I have reflected on and wrestled with this over the last day or two and felt it would be right to respond to a particularly distressing tweet shared by a prominent Christian on twitter. Before I go any further, I want to recognise that some people will find this subject matter too distressing to engage… Continue reading Suicide – who is responsible?
Posts
Get these two words in your regular vocabulary
This is a subject I will keep coming back to because I believe it is so important that we get this right if we are going to see healthy gospel churches. They are “sorry” and “forgive”. Elton John sung that “sorry seems to be the hardest word.” It shouldn’t be should it. We know that… Continue reading Get these two words in your regular vocabulary
Haircuts and Purity policing … a modern parable
My hair is a lot shorter than it was meant to be. I had a lock down hair cut disaster. The problem is that you cut if more than intended on one side so you try to even it up on the other. Then that side ends up too short too. Some people end up… Continue reading Haircuts and Purity policing … a modern parable
Re-mapping the Gender Role debate
We tend to describe the debate about gender roles in church and the family as divided between egalitarians and complementarians. However, I have been wondering whether this properly captures the nuances of the discussion. So, here is an attempt to remap where the agreement and disagreement is. I am starting with the assumption that the… Continue reading Re-mapping the Gender Role debate
How do we allow others to help us remove our logs and specks?
In a previous post I began to build on Steve Kneale’s post on the challenges of “logs and specks” in the eye of the church. Steve said that the challenge is that we often cannot see our own logs to remove them. Here are some further thoughts. First of all, whilst I may not be… Continue reading How do we allow others to help us remove our logs and specks?
Racism is a sin of omission not just comission
One of the things that has been concerning for white church pastors like me in response to some of the discussion about racism has been the level of defensiveness. We want to say that we are not racist and so we get very defensive when people talk about systemic racism going on in our churches… Continue reading Racism is a sin of omission not just comission
Gethsemane and The Father – Son relationship
I would now like to revisit Matthew 26 and Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. You will recall from earlier posts that the events here are central to our discussion about how the Son relates to the Father. Orthodox Christology asserts that because Jesus is one person with two natures and that he is… Continue reading Gethsemane and The Father – Son relationship
More on logs and specks: What is the heartbeat of our church?
The other day, I began exploring the question about applying Jesus’ teaching on logs and specks corporately to churches and communities. Steve Kneale has helpfully developed the conversation here. At this stage I am struck by two very helpful things Steve asks us to think about. The first one is that only true heart change… Continue reading More on logs and specks: What is the heartbeat of our church?
“If we cannot learn about relationships from the Trinity then where can we?”
This is a quote from my article on Ware and Grudem the other day. It was picked up by Liam Goligher who argued that the statement was flawed because first of all there is a creator/creature division and secondly because the members of the Trinity are persons not people, there is no partition on God… Continue reading “If we cannot learn about relationships from the Trinity then where can we?”
Seeing clearly and reporting accurately (my responsibility in a dispute part 2)
On our After Eight slot for Bearwood Chapel we were talking about the bit where Jesus says to take out the log in your own eye before attempting to remove your brother’s speck the other day. I asked Sarah, in the context of this, what she thought was our primary responsibility in a dispute. She… Continue reading Seeing clearly and reporting accurately (my responsibility in a dispute part 2)
Faithroots 