Posts

Happy People (Matthew 5:1-12)

“I’m not happy…” the words that you dread at the start of a conversation because you know that it is highly likely that you are the cause of the unhappiness and that they are expecting you to do something that will turn things around and help them to be happy again.  Sometimes it is straight… Continue reading Happy People (Matthew 5:1-12)

Stop worshipping at the foot of the magic money tree

It’s the 2017 General Election, the Tories had gone into the campaign, fully expecting a landslide victory but had then proceeded to self destruct whilst Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign had too off with the promise of investment and handouts. Central to the Labour campaign was the commitment to abolish student fees. Then you may remember that… Continue reading Stop worshipping at the foot of the magic money tree

How Theological College helped prepare me for Gospel ministry

I’m republishing some articles I wrote a little while back about training for urban ministry. I want to share a few thoughts here about the positives of formal theological education and why I recommend it.[1]  There’s a temptation to see training as primarily academic and therefore irrelevant to the day to day life of ministry. … Continue reading How Theological College helped prepare me for Gospel ministry

The anxious middle

The Bishop of London has been quoted today observing that it is okay to be anxious at the moment, we are still in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic and there is a real possibility of a second wave striking.  The heart of her argument is that well-worn phrase “It’s okay to not be okay”… Continue reading The anxious middle

Forgiveness, reconciliation, restored trust and domestic abuse

In my article yesterday, I talked about learning to trust again after forgiveness and reconciliation. I argued that this was possible by choosing to remember the good things about a person as well as God’s grace to them and us and to choose to not remember their weakness, sin and the pain caused. In a… Continue reading Forgiveness, reconciliation, restored trust and domestic abuse

Reforming Theological Training

This is an article from my previous blog that I wanted to reschedule to keep focus on this priority People who know me well will know that I have a particular concern for encouraging good quality theologically training, especially when it comes to potential pastors and planters in urban contexts. To be clear, my own… Continue reading Reforming Theological Training

Why I wrote to my MP about abortion and not about other things.

Tim Farron has written observing that lots of Christians wrote in to MPs like him asking them to vote against the amendments to the Domestic Abuse bill that would have resulted in a sweeping liberalisation of the abortion law.  His fear is that we will come to be seen as single issue campaigners and harsh… Continue reading Why I wrote to my MP about abortion and not about other things.

Being Transparent about risk (2) COVID-19 is still with us

In a previous post, I argued that we need to be open with our church family about the risks associated with moving out of lockdown. As I explained in that article, this means that we should not engage in the over-hype which can happen when people are sharing alarmist headlines around social media.  This will… Continue reading Being Transparent about risk (2) COVID-19 is still with us