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 [...]
My good friend Steve Graybill from Americaland, who has written for my blog before both on his strength weakness [which he identified, ironically enough, as a thirst for knowledge] and also on Sex in Marriage recently bought a copy of my book, 'i, church' on Amazon. He had some questions and thoughts which he shared with me via email and i asked him if he would write them into a post so that we could get more people [...]
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 [...]
And now, for our optional prompt! Today I challenge you to write a fourteener. Fourteeners can be have any number of lines, but each line should have fourteen syllables. Given the day, i decided to go for an Eastery theme: Easter, in fourteen beats An air of doom and gloom has descended upon the earth Friday night's unfortunate events made Saturday tough People dull-faced like zombies trying to take it all in Listening for but [...]
When Jesus walked the earth, He called many people to follow Him. And the crowds showed up. He spoke Truth and Life. He reached out to those at the margins, which in His day included women and children, Samaritans [the foreigner], the diseased and more... He performed miracles... He saved lives people were wanting to kill and He even raised some people from the dead. And the crowds cheered and pushed to get closer to [...]
i was inspired by this blog piece my friend Shae wrote over here where she spoke about a meeting she went to where the pastor proclaimed that the prayer the people would pray [to follow Jesus] was the most important prayer they would ever pray. Shae was not convinced: I’m not convinced. I’m open to the fact that I may be wrong in my disbelief here, but I’m still not convinced. What is the most powerful [...]
Following on from the previous post asking if it is okay for a follower of Jesus to get a tattoo, i thought i would share the story behind my tattoo: THE PLACE For the longest time i thought it was going to be tennis ball sized and on my left shoulder. Then quite recently, when i started seriously thinking about it [has been on and off thought for at least five years] i realised that [...]
This is an interesting psalm: the heading in my bible says, 'Of Solomon' and yet verse 29 says 'this concludes the prayers of David, son of Jesse' so who actually wrote it? And if you read the psalm it is talking about the king and how great he is going to be, so if Solomon did write this himself then it seems to smack of a little bit of 'Look at me! Look how great [...]
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 [...]