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Christmas Holiday or real Commitment to the real Saviour.

Bells and Baubles are so prominent at the moment on our Christmas trees and in our shop windows. The glitter and the tinsel sparkle in the festive lights, seductively drawing us closer, enticing us to buy more to stash more presents under the tree. After all it's the season for giving, or is it. Bells may ring and baubles dangle but Bethlehem is where my thoughts are at the moment. Not on giving but on sacrifice. Remember the sacrifice that Joseph made when he took Mary, already pregnant, to be his wife. Or the sacrifice, Mary made to reveal to her family that she was carrying a child, despite the ridicule and shame that would result from this revelation. The sacrifice that the Shepherds made to leave their flocks in the hills, at the mercy of predators, just to get a glimpse of God. Let us not forget God who made the ultimate sacrifice to give up His son to a sinful and forgetful world. Let us also remember the hundreds, if not thousands of people, who give up their day to serve u...
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Composition verses Performance a reflective homily.

  Composition verses Performance. What is the difference between perfection and a great copy? When I look at the life of Christ and read what the Gospel writers wrote about him, I see a perfection that we as Christians can never hope to emulate. We are imperfect human beings, we have flaws, we have failings. But, every now and again we humans come very close to that perfection. Think of the great composers of the 18th century, men such as Mozart or Beethoven, Elgar (my own favourite)   and we must not forget Bach. All these men composed music, they created music and as they composed, it is said that they heard the whole orchestra in their minds perform it. They brought about perfection that over the centuries has been performed by many others, but never to the same level. Some have come close but they could never perform to the same stratospheric standard as that original performance conducted by the composer themselves. So, when I look at the life of Christ I see p...
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Miracles do still happen

 Here is something I published a few years ago, I was reminded of it recently , it is still relevant. An Extract from my book "In Search of Ophir" Peter Dodd was diagnosed with Leukaemia when he was 3 and given a 15% chance to make it! I was a Christian; the rest of the family weren’t. Pete got a fungal infection that spread throughout his body, was taken off his leukaemia treatment, and put into isolation. Drips that were supposed to last twelve hours only lasted six! Treatment was still experimental, but the choice was to have no treatment and die, or try and see what happened! There was also the chance he might go into organ failure! He became very ill and was dying; all he could move were his eyes. You could not touch him as he was too sore. It became a waiting game. Peter’s mum, Diane Dodd, saw the Easter convention was on at McChlery Assembly and the minister had a healing ministry. Diane went to church as a “last resort”. As she walked to the church, she was met by Yvo...
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Christian Leaders: Holding these truths in Tension.

  Holding these truths in Tension. Jesus tells us two things. One in Matthew 28, we must spread the good news and make disciples of people and secondly he tells Peter, in the Gospel of John, to feed his sheep. In the fields and on the hills that surround my house you will see many sheep. They eat the nutrient rich grass, on which they grow fat. They have their lambs in spring and like all herd animals they bleat. For the most part they have a rather placid, quiet life. The sheep dog on the other hand is a working animal. It has a job to do. At the command of the shepherd, this lean mean working machine rounds up and directs the fat docile sheep in the direction that the shepherd wants them to go. In my mind this is a perfect picture of the church. The sheep are the congregation. The sheep dogs are the leaders and the shepherd, as always, is Jesus. While this may be a perfect picture of the church, is it a true picture of the church?   Let me try and equate this to ma...
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Christian Leadership and the Ideals of a Progressive Ideology.

  Ideals of a Progressive Ideology. I am White Heterosexual Male and I am a Christian. These are the four most dangerous characteristics a person could have at present. This   means in the eyes of those who follow a progressive ideology, that I am the lowest of the low, a scum bag and I swim in the filth and slime of all that is wrong in this world.   I am an oppressor, a racist and I have white privilege ingrained in my DNA. I am a Transphobe   who, by my very existence are a violent threat to those who have no idea what gender they are. I am violent   through my language and my micro-aggressions, these are offenses so slight that just standing in a person's presence could offend them.   I am by definition a misogynist and as a male I am unsafe when around women or those that identify as a woman. I am also a bigot, a real and present threat to society, the LGBTQI+ community and the world at large.   However I am told that there is ...
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The relevance of Leadership and Ministry: God is still in Control

 Below is a variant of something I wrote in 2014. I am still relevant, BUT GOD...   It has been 22 years since I left my homeland behind because of the fiddling and ranting and raving of a despot and dictator. I became part of a Diaspora whose heart and blood still longs for the sights and sounds and smells of Africa.   BUT GOD,  has had other plans and on my sojourn- first in New Zealand and now in the United Kingdom I have learnt many new things. It has been 22 years of teaching, lecturing, and preaching about leadership, Christian leadership development and ministry values, and principles. In that time, I have had the great privilege to meet many great men and women of God, people who have spoken into my life and given me great insights. It has also been a time where I have seen brilliant church leadership and very poor church leadership. It has been a time where I have seen human failings and weaknesses in all manner of church leaders both successful and ...
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Christian Leadership rethinking mega churches and their leadership.

    Jesus the first mega church leader? I first wrote this blog in February 2021 but with recent happenings in Australia and America and the fall out, I felt compelled  to rewrite it. I have begun to question the way I view these churches.  I have been to several very famous Mega churches scattered around the world and I have been in many churches aspiring to become mega churches. Some I have loved and enjoyed immensely, others left me cold and uncomfortable. The feeling of discomfort and unease always revolved around the leader, it always left me with the question, why? I fervently believe that there is a place for the mega church in our great metropolitan cities, but not with many of the leaders of these churches. We need to seriously question their ethics, morals, and their character by which they portray Christ Jesus With all things our starting point and standard must be Jesus. After all he was the churches first mega church leader. Once he had to feed h...
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