Exploring Jesus’ call to Levi in Luke’s Gospel — When we examine or think about a person’s character, there is an age-old adage that asserts that we can gauge it by the company they keep. So, hey Jesus, what’s the deal? Why ARE you keeping company with a ragbag group of society rejects, low-class people and “sinners”? “After this…

And I use the word “art” loosely with some of these shockers. — I am by no means an art connoisseur — although I greatly enjoy looking at some types of religious art. I can quickly lose myself inside the National Gallery in London for a few hours, especially if I stay in the section where Renaissance art can be found. I’m less…

The last one is THE weirdest thing I’ve ever seen… — Anyone following my Memoir series knows I dabble in graphic design. Indeed, if I may be so bold, I was once — when I practised more — very accomplished in Photoshop et al. Nowadays, I’m a bit out of practice — but I still get called upon when the church…

More examples of terrible “design” on religious books — According to the Internet, it was George Elliot in the 1860 novel The Mill on the Floss who first coined this eternal maxim: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Except, you very often CAN judge books by their covers, especially when they are as eye-wateringly bad as the…

The latest collection of bad-taste Christianity — Here in the UK, Christian bookshops have withered on the vine over the years. It’s now hard to find a Christian book store outside those large churches or cathedrals — which often double up as coffee or gift shops. When I was a fresh-faced young Christian in the late 1980s…

So stop pretending you can predict the date… — Has your home ever been broken into? I’ve only had that experience once. It happened well over 30 years ago when I served my curacy (trainee vicar) on a tough housing estate on the outskirts of Bradford, my home city in the North of England. I heard a noise upstairs…

Thinking more about something I often see in my comments — I’ve written several Medium stories about the decline of the church in contemporary society. Plenty of people dive into my comments to tell me I’m being overly pessimistic. I get a whole range of pushback — stuff like this… My church is growing, and we have plenty of young families… …

Remembering the disciple, missionary and martyr. — November 30th is the day in the Christian Calendar when the faithful remember the life and ministry of St Andrew. But what do YOU know about him? Read on as we explore NINE things you might not have known about Andrew. 1. He had a Greek background. The name “Andrew” is the English form of “Andreas”…

A bonus post in my Memoir series… — Those of you who have been following my memoirs series here on Medium know that it wrapped up last week after an epic series of 32 — yes, really — posts. If you made it through to the end, “Thank You” — for your persistence… You might have noticed that…