We have warm fellowship with the Free Church of Scotland here on Arran. It is a kind of unity built on Christ an the gospel. We have several folks from Free Church backgrounds who join us for worship on Sundays, at midweek ministry, and we have use of a Free Church building for our midweek … More A Healthy Gospel Church in Every Community
There is a kind of ‘unity’ which is a unity that comes at the cost of truth and the witness of the gospel. Our context in the West, in particular, is full of it. It is where the faith of the gospel, and the claims and teaching of our Lord and the Scriptures are reduced … More Unity?
Celtic spirituality and Eastern Orthodoxy: It isn’t unusual to meet people who are drawn to both traditions and wonder whether they are essentially the same thing. Some even suggest that the Celtic Church was simply “Orthodox before the Great Schism.” There is some truth behind that idea—but it also needs a little nuance. The great … More Celtic Spirituality and the Orthodox Tradition: Are They Connected?
During my doctoral studies I played with an illuminating metaphor for understanding the gathered church that is not found in a theological textbook but in a distinctly Scottish tradition: the ceilidh. A traditional ceilidh (as opposed to its modern dance-centred versions) was a participatory gathering. It was not a performance put on by a few … More The Ceilidh and the Church
In my recent reflections on David Lim’s concept of kingdomization, I have found myself asking a question that reaches into current day politics and populist moments both in the UK and US in these days. But before we turn directly to that, and before we can discuss disciple-making, multiplication, church renewal, or social transformation, we … More Christendom, Christianisation, Christian Nationalism, and Kingdomization: What Exactly Are We Seeking?
In my previous blog article I reflected on David Lim’s idea of kingdomization: the spread of God’s reign through multiplying disciples who influence households, workplaces, communities, and society. What drew me to his vision was not primarily house churches or disciple multiplication movements, but its breadth. Lim looks beyond church renewal and asks what it would … More From Christendom to Kingdomization: What Transitions Must the Scottish Church Make?
(Lim uses an Americanised Z in Kingdomization, so I will do that here in that word and others to avoid flipping all the z and s appearances!) Recently I read David Lim’s chapter, A Biblical Missiology of Kingdomization through Disciple Multiplication Movements of House Church Networks, in Motus Dei, edited by Warwick Farrah, and found … More From Missional Discipleship to Kingdomization: Reflections on Reading David Lim
The glorious truth is that God wants a people — it’s all he wants. He wants us, and the whole cosmos, restored to him. How is he doing that? By sending Christ to retake the throne, inviting us to pledge allegiance to him in repentance and obedient faith, and sending his Holy Spirit to transform … More God is coming home
My attention was recently drawn by Dr Gavin Ortlund to writings of Justin Martyr, describes a Christian gathering in the mid-second century it still sounds remarkably like the New Testament. His account in First Apology offers a window into a church that is already ordered, communal, and flowing out of the apostolic pattern. Far from … More The Shape of Early Christian Worship: Justin Martyr and the New Testament
With there being so many things I’m reading as part of my doctoral studies just now that don’t necessarily fit into the final research paper I’m doing (as in, it won’t be in the final document), I will be sharing a few things here on my blog as a way of just getting stuff out … More Engaging Scotland’s Spiritual Landscape: A New Gospel Approach
