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New Year Sermon
Monday 2nd January 2012 @ 11:46 am / 0 comments
I’ve never published sermons on this blog … OK, maybe I have, but I certainly can’t remember doing that … mainly because until the last couple of years I didn’t write them out … but now that I do, I’ve had some interesting response from people who have taken them away after a service. One person recently made my 2012 get off to the best possible start when they rang to say they had read the sermon after the service and it’s impact on them was hugely significant. They had been listening to me preach it, but interestingly (and good ... Christmas Message!!!
Monday 2nd January 2012 @ 11:32 am / 0 comments
This is absolutely, totally, and unreasonably late … but hey … The youth group in my church recorded this before Christmas, so have a listen and remember there are less than 300 shopping days left to next year … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eX6ysOjOVA&sns=fb Irish History
Thursday 8th December 2011 @ 10:45 am / 1 comment
I’ve recently been reading a book that came out of a Methodist symposium in 1931 – a really interesting read … and sad in parts. It is incredible to read some of the pages and see the same questions still being asked 80 years later! It is also inspiring to see how people were trying to bring fresh thinking to the Irish Methodist church during moments of social, political and military turmoil that marked the first 40 years of the last century. Their hope is palpable. Here is a comment where one writer, speaking of the relationship between England ... A reflection on the book of Ruth
Monday 5th December 2011 @ 4:16 pm / 0 comments
The below appeared on the E100 website … I thought I’d stick it up here as well – as I’m getting very slack at this blog thing after a couple of thousand posts! In the Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Blind Side” Sandra Bullock is brilliant. She steals the screen. She plays the beautiful, elegant, controlled, Christian, energetic, compassionate and sassy Southern States woman, Leigh Anne Tuohy. Tuohy steps out of her comfort zone to help impoverished teenager Michael Oher gain a dream. As a marginalised and misunderstood (and somewhat … well … sad) young man, Oher is accepted by ... Advent Virus Warning
Monday 28th November 2011 @ 11:21 am / 0 comments
A special time of the year begins … WARNING……WARNING: ADVENT VIRUS Be on the alert for symptoms of inner Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to this virus and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world. Some signs and symptoms of The Advent Virus: A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than ... more postmoderm evangelical thought
Wednesday 26th October 2011 @ 2:44 pm / 0 comments
Some more from David Fitch – granted he writes from a USA perspective, but it can be translated into western religious experience at meaningful levels … The background to the following quote is that Fitch describes modernity as: “the veneration of modern science, the obsession with controlled factual truth, and the unabashed confidence in objective reason as located in the mind of each individual” The crux of matter then is that we live in a moment when: “… evangelicals are aligned with modernity at a time when the cultural consensus on modernity seems to be ending. … ... postmodern evengelism
Monday 24th October 2011 @ 1:24 pm / what I'm learning / 0 comments
David Fitch has written a book well worth the read for anyone involved in ministry during these strange & wonderful times … His language is thoroughly evangelical, but the thinking he uses his language for is part of the long slow pull of evangelical practice into fresh enlightenments. Here is a snippet of his thoughts on postmodern evangelicalism … “We will no longer impart universal truths to individual minds outside the Church. We will live truth together so as to compel the lost to come and see his Lordship in full display in a worship service. ... Slaves working for me
Tuesday 18th October 2011 @ 6:23 pm / 0 comments
http://www.slaveryfootprint.org/ This is informative and scary – and you should do it … I had 38 … and it was all about the clothes … which is scary, I didn’t think I had that many clothes … What do you get? Great quote
Friday 30th September 2011 @ 12:02 pm / 0 comments
When I pasted this on FB people said ‘put that somewhere where we can find it’ … Thanks to Mol for sending it … “People are often unreasonable and self–centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.… If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. China …
Monday 12th September 2011 @ 10:06 pm / 0 comments
NO – I’m not in China … I’m in Africa, but hopefully more on that over the next couple of weeks … for now – this article – was fascinating … especially the lines: An educated young Christian described her church to me: “We have 50 young professionals in this church. Everyone is so busy working, you don’t have time socialising, and even if you are socialising, you are putting on a fake face. ”But in church people feel warm, they feel welcome… they feel people really love them so they really want to join the ... Castlwellan Holiday Week
Wednesday 10th August 2011 @ 9:17 am / 0 comments
David & Mairisine Stanfield shared wonderfully at CHW last week - I told them that. But what I didn't tell them (nothing sinister, I just never got round to it), is that there was more than a couple of occasions when I thought 'they're preaching Methodist!' Their passion for Scripture and discernment, their inclusiveness, their desire for what Wesley calls 'pentecostal power', and their healthy suspicion of rigid institutionalism were all inspiring - and sounded pretty Methodist! I liked all of that, because they are Presbyterian pastors! What is more interesting is that I have ... Remembering Our future
Tuesday 26th July 2011 @ 11:37 am / 1 comment
In their 2007 book 'Remembering our Future,' Andrew Walker and Luke Bretherton argue for what they call 'Deep Church' ... it is a call to ecclessiological freshness and renewal. They get the term deep church from CS Lewis. Here is a paragraph helping explain what they mean by deep church ... it's worth reading a few times and reflecting on ... “Whether we use the language of deification, transfiguration, holiness or perfectionism to describe our spiritual conformity to the risen Christ, we need to think of ourselves less in autonomous and individualistic terms, and more as interrelated ... Ibiza - final reflections
Wednesday 20th July 2011 @ 12:03 pm / 1 comment
I’m home now But a bit of me has stayed there. Not the usual sock or toothbrush that usually gets left because of my ineptness But a piece of my heart. Sounds trite? Yes – I know. But true none the less. Why? Because of real kindness. Real joy. Real hope. Real help for people who could not help themselves. I got to be with people who were the literal hands and feet of Christ. Loving, living, being kind being good. I got to be the hands and feet of God! And goodness chipped away at ... Back in the game!
Tuesday 19th July 2011 @ 2:26 pm / 2 comments
Ah hah - just discovered I was missing for a while from this link - big Hi5's to JK and Ryan for fixing the problem ... enjoy reading back ... hopefully ;)Moving on a little more with Mark Driscoll
Saturday 16th July 2011 @ 9:42 pm / 1 comment
It's one of those things that happens ... you get a link to people and places & then you go check on them ... so thanks to Brian Heasley for pointing to this post by Pastor Mark!Archive
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