Posts

Attitudes to Church Planting

I’m currently running this little survey to find out a bit more about attitudes to church planting. I’m particularly interested to know whether there are people seriously considering the possibility of church planting in the near future. If you are interested in church planting, then I’d like to find out a bit more about what… Continue reading Attitudes to Church Planting

Board games and the missing step when interviewing potential pastors

My friend Richard Baxter has suggested that pastoral interviews should include a game of monopoly. He is not being completely serious about having board games but he is arguing that we need more than just an interview and a preach to get a feel for potential pastoral candidates. As it happens, whilst the interview process… Continue reading Board games and the missing step when interviewing potential pastors

Better the devil you know?   What might Putin’s demise mean when it comes?

With regular frequency, you’ll see a newspaper article about how Vladimir Putin is seriously and terminally ill.  Usually this will come accompanied by some speculation regarding his mental health and the possibility that he is acting irrationally in Ukraine, raising the spectre of him going further in his supposed madness and ushering in a nuclear… Continue reading Better the devil you know?   What might Putin’s demise mean when it comes?

Arise and Shine

I’ve now put together all of the teaching and devotional material we’ve been covering in Isaiah in one place. You can read it here. This should be a useful training resource for those of you making use of Faithroots resources for equipping for urban ministry. Part 1 offers an overview to the book, setting it… Continue reading Arise and Shine

The Best of Friends (Book Review)

This is a helpful little book from Phil Knox.  We live in a world of increased isolation and individualism.  The COVID-19 pandemic certainly didn’t help that with its lockdowns and social distancing.  Then there are the cultural idols of greed and selfishness which encourage us to look inward to ourselves.  It’s no surprise the that… Continue reading The Best of Friends (Book Review)

What happens when Jews read Matthew’s Gospel together for the first time?

Rabbi Jonathan Romain writes in  the Church Times that his Synagogue congregation have been reading through Matthew’s Gospel together, an exercise in Jewish-Christian dialogue. HE acknowledges the imbalance in the conversation as is caused by the fact that Jews are unfamiliar with the New Testament whilst Christians have read the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). In… Continue reading What happens when Jews read Matthew’s Gospel together for the first time?

The Harrowing of Hell and the filling of silence

Over the last few years, I’ve noticed two particular trends at Easter and I suspect they are linked. The first, that seemed to start earlier was that some Christians began to start making a bigger deal of the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  Comments include that we shouldn’t be in a rush to… Continue reading The Harrowing of Hell and the filling of silence

How consistent are modern views of a spiritual resurrection of Jesus with the evidence of the gospels?

Originally posted on Faithroots:
One of the major fault lines within Christian Theology in recent times has been over the statement “I believe in the resurrection.”? What does it mean to claim this?[1] Many Christians would insist that this means that Jesus rose physically from the dead.? However, a number of theologians have argued that…

A virgin birth and “a conjuring trick with bones”?

Originally posted on Faithroots:
A Christmas and Easter tradition on social media seems to be to refer back to the infamous Bishop of Durham, Rev Dr David Jenkins who in the 1980s allegedly denied the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus.? I say allegedly because I note that there have been significant attempts to…