the Bible in action
‘The deaf shall hear’
Martin Horton
Date posted: 16 Feb 2025
When did you last buy a Bible? Was it as a gift or because your well-loved copy was falling apart? How easy was it to choose?
With more than 60 versions of the Bible in English, choosing a new Bible might take a while: you might even suffer from ‘Bible decision fatigue’– a genuine phenomenon, according to Bible Gateway.
lessons from Jude
What it means to 'contend for the faith'
Tom Forryan
Date posted: 12 Feb 2025
You always understood that following Jesus wouldn’t be easy. It may be about to become much more painful than you ever imagined—and all because you set out your stall to obey Jude 3 and contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
The church you go to is everything you ever thought a church should be. The work has steadily grown under the influence of an internationally-respected minister who has been in place for a number of years.
everyday theology
Even our trials are in His kind hands
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 29 Jan 2025
‘Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings...’ (1 Pet. 4:12–13).
Peter can urge us to rejoice in our sufferings not because he’s a religious masochist but because he knows: Christ is the firstborn, our forerunner, and where He goes, we follow. He is our Head, and like in a birth, the body must follow where the head goes. This is the pathway through suffering to glory.
the pastor's toolkit
Streamlining your sermon: what to keep, what to ditch
Martin Salter
Date posted: 28 Jan 2025
'Friends, I’m sure you’ll agree that once a robust postmillennial eschatology is established, the implications for ecclesial and missional praxis become self-evident'... said no preacher ever – hopefully!
One of the challenges for many preachers is how we package up all the stuff we’ve learned into digestible communication. It’s easy for an excited preacher to forget that most of the people in front of us haven’t read Calvin’s Institutes and (weird I know) probably don’t want to!
the ENd word
How vulnerable was Jesus?
Jon Barrett
Date posted: 23 Jan 2025
One of the habits we’ve developed as a church staff team is to have a book that we commit to reading and discussing as part of our weekly staff meeting. Normally we opt for something theological but occasionally, to keep things lively, we go a bit rogue.
Recently we’ve been on one of our excursions into left field and have been working through Brené Brown’s bestselling book on the subject of vulnerability, Daring Greatly. In all honesty, to employ a clerical metaphor, it’s a bit of a curate’s egg of a book.
South Asian interchange
Why race and class matter for mission
Rani Joshi
Date posted: 1 Jun 2024
July and August will be a time of celebrating South Asian heritage – a similar concept to Black History month. Whilst this is lovely, it also makes me think: why don’t we remember and celebrate one another’s cultures more?
As I have been meeting and talking to different organisations and leaders, I’ve been recognising the beauty of the church, but also the challenges it carries and faces. We have such great opportunities to celebrate and love one another as Jesus did, so where are we perhaps needing to do better?
Debunking 3 myths about the origins of Christmas
Ryan Burton King
Date posted: 7 Dec 2024
Christmas. 'It's the most wonderful time of the year,' Andy Williams croons. Or, as a cast of characters from Jim Henson's Creature Shop sang in The Muppet Christmas Carol, it is 'the summer of the soul in December'.
But for others, it is a season of woe, an opportunity to blow a cold frost wind over the festivities with assorted dubious claims, doubtless well-intentioned but badly thought through and poorly communicated.
The gym is the new church
Simon Lennox
Date posted: 9 Jan 2025
Every year, as the clock strikes midnight on 1 January, we are bombarded with familiar messages of ‘new year, new me.’
Self betterment has become an inevitable part of our culture, with methods of improving yourself ever increasing in both volume and popularity. 79% of New Year resolutions are centred on fitness, with half of those surveyed stating that their top resolution is to exercise. Yet just 31 days later, the gyms have quietened down, with 80% losing the motivation to stick to their goals. But as Christians, what if faith and fitness are more similar, and more important, than we previously imagined?
women in mission
Tired of feeling guilty about evangelism?
Anna Price
Date posted: 31 Oct 2024
Seeking to develop a culture of evangelism in our church, we recently surveyed our church members about how they felt about evangelism. One response made me laugh out loud, only because it resonated so much with me: ‘I absolutely hate evangelism, but I do love to talk about Jesus whilst sharing my daily life’.
