Over the last couple of weeks I have been preaching through Romans 7. In each sermon there has been material that has ended up on the cutting room floor as it were. I am planning to write up that material in a couple of posts this week- and I hope that as I do that […]
Yesterday at Woodstock Road Baptist we had our first Sunday in temporary venues whilst building work takes place in our usual premises for the next six to nine months. There are one or two things that we need to tweak for future weeks but, for the most part, I was thankful for how it went. […]
Over the years I have developed a pattern that I have found helpful in keeping going in pastoral ministry: the monthly away day. It was recommended to me back in my days with UCCF. Once a month I travel to somewhere nice (the venues all tend to be near coasts!)where I have a good Christian […]
On Sunday we completed our studies in Isaiah. I started preaching through Isaiah in the autumn of 2003 so it has taken a while to get to the end- although we have still moved speedily covering 66 chapters in 32 sermons. The first three were preached before our sermons were downloaded but you can find […]
This morning I spent some time with the Oxford International Outreach team. They are at the start of their second (and final) week running a coffee bar each night for international students. Optional Bible Studies form part of this. It was good to hear of their progress so far and it would be great to […]
I don’t know whether anybody remembers the phrase from maths exams. We were told to show our working: to show how we got to an answer so that if our final answer was wrong (and to be honest I lost the plot with maths when we stopped using numbers and started using letters…) we might […]
This is probably one of those posts that will have people reaching for the imaginary “Dislike” button on Facebook. And I know how you feel. When I am sitting in the congregation on a Sunday evening it is tempting to want to sit back, listen and not feel I have to contribute very much. On […]
A few weeks ago I spent some time with a good friend. I suspect I am not always the easiest character to read but my friend has an unnerving ability to discern my thoughts accurately: to spot when I am finding an issue difficult even when I don’t say anything. At times that can be […]
I came away encouraged from our recent church weekend. As ever, I was struck by people’s willingness to work hard and serve (special mention to Jenny, Hannah and the team who did the children’s work, to Steve and Jane and the team who oversaw the catering, to Samantha, our resident ‘Parkinson’ and to Long Crendon […]
Over the last few years I have enjoyed reading “The Week”- a weekly magazine that pulls together the best articles from around the world that have been published in the last seven days. A few weeks ago this article, originally published in the Guardian, caught my attention. Stephen Gough, known as the Naked Rambler, has […]