It’s census day in the UK. The idea is that every decade, each household must complete a form declaring who is at the address on the day, their race, gender, religion etc. The data is used for planning and policy making purposes as part of public life. It also is eventually released online and can… Continue reading The census that matters
Tag: Evangelism
Recovering Apologetics
I want to highlight three things that have stood out about the current apologetics movement recently. The first is well publicised, which is the fall from grace of prominent apologist Ravi Zacharias. The fall started when it was discovered that he had misled about his academic qualifications and when information began to come out about… Continue reading Recovering Apologetics
How to listen to evangelistic sermons (when you already are a Christian)
At any one time in a gathering there will be Christians and non-Christians present. This presents the preacher with a challenge. Does he primarily focus on preaching to the Christians to edify and build them up or does he focus on evangelising the enquirers. Either way, he risks leaving part of the audience behind. Or… Continue reading How to listen to evangelistic sermons (when you already are a Christian)
Relax, refresh, restart
I’ve been writing a few articles about churches and life after lockdown. In them, I’ve included some potentially provocative comments about traditional midweek church ministries. Please don’t get me wrong on this. I’m not saying that you must never run these activities. I simply have a twofold point. The first is that a lot of… Continue reading Relax, refresh, restart
So why run clubs and toddlers’ groups?
I’ve written a couple of articles recently about our outreach post COVID. I’ve suggested that we might want to revisit some of our weekday programmes. That’s partly because I suspect there will be a nervousness about attending such events for a while, and indeed, the suggestion that social distancing measures will be needed until well… Continue reading So why run clubs and toddlers’ groups?
COVID and Cold Contact Evangelism
I’ve been writing about how we go about building back our outreach as we move out of lockdown. In a recent post, I wrote that I didn’t think we should rush to put back some of of our traditional outreach ministries such as children’s clubs and Toddlers groups. The reason for this is that we… Continue reading COVID and Cold Contact Evangelism
Building back better -discipleship after lockdown
Some of our churches are going to need to do some building back after lockdown. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t think that we were pandemic proof and so COVID-19 hit us like a full on Tsumani. Yet, in many respects, what the pandemic took out for our churches was not the real stuff. We… Continue reading Building back better -discipleship after lockdown
Come with me – simple discipleship
I have often been struck by John’s description of the first disciples being called. I would sum up his description of discipleship being that it is people following Jesus to be in his presence and inviting others to come with them and follow Jesus. That’s discipleship in a nutshell. I was reminded of this again… Continue reading Come with me – simple discipleship
Lockdowns and Christian Witness
Yesterday I explained why I believed that the Church should challenge the current lockdown measures but also why we should comply with them if unsuccessful. A big part of my argument is the priority of Christian witness. If eschatologically, we are focused on the great gathering of God’s people to come, then yes part of… Continue reading Lockdowns and Christian Witness
Were we prepared?
I remember the pastor of a church I used to attend commenting that rarely when people are in the midst of the crisis is that the time to try and teach them how to face the situation. Rather, if we are going to get through the challenge of a health, work or relationship crisis then… Continue reading Were we prepared?
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