Throughout the pandemic, pastors have found themselves under fire from two sides. For some, every decision to conform with guidelines, providing online services, introducing social distancing, asking people to wear masks has been seen as an act of compromise with the state driven by fear of death. Thy are told that they should not fear… Continue reading Laying down your life for your friends in a pandemic
Tag: love
How we treat others – a lesson from The Magician’s Nephew
Prompted by a friend, I’ve started re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia. The one volume edition we have starts not with the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe but with its prequel “The Magician’s Nephew”, the story of how Narnia all began. The story is of a boy Digory and his friend Polly, tricked into using… Continue reading How we treat others – a lesson from The Magician’s Nephew
Love is more than empathy
What’s the best thing that you can do when you see someone else suffering, crying out in emotional pain? The answer is of course, that often it is simply to go and sit with them, to say nothing but rather to simply be alongside them, to feel their pain with them and to weep with… Continue reading Love is more than empathy
Returning to church and hugging etiquette
Quite a lot of churches tend to be quite “Huggy” places. Some of us have had to learn to adapt to this if we are not among life’s natural huggers and in fact left to our own devices would tend towards the introvert. The etiquette of “greeting” and “hugging” post COVID is something I’ve frequently… Continue reading Returning to church and hugging etiquette
A breakthrough attack on abortion ethics will come at some point
The biggest concern in public health at the moment is that an escape mutation of the COVID-19 virus will emerge. This variant will have the ability to break through the current immunity defences of vaccines and natural immunity leading to a new wave of serious illness, hospitalisation and sadly deaths. The hope is that vaccine… Continue reading A breakthrough attack on abortion ethics will come at some point
Christians don’t (shouldn’t) bear grudges
One of the saddest things in Christian life is when you meet or hear about people, sometimes within the same church who have not spoken for years. Similarly you can even discover churches where there has been rivalry going on since a split decades ago. Sometimes Christians will disagree sharply. The Apostle Paul disagreed with… Continue reading Christians don’t (shouldn’t) bear grudges
The (church) body keeps the score
I recently referred to the book “The body keeps the score” which talks about how mental health issues and in particular trauma related health is not just in the mind. The physical brain, nervous system and the body are affected by trauma, respond to it and keep score of the damage inflicted. So, I’ve begun… Continue reading The (church) body keeps the score
This is how much God loves us (Romans 5:6-11) Sermon outline
On Faithroots Live, I’ve been working through some studies in Romans. However, these types of studies are a little different from preaching with the specific purpose of applying God’s Word to life now. So, here’s an outline of a preached version of Romans 5:6-11 which we looked at recently. Introduction The thing we find hardest… Continue reading This is how much God loves us (Romans 5:6-11) Sermon outline
The point of ministry
#TheDailyDose 1 Timothy 1:5-11
Eurovision, hate and indifference
Eurovision returned last night after a one year COVID enforced hiatus. Normal service was well and truly resumed with outlandish costumes, cheesy lyrics and quirky voting. To cap it all, once again, the UK finished bottom with the ignominious “null points”. Then as usual, people took to social media to complain that everyone in Europe… Continue reading Eurovision, hate and indifference
Faithroots 