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
Tag: guilt driven church
Complementarianism and Singleness – in practice
This is my third article responding to the accusation that complementarianism discriminates against single people. I want to look at how this works out in practice. I want to say at the start that this is not an attempt to claim that the churches I’ve been part of as a member or as a leader… Continue reading Complementarianism and Singleness – in practice
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
Big Family of God?
I’ve written a few articles recently where I’ve talked about the importance of revisiting how we think about and talk about God if we are to see significant cultural change. I’ve suggested that we need to try and get away from corporate/business imagery and start to talk about the church as body and as family.… Continue reading Big Family of God?
Learning to love one another (changing our culture)
So, how do we develop a culture of grace within the church where one another love is witnessed and experienced? In this post, I want to make a couple of suggestions. First of all, it has to be modelled by pastors and leaders. This means that we need to prioritise choosing elders and appointing pastors… Continue reading Learning to love one another (changing our culture)
Recovering our first love
I’ve been writing over the past week or two about how we encourage reform that affects church culture so that what we believe about grace affects how we live. We’ve seen that central to that is seeing the importance of love as central to the mission of the church. Today, I want to talk a… Continue reading Recovering our first love
Fathers and mothers – implications of family models for the church
In my posts about church culture and in my recent article about complementarianism, I’ve argued that we need to seek a church culture that functions more like a family and less like a club, institution or business. In that context, I want to suggest that elders in the church function a bit like the fathers… Continue reading Fathers and mothers – implications of family models for the church
Changing our culture – the relationship between church leaders and church members
In my previous post, I talked about how to reform church culture towards a grace culture by focusing on our relationship towards one another as characterised by humility. Today, I want to talk about how leaders and congregations should relate to each other. Here are two important scriptures on the subject. First of all, we… Continue reading Changing our culture – the relationship between church leaders and church members
Lots of love
Final Greetings from Paul – Ephesians 6:21-24. How do you sign off a letter … yours sincerely, regards, in love? #TheDailyDose
Love Conquers Fear (6) Does God really love me?
Thoughts on one of my favourite Bible passages (1 John 3:1-3)
Faithroots 