Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com This week a jury convicted Russell Brand of rape and sexual assault. Women’s lives have been terribly harmed, and a court of law has now found it so. Any Christian response must start with them. But this is more than just another celebrity whose crimes have been exposed. Brand… Continue reading Russell Brand: three lessons in grace + truth
Category: Church
Beyond trivia: quizzing for deeper truths
Download quiz slides at bottom of article Many involved in church social action projects grapple with how their work connects overtly to the message of the gospel. How does the grace of practical kindness connect to truths about God? How do we move from a purely implicit form of faith to something more explicit? These… Continue reading Beyond trivia: quizzing for deeper truths
To Consume or to Commune – by Alice Fox
Photo from pexels / artwork by Alice Fox Church doors open to our known. We welcome you, say we, Unpacking verses, stacking Sentences of eloquence, building up Us, the main paragraph of our people. What then of them we call The? The bruised, The captive, The homeless, The addict, There, on the margins - There, do… Continue reading To Consume or to Commune – by Alice Fox
Churches & Halloween: retreat or reach out? – by Anna Price
Anna Price has previously written this for G+T Engaging with the dark; bringing light to Halloween about how her church has engaged their local community on Halloween. The church has a history of retreating within its walls during All Hallows Eve. Buildings get closed and individuals stay home. A time for precaution and locked doors. … Continue reading Churches & Halloween: retreat or reach out? – by Anna Price
Preach the gospel. Use words. They’re necessary.
St Francis, photo by Ngu1ecdc on Pexels.com Over the last 30 years in countless conferences, gatherings and meetings, I have heard the following quote shared more times than I can remember: "Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary." It's usually attributed to St Francis of Assisi, and it often gets sage nods… Continue reading Preach the gospel. Use words. They’re necessary.
Put the phone away: let’s get back to reading real, physical Bibles
Photo by el jusuf on Pexels.com At Sunday services, home groups and Christian conferences, physical Bibles have quietly disappeared from church life. It’s not that Christians have abandoned scripture, but they have sub-contracted it to an app on their phone. Why carry around a brick of a book when it's all available on your mobile… Continue reading Put the phone away: let’s get back to reading real, physical Bibles
Consumer Church or Community Church?
"You can do more with 12 disciples than with 1,200 religious consumers." Alan Hirsch I used to be in a church with someone who was never happy with how things were run. People tried hard to include her but nothing was ever good enough. Once, in a discussion about how we could serve the local… Continue reading Consumer Church or Community Church?
Beyond the veil: more than ‘a bad look’ for Lambeth Palace – by Martin Kuhrt
The image of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, presenting the Pakistani cleric Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, with an award for ‘Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation' managed to unite both the National Secular Society and a great many British Christians in bewilderment. The picture itself showed a stark contrast between attitudes to women in Islam… Continue reading Beyond the veil: more than ‘a bad look’ for Lambeth Palace – by Martin Kuhrt
It’s not enough to share a pew, if we don’t share a table – by Bruce Nadin
Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com Read part 1: Resisting ‘Christian’ nationalism & secular progressivism – by Bruce Nadin In my last article I argued that we are all being discipled by something, and that the primary place of Christian formation isn't our social media feed but the life of the body of Christ. But what… Continue reading It’s not enough to share a pew, if we don’t share a table – by Bruce Nadin
Resisting ‘Christian’ nationalism & secular progressivism – by Bruce Nadin
Photo by Aslak Su00f8nderland on Pexels.com We are all being formed by the culture around us. By the news we consume, the social media we scroll, the podcasts we listen to, the voices we give our attention to. And our algorithms are remarkably good at giving us more of what we already think. They build… Continue reading Resisting ‘Christian’ nationalism & secular progressivism – by Bruce Nadin
