Author: faithrootsdw

Discerning a calling to the urban West Midlands

My desire is to see gospel communities planted into our urban inner city and council estate neighbourhoods in the West Midlands.  I believe that if this is going to happen then we’ll need two things. First of all, we’ll need indigenous church leaders from working class estate contexts and multi-ethnic contexts to be raised up,… Continue reading Discerning a calling to the urban West Midlands

Your pastor has considered giving up

That’s perhaps not the headline you wanted to read is it? However, this is the challenging reality. At some point your pastor/vicar/elders have thought  “I could just walk out the building after the service finishes, in fact, I could do it right now. I could shut the Bible, walk out and never come back here.”… Continue reading Your pastor has considered giving up

The pandemic – faith and emotional health

Earlier this week, I shared the results of a survey that I had done among my twitter followers picking up on the impact of the pandemic. The survey showed that whilst quite a few people are able to talk positively about the impact on their spiritual health in terms of relationship to church family and… Continue reading The pandemic – faith and emotional health

Mike Ovey

It’s five years ago since the shocking news that Mike Ovey had been taken from us suddenly.  Although there has been the constant comfort that he is with the Lord which is a better thing, Mike is still sorely missed.  He’s missed by many as a friend. Although Mike was an academic theologian and principal… Continue reading Mike Ovey

The apologetics of plague and pandemic

In a world where it’s all about survival of the fitness and there isn’t really purpose nor personality, the idea that human beings, the very creatures that represent those two things are still standing. It has struck me that our experience through history of plagues and pandemics is deeply unhelpful to the arguments of people… Continue reading The apologetics of plague and pandemic

Have COVID interventions worked -more on difficult decisions in uncertainty

Were the Government reckless in failing to bring in additional COVID measures for England over the Christmas and the New Year period? Or did Scotland and Wales jump the gun with pointless measures that haven’t worked, were never going to and weren’t necessary anyway? A lot of people think so and hold their views very… Continue reading Have COVID interventions worked -more on difficult decisions in uncertainty

Church buildings close because churches die

It has been reported that 400 Church of England parish churches have closed in the last decade and 1000 in the last 30 years.  This has prompted concern, not just, or so much from practicing Christians but non-believers too.  See for example this by Michael Deacon in the Daily Telegraph. The primary concern of those… Continue reading Church buildings close because churches die

When people are trying to influence church direction with conspiracy theories

I’ve written previously about the challenges with responding to conspiracy theories in relation to COVID19. I was recently asked how I would encourage church leaders to respond when those conspiracy theories are being pushed by people within the church with a view to shaping the church agenda. My response is as follows. First of all… Continue reading When people are trying to influence church direction with conspiracy theories

COVID update for church risk management 05-01-2022

Here we are with our first Risk Management update of 2022. I’ve updated my model assessment as follows: As you can see, I’ve reduced the risk probabilities in most cases suggesting that we are past the point of highest risk. There are two reasons for that. First, because there was a strong indication from Boris… Continue reading COVID update for church risk management 05-01-2022