Category: Information

If we want to be wise, we’ll learn humility. Because if we don’t, there’s every likelihood that we’ll be humbled.

Tomorrow we begin another month of lockdown. We’ve been here before. But this time we know what we need and what we don’t need. We don’t need to stock up on toilet rolls, some folks can’t have used up all the ones they bought in March yet. We do need to stay in contact with…
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Every generation has music bands it’s not cool to like. When I was at school, you couldn’t say you liked Karen Carpenter’s voice, or the pop tunes of Abba. If you did, you would be shamed.

If you’re older than me, it will have been others. For at least some of you it will have been Coldplay…

It’s easy to be swept along by the well meaning claims of others. It’s easy to be frightened by alarming ‘facts’. It’s easy to ‘like’ or ‘share’ without thinking too much…

Friday night is music night. At least it is in our house. Fuelled by BBC4 and Sky Arts it’s part nostalgia, part education in stuff we missed the first time around. This week we watched Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History, an episode about the Civil Rights era in the US. Watching the footage of unarmed, ordinary black Americans singing hymns and gospel songs as protest songs while facing water cannons, police ready to beat people and white folks with guns was awe-inspiring.

But why did they sing?

We live in our different cultural contexts as teachers, volunteers in the community, hands-on grandparents, NHS workers, office workers, warehouse operators but we are there as Jesus-followers. We know these situations. We speak their language, share the culture, know what matters there. But we are also Christians…

You might have let people down, but there’s a second chance for you…

Some people in our church remember the old days. The days when keen churches, sincere churches, enthusiastic churches sure of the story of salvation and the offer that was open to all, had a row of hats resting on pegs in the church foyer…

It’s not always easy standing apart from the existing culture. It can feel very uneasy. But it’s vital because Christians have to stay attached to a radically different story otherwise you will end up with a confused faith cut off from the power of the Spirit…