"I Find That Offensive" - Review
25 Oct 2019
“When you hear that now ubiquitous phrase “I find that offensive,” you know you’re being told to shut up” These are strange days indeed. I never expected to find myself in such strong agreement with people ...
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Christ Crucified
23 Oct 2019
It is always dangerous to assume what must be central. A husband and wife who only assume each others love will find their relationship in difficult territory sooner or later. In the same way, a church who simply assumes the centrality of “Christ Crucified” will discover that she has lost that which she thought she had. I have been struck by ...
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Joy In Repentance (In Ezra)
17 Sep 2019
I've just finished preaching through Ezra on Sunday evenings. The opening chapters were exciting to preach. The book begins on a high. We see the Lord drawing his people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. However the final chapter appears to leave us discouraged. The failure of God’s people is on full display as they face up to the fact they have been faithless to the Lord by marr...
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How We Begin (And End) Services
22 Aug 2019
I don’t get to go to the cinema as much as I used to (there’s something about having young children that hinders your social activities!) I managed to go recently and was reminded of the amount of adverts and trailers you have to sit through until the film you’ve paid to see begins. Even when it does start you have to wait until what feels like a never ending series of logos of prod...
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Helplessness
22 Aug 2019
I watched this talk today. In it the speaker distinguishes between two different Christianities - one right and one wrong. It’s worth watching as it’s done in quite a fresh way, and there’s a good application to the assisted dying discussion at the end. I am however pretty certain that Giles Fraser and I would quite strongly disagree on other aspects of theology! Please don’t ta...
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What Is The Church?
02 Aug 2019
(I was asked to write this article for the next edition of infellowship, the EFCC magazine) In July there was a report in the press that Christianity is now in serious decline amongst young people in the UK. According to the Daily Telegraph on 11th July 2019— “Christian belief has halved in Britain in 35 years with just one ...
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Catalyst 2019
26 Jun 2019
I am very grateful to be ministering in a church which sees the value of sending their minister on conferences. A couple of weeks ago I was in London for “Catalyst”, the conference I have been to for the last few years, and certainly the conference I value the most of all I have ever been to. It is organised by the International Presbyterian Church, but it was really en...
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Leadership
24 May 2019
There is an apocraphal Chinese curse that says “may you live in interesting times”, and it certainly feels like we are in the midst of those. Political turmoil and uncertainty over Brexit seems to be a fact of life at the moment, rather than just a passing phase, and a common frustration I hear is the complaint about a lack of quality leadership. ...
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True Fellowship
23 May 2019
A couple of weeks ago I went to a Yorkshire Gospel Partnership day conference. The speaker was Steve Midgely and it was titled “Rethinking Biblical counselling in the local church”. The day ended up being a bit broader than the title suggested, and dealt with how to raise the temperature of our spiritual conversations, and how to deepen our concern for one another in the church....
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Who Serves At The Worship Service?
15 Apr 2019
Recently someone recommended an article to me. It appears on the 9marks.org website - a good resource of thoughtful articles about the local church. In this particular one, “Putting the “service” back into worship service”, the author begins with a provocative statement - “Week after week, many of us attend a worship served...
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