Virtual Methodist

In his book " The Contemplative Pastor " (I'm only 20% of my way through this so there's plenty more to come on this strand) Peterson says: “Jesus’ favorite speech form, the parable, was subversive. Parables sound absolutely ordinary: casual stories about soil and seeds, meals and coins and sheep, bandits and victims, farmers and merchants. And they are wholly secular: of his forty or so parables recorded in the Gospels, only one has its setting in church, and only a couple mention the name God. As people heard Jesus tell these stories, they saw at once that they weren’t about God, so there was nothing in them threatening their own sovereignty. They relaxed their defenses. They walked away perplexed, wondering what they meant, the stories lodged in their imagination. And then, like a time bomb, they would explode in their unprotected hearts. An abyss opened up at their very feet. He was talking about God; they had been invaded!... Parables subversively slip past o...

I know I've been pilfering my back-catalogue a lot this week, but here's another reblog , this time it's a responsive reading of Psalm 19 which is one of the lectionary readings for today... The law of the Lord is perfect, strengthening the soul. The promises of the Lord are trustworthy, offering insight to all. The signposts of the Lord are straightforward, bringing joy to life. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving light to walk by. The fear of the Lord is right and good, enduring for ever. The decisions of the Lord are sure and altogether unquestionable. His word is more precious than gold, than a bank vault full of gold; His word is sweeter than strawberries in summer, Tastier than ripe red strawberries God’s word warns us when we’re on dangerous ground And directs us to hidden treasures. What man can spot his own mistakes? What woman can tell when she is fooling herself? Father, forgive my hidden faults. Lord, keep your serva...

Monday week ago the 2nd of May was the 400th Birthday of that venerable old lady, the King James, or Authorised, version of the Bible. I've been a bit snowed under with one thing and another recently (hence the lack of any posts) and the wider world was a bit distracted by other things like elections, marathons, the aftermath of a big royal shindig and the assassination/bringing to justice of a certain terrorist leader, so there wasn't much coverage in the media on the actual day of the anniversary, although there have been a number of interesting programmes and articles in the run up to it. On a local level we threw a bit of a low key party last Sunday evening as members of the three churches on our local Methodist Circuit shared their favourite readings from the KJV, juxtaposed with some more modern worship songs... It was a good night, if truth be told, and those who absented themselves either because they didn't like the KJV, or modern worship songs, well it was their l...

Among the huge pile of sludge fiction I took with me on holiday this year, were 2 or 3 books I wouldn't be embarrassed being seen to be reading by anyone who actually knows me. One was this offering by Richard Foster, chosen by our church book group as their summer reading. However, whilst I am not one to judge a book by its cover, two things annoyed me with this book before I opened it. First was the fact that the author's name is printed bigger than the title. This, to me, speaks of the alarming trend in Christian literature, as in the rest of contemporary literary culture, to treat respected authors as brand names to be exploited to the full, resulting in some very poor books being released under such brands. This feeling was further enhanced when I noticed that this particular book was written 'with' Kathryn A. Helmers, although to notice this you had to look very carefully as her name is less than a 12th the size of Foster's and in a much lighter type, indicati...

Actually posted this almost a year ago, and was planning on using it this Sunday... however, can't seem to find a way of downloading it... Any ideas? Cheers

The Bible Society has ordained that this Sunday is "Bible Sunday" . Don't know what was wrong with the old tradition of having it on the second Sunday of Advent, apart from the fact that with everything else in Advent it gets swamped by the approaching behemoth that is the modern Christmas. But anyway, for those celebrating it this weekend, over the next couple of days I'll be posting various resources we are using this weekend... Here's a responsive psalm to start with: The law of the Lord is perfect, strengthening the soul. The promises of the Lord are trustworthy, offering insight to all. The signposts of the Lord are straightforward, bringing joy to life. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving light to walk by. The fear of the Lord is right and good, enduring for ever. The decisions of the Lord are sure and altogether unquestionable. His word is more precious than gold, than a bank vault full of gold ; His word is sweeter than strawberries in summer, Tasti...

The video equivalent of a one volume commentary of the Bible... Cheers

As a quick ps to my last post on how we should, and should not communicate Biblical truths to children, a salutory lesson in the difficulties of this comes in the person of a certain 7 year old called Ciaran Thomas Campton. From he was no age he has struck terror into his mum and I when visiting speakers talk to the children in the church service, because he has never had any compulsion about speaking back. On one famous Sunday he had a stand up row with me in front of the whole congregation about what does and does not constitute a church! And his take on the Sunday school lesson is always quite interesting to listen to over Sunday lunch... Although it can lead to you choking on a hastily swallowed carrot! Over the past few weeks the Sunday School, Bible Class and church have just started into a new common "curriculum" and we've been looking at some of Jesus' healing miracles... Last week he wasn't too impressed that Jesus used spit to heal a deaf mute... "Y...

Not a commentary you might want to refer to in sermon preparation or in personal devotions... But a very amusing 30 minutes. Look Away Now , the comedy sports programme on Radio 4, has done a live commentary on the Bible in the style of Radio 5Live Saturday afternoon premiership football coverage… So if you like sports and haven't had a sense of humour bypass, you should enjoy it... And definitely the most exciting account of the resurrection I've heard anywhere... You need to get in quick though... It is only available on BBC's own self-destructing i-player... A metaphor for the modern disposable world!