The true meaning of the manger Jesus wasn’t born in a stable. He was born in the living room, where animals feed, because there was no room in the guest room. But that isn’t the point.
Nostalgia and Christmas A brief Christmas message, included in Christmas cards and newsletters distributed around the Riverside Parishes (near Darlington).
ICYMI 3 In case you missed it … cooperation, gender, assisted suicide, politics, Picture-in-Picture, vestries, aging, hymns, Proms, SSL forwarding, WhatsApp.
Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church, and What the Bible Has to Say (Preston Sprinkle) The best thing about this book is the way the author combines truth with grace.
Collective worship in schools: some reading Continuing on the theme of schools, church schools in particular, a couple more Grove Booklets, this time about collective worship (assemblies and more).
One year as vicar On 6 August 2023, I was licensed as vicar of the Riverside Parishes near Darlington. As the anniversary approaches, time for a bit of reflection.
Church schools: some reading Many children are in Church of England schools. I’ve been reading a few bits and pieces to help me to understand what church schools are all about.
The ‘apocalyptic’ Paul in J. Louis Martyn and Galatians An ‘apocalyptic’ way of understanding Galatians emphasises the fact that something new has been revealed in the Christ-event, which has changed everything.
Paul and Palestinian Judaism (E. P. Sanders) What are the main theses of this epoch-changing book, published in 1977?
ICYMI 2 In case you missed it … organs, Monteverdi, leadership, Tom Holland, Justin Brierley, Selah, Catherine Heymans, Jeremy Begbie, Dawkins, Allan Bibles …
Multi-Congregation Ministry: Theology and Practice in a Changing Church (Malcolm Grundy) Many church ministers today find themselves leading multiple congregations. But there are no obvious ‘must read’ books on this kind of leadership.
Bible study template, inspired by lectio divina and Hans Boersma Hans Boersma unpacks the four steps of lectio divina: lectio, meditatio, oratio and contemplatio. Could they form the basis of a Bible study?
John Webster on divine and human freedom ‘God’s freedom and our freedom are … directly proportional. Therefore, the more that God acts upon us, the more we ourselves are enabled to act.’
Psalm headings Before reading or praying one of the psalms, it can often be helpful to get yourself in the right frame of mind. So here is a brief heading for each psalm.
Christmas card message: Follow the Star? A brief Christmas message, included in Christmas cards distributed around the Riverside Parishes (near Darlington), drawing on my background in astronomy.
Thrive: Helping Your Multi-Parish Benefice to Grow (Pam Macnaughton) As a multi-parish vicar, I was quite excited by the launch of this book. But the key thing to know is that it is part of a wider set of resources.
The first 90 days (as vicar) As I approach the 90-day mark as a vicar, time for a quick post pointing to a couple of resources on that topic.
The Quantum Leap—From Assistant to Senior Minister: Reflections on Navigating the Jump (Adrian Beavis) The purpose of this short booklet is primarily to tell you what to expect when making the transition from curate to vicar (or similar).
Leading One Church at a Time: From Multi-church Ministers to Focal Ministers (Bob Jackson) With paid clergy numbers falling, should we be raising up other people to lead smaller churches?
Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity (Eugene Peterson) What are pastors for? Many of them have forgotten. According to Eugene Peterson, ‘The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God.’
ESV Study Bible I recently finished reading the ESV Study Bible. Here are a few thoughts about it, and about study Bibles in general.
We believe in the Holy Spirit My article for the June ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. Why is it so important to think about the Holy Spirit?
Self-denial and the cross My article for the February ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. You shall be true to yourself? Instead, Jesus calls us to self-denial. What does this mean?
Holy Communion: an outline order of service One of the disadvantages of using a screen rather than service booklets is that it makes it hard for newcomers.
The creeds: an aid to memorisation It’s quite embarrassing when you can’t recite the creed by heart but the congregation can! But you might regularly be reciting not one but four creeds.
