the ENd word
How vulnerable was Jesus?
Jon Barrett
Date posted: 23 Jan 2025
One of the habits we’ve developed as a church staff team is to have a book that we commit to reading and discussing as part of our weekly staff meeting. Normally we opt for something theological but occasionally, to keep things lively, we go a bit rogue.
Recently we’ve been on one of our excursions into left field and have been working through Brené Brown’s bestselling book on the subject of vulnerability, Daring Greatly. In all honesty, to employ a clerical metaphor, it’s a bit of a curate’s egg of a book.
culture watch
Faithfulness and treachery: Why ‘The Traitors’ grabs us
Gwilym Tudur
Date posted: 22 Jan 2025
The first day of 2025 saw the launch of a new season of the hit BBC television show The Traitors. In this psychological game show hosted by Claudia Winkelman, 22 contestants are sent to a Scottish castle to compete against each other for a prize of £120,000.
It is, however, a game show with a twist: some contestants are ‘Faithfuls’ while others are ‘Traitors’. Each night, the Traitors figuratively ‘murder’ a contestant, while the Faithfuls seek to ‘banish’ a Traitor. With its unexpected twists and colourful characters, the third season of The Traitors promises to be gripping.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: From Doctor to Pastor
Ray Gaydon
Date posted: 22 Jan 2025
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was born in Cardiff on 20th December 1899 and died in London on St David’s Day 1981.
His early years were spent at Llangeitho in Cardiganshire and in his youth attended Daniel Rowlands Chapel in the village. His father, like so many others in Wales at that time, relocated to London in 1914 seeking a better life for himself and his family. A couple of years later, Martyn began medical training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and, at the age of 23, earned a Doctorate in Medicine and became the chief clinical assistant to the King’s physician, Sir Thomas Horder.
Lessons from the 'Rich Fool'
David Shepherd
Date posted: 15 Jan 2025
It was at the height of Jesus’ ministry that a man asked Him to arbitrate a family dispute over inheritance. Back then, most religious leaders were extremely eager to turn such grievances into a cause célèbre from which a new legal precedent could be established.
Even in modern society, there is still no shortage of religious leaders from all faiths who are keen to promote their current affairs punditry, while making moral pronouncements that enhance their social justice credentials.
The gym is the new church
Simon Lennox
Date posted: 9 Jan 2025
Every year, as the clock strikes midnight on 1 January, we are bombarded with familiar messages of ‘new year, new me.’
Self betterment has become an inevitable part of our culture, with methods of improving yourself ever increasing in both volume and popularity. 79% of New Year resolutions are centred on fitness, with half of those surveyed stating that their top resolution is to exercise. Yet just 31 days later, the gyms have quietened down, with 80% losing the motivation to stick to their goals. But as Christians, what if faith and fitness are more similar, and more important, than we previously imagined?
pastoral care
How should leaders lead?
Steve Midgley
Date posted: 8 Jan 2025
Leadership is having a hard time.
Appalling abuses of power in Christian circles sit within a broader suspicion of power and authority. Some speak of a crisis in recruitment to pastoral ministry. Seeing the demands of leadership, and those who fail, perhaps it is no surprise that people aren’t clamouring to join up.
Two very different questions – but one vital answer to both
Donald J MacLean
Date posted: 7 Jan 2025
Why is the world not destroyed by cataclysmic natural disasters? Why is God’s purpose of salvation for His people secure? Two very different questions, with one answer.
And that answer was once one of the hallmarks of historic Reformed and Evangelical thought – the idea of covenant. Professor John Murray (1898–1975), of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, wrote: ‘Covenant theology is … a distinguishing feature of the Reformed Tradition … the idea of covenant came to be an organising principle in terms of which the relations of men to God were construed.’ The theology that came from the Reformation was emphatically a covenant theology.
defending our faith
Social media apologetics after Trump
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 4 Jan 2025
There is no doubt that social media and online platforms have provided opportunities for public witness and evangelism like never before.
In February 2004 Mark Zuckerburg launched Facebook, originally as a way of keeping in touch with friends; it quickly became a tool for sharing news, information and ideas.
Is creation care a gospel issue?
John Samuel & Richard Buggs
Date posted: 4 Jan 2025
If Jesus is Lord of all the earth, we cannot separate our relationship to Christ from how we act in relation to the earth. For to proclaim the gospel that says ‘Jesus is Lord’ is to proclaim the gospel that includes the earth, since Christ’s Lordship is over all creation. Creation care is thus a gospel issue within the Lordship of Christ.
These words occur in the Cape Town Commitment, published in 2011 by the Lausanne Movement. They were read at a plenary session of the Lausanne Congress in Seoul in 2024, by theologian Christopher J.H. Wright. These words clearly contain much truth, but the phrase ‘creation care is thus a gospel issue’ provoked some discussion at the Congress.
