word | spirit | world | church
Theology is important. Constructive, imaginative, Christian thinking is important—and remains important for the church today. Occasionally you encounter someone in evangelical circles who sniffs at the idea of ‘constructive’ theology today. Their contention is usually something like, ‘it’s all already been worked out,’ suggesting that it’s the height of arrogance to think that you might… Continue reading The Theological Imagination
Over the last few months I've been writing about some of the challenges facing the British church around issues of theological development. We lack a defined an coherent 'mind,' especially in the charismatic churches. I outlined our need for institutions, our challenges with reading the Bible, and how 'Doctors' will be a portion of the… Continue reading It’s Time to Build Counter-Institutions
Neil Postman argued that our metaphors demonstrate our thought patterns. I’ve argued that our metaphors fence our thought patterns such that we can’t think outside of them. I suspect the relationship here flows in both directions rather than simply downstream, but metaphor and thought connect in important ways. When we use machine language to describe… Continue reading Efficiency in Churches
In my day job I like metrics. I’ve got a bit of a reputation for it. In a certain meeting I’ve uttered the phrase “that’s not a metric” often enough that some people look and wait for me to say it whenever a way of measuring success is suggested. In most of the jobs I’ve… Continue reading Repost: Measuring Success
Last year I read and greatly benefited from Natalie Williams & Paul Brown’s book Invisible Divides. It explains the challenges of being working class in an English church—which at least among evangelicals are currently majority middle-classed—and outlines the ways that Pastors and others need to think differently in order to make multi-class churches. One of… Continue reading Embracing the Minority
Christians are supposed to be the wise. I often wonder if we really are. While my own preaching and teaching, as well as that of others I know well or have sat under, contains a lot of practical application, I am beginning to suspect that I haven’t spent a lot of time teaching about wisdom… Continue reading Repost: Get Wisdom
My last two thoughts for now on the Eucharismatic ‘manifesto’ that I sketched. Regularity and Form I’ve drawn a doctrine of the church that maps four encounters with God: Baptism, Lord’s Supper, Preaching, and Contributory Worship. It’s not wildly different from lots of Protestant versions, it’s essentially word and sacrament, with the charismatic addition being… Continue reading Two final Eucharismatic Words
Every member of the church is meant to participate in the church’s gathered worship, because the Bible insists that we do. Continuing my series on my Eucharismatic manifesto, I’d like to talk about the importance of what we might call ‘worship,’ but I’ve referred to as ‘prayer.’ I’ve deliberately shifted the language because I want… Continue reading Worshipping in Spirit
There’s a posture, a ‘motion’ if you like, of God that dominates a correct understanding of how the Lord works and that influences how we consider and think about the church. In my last post in this series filling out my ‘eucharismatic’ manifesto, I argued that the church exists to worship God, and therefore our… Continue reading The Motion of God
Most of us think we know, which is fine, and we think it’s obvious, which could be fine, and we think that everyone else agrees with us because it’s obvious. Which is not true. You ask the average conservative evangelical and you will probably get an answer along the lines of “the Great Commission,” meaning… Continue reading What is the Church for?
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