One of the challenges that we all faced during COVID was that the intense pressure on health care meant that none urgent surgery and treatment had to be cancelled. There were two reasons for this. First, hospitals were at capacity treating virus patients. Second, we wanted to minimise face to face contact to reduce the… Continue reading Relearning our theological triage
Category: Church life
Lessons from COVID: Fear and Control.
The COVID pandemic brought many of us into closer contact with mortality than we were used to. With a high proportion of the population being at least significantly ill and high numbers going on to be hospitalised, intubated and even dying, it meant that lots of people knew at least of someone who had been… Continue reading Lessons from COVID: Fear and Control.
It’s high time that western conservative evangelicals started learning from non-western Christians
I have just had the privilege of visiting a conference held for Nigerian Christians who have settled in the UK. What a blessing it was to worship with brothers and sisters and to sit under passionate preaching. It prompted me to reflect on my experience of worship with non-western Christians. Over the years, I’ve had… Continue reading It’s high time that western conservative evangelicals started learning from non-western Christians
Making things harder than they need to be
Yesterday I spent a few hours attempting to sort out my National Insurance (NI) payments. NI is usually paid, like tax as a percentage of your salary to the Government and used to cover things like the State Pension and for some other benefits. If you are not in paid employment, you can make voluntary… Continue reading Making things harder than they need to be
The jaw dropping prayer
I read this little story at the start of an article the other day: In South Carolina, a pastor entered the worship service one Sunday morning and his jaw dropped. There sat a family that had belonged to every church in town, and had torn each one up. The only church they’d not joined was… Continue reading The jaw dropping prayer
A COVID inquiry for the church?
The UK government has set up an inquiry to learn lessons from the COVID pandemic. Much of the focus in the media seems to be on whether or not we’ll get to read Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages but the true purpose of such an inquiry is not to focus on people and personalities, not to… Continue reading A COVID inquiry for the church?
Don’t expect the Convention/Festival to compete with your local church
A certain prominent Christian leader used to finish the big festival every year with a speech to the gathered throngs of young people. He’d acknowledge that they’d had a great week, that the music had been terrific, the teaching fantastic and that many of them had received a particularly powerful experience of the Holy Spirit. … Continue reading Don’t expect the Convention/Festival to compete with your local church
First and second things
At the weekend, the Keswick Convention put out a statement on social media as follows. It seems that the convention has been subject to a bit of a protest about their stance on women speakers. It’s not the first time that Christians have decided to protest Christian events. In fact, back when we attended Keswick,… Continue reading First and second things
Reputations, assumptions and missing the important questions
“Oh we have x number of people coming to our church” boasted one of the group of people walking towards the convention tent. Then they turned to me “oh Dave, how many people are at your church now”. I wasn’t keen on the numbers feel to the conversation and I didn’t actually know the person… Continue reading Reputations, assumptions and missing the important questions
Church on holiday
Tim Wilson writes here about attending church when away on holiday. It provoked a few thoughts in my mind which I’m going to share below. So, as always it’s important to emphasise that I’m not disagreeing with Tim. These were thoughts prompted, not disagreement prompted, although we may not agree on everything. I would encourage… Continue reading Church on holiday
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