Blog (Page 36)
Why My Perfect Family Is Better Than Yours!
Here in the UK there is a (not so) great tradition of sending yearly family newsletters around about Christmas time. I am unsure if it is just a Christian phenomenon or a class thing because I never came across them in my life when I was growing up. However, many of them are unintentionally hilarious. Being a pastor we used to get more than our fair share of these things.…
Youth Groups That Do What They Say On The Tin!
In the UK, there’s a product called Ronseal. It’s a popular varnish/wood stain product available in most hardware stores. Their advertising strap line is really well known: it’s supposed to be simple, straight-forward, and down-to-earth. “Ronseal: It does exactly what it says on the tin.” In…
Youth Groups That Do What They Say On The Tin!
When Helping Hurts
This is an extremely provocative book and I absolutely loved it. Although written for a North American cultural mindset, it is certainly applicable across much of Europe. The byline is, ‘How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor..and yourself’. We live in a culture where the concept of a ‘missions trip’ is now almost the ‘done…
Is Our Kindness Helping Or Hurting People?
What enters our minds when we think of inner city housing schemes, council estates and/or projects? What do the residents need to alleviate the problems they face? It is easy to try to appease a guilty conscience by doing ‘good stuff’ in these areas. Maybe helping out in a children’s club or doing some other community project. Social projects are two a…
Sing it like we mean it!
A bit of Christmas fun to brighten up your day. We have our Christmas carol service today at NCC and I hope we sing wiht half the gusto on display here 🙂 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihQuiyV-lXU] Also, I found this one quite cool and modern. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sghwe4TYY18#!]
Christopher Hitchens v Douglas Wilson: FIGHT!
Entitled, ‘A Collision of Lives’ I have to admit that I found this documentary fascinating, not because of the level of debate (average) but because of the personal, behind the scenes glimpses, of discussion between the two men. There is a lot of ‘to-ing & fro-ing’ in terms of putting forward views, as there should be in these things. I just…
The Death of Christopher Hitchens
This is a blog about inner city church planters and so it may be a surprise to find something on the death of the so-called intellectual secularist. Despite his views I did admire his way of talking and his unflinching belief in his own unbelief. You can read a biography of his life from a Christian perspective here. I hope he didn’t go to meet the Lord the way he…
Evangelism ‘On the Way!’
Isn’t it fascinating how the Lord Jesus used so many informal settings as teaching opportunities. Reading through Luke’s gospel offers us some revealing insights as to how Jesus used this style of teaching as he travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem. Luke contains all sorts of stories and questions and metaphors for how Jesus interacted outside of the pulpit, if…
‘Off the shelf’ Christmas assemblies for schools
Being the new chaplain on the scene, it falls to me to deliver this year’s Christmas assembly in the local high school next week. The expectation is for me to deliver a short seasonal message to a large group of teenagers (who don’t really want to be there) to help them think more about Christmas.…