Tag: Culture

Who has right of way?

It’s been fascinating seeing people’s response to a minor change in the Highway Code.  The underlying philosophy is that responsibility should increased based on the power of your vehicle.  The specific result is that the code now says that a pedestrian crossing a road junction has priority right of way over drivers turning into the… Continue reading Who has right of way?

The danger of desperately seeking relevance

What put the focus on what churches were doing regarding the Women’s World Cup final was probably an article reporting the comments of the Bishop of Derby.  It was in this article where she said that church life could in effect wnork around an event like a football final.  However, people’s attention was caught and… Continue reading The danger of desperately seeking relevance

Learning lessons means knowing what the person you are learning from is seeking to achieve

The other day I wrote about Katherine Birbalsingh’s policy of bringing her SLT in for a 7am meeting every day.  Katherine had argued that people should pay attention to this policy on the basis that if someone was successful, then we would do well to learn from them.  I argued in response that just because… Continue reading Learning lessons means knowing what the person you are learning from is seeking to achieve

It’s about more than preaching

Yesterday, I argued that If we wanted churches that are theologically rich and culturally engaged (and I believe we need that), then rich preaching has a big part to play.  However, even if we do the things that I argued for then I still think there’s a lot we need to do. We can’t expect… Continue reading It’s about more than preaching

Why Biblically rich cultural engagement may not be happening in our churches as much as we would like

I’m picking up on a theme from two sources.  First, there is my friend Tim Suffield’s tweet that prompted my little survey the other day. Then there’s a recent book that has been generating a lot of excitement among conservative evangelicals “Biblical Critical Theory” by Christopher Watkins.  The book, according to some of the most… Continue reading Why Biblically rich cultural engagement may not be happening in our churches as much as we would like

In a world where no-one is allowed to say no, this is an uncomfortable parable

You know the parable about the wedding feast don’t you? That’s right, it’s the one where the people are invited come up with lots of excuses for why they cannot attend on the day. Do you know how it ends?  You might assume that it ends with all the people brought in from the highways… Continue reading In a world where no-one is allowed to say no, this is an uncomfortable parable

“I’m saying this in love”

It’s the phrase that I suspect most Christians dread to hear but it’s one that I suspect is most used among believers too.  Tim Wilson recently asked on twitter which particular Christian cliches irritate us the most and the phrase “I’m saying this in love”   and presumably variants on that theme came up. Why does… Continue reading “I’m saying this in love”

Ten you may have missed

Yesterday I published a list of this year’s top ten most read blog articles. It’s often a surprise and sometimes frustrating to see what does and doesn’t make it towards the top of the list. Sometimes you find that people are more interested in a particular subject than you would be, sometimes, something you expect… Continue reading Ten you may have missed

The evil heresy of “Christian nationalism”

Fortunately this isn’t something that has particularly filtered through into the British Evangelical conscience but because some of my readers are from the USA and also because directly or indirectly, stuff happening there filters through here, I wanted to pick up on a particularly concerning cultural trend in America. Increasingly I’m hearing talk about Christian… Continue reading The evil heresy of “Christian nationalism”