Tag: Reflections

  • Privilege

    I was chatting with Nikki today at lunchtime in Rainy Hall and we covered the usual broad range of topics. I’m doing a funeral in a couple of days and I mentioned that I still don’t get the ‘privileged’ thing that many in ministry speak about. We agreed that, for us certainly, it wasn’t the…

  • Confusion

    I’ve uploaded the short talk I used for my speech training session to the downloads page (and fixed the non-working downloads while there). It’s called ‘Confusion’ and is a slightly different take on John 4 and Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. It developed out of a passing thought as I was…

  • A light in the darkness

    I’m churning over some sermon ideas at the moment (pulpit supply in my home church on the evening of the 13th of April) and, following through a particular line of thought, a small section of the Beatitudes popped into my head: Mat 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a…

  • Dazed and confused

    Well, maybe not so much confused, but yesterday I was certainly dazed and more than a little brain-dead by late afternoon. In the morning I was on my hospital placement followed, in the afternoon, by my follow-up PDI – that’s Personal Development Interview in 121-speak. Each of those on its own is taxing enough. Both…

  • Theology stuff

    Well, I was this close (imagine thumb and forefinger held up really close together) to dropping Modern Christology and opting for something like Homiletics. 150 pages of Schleiermacher just about did my head in and I was seriously thinking of finding something less burdensome. So, last Monday morning I happened to bump into the lecturer…

  • It’s only words

    Stewart’s asking the question, “Have we lost the wonder of God?” Coincidentally, the reading I’m trying to do for uni is largely on this very thing. Our first lecture in Modern Christology is entitled “What did the Enlightenment do for us?” The reading, in a nutshell, is saying that the ascendency of philosophy (and its…

  • 2nd Sunday of Placement

    Today was my second Sunday at KHR Grangemouth. I was delivering the children’s talk and today was also communion. So, before I comment on both, I also want to note that I also spent a lot of time blethering over tea afterwards. They’re a very friendly lot at KHR and it’s great how welcoming they’ve…

  • Protected: When is outreach not?

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

  • Some things never change…

    I’m preaching the sermon at Harvest Thanksgiving in my placement church on the 23rd. The lectionary readings for that Sunday are very appropriate and I particularly liked the one from Amos: Amos 8:4 Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country. 8:5 You say to…

  • Theology as a starting point

    Today I started writing some pages that set out my theological standpoint. It was quickly turning into a bit of an epic so I’ve decided to break it into bite-sized chunks and offer them up for your delight, one morsel at a time. My cooking is never too good at the best of times, so…