Last Sunday evening we held the second in our series considering Relationships and Sexuality. I spoke on the subject of homosexuality and then was interviewed. Since my teenage years, I have been exclusively attracted to other men rather than women. So the question we pondered in the interview was this- what does it mean for […]
Ukraine. Gaza. Iraq. The last few weeks have brought chilling news on a regular basis: pictures of grieving families with children being massacred. The persecution of Christians and other minorities in the Islamic State has mostly happened away from cameras but the reports of beheadings and crucifixions are hard to read and comprehend. A number […]
I feel very privileged- I often get the chance to spend time with Christians who are doing a fantastic job. I think of friends I visited last week- doing tremendous work in a tricky church situation at great personal cost. Other faces come to mind- those who persevere through painful temptations or suffering, those who […]
It’s time to complete this brief survey of the life of the 19th century pioneer missionary that I started before Christmas! Throughout these posts we have seen something of Hudson Taylor’s service- his passion for souls, willingness to embrace suffering and so on. In the last post I want to pose this question: how was […]
Apologies for the drawn out nature of this potted biography. In my last post on Hudson Taylor, I completed the story of his life. In the two remaining posts that I am planning I want to pick up some of the main emphases of his life. A Passion for Souls I think this is 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]