The Ponderings of a Meandering Minister…
Last year I shared my wee booklet of daily readings gleaned from the Vanderbilt Lectionary website, here’s the one for this year, which begins Thursday 30 November 2023. You’re welcome to view/download and use!
There are many ways of reading through the Bible. When I was in my late teens, I devoured it, my Bible from those days is covered in red underlinings! I’ve used various devotional books and Bible reading notes. When I was doing a lot of driving, I listened to ‘The Bible in a Year’ in … Read moreDaily Lectionary Readings
It’s a beautiful morning and I’m sitting outside with coffee and breakfast in the sunshine before the noise of the day starts. It’s a Bank Holiday weekend. It should be the perfect, relaxing day… However, it’s not! Even sitting in the sunshine that’s warm already at 8.30am there’s no escaping what’s going on in the … Read moreAsk, Seek, Knock
On Remembrance Sunday 2016 I was standing at the war memorial in Ballynahinch, chatting with another minister before the Remembrance Ceremony about getting ready for the birth of our fourth child, who was due almost a month later. Little did we know, that by the following Sunday the baby would be born and our eldest … Read morePreacher, Preach to Yourself
In January the Methodist Church in Ireland encouraged us to consider the theme, “Covenant and Choosing” so we could take extra time on the meaning and impact of the ‘Covenant Prayer‘. The third service focused on Christ at the Centre, using Luke 10:1-12. What follows is an excerpt of the script I was working from … Read more12 Practical Tips On How To Do What Jesus Wants Us To Do
I think it’s great that there are accessible, readable translations of the Bible available to us today. I certainly don’t know enough Greek or Hebrew to read the original, so I’m glad when many fine scholars put in years of work to produce English translations for our age and culture. One of the problems related … Read moreBible Translations
I’m in the middle of a placement/summer post with a church in North Belfast, concentrating on pastoral visiting and preaching. Regarding preaching, colerainejane on the Speakeasy asked me the following questions… I thought I’d blog the answers: How do you think we judge it though – by how we feel, by what people say, by … Read morePreaching…