US pastor Gabriel Hughes tweeted the following to his 15k followers this week. I want to spend a little bit of time responding here as quite a few people reacted strongly to what came across as an insensitive comment. Among Hughes’ followers will be people who struggle with depression, other forms of mental illness and… Continue reading Pills, therapy and sin
Tag: pastoral counselling
Angry at God? (3) The root cause of my anger
Sometimes someone is in so much physical pain that they cannot tell where the pain is coming from. It seems to come from everywhere. When someone is in that much pain, it is very difficult to get close to help. This can be true with emotional pain too. You hurt so much, you cannot remember… Continue reading Angry at God? (3) The root cause of my anger
How do we allow others to help us remove our logs and specks?
In a previous post I began to build on Steve Kneale’s post on the challenges of “logs and specks” in the eye of the church. Steve said that the challenge is that we often cannot see our own logs to remove them. Here are some further thoughts. First of all, whilst I may not be… Continue reading How do we allow others to help us remove our logs and specks?
“If we cannot learn about relationships from the Trinity then where can we?”
This is a quote from my article on Ware and Grudem the other day. It was picked up by Liam Goligher who argued that the statement was flawed because first of all there is a creator/creature division and secondly because the members of the Trinity are persons not people, there is no partition on God… Continue reading “If we cannot learn about relationships from the Trinity then where can we?”
On judging
Matthew 7:1-6 warns against the rush to judgement. Given that Jesus himself does make judgements, gives the keys of the kingdom to the disciples and encourages church discipline, it seems unlikely that this is a blanket ban on exercising justice or discernment. However, what we have seen throughout the Sermon on the Mount is that… Continue reading On judging
How do we handle #ChurchToo allegations? Supporting the victim
It is perhaps helpful when thinking about how we would handle a complaint from an adult about abuse within the church to remember that we have some starting points. Much of what we should do is covered in the policies we tend to have for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. I think the key things… Continue reading How do we handle #ChurchToo allegations? Supporting the victim
Skin Deep? What if we took Jesus seriously about divorce?
Jesus says: 31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. As you can see, the culture of his day said… Continue reading Skin Deep? What if we took Jesus seriously about divorce?
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