Should you learn a musical instrument for your church?
Matt MacGregor
Date posted: 27 Jul 2026
J.C. Ryle used to worry about people misreading the Parable of the Talents: “The word ‘talents’ is an expression that has been curiously turned aside from its original meaning. It is generally applied to none but people of remarkable ability or gifts: they are called ‘talented’ people. Such a use of the expression is a mere modern invention. In the sense in which our Lord used the word in this parable, it applies to all baptised persons without distinction. We all have ‘talents’ in God’s sight: we are all talented people.”
I think those last five words are crucial for any Christian to ponder, but it is especially helpful in how we think about musical talent.
culture watch
Glamazon women?
Rebecca Chapman
Date posted: 27 Jul 2026
Reality TV has not had a good summer. Married at First Sight has been in the media for all the wrong reasons. Despite this, Netflix has brought us the third season of its megahit America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
The show follows the iconic cheerleading squad as potential members navigate auditions, training camp, and then the ups and downs of the (American) football season. Series One was a breakout hit in 2024, Series Two showed us the women fighting to unionise, despite their highly controlled environment, in an attempt to secure better pay (spoiler: they succeeded!) Series Three holds up a mirror to the new-found fame the team have – now they are globally famous Netflix stars, with all the scrutiny and social-media horrors that this brings. It’s a damning portrayal of how social media can provide an ugly forum for the harsh judgement of others, encouraging us to see commodity over humanity.
Artificial minds: AI and church life
Ruth Bancewicz
Date posted: 23 Jul 2026
I have just finished a book by a man who spent 40 years living off grid by a loch in the Scottish Highlands, getting as much of the food and other resources he needed from the land as he could.
He never used a computer, let alone the Internet, and didn’t possess any kind of phone, let alone a mobile phone or smartphone. This was not a lifestyle to romanticise, as it was incredibly hard work and he nearly died several times, but despite this the AI revolution sometimes makes me want to head for the hills in a similar way. The Keswick Convention may appeal to those who are of a similar mindset.
defending our faith
The New Testament’s P45
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 22 Jul 2026
Have you ever held a P45 in your hand? Most likely you have, and it is the document you were given when you left a job in the UK. A P45 refers to things like the tax you have paid on earnings.
However, there is another P45 that refers to one of the earliest surviving New Testament documents. Dated to around AD 200 it includes parts of the four Gospels and the Book of Acts. It is enormously important to reconstructing what was originally written by the apostles and their friends. While substantially in agreement with the later manuscripts that the Authorised King James Version was based upon, there are enough variations to help clarify the original text.
How do we rest in a restless world?
Alistair Chalmers
Date posted: 21 Jul 2026
We live in a restless world. Our phones never sleep, our inboxes are never empty, and our diaries often look less like tools for wise stewardship and more like evidence in a court case proving how busy we are.
Even leisure has become hurried. We scroll, stream, shop, travel, exercise, and socialise, often not because we are truly resting, but because we are desperately trying to recover from lives that are running too fast.
evangelicals & catholics
A year with Pope Leo
Leonardo de Chirico
Date posted: 21 Jul 2026
One year after his election in May last year, is it possible to discern some key themes of Leo XIV’s pontificate?
Here are three remarks.
Simple, not shallow: Reaching children with the gospel
Josh Williamson
Date posted: 20 Jul 2026
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Begin early to teach, for children begin early to sin.” This giant of the pulpit, who preached the Word of God to thousands of people each week, was also known for his heart for instructing children in the Biblical gospel. For Mr Spurgeon, ministering the gospel to a child was just as important as sharing the good news with an adult.
I doubt many within the wider evangelical scene would argue against such views. We know that children’s ministry is vital, but there is debate about how best to go about such an important endeavour.
Before you make that decision, ask this question...
Phil Moon
Date posted: 20 Jul 2026
Some years ago, I was chatting to Peter Lewis, the former pastor of Cornerstone Church in Nottingham. We were having coffee at half-time in a meeting for pastors, and I was wondering how he had stayed so long at Cornerstone. I think at that point it was 37 years, but I may be mistaken. And I’ve never forgotten what he said.
Peter told me how every so often he’d pause and ask himself one question (undoubtedly surrounded with prayerful thought and discussion with at least Valerie, his wife). That one question was this: "Where can I be of most use?"
Waiting for God’s timing
Sam Pibworth
Date posted: 20 Jul 2026
I was rewatching Casino Royale (the best Bond film; no need for further debate) on Amazon Prime the other night. It was during a particularly gripping scene that I was interrupted by an advert for toilet rolls.
The change in tone between Bond frantically chasing an Albanian terrorist and the fluffy Andrex dog was quite jarring, but the thing that struck me was not the loo roll, but rather an icon in the top left corner. BUY IT NOW, the button urged. With just a press of my TV remote, the accommodating folks at Amazon would send me a 32-pack of rolls, the very next day, without me even needing to get the app up on my phone.
pastoral care
Out of our depth?
