You may have already taken down decorations, the sweets and food may already be consumed, presents broken and discarded, Christmas is over. However, Eastern Orthodox churches are just gearing up to celebrate and traditionally in the West we celebrated over 12 days, twelve days of feasting to follow 40 days of fasting, shortened in more… Continue reading Magi
Category: evangelism and mission
Home for Christmas: The Way home is through the Cross
At the end of CS Lewis’ Prince Caspian, the Telmarines who had ruled over Narnia have been defeated by Aslan. Those that survive are offered a choice, to stay in Narnia with Caspian as king at peace with the talking beasts or to return home to the Island they came from. Some choose the latter.… Continue reading Home for Christmas: The Way home is through the Cross
Home for Christmas: Paper chains and broken chains
One of the things I love about Christmas is the way that we love to decorate our homes with tinsel, trees and lights. Like many of you, one of our favourite family traditions is an evening walk around to see the different light displays. Some people go to quite an effort such as the family… Continue reading Home for Christmas: Paper chains and broken chains
Home for Christmas: No room?
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?
Driving home for Christmas … Make sure you know the way
This Christmas our theme for all of our Christmas outreach events has been Home For Christmas. Unsurprisingly our theme tune has been Chris Rea’s driving home for Christmas. Today we heard the sad news that the singer had died aged 74 after a short illness. One of my earlier articles connected the home theme to… Continue reading Driving home for Christmas … Make sure you know the way
The less obvious opportunities of Christmas
Most of us will be coming towards the end of our Christmas special events. I wonder how things have gone. Some of you just be feeling super encouraged. You will have had a fantastic time with lots of visitors coming. Maybe you have even seen people put faith in Jesus. You may have at least… Continue reading The less obvious opportunities of Christmas
Why that Christmas talk may have been more expository than you think
The other day I talked about breaking the Conservative Evangelical rule that every sermon has to be expository. Here is the paradox, you may have ended up being at least as if not more expository by relaxing the rule. I say potentially more expository first, because what happens when we try to force fit an… Continue reading Why that Christmas talk may have been more expository than you think
Something bigger and better than Giant Santa.
It’s good to see a happy story from our neighborhood make it into the local papers. This story is about a family who live in the road where our church meets and they have opted to decorate for Christmas with a giant inflatable Santa Claus It certainly brightened up our morning when we first saw… Continue reading Something bigger and better than Giant Santa.
Preparing to preach at Christmas? … First break all the rules
Or at least two of them… One of my favourite books is by Marcus Buckingham and it’s called First Break All the Rules. It’s about how leaders are taught a whole load of conventions or rules but truly successful ones break those rules. In effect Buckingham is seeking to discover a better set of leadership… Continue reading Preparing to preach at Christmas? … First break all the rules
Worthy -Christmas E-Book
If you are looking for something evangelistic to share with friends to read over Christmas, why not have a look at our E-book “Worthy: What are you worthy of this Christmas”. The book traces links between the lost sheep, coin and son to the story of Bethlehem.
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