Excerpt from a letter from Mathetos to Diognetus (Nn. 5-6 – Edited) AD130 ? 5 (The sacred community) cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs.  2They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an […]

Dave Andrews  Another factor that will shape sacred communities in the future is Transformation Jesus said that: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.’ (Matt 13.33) For the purposes of our discussion, I’d like to suggest we see […]

Dave Andrews Another factor that will shape sacred communities in the future is Incorporation Too often the structures of sacred communities reflect and reinforce the dominant and dominating top-down constructs of society that ‘quench’ the Spirit (1Thess.5.19) and contain any spirited bottom-up quest for self-control. But Jesus sent his disciples out ‘two by two’, to look […]

Dave Andrews Another factor that will shape sacred communities in the future is Inspiration Jesus says that sacred communities can only be true to their vocation through being open and responsive to the inspiration of the Spirit. Jesus said wait for the Spirit, wait on the Spirit, wait till you are immersed in the Spirit. […]

Dave Andrews Another factor that will shape sacred communities in the future is Provocation I was taught the key to understanding a sacred community was the Greek word ‘ecclesia’, which we translate into English as the word ‘church’. This is the word used by Jesus when he said, in Matt 16v18,‘I tell you that I […]

Dave Andrews A factor that will shape sacred communities in the future is Fascination. One of the trends I see is that many people are increasingly skeptical of grand narratives, big institutions and major religions. They tend to be more interested in spirituality rather than ideology – experience and experimentation rather than rules and regulations. People […]

July 27, 2016 written by Matthew Distefano. Donald Trump is a hit among evangelicals. In his own words: “I love them. They love me. I love the evangelicals. Why do they love me? You’ll have to ask them–but they do.” Indeed Donald, why? Well, regardless, since they somehow do, I thought I would help them […]

  – Dave Andrews Christ himself is our example and his spirit serves as the inspiration for the simple, practical, compassionate path he wants us to take, regardless of the difficulties we may encounter along the way. His expectation is not that we would slavishly copy him, but voluntarily make the same kind of choices […]

I am in Basel, the place that was home to Sebastian Castellio, one of the almost completely forgotten but most important proponents of liberty, tolerance and freedom of religion in the 16th century. Dave Andrews Castellio ‘was born in 1515 in the village of Bresse bordering Switzerland, France, and Savoy. Having been educated at the […]

We are in Prague, and just went to Wenceslaus Square, so it is befitting for us to honour the memory of Wenceslaus, one of the few ‘good kings’ in history, and a model of what a ‘good’ leader might look like.. Dave Andrews Wenceslas, or Wenceslaus, as he was called, was born into the royal […]

Dave Andrews Day 15 A Swiss Muslim philosopher, who serves as the professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford and teaches at the Oxford Faculty of Theology, and who writes a lot about Ramadan, goes by the name serendipitous name of Tariq Ramadan. He writes ‘What […]

Dave Andrews Day 8 Fasting is about being willing to forego food and/or drink for a period of time. A person is assumed to be fasting after eight hours from their last meal. Which is why the first meal we eat after eight hours sleep is called breakfast or break-fast, which is considered to be […]