Gossip, reputation & local church protection

If you go into pastoral ministry, it is likely you will be on the receiving end of some unwarranted and untrue gossip. I remember speaking

Don’t ignore the fire warnings

We have a problem here in Oldham (alright, more than one. But one I am going to highlight). Dovestones Reservoir is a local beauty spot

Feud and the bitter consequences of rivalry in the church

I have been watching Feud on the BBC iPlayer. It documents the rivalry between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. It focuses on their work together during

What Mo Farah can teach us about entertaining accusations based on inference

Mo Farah’s Wikipedia entry reads thusly: He is the most decorated athlete in British athletics history, with ten global titles, and was the first British athlete

When politics apes the church (or when the church apes politics)

I wrote this over a month ago but made it a private post. It is now publicly available. In today’s Guardian, Jeremy Corbyn is quoted as

How to dress up gossip as spiritual & how to address it in the church

Christians are particularly adept at dressing up gossip in spiritual language. Here are some of the ways we do that and why it is a much more serious problem than we often realise.