word | spirit | world | church
We studied through James with a group of students in our Life Group recently. I noticed something, which I think is worthy of note. James is a letter written to churches telling them how to behave to one another. The New Testament is full of similar commands for the church should love one another, care… Continue reading Aiming Inside
The church calendar is anathema to our tradition. We wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. Except for Christmas obviously. And Easter. And Mothering Sunday (though it’s no longer about Mother Church). But otherwise, yuck. Advent is about chocolate and Lent is the rankest popery. Ok, I’ve got that out of my system. That’s my… Continue reading Learning the Calendar’s Wisdom
We live in an age of individuals. Which doesn’t sound like it’s saying very much because we can’t imagine anything else. For all the philosophers and critics say we are 'expressive individualists', we might not believe it fully. You’re not so self-centred that you only act for yourself, after all? But we’re so inculcated by… Continue reading Individualism goes deep
There’s a famous saying of Jesus that we often misunderstand. He said “where two or three are gathered I am with you,” often quoted at the start of poorly attended home groups to reassure us that even if the rest of them couldn’t get themselves in gear to turn up, Jesus is with us anyway.… Continue reading In the middle
This is one of those questions that no one other than me was asking. But here's my apophatic answer. Rest is not relaxation. Repeat: Rest is not relaxation. It has become trendy in the evangelical circles I move in to speak of the Sabbath frequently and to use it as a verb, “we Sabbathed yesterday”… Continue reading What is rest?
The traditional Protestant answer to the question “what makes a church” is the preaching of the Word and the Sacraments. Most Protestant denominations have adhered to it to some extent or other, though you would be hard-pressed to see this in action in my low-church charismatic circles. We disregard the sacraments. The reformers and their… Continue reading What makes a church?
I was speaking to my friend Duncan and he suggested a startling thought: we want our discipleship to be gamified. On the face of it I could shrug it off, Duncan and I are millennials, gamification is a Gen Z problem. They’re the generation that sees progress in terms of levelling up. We’re the I’m… Continue reading Next Level Discipleship
It’s been 10 months since we had church. We’re in our third so-called Lockdown (it’s our second formal national lockdown) and for much of the time in between we’ve been in local lockdowns or had significant restrictions on our daily lives. At no point since March has life returned to anything I would recognise as… Continue reading Longing in Lockdown
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