As the Beyond400 conversation and others continue, I’ve been wondering about listening to ‘voices’ and how we might process what we hear. Then in the last 48 hours two friends have blogged thoughts on the process that are at odds with each other; which perhaps illustrates the challenge. In various ways people are being heard,... 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 →
It takes courage
My turn this weekend to be one of the voices at Beyond 400 Since I blog about Baptist life all the time I thought I would do my voice as a video. Never having used video creation or editing software before it has been an interesting learning curve. No doubt, like sermons, I'll look back... Continue Reading →
Clarity is king: lessons from a larger church 2
The 2nd post of a series reflecting on things I’ve learned from leading both a smaller and larger church: some thoughts on communication. Vision casting is vital but vision is multi-headed. Read books on church leadership and many stress the importance of a senior minister casting vision. Naturally people want to know what you think... Continue Reading →
Handling diversity: lessons from a larger church 1
I was thinking over the weekend whether there was anything I’ve learned from leading both a smaller church and a larger one (at least by BUGB standards) which might help the current BUGB debate. So here is the first of a couple of posts designed to share some ideas, you will have to judge whether... Continue Reading →
Beyond 400 – thoughts so far
Now the 6th voice has been published I thought some reflections might be in order; though for the full effect you need to read each entry and the comments yourself. Three things have struck me so far: 1. We need to acknowledge how broken the current denomination is. Peter Dominey spoke of grieving what is... Continue Reading →
Baptist Futures survey
As part of the conversation BUGB is having about the future their website has a survey that anyone involved in Baptist life is invited to complete. SurveyMonkey questionnaires are of course only part of the solution, the danger sometimes is that they make a monkey out of survey results; by forcing you to make choices... Continue Reading →
CVM day: Iron sharpens Iron
“Was it worth it?” I asked in the car as we returned from the CVM / New Wine Men’s day in Manchester. “It was a great day” was the reply. Joining in with 750 men for a day, with worship, teaching, seminars and opportunity to talk is not something I’ve done before but it felt... Continue Reading →
Distinct Reflections 