My sabbatical came to an end last week and I was left reflecting on the wonderful time that I had enjoyed and the astonishing sights that I had seen. The trip to Australia was a particular highlight. I loved seeing kangaroos on my opening night and breathtaking coastal scenes throughout the trip alongside the richness […]
I am deeply thankful for the last six weeks of sabbatical and holiday. I’ve seen some remarkable places (the excuse for the random picture above) and enjoyed fellowship with a variety of churches. As it draws to a close I am trying to draw some threads together on what the Lord has taught me. Book […]
I’m currently on sabbatical in Australia- enjoying outstanding hospitality and terrific views whilst doing a little bit of speaking. The main talk that I am doing whilst here is coming up on Sunday night. But I had intended to write a follow-up to my first piece on personality before I left so thought I would […]
Last summer I spent a week in Italy teaching through three minor prophets on the Alpine Bible School. A group of us were enjoying an ice cream on an afternoon trip to a local village. About fifteen minutes before we were due to be back at the minibus one of our group started to become […]
As well as building up to Christmas this is the time of the year when we nostalgically look back on the past twelve months. We had our staff team Christmas lunch a couple of weeks back and reflected back on the past year. I came up with some highlights such as baptisms whilst my colleagues […]
Last Sunday we finished our series in Philippians and considered the themes of contentment and generosity. I probably treated contentment in a slightly cursory fashion and limited most of my remarks to wealth and poverty given that was the context of the passage. However, I wanted to return to the theme because it is a […]
Last Sunday I was preaching down at Crofton Baptist Church in the morning service and then was interviewed on the subject of same sex attraction over lunch. I found the day immensely encouraging, especially meeting the pastor there who is a son of a former pastor of the church here. The recording for the interview […]
It is interesting to see which of the blogs that I write receive most feedback. Sadly from my perspective the accounts of various historical figures seem to attract relatively little! However, my post from a few weeks back- “Busy and Lifeless” has resulted in various conversations. In it I noted that a significant number of […]
Over the last few months I have had the same conversation several times. Sometimes I have been the one listening and sometimes the one speaking. The conversation involves somebody who is active in church- perhaps a pastor, an elder or a youth leader. They are doing good stuff- preaching sermons, seeing Christians grow or trying […]
One of the things I enjoy doing most is preaching less familiar books of the Bible. Often this enables people to encounter God in a fresh way as they hear words that they have not heard before. Preaching Song of Songs over the year has given me that experience and the more recent joy has […]