The monastic Rule of St Benedict exhorts its readers to ‘Prefer nothing to the love of Christ’ – in other words, make him the sole object of your life, and lift nothing above him. Don’t let anything compete with Jesus for the devotion of your heart. It’s what Jesus wants – he said that our … More ‘Prefer nothing to the love of Christ’
I had the privilege of spending three days at Worth Abbey this week alongside the Benedictine monks who make up the monastic community at Worth. Long-time readers of my blog will know how much monastic spirituality and discipline inspires my own life of discipleship and so I had long anticipated the opportunity to spend time … More Life Together
It is the relative simplicity of the call of Jesus to be and make disciples, and the complication of what the church over the centuries has done with that, which makes ministry such a challenge at times! It’s not that being or making disciples is easy, but the call is clear. ‘Church’, in whatever form, … More The Main Thing
Well, my poor blog has been a bit neglected in these last couple of months with one thing or another…mainly some poorly disciplined over-working and too-busy-schedule of events, but we’ve a lot of work going on in the background of church life, lots of people stuff to support and develop and all the rest. Can’t … More Pressing on!
Fourth in a series of blogs to accompany a Week of Prayer at Hertford Baptist Church. There is prayer beyond words, and even beyond silence, although silence is the gate. It’s where the depths of us, our Spirit, connects with the Spirit and presence of God in a shared ‘beholding.’ Surely this is the truest … More ‘Teach me to pray’ – 4
Third in a series of blogs to accompany a Week of Prayer at Hertford Baptist Church. I was shaped in a strong evangelical culture which taught me to have a strong suspicion of anything that didn’t sound like ‘sit down, read you bible, say your prayers’ in the form of the good old ‘Quiet Time’. … More ‘Teach me to pray’ – 3
Second in a series of blogs to accompany a Week of Prayer at Hertford Baptist Church. Back in 1998 the internet was really just coming into its own, and it was around that time that I had my first regular lot of access to it. The’s when I discovered the discipline of ‘praying the Bible’. … More ‘Teach me to pray’ – 2
First in a series of blogs to accompany a Week of Prayer at Hertford Baptist Church. I was definitely a slow starter in the prayer business. Having had no Christian upbringing, the whole concept was an entirely alien one to me, although what I did possess was the desire to communicate with the God who … More ‘Teach me to pray’
I can have ten good ideas before breakfast, but we really shouldn’t presume to get ahead of where God wants us. We are in training here in our earthly life…we are to be faithful ‘with the small things’ (Luke 16: 10) because our ultimate destiny is to be fitted to reign with Christ in the … More Faithful in the small things
I started watching a YouTube documentary last night by accident – not entirely sure how I got there, but this was a film about a young Roman Catholic sister from Derry, N Ireland, who discovered an inexplicable call from God to follow him and abandon her life to this calling. A lively, joyful and colourful … More ‘All or Nothing’
Andrew S M Clark 