Posts from 2012 (Page 36)
Understanding the people we are trying to reach for Jesus
Research is a key component in any kind of church ministry. It doesn’t matter whether you are in a settled congregation, renewing a dying work, or planting from scratch, we need to research. What kind of church do we want to be? If we are going to answer this question with any degree of…
Should we care about the regulative principle?
This is an interesting debate in the context of housing schemes. There is a helpful discussion starter to be found here on the topic.
What not to say to single women in your church (or men for that matter)!
A helpful link here from Kevin DeYoung on the thorny issue of singleness and how we should fight the urge to say stupid things and give out cliched advice.
Are You A Pastor or a Planter?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T2vI5fJ_BMc]
Leaders who Grow Leaders
Great post here from Johnathan Leeman of www.9marks.org about the need for leaders who not only ‘cast vision’ and push off from the front, but also support and enable their people to engage in ministry and chase their dreams.
13 Ways the Church can Respond to the Needs of Bankrupt Britain!
I read a book this week called, ‘Bankrupt Britain: An Atlas of Social Change’ by Daniel Dorling. I, along with Ed Stetzer, have an unending fascination with statistics. I am also extremely sceptical of 95% of them at least 86.3% of the time. Some of the figures quoted are mind-boggling,…
The Rise & Fall of Housing Estates
This book is written by Lynsey Hanley and published by Granta books in 2007. This is quite a lengthy book (245 pages) given that it only contains 6 chapters. Is written by a lady who was born in a large housing estate in Birmingham, UK and latterly lived in the East End of London. She writes with a tangible sense of injustice at the way those of us who come from…
How do we help a generation damned by a lack of any work ethic?
Those of you who know me personally or have followed this blog for any length of time will know that I read a lot of books. A while back I read a book entitled, ‘Toxic Charity:How the Church Hurts Those They Help (and How to Reverse It)’. I will enclose a short review here, although…
2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. These figures run from April – December 2011. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 28,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that…
How much does it really cost to follow Jesus?
Happy New Year to you all. I am preaching on Mark 8:34 to kick off 2012 at NCC. I found this little hardcore clip which some of you may like (and some of you definitely won’t!). 🙂 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JQOBMi4QS8&feature=player_embedded#!]