It’s been well established for some time now that Mary did not give birth to Jesus in a stable. The word translated “inn” by most of our versions of Luke 2 more likely refers to an upper guest right on. Jesus will have been born in the central living area where humans and animals mucked… Continue reading Home for Christmas: No room?
Category: Discipleship
Home for Christmas Dinner
You can’t talk about “Home for Christmas” without talking about food can you? I associated Christmas growing up with home baking. Mum always protested that shop bought mince pies tasted too sweet whereas she could control the amount of filling that went into the ones she made. So home made mince pies were a tradition,… Continue reading Home for Christmas Dinner
Legacies
Today is a poignant day for our family. Three years ago we said goodbye to my mum who went to be with her Lord and Saviour. Today would also have been my grandma’s birthday. At the time we thought it fitting that they were reunited on Nanna’s birthday and also with mum’s younger sister our… Continue reading Legacies
Pipelines again and youth work
This article on the Growing Young Disciples website caught my interest. It’s worth saying up front that it did for two reasons, one was a couple of minor areas of disagreement. The other an area of major agreement. So first of all, a note of caution. Regular readers will be aware that I attempted, about… Continue reading Pipelines again and youth work
Should Russell Brand be baptising people?
Russell Brand has reportedly been baptising people in a penguin enclosure. In one case at least, the person had only professed faith that day. Objections have been two-fold. First there are concerns about whether or not Brand should be baptising given that he is currently waiting for court proceedings to be heard about serious criminal… Continue reading Should Russell Brand be baptising people?
Would Charlie Kirk get summoned for “the talk” in your church?
Aaron Edwards argues here that whilst many Evangelical leaders that lauded Charlie Kirk after his death, they would have seen him as a problem in their own churches and he would have been called in for a talk with the pastor. I write as a church elder who has both written in appreciation of Charlie… Continue reading Would Charlie Kirk get summoned for “the talk” in your church?
The deficient shepherd culture
Back the other week, I was talking to some Evangelical Anglicans about the state of the CofE. I explained to them the problem. With their “stay in” strategy that it leads to people thinking they have to stay when their evangelical vicar is inevitably replaced with a liberal. One response was to the effect that… Continue reading The deficient shepherd culture
sharing life, sharing Jesus
Over the summer, our church ran a series on Evangelism called “Sharing life, sharing Jesus”. Partly because we could not cover everything we would have liked to in this short series and partly because I thought the materials might be useful to others, here is a set of video talks going over some of the… Continue reading sharing life, sharing Jesus
When Erika Kirk forgave her husband’s killer
Elton John sung “sorry seems to be the hardest word.” However, in my experience, “I forgive you” is often much harder, especially at the point where there has been no “sorry.” So when Erika Kirk said about Charlie Kirk’s murderer: “That man I forgive him.” That was hard. And others have found it still harder… Continue reading When Erika Kirk forgave her husband’s killer
More Charlie Kirk reflections – discipling Gen Z
I’ve persistently argued that we must be careful of the extremes in responding to Charlie Kirk’s death. He was neither monster/demon nor martyr/angel. At the same time I think it is legitimate, unavoidable even to discuss his legacy and to engage both with the positives and the negatives. This becomes even more pertinent if it… Continue reading More Charlie Kirk reflections – discipling Gen Z
Faithroots 