O Sing Unto the Lord: A History of English Church Music (Andrew Gant) The book covers both sides of the divide between professional (choral) and congregational music, but I focus on the latter in this post.
The literal and spiritual senses of Scripture I’ve attempted several times to get my head round the (pre-modern) four ‘senses’ of Scripture, but Timothy Ward gives a particularly clear explanation.
Jonathan Chaplin on disestablishment Calls are growing to disestablish the Church of England. Surely Christians ought to resist these calls, right? Not according to Jonathan Chaplin.
ICYMI 1 In case you missed it … Alamire, friendship, local archaeology, Vaughan Roberts, Mastodon, psalmody, Auckland Project, Stellarium Mobile, Andy Byers.
Come, Lord Jesus My article for the November ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. How should we respond when the world is in a mess? We need to look to the future.
Michael Sacasas on technology Is technology neutral? We usually think it is. Michael Sacasas argues that it isn’t. ‘Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral’ (Kranzberg).
Body: Biblical spirituality for the whole person (Paula Gooder) This books is about integration: the integration of our embodied lives as individuals, and the integration of our corporate life as the body of Christ.
Counting the cost: you haven’t got enough! Helpful insights (as always) from Joel B. Green on ‘counting the cost’. The point in both cases is that the person simply doesn’t have enough!
Sing a New Song: Choosing and Leading Praise in Today’s Church (David Montgomery) This book was doing the rounds in the Presbyterian circles in which I moved around the time of its publication (2000). It is still relevant today.
Does everything happen for a reason? My article for the August ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. How do we cope when tragedy strikes? Is life like a tapestry?
Jesus and ‘I vow to thee, my country’ Is there anything you would defend to the death? Jesus said, ‘When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies … flee to the mountains’.
Andrew Goddard on the state of the Anglican Communion Andrew Goddard helpfully explains the goings-on at the 2022 Lambeth Conference and their implications in a series of articles. Here is a summary.
Lectionary commentary I’ve been working on a commentary on the Common Worship Principal Service Lectionary, aiming to answer the question: Why was this passage chosen?
Leaving your comfort zone My article for the July ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. Jesus calls us to follow him down from the mountain.
OK Google, define ‘discriminate’ I was busy setting up Google Workspace for Nonprofits when I was confronted by this: ‘First, confirm that … Your organisation does not discriminate …’
The Servant Queen My article for the June ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. If you were to describe Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, what words would you use?
Reignite: Seeing God rekindle life and purpose in your church (Ian Parkinson) There are two ways of bringing a healthy church into existence. One is to start from scratch. The other is to bring renewal to an existing church.
Lent: back to basics My article for the March ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. Lent is a time to be reminded of the basics of our faith.
The Fool and the Heretic: How Two Scientists Moved Beyond Labels to a Christian Dialogue About Creation and Evolution (Todd Charles Wood and Darrel R. Falk) How do we handle our differences and disagreements? For example, what about creation and evolution?
Curacies and How to Survive Them (Matthew Caminer with Martyn Percy & Beaumont Stevenson) A management consultant, a theologian and a psychotherapist discuss semi-fictional stories about life as a curate in the Church of England.
What is Candlemas? I wrote a brief explainer for our churches’ weekly email, and it might be of wider interest (not least for myself next year!).
The star of Bethlehem It’s still Epiphany (just), so here is my article for the January ‘Crossways’ newsletter for St Paul’s Church Spennymoor and Whitworth Church.
Calvin on the Christian life What does the Christian life look like in practice? Will it be easy? Will it be fun? Not according to Calvin.
Things can only get better? With COP26 in the news, my article for the November ‘Crossways’ newsletter for St Paul’s Church Spennymoor and Whitworth Church.
Walking together (in opposite directions) There is much talk in the Church of England about ‘walking together’. Is this ‘living together, but going nowhere together’? Or ‘labouring together’?
