Opinions/reflections - Jan - June 2024
| Few of us enjoy criticism or confrontation. Yet the limitations and shortcomings of our humanness mean that it needs to happen – for our own good and for the wellbeing of the people we lead, writes Alan Wilson |
| Three months on - whether it’s Wailing Wall… or Separation Wall – no-one in Israel/Palestine will feel any safety until we all say ‘STOP!’ loudly enough, writes David Nelson |
| Pastor Chi-Wai Wu, the former director of Hong Kong Church Renewal Movement who moved to the UK almost three years ago, offers three observations on the Chinese Christian community in the UK |
| While all the speakers at Fresh Streams 2024 highlighted how we are living in a time of significant change, there was a clear message from God too, writes first-time attender Simon Evans-White |
| For many Lent has become a time for self-examination and for deepening one’s devotional life. But the call to Christian discipleship is to look away from oneself - so let’s experiment in new ways of sharing our faith with others this year |
| The government is withdrawing funding from the Inter Faith Network, leading to its potential closure. Paul Weller, a member of the Baptists Together Inter Faith Working Group, is encouraging Baptists to urgently protest the decision |
| Baptist minister Ivan King explains why he has written a book honouring some of the ordinary people who have welcomed him into their world as a pastor |
| The news is indeed dreadful, writes David Nelson - but showing solidarity does have an impact |
| Baptists in Israel and Palestine are a unique bridge between different people and cultures in the region, writes Mark Hirst, who recently visited Baptists there. He shares this and other reflections to help fuel our prayers |
| When mindfulness is integrated with our contemplative tradition, it helps us become more like Christ, writes Baptist minister Shaun Lambert, whose decade-long exploration of the subject is about to be published |
| Chris Upton is the national lead for Waterways Chaplaincy, which oversees 100 chaplains along the canals and rivers of the UK.
Being a chaplain helps church members deepen their understanding of how God cares for the margins, he explains |
| BURG showed that amidst the busyness and activity of missional ministry there is also room for a contemplative spirituality.
Though it has now closed, retreats, quiet days, and spiritual direction are not the strangers for Baptists they once were
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| The church has a crucial role to play in responding to today's security challenges, writes John Heathershaw, but we need to develop new answers. Here are three suggestions |
| As the Israel-Hamas war drags on, there seems to be no forgiveness, no sense of servanthood, no transformative approach, writes David Nelson. We must pray and shout for justice |
| What are we as Christians to think about fasting? Colin Sedgwick shares six reflections |
| Baptist minister Torquil Allen introduces The Rooftop, which exists to inspire and equip the church and church leaders to become passionate about, and effective in, making disciples who make disciples ‘outside the walls’ of the church building |
| We have found more and more leaders and churches wondering about how mission, evangelism and discipleship might be more effective if things were a little simpler, smaller - and more scattered around everyday life, write Chrissy Remsberg and Alex Harris |
| I had the immense privilege of being a chaplain at the metal/rock festival Download, writes Baptist minister Ken Franklin. Like the other chaplains there, I had many conversations and opportunities to pray, simply because I was out in faith with my people |