'Mez McConnell' Tagged Posts (Page 33)
Rob Bell’s Goodbye Letter to His Church
As with all things Rob Bell his farewell address to his congregation at Mars Hill was a little amusing, bemusing, befuddled, verbose and, in places, bizarre. Read it in its entirety here:
You shouldn’t be reading this…It’s Christmas Day!
Have a wonderful day with family & friends and, more importantly for those of us who love the Lord Jesus, may today’s Christmas service honour Jesus in every way! Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
Why the Atonement Matters for Church Planters (8)
Atonement’ edited by Gabriel Fluhrer (P&R Publishing 2010) This is a series of lectures about ‘blood’ according to the book’s sleeve and is a compilation of 8 essays on the topic by 7 evangelical theologians and pastors. Such is the importance of this subject for every Christian, whoever they…
How far should we go in living for Jesus?
What do we do with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 10:39: Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. The context is sending out the 12 to proclaim the ‘kingdom of heaven’ (v7). They were sent out as ‘sheep amongst wolves’ (v16) but were encouraged to stay firm in Jesus and to…
Why should we send our best people to Bible college?
Imagine the CEO of a company you have shares in announces to the board that he has spotted someone with star potential working for the company. This person has got a golden future and could seriously help the company move forward into the future. Then, instead of promoting him from within he…
Why Should We Take The Gospel To Housing Schemes Anyway?
Christians need to be seriously considering this question as, thankfully, more and more Christians seem to be taking notice of the dire gospel needs of many of our cities housing schemes/council estates. Personal experience has shown me that many ‘outsiders’ will come and help out at…