The Simple Pastor

I’ve been posting a mini-series on inequality and as always there are others around who are posting on similar themes. Here they are all in one place. Martin Charlesworth has been thinking through a critique of capitalism. First the background and then this first beginnings. Keep an eye on this as more look forthcoming The Why [...]

I’ve recently engaged in a series of articles about inequality. WYTM has kindly let me repost Matt Hosier’s responses as well as my own articles. This is the fifth post in the series – click here for the first, here for the second, here for the third and here for the fourth. I’ve spent most of my efforts so far knocking the arguments [...]

In Acts 20:35 Paul reminds the church at Ephesus these words of Jesus, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Just take a moment to think about whether you believe that or not. How are you more blessed? Do you feel more blessed when you give? It can be easy if you have [...]

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 [...]

So a few days ago in the UK a happiness movement was launched. There’s a few things worth noting here. Firstly the movement rejects materialism as a basis for happiness. “Despite massive material progress, people in Britain and the US are no happier than they were 50 years ago, while there are many societies in [...]

Weddings are tricky things to handle if you’re trying to live with simplicity and generosity in mind. So Luke’s recent post contains some good reflections. “Regardless of your perspective on big fat gypsy weddings, to get married is to invite rampant capitalism into your life. I’m surprised the government hasn’t done more to promote marriage [...]

I recently included a couple of links that dealt with the issue of money and giving with some challenging but wise words on the subject. CS Lewis says, “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can [...]

I recently had an article published in the Newfrontiers magazine. I thought I’d share it here. It’s much longer than most blog posts so I’ve broken it up into three sections: (parts 1, 2 & 3) The Gospel is not a product The challenge for the church, as always, remains to demonstrate through its life [...]

It’s one of Jesus’ most avoided and ignored bits of teaching, if not the most ignored. Most people base their avoidance from Matthew 19:16-30. We are not rich young rulers and we don’t have the same issues as he did, or so we argue. Christians don’t get all excited by new stuff right? But even [...]

Today’s links are all linked by theme of giving (kudos to the observant who noticed the post title change). The billionaire’s giving club continues to grow with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and David Green. John van Dinther has a good reflection on the Christian values underpinning the Green’s business. The giving pledge is a truly [...]

Randy Alcorn is great on giving. Here’s an article and a video The Theology of Generosity from Randy Alcorn on Vimeo.

I tell you what, generosity is really put to the test at two times: when you have a lot and when you have very little. If you can be generous at those times you’ve doing well. This is just an incredible story of generosity and one I’d love to hear more often. Win £6.7 million [...]