Three stories – Sue Gray’s report on party gate is published – Senior civil servant complains about impact on the civil service .-PM smears Keir Starmer over the CPS failure to prosecute Jimmy Saville. What if anything can church leaders learn?
Posts
The pandemic elephant in the room. What happened to our reformed theology?
This is a little bit of a lament. I come from the Reformed tradition theologically. We pride ourselves in this tradition on deep theological reflection. This theological reflection is meant to be rooted in detailed exegesis of the text set within two important theological disciplines, Biblical Theology which enables us to see how God’s redemptive… Continue reading The pandemic elephant in the room. What happened to our reformed theology?
What they mean matters
Eddie Arthur has pitched into the controversy about using “they” instead of “he” as a pronoun to describe God. Arthur was responding to this article in Christianity Today and particularly this quote: Introducing a nongendered, personal, singular pronoun into our theological discourse isn’t orthodox, in my opinion. Arthur goes on to show that nongendered pronouns… Continue reading What they mean matters
COVID update 03/02/2022
Through the last year or so, I’ve been tracking the COVID19 data for the UK. My aim in reporting this has been to try and help church leaders with decision making around risk management. There have been three aspects to our risk management decisions. First of all, there is the objective and immediate risk of… Continue reading COVID update 03/02/2022
Sue Gray’s Report, Party Gate and church culture
We now have the Sue Gray report (or at least a heavily redacted version) available to read giving us a little bit more of an insight into Downing Street life and culture during the pandemic. One question that has come up as we’ve awaited Gray’s findings has been about the rights and wrongs of the… Continue reading Sue Gray’s Report, Party Gate and church culture
Don’t over infer
This week despite natural disasters and rumours of war in other parts of the world, the UK news has continued to be dominated by the Downing Street parties with Sue Gray providing a much truncated version of her report whilst we await the police investigation. A few people have tried to excuse or justify the… Continue reading Don’t over infer
Seeing your face and hearing your voice
I want to take a bit of time to respond to a post on the Pastor’s Academy website by Matthew Mason about faces and face masks. In a moment I’m going to seriously challenge the content of the article so I want to begin by saying that I appreciate London Seminary, The Pastors’ Academy and… Continue reading Seeing your face and hearing your voice
Idols, culture, abuse and scandal
On Friday I wrote about the source idols of approval, comfort and security quoting this from Tom Wood’s book. We admit our own striving for wholeness through approval, comfort or security from others, from self-accomplishment, from this world’s offers of life or even our religious successes, as if they are life. Wood, Dr. Tom. Gospelling… Continue reading Idols, culture, abuse and scandal
Is Revelation being fulfilled in our time?
Throughout my life time I’ve been able to guarantee that particular events such as natural disasters, public immorality, secular hostility and particularly strife in the middle east will be picked up by people as evidence that we are in the last days and that the prophecies in Daniel, Revelation and Matthew 24 are now being… Continue reading Is Revelation being fulfilled in our time?
Cake, pronouns and the main thing
In this week’s podcast Was Boris Johnson ambushed with a birthday cake and was it pre-meditated? US pastors Tom Buck, Owen Strachan and Thabiti Anyabwile get into a spat over the use of a pronoun! We’ll be talking about how not to get distracted or lost in the detail but to listen out for and… Continue reading Cake, pronouns and the main thing
