After a busy week and very strong engagement with the press and media, my work in leading the Faithworks continues, and the day to day work of serving churches and helping them to engage in serving all people unconditionally goes on. Although this weekend will see a whole spattering of BBC interviews (a dozen for radio stations across the country and one for Radio 4’s Sunday programme) around the issues of the SOR’s, it is important for me to remind myself and for the whole Faithworks Movement to remember that our job is to keep focused and to keep going in our commitment to service, professionalism and excellence and distinctive Christian spirituality and faith.
I want to thank the many, many people who have sent me messages of support, love and affirmation this week and encourage you to demonstrate your wonderful grace not only to me but to those fellow Christians who hold a different view on the SOR’s. It would be such a shame if we met our fellow believers with anger and resentment whilst encouraging love and grace to others. That would contradict the very thing for which I think we should stand.
Whislt I have been caught up with the SOR’s this week, I have also been really encouraged by the increasing recognition of the positive role of faith communities and of the Christian faith in community cohesion and development.
Tomorrow I get my hands on a keyboard again as I continue working on my next book – Kingdom Come. So if you have any stories to tell of how you are engaging in serving your community for Christ then let me know – maybe I can feature you in the book if you are interested.
Faithworks continues to grow and develop, with nearly 20,000 signed up members and I thank God for that. Maybe this current wave of speaking out will also lead to others signing up and becoming part of what is a fantastic bunch of people who love God and other people. Whatever you do to celebrate and demonstrate God’s love for the world, keep going! Let me know what you do in your community and how we can best serve people on the ground. And if you hear me on the radio this weekend, then let me know what you think! Here’s when I will be on air on Sunday. Encourage others to listen and get behind the Faithworks Movement.
- 7am BBC Cambridge
- 710AM BBC Derby
- 720AM BBC Notts
- 730AM BBC Jersey
- 740AM BBC Leicestershire
- 750AM BBC Northants
- 8AM BBC Oxfordshire
- 810AM 3 Counties Radio
- 820AM BBC Berkshire
- 830AM BBC Bristol
- 840AM BBC Oxford
- 850AM BBC Cumbria
And the Sunday Programme on Radio 4.
Malcolm Duncan 
Hi Malcolm … thanks for your response on http://malcolmchamberlain.blogspot.com/. Have posted some thoughts in response.
Blessings
Richard
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Malcolm
I doubt that 99% of Christians really know what the SORs actually say. We get our views from reading articles about them. It would be great on this and other similar subjects if you could provide a link to the actual documents and a summary of the key sections. Then we could have some intelligent debate.
Why do Christians focus on homosexual relations outside a heterosexual marriage and ignore heterosexual relations outside a heterosexual marriage? No wonder that the church looks homophobic – based on the balance on words spoken on this subject clearly it is!
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Malcolm: Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments and hard work on this issue. It is so important that an ‘alternative Christian voice’ is heard on the SORs issue. It is so sad that a very narrow and negative view is being presented in the name of evangelicalism in poarticular and often Christianity as a whole – it is not the love of Christ but fear that we are in danger of proclaiming, thereby turning people away in droves.
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The comments continue. John, I think you make some valid points – thank you. Arthur, thanks for taking the time to respond. I’d love to understand exactly some of your thughts on this. I have clearly stated what I understand God’s best to be within sexual activity – that it is confinded to a marriage as defined by Scripture.
The discussion is not necessarily about sexuality, it is about how we understand ourselves and how we engage with the world and those around us.
Do you think that those Christians with a different view of this issue are entitled to voice their views or not?
Simon, thanks for the posting – would be good too talk
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Thank you for your comments this week on SORs, I feel genuinely lucky to have someone speaking biblically and publicly about these issues. I am also amazed, challenged, and inspired at the way you deal with such ungrace and the personal attacks by people who claim they do this in the name of Jesus!
Dan
MCF Suffolk
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