A lot has been going on with us - hence the absence from the blog for a little while.  In our family we have been struck down with colds, organising the normal Christmas connections with family, packing my whole worklife into boxes in preparation for renovations, Phil has been juggling Christmas/New Year while dealing with […]

Seriously, one comment on ideas for advent!  Take a long, hard look at yourselves, signposters.
So I thought I might turn conversation to the Christmas wish list.  Along with Scot McKnight I have a fair obsession with fountain pens.  I went to school somewhere similar to the school described in this article (courtesy of Scot) and learnt to […]

If you are anything like me, then the advent season is filled with incredible busyness and monstrous guilt.  Busy because every aspect of my life seems to be exploding with demands and commitments.  Guilt because I always always say to myself that this advent I am going to do a better job at preparing myself […]

I sat down to Christmas lunch with people I had never met before. The guy next to me smelled of spray paint. His hands were covered with splashes of paint and they shook so much that he couldn’t hold the cup steady as soft drink was poured into it. I gathered that […]

Merry Christmas to all - we have a pretty special Christmas planned and I am looking forward to the day more than I have in years. We will let you know details after it has been. Posting will be light or non-existent over the coming days, because, as someone told Phil yesterday “If […]

This article by Muriel Porter reflects on the wonder that is Christmas, and its representation of the God who pitched his tent amongst us:
Christmas does more than celebrate the birth of a baby in a stable in Bethlehem. At its heart, Christmas commemorates the incarnation - the coming of God among human beings as a […]

Amusing article today about the fact that a number of US megachurches will be closed on Christmas Day, citing the difficulty in getting volunteers to staff services and fears of low attendances:
Willow Creek Community Church, in Illinois, one of the six largest US churches, with a weekend attendance of nearly 22,000, is among those closing […]

The gospel is subversive. Time and time we hear Jesus tell us how the kingdom of God is like:
A mustard seed - the smallest of all seeds.
yeast that is put in the bread - the active yet hidden growth agent
salt - it adds flavour yet is mixed in with the food until it becomes a […]

I am sitting here trying to think of what I will say on Christmas day. For some reason, I find Christmas sermons harder to prepare than Easter. Why is that?
I wonder what insights I can learn from this conversation with a five year old today.
What is so special about Christmas Aislinn?
Well, it is Jesus birthday […]

If you are anything like me, you have worship resources ferretted away all over the place - at home, at work, on different computers in different places. Someone emailed me about one of our previous posts so I was trying to find some source documents for the worship event which the post discussed. […]