You walk into a party and you don’t know anyone – know the feeling? That’s what your church feels like to a newcomer. You know that – but think about it again. We must force ourselves to remember that feeling , because it’s genuinely so elusive. It was drummed into me as a young pastor
It’s shocking to consider that when I accept invitations to speak, preach or write, I am doing so for nothing more trivial than a desire to be seen.
Last week, I took a morning to conduct a Quarterly review. It seemed like a good time – two and a half months into the new ministry post, and I’ve gathered a headful of ideas and impressions. So this was a clarifying three hours, looking back and looking forwards. There are a dozen ways of
The church administrator sighed as she wrote on the whiteboard: once again, she needed more people for the coffee rota and welcome team. How hard could it be? The pastor sighed as he looked down the list of people: once again there were so few people with the spare time to help. But what if
I was at a large church for a book launch, and the author was introduced as ‘One of the brightest theologians around. A Professor at the University of [prestigious name deleted].’ The problem was, he wasn’t. A bright guy, yes, but a junior lecturer. A bright guy, but this was his first book – and
In a series of earlier posts I suggested that there is a whole banquet of New Testament activities that count as ‘ministry of the Word.’ It can’t be reduced merely to preaching sermons: there’s discipling, leadership, counselling, evangelism, apologetics – all need God’s Word opened and applied. But I’m pretty sure I missed one on
I’m not a natural cyclist. I see the brave ones in London face-off with the buses, and I am in awe of their daring, but also scared by their recklessness. And I don’t look good in Lycra. But, I think we can usefully learn from the British cycling team, and the approach to training which
