The word pioneering tends to give me images of cowboys riding across the plains, exploring new worlds, going where no man has gone before. Hold on that’s Star trek. Similar idea though. I have been reminded recently that if we always do what we have always done we will always get what we have always got. Now that can be…Read More

This year I have driven my family are a bit mad (those of you who know me are not surprised) by deciding I wanted to put up a nativity set at home for Christmas. I am not sure if this is because of an increased awareness of the significance of the incarnation or I’m just getting old. So I began to look for one in shops and online. I found….Read More

Have you ever tried to mow the lawn with a blunt blade? I did that recently in my ‘last cut of the year’ . It was not clever – it was hard work and the result was poor. Most of our grass is moss and weeds at the best of times so it does not look great, but this looked more patchy than usual. The blade certainly needed sharpening…Read More

Do you ever feel frustrated at the state of your world, your country, your Church, your church?

What do we then do – moan, groan, get apologetic or get apathetic?

Or do we Ezra? If Google is now a verb so can Ezra be….
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At a recent conference with the Very excellent Bishop of Chelmsford (sorry about the name dropping), he reminded a room full of evangelists (some people’s idea of a nightmare) that the Lord is the Lord of the harvest (Matthew 9 v 38) not us. But more than that, picking up the harvest theme, the sower in the parable of the sower would have been seen at the time… Read More

If we are running a race, we wouldn’t normally stop until we crossed the line: that’s the aim of running a race. “I’ve started so I’ll finish” as St Paul and Magnus Magnusson on Mastermind said. In recent years there has been an encouragingly increase in emphasis in churches on community events and social action. These are key to make God’s kingdom more of a reality…
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“Strategy….is not a substitute for Spirit. Simularly Spirit is not a substitute for strategy” (Robin Gamble).

Thank you for all your interest and support in the evangelism work I have been doing. The need to help churches with evangelism seems to be there – which is no surprise to many of us….
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Most Christians are familiar with the Great Commission of Matthew 28. But Chris Wright in his book The Mission of God suggests that what we call the Great Commission could really be Genesis 12 v 1 – 3:

“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you…Read More

“For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Cor 4 v 5)

I have felt really challenged recently by these verses:
“We preach not ourselves” – what do we put at the centre of what we say, our stories, our testimonies – us? Or Jesus? What about our selfies…
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The apostle Paul is one of my heroes. On a recent visit to Malta where Paul was shipwrecked for three months as described in the book of Acts in chapters 27 and 28, I visited some of the sites associated with him: the offshore small island where he is thought to have first set foot in Malta; a church marking his time there with a pillar reported to have been …Read More