Ten questions with: Layo Obembe
en staff
Date posted: 2 Jan 2025
Layo lives in London and says of herself: ‘I am joyfully culturally British and of African descent. I fill my time by working in Parliament as an Organisational Development Consultant, working for my church part-time and being an aunty, sister, daughter and friend.’
- How did you become a Christian?
I don’t remember! I’m privileged to have been brought up in a Christian family, and I have grown to understand my need for Jesus as my Lord and Saviour over the years. It’s been a long and incredible adventure being a disciple.
Now This
Praying in the New Year
Bill James
Date posted: 1 Jan 2025
The New Year is a wonderful opportunity to reflect with thanksgiving on the year that is past, and to pray in faith for the year that lies ahead. What are your prayers for the New Year?
The news this year has been dominated by stories of elections and new governments. There have been grim reports of wars and conflicts in Ukraine/Russia, and Israel with its neighbours. We might add that there are numerous other conflicts around the world which don’t appear in our national media, including Sudan and Burma/Myanmar. Our prayers might well include petitions for peace, and for just and righteous laws in our country and around the world. We are commanded to pray for rulers and authorities. Jesus teaches us to pray ‘Your will be done’ which includes a desire for God’s will and creation purposes to be reflected in a sinful world.
history
The story of Friedrich Weißler: Bravery, cowardice, murder
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 31 Dec 2024
Who was Friedrich Weißler? He was born of German Jewish stock on 28 April 1891, in Königshütte in what was then Upper Silesia, now part of Poland.
While an infant his parents embraced the Protestant faith and so Weißler was baptised as a Protestant. By the outbreak of World War I, Weißler had completed his law studies and gained a doctorate in law. During that war, he served as a lieutenant in the German army. Upon its close, he returned to the field of law, passing the equivalent of the bar exam in 1920 and being appointed an assistant judge in Halle in 1922. That same year he was married to Hanna Schäfer and the couple had two sons. In 1932 Weißler became director of the regional court in the central German city of Magdeburg.
The power of calling God 'our Father'
Michael Reeves
Date posted: 30 Dec 2024
In Matthew 6:9, Jesus says: 'Pray … like this, "Our Father in heaven."' These words open the floodgates of prayer — and heavenly blessing.
We live in a world where people believe they are self-sufficient. They don’t need to cry out for help. And Christians are swept along: we are becoming like busy Martha, doing our many tasks but failing to sit with Mary at Jesus’ feet. But without prayer, Christians are hollow. For prayer is the mark of Christian integrity.
everyday evangelism
What is a 'bullseye' in evangelism?
Glen Scrivener
Date posted: 29 Dec 2024
‘I am the greatest archer in the land’ proclaimed the king. And no-one could deny it, for whenever he shot his arrow, a courtier would immediately draw a bullseye around the place where it landed. Loyal applause rippled out as the king pinned another medal on his chest.
Lest we end up like this foolish king, we should ask the question of our evangelism: What is bullseye? In other words, what are we aiming at? If we don’t get clarity on our aim, we will end up justifying any old missionary endeavour and expect a round of applause.
helping children find faith
The unique role of a parent
Ed Drew
Date posted: 29 Dec 2024
I recently stayed with a Christian family. One child is still living at home, their other two are living independently. Their family’s story includes sibling anger, late diagnosis neurodiversity, multiple school moves, and a particularly painful season with one of their teenagers.
It also includes amazing family memories, others in need who have been brought into their home, their enduring trust in Christ, and supportive churches. These are experienced and godly parents!
evangelicals & catholics
Catholics and ‘totality’
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 27 Dec 2024
In my conversations with Catholic friends, I have found it useful to reference the five ‘magnetic points’ expounded by British theologian Daniel Strange.
There are five fundamentals that all human beings are looking for and to which they are magnetically drawn. Because of their universal presence in people’s lives, they can be seen in Catholics too.
The Parthians are coming... to Matthew’s Gospel
Ray Porter
Date posted: 24 Dec 2024
The visit of the Magi recounted in the second chapter of Matthew’s Gospel is one of the more curious parts of the Christmas story.
First, that we find it in this Gospel which is written primarily for a Jewish audience, and secondly, that such pagan astrologers should be lauded as those who come from a distant land to worship the infant Jesus. And then we have the matter of the star, which has excited the imagination of astronomers down the centuries; and that is before we get the accretions of legends and the perversions of countless nativity plays. The symbolism that we attach to the gifts they brought and the echoes that we find of Old Testament prophecies take us away from a consideration of what we might be able to reconstruct from their contemporary historical setting and why their coming so alarmed not just Herod but the whole of Jerusalem.
Christians in a world of broken cisterns
Tim Farron
Date posted: 22 Dec 2024
Jeremiah chapter 2 is God’s lament at Israel’s rejection of His saving grace and protection: 'My people have… forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water' (v13).
As we wait in this season of Advent, we look forward to celebrating the source of that deep refreshing spring.
