Can you meet with the Trustees urgently about the financial situation?” “Are we looking at redundancies?” “We need to talk options…” That’s the gist of a conversation I was having a few weeks back. Like quite a few churches in our context, we’ve been encouraged over the past ten years to see Gospel growth but… Continue reading Redundant
Posts
The Curse
Covenant History blessed in God’s presence, cursed by exile from it To understand the Covenant ceremony, we need to go back to Genesis 1-3. God creates a good world and also plants a beautiful and secure garden for the first humans, Adam and Eve, to live in. Adam is commissioned to tend to the garden… Continue reading The Curse
New Horizons
Our time with Bearwood Chapel is coming to an end and I will complete my time with the church on the 31st December 2020. You may be aware that due to severe financial constraints, the Chapel has had to make its staff team redundant. There is a reminder there of the constant challenges that even… Continue reading New Horizons
Balance is often the enemy of truth
One of the idols we chase is “balance.” It is an established political fact that unless everyone else has headed off to the extremes, elections are normally won from the political centre. Opinion polls show that most voters consider themselves to be in the centre and judge the parties by where they believe they sit… Continue reading Balance is often the enemy of truth
Is it ever okay to run away?
What should Christians do when they face opposition and persecution? Well, it’s obvious isn’t it? Christians are to persevere, to stand their ground and to suffer. Paul talks about how we learn endurance and faith in suffering whilst Peter tells slaves that it is a good thing to suffer for doing good. So when persecution… Continue reading Is it ever okay to run away?
Learning to See – That important detail
On a couple of occasions, I’ve been asked for informal advice about a legal matter. Sometimes it has been to do with employment law, once or twice about family law and often to do with immigration and asylum. Often people start with a lengthy story of every single possible grievance or defence that might have… Continue reading Learning to See – That important detail
Learning to see – the full picture
Going back a month or two, you may remember that when asked, Boris Johnson promised that if necessary, the armed forces would be made available to help with the effort against COVID-19. This led to predictable headlines and tweets about troops on the street and people claiming that the Government was using the pandemic as… Continue reading Learning to see – the full picture
Swallows and Vaccines
Yesterday was a good news day in the battle against COVID-19. The twin announcements of a mass testing trial in Liverpool and the positive results from vaccine trials were signs op hope. However, in the Prime Minister’s statement last night, we were reminded by him and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer that there is still… Continue reading Swallows and Vaccines
Fed to the wolves?
I’m sure that I’m not the only one who finds these words particularly challenging: “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves”[1] Would Jesus do something so reckless as to send his disciples out without defence to certain danger? Is that the act of the good shepherd? I’ve seen it… Continue reading Fed to the wolves?
Beware of using experiments to support your argument
I am a firm believing in the helpfulness of both empirical evidence and forecasting models to help us make decisions. However, during COVID19, we seem to have run into problems whenever results are shared and there hasn’t been great care to understand what they are meant to be telling us. So, for example we get… Continue reading Beware of using experiments to support your argument
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