Author: faithrootsdw

When the church plant is mainly taking people from other churches

I’ve been writing a little bit recently in response to comments about church planting and whether it has played its part in the decline of existing local churches.  One question that has come back my way has been “what about situations where the plant has mainly drawn members from existing churches? What if after a… Continue reading When the church plant is mainly taking people from other churches

Let’s get the complementarianism/ egalitarianism debate in perspective

I wrote my MTh dissertations on pastoral ethics relating to marriage. My current work is focused on raising up leaders to plant churches in urban contexts. This combined with another factor means that a particular topic comes up from time to time and you will find me writing about it here. The third factor is… Continue reading Let’s get the complementarianism/ egalitarianism debate in perspective

Search for a new queen

Ahasuerus has dealt with his embarrassment and shame by removing Vashti as his queen.  Some time passes and he begins to think over what has happened (Esther 2:1). His attendants offer their advice.  Incidentally, they are described as “lads” and there seems to be a youthfulness to them they are not wise old advisors.  This… Continue reading Search for a new queen

Self Supported ministers

Southwark Diocese were recently promoting the fact that it is 60 years since the ordained someone as a “self-supporting minister.” As they explain, these are ordained clergy within the CofE who do the same things as any other clergy but are not paid a stipend by the church. This means that they are likely to… Continue reading Self Supported ministers

Pastoral and unpastoral pastors?

The Southern Baptist Convention has recently made waves by deciding to add to its rules that associating churches must not include women pastors on their staff. This links in part to the decision by Saddleback Church to appoint female pastors and Rick Warren’s change of mind on complementarianism.  However, the decision has caused consternation not… Continue reading Pastoral and unpastoral pastors?

Paedobaptism and the mediator problem

The Bible insists that there is one mediator between God and man, his name is Jesus.  Therein lies a crucial problem with paedobaptism.   There are some churches where babies are baptised and it is understood that this is symbolic, the baptism is in effect an expression of hope that the child will grow up to… Continue reading Paedobaptism and the mediator problem

The Anti-Christ and The Anti-Church

In Ephesians 5:21-32, Paul paints a picture of the church as the bride of Christ.  Jesus is the loving, faithful, self-giving husband who pours his life out for her, he seeks her beauty and her good.  She is faithful, honouring and submitting to him and so, the church, the bride he has won is the… Continue reading The Anti-Christ and The Anti-Church

Together for the city and the Gospel

In part of the conversation that followed on from Jonathan Carswell’s provocative tweet about church planting, he followed up with this statement: “I wonder what great good could come by sacrificing style prefs and prize unity/partnership?” It’s a good question to ask and fortunately, we are in a place to answer that question.  I can’t… Continue reading Together for the city and the Gospel