Are you a ‘kingdom builder’ or a ‘church builder’ or even an ’empire builder’? Or maybe you’re not a builder at all? As we embark upon a new series this autumn entitled Kingdom Builders it is helpful to look at exactly what the Bible means by ‘kingdom’ and in what sense we, as believers […]
Liberation-Shaped Mission
As part of our new summer series Little People, Big God, we are embarking upon a journey through the book of Exodus, taking 12 sermons to cover the first 20 chapters. Exodus is perhaps a more contentious book in Christian theology than we may realise. To see why, let’s remind ourselves of the process of […]
Growing & Changing Together
Growth in a church – both spiritual and numerical – always involves change. In any church, excepting the tiny minority who simply do not want to grow, there may still be something in all of us that says ‘I want the church to grow … but not to change’. Yet, growth is change. There are […]
Living In The Light: Money, Sex and Power
Money, sex and power. Weapons for good or for bad? Far from seeing these as an unholy trinity of temptation and vice, God in fact created all three to be used for his great aims in human history. Using Not Abusing We hope to spend January and February in our morning services exploring how […]
Church Governance Matters !
As the US election approaches, I am reminded of a single week in November 2012 when 126 million Americans voted for their President, 1.3 billion Chinese were informed about their new politburo leaders and 60 million Coptic Orthodox believers had the identity of their new Pope revealed when a blindfolded boy picked his name from […]
Growing Numbers, Growing Disciples
We often hear statistics about declining numbers in the UK church, yet many local churches are bucking the trend. Why do some churches grow and others don’t? Is this a question of theology and God’s sovereign choice, or of geography and population changes, or are there tangible things a church can do to grow numerically? […]
Ever Changing Times!
“Don‘t long for the good old days. This is not wise.” Ecclesiastes 7:10, NLT “Do not say, ‘Why is it that the earlier days were better than these?‘ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” Ecclesiastes 7:10, Baker OT Commentary The way we see the past, the present and the future determines our […]
Angelology
Angels are everywhere! Or at least, everywhere in pop songs, children’s literature, films and Valentines cards. They’ve even been in a string of recent Cambray sermons. Yet they hardly seem to fit with our term’s theme, Grow Up, Grow Deep in Christ, despite the Bible’s 196 references across 34 books. Or do they? Angels, a […]
Fear God, question experience!
How do we know what we know? Through experience? Or through ‘fear of the LORD’? Such philosophical musings on the nature of knowledge (‘epistemology’) may seem out of place in a church magazine article, yet not in the Bible. As we use our morning series to investigate the fear of the LORD in […]
Who You Should Vote For – Revealed !
With the general election just days away, you may be feeling excited about the chance to engage in the democratic process. Alternatively, you may be feeling numbed by the wall-to-wall media coverage, as parties attempt to win your support. Perhaps you’re feeling both. The Evangelical Alliance recently polled more than 2000 evangelical Christians in the […]
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Bible
In the last week, have you done any of the following: eaten pork sausage, worn clothes made of two types of fabric, come before God wearing glasses or shaved? If so, you have surely violated the eternal and unchanging Law of the LORD. Or !maybe that’s not quite right. But how do we interpret and […]
We wish you a Chinese Christmas
Each year, more and more of China’s 1.37 billion people are saying to each other ‘sheng dan kuai le’ – Merry Christmas! Much like the UK, Christmas in China represents a major commercial opportunity, first for exporting plastic Christmas decorations to Europe and the US, but also for Chinese shoppers in the country’s vast malls, […]
Milk or Meat?
Are you a milky Christian or a meaty one? The infant formula kind or a steak-on-the-plate believer? Recently I felt more than a little chastised by the tone of the writer to the Hebrews, who gets frustrated with his readers in Hebrews 5:11 – 6:4 for still living on spiritual milk – the foundational […]
The World Cup – a matter of life and death?
By the time you read this, England’s World Cup dream in Brazil will be over. Finished. Done and dusted. After the obligatory period of national mourning, national moaning begins. If there is a silver lining, it is that we can now spend more time exercising rather than watching sport on TV. For others, we can’t […]
The End Is Just The Beginning !
This summer term we will spend time on Sundays looking at both the last book of the Bible as well as the beginning three chapters of the first. For anyone wanting to engage more with some of the key themes in the early part of Genesis, a couple of options spring to mind. One could […]
Speaking of heaven (and the other place) !
‘Heaven is a place, a place where nothing ever happens’. So sang the Talking Heads in 1979. But how would we know one way or the other? As believers we go to the Bible to understand how God has intervened in history and to know His will for today, but God’s written Word also illuminates […]
Church Manager Vacancy
We are prayerfully looking for a new Church Manager to join the Cambray team. Our Church Manager makes a vital contribution to the smooth running of the church. The Church Manager will work alongside the Senior Pastor in the strategic and regular programme planning for the church. The Church Manager works with the Leadership Team in […]