Archive for the ‘ Church ’ Category
I went to see many of the headliners at greenbelt this year. Athlete were great, Martyn Joseph with Stuart Anderson was brilliant and then there was Rob Bell. It is not at all that Rob was not good, he was, as expected, engaging, funny, full of compassion and very clear, but two things disturbed me. [ READ MORE ]
This is a late greenbelt post! On the programme this year at Greenbelt was Matt Redman. This was very surprising and at the same time unsurprising as GB positions itself in the ‘broad’ camp someone like Matt ticks the conservative evangelical and charismatic boxes. As it happens it tick many peoples boxes. There were about 3500-4500 people [ READ MORE ]
A huge part of my motivation and inspiration for research comes out of my own story and journey as a follower of Jesus. The first church I went to was a large town centre Baptist Church that was evangelical and charismatic. Since I came from a non-church background, the doctrine and practice that flowed [ READ MORE ]
Having played around with blogging for a while I have changed URL, blogging service and themes several times, but this time I have resisted this. I have had a blog-holiday for a little over 7 months and am now ready to start again with a slightly more focused approach; as reflected in the change of [ READ MORE ]
These episodes of flipside leadership won’t be in any kind of order. Partly because if I waited until I thought there were in an order I was happy with they might never get written. Given that, let’s start with activism! It strikes me that one of the primary defining aspects of a gift of leadership is something [ READ MORE ]
A friend of my used to wind me up by calling me ‘smiler’. This was, and is, not because I have a glorious smile on my face all the time. In fact quite the opposite, my face struggles to indicate how I feel inside. Nevertheless, I have been, and still are, on a journey of [ READ MORE ]
Blessings and curses are opposites in both intent and result. Blessings tend to come with good will and curses tend not to. Blessings bring something good, fruitful, lasting, joyful from a heart of love towards the intended. Curses don’t tend to be any of those things. Which is why the idea of a curse does [ READ MORE ]
It has been a while since Greenbelt and I have been meaning to record a few thoughts that came during that weekend. My first thought was after Shane Claiborne who spoke about Big Beasts and Little Prophets. What struck both Kate and I about his mix of anecdotes and challenges was that part of been Christian [ READ MORE ]
Conrad Gempf on his blog, talks about self-expression and tradition giving examples of good tradition, one that pushes or entices you to an act of grace rather than falling victim of one’s own selfish deire to get even, take advantage or gain from chance in a game of skill. This idea of tradition bringing out [ READ MORE ]
Long time no blog – but essay is in and interviews for MPhil and RDP successfully negotiated. For both my interviews (with Andrew Walker for place on MPhil/PhD at King’s, and Judith Maltby for Ministry Division permission and money for said MPhil) I was sure that I would be asked: how would you describe yourself [ READ MORE ]
Think about discipleship in our culture Reflect on my current research projects General Practical Theology musings