Best preaching lessons
By Sandy Grant If you're a preacher of God's word, what's the best preaching lesson you've ever learned? See if you can jot down your answer before you read on, and then perhaps share it in the comments section. It was Russell Moore's absolutely excellent post a few weeks ago that caused me to reflect on this question: Your first few sermons are always terrible,

How to encourage your kids’ Sunday school teachers
By Nicole Starling On Sunday mornings, I come to church wearing two hats: parent and Sunday school teacher. Drawing on my experiences from both roles, I thought I'd put together a few thoughts about how parents can encourage our children's secondary ‘disciplers’ (in this case, their Sunday school teachers) to keep doing the job with perseverance, diligence and joy. It's a somewhat random list based mainly on my own frustrations and joys over the years. I'd love to hear your additions to the lis

Please hurt me, I’m not a masochist
By Paul Grimmond I have an admission, and it's time to make it public: I suffer from CPA (Chronic Pain Avoidance) syndrome. I hate conflict, so I try to avoid saying things that will cause it. I don't like physical pain, so I try not to exercise too hard. My eight-year-old son gave me what he describes as a squeeze cuddle the other day, and my ribs hurt for the next 24 hours. The older I get, the more pain-averse I become. But it's not good for me. I need my friends to hurt me. I have been l

Self-knowledge for godliness and ministry (Part 5)
By Mark Baddeley Jennie and I have been discussing personality theories as a worked example of

Bethlehemian rhapsody
By Gordon Cheng I feel a bit wrong posting this video to the Sola Panel as an actual contribution, but if I were God, this is how apologetics would be done: We take it as read that no-one can really match the voice of Freddie Mercury, but there is a residual genius here, of the 70s uber-pop variety.