I use the Faithroots blog for a few reasons related to the overall aim of providing training resources for urban ministry. First, this is the place I get to share work in progress. Eventually a lot of what is produced here finds its way into e-book publications or aa courses on the training pages. It’s important to start with this because although it’s the more provocative and controversial stuff that gets salience, this is really the bread and butter of Faithroots.
This year I’ve mainly been working on some teaching about Jesus and the Gospels which looks at all the Gospels and how they point to Jesus with a particular focus on Luke’s Gospel. See this tag for a selection of articles. This will be pulled into an e-book in the New Year.
Secondly I engage in some theological debate and discussion. This after all is how theology has been done through the ages with the principle that iron sharpens iron. A particular issue that has come to the forefront over the past few years has been the question over whether or not our desires are themselves sinful or just temptation, sometimes referred to as concupiscence. I spent some time towards the end of 2024 and into early 2025 engaging with this subject. It’s part of a broader debate around whether or not we should be recovering a “classical theism” from the works of the church fathers and more controversially, with medieval scholars such as Aquinas.
It is my view that too often those seeking to recover those historical works have struggled to accurately understand the contemporary debate or accurately read the historical works. Further, this distracts from a sharp and deep engagement with Scripture leading to problematic interpretations and application. Unfortunately the result had been a narrow focus of application about desire on sexual desire, specifically same sex desire giving the impression that some people are singled out from others.
As you will pick up, I’m not merely concerned with theological discussion for its own sake but for the pastoral implications. So another long running discussion has been over the role of men and women in the church and family. Back at the beginning of the year, I had the opportunity for dialogue with author, Andrew Bartlett who takes a more egalitarian approach. Part of encouraging healthy theological dialogue includes giving those who may have a different perspective space to respond and so I gave Andrew the opportunity to write in response to the articles I published reviewing his book “Men and Women in Christ” which he kindly sent me.
The issue of antisemitism has intensified here in the UK in recent years with those who seek to spread fear and hatred against the Jews using the Gaza conflict as a pretext. Outworkings have included a recent dispute about banning Israeli football fans from a game here in Birmingham and sadly the spilling of hatred into violence with two serious atrocities in the last few months
Whilst I engage with current affairs partly to help readers think through how theology applies to public life, from time to time I am also engaging with issues that I personally feel passionately about. I have Jewish friends and friends in Israel, so this is one such topic. What we see are both examples of overt hatred and violence and the hidden bias and systemic racism that gives cause to this
There has been much debate about a potential legal definition of Islamophobia. As a Christian involved in Evangelism, I believe that we need to be free to speak the truth, challenging the beliefs of Islam. However, too often we have seen critique of Islam used as a pretext to dehumanise and demonise Muslims. I have written here about why I’ve changed my mind on having an Islamophobia definition. More importantly, we want to see people equipped to love and reach their Muslim neighbours
A big part of the year’s news and if Faithroots engagement has been shaped and over shadowed by the growth of Christian Nationalism. This movement has its roots in something called Federal Vision, a problematic offshoot of Reformed Evangelicalism that I’ve been critiquing for a number of years.
I’ve frequently been told that this is a fringe issue but it moved centre stage in September when a number of Christian Nationalists joined Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom movement. I’ve sought to engage in depth both with Christian Nationalism and the ideology that underpins the Tommy Robinson/Unite the Kingdom movement. To be honest, it has been frustrating that evangelical leaders with a few exceptions have been unwilling to engage and speak up. Even now we are being told that we need to have a debate and that we must wait and see the fruit of this movement. We are also told that so long as Christ is preached we should rejoice. This last argument is a misapplication of what Paul says in Philippians. Christian Nationalism is a form of nationalistic prosperity Gospel. We would not accept excuses for prosperity teaching or indeed Open Theism or the arguments of Steve Chalke. We would argue, rightly, that you can’t just tag the name of Jesus and a shallow gospel presentation into such false teaching. Why then do we readily accept such a weak excuse on an issue like this
I’ve been vocal on Christian Nationalism for two reasons. First because as a nationalistic prosperity gospel, it is an aspect of the kind of false teaching that is a perennial threat to orthodoxy. Secondly because when this kind of ethno-cultural nationalism is allowed into the church and gives space for language that demonises immigrants or worse, is seen as permission for threats and violence, then friends, brothers and sisters in Christ and my local church family are directly affected
Finally, one of the joyful things about a blog like this is the opportunity to share posts celebrating the big seasons of the year
The blog offers a shop window into the overall mission of Faithroots which is to encourage and equip people for urban ministry by making training accessible.
If this is something that either you would like to benefit from or could support through partnership, please get in touch.
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