word | spirit | world | church
Spurgeon’s College has recently closed with immediate effect as its financial situation became untenable. This raises some interesting questions, even for those of us in movements in the UK that rarely use residential training settings. Spurgeon’s had recently become a university, with its own degree awarding powers. It was the only independent evangelical Bible College… Continue reading Training for Ministry
The challenge I didn’t describe in my previous piece of developing leaders, and especially those nearest to my own heart—Ephesians 4 teachers, doctors of the church, pastor-theologians, or whatever you want to call them—was the challenge of recognising them. How do you recognise those that you should invest time and energy into and ‘develop’ in… Continue reading Recognising Leaders
I suspect that many churches feel that developing ‘teachers’ is straightforward, as its essentially the same as developing ‘shepherds.’ There’s something to that, the two are grammatically linked in Ephesians 4 in a way that the other three gifts aren’t. Except, I think it’s tricky. Developing any of these gifts has a challenge to it… Continue reading How do we develop Ephesians 4 teachers
In the last few months lots of people have left X/Twitter. Most of this is driven by their distaste for the new American administration and Elon Musk’s role in it. I like Twitter. I’ve made friends there. It’s one of the two primary routes that people have discovered my writing, which I’m thankful for. It’s… Continue reading Changing Ecosystems
This is one of those topics you rarely hear anyone who isn’t a charismatic or Pentecostal talking about—what are the Ephesians 4 Ministries (or sometimes ‘fivefold ministry’) and should local churches care about them? Except, I recently noticed a definitely-not-a-charismatic friend mentioning them. This piece from Rhys Laverty that builds off some of my blogging… Continue reading Ephesians 4 Ministries
A couple of years back Onsi Kamel, in a much-read article, bemoaned the lack of a Protestant Intellectual ‘Ecosystem’ to rival the Catholic one. He pointed out some of the reasons for this, not least the strong populist streak in evangelical varieties of Protestantism, and some of the organisations that were striving to do their… Continue reading The Evangelical Intellectual Ecosystem
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
I’ve argued before that British Christians don’t know their Bibles, and I’d like to push that thought a little further. I think there are a set of nested problems that inform and intensify each other, I’ll briefly touch on each in turn, mention what I understand some of the causes of this to be and… Continue reading We don’t know our Bibles
The church needs doctors, no not the kind you go and see if you’re unwell, the original kind. It is worth remembering that the medical profession stole the title of ‘doctor’—which literally means ‘teacher’—from the Universities and Churches. But that’s not the point I want to address, I’ve recently argued that the church needs to… Continue reading Doctors of the Church
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