Evangelicals Now reports that the rector at All Souls, Langham Place, Charlie Skrine has said in a speech in Sydney that “Justin Welby” is not his friend. Looking on as an outsider to the Anglican scene, this strikes me as yet another example of why the internal Anglican debate and even more so the debate… Continue reading Is John Stott’s successor my friend?
Tag: unity
Marriage, mutual submission and headship: what does it look like in practice?
In Ephesians 5:22-32 Paul instructs: Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord … Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” In a previous article, I argued that this was a fleshing out of 5:21 and the instruction to “submit to one another.” … Continue reading Marriage, mutual submission and headship: what does it look like in practice?
Evangelical Unity
Here are some further thoughts on how we encourage Evangelical Unity. I remember a friend pointing out once that there will be different levels of fellowship and partnership and it is helpful not to have a one size fits all approach to relationships. His analogy was that there will be those you can embrace close,… Continue reading Evangelical Unity
A prophetic church (1 Corinthians 14)
Paul has argued that the proud, divided church in Corinth needs some crucial things to correct those problems. They need love in all that they do and they need the gifts of the Spirit to be exercised by the whole body. Here he focuses in on one specific gift, prophecy. Especially Prophecy (v1-5) Paul says… Continue reading A prophetic church (1 Corinthians 14)
A Diverse Church (1 Corinthians 12:12-30)
Remember that one of the big problems in Corinth was the rivalry and tribalism among believers. They were in the habit of identifying themselves with particular leaders and seeing their tribe as better than everyone else. The same habit was at risk of infecting their attitude to gifts so that people would see their particular… Continue reading A Diverse Church (1 Corinthians 12:12-30)
First and second things
At the weekend, the Keswick Convention put out a statement on social media as follows. It seems that the convention has been subject to a bit of a protest about their stance on women speakers. It’s not the first time that Christians have decided to protest Christian events. In fact, back when we attended Keswick,… Continue reading First and second things
Brothers and sisters in Christ
I want to spend a bit of time here talking about how men and women should relate to one another in God’s family and I specifically want to put the focus on how men relate to women. Regular readers will know that I’m a complementarian. This means that I believe that men and women are… Continue reading Brothers and sisters in Christ
Laying down your life for your friends in a pandemic
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
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
Centred or boundaries?
When we first moved to Bearwood, I had the opportunity to link up with other pastors for fellowship but there were a couple of groups operating, so which one was I meant to choose? There was a Black Country Group and a Birmingham group. Initially it seemed to make snse to join with the Black… Continue reading Centred or boundaries?
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