Keeping our perspective in troubled times

Clearing my head in the aftermath of my blog series on American right wing evangelical Christianity.

Aldous Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

From political rallies in the USA to unrest in the the streets of the UK… Not in our name!

There is no single moral issue that should be allowed to define a Christian because following Jesus is not a moral crusade.

Power corrupts, especially when people fear they may lose theirs.

Yes, it is as bad as you think it is.

What is going on with American white Evangelicals?

Jesus turns rights on their head.

Are Human Rights a logical cul-de-sac?

Time for a pithy poem

It is a brave person who dares to suggest that followers of Jesus might want to question whether the human rights agenda can get us to where we want to be.

Roy Searle’s thoughts on tomorrow’s election.

Our politicians might not do God, but does God do politics?

Should I vote for a party who keeps me guessing what they will do?

I have always been adamant that voting is a discipleship imperative. But did either of the main party leaders convince me last night?

Does your image of God trap you or set you free?

Are we humans on a journey to becoming more spiritual, or is it the other way around?

Is it possible for God to change?

Who was it who taught me how to think, and am I thinking in the same way Jesus did?

Why do religious people tend to be conservative in their views?

How might our personality influence the Image of God we prefer?

Where do the mental images we have of God come from, and how do they change?

We continue our series on abusive leadership by asking what makes an abusive leader.

Learning to open up to God and community is the foundation we need to do the thing that seems impossible: change.

We can’t do this on our own. From God walking in the garden to the presence of God in the new creation, we are made to live and grow in communion with our creator.

Humans are social animals – it makes sense that faith is social too.

We live in amazing times. Christians who have spent their lives exploring how we might fulfil our potential are beginning to discover practices and activitiesd that actually WORK.

You can’t do both!

The wisdom of John Steinbeck

I wish you well for this New Year, but suspect it will be a challenging one.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths”

There can be great satisfaction in feeling right, and even more in being proved right, but is rightness always the most important thing and what are its unacknowledged costs and consequences?

Jess Phillips shows us how politics should be done.

Wow! Thank you Jimmy McGovern.

Love your enemies, says Jesus. And pray for those who persecute you. Seriously?

The first feature we look for in a story is not whether it is true or false, but the tell-tale signs that confirm whether it is living or dead.

What do we mean by truth, and how does Jesus understand the concept?

Are we living in a post-truth world, or a temporary aberration that will one day right itself? When will the storm abate and what do we actually mean when we talk about truth?

If Jesus has been misunderstood, Paul has been misrepresented even more.

Prepare to ditch transactional thinking and begin an adventure!

In this post about living well I argue that the popular focus on ‘conversion to Christ’ has little to do with Jesus’ teaching and example.

If you look for wrongdoing in yourself or others, you will find it everywhere. It becomes your primary focus and you become a slave to it.

Far better to take the human condition so seriously that we focus as much of our attention as possible on the solution rather than the problem.

In this series I wonder aloud why the package popularly labelled “Christianity” is so different to the way Jesus actually lived as recorded in the Gospels.

Spoiler alert: following Jesus has little to do with trying hard to manage sin.

To be able to listen is a very treasured thing.

So what are we listening to?

After a fascinating conversation about whether churches could or should measure human flourishing, I came back for another bite

In the final blog in the series, I outline what maturity might look like, and some foundational practices that might get us there

A famous question only gets us halfway to understanding how to grow…

Paul and Jesus both use the same word to describe the kind of people they want us to become, but some bad translation has made it inaccessible to us.

Craig has written about churches that help people flourish. Can the Bible (and neuroscience) help us find a way of describing what flourishing is?

I believe churches should focus on empowering people to follow Jesus. And this means stopping doing things that cut against this primary focus.

Putting people on a pedestal is fine if you just want to admire them. But if we want to learn from each other there has to be a certain amount of vulnerability present.

What are churches for and what do we do with people when they join?

What is the purpose of human existence if it is not to flourish and grow? I have spent decades reflecting on how we can create church communities that facilitate positive change.

The Labour Party’s attack ads that began over Easter have given rise to much debate. This has to be a good thing if it focuses attention on how a nation conducts itself.

It is my conviction that Jesus intends us to be adventurously liberated, not fearfully restricted in the way we live our lives.

Humans are storytellers, and the stories we tell ourselves reveal much more about our inner state than we think. Is it possible to be certain why we believe what we do, and to be certain we are right whilst others aren’t?

Is certainty all it is cracked up to be? There are very human reasons why certainty is attractive, and all of us tend to be very selective in our choice of things we need to be certain about.

Humans are story tellers. And as we mature, the story we live by needs to grow with us if it is to remain authentically ours. I wrote this piece some time ago when the story I was taught as a younger man was no longer big enough…

How are we to think deeply about the decision to strip Shamima Begum of her UK citizenship? And how could the teaching of Jesus apply to such a complex real-world situation?

Our three carefully chosen phrases, Listen Well, Think Deeply, Live Authentically serve as statements of the shared values each of us seek to demonstrate in our everyday lives. Each statement is both simple and profound.

Why do I need people to agree with me in order for me to feel comfortable with them? Is it possible that they are ok as they are?

Our brokenness is what makes us human, and interesting, and compassionate and empathetic. So why can’t we accept that others are ok even if they are not like us?

It is pretty much impossible to come to any issue with an open mind. We all read ourselves and our worldview into pretty much every scenario we encounter. So how can the bible be of use to us today?

The Old Testament introduces us to a God who has a real problem with disability. I have wrestled with this, but struggled to find an easy answer.

As the Baptist family I entered over 40 years ago attempts to listen to and converse with each other on questions of sexual identity and marriage, I have been drawn back into a profoundly personal period in my own struggle with God and the bible in hope that there may be a more settled place waiting to be discovered for both me and the strange family that embraced me.

What do I do with my anger? Denying it is dishonest and unhealthy. Expressing it might be misunderstood and could be destructive. I must find ways of standing up and being counted though. Too many people are keeping quiet.

The whole point of believing is so that we might see and participate. This feels, says Jesus, like living according to the beat of a different drum, led by a Spirit that others cannot detect.

It was a line in Roy’s Advent blog that brought to memory those words addressed by Jesus to Peter at the close of John’s Gospel. It is easy to skim over them simply because they were an accurate prediction of Peter’s final days. But what if they form part of the permanent scriptural record for another reason?

An invitation to join us on a journey of listening well, thinking deeply and living authentically.

Our three carefully chosen phrases, Listen Well, Think Deeply, Live Authentically serve as statements of the shared values each of us seek to demonstrate in our everyday lives. Each statement is both simple and profound.

Our three carefully chosen phrases, Listen Well, Think Deeply, Live Authentically serve as statements of the shared values each of us seek to demonstrate in our everyday lives. Each statement is both simple and profound.

Our three carefully chosen phrases, Listen Well, Think Deeply, Live Authentically serve as statements of the shared values each of us seek to demonstrate in our everyday lives. Each statement is both simple and profound.

A world that reflects God’s loving purposes, a world where light overcomes the dark and goodness conquers evil. As Desmond Tutu once said: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

The second Elizabethan era is over. The death of Queen Elizabeth II marks the end of a long and dutiful reign. The country has changed substantially during her reign and her successor, King Charles III takes over at a time of great uncertainty, the monarch of a country that is far from stable. 

I have appreciated listening to others and reading books that challenge my own assumptions. I find myself that often talking with people whose theology, politics and outlooks on life are different from my own.

He embodies the monastic calling of seeking God and sharing life. Building a community where prayer and an intentional life of discipleship was nurtured and