We are eagerly anticipating the re-opening of our building on Sunday. Much work has been done and we are looking forward to meeting in a building that is more accessible and open to the community around us. There are various things I would love local people to be able to see. But one of the […]
It has been a particularly busy couple of months which somewhat explains my silence on here. I am aware that I’ve left Hudson Taylor in the middle of his life- and I plan to return to him soon. But I was conscious a couple of weeks ago at having been somewhat grumpy and grouchy in […]
It is easy when considering “Christian heroes” to have unrealistic people in our minds and forget that these were individuals who went through real pain and anguish. There is something very moving about the early years that Hudson Taylor faced in China. They were very trying and he found them immensely difficult. The trials that […]
I hadn’t intended to write anything over the Christmas period. However my family (including nephew and niece) are currently out visiting fish (pet ones apparently rather than things you eat) so I thought I would jot down a brief thought. Each year at Woody Road we have a testimony evening on the final Sunday evening […]
As last year, I’m afraid that anybody looking for Christmas thoughts on the blog will be disappointed. That’s not just because of my “Bah-humbug” spirit but more because I have precious few thoughts at the best of times and I’m afraid any interesting thoughts on Christmas will need to be saved for the four sermons […]
Just over a year ago I wrote a series of posts on the subject of singleness and promised a review of Barry Danylak’s book Redeeming Singleness. It is described as giving a biblical theology of singleness. Let me be honest: it is not the easiest read in the world. There are reasons why it has […]
I had a very encouraging time last weekend. I was down in Kent teaching around eighty people for Oak Hall’s Unlocking the Bible weekend. Oak Hall does a terrific job of providing fellowship and teaching to Christians- especially a number who were there from smaller or struggling churches. A number of things excited me- meeting […]
Regulars to Woody Road will know that each year we have a vision statement. We’ve found it a useful way of spending some concentrated time thinking about one aspect of what God wants us to be. Often it is easy as we preach through books of the Bible, which is our normal pattern, to look […]
Last week David, Janet and I made the trek to Norfolk for the FIEC Leaders’ Conference. Leaving aside the somewhat surreal (and mildly enjoyable!) experience of staying in something akin to Butlins c.1950s complete with Christmas decorations this was a very good time- I’m grateful to the church for the opportunity of being there. As […]
We continued our series on work last Sunday evening when I contributed to the general cheerfulness of humanity by preaching on Ecclesiastes. Should you be feeling unduly happy at the moment you can bring yourself down to earth by listening to the sermon here. Some of the material in the sermon (the surveys from Oxford […]