Those who have had to listen to my preaching a bit will know that I have a couple of hobby horses. Partly because I think they are under-taught I will tend to major on the themes of union with Christ and strength in weakness. What I have not been good at is bringing those two […]
It was a Saturday night in the summer term of 1996. I was attending the University Christian Union Bible Reading where David MacInnes, then rector of St.Aldate’s Church, was speaking on Ephesians 1. He referred to Paul’s great description of the Christian’s identity- we are those who are “in Christ”. David then made an application […]
Tonight was our annual biography evening at church. You can listen to the talk here. However, if you do so, you might find the handout that we used helpful to follow along. It is reproduced here: Early Life Born in 1832 to godly parents in Barnsley Converted as a teenager after a period of […]
Normally this blog contains my vague ramblings. However, this week I wanted to post a document that the church elders here at Woody Road put together. It is on the topic of baptism. The intention is not to launch an internet discussion on the subject so much as to help church regulars understand our convictions […]
Last weekend I was on the Cumbrian coast speaking at St.John’s/Claytonbrook Whittle-le-Woods Church Weekend. It was a joy to spend time with a warm hearted group who had the additional benefit, being from Lancashire, of speaking properly. And I loved returning to my favourite theme for a church weekend- Union with Christ. Now it appears […]
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 […]
In the last two posts I have argued that, despite the difficulties of handling the text, we need to read and preach Song of Songs more. We live in a culture where there is much talk about love and the song gives us an opportunity to speak about a love which is as strong as […]
So what do you discover if you do read or preach Song of Songs? You learn about a love that is as strong as death and burns like a blazing fire (8:6). Instinctively when we read that I think we know that is true- love is the force that moves us and motivates us most […]
I first preached Song of Songs by accident. A few years ago I was asked to speak on Oak Hall’s Alpine Bible School. The print deadline for their brochure was coming up so I had about twenty minutes to work out what I wanted to do 16 sessions on. I had recently done Job and […]
One of my favourite books over the last few years has been Jack Miller’s “The Heart of a Servant Leader”. It is a compendium of letters from an older pastor to younger missionaries and church workers and was actually recommended to me at a Pastoral Refreshment Conference a few years back. Amongst other things, Miller […]