Tag: church discipline

You don’t need to speculate

This week, Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church and president of Acts29 announced that he was taking leave of absence from preaching and teaching at the Church. The reason given was that he had been direct messaging a female on social media and had been confronted about this by one of her friends.  An… Continue reading You don’t need to speculate

It may appear to come from your side but it’s not friendly fire

You may be familiar with the term “friendly fire”. It refers to when a military assault on the enemy ends up taking out members of the same side as well as or instead of the enemy positions. This can be caused by those people being in close proximity to the enemy at the time or… Continue reading It may appear to come from your side but it’s not friendly fire

Abuse, safeguarding and church discipline

One of my main concerns is to see healthy churches planted into urban contexts. We often talk about the church planting bit but I also try to talk as much as possible about the healthy bit.  When we talk about healthy churches we are thinking both about health in terms of right doctrine/teaching and good… Continue reading Abuse, safeguarding and church discipline

Is three a magic number?

You’ve probably heard people quote these words from Matthew 18:19-20 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” And you’ve probably heard them used to suggest… Continue reading Is three a magic number?

Confrontation in church life

The other day, I wrote about the risks of getting a response to trouble and confrontation wrong. I wrote specifically about the challenges facing the West in responding to Vladimir Putin. However, most of us are not involved in major geo-political issues and hold little power over politicians or big business so on one level,… Continue reading Confrontation in church life

Church Discipline and Church abuse

There’s been some recent discussion on social media about the use of church discipline and whether or not it can be harmful and lead to examples of abuse.  The discussion was prompted by this article by Steve Kneale which was then shared by John Stevens – you can read the thread below John’s tweet to… Continue reading Church Discipline and Church abuse

Finding the right hill to die on in practical pastoral leadership

I’ve been enjoying reading Gavin Ortlund’s “Finding the right hill to die on” about theological triage. The concept of Theological Triage was coined by Al Mohler to describe how Christians go about distinguishing first, second and third order issues. In other words, there are theological issues that are central to the Gospel itself, it is… Continue reading Finding the right hill to die on in practical pastoral leadership

I’ve got a theory

On faithroots Live this week, I was looking at the Theory of Evolution. Now, I’m a Young Earth Creationist which means I fundamentally disagree with Evolutionary Theory, however, I think that it is vital we evaluate the strongest form of an opposing argument.  So, one thing that I took time to do was to respond… Continue reading I’ve got a theory

A year in lockdown – was it worth it?

What were you doing this time last year?  I was running a temperature and fighting a dry cough.  That’s right I’d gone down with COVID-19.   The result was that I was going to stay at home.  I’d hoped initially that it was just a cold but through the day, it became clearer that it wasn’t.… Continue reading A year in lockdown – was it worth it?