A Christian lady I once knew told me that she had lived next to her next-door neighbour for 25 years. Who do you live next door to? She said she prayed regularly for her next-door neighbour. Do you pray for your neighbours? She said that the lady knew she went to church for most of that time. Do your neighbours know you go to… Read More

I have experienced 2 examples of “holy heckling” recently – neither by Robin to Batman as in the old TV series (although I have been Batman a couple of times in the past, tights and all but that’s another story….). But by children. The first one was at a family outreach event when I was telling a version of the parable… Read More

Ladders used to be a game I first played as a young youth leader – I am sure it must be banned for health and safety reasons now (young people running over the legs of lots of other young people sitting on the floor?!). But that’s not the ladders we are thinking about. “The church that has the low rungs on the ladder… Read More

A lot of churches I work with have lots of contacts with their community through things like parents and toddler groups and coffee mornings but struggle with making contacts into relationships that then have opportunities to share and grow people’s faith. How can this happen? Here are some ideas – some old some new… Read More

I had the privilege of being asked to speak at a church’s carol service at their local pub in December. To try and keep the pub culture, I (bravely / foolishly) asked the people there (a mix of Christians, their friends and family who don’t usually attend church and pub regulars) for their questions about the Christmas story… Read More

A knock on the front door at 10.30am on a Saturday morning can mean only one of two things: it is the Amazon delivery man or a Jehovah’s witness. It was the latter. Did I need comfort? Read this magazine and it will tell me how to get comfort from the God of comfort – the patter was in full flow from the moment I opened the door. … Read More

There’s a story about D.L. Moody the famous American evangelist from the 19th century who was once criticised by a lady he was talking to for his methods of attempting to win people for Christ. He surprised her by replying “I agree. I don’t like it either. Tell me, how do you do it?” “I don’t” she said. Do you know what he then said?… Read More

Have you ever gone to your church, stepped back (metaphorically) and imagined what it would be like to be there as someone who does not know the church or any church or even any knowledge of Christianity? What would you experience? Would you know where to park even before you got in the building?… Read More

Jesus says that he has chosen us to go and bear fruit that will last in John 15 v 16, a missionary call if ever there was one. But what sort of fruit is he talking about? Recently I had the privilege of being with St Luke’s church as they reviewed their evangelism strategy and progress. The view was expressed and generally…Read More

We all love joy don’t we? No not the 1980’s TV programme about a roguish antiques dealer starring Ian McShane. It is not a word or a feeling we usually associate with evangelism. More often it is words like fear, unconfident and intolerant. Yet Jesus sends out the disciples in two’s in Luke 10 on mission into the field …Read More