What makes a life worth living? Four lenses to ponder…
Matthew Croasmun directs the Life Worth Living program at the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture, and in a recent podcast suggests there are four levels at which people live, and invites us to examine our life to ask if most of …
How to listen when the preacher doesn’t have anything to say…
I always like to be fair, and as my last post was on how to preach when you don’t have anything to say, I thought it only proper to look at the other side of the coin – how to listen when the …
How to preach when you haven’t got anything to say…
Amusing though the title is, let me start with the disclaimer that it isn’t mine, but was the topic given to Mark Oakley when asked to preach at a recent Church Times event. Now Mark Oakley always has something worthwhile to say …
Christmas: From “for us” to “with us”…
Probably like you, I am struggling to believe that Christmas is almost upon us – but facts are facts, and December is galloping away. I have done some Christmas shopping and the family are soon due to see the Christmas lights – …
On Praying for Parking Bays: Does God Intervene?
In my new book Why Christianity is Probably True I discuss some experiences where God intervened in my life in such a way that I had no option but to conclude that God is probably real and that Christianity is probably true. …
This Time Last Year
This time last year I spent five weeks in Germany, four in Dresden taking a language course at the Goethe Institut. On the weekends we tried to get out a little to see something of the country. This weekend we went to …
When Confidence is a Curse
Swamped as we are with endless courses aimed at enhancing our self esteem and confidence, it might seem passing strange to suggest that confidence can be a curse. But it can! True, lack of confidence can also be a curse, but for …
Just Arrived: Beyond Four Walls
Look what arrived in the mail this afternoon! Beyond Four Walls! Good friend and partner in crime, Peter Elliott and I have been working on this for quite some time now, with a big push in the second half of last year, …
Listening to Books
Recently I have listened to three very interesting and enjoyable books. The first was Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit: The Idealistic Logic of Modern Theology by Gary Dorrien. This is a large and somewhat sprawling book tracing the development of modern philosophical theology from …
A Sermon on Sunday – John 5:1-20
At our church we have been reflecting on the seven signs of Jesus in the gospel of John. We are now up to sign number three, the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (see John 5:1-20). …