Author: faithrootsdw

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

If the Bible doesn’t speak with one voice -then our “Biblical scholars” are not experts

One of the greatest hypocrisies of liberal theological scholarship is that on the one hand the erstwhile theologians set themselves up as experts on Biblical studies. They then range across Scripture, Old Testament and new, universally recognised letters from Paul and those disputed, history, prophecy and wisdom.  They claim to be able to comment on… Continue reading If the Bible doesn’t speak with one voice -then our “Biblical scholars” are not experts

Preach the whole word of God

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of months working chapter by chapter through 1 Chronicles for the Faithroots Podcast, I’ll return to that in the Autumn.  I’m about to run a little series of articles taking us through the book of Esther. In the Autumn, our church are starting a teaching… Continue reading Preach the whole word of God

Making things harder than they need to be

Yesterday I spent a few hours attempting to sort out my National Insurance (NI) payments.  NI is usually paid, like tax as a percentage of your salary to the Government and used to cover things like the State Pension and for some other benefits.  If you are not in paid employment, you can make voluntary… Continue reading Making things harder than they need to be