During my sabbatical, I got to speak and teach this month at the wonderful Aylesbury Vineyard Church. I took my cue from the famous message “Do You Know Him?” by the late Dr. S. M. Lockridge. I asked whether our life matches an encounter with the incredible God of whom Lockridge speaks of.

Back in January this year, I wrote a long in depth article diagnosing the decline of church attendance amongst Evangelicals. I then edited that article into a much shorter more academic piece for a presentation at the Society of Vineyard Scholars, that you can download here.

The long article and shorter version are a thin slice of my PhD work on Evangelicals, and consumer culture.

…the way and the door to Easter Sunday is not by escaping, but by another way.  It is through participation.  By coming close to all we want to avoid, to wade through the things we are numb to and sometimes can only describe in clinical detail.  To stop turning away, and instead to turn towards, and climb over the rubbish and decay of our lives and others.   To arrive and sit at the foot of the cross and ask

Too often pastors take their identity from what they measure in ways that distort their identity. Then other people can use measures for pastors that are soul destroying. This article explores a spirituality of measuring, of how pastors might better understand how to measure in ways that allow their identity in Christ to flourish and their ministries to grow.