naturally wary about deciding that you really… Continue reading Beginning to think about Generative AI
Yes. But not like you think I mean. There are a number of passages in the New Testament which speak about perfection. Perhaps most famously, and challengingly, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount declares that we should “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” Matthew 5.48 It is common to wave this away.… Continue reading Can We Be Perfect?
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