Today we have another guest post, on an area that’s come up a lot on the blog in recent times, the issue of gender, and particularly our perceptions of women. It’s by Jo Royal, an Assistant Pastor and blogger from Basingstoke. She has a lot to say on the issue, let us know what you think…

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She’s a very strong woman!’

Last week, this statement cropped up in three separate conversations regarding different women.  Strong women.  And each time, I cringed.

I used to be a ‘strong’ woman.

I lifted weights at the gym regularly, practiced Judo weekly, and had a pretty good success rate with arm wrestling.

There’s nothing wrong with being a strong woman.

But, this wasn’t what they meant, was it?

No, the focus of their strength had nothing to do with their muscles, but their character.

What is a strong character? Continue Reading…

A fortnight ago, I was prayed for at the end of a leadership meeting.  As we prayed, a friend shared a word for me – to read Psalm 139. When I got home I read the Psalm and spent a lot of time reflecting and medidating on it. Below are the spontaneous reflections on this passage, straight from my heart.

It turned out that what came from inside of me was my own version of Psalm 139, written in the context and out of my own story, with my experiences, insecurities, thoughts and reflections. It was an amazing thing to do – and ultimately connected me more intimately with God, as well as giving more meaning to the original passage of scripture itself.

I would recommend any of you to try the same, and see what happens – and when you do, let whatever comes out, come out.

Don’t be afraid, and don’t have an edit or delete button.

Just let your soul speak.

Whatever it is, God already knows – and I’m certain the result will lead you deeper with Him than you were before, will open your eyes more to the God already present in your midst.

So here it is, my own version of Psalm 139 -  unedited: Continue Reading…

I was recently prayed for at church by some friends, some people from my church community. It was a time where God had really stripped me down and exposed me, and I was being brutally honest about where I was.

About my doubts.

About my fears.

About my insecurities.

I had never been quite so truthful in a prayer time at my church, and I had never felt so naked in church.

I felt completely exposed.

I sensed that God wanted me to go up before anyone else, and that He was stripping me down. I knew He could see me way below the surface, naked, so to speak – and that I could be completely safe being completely exposed with Him.

So, I went and got prayer.

When I got up the front, I silently prayed that God would send the right people to pray with me, the people He specifically wanted to pray with me. When they came, I was honest with those who prayed for me about all of the issues I spoke about, and more.

But then something happened which totally shocked me.  Continue Reading…

One thing I always want to do is explore and develop my writing and creative gift. One area that’s always fascinated me is the concept of parables – I’ve not really written much fiction in my time, but a good friend recently challenged me to spend more time on some parables and to share those with people, to try to grow in my faith and develop my written and creative gifts.

So over the next few months I hope to be sharing some parables I’ve created with you here. A good parable, for me, is a story which answers some questions and leaves us with more questions, which communicates truth in a way we can understand – I will share more on that topic in a future post.

In the meantime, enjoy my first attempts at a Parable. We begin with ‘The Parable of the Perfect Church Service’: Continue Reading…

Regular readers will have seen part 1 of my interview with writer and blogger Jeff Goins earlier in the week, where we discussed his journey so far, his new book and the difference between writing a book and writing a blog. Today we move on to discuss the creative process overall and how Jeff experiences that. So here goes.

James Prescott:Jeff, what have been your biggest struggles overall when it comes to creativity – not just on your book, but overall, and how have you dealt with them?

Jeff Goins: Yeah, I definitely appreciate what that struggle is. The biggest struggle I feel and experience as a creative person is finding my harmony in the tension of what Seth Godin calls ‘shipping’, getting your art out there to the world, and getting it to good enough.

I tend to have these two opposing extremes when it comes to my emotions. One side is perfectionism, like nothing feels good enough, and that’s what keeps me working on something for months and months and years and never sharing it with a soul, because I’m afraid – of failure and what people would think, and there is something holding me back from sharing this with the world.   Continue Reading…

Recently I had the privilege of interviewing author and blogger Jeff Goins. In the space of the last 12 months, Jeff has grown his blog ‘Goins: Writer’ from almost nothing to getting thousands of readers daily. He guest posts for various blogs and periodicals, and recently signed his first book contract. His first book, ‘Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into your Beautiful Life’ (Moody Publishers), will be published later this year.

