I had the pleasure of chairing a conversation day run by the Baptist Ministers’ Fellowship this week. Entitled “Pathways for Baptist ministry” speakers shared their varied experience of ministerial life, training / formation and ways of working. Although the conversations ranged wide, two things stood out for me from the day: 1. The majority of... 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 →
German Baptist Mission
I’ve spent an interesting afternoon with a group from the mission department of the German Baptist Union. I was curious to learn how they structure and resource mission in Germany. In general they seem to have adopted a regional approach where the group gather together a couple of times each year (this time for a... Continue Reading →
Super injunctions – the law is an ass
Today Sir Fred Goodwin (former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland before the crash) has been named as one of the people who has a super injunction to prevent details about his life been discussed in the media; though anyone who uses the internet as a source for news has known about it for... Continue Reading →
In praise of Rowan Williams
I came across this blog yesterday which says a lot about the Archbishop of Canterbury. Here +Rowan is to be commended because I know that some people's experience of Christian leaders is less positive; they feel that they are remote, don't care or aren't interested. One might want to debate the Christology of explaining Jesus... Continue Reading →
Jesus – orphaned for our inclusion?
Preparing Easter services from John’s gospel this year I’ve been struck by Jesus' promise, during his extended last supper discussion, not to leave the disciples as orphans and how it encapsulates the gospel. Lives which had wondered away from God have been called back and invited to follow Jesus. And now Jesus promises not to... Continue Reading →
Death of ministerial training?
An article is it time to write the Eulogy?: The future of Seminary Education caught my eye (HT Steve Harmon who blogs at Ecclesial Theology). My impression is that the situation in the US is different to the UK but the question of what we expect from our Theological colleges is nevertheless worth asking. Not... Continue Reading →
Review: Rob Bell, Love wins
Never having read any of Rob Bell’s previous books I wasn’t sure what to expect; the vitriol poured in his direction suggested it wasn’t going to be good. My overall impression is that there isn’t anything in the book which is fundamentally objectionable or not said by someone else before; so why all the fuss?... Continue Reading →
Rob Bell: Love Wins
As mentioned in an earlier post Rob Bell's book is causing quite a stir. My Amazon order hasn't arrived yet and I will blog some thoughts when I've read the book (but not before). However, I note that some UK based comments are starting to emerge. This month's Christianity magazine has a brief book review... Continue Reading →
