Tag: pastoral theology

Applying the Trinity – meet some people

We’ve kept saying that what we believe affects how we live.  So what does it mean to live out our belief in God the Trinity in daily life?  It’s time to meet some people. Albert First of all, meet Albert. Albert is 45 years old, married with two children and he works as a manager… Continue reading Applying the Trinity – meet some people

Applying the Trinity

We’ve already seen something of how important the Doctrine of the Trinity is. It points us clearly to God’s character as the God who is love and it is essential to our understanding of salvation. We now want to pick up on one or two other practical applications. Unity and Diversity What type of Universe… Continue reading Applying the Trinity

Why what we think about The Trinity Matters

We’ve kept emphasising that what we believe about God matters.  When we talk about the Trinity, we are not just in the business of theological formulations and intellectual arguments.  This stuff matters practically for our daily lives and our eternal assurance. Three things that matter:  What we can and can’t say about the Trinity My… Continue reading Why what we think about The Trinity Matters

Another helper

Whilst working through Mark’s Gospel in early 2015 at Bearwood Chapel, we kept coming  back to some questions that followed a theme: “What stops me?” “What stops me from seeing God for who He is?”                                                                   “What stops me from worshipping?” “What stops me from truly knowing God?” “What stops me from trusting and taking God… Continue reading Another helper

God really is our Father

I mentioned the other day that there had been some controversy around the Archbishop of York’s comments about some people finding it difficult to refer to God as “our Father.”  Quite a few people jumped in assuming (prompted by the media headlines) that the Archbishop was seeking to stir up the old controversy about God,… Continue reading God really is our Father

Can we talk about sex and relationships? The pastoral challenges and pitfalls

I’m returning to the themes coming out of The Gospel Coalition’s controversial article “Sex is not your saviour but it points to the one who is” which provided an excerpt from Josh Butler’s forthcoming book, Beautiful Unnion. As promised, I want to deal here with some of the challenges and pitfalls around talking theologically and… Continue reading Can we talk about sex and relationships? The pastoral challenges and pitfalls

Why getting our theology around sex and marriage is important but difficult

A few weeks back, controversy erupted around The Gospel Coalition publishing an extract from Josh Butler’s up and coming book, Beautiful Union.  Recently, Preston Sprinkle hosted Josh along with Sandy Richter, an OT scholar and Brenna Blain, an advocate for abuse victims on his podcast to discuss the book and the controversy.  You can watch… Continue reading Why getting our theology around sex and marriage is important but difficult

Theology and the church

The other day I saw this twitter comment about the place, or more accurately, absence of theology in the local church. There was also this additional commentary from Marcus Honeysett.  I believe that the local church is the context where theology should primarily happen.  There are a few reasons for this but it boils down… Continue reading Theology and the church

Hostile to God

Our story of humanity so far has been about rebellion and rescue. We’ve seen Adam and Eve sin and face both judgement and grace, we’ve observed this pattern repeated through Cain and Abel. We’ve then watched as evil has filled the earth leading to judgement through cataclysm.  There was salvation in the midst of The… Continue reading Hostile to God