So what if they move on? I was reminded this past Sunday of two people - once in membership with us - who are now pressing on with the Lord in another church in another part of the country. Both folks were moved on from us for reasons beyond their control. Both were mercifully located near a…

Sarah Mullally’s appointment shows up the credibility of Evangelical arguments We have now had the weekend to come to terms with the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the new (and first ever female) Archbishop of Canterbury. I strongly suspect this appointment will change absolutely nothing from a…

Snippets from the interweb (5th October 2025) Would Tommy Robinson be welcome in your church? Dave Williams answers this challenge and then points out an important distinction between those who are welcome and affirming their presenting ideology. Why my watch buzzes at 10:02 every morning I really…

Podcast hiatus

Britain might not welcome pastor appreciation month, but your pastor needs appreciating I've seen a few videos and things knocking around that tell me it's pastor appreciation month. A month that I assume only exists, indeed probably can only exist, in America. It would be virtually impossible to…

On theology, shorthand and labels I had a very interesting discussion with a friend recently. We were talking about theology, it's merits and purposes and whatnot. During the course of that discussion, we hit upon the fairly rudimentary and basic question: what is theology? My friend averred that…

The biblical call is a bit more than ‘do you like them’ Yesterday, I read this little provocative post by Matthew Hosier. The essence of Matthew's argument was this: you might not much like flag-waving, you may have all manner of thoughts about the arguments being advanced, but the key question is…

What if people take communion wrongly? I have spoken before about hedging or fencing the table (see here, for example). In our church, we ask people three basic questions: Have you trusted Jesus personally? Have you been baptised and joined the church in membership? Are you on good terms with…

Seek God first Yesterday, we continued our studies in 2 Kings. This week we reached the second half of chapter 8. It contains a little episode whereby the King of Aram seeks out Elisha's prophetic insights into whether he will die from an illness afflicting him. He sends his military commander,…

Snippets from the interweb (28th September 2025) Caution in the face of "The Quiet Revival" My friend, Stephen Watkinson, offers a word of caution when looking at the statistics on the so-called quiet revival. I think what he says is fundamentally right, though I think there is a little more cause…

Podcast hiatus

We need a moratorium on ‘God is leading me’ I was chatting to a friend the other day who was telling me about some folks defending their particular chosen course of action with a reference to God's leading. He recounted to me experiences where this kind of thinking was prevalent in his church and…

Pray bigger prayers We were thinking in our community group on Tuesday night about the kind of prayers we pray. Or, rather, the kind of prayers we often don't pray. We seem quite happy to pray generically that God's will be done, but we seem more reticent to ask him specifically to do particular…

Can’t we just love people with autism rather than lying about them? Yesterday, the President of the United States of America began pronouncing - against all credible scientific evidence - that paracetamol (or, tylenol, or acetaminophen if you prefer) causes autism. It has been denounced by just…

If Christ is King, submit to his means. We show who is really king when we don’t One of the interesting features of the recent 'unite the kingdom' marches is the regular refrain 'Christ is King'. This evidently Christian phrase is being employed by ethno-nationalists intent on defending cultural…

We may be too scared of failure As regular readers will know from previous posts, I recently finished reading Kate Fox's Watching the English. One of the observations Fox makes (among many) is that the English suffer from a severe case of fear of embarrassment. We are quite averse to creating any…

Snippets from the interweb (21st September 2025) Why Church Membership Isn’t Optional: A Biblical and Covenantal Case This one is a written from a presbyterian perspective but with a few minor quibbles, is not far off my Baptistic view: 'I have heard countless times that “nowhere in the Bible…

Podcast hiatus

The total sovereignty of God Here is another video from RC Sproul on the total sovereignty of God:

What a casual mayor tells us about pastoral dress codes and why context is king I saw this little story in The Times yesterday about the Mayor of Henley-upon-Thames in Oxfordshire. The mayor had to defend wearing shorts, trainers and a "garish floral shirt" to a formal ceremony for Royal Marines,…

Every issue is a conscience issue Have you ever heard people talk about something as 'an issue of conscience'? Very often what they mean is that you might think one thing, I might think another, you may have your conscience on it and I may have mine. In other words, let's agree to disagree. In…

The fundamental question: is God good? On Sunday, we were looking at a passage from 2 Kings 6 and 7 concerning the Aramean seige of Samaria. The situation was so desperate that it included a horrible scene in which a mother and neighbour strike a deal to eat one another's children. The king only…

What are you saved from? Just a short video today from RC Sproul talking about the, perhaps surprising, thing we most need to be saved from. It may not be what you think but it is the very thing that makes salvation necessary. Check it out:

Snippets from the interweb (14th September 2025) The Most Exasperating and Least Rewarding Tim Challies is absolutely right about the reality of bundled packages in this short and pithy one. What if the Tide-of-Faith doesn’t come back in? 'It is a truly Western assumption that we are somehow owed…

Podcast Hiatus

Are patterns and rhythms godly or helpful? If you have children of the requisite age, I wonder how you have found getting them back to school? For my daughter, there was little to no problem. She was at the same school, with the same class, knew the teacher she would be with and nothing really…

