Sacred Treasure David Robertson is often uncomfortably provocative - but he's probably on the money here: 10 'prophecies' for the church in 2018 An inspiring new tradition in LA, an annual Christmas performance of Handel's Messiah by the homeless, those with…
To assume that what is going on with Trump, Weinstein, Spacey et al is 'merely' about transgressing sexual boundaries is woefully inadequate and patronising. Is not good enough to head off for some therapy at a health spa either, as…
An old friend, Ross Hendry, is the chief exec of Spurgeon's Children's Charity, a UK organisation (no, that's not him on the left, that's Spurgeon). The charity was founded by its illustrious namesake, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and continues today to…
As I wrap this little sequence of ruthless self-exposure up, various omissions and oddities have occurred to me, so the easiest thing is probably to string them together in a miscellany that’s almost Pauline in its randomness (though naturally without his claims to authority). (more…)
So where does it all lead? Well, that’s precisely the problem. It can often feel like the road down has only one conclusion. Or perhaps terminus is the better description. Which is a terrifying thought. Not to mention taboo… (more…)
If you’re from a certain corner of the global harvest field that is the church, then Charles Haddon Spurgeon will be a familiar, if not revered, name. The ‘prince of preachers’ (as he was known) was perhaps the world’s first megapastor – but the wonderful thing about him was that it never went to his head, he wasn’t corrupt, he was a character of whom it could certainly be said that ‘what you see is what you get.’ A far cry, in other words, from the smooth-talking, chiseled and attractive megapastors of today. (more…)
I was asked by the fab 40Acts team over at Stewardship to contribute a short piece for their Do Lent Generously campaign – which is a creatively positive twist on the standard give-up-something-for-Lent routine.
My bit came out last weekend, but I repost it here, in case it gets more to sign up to the daily mailings. (more…)
Am in the middle of a book which was recommended to me by a friend I hardly see for reasons of which I have no knowledge! Zack Eswine’s Sensing Jesus – Life and Ministry as a Human Being.
Depression isolates and introverts. It’s a brutally vicious circle. And so when one occasionally gets swept up by outbreaks of energy, they are often focused on desperately trying to make connections beyond oneself. It might be music; it might be a conversation with someone who gets it with minimal explanation; it might be words on a page. I love that line from Shadowlands, William Nicholson’s TV play (turned into a stage play and then feature film) about C. S. Lewis’s grief for his late wife Joy (though bear in mind that the film really misses a lot of the theological nuance of the play, inevitably): (more…)
Here’s one of those infernal lists. It hopefully speaks for itself. (more…)