Calvin on regeneration and repentance For Calvin, two things follow from faith: our lives are changed (‘repentance’), and our sins are forgiven. We ‘cease to do evil’ and ‘learn to do good’.
Unity or Purity? Augustine’s Donatist Controversy and the Church of England Today This is very exciting. I seem to have become a published theologian. I argue that, for Augustine, unity comes before purity, at least chronologically.
Just Forgiveness: Exploring the Bible, Weighing the Issues (Anthony Bash) How can forgiveness be just? How can you maintain that an action was utterly wicked, and then simply forgive, as if it didn’t matter?
Augustine on natural evil Why do we have floods and droughts, and why do animals kill each other? Is it because of the fall? Augustine is sometimes assumed to have believed this.
‘Please send someone else’ None of us is called to be a Moses or an Isaiah or a Mary. But all of us are called to do things that take us out of our ‘comfort zone’.
A Better Story: God, Sex and Human Flourishing (Glynn Harrison) Since the 1960s, we have been living through a sexual revolution, which is build around a powerful story. As Christians, we need to tell a better story.
Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Paul David Tripp) The basic premise of the book is that God brings about change in our lives by means of relationships. This follows the principle of incarnation.
Rowan Williams on the passions and the Beatitudes Fascinating and insightful talks, drawing on the Desert Fathers, and linking the eight ‘passions of the soul’ with the eight Beatitudes.
God and natural disasters Why do we have tsunamis and natural disasters, viruses and pandemics? The existence of natural disasters raises massive questions about God and the world.
The Day the Revolution Began: Rethinking the Meaning of Jesus’ Crucifixion (Tom Wright) As a result of Jesus’ death, the world is a different place. This book, from 2016, is Tom Wright’s attempt to make sense of that.
Hagar and racial awareness My article for the March ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. Hagar’s experience as an outsider is shared by many people today.
Why did Jesus have to die? I happened to stumble across a sermon of mine from three years ago about the cross of Christ, based on the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Mark 8:31-38).
What did Jesus’ contemporaries believe about God’s grace? (Paul and the Gift, Part 2) “Grace is everywhere in Second Temple Judaism but not everywhere the same.” John Barclay examines some texts from this period to unpack what grace means.
God’s love, with no strings attached? This was the refrain on this morning’s service on BBC local radio. But does God’s love really come ‘with no strings attached’?
The origins of original sin for Augustine Some suggest that Augustine based his doctrine of original sin on a misinterpretation of a single verse in Romans, but this is far from being the case.
Is the groaning of creation good? If animal suffering is not a consequence of the fall, and if it wasn’t the ‘only way’ by which God could have created the world, how can we understand it?
Was the groaning of creation unavoidable? Christopher Southgate argues that a long process of evolutionary suffering was the ‘only way’ God could have created the world. Is his argument persuasive?
Is the groaning of creation a consequence of the fall? This is the first of three posts on Christopher Southgate’s book, The Groaning of Creation. Is Michael Lloyd right to blame animal suffering on the fall?
Preaching: a word from elsewhere (Walter Brueggemann) This short video clip by Walter Brueggemann, from 2008, has been coming back to me again and again since I first saw it a few years ago.
Biblical Theology of Culture (Christopher Watkin) How can we make sense of the world around us? Here are a couple of great videos by an old friend of mine, now a lecturer in French philosophy in Australia.
Why is Christmas celebrated on 25 December? Is Christmas ‘the Christianization of a pagan festival’? According to John Sweet, ‘It seems more likely that the true clue is the date of Passover’.
What is grace? (Paul and the Gift, Part 1) “Grace is everywhere in Second Temple Judaism but not everywhere the same.” With this statement, John Barclay begins to clarify the meaning of “grace”.
Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament (John Walton) A huge amount has been discovered about ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. What difference does this make to how we understand the Old Testament?
The Lord’s Supper (and the priesthood) My sermon from this morning, in which I attempt to explain the meaning of Lord’s Supper and its connection with being ordained as a priest in the CofE.
