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Uncategorized

Springs Gushing Up to Eternal Life

“So, I see you are something of a prophet. Well then, riddle me this. Where does God want us to worship?” Top quality banter? Maybe. But to ask where we are to worship is to ask how we are to do it, which is to ask the most important question of all: who, or what, do we worship? Because, as Bob Dylan put it – everyone serves something.

Also, one of my favourite topics: ancient religions groups that are alive today, and was the Woman at the Well really a bit of a “loose woman”? Or was she the aunty of half the village, who’d lived through some tough times and was well worth listening to?

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sermons

You Must Be Born from Above

What does it mean to be “born again”? What is that stuff about the Moses and the serpent on a pole? And what does “for God so loved the world” really mean? And, finally, what does all this mean for us in the everyday reality of our lives?

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sermons

Vulnerability and Triumph

What does the story of Jesus temptation in the wilderness have to do with me? Did Jesus mog Satan into submission? Or is there something for both “the universe was made for me” and “I am nothing but dust and ashes” people?

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sermons

The Good News of the Transfiguration

How do we live? This is the fundamental question. Our lives are a cascade of objects and events, joy and sorrow, all conducted in front of the backdrop of a world which just continues on as usual no matter what is going on in our own lives. What do we make of if all? Is it ever possible to say of our lives “this is my life, I want no other?”

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Culture and Society Faith Film Philosophy Spirituality Uncategorized

The Great Beauty and the Adventure of Orthodoxy

I was recently blown away by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty.  From the  huge, decadent party in the opening scenes during which  Jep Gambarella, writer and aging roué, is revealed grinning mischieviously at the camera, king of the high life, through the crisis caused by the discovery that the only woman he ever […]

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Christianity Faith Spirituality Spirituality in the Ordinary Suffering

What Jonah Tells Me About Advent

Advent is about waiting. It is the time between the “now” and the “not yet”, the darkness before dawn, the grain of wheat in the dark, silent earth. The night voyage. It is a time of waiting on the promises of God. One of my favourite stories is Jonah and his giant fish and how […]

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Cafechurch Christianity Culture and Society Faith Religion So You Want To Run A Cafechurch Spirituality

Christianity vs Real Life Part 2

Last week I posted about the situation of the Christian churches in the West as I see it. I posed the question “What does Christianity have to do with real life?” I, rather rashly, promised to share my thoughts about What Is To Be Done this week. All my thoughts are based on reflecting on […]

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Cafechurch Christianity Culture and Society Faith So You Want To Run A Cafechurch Spirituality Suffering

Suffering, Authenticity, and Ministry in the Post Modern Church

I don’t want this to sound like Cafechurch is a drag, a place where people sit around moaning about how hard life is, but suffering is a topic which we come back to again and again. It is often at the bottom of why people leave their big churches, and what people who search us […]

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Cafechurch Christianity Culture and Society Religion So You Want To Run A Cafechurch Spirituality

Cafechurch, Portlandia, and the Quest for Authenticity

If Cafechurch had a theme TV show, it would be Portlandia. The hipster culture it parodies so beautifully, and rather fondly I like to think, feels like an exact match for the culture that Cafechurch is part of.  Possibly my favourite skit (at the moment) is “Over” A big part of why Portlandia is amusing […]