Four Leadership Types

I’ve just been looking at an interesting report from Deloitte on the leadership approaches emerging in response to “industry 4.0”. Having interviewed a range of senior leaders, they note for approaches which seem to be fruitful (and I quote): Social Supers: Some leaders have figured out how to do well Read more…

Healthy Church Growth?

Growth is important for any healthy organic system. Living things need to grow in some way or they will go into decline and die. Staying as you are is almost impossible. It requires a tightly controlled amount of growth, simply because you have to replace what you’re loosing at a Read more…

Psalm 146

Tune: Aurelia 76 76 D O praise the Lord, O praise him!   As long as I shall live I will declare God’s praises    for blessings he shall give. Do not rely on princes,    for humans cannot save; for when their breath is ended,    their plans go to Read more…

Rosa

I thoroughly enjoyed the Dr Who episode “Rosa” which focused on an encounter with Rosa Parks. I have to confess that I was a little worried it would take something away from her famous bus protest, but this didn’t happen. Rosa Parks was clearly the one at the centre of Read more…

Why do animals eat their young?

It seems incredible, but many animals will abandon their normal parental instincts and kill or eat their own young.  The phenomenon is found in all sorts of species, including mammals. Scientists have proposed a variety of reasons for this behavior.  It is sometimes ascociated with the survival of the parent, Read more…

I don’t do “infant baptism”

I don’t do “infant baptism” but I have definitely baptised infants… What’s the difference?  There is more than one way of thinking about baptism, and this is often forgotten. Many people think of baptism as a form of naming ceremony for children.  The word “Christening” is often used in this Read more…

The World as it should be…

Guest Blog on the Greenbelt WebSite Our planet could be such a wonderful place, but it’s spoiled by injustice, poverty, hunger and greed. There’s a huge gap between “the World as it is” and “the World as it should be”. Jesus often announced that “the Kingdom of Heaven is near!”. Read more…

Agitation

I’ve been thinking about the use of “agitation” as an organising method today. At morning prayer, we reflected on the “agitation” caused by powerful rulers, which produces chaos – and is countered by stillness. We also reflected on the “agitation” caused by the Gospel which challenges people to life giving Read more…

Uniquely Better

At the Global Leadership Summit yesterday, Andy Stanley challenged us to do a “success audit”. The question was “What would you do all over again, if you had to do it all over again?” Looking back at the last ten years of my journey as Area Dean, I found myself Read more…