These reflections come after spending a day with Hope into Action at their annual conference, Rooted: Homelessness Ends in Community. In particular, they were stirred afresh while listening to the seminar Rethinking Poverty and Our Response with Jon Kuhrt and Rachel Arnold, both shaped by the wider imagination of Together for the Common Good and the work of Jenny Sinclair. For those familiar with these voices, there will be little here that is entirely new. I am simply trying

A few rambling thoughts on church growth, “quiet revival”, and ministry in a secular age. Mainly for vicary types and an update from something I wrote a few years ago. —— Over the past year or so there has been a lot of talk about church growth, spiritual openness, and even the possibility of “quiet revival” in the UK. Newspaper articles appear. Podcasts get excited. Somebody notices twenty-year-olds attending Evensong in London and suddenly we are apparently one step away fr

Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus did not simply describe the Kingdom of God—he enacted it. He preached, “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news,” and then he lived it: healing the sick, forgiving sin, welcoming the overlooked, confronting what dehumanises, and laying down his life in self-giving love. This Kingdom—the reign of God—is not removed from the real world. It presses into it. It speaks into how we order our common life—socially, politi

The Jesus follower is a cultural outsider—a misfit who does not quite fit within the machinery of the world. They live slightly out of step, swimming against the current, hearing a different music, learning to walk to its rhythm. There is something about following Jesus that makes normal life feel strange. Or perhaps it makes us realise how strange “normal” has become. We may dress our faith in the language of philosophy, speak with cultural fluency, and even find ourselves i