Persevering

What does it mean to persevere? Why is it an important part of our discipleship? And how we encourage ourselves and each other to persevere?

Worship

What is worship? That was a question I was asked at a job interview, which, frankly, I made a bit of a mess of answering… This is one of my attempts at a better answer!

Story of Faith

What’s your story of faith? What have been the ups and downs on your journey so far? How does that help spur you on and sustain you during the hard times? Those are the questions that Hebrews chapter 11 raises, continuing on from looking at Abraham’s journey of faith last week.

Abraham’s faith

This sermon is about faith in the dark times. It was in response to a tragedy: one of our church teenagers, Kieran, recently drowned whilst on holiday in France. This has, of course, been devastating for the family, and upsetting for many of us: he was well-known, well-liked and people had watched him grow up…

Ascension 13

What is the Ascension? Why is it so important? I think that a lot of even regular church-goers might well struggle to answer those questions. Emmanuel church’s West window depicts the Ascension and it was the 75th anniversary of the window’s dedication. That therefore seemed like a good time to get us to think about…

Confidence

What do we have confidence in? The lectionary readings seemed to me to be exploring that question this week. I was preaching in another church in the deanery, as part of a ‘pulpit swap’ which is always a bit of a challenge; not least because in some ways it’s harder to preach if you don’t…

Leap of Faith

This was my first sermon after being licensed in my new parish and was based on the lectionary readings for Passion Sunday. I hoped to encourage and challenge people for a new start after a long vacancy.