If we are going to call something a carol service, then carols should be front and centre. If your service is going to involve four carols and a 35 minute exposition of Luke 2, don’t call it a carol service.
How we present the birth of Jesus is important. It is not simply a prelude to a death (though it is that), but it is first of all the prelude to a life which challenges the basic assumptions of contemporary society.
If we really want to get back to the origins of the festival, we should consider getting uproariously drunk in front of a blazing fire and celebrating the return of the sun.
Looking down on a class of people, and holding them in contempt for their reading habits, has far more to do with liberal, middle-class prejudice than it has to do with Christianity.
When Paul spoke to a Jewish audience, he started off with the story of the Jewish nation, when speaking to Greeks, he worked from inscriptions on statues and Greek poetry.
I believe that the skills and experience of cross-cultural missionaries are crucial to the future of the church in the UK: the start of a blog series.
People are more complex than we think they are, and the Christian message is much richer than we give it credit for.
We don’t need more superstars we need more Gospel centered churches
We must be faithful witnesses to Jesus and that means that we don’t spice up our language in a way to make things seem more attractive than they are in reality.
In the end, the best way to deal with injustice is to address the issue of sin and alienation from God that underpins the corrupt societies that we all live in.