How do trends in mental health, wellness and well-being set challenges for churches and preachers? Let’s ask ChatGPT!
Tag: Bible
I’ve asked ChatGPT to suggest the Top Ten Disruptive Trends for Ministry by 2030, and some strategies to address them. #3 The Rise of Spiritual But Not Religious
What happens to our Christian pastoring, and our own Christian discipleship, if everything is filtered through a film of glass?
I was ordained forty years ago today. Was it worth it?
I’m delighted that The Gift is now available to buy. I wrote it because decent, biblical leadership is a deep need in our churches, and one we are failing to meet. Had working pastors are preaching good sermons – and leaving the teaching there. Or, knowing that there’s work to do, they reach for the
John Piper has done what, probably, only John Piper can do, which is to write on the experience of reading scripture as the Word of God.
D.A. Carson has edited a series of 35 essays, with a stellar list of contributors. Should you read it?
If our bible reading is getting stale, the problem is never with the bible: the always fresh, living, Word of Life. No, the problem is with our sleepy eyes and sluggish heart. Here are nine lessons I’ve learned as I have tried to avoid the dangers:
“Cutting to the Heart’ now available in both paperback and ebook form. Publisher’s Description On the Day of Pentecost, when the apostle Peter addressed the crowd, the people were ‘cut to the heart’ and asked how they should respond to what they had just heard (Acts 2:37). According to the letter to the Hebrews, ‘the
Yesterday I had the same experience, twice, in different settings. With a bible open in front of me, I looked at a passage I thought I knew really well, and realised that there was a sequence of words (that is, a verse) that I had hardly registered but now hit me between the eyes. I
Moving house recently meant that there was huge encouragement to de-clutter. And I did the brave thing of not only de-cluttering the house but de-cluttering my study. I. Chucked. Books. Out. There, I said it. But I don’t think I threw away any bibles, and that wasn’t for either superstitious or nostalgic reasons. I think
I don’t mean the oddities of the people who turn up, or lack of prayer – but the clue’s in the title. When we come to a group Bible Study, what should we be expecting? 1. Bible It should be obvious that this is the centre – but my experience is that all too easily
Top of my list of warning signs for those of us in ministry, is that it’s fatally easy for Christian leaders to read the Bible – but to become so preoccupied with the opportunities of ministry that we only read it for others’ benefit, and never just for ourselves. Now, I know that’s a false
If your bible studies are feeling stuck in a rut because you always approach passages in the same kind of way, here are twenty ideas to try (well, nineteen plus the one you already use). They all aim at the same goal, of understanding the passage properly, but the tasks are a little bit different
As I’ve thought about the books I’ve read over the past year, one stands out as being remarkable for its depth and relevance. It has a shrewd understanding of what it means to be a Christian and a church living increasingly on the edge of society. And its author understands the temptations we face, whether
