The Cayman Islands government is again looking at the possibility of liberalising its Sunday trading laws. Public meetings have garnered next-to-no interest one way or the other. Even in George Town only 40 people turned up to the meeting (I was not one of them – partly because I don’t live in George Town, partly … More Sunday Trading: there’s no choice

David Cameron recently decided to make the statement that Britain is a “Christian country”, which it quite clearly isn’t in any functioning way (even though many of its underpinning laws and practices are Christian in origin). The Church of England, for example, contains many great and godly men, women and churches but is riddled with … More Britain is Not a Christian Country

‘Beating Satan to a Pulp’, ‘Redeeming the World a Million Converts at a Time’, ‘Conquering Spiritual Army on the Move’…those would make way cooler headings for 2014’s Discipleship Focus here at Google ‘exciting personal devotions’ and this comes up. First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman. Maybe one day I’ll try and get away with doing … More Discipleship Focus for 2014: Personal Devotions

Preaching about bereavement here at First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman on Sunday was almost as intimidating as it was a privilege. Having an albeit limited amount of training and experience in grief counselling, it has been a concern of mine for a number of years that many people are suffering great, debilitating and ongoing pain … More Is Jesus Enough…When I’ve Lost a Loved One?

5 x 3 x 85 = 1,275 is my favourite sum of the moment, and one that came to mind after last week’s Vacation Bible School here at First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman. I grew up in a church that averaged 40-45 members throughout the 25 years I was there – a beacon of … More Why I Love (Our) Vacation Bible School

“I’m sending you love.” As an alternative to, “I’m repossessing the love”, or wilfully ignoring people, it’s clearly a good thing, but I don’t know that it goes much further. Which isn’t a criticism of anyone who’s written that phrase in a Facebook comments field – after all, my ability to meaningfully encourage my 578 … More The Community Mandate 2: Encouraging

Do it. Do. It.  Because God says so. Christian Community, that is. I tried to write this post a couple of days ago but got myself sidetracked by notions of obligation and the word “mandate” and wrote this instead. As Christians we all want to please our Heavenly Father, right? Well, “doing” community is one … More The Community Mandate 1: Accountability

Preaching topically scares me. It should be easy, right? The whole of the Bible to pick texts from, less pressure to take any one verse down to it’s sub-atomic level, and yet as I sat down last week to prepare a topical sermon on ‘Revive us, Lord, through Small Groups’ I felt lost. Lost because, … More Christian Community