The idea of an opening ceremony for something like the Olympics seems fairly straight forward. You welcome the contestants, spectators and referees/umpires, you declare the event to have begun and then you let everyone sit back and enjoy the spectacle to come. The thing about sport is that it is an incredible visual spectacle and… Continue reading Imagine: The Paris Olympics and how a song and a ceremony offered the only message they could
Author: faithrootsdw
Augustine and a British heretic
Augustine -13/11/354 – 28/8/430 born in Thagaste (Souk Ahras, Algeria) Mother Monica a devout Christian and father Patricus a pagan who converts on his deathbed Describes robbing a pear tree at 16 “…it was not the pears that my unhappy soul desired. I had plenty of my own, better than those, and I only picked… Continue reading Augustine and a British heretic
Athanasius and the dodgy worship leader
Introduction Arian Chants and Songs en hote pote ouk en “The uncreated God has made the Son A beginning of things created And by adoption has God made Son Into an advancement of himself Yet the Son’s Substance is Removed from the substance of the Father The Son is not equal to the Father… Continue reading Athanasius and the dodgy worship leader
Irenaeus and the mystery of the missing Gospels
Introduction a. An Alternative Creation Story -God as distant, pure spirit –who doesn’t get his hands dirty Impersonal –in fact one Gnostic, Basileadis, goes so far as to describe him as “The non-existent God.” -Between us and God are intermediary spirit beings/gods (demiurges) -Creation as an unpleasant accident –matter =bad, spirit = good… Continue reading Irenaeus and the mystery of the missing Gospels
All the way my saviour leads me
Today I turn 50. It’s interesting how those big number birthdays can affect you. I remember feeling a certain weight with turning 40, not so this time round. Perhaps it is that I’m now past any sense of pretence that I’m still young, I cannot ignore that I’m well past the half way mark. I’m… Continue reading All the way my saviour leads me
TL:DR Jesus loves his church … so let him
I recently suggested that the TL:DR (quick summary for those who because something was too long, didn’t read it) of Ephesians 5:22-32 is “husbands are to love their wives and wives are to let them.” The basis for my argument was that we may struggle with authority(headship) and submission language but authority is to do… Continue reading TL:DR Jesus loves his church … so let him
Reset
The church that you are pastoring this side of the 2020 COVID19 pandemic may not be the same as the one that went into the pandemic. I argued during lockdown that many churches would in effect need to adopt a church plant mindset coming out of lockdown. What we’ve seen is that the pandemic caused… Continue reading Reset
We need to talk about depression
I’ve just been writing some responses to advice given from older guys in ministry via the Christian media. I’ve responded to a few of these in recent years where the time seemed to be very much “it is all terrible now. It was better in the past”. I wonder to what extent rather than editors… Continue reading We need to talk about depression
The visible church
In Matthew 13:21-30, Jesus tells a parable about a farmer who plants seed, only for an enemy to intentionally plant weeds in among the crop. The owner’s servants ask permission to go and uproot the weeds but the farmer says no because there is a risk that good crops will be uprooted with bad. This… Continue reading The visible church
Submitting to one another and learning love languages
My friend Steve Kneale has written a very helpful article here about how we learn to experience love across cultures. In his article, he picks up on how the concept of “love languages” has often been misunderstood and misused. Steve, observes that too often, people talk in terms of what their “love language” is meaning… Continue reading Submitting to one another and learning love languages
Faithroots 