Will we know each other in heaven?
Oliver Rice
Date posted: 7 Nov 2025
Many years ago, I had a conversation with a true Bristolian who was on the oversight of the church I attended (I loved how he said ‘oversight’ in his Bristolian, and can hear it still). He explained to me why he believed that we will not recognise one another in glory. He thought that it would just be too painful because, simply, we have hurt one another, and it would recall the painful memories for all eternity.
I can’t recall if he mentioned this (it was over 30 years ago), but I guess it would be possible to meet someone who had even murdered you (and later came to Christ), and so if there was recognition that could be very traumatic.
What is the 'good life' for Christians?
Tim Vasby-Burnie
Date posted: 6 Nov 2025
What does the good life look like? What sort of good life can turn the heart of unbelievers towards God?
We are “foreigners and exiles” in this world – what sort of life shows that we belong to the age to come, the kingdom of Jesus? In this dark world, what can we do to shine the wonderful light of mercy we have discovered in Christ?
Is nostalgia fossilising your church's ministry?
Jonny Pollock
Date posted: 6 Nov 2025
The other week I watched the new Jurassic Park movie with our eldest son, and as soon as the movie finished (and it was ok by the way!) a curious thought entered my head. How many times has Jurassic Park been rebooted since the first movie in 1993?
There was the original, then the remake, now another reboot, and never mind the kids' Netflix series. I definitely think that velociraptors have now lost their sheen. I remember vividly watching that first movie and yet it has been rebooted more times than I have renewed my passport!
Manage your emotions better: be M.A.D...
Jo Johnson
Date posted: 6 Nov 2025
Do you remember what happened when the teacher left the class? The naughty kids went bonkers, and the quiet ones hid in the corners!
Unsupervised emotions behave like unsupervised kids. They play up or give up. The relevant research shows that people who are unaware of their emotions are more prone to anger and physical and mental illness, and less able to relate well to others.
The hidden stitch - and the truth it tells
Graham Daniels
Date posted: 5 Nov 2025
Earlier this year, during the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, members of Norway’s ski-jumping team were found to have manipulated their suits — adding tiny, hidden stitches to alter aerodynamics and gain extra lift. It was ingenious, even creative. But it was also deceitful. Within days, medals were stripped, coaches suspended, and reputations torn.
It’s tempting to distance ourselves from that kind of scandal. But any competitor, in sport or life, knows the pull to bend the truth — the quiet pressure to perform, to justify our worth, to hold our place. That’s why this story matters. It exposes something far deeper than a few altered seams; it exposes the human heart.
Pornography & a disturbing post-human future
Russell Moore
Date posted: 4 Nov 2025
Somewhere near you—next door, in a room down the hall—there may well be a "gooner".
You might not know what that is, and I’m trying to figure out how to tell you without making me too squeamish to write this or you too squeamish to read it.
pastoral care
Two ways to ruin a sermon
Steve Midgley
Date posted: 4 Nov 2025
I remember (though I cannot now find the reference) a comment that the American pastor Tim Keller made about the connection between preaching and conversational ministry.
His message was this. If preachers spend too much of their time engaged in conversational ministry, then their preaching will suffer – because they won’t have time to prepare properly. However, if they give too little time to conversational ministry their preaching will also suffer – because they won’t truly understand the people to whom they are preaching.
culture watch
Taylor Swift and the mistreatment of women
Rebecca Chapman
Date posted: 3 Nov 2025
What do the new Archbishop of Canterbury and Taylor Swift have in common? They have both been subject to some pretty unpleasant behaviour – online and offline – as women in the public eye.
The new Archbishop, Sarah Mullally, broke down at the General Synod earlier this year. She told the Synod, “I would love to encourage women, which I do all the time, but there continues to be institutional barriers, we continue to experience micro-aggressions,” before turning away from the microphone, fighting back tears. On the announcement of her appointment to the top Church of England job in October, those of us still on X/Twitter couldn’t fail to miss what one user called the “venomous reaction” from “hardcore Catholics” and “culture war atheists”.
everyday theology
The gospel, our anchor
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 2 Nov 2025
For people of the gospel, the gospel serves as our mooring anchor. An anchor stops a ship from drifting while allowing it a certain amount of movement on the surface of the water. Just so, the gospel holds us to Scripture’s matters of first importance while allowing some slack for differences of opinion on other matters.
