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The debate about the meaning of ‘head’ and ‘headship’ (even though the latter does not occur in the NT) continues to rumble on. The main reason for this for English speakers is that the term is deeply and widely connected with notions of authority, control and leadership—just think ‘headteacher’ or ‘headmaster’ and other compounds, and […]
The apostle Paul is not generally viewed as a pastor. Teaching, fearless advocate for the faith, traveller, apologist, pioneering church planter, yes—but pastor? As we read Paul’s letters, in some part because of our cultural distance, it is easy not to sense that we are encountering Paul the pastor. But the latest Grove Biblical booklet contends that this is exactly what we find when we read what is perhaps Paul’s most important and best known letters after Romans—his first letter to the church in Corinth. Owned by God: Paul’s Pastoral Strategy in 1 Corinthians explores Paul’s pastoral strategy by offering a close reading of the opening verses of 1 Corinthians, and seeing how the terms and ideas here shape and inform Paul’s pastoral strategy throughout the letter in tackling the challenging issues he finds there. It is written by Mike Thompson, Assistant Principal at Ridley Hall in Cambridge, where he has taught New Testament for many years. (Prior to that, Mike was at St John’s, Nottingham, where with Stephen Travis he was my first New Testament teacher.)
Mike begins with an imaginative reflection on the challenges Paul faced in writing his letter:
The article that caught my eye this week in the Church Times (which I read every week) was a fascinating reflection by Philip North, the bishop of Burnley, on his visits over the summer to three different Christian ‘festivals’. He visited: the Keswick Convention, a bastion of conservative evangelical devotion, shaped by free church evangelicals […]
We live in a very wordy world. And Christian faith and worship can often be wordy too. But how can this ‘wordiness’ be used well? Mark Earey, who teaches at the Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham, explores this question in the latest Grove Worship booklet. We use words a lot in worship—sometimes too much, making worship […]
The Beatitudes—the collection of sayings that introduce the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Matt 5, with their parallel in Luke 6—are amongst some of the most memorable of the teachings of Jesus. They are often cited as favourite texts, and are referred to as a key element of Jesus’ (challenging and puzzling) radical social ethics. […]
The ‘Nashville Statement‘ is a ‘manifesto’ comment on the issues around same-sex relations, transgender and the debate on sexual identity issued by the so-called Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), which argues that God intends that men should have authority over women in all spheres of life. It provoked a wide range of reactions, some […]
Are you confident about orthodox Christian teaching about sex, sexuality and marriage? Are you happy talking about it, and find it easy to communicate it persuasively in our contemporary culture with its approach to gender identity? Do you understand how Western culture reached its current position, and see both the positives and the problems in […]
Even a cursory glance through the Book of Revelation shows you that it is chock-full of angels. There isn’t a chapter that doesn’t mention them in one form or another, and much of the action in the book comes about through the speech or action of the angels. But have you ever counted them, or […]
Last week it was reported that Dr Hugh Houghton of the University of Birmingham had translated a long-lost fourth-century Latin commentary on the gospels by African-born Italian bishop Fortunatianus of Aquileia, which Jerome had described as ‘a gem’, but which was thought to have been lost, either having perished or having been destroyed. But it turns […]
This is a guest post from John Pike, making the case that loving, faithful same-sex relations were known in antiquity, amongst other kinds of same-sex sexual relationships. John is a GP in the Bristol area whom I know online. We have had some very interesting discussions in the context of our having quite different views […]
Is Sunday a day of rest for you? If you are in church leadership, I suspect the answer will be a resounding ‘No’! Quite right too—most full-time church leaders will plan for another ‘Sabbath’ on a day other than Sunday. (If you don’t, you should). But is Sunday a day of rest for members of […]