Steve Kneale has written helpfully here about what to do when a Bible passage doesn’t seem to be answering your questions. As Steve observes, it can often be the case that the passage simply isn’t intended to answer the question that you and me are asking. Indeed, it may well also be the case that… Continue reading When Scripture asks the questions
Tag: application
What is the preacher meant to do … and how should we introduce them?
The other day, I wrote about one of my bugbears which is the way in which sometimes preachers are introduced as being about to explain God’s Word. You can read here why I don’t like that phrase. This prompted the legitimate question “then how should the service leader introduce the speaker?” My answer would be… Continue reading What is the preacher meant to do … and how should we introduce them?
Stop saying that the preacher will explain the passage
I’m going to fess up to one of my bug bears. It really irritates me when a service leader announces that such and such a person is “now going to come and explain the Bible passage.” Please can we get out of the habit of doing this. First of all, it gets the idea into… Continue reading Stop saying that the preacher will explain the passage
Why I believe in preaching through whole books of the Bible
The other day, I wrote about how we engage with theology in the local church. In the current debate about this, some people are setting up the practice of systematic expository preaching in opposition to engaging with theology. In fact, the idea that we should preach through a whole book of the Bible has long… Continue reading Why I believe in preaching through whole books of the Bible
The tone and application of the passage is not always what the congregation need to hear
Here’s a confession. I really struggled with Chapel services at Theological College. It wasn’t the Anglican liturgy I struggled with. Although I’m a free church guy and wouldn’t use Common Worship in my church context, I’ve actually appreciated the prayer book for time to time. We even used it for a daily Facebook slot during… Continue reading The tone and application of the passage is not always what the congregation need to hear
On younger pastors and preachers
I preached my first sermon when I was 19, I preached for a few years in our small Brethren Gospel Hall in Bradford and a couple of other local churches including a struggling AOG church which I helped out with getting my first experience of revitalisation/replanting. The elder there wanted to try and use some… Continue reading On younger pastors and preachers
When did you last hear a pastor talk about heterosexual ethics?
In my survey about what pastors talk about I asked when was the last time you heard a pastor address the matter of sexual ethics. I divided that into ethics concerning heterosexual relationships and same-sex relationships. The results are interesting because among those taking part, sexual ethics were highly likely to have been addressed in… Continue reading When did you last hear a pastor talk about heterosexual ethics?
When did you last hear a pastor talk about mental health issues?
In my recent survey about application and what pastors talked about, I asked respondents to indicate whether or not they’d heard pastors address particular issues within the last 5 years. One issue concerned mental health. This is such an important subject to address within our churches because as we preach and pastor we are so… Continue reading When did you last hear a pastor talk about mental health issues?
Who condemns?
Yesterday in his guest article, Ash Cunningham wrote: This week Karen Ingala Smith published research detailing the ‘Femicide’ statistics in the UK, including the 81 women killed by men since the brutal murder of Sarah Everard. As Ingala Smith herself points out, neither the police nor the government have analysed the data, it has taken,… Continue reading Who condemns?
When was the last time you heard a pastor tell their testimony?
This was one of the questions I asked in my survey about what pastors talk about. Here are the results. Now it could be that people have heard a pastor’s testimony, maybe not from the pulpit but for whatever reason its not registered. Yet that itself is a sign of salience. It matters that congregations… Continue reading When was the last time you heard a pastor tell their testimony?
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