The Heart of Biblical, Spiritual Leadership
As I write this I am looking forward to a week of training junior church leaders at Living Leadership's Formation Trainees Conference.You don't have to look far in the Bible to find teaching about...
View ArticleTips for healthy sabbaticals
I am asked reasonably frequently how ministers can make best use of a sabbatical. A second question that almost always follows quickly on is how can they justify it to church members who never have a...
View ArticlePeople of Unshakable Hope
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hopeRomans 15:4For I tell you that Christ has become...
View ArticleShame/Honour, Hate/Respect, Tolerance/Intolerance
Recently a friend who has worked in a Middle Eastern country for a number of years related an Arabic proverb to me. It goes thus:My brother is my enemy until my cousin offends me. My cousin is my enemy...
View ArticleI can't be honest
Here are two situations I encounter reasonably frequently as I talk to church leaders1. A leader has become overwhelmed in their ministry situation. There may be a whole raft of factors...
View ArticleLament and Political Apocalypse
Violence, the paralysis of law, the perversion of justice and the victory of the wicked over the righteous. That is the complaint of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk at the start of his book. And -...
View ArticleSocial Media and Echo Chamber Elections
Social media is notorious for being an echo chamber. It repeats what you already think back to you, often amplified, rarely more harmonically. All the while dampening access to alternative melodies and...
View ArticleTruth, Power, Love, Hate - and Social Media and Elections
Violence is what happens when you try to resolve a religious dispute by means of power. It cannot be done. Trying to resolve ultimate issues of faith, truth and interpretation by use of force is a...
View ArticleInstagramming Your Dinner?: 1 Timothy 4
Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity... Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly...
View ArticleTaming Ministry Chaos
This is a very quick and superficial response to a question I received on Twitter about the kind of systems and structures that someone in Christian work can use to tame the chaos that frequently...
View ArticleNotes for mentoring someone in Christian work
Anyone who does something a lot internalises the processes that stand behind their actions. They act by instinct and long-learned habit and its important that they do. If I need urgent, life-saving...
View Article11 aspects of being made in the image of God
Here are 11 things the early chapters of the Bible say about being made in the image of God. they all depend on God being prior, above and qualitatively different. THE primary distinction is that he is...
View ArticleEnforced Stopping
As I write, the coronavirus is rampaging across the world and it seems like society is shutting down. For itinerant Christian workers like me this means that in the last fortnight just about everything...
View ArticleIs it OK for a leader to not be OK?
Imagine a toxic waste barrel. You know, the kind you see in cartoons - yellow with a big nuclear symbol on it. Now imagine that barrel is you as a leader. Many in your congregation believe you are a...
View ArticleSnuggling In
The language of “snowflakes”, as used to describe disoriented and disillusioned young people, has always struck me as unhelpful and unfair. When a generation feels that many of the props or foundations...
View ArticleThe Nephilim
It’s tempting during the global pandemic to limit Christian Bible reflection merely to matters to do with the virus, suffering and how God is involved with it and with us. That would be a mistake. God...
View ArticlePatience
For many reasons Psalm 27 has been deeply precious to me over the last year. Who hasn’t been touched and helped by King David’s Great Desire - to dwell in the house of the Lord forever, to gaze on the...
View ArticleThankfulness - Part 1
Have we ever seen a time when it was more important to count our blessings? Or - for Western people at any rate - when we were more likely to write God off as uncaring, absent or non-existent? This...
View ArticleThankfulness - Part 2
The main thing that Bible says to give thanks for is the goodness of the Lord and his enduring love. “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever” is repeated so often it is...
View ArticleThankfulness - Part 3
In this final post on thankfulness we’ll look at thanksgiving in the New Testament.One of the clearest definitions of sin and rebellion in the Bible is found in Romans 1:21 - knowing of God but neither...
View Article
