faithrootsdw

Building church planting and multiplication into your DNA

These notes are based on a workshop I recently ran with the Birmingham Collective, a group of churches committed to encouraging and supporting one another in church planting, re-planting and revitalisation. One of our aims is to plant churches that go on to plant churches. So how do we encourage that? Well, one way is… Continue reading Building church planting and multiplication into your DNA

Is Racism a Gospel issue?

This issue became controversial following the death of George Floyd and the resulting #BlackLivesMatter protests. Quite a few churches sought to take the issue of racism and prejudice seriously with pastors publicly repenting from sin. Significant thought leaders such as Tim Keller had been arguing for some time that racism is a gospel issue. Whilst,… Continue reading Is Racism a Gospel issue?

Gospel Confrontation

The Prime Minister stood, proudly clutching a piece of paper. It offered good news he announced, confrontation and war had been adverted, we could look forward to peace in our time. The Prime Minister was Neville Chamberlain and he incorrectly believed that he had managed to appease Adolph Hitler. He was brutely proved wrong. We… Continue reading Gospel Confrontation

Is lying ever the better moral option?

This question comes up from time to time. What should you do if telling the truth would put you or others in harms way? Is it okay to tell a lie in such situations. Some people have argued that we are under no moral obligation to give the truth to someone who is morally evil.… Continue reading Is lying ever the better moral option?

No U-Turn

In the musical, The Phantom of the Opera, towards the end, the Phantom makes his move to bring Christine fully under his power. He commits murders and then she removes his mask on stage exposing him. He sings “Past the point of no return” arguing that there is now no going back, they are fully… Continue reading No U-Turn

Does it matter who I eat with?

The other day, a group of us were talking about what a meal with Jesus would be like. We were asked two things The answer to the second question tells us a lot about ourselves. I went with Alexander the Great and Judas. Alexander because he makes an interesting juxtaposition with Jesus, another renowned historical… Continue reading Does it matter who I eat with?

Face to face

Would you draw a connection between who you had round for dinner and whether or not you really believed the Gospel? Paul did. A look at the text: Read Galatians 2:11-14 When Paul had visited Jerusalem, he had found himself in agreement with Peter but at a later date, Peter had reason to visit the… Continue reading Face to face

Complementarianism, Egalitarianism and the messiness of arguing from history/tradition

This is kind of a long footnote to what I wrote the other day about the supposed novelty of complementarianism. In some respects, you could sum up my response as “it’s more complicated than that.” More complicated than the claim by some (not all) egalitarians that complementarianism is the novel usurper. It isn’t for the… Continue reading Complementarianism, Egalitarianism and the messiness of arguing from history/tradition

Is Complementarianism novel?

This question crops up from time to time on my social media feed. It’s there at the moment I presume because the Southern Baptist Convention is meeting and in the light of developments at Saddleback Church where it’s former pastor, Rick Warren has now reversed his position and apologised to women, the topic is a… Continue reading Is Complementarianism novel?

What about the smallprint?

I frequently receive offers that look too good to be true and the usually are. I’m told that if I sign up to this or that offer then it will be totally free. Of course at some point the free trial runs out and the hope of the organisation making the offer is that by… Continue reading What about the smallprint?