The Accidental Church Planter (Part 2): The unexpected plant

It was a Saturday afternoon in early January and we had opened up the building for a half day of prayer. Towards the end, a cluster of people walked in. I knew two of them because they were regular attendees by now. They introduced us to the other couple. Jose and Patti were Mexican refugees… Continue reading The Accidental Church Planter (Part 2): The unexpected plant

In defence of safeguarding

In this month’s Evangelicals Now, John Benton, comparing Safeguarding policies to the controversy over VAR in football writes: Safeguarding in churches is of immense importance, both for the sake of children and adults. There have been too many people deeply damaged, not only by the more serious and criminal forms of abuse, but by mistreatment… Continue reading In defence of safeguarding

The Accidental Planter (part 1)

Back in 2011, we had a series of church members meetings and an way day to tackle the theme “Space to Grow”. The Chapel building holds about 100 people, we can get up to 120 in at a squeeze with some overspill into the foyer. In reality the true, comfortable capacity of the building is… Continue reading The Accidental Planter (part 1)

Coming with the clouds

For Starters Where is everything heading?  –  dream apocalyptic scenario then we have it.  A plague running rife around the world, economic melt-down, ominous noises from Russia and a few rogue states with nuclear weapons. Throw climate change into the pot and the future looks bleak.  A couple of decades ago, such factors would have… Continue reading Coming with the clouds

Isolation is a form of death

Early in the pandemic, I wrote an article called “There is more than one way to die.” I was concerned then and remain so today that in their desperation to prevent physical deaths from the virus, authorities would miss other deadly dangers. There are two strands to the point that there is more than one… Continue reading Isolation is a form of death

A suppressed virus will always return

It’s not just Britain then -and it probably isn’t just about a new mutation. Around the world, coun tries are bracing themselves for a third wave of Coronavirus.  Today, the news attention has shifted focused form the South East of England to South Korea which is experiencing its own third wave of the virus. In… Continue reading A suppressed virus will always return

Happy Christmas

Dear friends, readers and subscribers to faithroots, Sarah and I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas. We arrive at the celebration in very strange times. However, we believe that the message of Christmas and the celebration of a birth 2000 years ago remains central to finding hope in dark days. The light shines… Continue reading Happy Christmas

How silently the wondrous gift is given

What a palaver! We were all sorted with our Christmas presents. We’d worked out which ones we needed to post and got Amazon to deliver others directly.  We knew that we would be seeing part of the family during the 5 day Christmas relaxations and so we’d bought presents and got them wrapped ready to… Continue reading How silently the wondrous gift is given

Freedom of Movement or engineered movement?

One of the problems that we have with talking about Freedom of Movement is that what people are usually either defending or objecting to is engineered movement.  What do I mean by this.  Well, it relates to a great question that people have been asking.  Most debates about the costs and benefits of immigration focus… Continue reading Freedom of Movement or engineered movement?