One of the trends that quite a few people have noticed in recent years has been the change in definition of what it means to attend church regularly. To those of us in church leadership, who have been Christians for some time, regular attendance tends to mean “at least once a week.” However, the reality… Continue reading Why are people attending church less frequently?
Category: Church life
Men Women and Leadership … in practice
I hope you’ve found the recent #FaithrootsLive series helpful. The aim has not been to court controversy but help us to think better about how to honour Christ and love his church. Here’s the last in the series where we Consider some of the potential objections and criticisms of complementarianism Begin to think about how… Continue reading Men Women and Leadership … in practice
Church and the aftermath of the pandemic
Here’s my regular update on where we are in terms of churches coming out of lockdown restrictions. First of all, an update on the current data. As you can see, we’ve seen a further increase in UK cases over the past week or two and that increase is continuing, primarily driven by the English case… Continue reading Church and the aftermath of the pandemic
Seeing in 3D
We moved church during the 3rd lockdown. It wasn’t an easy time to do it because it meant that our new church family were having to meet online. A pre-recorded service with a few songs and a talk was followed by coffee time on Zoom. Then we joined in a community group in the week… Continue reading Seeing in 3D
COVID and churches – latest situation
It’s time to give a little update on the COVID situation in order to help with updates to plans, provision and risk assessment for churches. First of all the good news: WE are currently seeing a fall in the number of deaths reported each day (measured as within 28 days of diagnosis). This can be… Continue reading COVID and churches – latest situation
Why I’m not an online pastor
Over the past few years I’ve put a lot of work into providing online teaching and training content. It arises out of a concern to see greater provision for people who want to be equipped for in context Gospel service but for all sorts of reasons are unable to access the kind of provision made… Continue reading Why I’m not an online pastor
COVID-19 anxiety and church life
When I put together my initial advice on church risk management as we came out of lockdown, I advised that we needed to divide the risks into those driven by objective measures – how likely is our church to become the cause of a COVID-19 outbreak leading to hospitalisations – and subjective measures, how do… Continue reading COVID-19 anxiety and church life
The could and should of Psalm singing
I’ve written a couple of times about Psalm singing and whether or not we are required to sing THE Psalms. The very first time I wrote on this back in November 2020 I said that I’d like to encourage a debate. I’m not sure I’ve been very successful at that. It seems that the response… Continue reading The could and should of Psalm singing
COVID-19 risk management for churches update
Here’s my latest update on what we are seeing regarding the data at the moment. We’ve recently seen a substantial fall in COVID cases across the UK reflecting falls in daily reported cases in both Scotland and England. However, over the weekend we saw growth in week on week cases. Here’s the chart plotting average… Continue reading COVID-19 risk management for churches update
Male and female leadership questions (5) Implications for church life
First of all, I think we can rule out two extremes. We cannot take the egalitarian approach but nor can we endorse the traditional Brethren approach and a number of traditional approaches which in effect fail to recognise that women are equal in nature. We should recognise that sadly churches have got this badly wrong… Continue reading Male and female leadership questions (5) Implications for church life
