Against Executive Pastors

I am essentially on board with this one.

15 ways to fight lust with the sword of the Spirit

You might not agree with the application of every one of these bible verses, but I can guarantee you will find some help in a good number of them.

9 guidelines for developing a culture of evangelism within your church this year

‘Here is a list of guidelines I have found helpful in leading churches to develop a culture of evangelism that is biblical, practical, and owned by the members. Pastors must take the lead and set the example in their teaching, modeling, story telling, expectations, and providing training and outreach opportunities.’

Proactive not reactive?

This one floats more questions than it answers, but I think they are particularly useful questions to be thinking about in the UK context. I suspect they may have application elsewhere too.

Whiteness: An African translation

This one takes an interesting look at the whiteness in the bible, points to some issues in the African context and notes some of the wider issues in bible translation along the way.

Improving our listening to sermons

This one offers a few simple tips on listening to sermons well. On the point about prayer, our church does this by having a time of open prayer immediately after the sermon with some suggested points for prayer that reflect on the main themes.

From the archive: Bad interviews & bad preaching: three questions to ask (and answer) when preaching

‘If we stick to, and meaningfully answer, those three questions then we are likely to avoid either pitfall we mentioned before. We will allow the text to speak without waffling on about incidental details that are of no great significance to the people in front of us. At the same time, we will recognise there are key questions that require an answer and we will make sure we actually come to answer them.’