Immortal until our work is done I had cause to use to the phrase in the title of this post on Sunday. I also quoted John Paton as I made the point. By some coincidence, I have used this phrase before and even wrote a… https://buildingjerusalem.blog/2025/09/11/immortal-until-our-work-is-done/

On missing the elders’ meeting Yesterday marked the fifth week we didn't have our usual weekly elders' meeting. I know for some churches that is the norm, with elders' meetings kept to a minimum, sometimes only a monthly basis. But for us, this is unusual. Not that it is anybody's fault. Summer…

Don’t you basically believe the same? I often hear some sort of claim along the lines that Protestants and Catholics effectively believe the same stuff really. When I demur, I am asked - if we're so different - where do the key differences lie? There are various ways we could address that…

Don’t be so quick to jump in and fix it There is a powerful instinct in most people who want to honour the Lord Jesus and do thing as excellently as possible for his glory. This isn't done, that isn't working, someone has failed to do their duty. If that thing isn't sorted, it's bad for people,…

Snippets from the interweb (7th September 2025) What To Do After Your Pastor Preaches A Bad Sermon All pastors preach bad sermons sometimes. What should we do and how should we respond when it inevitably happens? This one offers an answer. Stop Baptisizing Children Into The Ether By some…

Podcast Hiatus

Train your people in the art of conversation Forget theological training for a second. Forget evangelism training too. I'm not saying let's ditch those by the way, I'm just saying I think we might need some even more basic training. This is the training that will probably determine, more than any…

What is your theology breakfast? Having come to the end of our summer break from the usual activities at church, things are beginning to ramp back into action this week. Everything will be kicking off in earnest on Saturday, with our men's breakfast (a men's bible study with a bacon roll in hand)…

What about the children? It is sometimes assumed (wrongly) that Baptists only baptise adults. It's true that some Baptists won't baptise children, but that is a point of debate. Indeed, those who baptise only adults are in the minority. The point of universal agreement amongst Baptists is that…

On getting back to work after a holiday Today is my first proper day back after my holiday. I think matters can be succinctly summed up by this tweet from 2023, which has since become a viral meme: This, dear friends, is how I start back after every holiday. As the resumption of duties bears down…

On visiting a foreign church My family and I were recently on holiday. We always attempt to find a suitable church to attend whilst we are away. Obviously, when you are abroad, this is harder - particularly when you are as linguistically challenged as we are! Nevertheless, we don't want our…

Snippets from the interweb (31st August 2025) Doug Wilson & Christian Nationalism make the news in Australia 'The presenting story that led to the AP piece is a view promoted by Wilson’s church, whereby women should lose the right to vote. I wasn’t shocked to read this, as it fits into their view…

Podcast hiatus

On chips on one’s shoulder I have been about blogging for long enough to know - particularly when it comes to certain topics - that it is never long before somebody accuses you of having a chip on your shoulder. I can guarantee, if I am saying something about class, race or the travails of smaller…

The fine-tuning argument Many physicists have come to find strong evidence for theism through the fine-tuning of the universe. This video outlines the argument and offers some evidence. What do you think?

Pastors should preach less Let's just start with what I hope is obvious: preaching is really important. The Word of God is the lifeblood of the local church. It is the means by which we come to know and love our God and saviour, Jesus Christ. It is the means by which we come to understand what he…

What a local story tells us about local attitudes and what we can learn from it The other week, a little local news story appeared in Oldham. I share it here because I think it illustrates several things at once and also provides us with an opportunity for learning in the church. The particular…

But it never bothered me If you don't follow Nathan Pyle, you really should. His output is fantastic. He is the creator of the Strange Planet webcomic. He often captures something in a particularly pithy way. One of my favourite of his cartoons is this one: Pyle said the following about this…

Snippets from the interweb (24th August 2025) How I Answered the Confirmation Bias Question at a Local School This is helpful as a framework for answering the inevitable confirmation bias question in apologetics. Tirades of abuse, constant criticism and physical assault: Meet the church leaders…

Podcast hiatus

Were The Gospels anonymous? It has become increasingly common at a popular level to challenge the authenticity of the gospels. Particularly, challenges are made to the named authorship. In essence, so a common argument goes, the gospels were anonymous and in order to push their new religion 'big…

Should we have weekly communion? I want to be careful, before I say more, that this is one of those probably issues rather than a definitely one. I also want to say this is largely a prudential case I am going to make, not a matter of necessity. I think there is enough wiggle room in the biblical…

The hierarchy of gifts and the New Creation It was my birthday last week and, whether it is gauche or jejune (or both), I don't mind admitting that I like getting presents. Call me worldly if you will, but God definitely created a world full of stuff for us to use and enjoy so I have no concerns…

Englishness and race As I mentioned in a previous post, I have begun reading Watching the English by Kate Fox. In that previous post, I shared a short section from her opening chapter on Englishness and class. In that same section, she also goes on to talk about Englishness and race. As sometime…