Today is a big day – a day which fills young people across the country with fear and dread. It is GCSE results day. Today, especially, I’m reminded that I got poor GCSE results – the worst in my family: C – Maths Level II C – Environmental Science C – Physical Science D – Design D – English E…
The following is a reflection by Sam Donahue, Children’s Ministry Adviser for Diocese of London (and co-Editor of the soon-to-be-released ChildrensWork Magazine) reproduced from their latest Children’s Ministry Newsletter with permission (full credit below): I was reading a book by James Fowler on how faith develops in children and within it he comments on the something they noticed during their research…
It’s traditional to give something up for the period of Lent. Many people do so – even those without any personal religious conviction or understanding of the significance, which puzzles me a little. I usually struggle to know what to give up (if I should bother at all) and many of the things I’ve given up previously I’ve not ‘taken…
On Sunday 4th March I ran in my first 10k race as part of the Milton Keynes Festival of Running. Primarily I did it to raise funds for my role at Spurgeon Baptist Church – more of that here. But it has also been a personal ambition to complete a 10k, for about the last 10 years! So, to quote…
Last Friday as I was doing an 8k training run I was listening to ‘Awakening: Live from Chicago’ by Jesus Culture. The track ‘Break Every Chain’ has a fantastic chorus: All sufficient sacrificeSo freely givenSuch a priceBought our redemptionHeaven’s gates swing wide The last two lines stuck in my head as the run continued. When I got home I posted the…
I’ve just finished publishing the latest Youth Ministry Update newsletter. Click below to view it online, or download it in PDF format. Whilst it’s great to hear the news of new and existing projects, please pay special attention to the final section about how to support us – this is what makes the projects possible. Thank you…
Holiness is consecrated closeness to God. Holiness is in essence obeying God, living to God and for God, imitating God, keeping His law, taking His side against sin, doing righteousness, performing good works, following Christ’s teaching and example, worshipping God in the Spirit, loving and serving God and men out of reverence for Christ. In relation to God, holiness takes the form of a single-minded passion to please by love and loyalty, devotion and praise. In relation to sin, it takes the form of a resistance movement, a discipline of not gratifying the desires of the flesh, but of putting to death the deeds of the body. Holiness is, in a word, God-taught, Spirit-wrought Christ-likeness, the sum and substance of committed discipleship, the demonstration of faith working by love, the responsive outflow in righteousness of supernatural life from the hearts of those who are born again.
Last Saturday the second Youthwork Summit took place in Manchester. I attended along with about about 750 other youth workers/ministers, paid & volunteer, full & part time, along with 20+ speakers, the Rend Collective Experiment, Mark Yaconelli, and the amazing team who put the event together and served us on the day. It will take a while to properly reflect…
Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, the day when preachers cower and hide away from the challenge of trying to explain the Trinity (God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit). I felt challenged by a few updates on Twitter yesterday. The first read: Well, I’ve been invited to preach at a local church next Sunday and as they didn’t have a Trinity service…
