Discernming the people, the communities and the church we are called to be at this time and place
Discernming the people, the communities and the church we are called to be at this time and place
Durham saw me falling in love with the Anglicans. At university I volunteered to help out in a church in an ex-mining village a few miles away from the monumental beauty of Durham Cathedral, where I matriculated amongst the hoards…
Lest I should seem ungrateful for all that the Church in its various shapes, sizes, flavours and locations has given me, here’s a ‘thank you’ letter to all the churches that created spaces where over the years I have met…
I don’t mean ‘Carry On Church’ as in the slapstick films of the 1960s and 70s, although that’s a thought to conjure with… I mean ‘carry-on church’ as in ‘carry-on luggage’ – the only luggage you’re encouraged to take now…
I heard that a friend has taken up sleeping for Lent. She read that sleep is a form of worship because when we sleep we acknowledge God is in control and can manage without us. It’s an expression of our…
I’m a great fan of just dropping Godstuff into the conversation. If God is part of your mental wallpaper, and you’re the sort of person who allows a stream of consciousness out of your mouth, then God will occasionally appear…
I was at an event today, a conversation about ‘Living the story. Telling the story.’ One of the people in the conversation asked, ‘Do people out there really want to hear the story of Jesus? Do they want the message…
Just a brief post today: how do you discern what the Holy Spirit is doing so you can join in? Here are three possible signs (not the only ones – you’ll have your own): Where have a number of different…
The concept of evangelism seems to flow from the anxiety of the institutional church to increase its numbers by infecting more people with faith. I don’t mean to suggest that people who love and serve God through a recognised role…
If ‘isms’ are dangerous, verbs ending in ‘ise’ or ‘ize’ are ominous. Where did all the ‘ise’ words come from? There are hundreds of them: patronise, cauterize, immunise, terrorise, categorise, idolise, immobilise, infantilise, evangelise…. Where the verb has a human…
It sounds as if it should be the first line of a nonsense poem: ‘The danger of isms and and zations and ises – all human deceptions in different disguises!’ My new role gives me responsibility for encouraging others to…