The truth is, I would go a step further; I hate evangelism and really don’t think I talk about Jesus much in my daily life. I wonder how many of us feel something of that and the guilt that that induces!
The power of calling God 'our Father'
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 30 Dec 2024
In Matthew 6:9, Jesus says: 'Pray … like this, "Our Father in heaven."' These words open the floodgates of prayer — and heavenly blessing.
We live in a world where people believe they are self-sufficient. They don’t need to cry out for help. And Christians are swept along: we are becoming like busy Martha, doing our many tasks but failing to sit with Mary at Jesus’ feet. But without prayer, Christians are hollow. For prayer is the mark of Christian integrity.
The Parthians are coming... to Matthew’s Gospel
Ray Porter
Date posted: 24 Dec 2024
The visit of the Magi recounted in the second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel is one of the more curious parts of the Christmas story.
First, that we find it in this Gospel which is written primarily for a Jewish audience, and secondly, that such pagan astrologers should be lauded as those who come from a distant land to worship the infant Jesus. And then we have the matter of the star, which has excited the imagination of astronomers down the centuries; and that is before we get the accretions of legends and the perversions of countless nativity plays. The symbolism that we attach to the gifts they brought and the echoes that we find of Old Testament prophecies take us away from a consideration of what we might be able to reconstruct from their contemporary historical setting and why their coming so alarmed not just Herod but the whole of Jerusalem.
bridging cultural divides
Festive stress: an opportunity for grace?
Jason Roach
Date posted: 13 Dec 2024
Every year, as Christmas approaches, I find myself navigating the festive family diplomacy of our intercultural marriage. It's a delicate dance that starts with a seemingly simple question: 'So, where are we spending Christmas Day?'
My wife pulls out her diary. 'Right,' she says, 'let's work out the logistics.' For her family, it's straightforward - maximise the number of people, find the most convenient time, get everyone together. My family, though? Completely different story.
disability & accessibility
Which 'diversity' do we forget to talk about?
Kay Morgan-Gurr
Date posted: 31 Oct 2024
We often joke about women being the better multitaskers. It’s a sweeping statement, but not without a nugget of truth. So how is the church at multitasking?
When it comes to patterns of looking at who is missing from our churches, in our leadership and in the mission and ministry we do, we often look at one thing at a time. And then, having looked at some other things, we have to revisit what we’ve done before. Again, this is a sweeping statement, but not without a nugget of truth.
Why is our Christmas crackers?
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 4 Dec 2024
As we approach Christmas, our minds turn again to images of a baby in a manger, an undisclosed number of Magi, sheep, shepherds and heavenly messengers, Jesus’ faith-filled mother Mary and his selfless father Joseph.
But is the season as simple and straightforward as it at first appears?
everyday theology
Whose glory do you love?
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 27 Nov 2024
Underneath every mistake the Pharisees made lay a root problem. Jesus put it simply: ‘They loved the glory of men more than the glory of God’ (John 12:43, my translation).
Jesus’ words cut like a scalpel through to their fundamental motivation. They would not confess Him because of what they loved. But what exactly did Jesus mean? Did He mean that they loved the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God? Or did He mean that they loved the glory of men more than the glory that belongs to and is due to God?
Clare Heath-Whyte: Biographer of the neglected & ‘unfamous’
Andrew Atherstone
Date posted: 11 Oct 2024
Biography is perennially popular, one of the best-selling and most absorbing forms of historical writing.
Many biographies focus on the rich and famous, the movers and shakers, the politicians, warriors, celebrities and adventurers who have changed the world. But one of biography’s unique strengths is that it also allows marginal and neglected voices to take centre stage. Characters who are normally written out of the narrative step forward into the limelight. They may not have won great battles, led international campaigns, or created seismic shifts in global culture, but every life is fascinating and every voice has much to teach.
bridging cultural divides
The ministry of eating together
Jason Roach
Date posted: 15 Nov 2024
One of my favourite recent television shows was a series called Travel Man, which featured the UK comedian Richard Ayoade.
