What does it mean to flourish?
It’s become a bit of a catch word – one you find in vision and mission statements which commit to building flourishing communities of hope or whatever. It’s a noble and inspiring sentiment, but what does it mean to flourish? We could immediately dash to definitions. Depending on your source, you will be told that to flourish is to prosper, to thrive, to be in a state of activity or production. If you go to the Greek philosophers you might well come out at Aristotle and his idea of eudaimonia (roughly translated as flourishing) by which he was pointing to the life well...
Read MoreChurch-Lite
Let’s face it. If you say the word “church” a less than enthusiastic response is likely to follow. True, there are some glorious exceptions, but by and large those who have never been part of a church tend to express views that have been shaped by the press coverage the church has been receiving (almost uniformly bad), while those who have often launch into a story of feeling let down, disappointed or even betrayed. Many will tell you that they now embrace a churchless faith, one which is real but which effectively says “Jesus yes, church, no!” Others will tell...
Read MoreBecause time matters…
If you’re like me, there never seems to be enough time and you often wonder if you can manage it better. And the truth is that most of us could – and if you follow these seven principles you probably will. But here’s the thing. I saved myself a wad of time by getting chatGPT to write this post for me. Lest you haven’t been keeping up with the news, chatGPT is an extraordinarily powerful AI tool which is taking the internet by storm and leaving educators anxiously asking about the future of assessment as it churns out sophisticated essays, poems and answers to classic...
Read MoreWhen we are Generous: A Counter-Cultural Difference
I’m finishing this brief series on the counter-cultural difference being a follower of Jesus makes by adding to the list of gratitude and providing a non-anxious presence that of being generous. Now I realise that some had hoped I would come out swinging against prevailing attitudes to things like sex and sin and sobriety, but I wanted to shift from passive morality to more active virtues… we are different through active gratitude, through actively leaving a sense of quiet confidence in the goodness of God and through being actively generous. Why generous? It is seriously simple....
Read MoreCounter-culturally non-anxious
To be clear this counter-cultural series is not an exercise in “them and us” with “them” being awful and “us” being amazing. But it is an attempt to dig into the Jesus difference that often becomes apparent in the lives of those who take up the invitation to be a disciple of Jesus the Christ. The last post explored being counter-culturally grateful, this one looks at being non-anxious, or perhaps more accurately, managing the anxiety we have in the light of our faith in Jesus. In short, following Jesus can make a difference to the way we face and work with...
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