I had an email conversation with a member of our church over an article talking about church websites. The article prompted me to question whether we had ever thought about the purpose of our website and whether it matched what the article was saying. One purpose that the article seemed to suggest was that it […]
Maybe it’s a natural result of being a part of a conservative, even ‘fundamentalist’ group. Maybe it’s a result of the ‘culture wars’ – even ‘across the pond’ here in the UK, the language and attitudes are contagious. Whatever the reason, when I hear that something is ‘counter-cultural’, there’s a part of me that wants […]
I’ve been blogging about Valve, their leaderless structure and how that might work out in church over the last week or two, first with an overview, then looking at what I perceive to be strengths of this kind of holy anarchy. As with any idea, there are minuses as well as pluses to what I’ve […]
Last week I blogged about the Valve handbook and how it brought up the idea of a completely flat, anarchic, leaderless organisation. It’s not just a concept, this is a highly successful company. So the question for me is what can we learn from Valve in the church? Could there be a church with the […]
The employee handbook from games company Valve was released on the internet this week and I found it via a blog post from Seth Godin. He says it describes the ‘post-industrial method of management’ – a way of organising a company that is radically non-hierarchical. Almost every organisation in the world operates with managers and managers […]
Dear Christian World, Deconstruction. ‘You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’ httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk What it doesn’t mean It seems that Christians often use the word ‘deconstruction’ to describe an experience when assumptions and beliefs seem to come to pieces, where questioning and doubt become more natural than […]
As I discussed in my last post, Marks Gospel ends in a strange way, with the women fleeing the empty tomb in bewilderment and fear. What happens next? It’s the ultimate cliff-hanger ending. Mark 16:8 is the last verse of the in the oldest manuscripts. Our Bibles have some follow up verses, but they’re very […]
I was hugely looking forward to this module – thinking through in a rigorous academic context how the Bible speaks to contemporary culture and can bring about social and political transformation. I brought in some ideas that I was aware of but not really fully up to speed on, like liberation theology, it was an […]
I’ve now written or spoken about four of the churches in Revelation 2-3 and you might be interested to hear and read it. Letters to tolerant and compromised churches: Pergamum and Thyatira (Revelation 2:12-29) First, the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira: you can hear my sermon and see the presentation on the Canley website. Second, […]
[These are the notes prepared for the housegroups at Canley Community Church – the first in a series on the letters to the seven churches.] “We’ll be reading the book of Revelation for the next few weeks.” That’s a scary thought for lots of Christians – not just because of the scary things that are […]