What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • Sermon – The Proud Young Man

    I was preaching today for the first time in about six weeks and had a lot of fun doing so. You can hear what I had to say here or read it below.

    There is something terribly tricky about young men who get excited about religion.

    I remember a number of years ago. I was training to be ordained and was doing an internship in a congregation in Edinburgh in Scotland. Like very many Episcopalians, I did not grow up as an Anglican. I’d come from a background in the Salvation Army and been through many different types of congregation on my journey. I’d been baptist and non-denominational. I’d been just about everything as I searched for the truth.

    And finally, I found what I was looking for in the Scottish Episcopal Church. There I found a church which in which beauty mattered, holiness mattered, worship mattered. It was a church which could cope with the radical theology that had excited me at college and it was a church that had the exotica of every liturgical practise of the ages.

    You know how it is.
    (more…)

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3 responses to “25 More Questions for people who want to make their churches grow”

  1. Janet Avatar
    Janet

    ‘In the next month are you more likely to spend time on ecumenical activities or church growth activities?’ Do you have to chose between these two activities? Are they mutually exclusive?

    Reply
    1. Kelvin Avatar
      Kelvin

      Yes, that’s exactly the kind of choice many people do face frequently.

      The point really is that we all have choices to make and limited time. Churches which grow often have people in them who give up other worthy and worthwhile things to help make them grow.

      Reply
  2. Dharma N. Cuthbert Avatar
    Dharma N. Cuthbert

    Obviously I have read the 25 more things etc. Although I am a member of the local church,. The volunteer coordinator is not known to me. I have been attending the church for 14 months. Children are welcome to attend the church, as long as they don’t annoy the harpies. Recently a family who were involved in the music played in the church. Apparently there child was a bit of a handful, and one of the congregation said something about this,to the parents. Now they worship in a Church of Scotland, and will not be back.
    This leads to some people also leaving. I now pay for a bus to Inverness and go to the Cathedral’s services. If this continues the church will not survive. In one sense that may not be bad, this church is one of two joined together. As far as I know the entire congregation have cars, so travelling to the sister church would not be a problem. The comments are perhaps not immediately apparent, in the way you have written the list.

    Reply

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