The biggest barrier to engaging in mission of any sort is disconnection. 1.  Disconnection from God.  God doesn’t go far, its one of the things he can’t do.  He is in everything, we cannot escape his presence.  We, however, are very good at failing to connect with the presence of God, the Divine.  Don’t beat … More Disconnection

It strikes me more and more that we need to live to keep alive, daily, the question of ‘who is Jesus to me today?’  The old maxim says ‘the Jesus you see will dictate the Christian you will be.’ Some people look at the bible and see a homophobic, judgemental, racist, critical and condemnatory Jesus.  … More Woe!

I’ve been exploring a contemplative way of reading the bible of late on occasions and yesterday I had the opportunity to spend some time in Mark 8: 27 – 33.  This is the occasion when Jesus is on the way to Caesarea Philippi with the disciples and we hear something of the conversation on the … More Dance!

I’ve written a little bit over the last year on this as I’ve been developing the practice of ‘silence.’  That is, having times in my day/week/month/year dedicated to being quiet, to stilling the mind, create space and to breathe a bit in the midst of all the stuff that comes.  This sort of stuff, this … More Silence

Today I was simply thrilled to sit in a room with Methodist pioneer and Fresh Expression workers and just hear some fantastic stories of what God was doing on what is still probably the fringes of the Methodist Church, although becoming much more central. So many of the stories evoked precious memories of situations, places, … More Fresh Stories

So, it is fairly easy to attract a crowd…put on a decent show, the right supportive programmes, be nice, and set the bar fairly low.  Sure, there are some prerequisites in there…you need enough people to put on a decent show, the right programmes and a few folks to be nice, but by and large, … More Discipleship III

Lets get beyond the nice words about discipleship and get into confession time.  As a leader of a large church, time for disciple-making is ridiculously non-existent.  That’s my really honest reflection.  Sure, I have some people I spend some time with that I and hopefully able to spur on in the work of discipling others, … More Discipleship II

Pure and simple.  Discipleship.  Or is it?  I think I’ve been whacking on about discipleship in my whole 4 years here at Trinity.  In fact, when I was in my previous role, it was the largest bit of my working profile.  Still, although the job has shifted a bit, discipleship is high on the agenda.  … More Discipleship

I know that lots of Christians get themselves in a twist over the BBC’s satirical sitcom, ‘Rev’, but I for one have enjoyed all the series thus far and certainly hope that the Beeb will consider doing more.  Although the key character is an Anglican vicar in quite a different church setting to many of … More Rev Reflections

This evening I celebrated a Love Feast, an Agape Meal, with some 30 folks at Trinity. Simple liturgy from the ‘Mennonite Workers of Minneapolis’, some simple songs and scripture readings. After a time of adoration and confession with some silence and washing of hands, we shared a simple meal of bread, grape juice, cheese, grapes, … More Love Feast