Dear Friends, It was somewhat dispiriting to return from holiday and open the September edition of Evangelicals Now (an excellent paper which I would highly recommend). And not because it means that holiday is over and summer is slipping away, but because one of the first articles my eyes fell on announced that American pastor
Read moreHow do you think about culture? Are you a “look in” kind of Christian? Do you try to ignore what’s going on out in the world, stick your fingers in your ears and sing loudly about Jesus coming back, trying to keep safe from being infected by the world’s values? Or are you a “lash
Read moreDear Friends, I enjoyed the story this week of diners in Manchester who had the happy experience of being served a bottle of wine worth 17 times as much as the one they had ordered. They had ordered a £260 bottle of Bordeaux and received instead a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001 costing
Read moreDear Friends, I’m sure we’ve all been in a situation where we wish we’d said something better, something more Christian and Christ-centered, but couldn’t work out what to say and so said nothing at all. Let me tell you of one such moment, in the hope that we might help one another to do better
Read moreDear Friends, I was dismayed when I read the latest GAFCON Quarterly. It spoke of the chaos surrounding the 2020 Lambeth Conference for bishops in the Anglican Communion. It turns out that the ‘spouses’ of three bishops who are in same-sex unions will not be invited because this is felt not to be “appropriate”. However...
Read moreDear Friends, “Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!” This Easter churches around the world will resound with that magnificent declaration, as they have for many centuries. It is a glorious truth, the very centre of our faith. But what does it prove that Christ is risen from the dead? It proves...
Read moreDear Friends, I was reading the Bible with someone this week when we came to these words: “Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore” (Hebrews 13:13) – where “him” is Jesus and “outside the camp” refers to him being crucified outside the city. It’s a call to be
Read moreDear Friends, You may have thought this was yet another article about Brexit; you’re probably relieved to hear that it isn’t. It is indeed about whether to leave or to remain, but it concerns the Church of England rather than the European Union. That’s the question that many conservative evangelicals are asking as they see
Read moreDear Friends, A week ago I heard two talks on youth culture (yes, really!), and one thought in particular has stayed with me. The speaker was talking about the importance of encouraging young people to ‘Choose Jesus.’ Following Jesus, now more than ever, is a deliberate choice. No-one is simply going to drift into...
Read moreDear Friends, Mosques in Birmingham are on heightened alert after five were attacked in the early hours of Thursday morning. The five mosques are in the Aston area and at least one attack involved using a sledgehammer to break windows. We can imagine how we would feel if we found our church buildings attacked. Adil
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