As Paul called the Romans and Corinthians to unity in the gospel and liberty in what to eat, so the anchor keeps us from making shipwreck of our faith (1 Tim. 1v19) without making our every disagreement a cause for schism.
a Jewish Christian perspective
Moments of grace in Jewish evangelism
Joseph Steinberg
Date posted: 1 Nov 2025
I am so thankful to God for what has been a very busy and fruitful summer of outreach to Jewish people.
In my last column I wrote about the plans our mission (IMJP.org) had for summer outreaches in Budapest, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and London. Now, with these behind us, I am thrilled to share the fruit of those efforts. Once again, God is faithful!
Forget Guy Fawkes - remember Latimer & Ridley
James Cary
Date posted: 27 Oct 2025
We are entering a season when we set fire to things: sparklers, fireworks, bonfires, and guys named Guy Fawkes. This is rather bizarre since, erm, Guy Fawkes wasn’t actually burned; he was hung, drawn and quartered, and convicted for being a traitor in service of the Pope. He was not burned as a heretic. (But don’t let that spoil the party.)
I’m not suggesting we get the history right by erecting gallows in town squares on 5 November. That won’t end well. Besides, who doesn’t love a good fire? (Okay, maybe not Greta Thunberg.) The English were certainly partial to a fire, at least until 11 April 1612, when Edward Wightman - essentially a Trinity-denying Anabaptist - became the last man burned for heresy. Should we have a national festival on 11 April where we burn an Edward?
history
Nicaea: The scene is set
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 24 Oct 2025
In the early 320s, the political relationship between the co-emperors of the Roman Empire, Constantine and Licinus, was falling apart.
Although he had been committed to a policy of religious toleration, Licinus had begun a limited persecution of Christians in 321 or 322, which became a pretext for war between himself and Constantine, a professing Christian.
Revival? Revolution? Or what?
Russell Moore
Date posted: 23 Oct 2025
"I saw on a news clip that Bible sales are up," a woman said to me this week. "Does that mean we are in a revival?"
The news reports this woman noticed are consistent with what Bob Smietana at Religion News Service cited from a new Pew Research Centre study: A growing number of Americans—almost a third—now believe religion’s influence is rising in America.
The Enhanced Games versus the grace of limitations
Jonny Reid
Date posted: 22 Oct 2025
British Olympic swimmer Ben Proud has joined the Enhanced Games. It’s a decision, and a potential trajectory, for sport, with significant consequences and challenges for Christians to reflect on.
The Enhanced Games encourages the use of performance-enhancing drugs to break world records. It claims to be the future of sport “on a mission to redefine super humanity through science, innovation and sports.”
Christianity & Islam answer: 'What is wrong with the world?'
Andrew Marsay
Date posted: 22 Oct 2025
This is the second in a short series of articles looking at Islam from a more theological perspective.
In the last article I looked at what Yahweh and Allah are really like based on the structure of the Bible and the Qur’an. In other words, what is God’s character like?
Jewish identity: Ethnicity first, religion second
Ziggy Rogoff
Date posted: 21 Oct 2025
Jewish people are a diverse people.
Some are assimilated and live much like their neighbours. Others wear black clothes with distinct black hats and preserve what they call a Torah-observant life. There are Liberal Jews, Conservative Jews, Charedi Jews, atheist Jews, and every kind of Jew in between. Some are very religious, others not at all. But they are all Jewish.
I watched a film I shouldn't have watched
Russell Moore
Date posted: 20 Oct 2025
Maria and I had one of those rare nights when it was just the two of us at home.
Our youngest went with his two older brothers (back home for an autumn break) to some friend's house. Wanting to watch a film, we finally settled on Unknown Number: The High School Catfish on Netflix. I started to type that I will give no spoilers, but I’m almost tempted to do so just so you will be dissuaded from watching it. I wish I hadn’t.