The premise was to watch two comedians (Richard and a special guest), experience the culture of a city somewhere in the world for 48 hours. Recognising the rising popularity of city breaks, they aimed to avoid tourist traps, give practical advice and soak in something of the local culture. They would take in some sights, sample some food and try out some more outlandish things before heading home. Somehow they edited all that fun down into 24 minutes.
How churches can avoid accidental financial crime
Paul Houghton
Date posted: 9 Nov 2024
Misunderstandings and compliance issues have strained the relationship between churches and banks.
Let's delve into the most critical concerns: financial crime exposure and the need for better understanding and communication.
culture watch
Learning from Hollywood's remakes
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 7 Nov 2024
Have you noticed that cinema and TV today is dominated by remakes, sequels and spin-offs?
In the months before Christmas, we’ll see Moana 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Gladiator 2 and Mufasa: the Lion King. Then 2025 will bring us the eighth Mission Impossible movie, another Avatar film, a new version of the Fantastic Four – I could go on. In 2026, a remake of The Goonies is even set to be created, 40 years on from its release!
everyday theology
'We should not be content with bare doctrine'
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 4 Nov 2024
Evangelicals are never about propositions alone: we want the theological truths of the gospel to transform us by the renewing of our minds (Rom.12:2).
We want to know God, in a personal way. We don’t simply affirm that Scripture is our supreme authority and that we are justified by faith alone through Christ alone. We actually submit to Scripture as our supreme authority and enjoy Christ as our only Saviour, praising Him from our hearts for His all-sufficiency and grace.
everyday evangelism
Why the exclusivity of Jesus is so wonderful
Glen Scrivener
Date posted: 1 Nov 2024
Recently Pope Francis was fiercely critiqued for his teaching at an interfaith event in Singapore. Both Protestants and Catholics have charged him with the serious error of ‘indifferentism’.
Indifferentism is the belief that all religions are alike in their ability to bring you to God – it doesn’t matter which path you’re on, they all reach the top of the mountain. Whatever his corrections and clarifications later, his words at the Singapore conference sounded suspiciously like that teaching. ‘Every religion is a way to arrive at God’ he said. At the same time he made fun of the kind of person who says: ‘My God is more important than your God’. ‘Is that true?’ he asks the audience, expecting the answer, ‘No’.
everyday theology
Substitute ‘saviours’
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 18 Oct 2024
Justification of sinners by grace alone lies at the heart of the gospel. It is the proof and consequence of the fact that Christ is so entirely all-sufficient a Saviour that His work needs no supplementing by us. While this may be good news, it is not an easy truth for the fallen to swallow.
The fact that Jesus pronounces a foul sinner righteous while condemning a life committed to religious uprightness (see Luke 18:9-14) offends our pride. For the humbling effect of Jesus’s teaching, so entirely condemning our self-reliance, makes it far easier to reserve the message of justification by grace as one only for beginners or outsiders. Justification may be an essential evangelical truth, but it is one that all evangelicals struggle to live by.
bridging cultural divides
Are you only friends with people like you?
Jason Roach
Date posted: 12 Oct 2024
In my experience, eating fish and chips at the seaside can be a life threatening experience. Not because of the quality of the fish and chips, but because of the flocks of birds trying to eat it at the same time.
On one memorable trip, I was in the process of trying to rescue my daughter's meal from a veracious seagull, when its partner in crime took the opportunity to swipe mine. I think they must have enjoyed it, because a few minutes later they deposited most of what they had digested on my head. In His wisdom, the Lord has ordained that trips to the beach would remind me of that old adage: birds of a feather, flock together.
safeguarding briefing
Church culture: 'But we've always done it that way'
Jules Loveland
Date posted: 7 Oct 2024
In every church, there is an often unseen influence that can bring life and progress to a congregation or leave it stagnated. This influence is church culture.
Frequently overlooked and under-appreciated, culture is always present. It shapes the way we think, behave, and interact with one another. Understanding the significance of our church culture is essential, for effective evangelism, growth and pastoral care.