If discipleship is so important how does this impact ministers and how might it affect how we exercise ministry? How can we ensure we develop disciple making communities?1. Live out your values. If whole life discipleship is important it should permeate your ministry. First, because all of us are disciples and ministers need to live... Continue Reading →
HB2U Paul Fiddes
Today is the Rev Professor Paul Fiddes 65th Birthday and I, like many Baptist bloggers around the globe, want to pay tribute to his contribution to systematic theology as well as Baptist thought. Others have blogged with lists of Paul’s publications (for a flavour see Wikipedia ). For me, one of his most significant contributions... 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 →
Iquitos visit
Now back from my trip to Iquitos I've put some of my photo's onto a video. The pictures will be the basis of my sharing with the church here which makes the video fairly lenghty.The visit was different to last time; my previous visit was more of a fact finding visit whereas my return was... 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 →
BUGB Council: good, bewildering, agonising
So March Council is now over; but what to say? Hopefully there will be a brief on line account of the material the ‘Futures Group’ shared in the next 24 hours (if not I’ll have a go at summarising). [Futures update gives the background here but not the suggested ways forward] Good: Overall it feels... Continue Reading →
BUGB Council and social media
I had deliberately refrained from blogging about Council's concerns over the use of social media but having mentioned it on twitter I seem to have started some debate. So for those who want to know: 1. Concern has been expressed by people using social media whilst at Council. The original Council documentation described this as... Continue Reading →
BUGB: Listening and futures process
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 →
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 →
Distinct Reflections 