Separating the legal bit of the wedding from the celebration

Photo by Emma Bauso on Pexels.com

The Times observes that people are increasingly separating the legal civil registration of marriage from the celebration, sometimes with a significant period of time in between.  Steve Kneale picks up on this here and argues that it is s good thing and will help The Church get a better and more Biblical view of marriage. … Continue reading Separating the legal bit of the wedding from the celebration

Biblical brackets

Photo by Burak The Weekender on Pexels.com

There’s a particular technique that shows up in Scripture where writers want to show that a train of thought is being followed through from start to conclusion.  It functions to bracket various thoughts, points, narratives together and is known technically as an inclusion.  The method use is to repeat a word, phrase or pericope at… Continue reading Biblical brackets

Shameful … Why EN need to be wise about what they publish on their letters page

Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com

Last month Jason Roach wrote an article for Evsngelicals Now looking at how the Gospel deals with our shame as well.aa our guilt.  It was a very helpful article showing how some cultures are more alert to one or the other. The only change I would make is to give more emphasis to the fact… Continue reading Shameful … Why EN need to be wise about what they publish on their letters page

You might need to step back to get the point

Photo by Creative Vix on Pexels.com

There’s an old saying about not being able to see the wood for the trees.  I wrote the other day about the problems with equating verse by verse with expositional preaching.  In fact, a sermon may be expositional when taking a short phrase, a verse, passage, chapter or even whole book of the Bible.  I… Continue reading You might need to step back to get the point

51

Today is my 51st birthday meaning that I’m closer to 100 than I am to the day I was born.  It’s a good opportunity to pause and reflect.  The Israelites set up a stone that they called Ebenezer, a stone of help.  This recognised both that they could look back on what God had done… Continue reading 51

King Alfred School articles

Just to let readers know that I have paused articles on this subject and taken down the two articles that mention this specific school. This is my own decision following a conversation (initiated by me)with the school leader’s pastor and out of concern for the well being of those involved.  It is worth noting that… Continue reading King Alfred School articles

Why verse by verse preaching may not always equal good exposition

Photo by Jou00ebl Super on Pexels.com

John MacArthur’s Grace To You ministry describes its purpose as “unleashing God’s Truth, One verse at a time.”  It is often assumed that Expository preaching is about working verse by verse through a text.  Certainly, good expository preaching does require that we dig into the detail of the text.  However, verse by verse may not… Continue reading Why verse by verse preaching may not always equal good exposition

OK Boomers?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

We put a lot of attention into evangelism and discipleship for children and young people.  This includes events and programmes for the young people themselves but also resources to help[ parents. We recruit children’s and families pastors and youth workers to help with all of this.  But are we missing something, or some people. It… Continue reading OK Boomers?

Is the ministry pipeline broken? Starting to get some data

Photo by DTS VIDEOS on Pexels.com

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been looking at the question of ministry pipelines.  This was sparked by reading a number of comments back in 2024 to the effect that the pipeline had dried up and that churches were struggling to recruit people into Gospel ministry whilst traditional seminary style training schemes were… Continue reading Is the ministry pipeline broken? Starting to get some data