It was the smallest of deals, it was quite possibly the biggest of deals. This morning i'd been asked to share a little about church at a house church meeting of a friend of mine - never met the group before and only knew the leader through a camp i spoke on last year for his youth. But i'd also spent the last few days feeling very challenged by the tragic events in Charleston and [...]
In Acts 7 in the bible, we read about the stoning of Stephen. Does anyone know what role Stephen had in the early church? Let me give you a clue: In Acts 6.5 we see him described as "a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit". So what did he do? Are we thinking pastor? Elder? Worship leader? Let me give you another clue: In Acts 6.8 we read that Stephen was "a man [...]
This year, the book i wrote, 'i, church' was published and you can read more about that over here. But being Sunday where many people around the world will be using that somewhat confusing statement of 'going to church' i thought it would be a good idea to post an extract from my book, particularly one aimed at all of the people who think church may be dying or already dead. SEARCHING FOR THE PULSE [...]
Sarah Bessey is one of my favourite people on the Twitterer. She is a Canadian who loves Jesus and pretty much any time i have read one of her blog pieces i resonate deeply with it and really feel that she writes both truthfully but also lovingly [often a tough mix to get just right] and so she is one of the few go-to blog people i have. Others being Nate Pyle in a similar way [truth [...]
This was the 4th book launch i have done for 'i, church' and the first one in Durban. And what another incredible evening it was. Firstly, we decided to do a small change with this one and focus on the Q & A aspect of the evening which was a highlight for me from each of the previous launches. And as a bonus, i got the chance to preach at 3 Westville Baptist church services [...]
i never particularly wanted to go to Robben Island. in fact, to be honest, for a time i particularly didn't want to go to Robben Island. Something about growing up in a not too politicized environment perhaps and then later not really seeing the point or perhaps thinking it was a 'flavour of the month' kind of vibe with everyone going and it being such a touristy thing. But then somewhere along the line [maybe [...]
One of my favourite weekends of the year, when i've been privileged enough to be a part of it [which is quite often!], is the weekend known as October Leadership. i have been part of at least ten of them and spoken on about 8 of those and it has never failed to be a life [and hopefully school etc] transforming weekend. Run by Scripture Union, the purpose of October Leadership has been gathering together [...]
So i've been writing some challenging [hopefully] pieces on church of late and it's time for your input. A lot of people have got this vibe of, 'You HAVE to belong to a local church!' otherwise... well i'm not really sure what the otherwise is, but the being part of a local church seems to be a pretty insisted upon thing. And what i am trying to figure out - and i really hope you [...]
Continuing with my share from ‘Revisiting The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Faith Community Hearing' as we look at some of the messages that came out of the second day: FROM THE TWITTERER [Day 1 of 2] While 140 character messages don't capture the whole of what was experienced, hopefully they will help you to catch a bit of a glimpse: #TRC General buzz in the air. Today it is a lot of testimony from [...]
So former Archbishop Desmond Tutu [or present Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, whatever an Emeritus might be] must be the most famous purple-dress-wearing man in the whole of Africa. No_bob the yellow-and-white [yes, he's still not nor ever has been blue] stuffed dolphin, is the world's most famous stuffed dolphin [largely because the competition in that particular field is highly limited] and called No_bob because he doesn't, well, bob. It was inevitable that one day the [...]