Zooming In. Providence sometimes displays a sense of humour. A couple of months ago, just before the Covid-19 lockdown started, and churches and homegroups were suddenly prevented from meeting, I read a book on conferencing, and it has been on my...
Read moreIs Church Essential?
Is Church Essential? One thing that the Covid-19 crisis has done is to expose what we think really matters- what we have to have, and what we can do without. Haircuts may come in the second category- but toilet roll is probably in the...
Read moreSchooling While Stuck at Home
Schooling while stuck at home by Jason and Andrea Stoddard We’ve gotten lots of funny responses in our 6 months in Düsseldorf when people ask where our daughter, Ava, is in school. Our answer, “Nowhere! We home school!” Our family is in...
Read moreThe empty tomb and the empty cross
The empty tomb and the empty cross Two years ago, I visited Israel for the Gafcon conference. After dumping my bag at the hotel, I walked the two miles into the old city of Jerusalem. There, hidden in the heart of a labyrinth of little...
Read moreLooking along the little things
I have spent a lot of the last two weeks on the telephone, calling members of the church to see how they are during the Covid-19 crisis. What I have discovered is both encouraging and humbling. There is some worry and frustration, but very little...
Read moreFamily Worship
Family Worship 1 O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old– 3 what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. 4 We will...
Read moreThings to do during Corona
Things to do during Corona. I am a classic introvert: so if someone tells me to self-isolate, I am likely to leap with joy. Well no, that would be far to extrovert; a smile of quiet satisfaction is more likely. Others will look on the...
Read moreOnline services
The last week seems like an eternity. Here at Christ Church we took the difficult decision to suspend services due to the Covid-19 outbreak, a decision which the German government enforced. The very meaning of a church is that it is a family of...
Read moreHallowed Be Your Name
Talk from the Christ Church Prayer Service, 1st December 2019 Introduction We are continuing to walk, line-by-line through the Lord’s Prayer. The first lesson, that we learnt last month, was that we must begin by remembering to whom we are...
Read moreOn the first Sunday of every month at Christ Church, at 6pm, we have a prayer service. We gather for a short talk from the Bible, and a time of open prayer. One very helpful way to pray is to use the Lord’s Prayer as a series of hooks to...
Read moreThe Sermon on the Mount
One of the most beautiful places on earth is the hills to the West of the Sea of Galilee, in Israel. I was there in June 2018, on a baking hot day, with a group of fellow-delegates to the Gafcon Conference in Jerusalem. We had driven from...
Read moreNotre Dame at Easter
Why did the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral this week evoke such horror and grief in those of us who are neither French nor Roman Catholics? The answer is, I think, simple: it was beautiful. Moreover, its beauty was something that we may have...
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