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

A magnifying glass on my sin

Back in 2019 I was becoming increasingly irritable and snappy.  I found that my patience was in short supply and that I struggled to find joy and delight in things.  Perhaps it was no surprise then when towards the end of the year I found myself diagnosed with Mixed Anxiety and Depressive Disorder. Things had… Continue reading A magnifying glass on my sin

2022, COVID or a post COVID world and the church

I thought it might be helpful to say a little bit more about what we might expect to happen with COVID-19 over the next year or so and how this might affect our approach to church life.  I’ve seen a few people setting out some potentially scary scenarios recently. For example, in one very bleak… Continue reading 2022, COVID or a post COVID world and the church

The other effects of the pandemic

We know the horrendous cost of the pandemic through death, bereavement and serious sickness. However, there have been other consequences too. I recently ran a twitter poll in order to get us thinking about some of these things. First, I asked about how the pandemic has affected your relationship with God. I’m assuming that the… Continue reading The other effects of the pandemic

Leaving faithfully

So, what happens when it is necessary to leave your current church?  This may be because: You are having to move due to work or family reasons There’s a specific opportunity to serve God in a new context You disagree with the church over a significant issue in terms of doctrine, direction of travel etc.[1]… Continue reading Leaving faithfully

COVID-19 update – brace yourself for a tense week

I’ve argued in recent posts that the Christmas period would leave us a little blind as to what is happening in terms of the Omicron variant.  The optimist in me saw some signs both from the data here and what we’d seen happen in South Africa that the wave might be slowing down going into… Continue reading COVID-19 update – brace yourself for a tense week

The danger of an overactive hindsight

Remember back in July when the Government announced that England was coming out of the final stages of lockdown without any further mitigations. There were a whole host of people lining up to denounce the unethical recklessness of this.  We were given apocalyptic warnings of England being a plague nation with the hospitals jam packed… Continue reading The danger of an overactive hindsight