Faith in Action | Page 25 | Student Christian Movement

My Mental Health and University

3 Oct 2016

University is hard. Whichever way you look at it, it throws a whole load of firsts at you in a very short space of time. You start living away from home, with new people, a brand new place, a new environment and you have to cook for yourself, in a new kitchen with a band new set of cooking...

Why the church needs to move beyond growth

15 Aug 2016

Recently I decided to try listening to Christian radio. Yes, that’s right, despite attending Church for years now I have never listened to Christian radio before now. Don’t get me wrong, I love listening to some Christian podcasts (Homebrewed Christianity is probably my favourite podcast) but I...

Why you need to go to church this Sunday

8 Aug 2016

The recent terrorist attack in a French church that resulted in the killing of Father Jacques Hamel as he presided over a service was more than an attack on the church of any one denomination or country. It was an attack on the Kingdom of God itself. At least that was my instant gut feeling when...

Healing Divisions: Life Post-Brexit

21 Jul 2016

The few short weeks since the result of the EU Referendum was announced has been a time of political and social turmoil, not merely in the UK but across the rest of Europe and further afield. Governments have been changed, alliances forged and sundered, communities shaken to their roots. I...

Why use gender-inclusive language?

13 Jul 2016

When I was doing a placement at St Mark's Church in Mansfield, many people said that they wanted to start up a new pastoral care group. The vicar, Keith Hebden, and I had a chat about the need for more work on inclusion in the church. He posited the idea of combining the work on inclusion with...

Truth, democracy and the EU Referendum

16 Jun 2016

There’s been a lot of talk about democracy recently, with regard to the upcoming EU referendum. The Leave side have used it as a big argument against the European Union, saying that the EU is unaccountable and undemocratic. The Remain side have largely ignored the issue, preferring to focus on...

Helping refugees is crucial to our faith

12 May 2016

By Adam Spiers, Exeter MethAngSoc member

It often takes a shocking photograph or film to draw the world’s attention to a crisis, whether it be the BBC’s coverage of the Ethiopian famine in the 80s, or Turkish journalist Nilüfer Demir’s photograph of the lifeless body of three-...

Universal Basic Income: the Kingdom idea whose time has come

15 Apr 2016

The first time I came across the ‘diffusion of innovations’ was when I was working in a church. It’s a business theory created by a man called Everett Rogers, and it’s quite commonly used to explain why it can take a long time to change anything. The basic idea is that change begins...

Defending the Stranger

21 Mar 2016

The Bible, being a history of God’s people, is in many ways a book about those who are displaced, lost or cast out. This is clear from the beginning. Whether it be being cast out of the Garden of Eden, exiled in Egypt or lost in the desert, surrounded by foreigners, the people of God have had...

Costing Everything

29 Feb 2016

A while ago, my colleague Ellis asked me to write a blog about ‘costly discipleship’, which is a phrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer used. In Bonhoeffer’s view, there could be no Christian faith ‘without discipleship’ and this meant a ‘costly’ following of Christ. When Bonhoeffer said that Christ calls...