Senior Minister of Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford<br>and Chair of Ministry Today
(This editorial had its origins in an invitation to contribute to a Lenten series on ‘Evangelism and the Third Age’, in which the emphasis was not on evangelising older people, but on older people evangelising younger people!)
Christian leadership can be a draining business, even for the strongest of ‘characters’. It involves a constant self-giving to other people, whether through preaching, counselling, empathising with people as they go through the crises of life, or just through the general ‘wear and tear’ of giving leadership. To survive, Christian ...
Talking Jesus Somewhat belatedly I came across the 2015 report Talking Jesus: Perceptions of Jesus, Christians and Evangelism in England (www.talkingjesus.org), which contains the results of research carried out among 1000 people by the Barna Group on behalf of the Church of England, the Evangelical Alliance and HOPE. It contains ...
Over the years I have been a great fan of the evangelistic potential of Alpha courses, and used to run two every year. As a result, I had the joy of baptising people who came to faith through these courses. However, increasingly I have become aware that Alpha has its ...
On a recent trip to Australia I discovered that, every semester, school children are expected to reflect on their past performance and, in the light of that reflection, create fresh goals for the coming semester. So the eight year old grandson of the friends with whom we were staying wrote ...
What a difference light makes to a church building. At Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford, our old ‘sanctuary’ was dark and depressing, but when we redeveloped our church premises, we created new roof-lights. Now light streams in, and the worship space has been transformed. Light uplifts the spirit and inspires the ...
The way of being to which pastors are called is a way of ‘becoming’. There is an inner dynamic of growth and development. There is nothing static about the Christian life. We are travellers engaged on ‘the long walk’ to God. This phrase came to mind when I was thinking ...
Observing the Principle of Sabbath Relaxation is part of being a man or woman of God. To be a person of compassion is not necessarily to be strung out by every human need that comes along. Sometimes ‘No’ needs to be said in order that caring can continue. The Greeks ...
We are very fortunate as a church. There is never a Sunday when we do not have visitors. Some are ‘out of town’ visitors who are perhaps spending the weekend with friends. Some live locally, and normally attend another place of worship, but have decided to play ‘truant’ for the ...
Excellence: ‘the quality of being outstanding or extremely good’ (Oxford Online Dictionary)Society applauds excellence. Businesses present awards for excellence to encourage the pursuit of excellence amongst its employees. Universities proudly set up centres of excellence. Porsche markets its cars through its magazine, Excellence. Excellence is a quality to be admired ...
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