Author: faithrootsdw

Bradford, city of culture 2025, needs church planting

Yesterday, my home city, Bradford one the contest to be the UK city of culture 2025. The City of Culture designation is given to an area every 4 years and lasts for the year.  The place hosts cultural events and receives significant investment. I’ve written before about Bradford’s bid and about both what the city… Continue reading Bradford, city of culture 2025, needs church planting

Headship is not about hierarchy

My friend, Steve Kneale has written a few articles about complementarian theology and practice. This follows someone misrepresenting his position in this article as being egalitarian not complementarian. I can certainly vouch for Steve as a fully paid up complementarian. It seems that what some people are doing is taking the term and narrowing down… Continue reading Headship is not about hierarchy

Joy, enjoyment and singing

In my article on singing the other day, I talked about the importance of enjoyment and joy when we are singing.  I wanted to expand on a little footnote I included in the article.  There I commented that: Incidentally, when I talk about joy and enjoyment here, I don’t think that means we are meant… Continue reading Joy, enjoyment and singing

Look after your leaders’ mental health

I’ve written before about my own brush with anxiety and depression. You can read my story here, here and in the book, The Pastor with a thorn in his side (ed. Steve Kneale).  I wanted to say a bit more about how churches can look after the mental health of their pastors and other leaders… Continue reading Look after your leaders’ mental health

What was the basis of the Reformation criticism of veneration of Saints?

Explaining the basis for the reformation criticism of the veneration seems at first to be a straight-forward task of finding out what the arguments were that the reformers used.  However, a number of contemporary historians have criticised the reliability of such an approach arguing that the reformers arguments alone fail to explain why change occurred… Continue reading What was the basis of the Reformation criticism of veneration of Saints?

Don’t stop praying for Ukraine

We are now in the 4th month since Vladimir Putin began his aggression against Ukraine.  Putin, and many analysts expected the war to be over quickly with Ukrainian forces overwhelmed, the President removed and a speedy surrender.  Things have not turned out as he planned. Many of the things that we prayed for have happened… Continue reading Don’t stop praying for Ukraine

Food from around the Worldwide web

With the horror of this week’s shooting in Texas there have been some confused and at times abhorrent responses to this. I respond to one particularly unhelpful one here whilst Steve Kneale writes here in response to Franklin Graham’s repeat of a frequent trope that the problem isn’t the guns it’s the people here. There’s… Continue reading Food from around the Worldwide web

On singing when I don’t enjoy it

This week, Steve Kneale answered the question “If I don’t enjoy the songs at church, is it okay not to sing?”  I broadly agree with much of what he has to say in his article.  We live in an individualistic age where we believe that our desires and preferences come first. If we see church… Continue reading On singing when I don’t enjoy it

Building myths

This article is a guest article from Bob Sharples.  Following on from my article recently about the myths around assuming that getting a building is a solution to your long term problems, Bob highlights to further myths that churches can believe about owning their buildings. This is not a case for or against owning your… Continue reading Building myths