The Goodness of Jesus – a Sermon

I don’t normally post sermons up on my blog, but having read Tony Jones’ ‘A Better Atonement‘ ebook and seen his request for anyone who’s writing or preaching about atonement on his blog, I thought I’d put something up. This isn’t a transcript (though you can hear the audio on the church website), it’s a […]

Backing Up – You Really Shouldn’t Ignore This!

This is a geeky one – in case you forgot that I’m like that! It’s World Backup Day – an annual reminder that computers are not infallible and that if you don’t back up your precious documents, photos and other files, you will one day lose them. I know it sounds doom and gloom, but it’s true […]

Worship in a Minor Key

I have a new post on Provoketive.com titled ‘Worship in a Minor Key‘, a reflection on lamenting in the church. I’ve put an excerpt here, click on to read more – and leave your comments, please! Last weekend I attended a Christian event which began with sung worship. This was nothing unusual – a young guy with […]

Gethsemane, Presence and Prayer

This evening we were reflecting on Gethsemane in our housegroup, thinking about the visceral reality of the moment as it is depicted by Matthew. A short paragraph from the notes helped me to summarise what I thought about it (though in a kind of opposite way!) There are at least 2 potential resources Jesus was drawing on […]

Reflecting on #TEDxWarwick

I attended TEDxWarwick yesterday along with about 1200 others – a massive event with some big name speakers. I thought it would be worthwhile to put together some thoughts on what I heard and how the event was run. I hope what I say will be helpful to those who are running next year’s event. […]

Undying Love?

It’s funny the things that stick in my head and prompt me to write a blog post. Take yesterday for example: just a couple of words from a prayer in an open time of worship at church. The lady thanked Jesus for his “undying love” for us and promised her undying love in return. Now […]

Mixed up about Creation Theology?

Christians spend far too much time discussing Creation. What’s worse is that the theology that comes out of this obsession is very often warped and ‘me centred’. It’s all ‘I believe that God made me to be special, so I can tell you how evil you are and how you should live your life’. I […]

Subverting “Sinners” as a Category

This morning at church we looked at the call of Matthew in Matthew 9. Jesus tells Matthew, the outcast tax collector, to follow him and accepts an invitation to dinner chez Matt. There he is criticised for being associated with the riff-raff, the people who were most hated by the religious establishment – “Why does […]

Fearing God

Why is it that my brain switches on whenever I get in the shower in the evening? It never does that in the morning! All sorts of things go through my mind, seemingly completely unconnected with whatever’s gone on in the day – ideas for blog posts, questions about books that I read, even ideas […]

A Year in Essays: Dissertation – Transforming Apologetics

Here it is. The big one – I know at least a few of you have been waiting to have a chance to read this, I hope you find it as interesting to read as it was to write. Despite the unassuming title, the subtitle gives away the potential controversy in the content of the […]