Steve Midgley
Date posted: 17 Jul 2026
When caring for others, it’s important to know when we are out of our depth. In most lines of work, there will be limits to a person’s competence. On a day-to-day basis, I am happy finding my way around my laptop. But that doesn’t make me competent to open the Windows Registry and start making changes. (Actually, I wasn’t even sure I meant the Windows Registry. I had to ask someone if that illustration worked!)
So, what about pastoral care? In our efforts to support someone, might we might find our way into the pastoral equivalent of their Windows Registry and not even know it? Is that a real danger and, if so, how do we avoid it?
the four soils
'The problem isn't the seed, it's the soil'
Graeme Shanks
Date posted: 16 Jul 2026
This is the first of a mini-series of articles looking at the four soils in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13v1-23).
There’s a humorous little cartoon that does the rounds in Scotland every summer. Picture the scene: a Scottish man is reading out a Shakespeare sonnet to his beloved. Behind them is a window that reveals the lashing rain outside. "How dare you compare me to a summer's day!" she angrily growls to him. Hashtag summer in Scotland.
culture watch
Sun, sea and resentment
Rebecca Chapman
Date posted: 16 Jul 2026
In 1963 Cliff Richard shot to no.1 in the charts with Summer Holiday. On the soundtrack to this feel-good road-trip movie, he sang about how on such a holiday there would be “no more worries for a week or two”.
Yet, as we approach the summer, the BBC’s new drama Two Weeks In August instead offers us an eight-part series giving us a glimpse into the holiday from hell. Described as “sun, sea and suppressed resentment” it provides a darkly tragi-comic depiction of 40-somethings, university friends, on a group holiday, complete with spouses and children alongside singles. It’s been compared to The White Lotus, with its ensemble cast and illicit-time-abroad vibes but this is not the same luxury trip. This group aren’t nearly as affluent, despite their attempts to outsource childcare onto someone else.
earth watch
Thinking of our farmers
Paul Kunert
Date posted: 15 Jul 2026
As I write, England has recently sweltered under a record-smashing May heatwave, the culmination of a drier-than-usual spring.
Heather Oldfield, South Lincolnshire National Farmers Union County Chairman, showed Radio 4’s Farming Today her “stressed” winter wheat, and her “patchy” spring barley, and wonders whether she’ll even be planting a spring crop next year. Meanwhile, at Low Sizergh farm in Cumbria, panting cattle and sheep sought respite in the shade.
helping children find faith
Why do teenagers drop out of church?
Ed Drew
Date posted: 14 Jul 2026
A church leader told me the story of James, a young man who had grown up in his church, going through all their groups, attending regularly. James headed off to Uni with suggestions of churches to try there, his home church satisfied that they had fulfilled their role.
Each holiday James came home having not got involved in a church. He had started going to the student group but then drifted away. The church leader admitted feeling angry with James for not playing his part, but he had to think again because he had seen this pattern repeated in the lives of several other young adults leaving his church. He concluded that James had never actually been part of the church. James knew how to be part of a church age group, being taught, being cared for, and hanging out with his peers, but he did not know how to do church – for example, by serving and by being in fellowship with people across generations.
'Radical discipleship' – ten questions with Karen Soole
en staff
Date posted: 13 Jul 2026
Karen Soole is a writer, speaker, and women’s worker at Trinity Church, Lancaster. She is the chair of the Northern Women’s Convention and a trustee of The Proclamation Trust.
1.How did you become a Christian?
meditating on 1 Peter
'Do not fear... revere Christ as Lord'
Tim Vasby-Burnie
Date posted: 11 Jul 2026
Does fear lead you to stand on a solid rock, or to worry about falling down because your foundations have failed?
Social media and the 24–7 news cycle stokes fear. There are fears about the economy, fears about nationalism, fears about immigration, fears about war, fears about new pandemics and so much more.
Angola: Missionary-sending nation?
Jonathan Holden
Date posted: 9 Jul 2026
At dusk in Ondjiva, a few young Angolans may gather on plastic chairs with a Bible, a notebook and a question: who will help this neighbourhood follow Jesus?
It is not a platform. It is not a conference hall. It may be a yard, a veranda, or the shade of a mango tree after a long day of school, work and family responsibilities. Someone prays. Someone reads Scripture. Someone speaks honestly about fear, sin, family pressure or unemployment. Slowly, quietly, disciples are being made.
everyday evangelism
It’s time for us to press in and open our mouths
Steve Osmond
Date posted: 7 Jul 2026
People are often more willing to hear about Jesus than we are to tell them!
In recent years there’s been a lot of revival talk, especially in Europe and particularly here in the UK. We’ve seen statistics and reports about an increase in Bible sales, church attendance, professions of faith, baptisms and the like – the veritable “quiet revival”. And, with great excitement the church (perhaps understandably so) picked up on the narrative and it became commonplace to speak of the “quiet revival” in the UK.
