Category: Church life

How might Omicron affect your church over Christmas

One thing we have to be aware of when planning things for our churches in response to COVID19 is not just the objective impact of the virus in terms of its actual threat to health but also how news and perceptions affect the decisions of members and potential attendees. With that in mind, I’ve conducted… Continue reading How might Omicron affect your church over Christmas

Update on Omicron and Church Risk Management

This is an update on my article yesterday regarding the recently discovered COVID Variant of concern. Two cases of Omicron have now been discovered in the UK.  This has to be accounted for in in decision making as when I wrote yesterday we were working on the assumption that the variant was not yet present… Continue reading Update on Omicron and Church Risk Management

What about the not so Nu variant?

Okay, I was all ready with my article heading about a nu variant and then the WHO threw me a curve ball and called it “omicron” instead.  I’ve decided to press on with a small variation to the title.  Like me, your social media timeline and news feed has probably been full of stuff about… Continue reading What about the not so Nu variant?

Wounded, well-meaning and wolves

I recently referred to an article by Jonathan Leeman which led to a conversation about Spiritual abuse. In this article, I want to engage a little bit further with Jonathan’s article. I want to highlight some areas where I think he’s unfairly criticised, some important points he has made which need hearing and also an… Continue reading Wounded, well-meaning and wolves

Weaponising spiritual abuse

I’m encouraged to see that The FIEC are keeping the focus on the problem of abuse with a series of podcasts involving John Stevens and Adrian Reynolds looking at spiritual abuse in particular.  The term “spiritual abuse” has been at times controversial with people debating its definition and even its existence. I saw one definition… Continue reading Weaponising spiritual abuse

COVID update for churches 23/11/2021

Here’s an update on where we are in terms of the current UK COVID data. Cases UK case numbers have been increasing for the past 13 days (with a small interruption on the 17th November. This reflects daily increases in English reported cases of between 8-10% towards the back end of last week and 13-18%… Continue reading COVID update for churches 23/11/2021

Do you take the role of pastor/elder seriously enough?

What exactly does it mean to be a pastor or an elder in a church?  First of all, you will notice that I am in effect using the words “pastor” and “elder” interchangeably because we are essentially talking about the same thing. An elder is someone who carries leadership authority within a family/clan/tribe linked to… Continue reading Do you take the role of pastor/elder seriously enough?

Baptism, paedo-baptism and the conscience clause

I’ve been writing a few blog posts about baptism and paedobaptism over the past few days and of course, this brings us to the question about what to do when there’s disagreement within a church on Baptism. My friend Stephen Kneale is very clear in his mind on this. He writes about it here. Steve’s… Continue reading Baptism, paedo-baptism and the conscience clause

Another approach to the Sunday question

How might we approach the question of Sundays and church attendance? Well the first thing we have to do is to recognise the dangers that exist for pastors and elders when it comes to the issue.  It seems that Sunday attendance is so obviously a good and right thing to do that there can’t possibly… Continue reading Another approach to the Sunday question