The Simple Pastor

I’ve recently been reading John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress (in Swedish – cue applause) and was struck afresh by the following stage of Christian and Steadfast’s journey. “They presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair: … because [...]

That’s basically the findings of this Gallup survey from 2009. While the article itself focuses on the anomaly of religious belief in rich world America; it was this table that for me as a missionary to Sweden, caught my interest. “On the opposite end of the spectrum, the 10 least religious countries studied include several with the world’s [...]

I want to flag up a resource for you that I think will be profoundly helpful to all of us who are recovering consumers. My friend Mark Powley has put a programme together for individuals and small groups to use during Lent this year. Here are the details: This is an invitation to take part [...]

Are you rich? If you answered ‘no’, how much money and assets would you need to consider yourself rich? Mint conducted a survey of Americans and found the following. The thought provoking element is if you add up the percentages from $1 million upwards. That means fully 50% of Americans think you need at least [...]

For a blog that is supposed to have a focus on consumerism and generosity it’s been a while since I posted on the subject. However, I have been stacking up a substantial backlog of posts that I’ve noticed but not quite managed to write about it. This post both clears the decks and gives plenty [...]

Yesterday this letter appeared in The Telegraph from over 200 academics and child experts arguing that ‘children’s well-being and mental health is being undermined by the pressures of modern life’ (HT: Matt Hosier). They sent a similar letter five years previously, clearly little or nothing had changed. It’s why we at Breathe made this little [...]

As the riots appear to calm down so the discussion about the causes of it rises. This won’t die down in a hurry. Here are some early thoughts from around and about but an early contender appears to be consumerism. Early on it seems agreed that these riots became principally about sheer naked greed. Certainly [...]

Over the past few weeks while blogging has been low, I’ve kept my eye on a number of blogs (mostly because Google Reader doesn’t have a holiday option). Here is a collection on simplicity, money and the Gospel. First up is an excellent three part (so far) series by Martin Charlesworth: Does it matter how [...]

Q has a brief article from Carl Trueman on the perils of consumerism, it has some great quotes and insights. I’ve reproduced it all here for discussion. Q: You argue at great length about the negative impact of consumerism on the Church. How has it influenced us? A: In economies that depend upon people buying [...]

Yesterday I made a few comments essentially based on a discussion of David Platt’s book Radical. I said, “There is a danger that in pushing radical sacrifice you leave everyone behind, and those that come with you end up exhausted…” Then today I read an article by Skye Jethani where he says, ‘“How radical do [...]

You might not know who those two gentleman are and why I think they are wrong might not be very important to you. Let me explain. Both of them are mega-church pastors who were involved in the recent Elephant Room conference. Platt is also the author of a book called Radical: Taking back your faith [...]

I want to lift a few things that have been included in the links and draw them to your attention. Mark Meynell recently reviewed Carl Trueman’s Republocrat and this section on capitalism is worth considering, both Trueman’s quotes and Mark’s comments. “Another key theme to the book is the danger of (especially the Christian Right) [...]