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Christ revealed in the everyday


There’s a painting I visit, when I’m in London, that’s like an old friend; I’ll go and sit for a while and just enjoy its company. This past week I was visiting for a conference and feeling a bit — well, frankly, a bit however it is introverted-intuition types feel when we dwell on existential crises for too long. I left the venue, grabbed a hire bike, and rode across the city to the National. They’ve moved it recently, so I find myself wearing a new path through the carpets to a smaller room where it sits with a large...
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Caesar’s Gold


I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ways that Christians respond to the politics of the age. When I was pastoring in an area in the north of Newcastle, I would be intentional about leading us in prayer for the local MP and councillors and encouraging people to view them as co-workers in our shared desire to see the good of the area. I believe we have a clear biblical mandate to pray for our leaders, be good citizens, submit to the rule of law. But that can feel hard to hold in tension when there are world leaders who seem...
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The Day After Pentecost


Today is the day after Pentecost. It’s the day after Christians around the world celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the first church, and the fact we live after Pentecost is hugely significant. In the third chapter of the book of Acts we read a story that happens not long after the day of Pentecost. Peter and John were walking to the temple and passed a crippled man who begged there daily. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the...
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An Alternate Rich List


Ed Sheeran. He’s got a bit of cash, apparently, though not as much as Paul McCartney who has a whole lot more. I know this because yesterday was the publication of the Sunday Times’ Rich List, an annual list of the richest people in the UK. Growing up I just accepted the rationale of this — of course a nationally respected newspaper publishes a list celebrating how much money rich people have — yet now I can’t help but question why this is accepted. Why would this list exist if not for the underlying assumption, ingrained in our society, that...
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The Stories We Tell…


As an avid reader one of the things I enjoyed most about decorating my new home was choosing a few books to have pride of place in the, rather minimalist, lounge. There’s my vintage Hemingways, some Shūsaku Endō, Márquez, and a couple of others, people who are amongst the greatest storytellers in the world. Something in the human condition draws us to the power of a good story. When those are stories of faith from other people, stories about the ways that God has came through for them, something special happens. This shouldn’t surprise us. Over three thousand years ago, the people of...
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