Last week we began to think about the nature of our relationship with Jesus using two complementary themes. The first was the idea of the four seasons and the other was 12 key words. We began with the Springtime of faith and the word ‘Here’. For me ‘Here’ is all
Continue readingThis is one of my favourite CS Lewis phrases. The description of Narnia locked into just one season with no prospect of joy, or relief, or hope describes wonderfully the bleakness of life under the rule of the White Witch. When Aslan returns, the grip of winter is broken and
Continue readingFamily businesses have a very distinctive feel to them, and I understand something of what Peterson means when he talks about his dad’s butcher’s business. It’s not that he is applying a business model as such to the church, instead he the values that mattered to his dad contributed to
Continue readingOur dogs have always been ‘intently haphazard’; well almost. The only time we ever saw them not so was either when it was time to be fed or, if on a walk, they come across climbers and their packed lunches. I love the phrase ‘intently haphazard’. It’s not that I
Continue readingLast week’s quote may not be the sort of language you’d imagine finding in one of my blogs, though of course you might, but I found its very colourfulness hard to resist! Peterson writes comparing the gathering for worship with people’s daily lives through the lens of sermon texts found
Continue readingThis has been my longest blog series I’ve written because it resonates so much within me at this time. In all that I have written there is one element which Scripture repeatedly holds out to us as being foundational for being a Household of Faith and this is the practice
Continue reading‘For health and strength and daily food, we praise you name O Lord, Amen, Hoy!!’ Welcome to the Gore family way of saying grace. At home it’s loud and proud, much to Arthur’s amusement and if outside, it is a lot quieter, more to our children’s relief. An important part
Continue readingI do smile when people speak about getting back to being like the church in the New Testament. I do so because not only is it impossible but it is also a huge exercise in missing the point of why the New Testament was written. As I’ve said before, the
Continue readingWhat is your meal time like? When I ask this question, so many things come to mind. I think about my own childhood, or when I was a student, or first married, or the years when our children were young or not so quite young and now when three generations
Continue readingAs we’ve read through Acts I’ve picked out how Households played a key role in the life and vitality of the church. The instancing of Acts 2, 4 and 8 are samples that demonstrated how important Households were for the spread of the church through Judea and Samaria and this
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