As someone who is passionate about writing and creativity, I felt he had a lot to offer both myself and you, my readers, on these subjects, so asked him if he’d like to be interviewed, and he graciously accepted.

In this blog post and the next, I’ll be sharing our discussions here. I hope they bless you as much as they have me.

James Prescott: Hey Jeff, its good to see you. Thanks for accepting my invitation

Jeff Goins: Hey James, no problem, my pleasure.

JP: For those who might not have encountered you before, tell us a bit about who you are, what drives you, what you’re passionate about, what you do. Continue Reading…

As a follower of Jesus, it would have been irresponsible to conclude this series on masculinity without discussing how the life of Jesus should influence our attitudes to masculinity, and indeed, femininity as well.

It’s a theme that will continue in some of my posts on a more irregular basis in future – I hope to have another guest poster posting on it soon – as it’s a subject I’m passionate about, that’s very important to our discipleship journey.

I find it very frustrating when some pastors (and I won’t name names, but most of you will know the ones I mean) come out and say Jesus had to be this this tough guy who could beat someone up.

But it’s just as frustrating when he’s portrayed as some wimpy loser, a total walkover, man in a dress. The Jesus-is-my-boyfriend, all-smiles ‘nice guy’. The picture sums this image up perfectly.

Frankly, neither version of Jesus seems manly, neither is the kind of man I want to be and neither is a Jesus I can follow.

Jesus wasn’t simply a ‘tough guy’ who would even consider beating someone up and put violence first, nor was He a total pansy, wimp and a walkover, all smiles all the time – and neither are what, in my eyes, a real man should be.

Continue Reading…

Today, for part 2 of our masculinity series, we have a guest post. On a subject like masculinity I felt it would be interesting to get a female perspective, so today we have a post by @God_loves_women – a prominent womans advocate, tweeter and writer. She is married and lives in the UK, and prefers for safety reasons to keep her identity confidential.

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As a woman, writing a blog on masculinity, I am not sure what qualifications I have.  I have a father, a brother, a son and I am married to a man.  So perhaps that is where I should start.

My husband had been single for over a decade when we got married and had read every relationship book going.  A favourite of his was “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” by John Gray.

I really appreciated his commitment to growing himself and his relationships but (there’s always a but isn’t there…?) I really struggled with the fact anytime he did anything that bothered me he would justify himself by saying, “It’s because I’m a man.”  Continue Reading…

After writing a lot on relationships and the role of women in the last few months, I felt it appropriate to share a little on the issue of masculinity. So in the next few weeks we’re going to be having a series here on this issue – including a guest post next week, with the female perspective on masculinity.

When writing on masculinity there’s always a danger that you can be accused of being under-qualified. In the church even more so – as a single man in his 30’s it can be easy, both culturally and in a church context, to be seen as not a ‘real’ man because I’m not married.

This kind of sums up the point I want to discuss – that a lot of what we have been reliably informed is what makes a man a ‘real man’ is not actually Biblical, but just cultural traditions which have come through misinterpretations and misunderstandings of scripture.

This post covers both singleness and masculinity – partially because so often the subjects are linked, especially in a church context and partially because that’s largely my experience – often I’ve felt that because of my singleness, that somehow I’m not a real man, not as masculine as married men – that is partly my perception, but also partly down to the attitudes and language of some people I have met or heard speak on the subject. Continue Reading…

I have spoken a lot this past 12 months of the process of death and resurrection. Usually, what comes out in my writing is a reflection of my own journey, and this past year, 2011, has been one where this reality of this truth has been manifest in my own life.

Now you may think, entering into a new year, that death isn’t exactly the best place to start, especially after we’ve just celebrated the birth of Jesus. But paradoxically, I believe death is actually the very best place to begin if we’re to experience a year of transformation and growth.

I have experienced death – and of course grief, something I will speak of in a future post – first hand. I lost my mother when I was 23.

It wasn’t actually my first experience of grief, as I’d lost grandparents before. But it was the first time a person in my direct family or network, who I had a very close relationship to, had passed away. It wasn’t even the biggest shock. My mum had suffered from asthma for years and we had all come to accept that the asthma would eventually claim her life – but none of us had really expected it so soon.

But death is something that wakes us up to who we are – and by death I don’t merely mean facing our own, or others, or going through grief. I mean experiencing the emotion, the power and ultimately, the process, of death in our own lives.

You see death is the engine room of life. Continue Reading…