Regular readers of Faithroot.com will know that I’m particularly passionate about seeing people equipped to pastor and plant in our urban contexts. This means that we need to be able to identify, call, train, send people from urban backgrounds, from working class and estate contexts, from different ethnic groups. It will mean encouraging and equipping… Continue reading Equipping people for urban mission will need more than an alternative to seminary
Tag: Urban Theology
Do we need to test the ability of trainee pastors to write essays?
From time to time I write about where I believe things need to change in terms of training people for pastoral ministry. I believe that if we are going to train more people for Gospel work then we need to look at different ways of going about the training. This does not mean that I’m… Continue reading Do we need to test the ability of trainee pastors to write essays?
How can we know anything about God, us and this world?
The Pendulum of Rationality In our first article, we saw that our whole life, what we think, how we feel, what we do and say is influenced by what we believe. We choose either to believe truth or lies about God, Creation, Humanity and New Creation. So how do we know what is true? Throughout… Continue reading How can we know anything about God, us and this world?
Showing Up – Turning From Idols
In the last chapter, I identified a number of redemptive offers, alternative hope offered from religious, political, social or economic perspectives. At the end of the chapter I observed that these alternative solutions have several things in common. They encourage people to assume a victim identity. The world is then divided between a powerful minority… Continue reading Showing Up – Turning From Idols
Stepping In: The Need
I’m going to be writing about the need to reach our inner cities and council estates with the good news about Jesus and his death and resurrection. This series of articles arises out of a growing recognition that there is a great and terrible gap in our gospel witness. To be fair, Gospel witness in… Continue reading Stepping In: The Need
Urban Church Planting – post COVID
For most of the past year most churches have had their heads down, focused on getting through this virus together without losing too many people and hopefully at the same time picking up new people via online services. Yet whilst all of that has been happening, the need for new churches and church revitalisation hasn’t… Continue reading Urban Church Planting – post COVID
The Good of the City (Proverbs 11)
Why does it matter how our politicians, celebrities and business leaders behave? Why the tabloid obsession with their misdemeanours? Partly it’s just gossip. But a big part of it links to a sense of justice – that good people should do well and when they do, we all do well. It’s why we get behind… Continue reading The Good of the City (Proverbs 11)
How Theological College helped prepare me for Gospel ministry
I’m republishing some articles I wrote a little while back about training for urban ministry. I want to share a few thoughts here about the positives of formal theological education and why I recommend it.[1] There’s a temptation to see training as primarily academic and therefore irrelevant to the day to day life of ministry. … Continue reading How Theological College helped prepare me for Gospel ministry
Reforming Theological Training
This is an article from my previous blog that I wanted to reschedule to keep focus on this priority People who know me well will know that I have a particular concern for encouraging good quality theologically training, especially when it comes to potential pastors and planters in urban contexts. To be clear, my own… Continue reading Reforming Theological Training
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