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realising reality
I know that I am showing my age, but I struggle with the idea that you can make a living by posting content online. The idea that someone’s job might be ‘Youtuber’ is bizarre to me. I know the mechanics of it (I have not monetised this bloggage) but it’s the concept that I struggle…
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Inclusive Church
The church I serve, Mutley Baptist Church, has recently joined the Inclusive Church Network. The ICN statement reads: “We believe in inclusive church – a church which celebrates and affirms every person and does not discriminate. We will continue to challenge the church where it continues to discriminate against people on grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity,…
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Lovingly Inclusive
This is the second of a short series looking at the new values that we have adopted at Mutley Baptist Church. The previous two bloggages are an introduction and a look at the first one. Our second value is that we are called to be Lovingly Inclusive. The explanatory text reads: Like Jesus: celebrating and…
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thoughts on communion
This bloggage began its life as a ‘Thought for the week’ shared with the Ministers I serve in the Eastern Baptist Association. As you will see I have extended my thinking a little since the original ‘Thought’. As you probably know by now I am about to undergo some surgery on 13th February, which will…
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polar exploration
What is it about humans that makes us want to polarise? Is it because we secretly like conflict – perhaps something left over from our cave-dwelling kill-or-be-eaten past? Maybe it’s because we want to know who’s on our side, and by definition who isn’t? If you listen to interviews on the radio phone-ins they always…
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camera angles
While visiting Canterbury Cathedral earlier in the week I was interested to see that the crypt is an area in which taking photos is prohibited. I think this is so it is set aside for people to pray and reflect without being disturbed by flash photography. It interested me because it reminded me of a…
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service
A nice man has just come to read our electricity and gas meters. He made a joke about not outstaying his welcome as he left. Yesterday I had a courtesy phone call from the company with whom we have some of the family mobile phone contracts. And the lady with whom I was speaking was…
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setting boundaries
Isn’t it amazing how God draws things to our attention when he’s trying to tell us something? Well, perhaps it’s not amazing because he often does it. It’s more that I’m amazed that he persists with me. Last week I was sent an e-mail about something I had shared with the church a long time…
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Post the first from the conference (see yesterday)
So, the conference has begun. I am not sure what the collective noun for Baptist Ministers would be: A splash? A hubbub? An ostentatious humility? A dissent? Whatever it is, we have got one. The collective noun for ‘Christians’ is ‘church’. We are church when we are together. At this conference we are a temporary…
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cliché time once again
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: change is inevitable… except from a vending machine. I know that’s not very original, but it still makes me chuckle. None of us like change, but it is a fact of life: we are all getting older and that brings about change (male pattern baldness for…
nukelearfishing 