On New Year eve a short reflection in the face of what we might be hoping to avoid in 2022, after the experience of 2020 and 2021…So as we go into 2022, how is your perception? Are you suffering from target fixation and perceptual narrowing? Ar

When Faith Falters- Facing Loss Without Losing Your Faith

Nov 27th, 2021 8m 47s

Faith often falters in the face of suffering and loss. Christianity is not about avoiding suffering through some name it and claim it superstition, and it is also not a stoical fatalism and the mere acceptance of fate. Instead, it is something

Everything's NOT Going To Be Alright And That's Alright

Oct 29th, 2021 6m 51s

Denial does not protect but traps us and deceives us, keeping us from the experience of death and resurrection. Just as its opposite psychological sibling, fatalism overwhelms and destroys us, keeping us buried in the tomb of loss. Both snuff o

The Great Revealing: COVID shows us what was already there

Sep 30th, 2021 5m 26s

Perhaps COVID is the great compression, an intensifier, and the great revealing. What has manifest was already there, something underneath that came to the surface under the intense pressures of COVID. COVID was not the cause of many things. It

A Great Awakening - Why It's Not To Late To Be Who You Were Meant To Be - 14:08:2021, 17

Aug 14th, 2021 10m 22s

So many words have been used to chronicle and delineate this pandemic. The great _____(insert your choice of adverbial word or phrase); reset, leveller, pause, accelerator, resignation, etc. I prefer the descriptor of 'disruption'. Perhaps the

Stay Awake - Why This Might Be The Most Dangerous Time - 31:07:2021, 18

Jul 31st, 2021 10m 22s

We are entering what is known as the 'recovery phase' of a disaster, and it is the most prolonged phase, taking years. Adrenalin is spent. Exhaustion sets in. Losses have to be counted and processed. Rebuilding in the face of loss takes an effo

Extra ECC - Public & Private Faith

Jun 6th, 2021 4m 4s

Since March last year, I have been working on a project that is almost ready to launch. I have made over twenty long-form interviews with Christian leaders, from three worlds of the academic, social entrepreneurship and prayer. We have called

How To Read The Bible Well - Interview With Dr Stephen Burnhope

May 21st, 2021 57m 17s

The truth is this: Christians need no permission in order to read God’s Word. God delights in speaking to his followers, as they read his Word. But there is another truth. We can also be very bad at reading the Bible. So how on earth are you an

Discipleship, Theology and Neuroscience

Apr 30th, 2021 3m 25s

In this short podcast update, I share about two projects you can listen to. An interview about discipleship and 'replanting' church in a post COVID world. Then the other is a collaboration, where I and my friend Dr Geoff Holsclaw, like many in

If A Christian Does Something But Doesn't Post It On Social Media, Did It Really Happen?

Apr 10th, 2021 16m 22s

If A Christian Does Something But Doesn't Post It On Social Media, Did It Really Happen? by Jason Swan Clark

I'm Not Coping - The Greatest Confession Of Faith?

Mar 26th, 2021 18m

Today’s post is about the first steps for getting help with mental illness. Steps that are not about any lack of faith but are the most important confession of faith to learn to make. It takes courage to say those words, "I am not coping". It

Have You Hit The COVID Wall? Why Not Doing Might Be The Answer

Mar 12th, 2021 11m 53s

I have hit the COVID wall. I am sick of the sound of my own voice as I talk with others for planning, caring, responding, leading. I am, moreover, fed up with my voice in my head. With the promise of coming out of COVID, I am so suddenly exhaus

A Reluctant Journey - Do You Need Help With Your Mental Health?

Feb 28th, 2021 13m 9s

(This is part 2 of a series as a podcast what will be a book on mental health and faith)Mental illness is a journey none of us wants to undertake, but we can only refuse it for so long once it comes upon us. For the longer we deny its effects

Why we believe lies and why fact checking does not work

Feb 13th, 2021 12m 49s

Let me introduce you to The Illusory Truth Effect. This is the cognitive bias (remember that means a mental processing error). The repetition of a statement and claim makes us more likely to believe it. In other words, just hearing a lie, again

My Tribe: A Very Personal Assessment Of My Church Movement

Jan 27th, 2021 15m 16s

So this week my church network has moved its annual conference online. Another sadness under COVID that instead of meeting in person as we do each year with old and new friends from around the UK, we will instead be online. But as we meet, star

Help for your journey: My new mental health and faith series

Jan 22nd, 2021 13m 47s

The chances are that you are reading or listening to this because you need help, or you are trying to support someone else you know, love and care about. You are not on your own, even though it might feel like it. Mental illness is something yo

Comparisons of Hate: Capitol Hill, DC - A Response

Jan 9th, 2021 7m 57s

It is distressing to see people I know and love resorting to comparisons of hate. Families, and church members, cross-post against each other on social media and cannot speak to each other in person. Your sides awful behaviour, lies, violence,

Strange Love: What does it mean when people say they 'love' Jesus?

Dec 31st, 2020 15m 55s

I don't need to explain loving my wife, or my children. But love for Jesus remains and sounds strange to modern ears. As if some apologetic is needed to justify why love and relationship are possible let alone normal with regards to Jesus.

Do you know how you are really doing?

Dec 12th, 2020 11m 47s

Have you noticed when you ask your friends how they are, they might at present be saying 'I don't know?' You might have found that question hard to answer in COVID too. But what if there was a way to get a better handle on how we are doing, to

Walking Backwards - The Safest Way To Go Into 2021

Dec 4th, 2020 8m 59s

You will have to steer a course into and through 2021, to decide how you are going to navigate in the face of all that impinges upon your hopes desire and plans. Suppose denial and despondency are not suitable pathways. How instead are Christia

What Does It Take To Lead A Network Of Churches In A Pandemic?

Nov 27th, 2020 7m 13s

Leading ourselves and a church is challenging in a pandemic. But what does it take to lead a network of churches in COVID? In my interview with Andy Smith, I got to ask him that very question.

Crazy, Mad and Bad: Shouldn't being a Christian make you a kinder person?

Nov 18th, 2020 7m 36s

There might be out of the billions of people in the world, a great number of horrible people who call themselves Christians. You can meet them online anytime. But right now in church communities, are people you will never meet online, who are d

Andy Smith #3 - The Prophetic

Nov 12th, 2020 7m 39s

Have you ever thought I know God can speak to people, but why are those who claim he does, so crazy, deranged and damaging? Well, there is another way, and I dare to suggest it is the way God does speak today.I have been on the receiving end

Why Paying Attention To Your Disappointments Is Key - 06:11:2020, 12.43

Nov 6th, 2020 15m 33s

Death is the great interrupter and revealer of our story. So are the unexpected moments of life, the things that arrest our story, like a serious illness, redundancy, divorce, and now a pandemic. Our disappointments like nothing else reveal the

Andy Smith Interview #2 - How are you navigating all things COVID?

Oct 27th, 2020 7m 33s

Like many of us, you might be struggling to know how to understand what we are facing and what we ought to do. In this clip from my interview with Andy Smith, we get some wise advice on what we really face. And best of all some wisdom and cla