There aren’t many certainties in life, in fact it’s often said that the only three are birth, death and taxes. The middle of these means that at some point we are going to experience bereavement. What does it mean to grieve well? How can our faith sustain us through difficult days and how can we… Continue reading When Sorrows like sea billows roll (book review)
Category: pastoral-care
The God who is near
I’ve just reviewed a book which is primarily testimony mixed in with pastoral advice about walking through difficult days (watch out later this week). What the book does well is it highlights God’s sovereignty. We can trust in the omnipotent, omniscient, God. I think different strands of Christianity help us get specific aspects of God… Continue reading The God who is near
Single minded – interview with Dani Treweek
Last week I reviewed Dani Treweek’s new book. I thought it might be worth resharing this interview with Dani from a year or so ago. You can read my review of her book, The Meaning of Singleness here.
Stronger than the storm
This week at our Life Group, we invited everyone to share one of their favourite Psalms, it was a fantastic feast as we read, reflected on and prayed Scripture. On a side note, I’d encourage you to try doing this in your life/community/home groups sometime. Anyway, one of the Psalms shared was Psalm 93 which… Continue reading Stronger than the storm
The New Testament on Sex, marriage and intimacy
In recent weeks, I’ve been engaging with Josh Butler’s book “Beautiful Union” which seems to try and set out a kind of theology of sex. I’ve argued that whilst Butler’s aims might be lofty and whilst some of the criticism of him may be unfair, that he ends up falling seriously short and in a… Continue reading The New Testament on Sex, marriage and intimacy
What the Old Testament teaches us about marriage, sex and relationships
This is part two, following on from my attempt to set out the framework of Biblical and Systematic Theology. I said in that post, that to talk properly and pastorally about marriage, sex and relationships that we would need to dig into a little more detail. So, here goes, an attempt at a summary of… Continue reading What the Old Testament teaches us about marriage, sex and relationships
Why does Open Theism matter?
I’ve been spending a few days talking about Open Theism. Why have I given so much attention to what on the surface looks like an obscure theological viewpoint which is not widely known. I want to suggest that there are significant things at stake, not just theologically but pastorally as well. You see, whilst there… Continue reading Why does Open Theism matter?
They are not coming back
This is the difficult conversation that if we are honest, we don’t want to have. It’s a long time since I wrote anything about church life post pandemic but following the pandemic I wrote about the long journey in terms of people coming back to church. I’ve not done any measuring of things for a… Continue reading They are not coming back
Beautiful Union?
I recently wrote in response to an article that appeared on The Gospel Coalition website. The article was an extract from Josh Butler’s new book “Beautiful Union: How God’s Vision for Sex Points Us to the Good, Unlocks the True, and (Sort of) Explains Everything” The extract provoked a great deal of controversy, hence the… Continue reading Beautiful Union?
Can we talk about sex and relationships? The pastoral challenges and pitfalls
I’m returning to the themes coming out of The Gospel Coalition’s controversial article “Sex is not your saviour but it points to the one who is” which provided an excerpt from Josh Butler’s forthcoming book, Beautiful Unnion. As promised, I want to deal here with some of the challenges and pitfalls around talking theologically and… Continue reading Can we talk about sex and relationships? The pastoral challenges and pitfalls
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