Category: Personal

  • Some thoughts on accountability

    Some thoughts on accountability

    I recently mentioned that I was changing the organisation that I use for people to give financially to support me. One of the things I said in that post was that for various reasons I don’t have a formal accountability structure for what I do. One of my friends got in touch with me and…

  • Important financial support update (Jan 2024)

    Important financial support update (Jan 2024)

    This update will be important for those of you who support me via Stewardship or Buy Me a Coffee. The short version of this post is that I will be closing my Stewardship account and moving to GiveSendGo. I will also be recommending people to use GiveSendGo instead of Buy Me a Coffee. If you…

  • The Emperor has no clothes

    When I was a child I learned Hans Christian Andersen’s short story, The Emperor’s New Clothes. A couple of weeks ago I was at the library with Lydia and came across a children’s version of the story, and we read it together. Lydia really enjoyed it – and I did too. And it struck me…

  • Sermons available

    I have decided to try and record sermons I preach, and these will be available on the sermons page. I won’t make a new post each time I upload one, but I may refer to them from time to time! I’ve just uploaded a sermon I preached this morning on Luke 17:20-37 from our Wednesday…

  • Worship Guitar for everyone else

    Update: as predicted in this post, the YouTube channel was short-lived. But, I did end up starting another YouTube channel, which ended up with Understand the Bible, so I guess every cloud… anyway, don’t go looking for Worship Guitar for Everyone Else – it’s not there any more! A few weeks ago I had a…

  • Some thoughts on "The Poor"

    I’ve been thinking a bit recently about “The Poor” (apologies for the quote marks, I’ll explain why in a minute). Clacton, where I’ve been for the last three years, is not a rich area – according to the Church Urban Fund, the parish of Great Clacton ranks 892 out of 12,599 parishes nationally for deprivation.…

  • Let's fix education and the country

    Let’s fix education and the country in one blog post. Simple, right? Oh, hold on a moment. Not simple. That’s the one. Still, it’s a subject worth thinking about. Over the past few weeks I’ve had a couple of thoughts about what might improve education (and, over time, the country). I know that education isn’t…

  • Is Pentecost a reversal of Babel?

     I am writing this on Pentecost Sunday, where the church remembers the coming of the Holy Spirit on the early church (recorded in the Bible in Acts 2:1-13). One of the significant aspects of this story is that the apostles were enabled to speak in other languages – as verse 4 says, “All of them were filled…

  • Responding to false teaching: Lessons from 2 Peter

    I’ve noticed a disturbing trend amongst evangelicals recently. I encountered it most recently in this blog post by Baptist minister and theologian Steve Holmes. This is how he puts it (you’ll have to read the full blog for the whole context): No, I know Megan and Bill, I know that they call people to believe in…

  • Hell and the church's mission

    If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to…