Run the race: following Jesus through the COVID ‘marathon’ My article for the September ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. The ‘marathon’ of COVID-19 might lead us to give up following Jesus. How can we keep going?
Calvin on the Holy Spirit and faith How do I benefit from Christ’s work? The answer given by Calvin and the Reformers is this: primarily through the Holy Spirit and faith.
Following the science? My article for the July ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. With science so prominent in the headlines, what should we make of it?
Cedd and Archbishop Stephen Cottrell on disagreement I’ve just finished reading Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, so it was interesting to listen to the new Archbishop of York speaking about the Synod of Whitby.
Walk This Way (Ash Carter, Ros Clarke, and Lee Gatiss) If the Christian life is a walk, then how can a new believer get their bearings? This new book uses an old approach: Creed, Commandments, Lord’s Prayer.
Lockdown sermons If you’re curious to see how my hair grows over around 12 weeks, then enjoy the photos below. As a bonus, you can click on them and watch me preaching.
Augustine on the resurrection body Some, it seems, imagine that Augustine and others slavishly adopted Platonic philosophy, and therefore abandoned any hope in the resurrection of the body.
The self-isolation of Jesus My first ever online sermon, delivered during the coronavirus pandemic, reflecting on Jesus’ self-isolation as he approaches the cross.
Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching as Worship (John Piper) For Piper, preaching ought to be expository, and it ought serve worship: ‘seeing, savoring, and showing the supreme beauty and worth of the triune God’.
Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1-11 (C. John Collins) How should we interpret the first chapters of Genesis? Are they historical? Are they poetic? Are they scientifically accurate? Are they true?
What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done (Matt Perman) This is the kind of book I should have read years ago: a Christian distillation of recent wisdom on productivity, time-management, and personal leadership.
Does God want you to maximise your productivity? Capitalism is about maximising things. What about Christianity? Is God in the business of maximisation?
Whatever happened to the New Atheism? It’s probably time to look back on the New Atheism as something historical. Rationalist blogger Scott Alexander has attempted to chart its history.
Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology (James K. A. Smith) This final volume of the Cultural Liturgies trilogy is about how Christians should understand and engage with the world at large.
Advent organ music Two of my favourite pieces of organ music for the season of Advent: Bach’s Nun komm’ (BWV 659), and the first movement of Dupré’s Symphonie-Passion.
And the new Prime Minister will be… My article for the December ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. Our preparations for Christmas this year are being interrupted by the general election.
Is Deuteronomy one of Job’s friends? There is an apparent contradiction between Deuteronomy and Job. In Deuteronomy, it seems that you always get what you deserve. But Job flatly denies that.
Gratitude and hope (harvest) My article for the October ‘Crossways’ church newsletter. Harvest is a good time to stop and think about God’s creation. What attitude should we have?
John Goldingay on the historical value of Genesis 1-11 What does Genesis 1-11 tell us about events in the distant past? John Goldingay describes Genesis 1-11 as ‘parabolic history, a picture account of events’.
Am I called? Crossways is a monthly newsletter for St Paul’s Church Spennymoor and Whitworth Church. Here’s my first front-page article, from the August edition…
Why would an evangelical leave the Church of England? Philip de Grey-Warter recently resigned as a Church of England minister in Cornwall. Gafcon has shared a video of him telling his story.
On the visible church and the local church There’s an idea about the church, which seems rather odd. The universal church, apparently, is fully present whenever God’s people gather under his word.
Why you (perhaps) shouldn’t believe the news about the Church of England and religious freedom There is a constant stream of news stories giving the impression that things are rapidly getting worse. But is that the whole picture?
Do they know it’s Pentecost? Paul Avis writes that ‘the Church of England is under pressure from … secularization, privatization and pluralization’. Pentecost is an example.
Church and civil government (39 Articles, 32-39) In this final instalment, we search for doctrine in the last of the Articles, and then try to draw some conclusions.