Reflecting on our church’s future direction and my part in it, I’ve spent some time recently thinking about discipleship; which has included at least one discussion in church. So whilst I’m on holiday over the next week I’ve set a couple of blog posts to appear which collate some of the thoughts so that others... Continue Reading →
Chaos creation control
One function of blogs is to share half-baked ideas. The weekend saw blogs by Richard Littledale (here) and Vicky Beeching (here) exploring issues of digital legacy. Does an excessive use of social media drown out the awareness of our own mortality and finitude? Is the presence of an on-line self after death helpful for people? What... Continue Reading →
God loves women and men
I’ve been involved in a couple of conversations about women in church leadership recently, which has reminded me not everyone agrees with things I take as basic. So I’ve set some of these basic points out in the hope others will find them useful.1. Men and women are together made in God’s image (Genesis 1v27).... Continue Reading →
Iquitos floods 2
I’ve been looking for the latest bits of news and while I can’t vouch for the accuracy I’ve learnt the following:Sourced from Elcomercio.pe 1. River levels look as if they may keep rising till mid May and then take months to recede.2. About 200,000 people are affected by flooding. Not all have been displaced, many... Continue Reading →
An unusual Easter
My normal Easter routine has gone a bit awry this year. Spending two weeks in Iquitos, Peru and then returning for Holy Week has meant that most of the week I’ve been suffering jet lag. Nevertheless, the usual run of services has come to a great conclusion with an Easter Sunday baptism. Yet half the... Continue Reading →
Rowan Williams retires
Yesterday saw C of E Archbishop Rowan Williams announce his retirement. I believe the church in the UK owes him our thanks. We may not all agree with him but he has made a good fist of an impossible job; and is a model of how to lead a denomination through difficult issues. The Church... Continue Reading →
Young people and church
Last week saw some interesting blogs (including Krish Kandiah's blog here) and twitter conversations about the statistics that suggest the church is haemorrhaging young people; despite significant investment into youth work. Having read some of the conversation it seemed to me that it didn’t resonate with my own experience. So I spent half an hour... Continue Reading →
Bunch of grapes or bag of marbles
I don't follow the workings of the Church of England closely but twitter alerted me to this address by the Bishop of Sherborne supporting the Anglican Communion Covenant. here I share it because the contrast between a bunch of grapes or a bag of marbles is new to me; and I like it. It resonates... Continue Reading →
Tom Smail’s death announced
I'm sad to learn the news that Tom Smail died last week. I met Tom a number of times; although an Anglican minister (and before that a Scotish Presbyterian) he was often present at Spurgeon’s College Post Graduate Seminars and his responses to (demolition of) my papers helped sharpen my thinking enormously. Tom was one... Continue Reading →
Audacious courage: lessons from a larger church 3
My final musing on lessons from leading a smaller and larger church is one that I’ve still not really grasped. The need for audacious courage. The first principle that leadership is about courage rather than control is straightforward enough. In a small church if you work hard you can do it all yourself, from cleaning... Continue Reading →
Distinct Reflections 