Uniform Christianity: A problem within Evangelicalism

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Theology | 7 Comments

I love this picture made by ASBO Jesus, a cartoon blog that I’ve recently decided to follow. The cartoons on it are designed to make people think about moral, ethical, theological and political issues. This particular cartoon caught my eye. Why? Read more

Ethics on the Soap Box: Coronation Street, Dementia and the vows of Marriage

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Ethics | 4 Comments

If you didn’t know already, my guilty pleasure in life is actually Coronation Street. I love it. It’s the funniest out of all the soaps on British TV and it has some great story lines. Yeah, OK, as with all soaps, there are major fires, disasters and murders at least every quarter, but I find Corrie really british, and I’ve grown up with it. But one storyline that a few people have been following recently is a love triangle between characters Eileen, Paul and Lesley. Read more

What happens at The Eucharist/Communion/Lord’s Supper?

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Theology | 4 Comments

I’ve had varying chats about Communion over the years that I’ve been a Christian, and I doubt that they will cease as I grow older, and, eventually, become a vicar. The Eucharist or The Lord’s Supper, or Communion or whatever you call it has been the topic of much discussion, and much schism over the years. And people still want to know what it’s all about. What exactly happens to the bread and wine at the point of blessing? Is it just a memorial or something more? Can anybody do communion, or is it only reserved for the pastor? Is it OK to use coke and crisps for communion? Does the wine have to be alcoholic? Read more

What is faith if you cannot defend it?

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Apologetics | 6 Comments

Today, I’ve been thinking about faith. And today I’ve decided to write a post on faith, and hopefully you will tell me what you think about it. You see, when people think of faith, they attach certain opinions to it, such as…

  • It’s biased
  • It’s ‘blind faith’
  • It has no rationality to it
  • It doesn’t carry any weight
  • It’s a mechanism for coping
And the list goes on. Well, today, I’ve been thinking specifically about Christian faith (I hope you don’t mind if I talk about Christian faith, because this blog is primarily Christian; though input from other philosophies and religions will be most welcome). And the result of my thinking was this Twitter Status (and the title of this post):

It’s occurred to me that faith isn’t very valuable if we cannot defend it. What do I mean by this? Read more

The key to John Wesley’s success.

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Church, Devotional, Ethics | Leave a comment

Yesterday at Small Group we started a new series in Galatians. We concentrated on the first 10 verses of Chapter 1:

1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! 10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Read more

God does not “show up”.

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in God | 12 Comments

When I was the worship coordinator at Cardiff Univeristy Christian Union, I remember a specific time when a group of us were praying ready for the weekly meeting. The speaker for that week and a little following of his also joined in the praying. At the end of the prayer session, the speaker went round all of us asking us the usual things; name, age, course, what we did in the CU and all that. But when he came to me and asked what I did, he asked in the most serious, non joking manner… “So, have you prayed to ask God if he’ll show up this evening?” To which I replied, Read more

A cure for homosexuality?

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Current Affairs, Ethics | 2 Comments


When Christian groups start advertising therapy for homosexuality, it gets my back up; not because of the advertising, but the way and context in which it is advertised. Read more

God chooses to be powerless? What?!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Apologetics, God, Jesus, Theology | 3 Comments

I’ve been doing a lot of work recently that involves talking about the nature of God. When talking about the nature of God, you often find yourself trying to explain things that contradict God’s nature, especially the fact that we live in a world of suffering, evil and pain. Before we go any further, I just want to point out that this post isn’t going to be as morbid as I’ve started it out to be! Read more

Big Read 2012: Week 4: Challenges “Can everybody play?” @BigBible #BigRead12

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Megan Paull Posted in Big Read 2012, Jesus | Leave a comment

Week 4 of the Big Read 2012 gave us a chance to look at Mark 8: 27-37; 9: 30-37 as a Small Group. In the passage Jesus asks the disciples “Who do you say I am?” – He’s concerned with who the disciples believe Him to be and what the word on the street is about Him. But what interested us was the power in the name of Jesus; what it means to do something in Jesus’ name; and who gets to play!? Read more

Big Read 2012: Week 3: Expectations “Your Identity” @BigBible #BigRead12

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Dean Roberts Posted in Big Read 2012, Jesus | Leave a comment

Tonight at small group, we continued our Lent Course – being a part of the Big Read 2012, going through Mark’s Gospel. Tonight found us at Mark 7:1-13, which gives us insight into Jesus’ teaching on being clean before God as well as various other things. Throughout the discussion, we talked and chatted about many things, but the one prevailing theme that kept coming up was Read more

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11   Next »