Search Results
Simply Good News - Becoming Good-News People
Simply Good News - Becoming Good-News People
by SPCK - N T Wright
Becoming Good-News People So what happens when we pray the prayer the right way round? We become good-news people. That is true, actually, whenever you pray, because prayer means standing between the one true God and his world, becoming a place where the love of this God and the …
Simply Good News - Surprised by God
Simply Good News - Surprised by God
by SPCK - N T Wright
Surprised by God The word God is a heavy, clunky little syllable. It drops like a lead weight into otherwise cheerful conversations. It sticks in the throat like a lump of undercooked dumpling. It comes up over the horizon like a sudden cloud, blotting out the sun. The very sound…
Simply Good News - Getting the Balance Right
Simply Good News - Getting the Balance Right
by SPCK - N T Wright
Getting the Balance Right The good news, then, is good news about the present as well as the past and the future. Despite the secular claim that all real advances in the world are the result of secular modernism, and despite the barrage of hostility launched against the church by…
Simply Good News - The Return of the One God
Simply Good News - The Return of the One God
by SPCK - N T Wright
Return of the One God Simply Good News Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good I have pointed out that in Paul’s Roman world the word gospel was regularly used to speak about the royal announcement that was made when an emperor came to the throne, or perhaps on his birthday…
Simply Good News - Good Advice, Wrong News
Simply Good News - Good Advice, Wrong News
by SPCK - N T Wright
1, part b Good Advice, Wrong News In many churches, the good news has subtly changed into good advice: here’s how to live, they say. Here’s how to pray. Here are techniques for helping you become a better Christian, a better person, a better wife or husband. And in particular, he…
The Women's Bible Commentary - David and Goliath
The Women's Bible Commentary - David and Goliath
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
David and Goliath Up to this point, besides the fact that YHWH has told Samuel to anoint him, David has shown no special qualities that would qualify him to rule Israel as king: it is the battle with Goliath that establishes David as a potential leader for Israel…
Online Mission and Ministry - Building an online community
Online Mission and Ministry - Building an online community
by SPCK - Pam Smith
Building an online community Even if your vision is for a project run solely by yourself, it is worth thinking about community. The online world is full of abandoned Christian sites, sadly forsaken and clogged up with adverts and spam posts which say nothing about the Christian m…
Online Mission and Ministry - Looking after yourself and your team
Online Mission and Ministry - Looking after yourself and your team
by SPCK - Pam Smith
Looking after yourself and your team Why is it that so many movements and organisations spring up within the Church and within society form a noble and generous purpose, attract intelligent and conscientious people, flourish briefly, then become so preoccupied with questions of i…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Resurrection Issues
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Resurrection Issues
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Limited Divine Hospitality Not all discussions of foreign nations in Isaiah are so dispiriting. Isaiah 25 offers one of the best loved of all portraits, one which Christians often associate with eucharistic liturgies…
The Meal Jesus Gave Us - The Freedom Party - 2
The Meal Jesus Gave Us - The Freedom Party - 2
by SPCK - Tom Wright
2 The Freedom Party Part One HOW IT ALL BEGAN To get into this next party, we will go back in time, and some distance in space. We are in the Jewish quarter of a small town in Turkey in about 200 BC. Like the Martian speaking English, you manage somehow to speak fluent Aramaic (t…
The Meal Jesus Gave Us - New meal, new family - 4
The Meal Jesus Gave Us - New meal, new family - 4
by SPCK - Tom Wright
4 New meal, new family Part One HOW IT ALL BEGAN One more scene, and then we’ll stop play-acting. This, though, is where the story really starts, so we’re going to go into it a little more deeply, and take three chapters over it. We’re going back to Turkey, to a little town a hun…
The Meal Jesus Gave Us - The Last Supper (or was it the first?) - 3
The Meal Jesus Gave Us - The Last Supper (or was it the first?) - 3
by SPCK - Tom Wright
3 The Last Supper (or was it the first?) Part One HOW IT ALL BEGAN No more disguises. You’re going to be a real person this time. The trick will still work, because no one at the meal knew what was going on. Except the host, of course. He had set the whole thing up – arranged it …
The Post Evangelical - 1 A symbol of hope
The Post Evangelical - 1 A symbol of hope
by SPCK - Dave Tomlinson
1 A symbol of hope It may seem strange to be talking about ‘post-evangelical’ just as others are talking about an evangelical renaissance, yet the subject is of vital concern to an increasing number of people who, for various reasons, feel the urge to explore new possibilities wi…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Call to Choose
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Call to Choose
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
The Call to Choose (Joshua 23-24) Beginnings and endings of narratives are always important. Joshua 1 begins with the assurance of God’s victory and a call to obedience and strength. Chapter 24 closes the book with a rehearsal of the history of the Israelites and God’s overwhelmi…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Book V
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Book V
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Book V (Psalms 107-150) Book V of the Psalter opens with Psalm 107, a community hymn celebrating God’s graciousness in delivering the community of faith from exile in Babylon. The psalmist says: “Let the redeemed of YHWH say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from…
Transforming Preaching - Involving the congregation
Transforming Preaching - Involving the congregation
by SPCK - David Heywood
4 Involving the congregation Interactive preaching Tim Stratford tells of the time he preached to a new congregation for the first time. To help give him confidence, he had chosen an existing sermon which had gone well on a previous occasion. But in the new church it met only gla…
Transforming Preaching - The varieties of structure
Transforming Preaching - The varieties of structure
by SPCK - David Heywood
3 A step-by-step guide to sermon preparation The varieties of structure In the previous section we looked at the use of structure as the skeleton of your sermon, providing an outline that keeps all the component parts in their proper place without drawing attention to itself. We …
Transforming Preaching - Using visual images