A while back, someone visited our church and, after the sermon, came to speak to me. He thanked me for what I’d said, but then said, “I’d rather you had spoken from the heart, not a book.” Now, it’s important to check on what someone means when they offer critique. It could well be that… Continue reading Scripture – the source of special revelation
Author: faithrootsdw
How does God speak? (2) Special Revelation
Imagine that you are watching one of those old silent movies. You are enjoying the different scenes. You catch something of the humour, pathos, danger and heroics from the way the actors interact with each other and the scenery. You watch their facial expressions. You see the way that the landscape around them changes. Suppose… Continue reading How does God speak? (2) Special Revelation
How does God speak (1) General Revelation
What is it? Christian theologians tend to talk about two types of revelation: General Revelation and Special Revelation. General Revelation captures that sense which we have already considered that everything God does discloses something of who he is. Three aspects of General Revelation have been suggested. First of all, the whole of creation points us… Continue reading How does God speak (1) General Revelation
How can we know anything about God, us and this world?
The Pendulum of Rationality In our first article, we saw that our whole life, what we think, how we feel, what we do and say is influenced by what we believe. We choose either to believe truth or lies about God, Creation, Humanity and New Creation. So how do we know what is true? Throughout… Continue reading How can we know anything about God, us and this world?
How Do You Know? -For Starters
A dirty word for a messy world This blog is for people living in a messy world (those were the opening words on the original faithroots site. I’m now reproducing those original articles). The evidence of the mess is all around us. I grew up towards the end of the Cold War and remember the… Continue reading How Do You Know? -For Starters
Our decisions about who serves where tell people what we value
This is a further follow up on my article about serving, believing and belonging. The decisions we make here tell us something about how we regard ministry and gifts. Thinking back, I’m more likely to have been pressurised to include someone who isn’t a member or not yet a Christian to either help with children’s… Continue reading Our decisions about who serves where tell people what we value
Using social media as a shop window into your church
Churches put a lot of effort into the appearance of their buildings, particularly taking time to create inviting entrance foyers that enable people to see in and feel able to come in. We know the effect of a church building with closed, heavy, austere doors. We know the impact of walking into a building which… Continue reading Using social media as a shop window into your church
The problem with asking people to serve before they belong
How you come in will be how you go on I’m sure you’ve heard this or something similar said about evangelism. If we rely on big events and entertainment to attract people to the Gospel, then we shouldn’t be surprised if that’s what it takes to hold them going forward. Your church will find that… Continue reading The problem with asking people to serve before they belong
Pastor: Preach grace to yourself
It was just after I’d preached my first placement sermon whilst studying at Oak Hill and the pastor of the church, Joe Kapolyo came over to me to give me a little bit of feedback. “Well I’ve got some good news for you. It wasn’t perfect.” My initial mental response was “Well if that’s the… Continue reading Pastor: Preach grace to yourself
Be careful little lips – on the language of political debate
Over the weekend, there was significant discussion about political culture and how politicians talk about each other and how the rest of us talk about politicians. Now, given that it looks likely that the person who attacked and murdered Sir David Amess was motivated by Islamist extremist, there is a reasonable response to this. Namely,… Continue reading Be careful little lips – on the language of political debate
