Footprints in the Sand (The Real Life Version!)

“One night I dreamed of walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there were one set of footprints. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints.

Don’t Believe The Hype

The last few weeks have seen some incredible and unprecidented changes across the world’s banking and political systems. The media coverage is not unlike that of the recent conflicts in the middle east; blow by blow, minute by minute ‘as it happens’ coverage designed ultimately to beat the media competition in getting the latest developments out to you and I.

2012 Vision for Hope City Church – PART ONE

2012 is a significant year for the whole of the UK. The olympics games is coming and bringing with it representatives from every country. Dave Gilpin outlines what he sees for Hope City Church in such a significant year. He underlines it with the fact that all plans and dreams require steps. They don’t just happen. This is our plan and now we are taking steps to see it come to pass…

Holy Crapola!

In this article Dave Gilpin looks at – The Cult of Christian Perfectionism… Just as Fairy dishwashing liquid has become anti bacterial, it would appear that we have created doctrines that have produced a sanitised form of Christianity that involves avoiding being hurt, nurturing hurts, healing hurts, talking about hurts, and the ‘group hug’ style protection of hurt people.

Is Skint A Lack Of Faith

When things are financially tight in church life, or even in your personal life, it could be a sign that you’re actually smack bang in the middle of God’s will. Sometimes we just need a jolt. Our propensity for routine and familiarity slowly leads us away from noticing changes in season and changes in the mind of the Holy Spirit. When forced to really hear what the Spirit is saying we finally wake up and move out into new territory in God.

How To Have A Critical Eye

Everyone needs a critic. I’ve done a lot of stuff that I have thought at the time was brilliant only to return to it a few months later to realise it wasn’t as brilliant as I thought it was. It’s a human foible to believe too much in our personal ability to hold both details and perspective accurately at the same time. Everyone needs a second pair of eyes!

Have The Last Laugh

Is heaven more fun than your church? Cheekiness is to have fun with social boundaries and to overstep certain parameters with a twinkle in the eye. Cheekiness is ‘naughty’, but, in the words of Paul de Jong from Christian Life Centre in Auckland, naughty but not ‘naughty naughty.’