Will the Church please leave the building?

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Mission, Serving | 2 Comments

Thinking about the Church, Mission and Discipleship over the last few weeks, there have been two things that have focussed my concentration:

1) The Priesthood of All Believers

2) Future Patterns of Ministry.

Firstly, the Read more

Training for Church Ministry: It’s Essential!

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Mission, Rant!, Serving | 5 Comments

Caution! – This post may be controversial! I’m not claiming to be an expert on this issue. I’m merely a 20 year old theology student who’s being taught by an incredible God about ministry and the path he has called me to for the rest of my life. This post applies to me as much as anyone else! And of course, I may be wrong on this issue – but I shall leave that with you to consider

Don’t tell me that someone can go into full time Church ministry without some sort of training. I mean, in the past, people have tried to justify people’s lack of training for ministry because Read more

The Facilitator

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Mission, Serving | Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word ‘Facilitator’ today. Because it was today that I was asked to lead worship for the New Wine Cymru South East Wales Regional Conference. And I have to say, I was deeply encouraged. New Wine exists Read more

The Brutality of Ministry: Service, Standards and Shortcomings

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Serving | Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role of a pastor, minister, vicar, priest, (whatever) in the church, and the sheer weight of responsibility that’s contained within that role. It seems like I’ve not been the only one as there has been quite a lot of talk about the role of pastor in ministry and how those who lead a church (whatever they may be called) are to practice Read more

If I’m a Christian and I’m part of a church, should I serve?

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Serving | 1 Comment

Most of you who are reading this post will know the answer to this question. If you’ve found your way to this blog through a search engine like Google, then you may possibly be feeling guilty that you’re in a church and you’re taking a back seat and letting everyone else get on with the hard graft. Others of you may just have become a Christian. You’re new to all this stuff, and so you want to know how you can put your faith in to practice in terms of making it alive and real, and reaching out to others who don’t know Jesus yet, and to help bless and serve your church family. Read more

Leaders & Races

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Serving | Leave a comment

30%

That is the percentage of church leaders that finish the race, and finish it well.

Whatever weight you ascribe to statistics, the Read more

McDonalds, Atheist Altruism and the Christian Gospel

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Evangelism, Mission, Serving | 4 Comments

What, you may ask, is Altruism? Of course, you already know what McDonalds is! Altruism “…is the renunciation of the self, and an exclusive concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and a core aspect of various religious traditions, though the concept of ‘others’ toward whom concern should be directed can vary among religions. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness.” Today, in my RSS reader, a very interesting blog post was written on Read more

Mental Health and Vicars

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Current Affairs, Serving | 4 Comments

Results from a survey that has recently been published state that more needs to be done concerning the mental health and wellbeing of clergy.

~~BRIN UK~~ Morgan Lewis Consultants carried out the survey with sponsorship from St Luke’s Healthcare for the Clergy to see what the feeling was amongst a cross section of vicars, both active and retired.

Unfortunately, Read more

Unity

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Day-to-Day, Devotional, Evangelism, Mission, Serving, The Body Of Christ | 2 Comments

The Christian Church is one church. It is not many different ones. It is one body. It is one temple. It is one bride.

The idea of unity within Christianity has been making me think a lot recently, and it has occurred to me just how important it is within the wider context of Read more

Why we should never give up on Social Justice

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Dean Roberts Posted in Current Affairs, Life Issues, Mission, Serving | 5 Comments

A recent article published by the BBC reported that the G8 summit has revealed that there is a $19bn gap in pledges to donate money towards aid in poor countries. David Cameron has made it clear that the UK Read more