Part two of some reposted articles relating to Federal Vision theology. In my article about children and communion I commented that: “Secondly, a few years back, there was a big fuss about something called “The Federal Vision.” It was strong among some Presbyterians and Anglicans. It was an attempt to recover a high view of… Continue reading Why do people baptise babies?
Category: Church life
You are not meant to be autonomous.
Out of recent conversations about church culture in the light of recent abuse scandals we’ve seen a renewed debate about complementarianism. It’s a little confusing as to how this has happened because in the cases primarily linked to complementarian leaning churches the victims of abuse tended to be young men whereas in at least one… Continue reading You are not meant to be autonomous.
Should children take communion?
I’m reposting a couple of articles from a few years back about baptism and communion -especially as it relates to children. I’m doing this partly because these are topics that are always worth revisiting but also because I’m currently preparing some articles following up further on the question of church culture. In some of the… Continue reading Should children take communion?
Big Family of God?
I’ve written a few articles recently where I’ve talked about the importance of revisiting how we think about and talk about God if we are to see significant cultural change. I’ve suggested that we need to try and get away from corporate/business imagery and start to talk about the church as body and as family.… Continue reading Big Family of God?
Learning to love one another (changing our culture)
So, how do we develop a culture of grace within the church where one another love is witnessed and experienced? In this post, I want to make a couple of suggestions. First of all, it has to be modelled by pastors and leaders. This means that we need to prioritise choosing elders and appointing pastors… Continue reading Learning to love one another (changing our culture)
Gifted and Talented
What does that phrase make you think of? It’s frequently used to describe stand out students at school. The Gifted and talented are to be separated out for special attention at one end of the educational spectrum in order to maximise Grade 9s, A*s and Oxbridge places. Of course at the other end of the… Continue reading Gifted and Talented
Recovering our first love
I’ve been writing over the past week or two about how we encourage reform that affects church culture so that what we believe about grace affects how we live. We’ve seen that central to that is seeing the importance of love as central to the mission of the church. Today, I want to talk a… Continue reading Recovering our first love
Changing the culture: What is the mission and purpose of the church?
I’ve begun to share some thoughts about how we change and reform the culture of our churches in order to see churches where the doctrines of grace affect our life together so that there is a culture of grace. Here are some of the things I’ve suggested already: We need our church life to be… Continue reading Changing the culture: What is the mission and purpose of the church?
Getting out of lockdown: Between idealism and pragmatism
Followers of Faithroots will know that I’ve been pushing hard at the question “Is there a way of helping us get back to full in person corporate worship sooner rather than later.” That is the context for any discussion on the proposed vaccine/immunity passporting scheme. Now, I want to be clear here that my long… Continue reading Getting out of lockdown: Between idealism and pragmatism
Fathers and mothers – implications of family models for the church
In my posts about church culture and in my recent article about complementarianism, I’ve argued that we need to seek a church culture that functions more like a family and less like a club, institution or business. In that context, I want to suggest that elders in the church function a bit like the fathers… Continue reading Fathers and mothers – implications of family models for the church
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